RANT: Gaelic Storm on my punk list now

[Magnus Sporrano]

So I dragged my wife, kids, and mother out to the 'fest at Valley Forge today. We stayed a good long while. Bumped into a lot of friends. Heard some good music. My oldest child finds she is now interested in learning Irish dancing and we got some info on local classes.

But the major excuse for going, for me anyway, was to see Gaelic Storm.

5:45, Gaelic Storm is scheduled to go on. We sit and wait.

6:00 rolls by.

6:15.

The crew isn't doing much work on the stage. They don't seem very hurried. Many people standing, and have been all day. The kids start getting restless.

6:30 rolls around. No Gaelic Storm yet. No announcement about what the delay is. No effort to get other musicians up on stage to satisfy the huge crowd.

They punked out. They were completely unprofessional and are now on my list. They wasted my time and, had I not found a lot of other things to do earlier in the day, I would have considered it a waste of my money. Gaelic Storm is now on a short list of punk-out bands who I once loved but have lost any respect for their fans. This list started for me when Metallica went to war against peer-to-peer services. While I had owned every Metallica album and video before that fiasco, I haven't bought a single bit of Metallica merchandise since then.

Gaelic Storm behaved in a very arrogant and unprofessional manner tonight. They completely disrespected the many fans that came out to see them. They disrespected the event organizers who had a tight schedule of talent to bring on stage. They disrespected other acts that were slated to come on after them.

So 6:30 rolled around and nothing changed. I left the festival. There was only half an hour left in their set. Punks.

From now on, I will refer to them as Garlic Storm. And they don't get any more of my money.

[MACKAY]

I have to agree in total with that assessment of Gaelic Storm. The FEST was overall a great time, and I enjoyed meeting all the folks from Highland Tide, USA Kilts, etc., but what was up with these guy's? It seemed like they were all half loaded to be honest with you. The first time they took the stage and couldn't get the sound equipment to work, or even seem to get organized, I did notice lots of beers in hand. As time went by (45 min later) there were a lot of stupid comments and snickers coming from the band about the crowd getting restless of waiting (I was close enough to hear without the assistance of the sound system to my regret). Once they did get moving they really sounded terrible! I'm not sure if that was due to soundboard issues, or just the lack of enthusiasm from the band. I was very disappointed overall with their performance. Other than that, most of the bands sounded terrific ... especially Searson. Now that band was really good!.

Oh BTW: USA Kilts and Rocky & Co are the real thing IMHO. Got a change to meet the man, and I highly encourage anyone looking for a kilt to see him first. The guy runs a class organization and has really great people working for and with him.

Brian Mackay

[KiltedBishop]

I certainly don't want to get into the middle of anything, although being Irish I love a good tossle. However just to give everyone a chance to hear both sides of the story I sent an e-mail to Patrick Murphy telling him about your concerns, and in less than 24 hours I got the following response.

"Trust me it was a horrible 45 minutes for us as well....the tech guys simply could not find the problem...something came loose INSIDE the board....they had to dismantle the thing from behind and fix it from there....that has never happened in the 6 years we've been playing.One of the biggest problem with the festivals is the change over time between bands. 15 minutes isn't enough...the festival was already behind schedule before we stepped up...Searson stopped at 5:45pm....that was when we were supposed to go on.

In regards to the organizers and the disrepct to the other bands we apologized to every single member of each band and the staff and crew...how does that guy know that we were disrepectful to people who are working backstage? Was he backstage?

Again trust me we were horribly and panfully aware of the delay. Once we started playing we were still having problems with the sound and it took a while to even relax. And we do have a LOT of respect for fans!

Thanks again.

Patrick Murphy"

this is nothing more than giving a chance for every side to be heard, I am not discounting how bad it was for you two, but I have worked events and things happen the events provider doesn't ever tell the audience. I don't know if this changes your opinion of the band but I just thought it would be fair to you both to hear an explanation of what happened.

[MACKAY]

this is nothing more than giving a chance for every side to be heard

Fair enough, point well made and taken to heart ... thanks for the info and it does help.

I think that it would have helped GREATLY if someone had addressed the crowd and explained the necessary delay rather than the way it was handled. Regardless of how late they were in getting on stage, and regardless the fault (Searson, sound boards or other wise), it doesn't diminish the perception of a lackadaisical attitude towards their 'in the dark' fans and the assembled crowd during this performance IMHO. After all, the fans are the ones who pay their salary through attending their shows and buying their records.

Sounds like this was just a bad day / evening for them overall. Now if they just send me a few CD's and T-shirts all will be forgiven

[KiltedBishop]

the down side is, I have worked events and the people who run don't always want to tell the crowd there is a problem cause people complain and want money back and they lose it. I don't know about this event but I have seen people who would rather the band catch the blame. You should write them and tell them about the CD's and Shirts...or at least a pint and a shot next time they are in your area!

[Jimmy Carbomb]

Let me also add-in another point that wasn't mentioned here.

The individual bands were NOT instructed to bring their own sound equipment for the weekend. There's MUCH more to stage concerts than the bloody board and the speakers. Without going into it... Gaelic Storm has normal systems that would boggle the novice mind. When they arrived with their instruments, they were SCRAMBLING to get the sound to the audience. Searson is a five-piece family band that utilizes small equipment. It does NOT translate into Gaelic Storm's music. The planning for the bands, stage, communication and set-up was at fault. We really don't need to go into amps, plugs, relays, snakes, monitors, or anything else to further confuse the matter.

I do NOT hold Gaelic Storm at fault in the least. I've been in the SAME situation, at a Festival out in the "boonies"... and it's tough!

[Jeremy]

As I commented to Magnus at the time, my experience is that the later the evening gets at the midwinter fest, the later the bands are. I don't care where you are, 15 minutes is nearly insane for a set change, even if things go perfectly. Add to that the possibility of each band running a couple minutes late in their set, the whole thing becomes a bloody nightmare.

Having said that, it would have been nice for Mr. Reid to come out on stage and say something about the delay. I accept that the band started late- I was expecting it. My major beef was with an hour of silence.