Everyone has had one – a nightmare gig or audition.

Worst Gig:  My original new wave band was offered a date at Flippers, an upscale roller skating rink in Hollywood with a bar and restaurant where music celebs and actors hung out and skated, and recently signed bands like The Knack and The Go Gos had played.  Admittance was difficult – you had to “know someone” to get in.

We were offered a gig there on very short notice, so to make up for that, the place said we could have an unlimited guestlist.  Really?  Ok, we invited everyone we even slightly knew, and anyone they even slightly knew, and anyone else!  On gig night at least 100-150 of these people got in free to see us.

The stage was high and oval-shaped, and skaters rolled around us with strobe lights flashing and spotlights glaring.  At the end of our second song the crowd was totally with us and a couple girls climbed onto the stage to attack us.  Beatlemania!  So, how could this possibly be our WORST gig?

Well, we started our third song, which just happened to be titled “Give Me Girls” and the entire sound system went dead.  To this day I don’t know if the band blew it up or maybe the soundman did, but the show promptly ended.  (Today Flippers is a CVS pharmacy).

Worst Audition:  A few months before Flippers, this same band was invited to audition for a new major TV show called “America Votes For Tomorrow’s Stars”.  This was before Star Seach and American Idol. They lined up a bunch of bands to video tape at the best rehearsal facility.  At that time, getting a free video recording was a big deal, even if we weren’t chosen to be a finalist.

Each band could pick only one song, so of course we argued about that for awhile.  Five minutes before the shoot our keyboardist dropped a huge monitor box on my big toe, (obviously he said I dropped it on myself).  I was in excruciating pain and now I had to sing a happy song while looking straight into the camera.

Within a couple hours my toe was throbbing incessantly so I went to the doctor and he confirmed it was broken.  Whatever happened to that new TV show?  We never got our video tape and never heard another thing!