Airport - 1982
After leaving Nerve Senta I was at a loose end musically and accepted a job working in a Comedy show-band 'Airport'. It was a new departure for me, the band had loads of work, playing in working men's clubs up and down the north and averaged 3 or 4 nights work a week. The band was paid well for their performances and for the first time in my life I was making enough money from music to live on - so much so that after playing with them a few months I packed in my day job in a local builders merchants to concentrate on earning my living as a musician.
The group were a strange mix of personalities, first there was Terry a bass playing vocalist with an excellent voice who insisted on drinking huge quantities of beer and then driving the group van home (the van belonged to him and no one else was allowed to drive it) - some nights he was so drunk that he could hardly stand up but he managed to drive. No one in the band would go in the van with Terry because of his drinking, so when I joined I was forced to travel to gigs with Terry in his van. The rest of the band found this extremely funny, I found it scary. To counter my fears I use to listen to music on a walkman all the way home with my eyes closed - this way if I was going to die in a car crash I wasn't going to see it coming.
The drummer in the band was a guy called David who I can only describe as one of the few people I never want to play music with again - god bless him!! David and I just never had anything in common not even music. The comedy in the band came from the vocalist Pete, a nice guy who always insisted on traveling to gigs in his own car. He always seemed slightly detached from the rest of the band, the rest of the musicians use to joke that he was the 'star'.
And then there's Dave the guitarist. I liked Dave a lot, we had a lot of laughs while I was in the band. After 8 or 9 months of playing 4 or 5 nights a week, week in week out, I really started to hate playing in Airport. I also started to dislike some of the people in the band but it was Dave who helped me keep sane when it all got too much.
After playing in Airport for about 10 months, I became very ill and ended up in hospital. This was mainly due to the lifestyle I was leading. My life had become one long round of gigging, clubbing, partying and not much sleep. So when I came out of hospital, I had a holiday in Ireland with my girlfriend and (when I came back to England) decided to get a day job. I never officially left Airport I just never went back and they never rang me - so I guess the split was mutual.
The Set List:
Band Lineup:
Equipment used:
Farfisa Compact Duo Organ
Crumer Roadrunner Electric Piano
Korg 700s Synthesizer
Peavey 100w PA amp with Sound City 4x12 cabinet
Go forward to 1983 or back to 1981
After leaving Nerve Senta I was at a loose end musically and accepted a job working in a Comedy show-band 'Airport'. It was a new departure for me, the band had loads of work, playing in working men's clubs up and down the north and averaged 3 or 4 nights work a week. The band was paid well for their performances and for the first time in my life I was making enough money from music to live on - so much so that after playing with them a few months I packed in my day job in a local builders merchants to concentrate on earning my living as a musician.
The group were a strange mix of personalities, first there was Terry a bass playing vocalist with an excellent voice who insisted on drinking huge quantities of beer and then driving the group van home (the van belonged to him and no one else was allowed to drive it) - some nights he was so drunk that he could hardly stand up but he managed to drive. No one in the band would go in the van with Terry because of his drinking, so when I joined I was forced to travel to gigs with Terry in his van. The rest of the band found this extremely funny, I found it scary. To counter my fears I use to listen to music on a walkman all the way home with my eyes closed - this way if I was going to die in a car crash I wasn't going to see it coming.
The drummer in the band was a guy called David who I can only describe as one of the few people I never want to play music with again - god bless him!! David and I just never had anything in common not even music. The comedy in the band came from the vocalist Pete, a nice guy who always insisted on traveling to gigs in his own car. He always seemed slightly detached from the rest of the band, the rest of the musicians use to joke that he was the 'star'.
And then there's Dave the guitarist. I liked Dave a lot, we had a lot of laughs while I was in the band. After 8 or 9 months of playing 4 or 5 nights a week, week in week out, I really started to hate playing in Airport. I also started to dislike some of the people in the band but it was Dave who helped me keep sane when it all got too much.
After playing in Airport for about 10 months, I became very ill and ended up in hospital. This was mainly due to the lifestyle I was leading. My life had become one long round of gigging, clubbing, partying and not much sleep. So when I came out of hospital, I had a holiday in Ireland with my girlfriend and (when I came back to England) decided to get a day job. I never officially left Airport I just never went back and they never rang me - so I guess the split was mutual.
The Set List:
- My Love
- My Gang - Gary Glitter medley
- Feelings
- Sailing
- Midnight Hour
- Words
- Band Walkoff - Comedy Spot
- Nutbush City Limits
- Tulane
- Lying Eyes
- Some Guys Have All the Fun
- Long Train Running
- A Hard Days Night
- Back In The USSR
- Jailhouse Rock
- Johnny B Goode
- Memphis Tennessee
Band Lineup:
- Terry - Bass & Vocal
- Peter - Vocals & Comedy
- Ian - Keyboards & Vocals
- Dave - Guitar & Vocals
- David - Drums & Smells
Equipment used:
Farfisa Compact Duo Organ
Crumer Roadrunner Electric Piano
Korg 700s Synthesizer
Peavey 100w PA amp with Sound City 4x12 cabinet
Go forward to 1983 or back to 1981