One from just last night - mercifully not one of my own parents
There's a band I've been playing regular gigs with at a venue near Tottenham Court Road; quite a nice venue, usually an interesting crowd, little to no rehearsal, and the whole thing is held together by the lead guitarist: an incorrigible old Irish guy who loves nothing better than to work the audience in between songs with bawdy jokes and facetious comments. When he's on form, he's excellent, but the humour can be a little risqué.

Last night, as we were tuning up, the drummer had a word with him.
"Obviously I don't have a problem with your jokes, but there's a slight chance that my mum might drop by the venue. So if she turns up, do you think you could maybe tone it down a little? I'll give you a nod if I see her."
"You mean I can't embarrass you in front of your own mother? Ah, no worries, give us a nod, I'll behave meself."

And indeed his mother did show up. She dropped in during the interval and he went and had a chat and a quick drink with her at the other side of the venue before we started again. And we all thought, Right, she's here. Best behave ourselves. We shouldn't embarrass the poor feller.

The second half began, and an inebriated crowd gradually got to its feet to dance. A couple of songs in, I looked over at the drummer to see him staring in slight despair over his cymbals at an older woman, in the middle of this crowd, getting her groove on with the rest of them.

We needn't have worried about embarrassing him. Mum had already dealt with that. She was three sheets to the wind and dancing to every song we played. To her credit, people left, more people arrived, some danced, some didn't, but she carried on right until the end of that set. After the final song, a tired and slightly resigned-looking drummer emerged from behind the kit and asked,
"Would you like a lift home, Mum?"
"Ohh, yesh please, dear."
Aww. Well, I think she had a good evening, at least.
(LongJohnBaldry, Fri 25 Feb 2011, 13:24, Reply)