Mowl
Member
Culchies doing line dancing: fucking hell.
He certainly does know how to put on a show. My ex-bassist Paul Bushnell has been playing with Tim McGraw over the last few years. McGraw's apparently a big deal over the pond and he shifts lots of copy. His stages are monster, massive screens, fuck-off PA, lights, projections, stage gymnastics, the works. In fact, the tour bus he had designed for the core of the band and crew has a gym on board. Either that or one of the buses is the gym, not sure which, but he's a fitness fanatic and Papa Bush has to stay trim to keep his spot. He'd boot me for saying that, and he'd be right. He's fucking unbelievably talented, and he paid his dues right from the start.
Heading out on tour with McGraw no alcohol on the road or behind the stage, drinks can be had with dinner, etc - but no drunkenness is tolerated. Gigs on that scale need the players to be able to hold the entire show together: the lights are programmed, you have to know where on the stage you're supposed to be, no different to the dancers/backing vocalists. If you're not in the right place, you might fuck someone else's moment up. Either or/and both, you're fired. No boozers. No dopers. No two left feet either.
Here's Papa Bush:
A shot of the staging:
When there's this much riding on every show every night, one fuck-up can see you out of work for a very long time. Try acting the bollocks with even McGraw's production and there are literally dozens and dozens of people ready to kick your fucking arse you, you just got them fired too. The investment on one night of a tour of this scale has to be multiple times the investment of making it happen at all, all expenses considered.
It's one thing to be a rick and roll star like Oasis. You can pretty much do what you like so long as you don't attract any negative attention or too many bum notes. Get drunk, stay sober enough to play. Get high, but not high enough that you forget where you fucking are and why. Have a punch-up? The Gallagher brothers milked it already. Every player they take on is disposable, can be replaced in one hour with one phone call.
McGraw's playing to a Christian audience - not that he's some mental case religious freak. Like many Americans, he's in it for the lifestyle. Maybe he goes to church, I don't know. Bush doesn't, I know that much. But every line-up's going to feature new guys and first timers at some point, it's next to impossible to keep one hired band of players going outside the legal obligations and booked dates. One guitarist can't do any dates after June - now they have to drill the new guy so he knows what's going on and when.
Get drunk and blow a song on a tour like that and you're toast.
You're done - stick a fork in your ass and roll over.
I cannot for the life of me stomach that fat bastard's voice.
I hope his spleen attacks his esophagus and chokes him to death.
Here's some Tim McGraw: 'One Bad Habit' (live 2024)
Papa Bush is over on stage right, under his ear goggles, which is a mystery to me.