SESSION SHENANIGANS
The studio guitarist’s guide to happiness and personal fulfilment, as related by our resident session ace. This month: It’s Grim Up West.
In a world of declining work opportunities for professional musicians (and guitarists too), one area of employment that continues to buck the trend is musical theatre. A casual stroll through London’s Shaftesbury Avenue, Covent Garden and Soho will reveal double-digit numbers of productions that count bands and even orchestras on the payroll. Seemingly, The Great British Coach Party and the Even Greater Overseas Tourist are insatiable consumers of what we know as The West End Musical. And they’re prepared to pay top euro, yen or Turkish lira to lay their mitts on a wallet-melting ticket and brave the muggers, beggars and pickpockets. And that’s just the cast.
Should you wish to make a career within this niche of Showbiz, your way through the Stage Door (if you can find it) might reside in asking a chum with an actual job for an opportunity to deputise in his show. Nagging is better. Threatening is best.
The concession by theatre management or contractor to allow time off to take occasional freelance employment has a long tradition (or ‘custom and practice’, as we say at the industrial tribunal). Without it, the ability to pursue a long term career would become even more fraught. It’s a grey area, and ‘depping out’ the gig is very much a matter of flexibility and forging an amicable relationship with the fixer, despite the oxymoronic nature of the last phrase.
Having been invited to participate, your deputising debut will require some serious preparation. Clearly, you will require a working knowledge of a broad range of styles, but long gone are the days when you might receive a call to turn up and sight read the show on the day. Today’s punter expects production values of especially high standards, at least the equivalent of that which he might view on TV at home. And judging by the behaviour of many of those that attend, that’s exactly where they think they are. But we digress. You will be required to learn the part exactly, replicating each and every sound.
Then you will sit in and watch your deppee at work in the pit. Probably twice but maybe three times. The objective is to reproduce the guitar pad as an exact replica of your chum’s performance. Heaven forbid that you bring any individuality, spontaneity or plain difference to the enterprise, no matter how musical. You won’t be asked back.
To add to the happy-go-lucky vibe, you will often play your first show with the main man sitting next to you. A thorough post mortem will then ensue. At this point you may console yourself with the knowledge that you’re finally being paid. All prior preparation and attendance to this point attracts not a semiquaver’s worth of financial compensation. Assuming that you negotiate the foregoing
