It is rare that the public know the details of the makings of a show, and few people realize just how much work it is! I thought this month it would be a good thing for Rob to tell the story about this show since I wasn't able to go myself. I hope you find the details as interesting as I do, I really wish I had been there!

Laura Harrison
media relations
http:planetmullins.com
 

ITS SHOWTIME!

by Rob Mullins

The day of the show came quickly as three months of office work, phone calls, radio station negotiations, rehearsals, tape copying, committee meetings, stage plots, vocal arranging, artist negotiations, website editing, email inviations and other details all came to a close as I was finally going to get to do what I was really looking forward to: actually playing the gig.
I got to the venue in the afternoon after taking a call from my mom wishing me luck to find the sound people setting up and the piano tuned and ready to go (thank you Yamaha). I was there at about 1 pm, which I thought was just about enough time to prepare for a show this size since the gig was at 7:30.
I found copies of the booklet that the Club had printed on top of the piano, and it looked great. Everyone's pictures and bio's made it, and the mission statement I had done at 3 am a week before was in there as well. I was happy about that.
We checked through the monitor mixes for the musicians and got all that stuff together and then began rehearsing the various segments of the show....Dwight's music, my music, Alphonso's music, Vann Johnson's music, and Ronnie Law's music. Greg's feature was going to be a smash and we didn't need to run over it again.
I had about two hours to get through all the sound issues and everyone's material and make sure everyone could hear themselves correctly and that everything was working. Hal Sacks, who had done sound for the event for many years was in top form, and got all of us comfortable onstage.
I had met with some ladies from the Club before getting the soundcheck going, and made sure that there was going to be a meal for the band before the show..I hate having to play without being able to eat, and most of the time big venues are like fort knox before a gig..you can't easily get in or out, and forget trying to get to your car to drive around to look for a place to eat before a gig and after soundcheck.
The food showed up right on time at 4:45 pm and we had enough for everyone. Nat was instructed to get the retail area set up in the front of the venue and the nice folks from Pedrini Music donated their time to staff the retail area for me.
After eating, it was time to get dressed for the gig, and make my way up to the VIP Press Party and Meet and Greet where we found a nice group of folks who had paid the extra money to spend an hour with us backstage before the show and be part of the media fun.
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