Blind Boys get lost
- 10 May 06, 10:25 AM
There was an article in yesterday's Guardian about a phenomenon that will be familiar to any Ouch readers who regularly go to gigs - that between the moment when the roadies leave the stage having set up the band's quipment, and the moment when the band finally deigns to turn up on stage with a cry of "ALRIGHT WEM-BER-LEE! ARE YOU READY TO RAWK?!" Or something. The article suggests a few reason for this standard pause in proceedings, including one story involving , the US group who have been performing soul/gospel music for over 60 years, having formed at an institute for the blind in Alabama in 1939:
"The Blind Boys of Alabama - being blind - walk in crocodile formation, one hand on the shoulder of the brother in front. At one British venue, they were given a green room at stage level to save them walking far. As they were about to go on stage, one of them decided he wanted to go to the toilet. They agreed it would be best in the circumstances if they all went to the toilet. But the nearest toilet by now was at the side of the auditorium. So the first view the audience got of the Blind Boys of Alabama was not of them walking on to the stage, but instead groping along the wall of the stalls in formation, disappearing one by one into the gents."
So what do you reckon? True story or urban myth?
Comments