OMG! 08:30am on the morning of an important gig and an email comes through that one of our players has gone down with COVID during the night so cannot make it. It’s the sort of scenario we’ve talked though but with just four players, not one we dwell on. What do we do? What else but keep focused and carry on of course.
Fortunately, we negotiated a good lead in time for setting up and sound checks (we were playing in a big marquee). This allowed us to review where the losing one part was critical and make the necessary changes to our programme. In the event everything went well and we were well received.
Are there lessons to be learnt from the experience? Plan as much as you like, it’s impossible to mitigate against all that could go wrong in a live performance. Aside from managing the extra adrenaline rush, it did serve to underline the importance of being well prepared at both individual and group levels and the importance of self-confidence and belief that ‘We’ve got this ’.
Oh, and just to say, our fourth member has since made a good recovery and is back playing with us again.
