Pocketplayer wrote:This guy is pretty amazing...real inside to cruise ship gig
talk having your reading down!
This guy is way better than I ever was but I had my own cruise gig from 93 to 99 with P&O, own cabin, didn't have to share, tax free money since I was out of the UK for more than 6 months over each year and lots of women
Wi-fi and internet wasn't really a big thing then so didn't have to worry about paying for that. It was the best time of my life. Also only about 3 hours work a day. Med and atlantic cruises mostly, but also caribbean and I did 4 world cruises. I only got my foot in the door because a keyboard player friend already working the ships got me in. Went from cabaret trio to 7 piece showband. Tons of show books to learn, all thrown at me at once which was scary, and cabarets you had to sight read, some of which were really difficult. Almost every day was a roast, and clicks with changing tempos. Eventually though I got bored with it and got off at the right time. Some musicians stay on their whole life, get kind of institutionalised. Longer you stay on, the harder it is to find work if you decide to leave because noone knows you or you get forgotten.Oh yeah, we did an outdoor evening show once a cruise. One of these times there was so much wind, most of my music flew into the swimming pool during the show, lol. After that, we had Perspex shields over the music and staff would stand there and help by pulling the music out from behind the Perspex when we gave them the nod.
