Every Saturday, we’ll be posting a new illustration by David Lester. The Mecca Normal guitarist is visually documenting people, places and events from his band’s 25-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.
Smith: Auckland: the Gate (Michael Morely), Peter Jefferies, Mecca Normal tour. David, at that time (the 1990s), typically threw his guitar in the air; it twisted around, he caught it and continued playing wildly. On this night, when we reached that point in the set—in the middle of the song—the guitar stopped. I kept singing, staring straight ahead. Sometimes the guitar comes unplugged or a pedal gets bumped. I was waiting for David to resume playing. No sound. I looked to my left, to see the guitar dangling by its tuning pegs, tangled up in netting hung above the stage. David couldn’t reach it. A tall guy came out of the audience to free it while David stood waiting. Not the rock godliest of situations. After the show, I think we sold one cassette: total merch sales. We were packing up rather grumpily when the people who bought the cassette walked back into the club to say they’d put it on in their car and it didn’t work. They wanted their money back.
