Well, we're comin' along with this page now! So, any of the rest of you who have stories get e-mailing! The boys of Great Big Sea LOVE to tell stories while they're up on stage. If you can remember any of them, it would be greatly appreciated if we could get them. You can e-mail Laurel (gbs4@hotmail.com) or ERin (rnfraser@cyberus.ca) with any stories you got a laugh from at the shows.

Séan Learns The Truth!
This story is from the concert at James M. Hill High School, Miramichi, NB, 1996. Alan decided to tell the audience about the band's appearances on the Rita MacNeil show:
Alan:"Do any of ye watch the Rita MacNeil show? We've been on it twice, and we're very glad to be asked, but the funny thing is--WE'VE NEVER LAID EYES ON THE WOMAN! We don't know if she doesn't like us, or if she's afraid she'll get on the tear if she hangs around with a Newfoundland band or what, but we've never met her. There we are, on the set--we come in one door and ask 'where's Rita?' and somebody says, 'oh, she just went out that door.'" Alan shook his head, looking baffled, then went on, "we're starting to think she's a figment of our imaginations, like Mr. Snuffle-upagus."
Séan(interrupts, looking horrified):"What do you mean, figment of my imagination??"
Alan(stops, looks concerned, makes "shushing" motions at the audience with his hands):"Oh, no, this is a very sensitive moment, don't anybody tell him about Santa Claus--for God's sake, clap if you believe in the Tooth Fairy!"
Séan continued to look very worried, Alan cast him several parental glances and then went on, "well, anyway, if any of you know Rita, could you tell her that we love being on the show--and we'd love to meet her!"
--Shelley McKibbon

Alan Speaks Of Alanis
The scene is James M. Hill High, back in Miramichi, last November. And Alan was just gone on Alanis Morrissette -- he kept bringing her up. Like when he started telling the stories about the MuchMusic Video Awards...
[Alan: "We flew out direct from Petty Harbour International Airport..."
Sean (interrupts): "Petty Harbour would FIT INTO an international airport!"
Alan (to audience): "Petty Harbour is pretty small."
Audience: "How small is it?"
Alan (grins evilly, turns to band): "Oh, this could go on for a while..." (To audience)" "In Petty Harbour, the houses are so small, the dogs have to wag their tails up and down!!"
Alan told the story about Bryan Adams opening up for them on national television (throws fist triumphantly into the air, beams, looks very pleased with himself...)
Then he told us about wandering around backstage. "Alanis was there," he explained. "Darrell went up to her and said 'Whaddaya at?' and she just kind of looked at him --" (draws back, looks as if he smelled something funny) "-- and said 'I BEG your pardon?"
Then later he mentioned how grateful they were that their album was doing so well -- "So thanks to all of ye who bought it!" Then he continued, "And to all of ye who didn't -- get off it! Alanis has already sold six million albums -- be different!"
The really funny bit was when they burst into all the silliness in the second set -- "Take A Chance On Me" first, then Sean sang a couple of lines from "Rock 'N' Roll All Night" and while Alan was explaining that they listen to a LOT of music in the van, Sean also started the chorus to that Shania Twain song, "No One Needs To Know Right Now." And then somebody down front yelled, "Play Alanis!" (Audience input was par for the course that night) And Alan stopped dead, gave the person a withering look (imagine Alan trying to do a withering look. It was all he could do to keep his face straight!) and remarked, "Oh, right, I bet Alanis gets that at all her shows!" (Clasps hands earnestly together, falls to knees, looks imploring.) "Play Great Big Sea, for God's sake!" You probably have to picture the look on his face at this point, but it was really funny at the time!
--Shelley McKibbon

Alan Is Crushed!
Hampton High, in Hampton, May 8, 1997
The band had been separated doing promos for "Play". They hadn't been on stage together in about a month, and according to Alan they hadn't even seen each other in "a long time"-- which I beleive he stated was about a week.
Anyway, Alan was really excited to be back with the rest of the bad. The whole group was in a good mood, and it was a wonderful show, but Alan in particular was wound for sound. He kept going on about how lonesome he'd been, and how much he'd missed the other, and he finally turned to Séan and in his best Austin Powers imitation said:
"Did you miss me, baby?"
"Actually, to be honest, I kind of enjoyed the peace and quiet."
The second the words were out of his mouth, you could see poor Séan trying to grab them back, but it was too late. Alan fixed him with that wounded to the heart, "how could you be so cruel?" wide-eyed look. Darrell started forward like he was going to intervene, but stopped himself. The whole audience gasped--Séan knew he was going to get no help from us! So he starts spluttering apologies, and Alan's standing there looking sadder and sadder (if his heart wasn't really broken then someone should nominate him for an Academy Award, because you've never seen anyone look more tragic) and finally whatever Séan said worked, because Alan brightened up and turned back to the audience and said,
"Talk amongst yourselves--we must embrace!"
Whereupon he flung his arms wide and kind of made a run at Séan, who looked pretty embarassed but knew better then to get Alan starged again, and the two of them hugged each other at centre stage--and when the rest of us stopped laughing, we were able to hear the rest of the concert!
--Shelley McKibbon

It's Buddy From Great Big Sea!
Hampton, NB, spring, 1997
Alan had been in Toronto doin' promo work for Play, and he was in this hotel, and he got into the elevator and the next thing he knew, so had Dave Foley.
"From Newsradio!" Alan exclaimed. "The tv star! So I was trying not to say anything stupid to him. And the elevator went a few more floors down, and the doors opened, and Jon Voight gets in! You know, he was in that movie Anaconda!" Alan went on, "so there I am, trying not to look like the moron, with these two movie stars in the elevator with me--"
Séan:"did either of them ask you if you were Alan from Great Big Sea?"
Alan:"No. They may have asked me to press the ground floor button. So I'm like this--"(here you have to picture Alan looking as small and inconspicuous as possible.) "And we go all the way down, and the doors open, and this young woman who was just in from Cape Breton starts to get in, and she looks at us and she goes--" (Alan stares, goes all wide-eyed, falls back, points, and exclaims:) "Oh, my God! You're buddy from Great Big Sea!"
Séan:"So were they impressed?"
Alan:"I don't know about them, but I had a good laugh!"
--Shelley McKibbon

Do you KNOW you're in the ditch?
Miramichi, November 1996
Alan told the story about when the guys were on their way to a gig, and came across a car in a ditch.
"It was down in this ditch, " Alan explained, "only it was more like a ravine, and I'm yelling, 'Stop! Buddy might be dead!' So we stop, and I puts on my jacket, and down the hill I go, like the fool, and I get to the car. So I knock on the window, and buddy rolls it down--"(Mimes rolling down the window) "--and I say, 'Are you alright?' And the guy just looks at me! And he says 'Yes'! I wanted to shake him! I'm like, 'Do you KNOW you're in the ditch?'"
Séan:"Maybe that's where he parks. He'd probably been in the ditch for days..."
Alan (shaking his head):"Well, he looked stuck to me!"
--Shelley McKibbon

Séan falls in love
Sanderson Centre, in Brantford, Ont, Mar 6th, 1998
Séan announced that there were some amazingly beautiful women at the show. Then he told us he was in love with the "nymph" woman in the blue dress. The whole audience looked up at the painting on the ceiling, and Alan asked what the Devil was doing up there, and Séan said that it isn't the Devil, it's Wayne Gretzky. This got Alan all riled up! "Don't say things like that about the Great One!" he said, stricken that Séan would say something like that about Wayne. "That man could buy us over, and over, and over, and over..."
--Karina Short