Most musicians have had to do a bit of side work in their time. And by that i mean fields related and unrelated to playing an instrument and writing songs. As well as a bit of good old fashioned moonlighting.
Lets start with related fields shall we? Adapt or die they say, well, any artist worth their salt has done their time in the jail of someones bar or restaurant, just ask Woody Harrelson. In fact i was slingin' drinks with Ellen Pompeo (Greys Anatomy) in Soho NY when Spacehog were playing to three drunks and a dog at Nightingales in the Lower East Side in the mid nineties.
Once Spacehog were up and running i scaled the ladder of public service to djing. I spent years doin' crappy bar sets before the brands started putting an extra zero on my pay checks. On the corporate scene i couldn't believe how much people were prepared to pay to have you play other peoples music, pull the occasional crucifixion pose and check your email. It made a mockery of the struggle many of the bands went through to get those records out in the first place. Having said that and money aside, i think i preferred bartending: In a lot of peoples minds its perfectly okay to abuse a dj in the booth if their idea of what you should be playing doesn't coincide exactly with theirs. I've had some laughable situations, playing a medley of Michael Jackson, Prince and Madonna only to be asked to play something that the 'expert' in the polo shirt 'knows'. Or if i can play someones 'demo' at midnight on Saturday night in a packed club full of revellers. Another one that springs to mind is the party i played at in Harlem with a 'no hiphop' policy: I don't think Dave Chapelle could have scripted it any better!
As for Moonlighting: it takes many forms and the rules are, there are no rules. In fact noone is really telling you when your main gig starts, pauses, resumes or finishes. So you have to take a series of calculated risks.
In what i anticipated to be a break in our schedule after 'As It Is On Earth' was recorded, i agreed to be the touring drummer with the Pierces.

Four British hit singles and a world tour with Coldplay later i was finally ready to come back to my brothers in Spacehog. But i'd be lying if i told you they were 100% cool with it.
Other bits of moonlighting are less intrusive: I was back in England, when Supergrass came a knockin'. Danny their drummer had gone AWOL and i was asked to fly to Sweden that day to film a tv show. One minute i was in my kitchen, dressed only in my underpants feeding the baby, the next i was out there in Stockholm getting ready to play with one of my favorite bands!
If you remember boy band O-Town, i was the drummer on the set of their smash hit video "All Or Nothing".

I don't think i've ever met a group of young men so hopelessly addicted to the attentions of prepubescent girls, it was all a bit pathetic really. I often wonder what they are all doing now and how that experience shaped their adult lives.
So in synopsis, if you need a party djing, a garden fete opening, a drink making or just wanna hear some quality rock'n'roll stories, you know what to do!