One lousy gig comes back to me from many, many years ago. It's funny, but I still feel a twinge of resentment when I recall that evening. I was playing 1st alto (a late 1920s, silver-plated Conn New Wonder Series II) in the big-band of a well known school which was founded in the 15th Century. In short, it was very traditional - black gowns, canings and compulsory Latin etc. Single-sex, obviously. All very 1950s-style, and not unlike what you can see in the movie "If..."
The gig (unpaid) was staged at some religious retreat near the school, but a few miles out in the country. It was a scorching summer evening, and all the guests were decked out in their summer finery, drinking chilled wine with strawberries in it plus various canapes and nibbles etc. Lots of teachers plus their wives were there, and even a few monks (no, I'm not kidding!) in brown monastic garb. Weird... Various women were also in attendance, clad their summer frocks - plenty of chiffon in those days. It happened so long ago that I can't recall what it was all about - but obviously it was a summer party of some sort.
I was 18 years old - but we all had to wear full school uniforms (complete with ties) despite the heat and humidity in the atrium. Those cheapskates only offered us glasses of "orangeade" (actually, it was concentrated orange cordial with tap-water added) and not even one sandwich or even a bag of crisps - whilst the so-called "elite" in front of us swilled wine and scoffed various delicacies/sweet-meats all evening. We were all hungry by the end of the second set, needless to say.
We must have played 4 sets of 30 mins each. At the end, I tried to blag a drink one glass of the wine and some canapes - and swiftly got hauled over the coals by the teachers in attendance. Oh no, any treats were off-limits to the plebs - strictly verboten you understand. Only the elite could appreciate such tasty morsels. The prevailing attitude seemed to be along the lines of "Let them eat cake" - sort of like Marie Antoinette when told the peasants were starving.
Perhaps I wouldn't have minded so much if I hadn't heard the wise-cracks of some of the teachers making small-talk e.g. how the band sounded so better the more wine they drank etc. That was unfair because actually we were pretty good for an amateur band, and were doing the gig entirely gratis. We played our hearts out, and got.... nothing. None of the band really wanted to play that gig, but we were "persuaded" (i.e. got our arms twisted by the school) to do it.
I remember bristling at the unfairness of it all at the time, not that it made any difference. The experience completely destroyed any residual respect I had for the school and its values. To me, it was all hypocritically hollow. I really couldn't wait to bail-out after A-levels.