depends if they have a reputation for playing extreme noise rock destroying guitar strings in the process or not

ok, now i know that sounds a little tight.
but i had bad experience once, when this dude playing with my old country band broke a string and gestured for help. we were sitting right near, and i volunteered me old yamaha and this guy plays out the rest of his set with it andd at the end bloody well breaks it to pieces on the stage!?@? like he's pete townshend or something. I couldnt do nothing bout it becoz it was a midwestern bar and i didnt want to start any brawls.

I think, where possible, you should try and help them out. Obviously you would like people to do that for you if the situation was reversed. However, I have known some bands who are just asking for trouble, no spare strings or drum heads, no spare guitars, no extra leads, picks etc. Time after time these same guys plead for help when their gear (which they never maintain properly) breaks down. You can only have so much sympathy before it becomes a case of them just being slack idots who are never prepared. Everyone has nightmare gigs where nothing seems to work, but most problems can be sorted quickly by having spares of everything (within reason) and checking your gear regularly.

geezus you'd get run out of town if you didn't lend mid-gig in Dunedin. in fact the lending often goes on just before the bands hit the stage. and if someone abused the priviledge and broke something that was lent ... i'd hate to see what would happen. probably nobody would ever ask them to play ever again.

If you've already played before the band you should lend them gear if they really need it. If they play before you and have fucked up all their own equipment and are begging to fuck up yours, then you'd be fucking stupid to lend it to them because you can't play a (good) gig if your own gear is fucked (and that really sucks when it's not your fault).

If you know you're gonna fuck up gear before you play a gig - get more gear! You have to be a little considerate about these things because it gets old very quickly.

.....and how all the gear just got itself to the scots college common room......the mesa army!