ben604

Nice big room that! I'm a bit jealous. Rockwool (or RockRULE as I've just started to call it!), is amazing stuff. Completely changed the sound of our room.

We've had a great weekend and we're really starting to make some headway. 3 gigs this upcoming weekend, woo! We played a 21st on Friday to a packed pub which went really well - They even paid us an extra £50, nice! Then, last night we played for 30 minutes in [url="http://www.fortperchrock.org/Fort_Perch_Rock/Home.html"]Fort Perch Rock[/url], a big marine fort in New Brighton on the Wirral. They had a big line array PA, nice foldback, lights, a PROPER GIG! I'm sure we've never sounded as good, and just being able to turn up with your instruments (and a few bits and bobs) is gig heaven. Here's our cover of Many or Horrors by Biffy recorded on an iPhone, so the guitars aren't quite as massive as they were in the flesh! Oh, try to ignore the mistakes our guitarist makes towards the end, only the 2nd time we've played it live!

I played in our school play last night - Return to the Forbidden Planet. Line-up was: Bass: Me - can't read at all, relied completely on my ear and the practice runs, pretty poorly! Drums: Session player - played from the sheet music, to the note (more on that shortly...) Piano: Music teacher a - from the sheet, to the note Synth/pad: Music teacher b - from the sheet, very poorly Lead Synth: Music teacher c - from the sheet, to the note Guitar: Music teacher b's 16 year old son - from the sheet, "improvised" solos I've now got a lot of respect for session musicians. The drummer and piano player were both excellent, note perfect and their timing was impeccable. I will say though, that there should be some wiggle room - the notated drums for Born to be Wild, for example, are awful and completely destroyed the feel of the song (my band play it pretty well in pubs). I actually felt quite out of my depth and embarrassed that I couldn't read music, it's something I'm going to start learning. It's a shame that teacher b and her son let us down really, I made a decision, if I couldn't nail the bass, I wouldn't play at all and let the paino handle the bassline, but she just ploughs on trying desperately to work out where we are and what chords she should be playing. Not only that, she was complaining about not being able to hear herself in the monitor mix (we only had one mix initially, which the pit shared) so we had her so loud during the practice runs that I found it difficult to hear the piano (vital for how I was following the music). So, before the performance, I managed to set up 3 different mixes - she had one just for herself, loud and clear. She wasn't mixed into our mixes at all and her FOH volume was barely audible... Harsh, but I've got to work with the woman, so I couldn't tell her she was useless and spoiling the show... One more performance tonight, then back to the day show! Yey!

I'm a massive Queens fan and thought they sounded rough as sh*t. It's been nearly 10 years since their last great album and they've never sounded as good live as when it was just Josh, Nick and Dave. Still, better than Beyonce by a country mile.

We've just leased an industrial unit to practice in and leave our gear SET UP READY TO GO! Woo! We want to make it a bit homely, as it's a massive boring white room at the moment. If anyone has any of the following to donate, that would be wonderful: Couches/chairs - comfier the better! Table/s - a coffee table and a desk I guess Office dividers - something to screen off the relaxing bit from the loud bit! Lamps - tall and/or small! We're up on the Wirral in the North West, but we've got a big car and are willing to travel a bit for the right stuff! Thanks in advance!

Here's our last set list, there are 4 gentlemanly members - 2 guitars, 1 bass and a drummer who sings lead vocal: 1st set. THE CHAIN BORN TO BE WILD FORTUNATE SON BUDDY HOLLY TIMES LIKE THESE JEREMY PEACHES HIGHWAY TO HELL COCHISE WOMAN HELTER SKELTER BLACK HOLE SUN KASHMIR 2nd set LOVE IN AN ELEVATOR LA GRANGE ALIVE UNDER PRESSURE ALL RIGHT NOW FEEL LIKE MAKIN' LOVE UNDER THE BRIDGE HEY JOE SUNSHINE OF YOUR LOVE BLACK NIGHT BACK IN BLACK ENTER SANDMAN TRIBUTE We're working on a Bohemian Rhapsody, God Gave Rock'n'Roll, Breath -> Money and For Those about to Rock as an alternative opener.

Yum. My favourite colour for an instrument, behind Black, Black, Maple...

Surely an all-valve 550w head would weigh more than a crate of Ampeg SVT-CL heads?

I play and sing significantly better when I've had a few vodkas. I'm incredibly nervous when I'm playing so I tend to stand on the spot and look pretty awkward. Imagine Nate Mendel, but with less movement. Couple of doubles in me before hand and one on stage during? I feel like a rockstar! I enjoy it more, the band enjoy it more and the crowd feed off that. We're just as professional, sound just as good and play more 'together' if that makes sense.

We got a pair of [url="http://www.mackie.com/products/sa1521/"]Mackie SA1521[/url]'s for £550. To be fair, they're heavy beasts, but they're damn loud and handle the whole band, including me exclusively, I run straight in with my Sansamp. I had a compliment on Sunday night for my sound, he was shocked to hear I didn't run through a dedicated amp. If you've got the room and strength (or just two people for carrying) to transport them, I highly recommend them.

Welcome from Upton, just down the road!

The Shipping Forecast seem to be putting bands on at the moment, Zanzibar obviously, Mellow Yellow (acousticy), The Masque which has the best sound in my opinion, The Flying Picket?

My brother's old band used to play in the free bit regularly, the supplied bass amp was a Fender 2x10, but it was always DI'd. The sound in there is good, full and there's a dude on the desk. Not sure about the big room out back, but the others above seem to have that covered!

The drummer's my Brother. He's played to click tracks before, so I'm fairly confident it'll be ok. Not to mention the piano in Bohemian Rhapsody is fairly percussive, so we should be fine. I don't play with backline so we've had to invest in decent monitors, so that side is fine. Anyway, while I'll heed your warnings, we can only try. I'm certainly not going to not even try because it [i]might[/i] not work.