mrtcat

Thanks for all the input guys.

Got rehearsals Thurs and it's usually me and the drummer left at the end so will have a chat. I'll ask if he wants us to look into a temporary dep who could pitch in and take the pressure off a bit if he's pressed for time. If we have a willing dep they can also help at gigs current drummer doesnt want.

We totally appreciate that it's going to be tough when his second nipper arrives but at the same time we want to keep gigging. We set up as a band that wanted to gig weekly. Singer has two kids and I have one and we all carried on when they arrived but that's probably more of a testament to our wives.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='1372007' date='Sep 13 2011, 03:53 PM'][attachment=89313:dr670.jpg][/quote]
Haha the "non moaning non complaining alternative"..

We formed three years ago with another drummer. He moved to Sweden before our first gig and the current chap stepped in. None of us knew each other previously but we all get on well (current drummer included). He already has one little boy and his wife is really cool. He's just a bit of a drama queen and loves to moan. He also has a habit of cncelling gigs at short notice. Family will always come first for him which I totally understand but it just seems he enjoys being awkward with the band. A second drummer would at least take a bit of the power away from him and could make his life easier while his new baby is young.
None of us want an ugly fall out as we have had some really good times together so I think talking to him is the best approach and offering a possible way to take pressure off him.

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='1371969' date='Sep 13 2011, 03:29 PM']Get another drummer and share the drum seat between two or more drummers.[/quote]

That's a pretty sensible suggestion. With his wife being up the duff we can easily pitch it to him as a way of helping him out. If we also take on a second drummer and be totally upfront about the situation it will give current drummer chance to choose his availability. Our guitarist is in an originals band and his drummer has offered to dep before. May be worth a chat with current guy first then approaching him.

[quote name='Len_derby' post='1371956' date='Sep 13 2011, 03:19 PM']How do the rest of the band feel about this?[/quote]

Previously they've all been pretty laid back and accepted it as a trade off for his good skills but now it's really starting to reduce how much we can play. Nobody else is worried about the cash tho.

Hi all,
After some advice rom other band players.

We have a decent drummer in our band. Playing wise he's great, really solid and puts a lot of energy into our sound. The problem is that when we're not playing he's a total headache. Firstly he's got an obsession with money. We are a pub rock band playing classic rock covers. We always get our £250 asking price and I believe that's more than many of our rival bands get. Drummer however is now insisting we charge £300 - £400 a night. If we play O'Neills we can get that much but most of our gigs are regular pubs. I don't think we'll get that much and end up pricing ourselves out of gigs.
Next issue is that he goes on to our online calendar and blanks off masses of dates well in advance. This means we already only have a maximum of 30 gigs a year for 2012. We will fill them but he's blanking off dates that he has no plans for just to control how much we play. He has just announced his wife is pregnant and due in march and has said as a result he'll be unavailable in march April and may.
Finally he complains about where we play. He only wants to practice one a week tops but can't see why we're not playing the O2 every week.
What would you do? He's a bloody good drummer and there's a shortage of them round here.

Just do as much practice as you can so you don't need to think too much about the songs. I know it's short notice but if you get the chance to try some of their other proposed songs that'll really impress them too. Beyond that just enjoy it and be yourself. I always found the prospect of auditions a little nerve racking but if they're anything other than really nice to you then they're not worth worrying about. When we last auditioned people we had to impress them as well so they'll be under a little extra pressure too.

Best of luck I'm sure you'll knock em dead.

I practice hard to compensate for my lack of natural ability. I buy flash gear to compensate for my small penis.

Oh yeah - last gig's set. Was at The King Billy in Northampton which is a biker joint hence the lack of pop rock. You'll also find stuff like Sex On Fire, Summer Of 69, All The Small Things, Fight For Your Right To Party, Buck Rogers, Song 2 etc etc in a more "town centre saturday night" gig.

Set 1

1. White Wedding
2. Fool For Your Loving
3. Sharp Dressed Man
4. La Grange
5. Rosalie
6. Can’t Get Enough
7. Paint It Black
8. Gimme Some Loving
9. Are You Gonna Go My Way
10. Purple Haze
11. Wishing Well
12. American Woman
13. Fire
14. Addicted To Love
15. Honky Tonk Women
16. Bartender And The Thief
17. Whole Lotta Rosie


Set 2

1. Tie Your Mother Down
2. Long Way To The Top
3. Everything About You
4. Walk This Way
5. Hard To Handle
6. No One Knows
7. Sweet Home Alabama
8. Bad Moon Rising
9. Rocking All Over The World
10. Down Down
11. Roadhouse Blues
12. Black Night
13. All My Life
14. Born To Be Wild
15. Paranoid
16. Freebird

Screw the kids (not litterally) book a rock band and you get rock.

[quote name='JoshL' post='1279004' date='Jun 22 2011, 08:30 PM']Just about to start something called level 3 rock award at college[/quote]

I want to go back to college!!!!!!

Good work, they look very slick. I'll go for one too. Credit to Ped for arranging this as many have talked about a bc shirt / wristband / badge etc but none of us has got further than the "ooh ooh I've got an idea" stage.

Thanks guys some really helpful stuff here. I must admit the constant bombardment from local promoters plugging heavy metal nights gets very wearing and that's my main worry. I don't want to pee everyone off but do in the same breath don't want to be missing the opportunity. I'm gonna add some fb and twitter logos to our backdrop and have flyers etc ready to roll at gigs. That way people have the details and can add us if they want to.

We just made a rough promo video (on band's website - click link in my signature) which I'd love some feedback from if you get 5 mins to spare. We also have some nice demo tracks taken from a recent gig. We do covers - just to warn you purists out there lol.

Thanks again all!

Do most members use social media (facebook, myspace, twitter etc) to promote their bands and gigs. If so what do you use and how do you get fan numbers / followers up?

Speakers are the windows for your sound. If they're crap then your sound will be pretty poor. Use a Sansamp when you need a di for PA time if your amp can't cut it.

Cabs all the way for me.

[quote name='ShergoldSnickers' post='1351685' date='Aug 25 2011, 07:46 PM']It all matters not. You have an Eden Metro combo, and that alone is sufficient reason to cast disparaging looks at any self-induced misfortune.[/quote]

+1 many a jealous bass chatter would kill for an Eden Metro combo with custom channel switch pedal

Not an idiot at all. Now you have a pedal that no-one else has. Custom building is infinitely more satisfying than settling for "off the shelf mediocrity".

I must admit my one disappointment in my ER15s is the fact that the ACS litterature says you won't get that "underwater" effect of your voice booming in your head. That's exactly the effect I get. However perseverence helped my learn to use that voice and hear myself well. With regards to what the public hear you just need to sound check well and trust that the sound won't change significantly thru the gig. I love harmonies but my ears are more valuable and if I knacker them I'll not be able to hear, sing or play another harmony.

I just bulldozer thru with whatever comes into my head then at the end of the song get everyone to point and laugh at the guitarist for not being able to improvise.

[quote name='tonyclaret' post='1349260' date='Aug 23 2011, 06:09 PM']Great response peeps. How do I determine which set is for me? Obviously £160 a throw I want it to be right first time, rather than buying filter after filter till I get there. I was looking for somewhere in my area colne,lancashire that may be able to assist. I fear if I get er25 I won't be able to hear a thing. Is there a retailer out there where you can try the varying types of filter?[/quote]

I started with ACS ER25's but they took out too much for me so I just ordered replacement filters (15's) theyre easy to change over and are only £50 a pair as you don't need new moulds just the filters.

Wasps are actually one of the most important of all insects. They feed other insects to their larvae. In order for a nest to reach full size (about the same vol as a basketball) they will take about 4-6 tons of flies, mosquito's, flying ants and pretty much any other hard shelled insect including small cockroaches. If you imagine that a ton of insects will fill about 12 of the big ton sacks they use for gravel and sand and that there's up to 1000 nests per square mile in the uk it becomes clear that without them we'd be up to our gregories in bugs.

They are bastards tho......

Just started using EB's. Very happy thus far

Just get a routine. If travelling separately I give everyone a staggered arrival time.

I always get there 20 mins before the drummer (if he travels with me he's under strict instruction that he helps me first before setting his kit up - the drums can get in everyone's way and slow the whole process to a crawl). In that time I set up backdrop, mixer / outboards / amps, run all cables from pa hub to where tops and subs will sit but leave all the cabs in the van. Then the drummer arrives and sets up (at the same time I sneak my bass amp in and do lights). Then guitarist and singer arrive. While they set themselves up I mic the kit (drummer still tinkering throughout). Once singer has plugged all mics into mixer he and guitarist haul in the cabs from the van while I put the top stands up and voila! We're ready to sound check in under an hour from my arrival.

Same process applies whether we play pubs, clubs, corporate or wedding. First impressions and all that.

Outdoor gigs can be a nightmare at this time of year cos wasp nests have "matured" and therefore stopped producing food for the workers. That's why there's so many chasing our food and drink. Wasps should be controlled by the organisers tho. Proper wasp traps (not some half full jam jar or coke bottle can be put up a week before the festival and they will trap "scout" wasps which in turn will stop them bringing all their friends to the party.

Unfortunately most festival organisers don't really know that they can do anything about them. Their not obliged to either and nobody has ever been prosecuted for not controlling wasps on their site with all fatal stings being classed as an "act of god". Theme parks etc spend tens of thousands of pounds on wasp control every year.

I use one on the odd occasion i need a pick. I use it just like a normal pick but it just can't be dropped.

Those are the exact drivers in these cabs. Like I said I'm only just covering material costs as these were built as a test of both the design and my abilities in speaker building (I'm a cabinet maker by trade). DR cabs are a long winded and complicated build so you're getting about 150hours of labour for free.

They weigh about 48lbs (25kg) each. They're both 8ohm cabs as are most bfm PA cabs so that you can run 2 of each side of an amp if you really want to deafen the neighbours.