casapete

Bought an amp cover from Steve recently. Top fella to deal with, and an easy transaction. Highly recommended, cheers Steve!

Not much better really. East Yorkshire is a little bit out on a limb from the rest of the county, so we tend to be a bit forgotten regarding stuff. North Lincs is only a trip over the Humber Bridge but unfortunately not much better there either.

Apologies for this - I always post using my iPad , and wasn’t aware it even did this until just checking on my phone. 🫢

It’s not only the exorbitant ticket prices / fees that have slowed down my gig going, it’s also the behaviour of crowds - talking all the way through ( even in the quiet bits ), constantly squeezing past to get more pints of dripping beer, phones being held aloft obscuring your view etc etc. These days I choose which gigs to attend by trying to eliminate or at least minimise the chances of this happening, but it’s not always feasible or predictable. We’re lucky to have a few good smaller venues nearby where they do care about this stuff, so they primarily get our custom. As they’re often full, it seems like I’m not alone in this either. When I was in a touring theatre band, we always knew that the venues which kept their bars open throughout the evening would be the ones where we expected grief. People in the middle of long rows of seats who constantly got up to get pints and go to the loo used to often be the start of confrontations where the theatre staff had to intervene, often leading to the rowdy folk getting ejected. One time in Manchester the police were called to sort stuff out, as we watched it unfold during our second set - pretty grim for a decent venue. All this because the theatre wanted to make more money, very sad.

Spot on Andy. The bass is for sale in the Hull area I believe, which may explain why nobody’s been to have a look at it?

I bailed on my band a few years ago. It was a very successful pro function / wedding outfit, and I’d been with them for 15 years. We did a lot of prestige gigs/venues, but there were always issues within it’s members, ranging from conflicting work schedules through to drink and drug problems ( not mine!). Anyway, I was approached by some friends who were in a tribute band who asked me to dep for their bassist who was sadly having major health issues. I stepped in and did quite a few gigs with them, until unfortunately their bassist passed away. I was then asked to join full time, but my loyalties lay with the function band, so I reluctantly declined. I helped them recruit a new player, and I thought that was the end of that. Then around 15 months later I got a call from them again, as the new guy had decided it wasn’t for him. To be honest, I’d regretted turning them down the first time so jumped at the opportunity. My old band by now were falling apart, with fewer gigs and other significant problems, so I bailed - gave them a month’s notice and that was it. The new band were quite the opposite - all lovely people, professional and organised etc and it immediately turned out to be the right decision. The old band finally spluttered to a halt, whilst I had a great 15 years on the road with a fantastic band, all of them memorable. After that I had to (reluctantly) retire from touring, and gave them a year’s notice! We found a great player to replace me, and I still keep in touch with them. Nowadays I still play, just more locally - mainly in an acoustic duo with my best mate, and some dep gigs. Sometimes things do work out for the best. 😊

+1 My Rumble 500 coped with being used in a very loud blues rock band, and I don’t remember having it above 5 on the input and master level controls. In a case of ( to quote Deep Purple I think )’let’s have everything louder than everything else’ then your 800 may just be part of the melee, whilst being very loud itself if you see what I mean. As @Lozz196 says above, if you honestly think you need an extension cab, then get the 2x10. Not the same Neo speakers in that as your combo, but should sound fine nevertheless. Even better, just get everyone to turn down and it won’t cost you anything….

Me too!

I know it’s not popular on here, but ‘Later with Jools Holland’ has been championing plenty of music, with 65 series over the last 30+ years. It’s been viewed not only here but in much of Europe, USA, Canada and beyond too.

The North / South divide is an interesting point. In my old theatre band, audiences generally got livelier the further north we played. Hence we particularly loved doing gigs in the NE and Scotland. That’s not to say we always sold more tickets in these areas, just that the audiences appeared to be more appreciative. This also seemed to be the case with poorer areas too, where the audiences were often more receptive than in the wealthier parts of the country.

I’m sure most of our older members recall John Peel ‘playing’ mandolin on this on TOTP.

Or a rawk version of Strictly?

That looked a great gig Mick. I’ve been a massive Graham Parker & Nick Lowe fan since the 70’s, seen GP & The Rumour many times. Caught them a few years ago in Leeds when they briefly got back together, I think with the original line up including Andrew Bodnar on bass. Always enjoyed Martin Belmont and Brinsley Schwarz on guitar duties too. If I’d known I would have tried to get to Putney for this one - to my shame I wasn’t aware that Bob Andrews had passed away in June, very sad. Many thanks for the set lists and pics Mick.