casapete

Great venue. Think a mate of mine was on keys for this gig, Terry?

It’s taken me years to realise that although I’m a mid scoop fan it doesn’t really translate to a live situation. I often don’t like my onstage tone ( amp set reasonably ‘flat’ or thereabouts) playing solo at soundchecks, but when joined by the rest of the band / on the gig it seems to work just fine. Never need to change my EQ on the gig, in fact rarely touch the amp at all.

Second of three gigs this year for our (very) occasional country band ‘The Fork Handles’. Venue was a British Legion club in a small town just outside Hull. Must admit I didn’t count on them selling all the tickets, so when I arrived at 7pm the place was already heaving. Tiny stage, house PA not ideally situated for us and a new drummer didn’t manage to put the mockers on the night, with plenty of smiling faces all around. Some dodgy moments here and there of course, but overall one of those small good time gigs that I will never tire of. Used my Dano Longhorn into a GK / Barefaced Compact set up, and had plenty of warm bottom end sound. (No pics I’m afraid, although if any surface from the punters I’ll add them later.)

I take no pleasure in including Rod Stewart in this thread. Been a fan of his since the early 70's, especially his stuff with The Faces. Saw him live then and he was truly remarkable - one of those singers who occasionally didn't hit the notes bang on but everything else he brought to the table far eclipsed this. The quality of his voice has been (IMO) slowly going downhill since the 80's, and was especially grim on his American Songbook stuff. These days it's almost shot, with seemingly no upper or lower range, just a weird middley warble. Combine that with a rather embarassing 'still got it' stage persona, and it's just a massive cringe fest. Sorry mate, but you've had a good run.

Think this must been down to when creativity / attitude / being younger were all major factors in how their music was made. Who would have thought that say the punk bands of the late 70’s would still be touring now, with them being so rebellious and dismissive of the older bands back then? It’s down to earning a living I guess, so long as there are punters who will pay to see them. Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be etc.... Bands like the Stones haven’t produced much of note for a long time but they still get massive audiences willing to cough up hundreds to stand half a mile from the stage, just to be there. When acts become ‘legends’ it guarantees them a good living till they peg it. Having a healthy and memorable back catalogue is the goose that laid the golden egg.

Beat me to it. Saw Sir Tom just before the pandemic hit in, and he was absolutely incredible. His voice was bang in tune throughout the two hour gig, never faltering once and so strong. One of the best gigs I’ve been to in years. Saw him sing live on ‘The Voice’ recently and still amazing too.

Who to blame though - The Doors, White Stripes, Yeah Yeahs? 😆 It’s been a thing for a while now, yet nothing to worry about I feel. I’ve been to a couple of gigs where the bass player is absent. Saw Jimmie Vaughan supporting Clapton at the Albert Hall, and after my initial surprise I didn’t really miss the bass guitar that much. Keyboard (Hammond) player had it well covered. Also saw Steve Winwood at The Leadmill in Sheffield with a (mostly) South American band, and Steve had it covered with bass pedals most of the time. Again, didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the gig, but probably would have preferred a bass guitar for more attack and better tone.

Slightly OT, I happened to see a Ned Callan bass for sale in Fair Deal in Birmingham at the weekend. Looked like a fretless, in good condition.

They can be a bit tricky if you’re not used to them I guess, but our steelie gets his set up on stage in around 20 mins. They don’t appear to go out of tune much, but strings on his get changed one at a time to minimise the whole thing going out. This is the second band I’ve been in with a pedal steel player, and love the textures they create, either on chordal stuff or soloing. Mind you, they do need to be played well - I’ve heard other bands where they’re so out of tune it’s painful. You need a great picking hand too, which has always ruled me out of having a try. (Seen some recent clips of Ronnie Wood playing steel with the Stones and it’s been, err....basic at best. He seemed okay back in the day too.) Apologies for the derail.

Got to love pedal steel - we have one in our country band and it’s great. Our guy is a superb player (coincidentally originally from Frome too), and he’s also a very nifty guitarist.

Sorry you don’t get on with the gear4music foam case, especially as it may have been me who recommended it! Must admit I never use the back straps on mine, and still reckon it’s the best protection before the hard case route. Hope you get sorted.

Strewth. Mind you, just been in M&S in Birmingham and seen a sausage roll for a fiver! Crazy times.

Duplicate post.

All of my favourites have been mentioned , but how about a shout out for these guys? All great players on some fantastic recordings. Herbie Flowers Mo Foster Russ Stableford Alan Spenner Klaus Voorman

Glad Coda has been praised. My band play Stevenage every year ( we are there tomorrow night )and I always visit the shop when we are there. Great staff, massive stocks of quality gear and competitive pricing too. A real tardis like place, with a nice bakery round the corner as well! I remember playing a Fano a few years ago and wishing I had the funds for it, of course they’ve shot up in price since. Certainly one of the best shops in the UK.

I liked them too. If anyone is looking for an older Peavey combo, the best ones have the BW speaker option, usually identified by the BW logo at the bottom of the speaker grille.

Merchant City Music in Glasgow are one of the main stockists Dave, nice and near for you. Dangerous!

We played at the 'Fields of Gold' festival last night, in Ashton under Lyne on the outskirts of Manchester. Small 3 day festival that was originally a 2 day event but they bolted on the Sunday too. Was a bit disappointed that the regular MC Bez of Happy Mondays wasn't doing it this year, as would have loved to meet him. Not a great turn out, maybe due to the lousy weather forecast which turned out to be wrong. A very balmy evening with the rain holding off until we were nearly home. There were some great bands on, including 'Stax of Soul', a brilliant 9 piece soul band featuring our very own @thunderthumbs on bass duties. They have a 4 piece horn section - two trumpets, tenor and baritone saxes and sounding so good. Lovely guys too. After a lot of confusion regarding arrival and set up times, we went on (for the first time in the band's history) without a proper soundcheck, just a line check to make sure everything was on. Very nerve racking for the first few songs, but the sound techs did a great job. All in all an enjoyable do, and a nice change from our usual theatre stuff.

Here's mine from last night's festival gig. 96 Precision Lyte into a Sansamp (for DI purposes only!), then GK1001RB into a GK Neo410 cab. Gigs like this make me realise why I use a set up with headroom - ran it quite loud last night and really enjoyed the onstage sound. (Just realised that's our violinist's knee behind my cab!)

Beat me to it! I’ve also got a Rumble 100v3 and it’s a wonderful combo. Bought mine s/h too, and I've used it on small / medium gigs with both electric and electro acoustic basses. Sounds great, and unbelievably lightweight, with a good XLR DI. Not too big for home use either.

On the last Genesis tour Mike Rutherford used an ordinary ( Affinity model?) Squier Strat. I’ve used a Longhorn for years too. Quite popular basses in the 60’s and 70’’s - I think John Entwistle used one on ‘My Generation’, famously breaking strings during the recording.

Agreed - used one of these a few times and they’re certainly fit for purpose. There’s currently a KB300 for sale on FB Marketplace for £50.

Bless you Mick, my bad! Thanks.

Three gigs for me this week. Tuesday was the acoustic duo's monthly gig at a local pub. Very humid night but we got some great requests, most of which we managed, although had to admit to not doing 'Rosanna' by Toto! Thursday was at Mansfield Palace Theatre, a great venue and sold out too. Our first band gig back after a summer break so we were all a bit worried but actually went okay. Some monitoring issues fortunately didn't manage to spoil it for us, and happy faces all around. I got a bit of an ache in my left hand, but think it's because I've not played 2 x1 hour sets for a while. Then last night we were at one of my favourite venues, Buxton Opera House. Played here many times and always loved it. Again, had some monitoring issues with the in ears ( not for me as still use a wedge - caveman etc.) but our great crew managed to get it sorted. Also some issues with the guitar and bass emitting a HF noise, which was eventually tracked down to the air con! Once turned off it was problem solved. Unfortunately for the capacity crowd it made for a rather sweaty evening, but went down a storm so all seemed fine. The venue staff are a pleasure to work with here, and we'll hopefully be back again in 2023. Tomorrow (Sunday) we are playing the Fields of Gold Festival at Ashton-Under-Lyne, Manchester. Hoping the weather is kind to us, as it's a long day - setting off at 8am. Plenty of bands on so should be a nice change for us.

This version of 'The only way is up', which is currently featured on ads for the Co Op. Interesting take on the Yazz version, which I believe was a cover itself too.