casapete

Strings and Beyond have them currently for $23.95. But you have to factor in postage from the US, and possibly some duty too if you’re unlucky. Even so, if you’re buying a few sets it could still be worthwhile.

A load of Rolling Stones stuff tonight (2/7/22) on BBC2. A new four part series begins at 9.30pm, ‘My life as a Rolling Stone’. Looks like each episode features a different band member ( including Charlie), starting tonight with Mick Jagger. Following this is at 10.30pm is a film of a 2015 concert at The Fonda Theatre in Hollywood which features the band playing their album ‘Sticky Fingers’ in its entirety. Then at 11.55pm there’s another showing of the 1995 film ‘Totally Stripped’.

Last night we played in Sheffield as part of their 2022 'Music in the Gardens' series of events. We were supposed to be doing this before but Covid caused it to be deferred until now. Great crowd of around 1500 or so in the Botanical Gardens, all enjoying the evening. Weather looked dodgy at times but the rain fortunately held off. I like doing gigs like these, make a nice change from our usual theatre stuff and also means I can wind my amp up a bit more without causing our sound tech any headaches!

We played 2 nights at The Apex in Bury St Edmunds this week. Both nights went well with near capacity audiences, although had a lousy drive home with massive diversions on the A1 heading north.

In my last band the trombonist was an excellent bass player. I found this out just after joining the band when we used to split the 8 piece up into two sets of four players on long gigs (where we played endless background sets). He was brilliant! Made me try and up my game a bit, but never could equal his talent.

I’d have loved to take Bill Wyman’s job in the Stones. Probably late 60’s through the 70’s/ early 80’s. Of course I wouldn’t have been old enough.....

Mine would probably be Gary Tallent’s gig with The E Street Band. Playing all the great songs by Springsteen and with one of the best bands on the planet. For the same reasons I’d also like John Conte’s gig with Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes , along with Jack Daley’s gig with Little Steven and The Disciples of Soul playing Steve Van Zandt’s stuff as well.

We once gave a wedding DJ our set list, and came back to the gig to find him playing it - he thought it was suggestions for him to play. F*ckwit.

As Glastonbury usually sells out before any of the acts are confirmed, then people go just to be there I guess. All about the ‘experience’ etc. Must agree with you about Miss Ross. Excruciating for most of the set, yet the crowd and the reviewers don’t seem to have been bothered. Superb band and singers didn’t manage to hide her dreadful pitching issues, such a shame as otherwise would have been great.

Yup, me too. Especially strange when they’ve paid a lot of money for the band, guess it’s just been booked by people who don’t know their audience.

Absolutely this - great band & vocalists. Brass section was superb, drummer, guitarist and bassist (MD?) perfect for the job. Such a shame Miss Ross wasn’t anywhere near the same standard really. And what was with the final tune ‘ I will survive’ ? With all her own back catalogue to choose from it seemed a rather strange choice.

Same here - thought it was excellent. His band are just so good, and Springsteen & Dave Grohl looked to be enjoying it too. Held my complete attention for over 2.5 hours ( despite the dodgy vocal mix etc). Brilliant.

Caught a bit of Celeste, in fact just enough to tell me the Jubilee performance wasn’t a one off ..... Alison Krauss and Mr Page were good, with a top band too. Sam Fender left me a bit underwhelmed, but maybe just me. Watching Haim now, pretty good.

My thoughts exactly. Didn’t realise how much Nick played up the dusty end. Great band though, and (young kid aside) thought they came over really well. Caught a bit of St Vincent and will watch more on iPlayer over the weekend. Agree with above comments about the bassist too, sounded excellent. Watched Billie Eilish, not my thing particularly but the crowd loved her.

He does this using an iPad when possible, but as the mixing area is sometimes a few flights of stairs away from the areas to check, it’s a nightmare if anything untoward happens when he’s left the desk unattended. (Also in some smaller venues it leaves the desk open to audience interference, which we had on one gig a few years ago! )

Exactly this from my experience. My band does mainly theatres, and the mixing console location is often not fully optimized for getting the best overall sound. Many times it will be under the first tier of seating right at the back of the room which often gives a false impression of the bass sound. Then in other places it can be not even central or at the top of a tiered seating arrangement. Of course there are usually reasons for this, mainly to do with audience sight lines not being affected etc, but it does make it hard to get a decent sound throughout the room. Our sound tech listens to the band in all areas of seating during soundcheck, but inevitably there will be anomalies which don't show up until the customers are seated. Wherever possible we patch in to the theatre's system for the upper tiers which can help, especially if it's a 'flown' arrangement.

We've had a really busy month so far, belting round the UK in ever decreasing circles. Had a mammoth trek from Yorkshire down to Truro on Thursday to play a gig at the recently refurbished Hall for Cornwall. One of the best venues we've done, with great staff and top notch backstage facilities as well as a good sounding room. We had nearly a full house of 1200 punters, and played one of our best gigs for ages. Well worth the trip (even in a bus with no air con on one of the hottest days for ages!) Also managed to grab a quick chat with our own OBBM cables maestro Dave, great to catch up with him. Friday we schlepped across to Bromley, again in blistering heat and loads of road closures, and then back homewards to York Barbican on Saturday night. Another brill venue, and one of the few that has easy get in from the internal loading bay ( see pic below). Another good turn out, and back home by midnight. Finishing June off with gigs in St Albans, Ipswich and two nights in Bury St Edmunds, so hoping the weather stays a bit cooler!

As I have little credibility anyway.....We played for Jane McDonald in the 90's (as a resident club band) and she was ace! Great singer, lovely person and very pro / easy to work with. Not particularly my cup of tea musically but still really enjoyed the gigs.

From my experience Blue, it’s usually a problem if the financial circumstances of the band vary a great deal. Years ago I was in a pro function band, with some members also holding down teaching jobs. This made attitudes to our gigs radically different, with some who relied on the money (like me) getting fed up of having to allow for lateness and even not being able to take work if school got in the way. This ended up with quite a few dep players being used which didn’t always work well. My current band have been going now for around 15 years. All the members are in the same boat i.e the band is their first call and primary source of income. We don’t use any deps either, and it works really well. Reminds me of ( I think ) Count Basie and a journalist asking him how keeps an 18 piece band on the road, to which Basie replied ‘ I pay them money....’ 😆

Was hoping to get to one of them, although nothing anywhere near me. 🙁

I was just about to suggest some kind BC person may be able to help you out, nice work!

I’ve always used a pair of curved nail scissors and then an emery board to smooth. Have you noticed how much quicker nails appear to grow when the weather is hotter? Need to do mine at least once a week, as I can’t stand the feeling of nails against fretboard.

I met Julian Richer and his wife when they came to one of our regular acoustic gigs in a Scarborough cafe. Both lovely people and massive fans of live music too. He’s a drummer in a band called ‘Ten Millennia’ who gig regularly, with his wife Rosie being the singer. They’ve supported Jools Holland amongst many others. Julian’s charity work is endless, and he’s just one of those great guys who runs his business in a responsible manner. (A member of my family worked for Richer Sounds for a number of years and loved it too.)