dmccombe7

First time for us in the Bridgeness Club in Boness with BLOCKBUSTARZ Glam band last night. Another sold out gig for us which is always nice. Early load in at 4pm doors opened at 6pm. Started at 8:15pm finished at 11:30pm with a 30min break in the middle. Easy load in as emergency sxit was next to stage and cars were parked on roadside next to it so that was good. Long narrow club house with a large dance floor that we had dancers most songs 1st set and full for most of the 2nd set. Asked back for next year, feedback was great. Odd one as another Glam band that i used to be in was in the Boness Town Hall but that obviously didn't affect our ticket sales. Easy drive home with little or no traffic on the country roads. Used my Sandberg VM4 into Handbox WB-100 and Mesa 210/115 cabs. Sound wise i could clearly hear the low end but not the top end. Had to boost the top end a bit more than normal. Guitarist at half time told me he had same issue and noticed the bass top end was getting lost in first half. Singer had issues with his IEM and ended up taking them out. All in all tho the sound out front was excellent according to my wife who attends all my gigs. Lots of vids being taken but no pics as yet. Dave

Great pic of the band. Quite like that. Dave

Jings you must be thirsty. Dave

I never really got the non-alcoholic beers thing. Probably down to the taste of barbican to be fair. Dave

I'm at an age where i just don't miss or need it when gigging. To be honest i've always had strict views on drinking at gigs and when in my 20's it would be one beer before the gig to calm my nerves and then a bucketful at the end. No driving in my early 20's as i had no car licence until i was 26. Dave

a banana ? Having checked my facts its 22mcg/100ml. Altho we have a "zero tolerance" it can't be true zero because of what you say that some foods and things like mouthwash will have alcohol in them. I think what they mean is that one beer or one spirit could in theory put you over the limit but its not exactly very clear on the website. Dave

Don't risk it up here with zero tolerance. Any alcohol showing and you are done. Dave

Were you over the limit with one guinness and a JD sauce ? Dave

Its a thing i've never done. I've never smoked and always found it disgusting so i guess i was never tempted into it thru smoking unlike many guys i knew from back in 70's who are now sadly long gone thru escalating drug misuse. Dave

I remember when i first moved into our village i was down at the one and only pub at Hogmanay and after the bells the local Bobbies came in, had a look around , had a wee dram each and left. Was breathalysed once during day at a road side stop where they randomly picked people to stop. I hadn't been drinking night before so was ok but that was way back in late 80's. I've been stopped in middle of the night when attending call outs for work but guys were fine when i explained what i was doing and where i had been. Was just a routine stop and search, i was pleasant enough to them and they responded same. For me i thought "at least they are doing something" Pretty sure that its a zero tolerance limit up here in Scotland, not sure about rest of UK. I very rarely drink these days and i'm happier drinking bottled water at gigs than beer. I've mellowed with age. Dave

I went for a Volvo V90 estate but it was pure luck that i could actually fit the QSC 3-way 15's PA cabs as well as my 2off Mesa cabs etc. I didn't buy it with that intention but its saved us a lot of money on van hires. Dave

I was and still am the van driver. Not sure why i've always seemed to be left to do any van hire. Possibly because i've been retired in recent years and had more time available. In late 80's/early 90's we had our own Ford Cargo truck that i usually drove. To be fair i really enjoyed driving the truck. Current bands use our cars for most gigs these days. I carry the bass rig and larger PA cabs and drummer carries the smaller PA and his drums and lights etc. Our Glam band stay so far apart across Scotland that its not practical getting one vehicle for a gig. When we need the subs for larger gigs we hire a van tho and it comes off the fee that night altho its usually just myself and drummer that use it as we live approx 25min apart and for most gigs he goes past my area but guitarist lives approx 100miles from me. Singer is approx 40miles away. Dave

Some people can just visualise in 3D. I find it fairly easy packing a van yet others in bands just don't get it. Maybe its all the puzzles i did as a kid. Had one band member who would not stack any gear in a van. We had to hire LWB vans so that nothing was sitting on anything else. Talking the heavier stuff like cabs, PA, flight cases etc. Things like gig bags etc he was ok with whereas i'd have hired a smaller van and just double stacked and secured to the side. If you pack a van correctly things shouldn't move about but its definitely an art in its own. Dave

Had exact same with punk band in fact it was SLF that was playing locally too. Fortunately they were doing a late Sun afternoon slot finishing at 6pm and we were due to start at 6 so we agreed with landlord to move the start back an hr and we might pull in the SLF crowd and yep we did. Bar was full that night and we did a few SLF covers. Everyone wins. Dave

I've been asked a few times over the years but its not something i do. Because of how my wee brain has been trained in an engineering background I simply don't retain songs. I spent 40 yrs sorting faults and just moving on from one fault to the next, no time for sitting back and examining the faults in details. Gas plants and profits were dependant on me sorting faults ASAP and i've found since starting in bands again in 2012 my brain now does that automatically. When a song is dropped i completely shut it down and forget it. If someone asked me to play a song we've dropped in past 6mths i couldn't play it without going back over it and re-learning it again. I think if you are good at depping you need to have a huge repertoire of songs that you can call on. I know some guys on here can dep at the drop of a hat and play in a variety of styles and i am always taken aback and amazed at them with a huge respect and envy. Perhaps you should advertise yourself for depping work in your local area. I see that done on FB and other social media. Dave

Never heard of those strings. Will need to investigate. Dave

I tried Low Tension flats on my VM4 and i really liked them but they didn't really suit the music i was playing plus i found they burned my wee dainty fingers if i slid from lower frets to higher ones so decided to remove them. Depending on your style of playing i would certainly give them a try. Dave

Are you guys using agents or getting the gigs on your own. Have to admit the age group of most folks that listened to UK Glam Rock in early 70's means the dancing can be limited to a few songs at a time then a wee break. It was very warm with ambient temperature at 22 oC with no air-con and that's quite warm for this area especially in May. Meant the hall was fairly warm. I had a large 18" gym fan that i use to keep myself cooled down. Not sure how you boost your audience with blues based band in US. Are you advertising on your band FB page plus the usual Instagram or other social media. We also put posts on any local FB gig guide pages. We supply posters for any clubs that take them and most of the clubs will put them up. Some clubs take our FB pic and make their own with whatever they want to add. The one thing i do find a wee bit annoying is the bingo or raffle at the break. Bet you don't get that in US Daryl Is it an option to take on work with another working band, maybe some dep work or are you guys out every weekend ? Dave

I wasn't aware of that but i'm not a fan of The Stones even tho i am of a certain age. Dave

Sorry what was i thinking Mick Taylor. Don't even know who Mick Taylor is. The worst thing about it is that our drummer knew The Sweet and lived in the next street from Steve Priest and even had some drum lessons from Mick Tucker. He was a bit younger than them to be fair. He even got a lift home from the pub by Steve Priest in his Rolls. I should know better. I'll go back and correct that. Thanks for pointing out my mistook Paul. Dave

My VM4 is a 4mm. I'm assuming they use the same size for all their basses to keep costs down. Dave

Hi Daryl, Great wee gig in a small Bowling Club (grass bowls rather than indoor bowling that you probably have) About 70-80 people so it was an intimate wee gig but good fun. Sold out so that was good too. Outside of bands i've been getting rood repairs finished which cost a lot more than expected but its one of those kind of jobs when you start you come across other issues. £6k it cost me last month. I'm now skint till pay day. I had to raid the gig piggy bank. Got another almost sold out for Sat night coming. Think there was 20 tickets left last week so hopefully they'll sell this week or on the night. Had a 6hr rehearsal yesterday too to run thru some new songs for Glam band. Been having a go at Sweet's The Six Teens but its a hard one for the drummer when you start getting into it. Interesting fact but Mick Tucker from Sweet was very good friends with Ian Paice from Deep Purple and they would share drumming techniques. However Paice was left handed but it meant Tucker being right handed would start drum riffs with his left hand rather the normal because Paice would show him how to play certain bits but what that means is that for most right handed drummers playing some Sweet covers its not normal to play that way and many drummers miss some of the drum part out if that all makes sense. Apologies there i'm of topic a bit. Anyways i like that word "chincy" Dave

I'm also with RAC but i was under the impression they responded within 1 hr or something like that. Only time i've used them was when i had a company car and it wouldn't start at home and sure enough guy appeared in under an hour but that was 8am on a weekday. Pretty poor considering you couldn't lock the car or leave it secure. Think i'd be putting a complaint in. You might get a discount on your payments of some kind. Dave

Sod that. Give those kind of freebies a miss next time around. If someone in the band wants to do an event for his mates or somewhere he is involved then he forfeits his own fee but the rest still get paid otherwise its a no go. We have an agreement that no freebies except for band members, not even spouses etc only the band. Dave

What kind of car was it ? That sounds like an absolute nightmare of a day. My sympathy goes out to you but at least the gig turned out good. What's the point of having RAC if you need to wait until following morning for assistance. Think i might be changing to AA if that's how they treat you. Dave