markbunney

We are based in Kent. He sings & plays guitar so its tricky to get someone to dep for that. We are hoping his personal situation calms down a bit and we can get some more stuff booked in next year

He is having issues with his partner and the time taken up by playing in the band. We have 10 gigs booked next year and he doesn't want to take on any more, unless they are last minute cancellations. We have got to the point where I think we could get a booking every weekend, so there is a big gap in what we could do, vs what we are able to do. We are currently only playing once a month anyway and barely having any rehearsals so IMO it is not taking up a great deal of time. But as the months are rolling on, the gigs & practices are having to start later, and are becoming more infrequent, but when we do have a gig, they are generally really good. The 4 of us get on well, and the band is otherwise pretty stress-free, its just a frustration that we are having to deal with.

Nice, I have got my eye on one of the V7's

My bands suggestion yesterday was to hire a photographer for our theatre gig in January to get some good pictures for social media and for promotion etc etc A member who was championing this also doesn't want to book any more gigs next year Whilst I can see it would be nice to have some pro photos, it seems pointless to me as they won't be really used for anything, and it would be a big chunk of our gig fee gone paying for it 😕

Thats great, hopefully this will save me from having to buy something else. Although the Lekato + P2 combination is a bit bulky, it does seem to work pretty well with no drop outs etc

Agreed, I was having to keep one on the PA speaker on my side to make sure no-one crashed into it. I am constantly tempted at buying a Helix, but then things like this happen and it puts me off as I wouldn't want it to get stamped on, or a beer spilled on it

We had a rugby team in on Saturday, and whilst they were good natured, some of their behaviour was bordering on dangerous. Examples include spinning each other round and then shoving them - one guy nearly smashed his head on a steel beam! And also sitting on each others shoulders, one guy started to topple over and I was convinced he was going to break his neck!

Thanks, I will give that a try at our next gig

I have been using a lekato 5.8ghz xlr wireless mic system with a Behringer p2 as a DIY wireless IEM setup. I had been noticing that my mix had been a bit distorted and at Saturdays gig we narrowed it down to coming from the Lekato. I swapped out to a xlr cable for our first set but kept tripping over it, and so for second set I swapped back to the Lekato. I decided that I preferred the distortion over tripping over a cable. the lekato doesn’t have any settings, so need to have a look at the settings on our digital mixer and try and see what’s going on, as when I test the lekato at home on my preamp and amp, it sounded fine. some others in the band are using a gear4music wireless set, so another option is to get an extra pack for that

Yes, a couple of kids, and he’s just got a puppy which isn’t helping his situation

I think he is getting grief from his other half about the time spent playing in the band. And his reasoning for taking cancellations at short notice is that he can gauge his partners mood on the day, and whether or not he would be “allowed” to play that night. It’s very frustrating for the rest of us. The 4 of us own the PA speakers and lighting jointly, but he bought a digital mixer and is the only one who knows how to run it, and use the IEMs with it. He is rhythm guitar and vox and we have another lead guitarist. The frustrating thing is that he was the one who put the band together and was instrumental in wanting to invest in the PA, IEMs etc but now we have “taken off” so to speak, it is causing him problems on the domestic front. I am sympathetic as I have been in the position before in another bands when I couldn’t do the amount of gigs everyone else wanted. It is only a hobby ultimately, and we are playing pubs at the minute, but we have managed to get a theatre and a wedding booking for next year. Everyone gets on well, it is fun etc so my plan is to accept the situation in this band for now and look for something else in parallel.

Am struggling a bit in my current band at the minute. we’ve been going for about a year, and have had around 14 gigs which I’ve all gone very well. I am surprised at how well we are doing, from a band that started from scratch. The problem we are having is that our singer has now started having availability issues and only wants to commit to one gig a month, and is rarely available for rehearsal, and when he is he can’t start until really late. The rest of us are getting frustrated as we would like to do more, and we are turning down countless gig opportunities. He has said he doesn’t want to book any more gigs, but would be available to cover any cancellations that came up. Realistically it is unlikely that 4 people would be available at short notice on a Fri/Sat night. We can’t really get a dep either as he sings and plays guitar, and owns the mixer so we are a bit stuck. I have been looking for another band to join, or dep opportunities for several months now but nothing is coming up. I naively thought that there would be more demand for bass players in our area, as there are loads of bands playing every weekend. Next year I am going to get out to some more jam nights and see what comes up.

Played with The 77s at Drakes Cork & Cask in Maidstone on Saturday. Brilliant gig which was very well attended by regulars of the pub, and various groups of Xmas parties coming in and out. We added in a few songs that we had not done for ages, as we need to extend our set list for our NYE gig. We hadn’t rehearsed them all together so they were a bit rusty, but on the whole OK. Ended up doing two extra encores which we hadn’t planned on, but we were happy to keep playing. Played my Duff McKagen Jazz Bass Special, Darkglass AO 500 and Orange cab. They asked us to go back next year which was a nice bonus.

Exact same thing happened to the guitarist in my old band. Someone stood on the power jack, the unit still worked, but he was always worried about the inside having been damaged.

Last couple of gigs we have played straight through to try and avoid the loss of crowd at half time. I did notice my hand hurting a bit during the “second set” songs and was worried I was going to get cramp, but it worked out ok. We did have to do an impromptu version of Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) as drummer needed the toilet, so I think we might go back to having a quick break next time.

If you are supplying the PA and other bands are expecting to use it then I would work on the basis that you will be there for the whole day, from set up until the last band is finished and price that time in accordingly.

I have had something very similar. Played a multi band charity festival in the grounds of a friends small farm. Pro sound engineer, PA & band etc all powered from a long extension lead from the kitchen! Fortunately it all went OK

Wow that was cheap!

Back home from playing at Pier 5 in Chatham this evening. first time playing here and I don’t think we would return. There were quite a few people in when we were setting up, but they all started to drift away and by the end of the night we were down to 8 audience members! It seemed more of a food pub, rather than a music pub. Other bands that we know who have played recently have said it was quiet when they played as well. It wasn’t that well set up for bands, we were stuck between a shuffle board and a barrier, and there was no dance floor either. on the positive side, the staff were nice, we got paid well and stopped playing at 11pm, so was home at a reasonable time.

How much were they going for, now says they are unavailable

We had offered to do it for the cost of the van hire plus the £300 we would normally charge for a pub, as the opportunity for pictures and videos would have been good. We thought this was a good deal bearing in mind how far, and how long we would have to travel, but they didn't want to know. I think they might be having karaoke instead 🤣

We today got asked to play at our singer/guitarists work Xmas party. They asked us to play for free, as there was no budget left! this was for 200/300 people, and a big corporate in central london. We said no thanks, as a) it was taking the gypsy's kiss and b) would have involved us hiring a van and all travelling into central london together from various parts of Kent. this contradicts my earlier reply in this thread, and it would have been by far our biggest ever gig, but in this case the company was having a laugh

I would look at this as a paid rehearsal and take the gig. Also, if you've only had 4 gigs, it is a good opportunity to practice & improve the efficiency of your set up and strip down time, sound check etc etc. We normally pay £40/£45 for a rehearsal space for the evening, and have to use the provided rehearsal room equipment, so Id look at it as an opportunity to have a rehearsal with your full band set up and PA etc. I am always of the opinion that you never know who might be in a crowd (even if its sparse) and who might want to book you for a wedding, party etc in the future.

Wow - what a great place to play!

I think that if you learn it and play it at a few gigs, and it clears the dance floor then hopefully the rest of the band would notice, and look to drop it from the set