Happy Jack

I actually started to get trolley GAS ... no, seriously, stop laughing ... and came up with https://www.sitebox.ltd.uk/clarke-cst12-industrial-sack-truck-oclarke_6500185?paid=googlepaidproducts&gclid=Cj0KCQjw0PTXBRCGARIsAKNYfG15YVWAjE6e5U9jhnKD4qWopfRbEjIUDHizjKwf5HHJoH089U7QP2UaAjCeEALw_wcB Luckily, I had the sense to ask what the (unladen) trolley weighed before I bought it. 21Kg. Ah, right, so now I need a trolley to move around my trolley ... perhaps not.

I can see the value of castors for a touring band playing big/biggish venues, but for pub gigs I'd expect them to be a complete PITA. Pavements, steps, narrow doorways, etc. and never a ramp in sight. For the rare occasions where wheels are helpful, a folding sack trolley is a much neater solution. https://www.screwfix.com/p/folding-sack-truck-80kg/1209P?tc=DX2&ds_kid=92700021630478358&ds_rl=1249481&ds_rl=1245250&gclid=Cj0KCQjw0PTXBRCGARIsAKNYfG2PvQb2hNpiOsZnHjbqOGN05zeoWKIKXhgnNAWgCG1M6v57VSM12MQaAhsjEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CLm3q8-qjNsCFYZh0wodHXIMAQ https://www.safetyshop.com/super-compact-sack-trucks.html?LGWCODE=37490;144151;6391&gclid=Cj0KCQjw0PTXBRCGARIsAKNYfG1Ao6UqMfAsUe26OccbHR0gsuoVSAOneRw3sdTVvXpVtqURu1MKDVcaAiv7EALw_wcB https://handle-it.com/products/folding_van_truck?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=googlepla&variant=308171637&gclid=Cj0KCQjw0PTXBRCGARIsAKNYfG1b4E3YnROczNn79YM2sUMPii4tE3Ms_83e54Qjhrm6CI9-T7VcE3EaAupOEALw_wcB

But in London I still think that the relative handful of genuinely good music pubs are the best call. Saturday night was an almost perfect illustration of my theory regarding the audience self-selecting. We started off playing to an empty dancefloor in a huge but only quarter-filled pub. We finished like this:

I still have my t-shirt ...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bass-guitar/282958553522?hash=item41e1a4e1b2:g:mNcAAOSw9V5a8sG6

I'm waiting for this to turn up on Blue Peter, with Peter Purves creating one from washing up bottles and sticky-backed plastic.

Oh good grief! Sorry to hear that mate - hope it's not too serious. I still have a 4" titanium plate holding mine together.

So he plays a 4-string Oxymoron?

New one to me ... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fender-Precision-Bass-Cowpoke-Rare-Active-Bass/132613199893?hash=item1ee05cd815:g:kkIAAOSw77pa73wI

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Squier-Fake-Fender-Jazz-Bass-c-2004-Spares-or-Repair/123113533077?hash=item1caa236e95:g:j9EAAOSwuWha61-m

But are you still in that band? I seem to recall a thread about this ...

Whenever I'm asked to dep for a band, I try to play like chris_b ...

Band #1 = 27 yards (my garage) Band #2 = 27 miles Thank God I don't play in The Proclaimers ...

Bin there, dun that. Don't know whether either of those were once mine, but it's entirely possible!

Rickenfaker ...

Convert the log cabin into a recording studio and it'll sell within the week ...

If you want to play it more often, Mick, I'd suggest you stop leaving it lying outside on the lawn ...

I'm guessing it wasn't this one, then ...

Kev Fletcher isn't real? Say it ain't so ...

Northampton and Brentwood to Earlsfield? Good luck with that ...

Just buy half a dozen copies of The Real Book and leave them scattered about the stage area. "OK lads, Autumn Leaves in G, a-one, a-two, a-one the autumn leeeeeeeeaves ..."

Good grief! Geographically challenged or what? Try the King's Cross area, or possibly Camden.

Define "fairly central" ... do you mean City / West End or just inside the North/South Circular?

When we set up to play in a pub, the people who are there have chosen to be there. They could have gone somewhere else, but this is where they want to be. Some (a few, a very small number) are there specifically to see us, some are there to check out the music because it's a music pub, and some are there for all sorts of other random reasons. Once we start playing, those punters who don't like rock music will leave. Those punters who don't like our particular brand of rock music will also leave, but not so quickly. Meanwhile, those punters who DO like what we're doing will be texting or phoning their mates and saying "great band on tonight, you should come down here". By the time we play our last set, the people in the pub will have self-selected to be only those who actually like what we're doing, and who will respond to the music ... dance maybe, or sing along, or at least applaud after each song. The gig is far more involving for the band, far more fun for everyone, far more likely to bring repeat bookings. ************************************************************************************ When we set up to play in a club (Social, WMC, whatever), the people who are there are always there. Most of them cannot imagine going somewhere else on a Saturday night, and if they do their friends will ask where they were. They are there for the venue and to see their friends, and the music is almost incidental. They sit there with their arms folded, staring at us, and daring us to entertain them. It's THEIR club and we are the intruders. Once we start playing, those members who don't like rock music will complain. Those members who don't like our particular brand of rock music will also complain, but not so quickly. Meanwhile, those members who DO like what we're doing will NOT be texting or phoning their mates and saying "great band on tonight, you should come down here", because the club is Members Only. After the first set, one of the members (almost invariably a guitarist, allegedly) will buttonhole a bandmate and explain in enormous detail what we are 'doing wrong', advise the lead guitarist and the drummer to play louder because no one can hear them, and then disappear into the smoker's paradise for the rest of the evening. After the second set, there will be a 30-minute hiatus while everyone pretends they've joined the Jarrow Hunger March of 1936 so that they can get excited about the Meat Raffle. Have these people never heard of Sainsburys? By the time we play our last set, most of the people in the club will be sitting grim-faced and glowering their sense of entitlement at us, waiting for us to finish so that they can return to playing Abba on the jukebox (last Saturday it was Phil Collins!). Those who actually enjoy what we are doing and want to dance will be intimidated off the dancefloor by the drunken poseurs trying to throw shapes while playing air guitar, and stumbling into the PA. The club gigs are well-paid and the venues are usually excellent ... big stage, loads of power, built-in lightshow, etc. But in truth if I never play another club I won't miss it. Silvie and I do all the gig-getting for my main band, and we have already decided not to bother with clubs at all for 2019. Life's too short.