ubit

We were booked to play a gig on the Isle of Mull. A large group of students was coming and it was going to be a great night. We arrived and the place was heaving. The owner had made a huge pot of chilli for the students and they were bevvying and scoffing away whilst we struggled to move our gear through them and set up on the stage. We just got finished and thought let's grab a pint before starting. no sooner had we set up and got ready to go and the students all up and left. We ended up playing to half a dozen locals. The owner was not a happy man. Talk about selfish and ungrateful students. Come to think of it, every time we played in that pub something was on somewhere else. We were always having to compete with a 21st or Skerryvore playing in the hall or some other event that everyone would rather go to than down the pub to see a rock band.

We played a gig at out local golf club. It was a struggle to get people up all night but towards the end they started to get drunk and got up and danced. We took note of the songs they danced to, as if we didn't know anyway and the next party we played we took the risky chance of playing these songs early. No one got up until near the end when, as usual, they got drunker and started to enjoy themselves. I was talking to a guy afterwards who had been at both parties and commented on what a hard evening it was. "Oh, it was better later when you started playing songs people could dance to" I was aghast. It doesn't help when the venue insists on keeping lights on. No one wants to get up and make a tit of themselves sober when they are in full view of the audience.

We played at a guys 40th birthday party once. We went down a storm and he later asked if we would play at his wedding. we agreed and when we arrived it was a massive marquee set up in a field. Trouble is it wasn't actually that good a marquee. It was very, very windy and parts of this marquee were flapping around vigorously knocking into our gear and causing mayhem. We started playing and mid way through the first song this guy came up to me and started talking to me. I am the bass player and singer so tried to give him the cold shoulder. He persisted and when we finally finished I asked "what is it?" "Play Scottish traditional music." "We do that" I said but later. "No, do it now." I argued that we had been hired on the strength of our varied set. Every time we played a song he would be up again. Absolutely no one was dancing so we relented and played a couple of traditional songs. Still hardly anyone would get up. We took a break and found the groom and complained about this annoying jerk. Turns out he was the best man. We tried again and still he was pestering us. Finally we had to allow him to stick on a cd of Scottish dirges where himself and a couple of his gang got up and did their thing. It was a horrible evening what with the flaps knocking everything over and this idiot ruining our set. We did get paid but it just shows you, you need to enjoy playing as well. How anyone enjoyed that wedding dance I have no idea. If it had been half of the crowd that was at his 40th it would have been a great night.

The night this picture was taken we were playing at a pretty large charity event in town. I had downed a bottle of wine to myself and carried on with pints once we got to the pub. By the time we went on I was so drunk the Keyboard player/rythm guitarist was playing with one hand and holding me up with the other. I have no idea what we sounded like as I was so drunk but people said it was the best they had heard me singing. I am so glad no one recorded it right enough.

Our guitarist used to play in a function band with his cousin and some others. They were playing at a wedding once and his cousin announced over the mic " Right, bride and groom up for this one please? Great and can we have the brides parents too please? Stage whisper from the side.... Al.......Al, they're dead!

Sad news indeed. “That” album is an all time legendary piece of work.

It’s a name you don’t hear that often. What are the chances that they found fellow musicians with the same surname?

Jethro Tull and he died a couple of hundred years ago!

This what we did. The pub gigs would do week by week but we strove for the functions. ie weddings or parties. Much bigger payers because you were doing much more. As you say a couple or three 45 minute sets in a pub but functions meant you were maybe playing more or less the whole might unless you had a buffet which was a chance for a break.

I'm talking about venues who quibble over a nominal fee. You are providing a service, Entertainment. Same as a plumber, he provides a service, fixing your leaks. It was a fun poke at charges. The joke has been well and truly killed now.

You try getting 5 plumbers out on a Saturday night for 4 hours and see what they charge you.

This is the thing, we were making something like £50/£60 each a night. Every band made the same. This other band came in and charged what equated to £30/£40 a night. Thats why we were annoyed. Pubs were giving them gigs and they were undercutting everyone else. Nothing illegal in that just morally annoying.

What you have said basically agrees with what I said though. £80 each? We would have jumped at that. We were not saying that someone would threaten our livelihood. We merely thought a fair price for every band was the way it should be.

It doesn't matter how good a musician you are either. You could be the next Jeff Beck playing in the Dog and Duck and if the punters or landlord don't like you then you are onto plums. I know a guitarist who is technically excellent. His band played at a wedding and he insisted on doing four minute blues solos even although the rest of the band were pleading with him to play Brown Eyed Girl or something. He thought no, this is what I do, I'm too good for this mob. Many years ago not long after we started we used to support a band who were technically better than us but took themselves far too serious. We used to regularly blow them off the stage because we played fun songs and enjoyed ourselves doing it.

This is it. You can over charge and people think, I aint paying that. You have to realise the venue is a business and has to make money too. Thats why we had an unwritten rule to charge the same. No one would get ripped off and the bars couldn't hold anyone to ransom.

At the time pretty much all of the bands were quite good. There was no 5h1t bands certainly. Every band had a healthy calendar and got plenty of gigs. We just thought it was the decent thing to do to charge a going rate.

I saw a clip where he was moaning about Islam being everywhere in Britain. Great musician but not very accepting of others beliefs.

Where I come from the local bands all had a kind of unwritten rule that we would all charge the same. Made for no one getting ripped off if we all stuck to our guns on price. All was well until a new band started undercutting everyone. There are always mercenary bands out there who will sell their souls for gigs.

Many years ago we went to see Hanoi Rocks play in a nightclub in Glasgow. Johnny Thunders was support and he was getting gobbed on so much he stopped the show and warned the crowd to stop it. I don't know if they did but he carried on and we stayed up the back. Absolute crass habit and one of the things I hated about punk.

So Americans came over here to drop them?

I admit to being slightly too young to be into Budgie at the time but over the years I heard a few songs and realised that they were a superb band. About 15 years ago I started to seriously give them a listen and was blown away by how many great songs they had. Burke can rest easy now knowing his legacy lives on.

Last summer during lockdown this is one of the songs I learned and recorded. Mrs Ubits brother did guitar but I never got around to doing the vocal and drums. I just had a basic beat to keep time. Great song.

I have boiled my strings for years and they come out sounding great and usually I get another three gigs out of them. I get about three gigs out of new strings. I love the new zing from new strings and can't stand muddy strings.

I also like Franke Boyle but he came here once years ago and he was dreadful. Loads of people complained.