ubit

Theres a bar in my home town which in the 90's was THE place to play. It had live music on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I recently went in for a pint on a Saturday night and there were only about a dozen people in at 11 pm. I asked the barman if this was usual and he said oh, but it was mobbed earlier for bar meals. That is what they are catering for now. It was a sad day.

I dragged a tray around with me that had distortion, chorus, flange, compression and a tuner............ I only ever used the tuner!

I used to go to guitar lessons from a guy who is an amazing guitar player. He told me he had got this gig with the band Coast. He is now their guitarist but at that point he was doing the tour as bass player, We were talking about my gear and I said I will give you a shot of my Geddy Lee Jazz. He took it and toured all around Europe with it and when he returned it he told me how the rest of the band loved it and always asked was he using it on particular nights. The point is, I trusted him implicitly as I know he looks after gear. Trouble is he returned it with the same strings that I had put on before giving it to him. This was after he had said I will put new strings on before giving it back. He never even gave me a free guitar lesson. He is an incredibly talented musician but he a selfish twatt too!🤣

Up this way it's quite common. You have one band (us) playing rock, pop, country type stuff and you have a traditional band playing ceilidh music. That way there's something for every one. We later morphed into a full band with an accordion player and we could cater for the whole evening.

Never mind the police force, I myself work ad hoc, which basically means I never know when I will be working and for how long. We are a service company so we go where ever the work is. I get a call saying we have a job for you and its supposed to last two weeks. It may last three weeks or ten days and then when I get home I never know when they will call again. This is why we can't play at the moment. I had a position that was 28/28. We played during my month off but that ended and I am back to the ad hoc. I hate it. Music is my life and I can't play it.

I see the point that bass players are the ones who lock in but it would need to be a pretty clueless guitar player/keys player that didn't notice a drummer who was not keeping time. The bass plays along with the drum groove but everyone else does too.

My mate, the guitarist was very passive aggressive. He would be out front for soundcheck and I would want to be out front to hear it too and he would say sing a bit and I would be forced into going back onstage and having to trust his judgement. We have had gigs where we have had a great soundcheck. We know the sounds is ace and then no one dances. Why? Because there are too many lights on or they are too sober. No one likes to get up and dance when everyone can see them making a tit of themselves.

Weddings can be the worst. Guaranteed the meal will be in the same area that you will be playing in so you are going to have to wait until they have finished the speeches before you can get in. Then you have a very small window until they expect you to start playing. We did a wedding once where there were two bands. We arrived and the first band had set up leaving us no room whatsoever. We had to set up in front of them. We got no chance for a sound check. I said to the guitarist get out front and have a listen to what it sounds like. As I say, I am the singer so I can't walk out and hear the whole sound. He wouldn't go out. I was growing more and more annoyed because for me to wander out I had to negotiate my way through various pieces of equipment and leads all in the gaps in between vocal parts. Absolutely no one was getting up to dance. We found this strange because we were quite popular in the pub scene at this time and we knew we could play but this venue with no sound check and strange acoustics all made for a rotten gig. Months later the groom met me in a bar and said do you guys rehearse? Yes I said. Well why didn't you rehearse before my wedding? I was really annoyed because he booked us knowing what we played and how decent we were at playing it. The fact that the other band took up all the space and cut down on any time we had for any kind of sound check helped to make it a perfect storm of shittiness. I vowed from that day on to never do a gig without a decent sound check. No matter who is in the venue.

We have had gigs where the punters are shouting "it's fine , hurry up and start" and you have to rely on one of the band going out front and giving a nod. I'm the bass player and singer so it was never me unfortunately. I could hear what the band sounded like but not with the vocal. I did have gigs where the guitarist would nod and say yeah sounds spot on and later I would have a wander and be shocked that you couldn't hear the bass!

Most of our gigs we sound checked in front of the punters. You are playing in pubs and clubs and people are in already. What choice do you have? It's either sound check in front of them or have no sound check.

I frequently fell out with my guitarist mate over this. He used to drop bum notes quite often and I never bothered but if I made a mistake he would glare at me or shout something. I used to say keep playing and look as if nothing happened. You can be sure the audience didn't notice until you gave me dirty looks.

I simply LOVE this band.

This in heaps. I used to only concentrate on getting what I considered a great tone. Later I started listening to what the whole band sounded like and realised I had to take some bottom end out and push the mids. The result was a far better sound for the band as a whole. As long as the final product sounds good that's all that matters. It's clear from the answers on this post that people have vastly differing opinions on what sounds good and what doesn't. Thats ok, we can't all like the same things. It's also clear that some people simply hate everything that Scott Divine does. I merely watched a video about tone. if you actually watch the video S.D. is shocked at some of the votes and agrees with many of you who are deriding him.

Scott didn't tell anyone what to like. In fact he disagreed with most of the tones chosen.

I came across this video on Youchoob and found it quite interesting. Do you agree with the tones as voted? Personally I like Fieldy's sound. It works for their music and is percussive as much as boomy.

We covered this years ago. Great song.

Weddings are a strange one because you have to cater for all ages. Pop songs are usually best for weddings. Cover songs by bands that are not dangerous, like Travis or Van Morrison.

One swallow stops a shotgun wedding

One swallow doesn't make a summer.

Apart from being the bass player I am also the singer. I have had people come up to me whilst I am singing and playing and ask me how are you doing? What are you up to?

We played at a wedding years ago. We took a break and this was back in the days when we were innocent and didn't turn down the PA. The grooms sister who was a well known pshycho got up and started swearing and going off about some girl that had supposedly hit her and she wanted the girl thrown out of the wedding. I ran up and slid down the sliders and then she started on me to turn the mic back up. Luckily by this time others had arrived and escorted her away. It was quite a night. I don't think the marriage lasted and I have since heard that the groom is the biggest misogynist you could meet.

Creating a dull sound!

But what if you actually do want Spam? I quite like it fried.

Well you draw the line at card or bank details.

I don't understand why people are so worried about supplying name address and phone no. You do it all the time and companies sell your details to others. Its not like you are giving out your bank details.