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I have so many bad gig memories that it’s like Spinal Tap. Once, many years ago we played at a wedding. The venue was in a hotel/ stately home type place. The dance hall where we set up had this wooden floor. The woman who owned it moaned constantly about our stands scratching her floor. The bar was in another room adjacent to the dance hall. You can guess what happened. Everyone sat in the bar. We played the whole evening to four little kids sliding back and forwards across this highly pollished floor. It was excruciating.

Ive tried one but just couldn’t get on with it. As already said, I think the angle is wrong for playing. I have a banjo and finger pics including a thumb pic are fine but you are picking very fine strings. Bass strings are just too heavy for a thumb pic. Certainly for me.

We used to play with far too loud a back line. Small bar with a full drum kit. You can’t hear yourself , so you think I’ll just turn up slightly. I used to find that it became a wall of noise. I’ve since learned that our ears blank out certain frequencies when subjected to constant loud noise. It used to be so annoying for me. As I’m the singer, I would be moving my fingers and hoping I was playing the right notes. It’s amazing how much you need to be able to hear yourself when you are playing. We dabbled with monitors, but really a quieter stage sound should have been the way to go.

The most annoying thing about that accordion. He produced this very expensive effects box that would give any sound you wanted. I was all “ magic, we can have authentic keyboard sounds to compliment our songs” Every song sounded like bloody accordion! 😡

I would keep that quiet mate 😏

The annoying thing was, our guitarist talked me into bringing in an accordion player. There’s that passive aggressive thing again. He convinced me that it would add to our appeal. Admittedly, we had a better wedding band as we could mix it up trad and rock. Trouble was , he wasn’t content to sit out the rock songs. Talk about not learning songs properly! Can you imagine every song in a cover bands repertoire with accordion in it? It used to drive me up the wall.

Cant think what pub you are referring to. The Caledonian hotel has changed its name now to The Perle. Behind it is Auleys bar or further round, The Lorne. That used to be the big music place to play. Now they put a band on about once a month. Discos every other weekend. Yeah the 80’s and 90’s were superb in Oban. There were lots of bands and there was never any rivalry, because there were so many gigs to go round. Everyone made a killing. Now you struggle to find live music unless it’s traditional pipes or accordion. The only difference is the odd open mic night, ironically in The Perle.

I’d imagine with Rush, the mistakes wouldn’t fill up a postage stamp

My Mrs. Embraces evening I want to do. If I wanted to go out to rehearsal or to play, she would support me. Her brothers wife thinks he plays guitar as an expensive hobby. He is incredible and gets no support.

Or the old classic. Pulling your mic stand away from you as you sing. That never gets old. Hilarious!

Same with seeing a band live. Usually it’s great. Hear a live recording ? Not so good. That’s why I hate live recordings. It’s either rubbish, or overdubbed to hell.

Oban. West of Scotland

Yes. Happened to me a few times. We used to play losing my religion. We had played it for years. I knew it back to front. Then one night I could t remember how it went. I had to ask the guitarist what the first line in the lyrics. He told me, but I had forgotten the whole thing. It was a disaster. I had to pretend we had a tuning issue. Things is, I worried about it so much that it happened next time. Same song. Then again next time. My band mates were getting cheesed off. I had to sit down and learn it again! I think we dropped it not long after. It can just hit you. Something you know so well and it’s just blank.

I live for gigging, but unfortunately due to the constraints of my ad hoc work, I am unable to play. My “ music room” became cluttered and I lost interest. Depression set in, but that’s for another thread. I have cleared the room and taken a new interest in playing. I am forced to play alone at the moment but I hope to get a rotational position soon and get a band back together. I just love the rush I get out of creating a noise that goes towards people enjoying their evening. Seeing people rush on to a dance floor is a real buzz! Getting a cheer equally gratifying! I need to get back to playing!

The thing is, as I said before, as long as a band is tight and has a good sound, the semantics of whether you are playing a song note for note, are unimportant. If the gist of the song is captured. I. E. The melody that’s recognisable and the audience are enjoying it, then job done! You are successfully doing what the venue has asked you to do. Provide entertainment!

Exactly! Round here , there are possibly three places that have live music. Back in the 90’s there was a good few more, but that’s another story. Thing is, it’s not that big a town centre, so it’s mostly going to be the same people going into these pubs. We don’t have rock bars or jazz clubs. They either like you or they don’t. We had to evolve over the years and gradually learn what went down better. It’s a sad fact that most of the music I like doesn’t. If we wanted to play, we had to play songs we hated , but the people would dance and cheer. At the end of the evening, we would get paid and asked back. If we tried to squeeze in something a bit rockier, there would be silence. Right lads, we might have to drop that one!

Exactly! Round here , there are possibly three places that have live music. Back in the 90’s there was a good few more, but that’s another story. Thing is, it’s not that big a town centre, so it’s mostly going to be the same people going into these pubs. We don’t have rock bars or jazz clubs. They either like you or they don’t. We had to evolve over the years and gradually learn what went down better. It’s a sad fact that most of the music I like doesn’t. If we wanted to play, we had to play songs we hated , but the people would dance and cheer. At the end of the evening, we would get paid and asked back. If we tried to squeeze in something a bit rockier, there would be silence. Right lads, we might have to drop that one!

Some music might be folk or trad oriented, so open chords might be all they need. Bar chords are not the be all and end all. I’ve always been a bassist, but I learned bar chords before I could play open chords on a guitar.

I love to practice challenging bass lines, but I’m equally happy to play plodding bass lines in a song if it’s what is needed. Girls dancing and admiring you was what made me want play live in the first place, so my soul was sold a long time ago.

This is so true. Professional players when they record a piece, will have ,apart from their band mates, a producer, who will guide them in what sounds good. Sometimes less is more. When some wannabe decides there’s not enough notes in that solo, it can ruin what was once a masterpiece. Bass is a perfect example of an instrument that should be felt and not over used. Obviously, there are exceptions and who doesn’t love a decent bass line, but when someone puts fills in all over the place or uses a five string for a classic four string song , it can sound too much.

Well said this man 👆

I never I don't buy the argument about not being able to pick and choose venues. Yes you can. You can move to somewhere with venues that will allow you to play your style of music. You can join an originals band who play your style of music. You can stop playing. So not only have you the ability to pick and choose your venues to play in, you are wealthy enough to move on a whim to somewhere else where they like your music. It must be super to be you.

We used to cover Oceanos by Coast and yes, we played it note for note true to the original. It used to go down well.

You are lucky you can pick and choose your venues to play in. We have no choice. The venues that have live music are frequented by pretty much the same people. Plus, can you not tell a tongue in cheek comment?

Great song. Influenced by the book “ a higher call” true story and a great read. Sorry to digress on the thread. Sometimes I like how conversations develop right enough.