ubit

They were called The Designer Shoes. Later shortened to The Shoes The other one ( Not Mrs Ubits brother ) is playing lead guitar on this. I don’t think he cares much that some drunk girls didn’t like his type of music!

I can only speak from a personal viewpoint in regards towards my own area and experiences. Round here you don’t get away with original material. Down in the city, it’s the opposite.

We were told way back , by a wise old musician, that you have to play what the people want. We said, no, we will play the music we want to do. We tried originals and obscure covers and eventually started playing music by numbers and guess what? He was right. Doesn’t matter if it’s note for note perfect , as long as they know it, they will dance and more importantly, pay.

He was and still is, a very well known local celebrity. Liked by many people , but my point was that audiences from drinky pubs won’t appreciate music that is technically amazing if it doesn’t have the commerciallity that they crave. We used to play material we hated because we knew it would get a better reaction. I didn’t do badly with the admiring dancers myself to be fair. There’s always a silver lining when you sell your soul. 😉

I do too mate 👍

Because if they did, then that would be an explanation why they were not liked They had a definite fan base

I’m maybe not describing the said clientele properly . I am in no way a musical snob, but I’m a music lover. When I say less discerning listeners , I refer to people who have absolutely no clue about music. How it works, what’s involved with making a good sound, the time and effort required to reach a standard and who are happy with hearing “ Wagon wheel” for the hundredth time because they know it. Mrs Ubits brother is also not a musical snob. He is a prodigy that just loves to play. His ex bandmate, however is definitely a musical snob and would look on with disdain at those type of people and think of them as being beneath him.

They did other more contemporary tunes I should add. They had a definite fan base , but the hard drinking, anthem singing, less discerning listeners were just not ready for it

That is just out of order mate. I alluded already to my mate who would deliberately not learn his parts because he didn’t want to do the song. Passive aggressive. You at least need to know the gist of a song before unleashing it on the baying masses. I stand by my opinion, it doesn’t have to be exact, but neither should it be unrecognisable.

I should add that they used to play the Blue Peter theme very fast. Technically incredible, but who the hell wants to hear that on a Saturday night in the pub?

I agree with this point , but I was referring to a band that could knock spots off more or less any other band musically. Most people, even drunks, could appreciate their musicianship. It was just the fact that these girls came in and quite openly showed their disdain. The band just laughed, as they clearly heard it. Some people can’t appreciate well played music. It has to be doof, doof, doof. Im in the somewhere in between camp. I want to play great, complicated songs, but I realise that simple, well known play by numbers songs, get the audience going.

Definitely. I have always been paranoid about looking miserable on stage. In our latest band, we have an acoustic guitar player who looks like he has just found out he’s adopted. Loads of people comment and we have tried to say “ for flip sake smile” but to no avail.

Years ago, when we first started, we used to play support to another band that was more established than us and certainly their guitarist was better than ours but we regularly blew them off the stage purely because we played fun songs, never took ourselves too seriously and clearly enjoyed ourselves onstage. Sometimes being very good technically can go against you, especially in Scotland and I suspect The rest of the U.K. too. We love to knock down folks who are too big in it and too far up their own derrière. Another sad but true fact.

The criticism was because they were Philistines plain and simple. The afore mentioned group of girls wouldn’t know a decent musician if he was in their vodka and cranberry 😉

Mrs Ubits youngest brother is an absolute virtuoso on the guitar. He plays all over the world at events with his duo “Wingin’ it” They are widely regarded as being top of their game. He used to play with another great guitarist who is currently playing lead for the band Coast. One night they were in a local pub playing their insanely accurate and technical sets, when some local girls came in and exclaimed “ oh no, not them again” It was laughable as they were hands down the best musicians around. Other bands play whisky in the jar or Brown eyed girl and they get roars of applause!

This goes back to my earlier post about the night when , due to bad electrics, my valve amp kept cutting out for twenty seconds, then back on for twenty seconds etc. No one apart from me noticed and I include my own band mates. In fact when we took our break, we were congratulated on such a blistering set and even procured another gig. Drunk folk only need the beat, the singing and something like a melody. I was shocked ! Edit. I don’t disagree with you, I’m merely stating a sad fact

I learn bass parts as best I can. As I am also the lead singer plus admitting to not being up to Geddy Lee’s or Mark Kings ability, I have to simplify some bass lines in order to be able to carry out both duties. I have never found anyone saying “ that’s rubbish, you didn’t play that bass line note for note”. As I said in an earlier post, I think some people attach too much importance in their role in the band. Yes, we all take pride and realise that the bass is the rock on which the song is built, but most bar punters won’t share this view. I appreciate some of you are playing at a higher level than the nags head and will want to have a better professional attitude, but I’m surmising the o.p. is talking about pub bands when referring to covers. Its quite annoying how little the punters actually listen to the work you have put into your music.

Listen to any professional cover. Very, very rarely will they be complete copies of the original. People seem to be missing the point about putting your own mark on a song. As I said before, not doing a copy does not necessarily mean you are lazy or inept. 😉

I'm curious as to how you all managed to procure copies so cheaply. I've just looked on Amazon and it's going for £110 or £20 for a Kindle version!

Well I can sing and I could try with all my effort and I wouldn't sound like Layne Staley, so my original statement stands.

Shug Lewis to his mates

There's a new pedal version coming out, the Ged YYZ, which should make things much easier

How much does this boy sound like Layne Staley?