MacDaddy

Ok, New Year’s Eve gig with Electrik Soup last night. We’re a 90s/00s indie classics band, and we were at The Hare & Hounds in Claygate, nice to get out of that London for a change. Kick-off was 9pm, but we had an early load-in because the venue was doing a three-course dinner. I gave the vocalist a lift and we got there around 5pm; rest of the band were already in with kit and PA set up. I got my bass rig up but couldn’t soundcheck until later. Fortunately, we had a band tab, so some complimentary food was very welcome. No booze for me though as I was driving. I was using my TC Electronic BH800 bass amp with a SpectraComp in one of the Tone Print slots, honestly, how good are they‽ Great definition across all notes and it really cut through nicely, even with 2 guitars. Punters drifted in and out earlier on, but it started filling up properly around 9. First set got polite applause more than anything. It was the acoustic set that really warmed them up, and then we absolutely stormed the second electric set. The Guvnor had asked us to give the usual “get your drinks in” announcement at 11:30pm as the bar shut at midnight. We finished the last song with about 20 seconds to spare before the countdown, then went straight into our own take on Auld Lang Syne. Started off mellow and ended in a raucous thrash 😁 Audience loved it. Loads of nice comments afterwards. We played really well overall, no major mistakes. A couple of intros got extended, but the band just rolled with it and no one would’ve known it wasn’t intentional. Load-out was brass monkeys. First time this winter I’ve had to scrape ice off the car windows. All in all, cracking NYE gig and a great way to see the year out. Gear: Shuker 3 → Getaria wireless → TC Electronic BH800 → TecAmp 2x12 (upgraded speakers). DI to PA from the amp. Footwear report: blue ASICS trainers.

Just back from my NYE gig. Awesome 😎 Will write more later today. Happy New Year y'all 😁

Last nights rehearsal for NYE gig. Epic. We played really well and sounded great 😁. Then we went and had a curry, and after that ended up in the pub. Marvelous 🙃🙃🙃

It's all in the fingers 😉

Nah, Blue Stratos, or Denim. For Men. 😜

Lovely story about him on New Model Army's Joolz Denby's Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/share/1G7qSysD2w/

Did you ever get that brass nut?

Diary clashes. I'm in 3 gigging bands. 2 of them are with the same guitarist and drummer. It's taken over 2 years but for next year I'm starting to get diary clashes. I go by the gig that's in the diary first is the one that I honour. Even if like the NYE gig, the one I'm missing is paying more. A lot more. Lucky dep!

Bit of a rabbit hole, you can spend a long time finding out they don't do what you want, but the free versions of these will create video for audio. https://invideo.io/ https://pika.art/ More... https://audiocleaner.ai/audio-to-video-ai https://pictory.ai/audio-to-video https://wavel.ai/solutions/ai-video-generator/audio-to-video-ai

Noel Gallagher?

Ta. FOH was just from the BP355. The Amp sim set to 'DI' and EQ'd specifically for the UB804. Otherwise it's all in the fingers! 😉

Royal Blues, @ Off the Cuff, Herne Hill, that London. Support band slot to The Road, so not the usual crowd for our brand of blues based Americana. Only 2 backing vocalists this time, and stunning work by the ladies in rejigging the 3 part harmonies. @Al Krow of this parish was in attendance (turns out we share a singer) so I was hyper aware that any bass fluffs would be immediately noticeable to at least one person in the audience 😆. The venue is in the arches of railway bridge, and it was quite noticeable when trains were going over, but fortunately not when we were playing. Fun gig, I think we played well. Ibanez UB804 -> Getaria wireless -> Digitech BP355 -> FOH / Warwick Pro Fet 3, Calsborough 4x10. Some clips of the gig on The Facebook story thing, listen with headphones or decent speakers: https://www.facebook.com/stories/122094436502361314/UzpfSVNDOjY0ODE5OTkwODI4MjQ4Nw==/?view_single=1&mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v Footwear: maroon creepers.

😉

😆 We're going to be doing a bit of that ahead of our New Year's Eve gig.

Electric Soup, 90s and 00s indie classics, hence the yellow bucket hat you can see poking out at the back. No car-crashes, good fun gig. Punters were sat at tables due to where we had to set up in the pub, but we had people dancing at times at the back. The BH800 worked well with the tone prints meaning I didn't have to take 2 extra FX pedals. Shuker 3 -> Getaria wireless -> TC Electronics BH800 -> Orange 4x10 isobaric cab (+ DI from amp into PA for FOH volume control). Footwear, maroon creepers.

Bootsy's old bass? If it's not good enough for Bootsy it's not good enough for me! 😜

"This bass retains the original strings that were on it when the consignor received it in 1977." 😳

Dress rehearsal for tonight's gig. 90s and 00s indie classics. It was at Tweeters near Leatherhead. Big room full PA. Proper drum kit which the drummer always sounds better on, we use an electric one at our usual private place. In my never ending quest to find the one amp solution, I recently bought a TC Electronics BH800 bass amp. If I was to write a review of the BH800, I'd say it doesn't sound as good as other class D amps (my TecAmp Puma for example) until you start using the tone prints for the basic sound. Unfortunately there are only 2 tone prints, and I've loaded them with the 2 different dirt/fuzz effects I need for this band. Fortunately, one of the guitarists is lending me his Orange isobaric 4x10 bass cab, which sounds great. It's 8ohm and the BH800 (allegedly) kicks out 400w at 8ohm which is enough. We ploughed through the set and tidied up the 2 new songs we've added. TLDR it was great fun, and very good for my mental health.

Laurence is my go-to guy 🎸

Electrik Soup, at The Berrylands, Saturday 29th November. Berrylands, that London. VID-20250926-WA0003.mp4

Was listening to the Rokonteurs episode earlier. Quite poignant knowing he's gone 😟 I was never into The Stone Roses, but I liked playing his bass lines (in the same way I wasn't into disco but love playing Bernard's lines). In the 00's the band I was in used to play 'I am the resurrection '. That opening bass riff always got a great response.

Assuming the heteronormative there?