T-Bay

Very very sad news 😢

Been lucky obviously 🤣🤣 Was one where I may have been happier if it had been 7 minutes to be fair.

You are lost because you choose to be, the second post is the one I was referring to and had quoted and you responded to that quote. But we both know that………..

So not really worth posting was it? We could all post things we have never seen at a gig but doesn’t prove anything other than what we have seen. For example I have never seen a gig that lasted 7 minutes but I can imagine there may well have been one somewhere at some point.

We would do close to 2 1/2 hours for weddings and I was always utterly knackered by the end and that was with a 15 minute loo break. Usual was 2x 1 hour sets with a quick break. Mostly we were limited by stuff we felt was good enough to do live, except for,one pub where we knew the landlord and used to do the gig as almost a rehearsal live for new stuff to see how it went down. Used to regularly do rehearsals for 5-6 hours but you aren’t on it all the time so not as bad. If the band is really giving it some you don’t notice how long they have been on, if people above are looking at their watches it says a lot about how good the band is.

That only proves your experience. I have never won the lottery, nor been mauled by a tiger, but it doesn’t mean those things don’t happen.

If it works for you mate, keep going and it obviously is. I am in awe of a three hour set myself, I was always knackered after a couple of hours but our lead guitarist/ singer has gone pro and is regularly doing 2-3 hour acoustic solo sets now. Amazes me how he does it.

Tim likes to have a definite break down of black and white numbers/ things that work for him and keep him happy and many of us confused. Don’t stress it, took me a while to work it out. I don’t think he means offence by it.

That article was from a well known outlet which is why I selected it, but the practice mentioned occurs at Amazon, and sadly other large warehousing places as well. Lots of well documented cases and hundreds of links e.g. https://www.quora.com/Do-Amazon-warehouse-employees-really-have-to-pee-in-bottles But it’s not just limited to that, it’s the dehumanising effects of many of their working practices that have no place in the 21st century. Most people are aware that they ‘aren’t good’ but choose to ignore that as they wish to keep getting stuff cheap. Morals and principles don’t always come cheap.

Overplayed? Hmm, there is a awful lot of evidence to suggest otherwise. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/04/amazon-chews-through-the-average-worker-in-eight-months-they-need-a-union Just one example, not sure how any company that admits workers wear nappies as they are not allowed toilet breaks could claim that being a bad employer is ‘overplayed’. What I do think happens is that people who don’t care about others dismiss the problems so they can continue to buy from them without affecting their belief they are a ‘good person’.

I have done a few things including supporting a workers demo at a local depot, I have also petitioned my workplace and got them to take Amazon off the approved supplier list and then contacted Amazon to let them know that has happened. At a yearly spend of around £80,000 it was never going to make them cry but if enough people do the same it could have an effect. I also attempted to get my local MP involved in their tax avoidance but as he was more interested in groping interns it didn’t get very far. There are also local groups around the country trying to get local authorities to move away from using Amazon and I been involved in one of those. It seems small things but they can make a difference, there is a long history of companies making ‘ethical’ changes that were based on consumer pressures. I guess the difference is that the world has never seen anything as big as Amazon and so far they are happy to do a big FU or make tiny gestures. For me it started when they conned a charity I volunteered at out of £2k when dodgy goods were supplied through the marketplace. When you have seen disabled kids washing cars to raise a few quid and then see it stolen it gives you a reason to get involved. From that I found out how dodgy they were across all their business dealings. Thankfully a brilliant UK company StanelCo heard about what happened and helped the charity out.

We allow all members to veto any song they hate. With so many songs, why would play stuff some of the band hate? There are very few on the list and it’s never been abused.

Lots of other mail order places out there, and most bricks and mortar specialist shops will do mail order as well. I am the same as you regarding Israeli companies as well, Amazon stock Israeli goods and support businesses in occupied territories and supplies defence contracts. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/12/google-amazon-workers-condemn-project-nimbus-israeli-military-contract https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/5/12/how-us-big-tech-supports-israels-ai-powered-genocide-and-apartheid#:~:text=Perhaps the most well-known,Israeli government and defence establishment.

I never buy from Amazon as they are a dodgy company in terms of how they pay tax and treat their employees. But also, I want to have independent shops where the people know what they are talking about and where customers are important to them. The only time I will ever buy from Amazon is if they get exclusive rights to life saving medication one of my family needs, otherwise they can FRO.