Newfoundfreedom

There's a 8x10 on eBay at the minute for £180. Absolutely nuts! https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F183841829930

I'm not quite sure what you mean or how you are hanging your bass. When I hang mine on the wall hangers the only part touching the bass is at the bottom of the headstock right by the nut. There should never be any danger of putting any stress on the hardware, extender or not.

Yup. That would explain why I've never heard of em. 😜

That would probably help if I'd ever heard of focus.

Nope. That's a finishing move surely?

Case and point. I have absolutely no idea who Jan Akkerman is either. 😕

Not really. I get slightly nervous before we go on, but not to the point where it's unbearable. I just don't seem to be able to relax into the gig. It just doesn't come naturally which maybe I hoped it would. I do spend a lot of the gig worrying about cocking things up. So maybe I'm just overthinking things too much. I'm hoping it's something that will improve with experience.

Great thread this. Some great stories. I just wonder how many "famous" people I may have met over the years, because I have no idea who most of the people being talked about actually are. I'm kind of ignorant when it comes to celebrities. I wouldn't know many musicians if they sat in front of me and played their entire back catalogue. 😂

The weird thing is, I actually really enjoy being in a band. We're all mates, we get on great, I love the making music part of it. I just don't enjoy gigging. While for most people, gigging is the pinnacle, or even the whole reason for being in a band, for me it's the least enjoyable part. I'm still fairly new to it all so I'm hoping it's something that will change with experience. Maybe I just need to relax more and enjoy the process. As things currently stand I just find it really stressful. Which kind of defeats the point as it was supposed to be just a fun hobby.

I totally get it. We had a stinker on Saturday night. Although we went down really well and the audience didn't seem to notice.(and we raised a good wedge for the charity we were supporting) But for me it was 2 hours of hell. I couldn't wait for it to be over. We've got loads of gigs coming up and I'd be quite happy if they were all cancelled. Although I wouldn't / won't quit and drop the rest of the band in it, if I'm still not enjoying it by the time the gigs we already have booked are done I think I'm just going to call it a day.

Aaarrgghh!!! No fair!

Absolutely awesome! We're playing a bar gig tonight to probably about 50 people and I'm absolutely bricking it. I have so much respect for anyone playing to crowds like that. I honestly don't think I could cope with it.

We're playing at 8 o'clock tonight and I've already got that waiting to be hung feeling. The best part of a gig for me is when it's over. If it's a good gig then there is a bit of a buzz and feeling of accomplishment afterwards. But I hate the actual being on stage part, and the waiting to go on even moreso. I'm hoping this is something that will change with experience as we're a pretty new band and only done about half a dozen gigs. The rest of the band love it, I'm still not convinced. We're playing our first festival next weekend and I'm dreading it already.

I was only wearing nappies in the 70's and even they were cooler that those monstrosities.

I'm glad it's not just me.

Well we've got our first ever festival coming up a week on Saturday, so I'll see how things go there, and whether or not I can find that elusive "buzz".

Have a look in the sale section on here Chris. There's some cracking stuff going at silly prices. I think there's still a Warwick stack going for about £250. Silly money. If all else fails and your back is up to carrying it, have a look on eBay for some old Trace Elliott gear. It goes for next to nothing these days, and you can't go far wrong with it.

True, and I'd absolutely agree if I was doing it for a living. But still having to earn a living and giving up every weekend to play for nothing is a different matter.

Yeah it may well come to that eventually. Although it's a bit more difficult than that. While no one in a band is irreplaceable, my wife is the singer, we own the PA, and also have the practice space. So bowing out quietly wouldn't really work and would l leave the rest of the band well and truly in the lurch.

Already done. As we're primarily all good friends and the band is secondary to that (at least as far as I'm concerned) there's no real communication problems as we regularly socialize outside the band. I've agreed to stick it out for the time being as we're pretty much booked every weekend for the next couple of months and it will be good practice / experience. As I said, we're a new band so this will help settle us in. Then I'm hoping with the onset of winter things are going to slow down naturally. If not I'm going to have to put my foot down.

Yes we could probably earn as much as any other other bar band in our area, maybe even more with a few more gigs under our belt as we're already building up a bit of a flowing. But it's usually just the takings from a small door charge. With 6 band members to split it between it's not even worth worrying about. To be honest, it's probably only the charity aspect that keeps me going. If we were doing it to earn a few quid I don't think I'd even bother. I could put my time to far more prosperous use than being a musician if I was in it for the money.

True. But if president is anything to go by, I've seen loads of the old Trace stuff go for peanuts.

Groupies would be great, except my wife is the lead singer. 😂 Roadies would definitely be better, but as we don't even earn anything I can't see anyone doing that for free. Unless they're working at Edinburgh Tattoo. 😜

Having read some of the responses I now feel like a bit of an imposter and maybe realize how lucky I am / we are. A bit of background. Our band are all UK expats now living in Bulgaria. We don't earn any money from gigging. A monthly salary here in Bulgaria is about one sheckle, three grotes, and a salted peanut if you do plenty of overtime. So we're definitely not in it for the money. In fact any money we earn from gigging is given to charity. We also don't have the hassle of getting gigs. We have a manager who does all that for us. When I say manager, I mean a drinking pal who doesn't play an instrument but wanted to be involved in the band. The biggest problem is he's probably too good at it. We're in a position that I suspect many bands would envy. We've got gigs coming out of our ears. We've gone from playing our first ever gig about 4 weeks ago, to being booked up every weekend until a fortnight after I die. Including 2 festivals coming up in the next 3 weeks, having never even played on a "professional" stage in my life. We also have the possibility of a newspaper interview and a radio spot coming up in the next few weeks. I suppose most band's would kill for an opportunity like this. The problem for me is, it was just supposed to be a few mates larking about and doing the occasional gig for a laugh and it's all gone a bit too full on. I might have wanted to be a rock star at 16 but those days are long gone. Maybe I'm just a miserable stinky poo. The other problem is, I still need to earn a living, where the rest of the band have a passive income, so I just can't afford to give up so much time. I think part of the reason I don't / can't enjoy it is because for me it's just not sustainable on the long term. So I'm just waiting for it all to implode.