Dr.Dave

[quote name='swanbrook' timestamp='1363728167' post='2016781'] I see a few people saying things like " when I only put on a mediocre show " I don't get this. Every gig I do I play my best and put on as much of a show as I can. I have always gone with the idea of " your only as good as your last gig" Here people have no problem telling you if you where sh*te or not and if you where having an off day they will spread the word on just how crap you where. I have played huge gigs and tiny gigs and everyone get the same 100 %. The day that changes is the day I change career. It's an honour to play in front of people even if they have the same iq as pond life [/quote] I agree with that in the most part. I've played to half a dozen disinterested people like I was playing Wembley Stadium , and still do. It's precisely that the 'honour' , as you put it , works two ways. There are many , many gigs I've played where I've turned out in the pissing rain and dark of winter ,lugged tons of kit up a slippery fire escape and been treated by an audience as 'granted'. The sort that will refuse to pay a few coppers to gain entry then drop a tenner in the bandit before they get to the bar. We all know this one - playing a gig to total silence , not even polite applause , and you know how well you're playing - then right at the end they go nuts for more. Where's the exchange in that? Where's the respect for my efforts in that ? I just can't agree that there's anything to be had - as a musician - in being gushed at by drunken scrotes who clearly have no clue as to how good , bad or indifferent you were. There is much joy in giving and taking with an audience - I still feel the buzz , of course. In fact an even bigger buzz as experience has taught me how to transform an indifferent crowd into a bunch of raving sycophants - that's a skill and fresh buzz in itself. Thing is - I know how good I am - how good my band is - how well we , or I , played on a particular night. Happily even our average is pretty good. I'm not bragging - we've just been doing this for a long enough time to have acheived a good level of competence and I know too what efforts we still put in to keep it that way. But after all these years , being judged - for good or bad - by drunks who are utterly clueless about what just happened - sees me get home with the foulest of tastes in my mouth. I've become more cynical , and more superior out of self respect and selfprotection. Some times I do wonder if it's worth it - if it's worth the sarifice , but I also feeel like a moth to the flame where gigging is concerned.

Dickie Hart and the Pacemakers

[quote name='MiltyG565' timestamp='1363705646' post='2016200'] But Dave, you're bloody brilliant! *hic!* no really, you could probably be the next Elvis *hic*. If you were playing piano, i'd say you were Elton John, God knows you're as good as him! *hic* One of those isn't a compliment, but which one? Just messing mate [/quote] You'll never beat my dear old Mum. She said to her mate 'You ought to hear our David play - he's nearly as good as them on the telly' !!

My main stage bass is a Japanese Fender - a 54 Precision reish in very fetching 'blue flower'. Brilliant bass for me. I can gig it round the worst toilets in the north and not worry too much about it while my precious lifelong friend Mr 73 Precision stays home safe. They tend to be a lot lighter too - handy for those of us who are long of tooth , grey of follicle and therefore weak of back !!

I have a very high opinion of Jap Fender fretless basses - I had one for a while that looked just like yours - sold it to a nice lady who came and collected it from my narrowboat. I sold it because I didn't have a job for it to do and I have a self imposed rule that won't allow me to keep something I'm not using. Flats are great aren't they - feel wonderful under your fingers. Anyway - nice to have you around. I'm the right wing northern gobsh*te who upsets people , you'll soon get used to me !

[quote name='thumperbob 2002' timestamp='1363700263' post='2016048'] I also have massive disrespect for the audience and just enjoy playing. Dont do it for the money. Like to be appreciated but would not give the musical pinion of any drunken punter a second thought. [/quote] It's an odd feeling , isn't it. Like you - I didn't used to give a toss but it's sort of crept up on me. It's the positive , gushing remarks when they're not deserved that get me - not critisism. There was a flap at work once - I avoided it like the plague because of the hard couple of hours graft but turned up at the end. All the lads were sitting about knackered after having done the job (it was a flooded building) and because there was nowhere to sit I just leaned on the suction machine. At that moment our managers turned up and said 'That's right - you lot sit on your bone idle arses while Dave does the bloody job on his own' !! It was a laugh at the time but you just feel a fraud afterwards. It's feelings like that that have shaped my views on punters.

[quote name='peteb' timestamp='1363689843' post='2015772'] It doesn't bother me as such, I'm just amazed that you let things like that bother you NEVER is a strong word - there are several audiences that I have extreme disrespect for! I'm just surprised that it is such a common occurance for Dave... [/quote] Pete - I don't claim to be right or wrong or that my feelings on the matter are good , bad or indifferent. I just offered it as what I think will be the reason I eventually stop gigging. I can make myself deal with it/put up with it/react positively etc etc but the feeling remains and it will get to me in the end.

Nicely put , Sir Fumps - I'm actually envious. The bit where you say being in a band isn't essential to your happiness jumps out at me. Playing gigs is certaily essential to my happiness - that's the trouble. I don't know how to enjoy music as a consumer - ony as a creator. I can't be in the audience - I hate it. I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I didn't gig - however frustrating or unfulfilling I often find it. Folk say - ' come have a pint and watch a band with us '. I don't because to me that just equates to doing nothing.

Space Invaders. Patterns - my fingers follow those. I'll maybe sit down and work out something that pleases me but after that - during the gig - my fingers remember the patterns and I just improvise around that. I know the names of all the notes up to the 5th fret , well- on the E and A and probebly the D and G strings anyway , without thinking but I'd have to think about the rest if you asked me.

I'm liking the banana advice. I tend to get left hand cramp playing bar chords on guitar and they stop sounding properly , must get into this more musaceous diet.

I'm not passing comment on Wayne or anyone else but I think , as a player , when you start out it takes a long time before you get properly confident in what you do. You never quite know whether you've 'arrived' or not. Whether you're 'good enough' or not. All that time you're experimenting with gear and twiddling knobs - probably losing money hand over fist doing it ........... then one day it just goes away. It's the moment when you know you can roll your own. When you don't automatically assume any issue must be your fault. When you know that things don't have to be right or wrong , they can just be different. It's a delicious moment that I had at about 27. I envy anyone who has it to come because you only get it once.

Welcome to my world

[quote name='peteb' timestamp='1363683883' post='2015606'] I must admit that I find that difficult to understand from someone with your experience. There is no reason why any member of the audience should have any higher appreciation of music - the only thing expert opinion that they may have is in what they like. If anyone in the audience feel moved to comment favourably on what I do, then I thank them kindly without taking it too seriously - at least that is one person who has been entertained for whatever reason! [/quote] It's just not been my experience , Pete. Simple as that. I know when I've played and sung well and I know when I haven't. My 'experience' as a player may well have helped me cover for myself to an extent when I'm having a bad night but it changes nothing really. In the early days my ego used to enjoy being told how wonderful I am but I started to notice that I was told that even on bad nights. Either as an individual or as a band punter comments have not been in line with the quality of performance. I'm told we're bad when we're good - I'm told I'm good when I'm bad. It's regular and consistent. Other than it being down to the sort of places I normally play what other conclusion would you have me draw ? I note your comment that if a punter enjoys themselves then it's fine - and I have no right to expect them to be musically clued up - but as a musician I can't help the fact that I have no respect for punters opinions. Maybe my stage persona does - it allows me to be polite and grateful to those who pay my wages - but when I get home I just think 'w***ers'. Sorry if that bothers you , and I may have more faces than the town hall clock - but it's just an honest expression of how I feel and - as I said - I think it will be that that eventually retires me from gigging.

I do about 70 gigs a year these days as a singer/bass player (in that order which is how I view myself). I feel qualified to add the following to this thread though. As a singer/acoustic guitarist and occassional recording songwriter I choose not to gig. It's my hobby to be done when I want to - rather then the part time 'career' with it's committment - which has to be done when the calendar tells me. I also have nobody to 'please' but myself. One day I'll stop gigging all together - most likely for one of two reasons. I may start and feel too old and tired - or even too ill - to give it the energy I like to , that's one reason. I think it more likely, though, that my utter disrespect of the punters in front of me (along with my cynical distrust....more like hatred... of landlords and small time wannabe promoters) will finally get too much. I care not if anyone says I'm crap - water off a duck's back , and besides I know I'm a good craftsman - but I despise being told how brilliant I am by folk who wouldn't know a decent tune from a kick in the pods. It sucks the joy away for me. I often wonder why I gig at all when I feel so strongly about this - but somehow 'Dr Dave' is an alter ego that takes on a differring persona when he leaves the house with a bass in his hand and sees the gig as 'feeding time' for himself.

I gig for one reason - so that for a couple of hours I can feel like a creator and not a consumer. Like some sort of part-time fountainhead !

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1363371438' post='2012039'] For penance you have to listen to this all the way through. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUfZ24jRT3s[/media] [/quote] That's never Scotland - one of the audience is nearly fifty. The last time I was in Edinboro I was severely traumatised while passing Mamood McPatel's Braw Auld Highland Souvenir Shoppe or similar and hearing a CD of bagpipe music playing 'Eye of the Tiger'. Just imagine that riff on Bagpipes !!! Honestly it was the worst thing I've ever heard and I still wake up in the night screaming.

If you say her name fast it sounds like that dreary fat scots bloke that wants Scotland to be independent......... sorry wanTED Scotland to be independent until it became a possibility and is now wallowing in his own soiled underwear at the prospect. Anyway - just as I was fantasising about showing Alex Hammond a few tasty bass lines and all of a sudden our clothes fall off his face pops in my mind negating even the slightest of twitches.

[quote name='lojo' timestamp='1363282425' post='2011037'] Always start with a song thats tight and confident [/quote] BUT ........ always make sure that first song is easy to play. Most of us will never have the luxury of being driven from hotel room to gear filled warm up room to stage. More like freezing fire escape to knuckles rapped by door frames to stage. We need to warm up just as much as the top pros so don't take on complex stuff too early. In fact - that's one of the best tips I can give anyone based on my experience.

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1363271551' post='2010784'] As for sequencing the set, somebody once said: "Start with a good one, end with a good one; the audience will never remember what came in between". [/quote] I heard that at an early point in my playing career - now nearer the end I know for sure there is much truth in it BUT ....... I set out from day one to make sure , as much as possible , that nobody would ever forget what I did in the middle of the set !! I suggest everyone does the same.

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1363206829' post='2009905'] I like your style Dr Dave [/quote] My comments were less about style and more about my 34 years of being paid to entertain folk. Music is (I hope) important to us all. Gear is a tool to help us make music. We should remember that and not become gear collectors. Most of us here will be craftsmen rather than artists - a good craftsman uses the simplest , most efficient and most reliable tool he can find that does the job he needs it to do.

Start with your best up tempo song - end with your second best. Put the ballad in the middle and follow it with the novelty song. Job done.

I'm most surely leaning towards keeping it original - besides it would probably cost less to buy a used 5 year old one with all the bells and whistles than it would to upgrade this. The fingerboard is not a disaster , no. I wonder ( re Big Stu's comment ) how good the ebony is , though - if someone's finger nails can cause such damage. I know the previous owner was into C and W music from the stickers on the case and I can see quite cleary he liked to play in C from the nail marks - you can actuallly see the chord ! Just making a few chord shapes as I sit here and I suppose C is as big a culprit as any for presenting finger tips ( and therefore nails) to fingerboards - many of the other open chords have a bit less angle and present the pads of your fingers more. Still seems a bit extreme for it to happen - so I wonder if the ebony's a bit softer than usual.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1363192439' post='2009535'] [i]But also[/i] read [i]The Guardian , watch newsnight , [/i] karate lessons... [/quote] Lotto results , John Prescott and cage fighting then - not looking good to be honest , chief !

Be a professional - approach the landlord with your concerns about the money and ask what he would do to protect you in the event the rough as f*** that have moved into the place of late causing you a problem. Explain that - as a band - you have a zero tolerance policy to trouble causers and will leave the stage until they are ejected but will still expect to be paid in full. No need to sound threatening - just cool and professional. BTW I do realise that most landlords are sub-species but you can still act in a manner fitting normal human beings even if they don't. If you're not satisfied with the responses - pull it. Might be worth adding - this is not talk , we have done this or similar several times this past year alone , have left the stage twice and not gone back on once.

[quote name='seashell' timestamp='1363167968' post='2009392'] So you've got your own Corset Tech have you? [/quote] Job's vacant - would suit someone with theatrical experience.