TimR

If one member leaves and takes one of the speakers... or the mixer... The PA will no longer work.

Don't forget someone will have to be responsible for looking after it and running repairs, new cables, replacement mics will all cost.

I own a PA. I got fed up in my 30s with all the moaning and worries about who pays for what. I then 'hired' the PA to the band for high paying gigs. I don't think it ever paid for itself and it never settled the arguments as 'the band must have paid for it by now and should be getting it for free' started in the end (in hindsight and now I'm older I realise they stemmed form the drummers control of the band more than anything PA related). Then I bought lights. And they still complained. 😆 He is in another band and owns his own lights and PA and has learned what a pain being the one looking after it all is. And us presumably 'charging' the band for its use.

It's a sunk cost. I'd suggest you include something like an independent valuation when a member leaves. And then the remaining 4 members of the band then pay him 1/4 of 1/5 of what it's worth and so on. So 1/4 of 1/5 when 1st leaves (4 original members left) 1/3 of 1/4 when 2nd leaves (3 original members left) 1/2 of 1/3 when 3rd leaves (2 original members left) Split when last original leaves. If at any point the new member is happy to pay the share it's all good. If the band completely folds the PA gets sold (either to a 3rd party, or a present memeber) and the money split equally. You should work out what happens if the remaining members of the band can't afford to pay for the fraction of the leaving member outright. Like pay back the money gradually over an agreed timescale. You must agree at the outset to have an independent valuation, and everyone needs to be aware the gear depreciates and they're getting benefit of its use in return. Members can't expect to get their original money back. Splitting a PA into 5 chunks makes it worthless to all 5 of you.

I thought of doing this at a few places we have played. There's always a big TV somewhere and more and more of them have USB ports that you can plug a memory stick in. Either a single jpg or a looping video, sideshow etc.

Knowing your chord progressions! Sounds like fun, and if you manage it looking confident and with no drama he may call you again.

Try some Bass Centre Stadium Elites.

I struggled with this at our last gig. I wear contacts and have found that reading has become a real pain with them in. I recently tried verifical contacts which worked initially but now don't seem to for some reason. I can read well without contacts in but my distance vision is rubbish. So still playing around with what works best but currently sticking with contacts and having music as far away as possible while still being able to read.

A lot of Black Sabbath is very difficult to play as Ozzy does not sing on the beat, also the bass is pushing the beat, not sitting on top of the drums. You may be complicating it further by trying to do a 'Punķy' version. Ultimately straight 8ths are the bread and butter of rock bass players. Get out the metronome and work on them.

This isn't because people are looking for a bike or a fridge, it's because they think they can sell it for that price. That's how ebay generally works. With Basschat you're trying to match what you have for sale with someone looking for it. You're relying on someone looking to buy something. It's not a buoyant free market with loads of people buying and selling the same thing. It's a tight market where the price is less significant than what's on sale and who exactly wants to buy it. If something has been on sale for 2 years it means the seller isn't that bothered about selling it and/or they have an unrealistic view of what it's worth and/or no one wants to buy it.

It'll look good once you're finished with the filler and a coat of paint.

I think the headliners have to be fairly mass appeal now.

That's eclectic!

Elton John's going down a storm. I'm not keen on EJ songs as I've had to play them in shows and there's far too many chords for my linking. So luckily it's his last gig so he's off my list by default.

So you've been put in charge of booking the next Glastonbury acts. Who would you pick? Not just acts you like, they have to have wide appeal, but obviously you get to pick so will be heavily influenced by your tastes.

We notice the weather changes in our practice room. Always set up the same way. But the biggest factor is soft furnishings. The other week the drummer bought his cases into the room and that massively altered the acoustics. Maybe in hot and humid weather people are wearing less clothes.

I'm not sure. There's two or maybe three sides to the coin. Not a lot of people have spare money, some people have quite a lot of spare money, some people have gear to sell that they think is worth more because new versions are costing more to purchase, others have gear they need to get rid of quick because they have no cash. There's a very complicated supply/demand curve going on. Tag into that, I think there may be a wariness for scammers. I contacted a seller a couple of months ago over an item they've had up for sale for nearly 3 years. It's still for sale, I gave a reasonable offer, no reply, not even - no offers! The latest version isn't a lot more expensive so don't understand. Someone is sitting on an unused bit of gear that's only going to go down in value.

Take one on stage. The other stays in its case.

Always follow the singer. Caveat: if the guitarist starts the wrong song, the rest of the band should immediately recognise which song he has picked from the setlist and go for it. Or at least find the right sheet of music before the singer comes in.

I've also had the support bassist get his lead trapped under the dressing room door and instead of going back and seeing what it was caught on, he just grabbed it with both hands and yanked it. Which freed the cable alright, but left the jack plug in the dressing room. 😆 I begrudgingly lent him one of my spares.

This has happened to me twice. First time it was the E string and I had to restring my bass EAD on the ADG heads during the first verse of the first song. Second time was during a set and I had a spare bass in the pile of cases and boxes.

Yes. Probably badly worded. I mean I don't take her to gigs that she doesn't want to go to. We've been to plenty of gigs together. The other members of the bands I play in bring their other halves to some gigs, but they sit at the back and look bored. I've been playing in bands for 40 years now and she's seen me play enough times now.

I don't get this. I don't take my wife to gigs and she doesn't take me. She doesn't even come to see me play. It's healthy to have different interests.

Very good point. It's a completely different story to thousands of fans not watching Royal Blood.

Yes. Doesn't everyone know that Twitter is just a massive collection of batshit crazy people. In the old days every village had an idiot. Now we have a whole village full of idiots. We call it Twitter.