TimR

Sounded all right. I'd be more inclined to have stood at the back with the drummer and given the two guitarists and the singer more space along the front to move around a bit or chucked a rhythm guitarist back a bit. With a bit of movement and attention to visuals you can get away with a bit more of a less tight set.

The troublemakers didn't seem to be there for the bands.

The chaos that I've seen has been during daylight hours. I don't think they're even there for the music. Ultimately they need to drastically reduce the numbers attending to manageable numbers.

There's probably too much going on in that video. The girls syncro and lead singer is great. But there's loads of other stuff going on. I played in a big Soul band for a few years, probably loads of us did just after the Comitments film came out. You couldn't move for bands playing that stuff. Guess it depends where you want the focus. Certainly on instrument breaks you want the soloist to be visible and probably move a lot. As has been said, it's a balance and genre dependent. The lead singer needs to capture people's attention that's for certain, regardless of genre, but capturing attention can be done in many ways, some more subtle than others. Last week, we played our 3rd or 4th proper gig since lockdown ended. No matter how much you rehearse you need to gig before you know that you know the material properly. I tried moving around and smiling but mainly look like I'm concentrating far too hard in the photos taken during songs we haven't been playing that long.

JTQ have a new album out. Man in the Hot Seat. Songs entirely in the style of those 60s/70s TV themes.

There's a warehouse full of unsold Fenders. The whole supply chain problem and looming recession following Covid is really weird. Some companies have excess stock, some can't get parts and so can't produce stock. In both situations you won't be making new stock so the employees are doing nothing.

A million? Is that still, was it ever, true? Only a handful of UK singles has sold over 2million copies and I suspect less than 100 sold 1m or more. I suppose only a percentage of people who like a song go and buy it, but think success of a song can be measured by a much smaller audience.

As usual, it's the Internet isn't it. No grey only black and white. Considering the centuries of experience amongst us there's a hundred ways to skin a cat. As many PA set ups as there are bands. Mostly it depends on who owns, transports, sets up and operates the PA. How much cash they had to spend, what vehicle they drive, what storage options they have at home, what size gigs they're playing, how much they're making from gigging, who is in the band... Very rarely is it the best solution acoustically, quite often it's not, if the singer rides a bicycle and lives in a 1 bedroom flat, they won't own a PA, even if they're the only person using it. For someone to say- "you can't do that, it won't work", when someone is actually doing it, and it does, seems a bit ridiculous.

I thought it illustrated the nonsense of the arguments rather succinctly.

I heard a guy singing and playing an acoustic guitar once. No bass player. No Drummer. Not even a PA.

I switched from violin to bass and my guitarist friend played both cello and guitar. You pick up a different instrument and your brain switches automatically. It's odd but it's a powerful thing the brain.

Definitly need a monitor for the vocals. You can set the main speakers up behind the band but really need the vocalist to have a different and adjustable level to what the audience is hearing.

Blast from the past. Pre Spotify. JTQ were first band I saw after lockdown. In 100 Club Oxford St. Anyway the Lalo Shifrin Dirty Harry album is on Spotify.

Arthur and Fred apparently.

We rehearse at our guitarists House. He has some workshop style outbuilding. It usually heated by a small electric heater in the winter. In the summer the windows and doors are closed to keep the sound down for the neighbours. The room tends to be also used as temporary storage for his family's junk. We are noticing a big difference in the sound in our rehearsal space seemingly depending on the weather and/or how much junk has been stored. Last night the guitarist told me to turn down, but all I could then hear was guitar. I messed around for quite a few songs trying to get my volume right. We moved some junk around. None of my tone controls had been or ever are adjusted. All my EQ controls are always centred at zero. We discussed how inconsistent the sound was, and I suggested it was all the junk that was changing the acoustics of the space. He seemed to think it was the weather. Eventually he looked at his amp and adjusted his bass knob saying he'd turned it up while practicing on his own at the weekend. Everything went back to normal and I could hear everything and it sounded much better. At the end of the rehearsal he commented on how the sound had strangely improved since the beginning of the evening. Thought I'd share.

Your ears can only deal with so much volume before they give up trying to make sense of what's assaulting them.

The 'problem' would be trying to convince the manufacturers that bass players would understand what they're looking at. The plots would be easy to produce. But as the two previous posters have explained. Add in cabs (which have different impedance at different frequencies) and all other aspects you're onto a loser to start with.

Look at the actual specifications of any amp. They should give the number of Watts and reference that to a frequency and the amount of total harmonic distortion. So 1000w at 1kHz with 1% THD. It wouldn't be too difficult to supply a graph showing the amount of distortion it varying frequencies for each power output. It's done for component amplifiers.

White gaffa or a line of lights is definitly a sensible plan to create a notional barrier.

Just remembered hiring out a hall as an 18 year old in the mid 80s. I just signed the council's form. Never gave it a second thought. 1. I had to eject a guy from the kitchen who was weighing and selling drugs. He didn't even threaten me with knife he was carrying. Just said sorry and left. Bizarre. 2. Someone stage dived during our set, the crowd parted and he hit the deck, hard, was a good 2 minutes before he got up and joined back into the mosh. Was a good night. Before I owned a house and had wife and children depending on me not being in prison.

I do wonder at what point the members of a band would be considered guilty of some kind of incitement if they failed to calm the music down or even stop if a crowd gets violent.

What if you come a cropper due to someone else's lack of attention to detail. Aforesaid drunk punter knocks those lights over and they give you a serious injury meaning you can never work again? Who pays the legal bills? You? The drunk punter? The event organiser? The band? The barman who failed to stop serving him the drinks when he was obviously drunk? Let alone who pays for your ongoing medical care.

Ultimately if the floor is awash with drinks, stop the show and get the organiser to clear the floor, stop people bringing their drinks on the dance area, let people cool it, and then restart. Drinks on dance floor should be a basic no no right from the off. Write that into your contract. We all get a bit carried away, but at some point someone has to take responsibility. Next thing will be someone pours their drink into the monitors.

I'd be looking at how easily it is to topple stuff over and have a real think about that. You now know that it can be toppled easily you need to prevent that happening in future. Even if it means buying different gear. A tripod only works if its legs are wide apart and the centre of gravity can't easily be moved outside the base of the legs. Having a sub that's only 12" Square then having tops on top doesn't sound stable at all in the first place. Maybe get the tops on tripods. Also sounds like the stage wasn't fit for purpose if it can be knocked enough to be moved. Even more concerning is the lights are in a position that the punters can swing off them! Redesign your stage layout and put them somewhere else. If someone legal asks you if you've had near misses in the past, you're in trouble.

This is why I have 2 2x10" cabs stacked vertically. You can turn it right down and still hear everything perfectly. Plus it's a lot easier to carry around.