TimR

A local electrician will PAT test your gear for less than 50p an item.

Watching the same band playing the same tunes over and over again? Who would want to do that?

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1490735223' post='3267589'] I could agree, I suppose. But I'd still think the guy telling his wife to stop moaning about the time he spends away with his music endeavours because "it's work" is being pretty ridiculous [1]. That is completely separated from whether his wife has a point or not, which depends entirely on each situation. [1] in that 2-gig a month band that rehearses weekly. [/quote] It depends how much he makes from those two gigs and how much of it he gives to her. Assuming she is sat at home alone on the Saturdays when he is out working. When I worked New Years eves, and they were hard work that paid reasonably well, on New Year's Day I'd take the family out for a meal to compensate. They wouldn't have gone out on NYE partying anyway and we'd all have been home watching TV, so it was only compensation in the loosest of terms.

Being in a band is work. Whether you get paid for it or not. You are producing a service with your labour. No discussion. Whether you see it as difficult or hard work is another thing entirely. But it is work.

Yes. I wouldn't want my wife to come to a gig out of a sense of duty, there would be no point. I like an appreciative audience who want to be there to see the band. My wife doesn't like the type of music the band, I'm currently in, plays.

[quote name='Telebass' timestamp='1490603899' post='3266221'] Remember that part of the question is that people seem to EXPECT my wife to attend every gig, regardless, for whatever reason...that's what neither of us understand! [/quote] Firstly. I wouldn't even attend one of our gigs, I'm only there cause I'm playing the bass. Secondly, some people have very close marriages. I don't understand it myself, but I know people who work in the same office, do the weekly shop, go on holiday together. They're never apart. Ever. I only see my wife for an hour a day tops. Any longer than that and I risk a fate worse than death. I suppose there's a happy medium between the two somewhere. With the emphasis on 'happy'. Anyway, I suppose it depends to an extent who these people are that are expecting you to be together at all possible hours of the day. What their experiences are etc. It may only be a few of your friends who remark on it and that's colouring your perception of how many people are expecting it.

I just don't see a musician joining your band as the same as getting married or getting a tattoo. You're going to be trialling them for a period anyway. If it doesn't work out over the next few weeks for either of you then you start auditioning again.

[quote name='T-Bay' timestamp='1490469217' post='3265382'] A lot of it comes down to age. I loved both of them when I was about 10-12 and they were at their height, then I found metal and alternative stuff and never looked at anything with a synth again. I still like it though, nostalgia I guess. If you look through the years there are always a few acts that are 'big', some stand the test of time better than others and even the most popular will split opinion, I still can't see the Beatles as anything better than a pop act with a couple of ok songs, some people would have me hanged for that sentiment. [/quote] It had a richness back then. I think we've got used to a much richer sound and listening back, a lot of Futurist music now sounds quite thin.

Old toothbrushes have a multitude of uses. Never throw them away.

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1490315707' post='3264318'] We've never told people "there and then", because we want to have a chat among ourselves first. But we always contact them within a day or so. If it's the right person, then why wait. If it's not the right person, why delay? Once you find someone who fits, that's it. [/quote] In that case you just ask the person to wait while you chat. When you're negotiating contracts at work that's perfectly acceptable to have private chats before sealing any deals.

You need to charge the going rate. If you have to drop out at the last minute or one of your band members gets sick you will have serious problems. The whole band will probably have to arrange their summer holidays around the gig and any other wedding gigs you have; and commit several months in advance. It's not a pub gig where you call up the landlord Saturday morning and tell them you won't be there. We don't do wedding gigs but if we did we'd do them for free just for the exposure.

I'd expect to be told there and then if I fitted. Whenever I've auditioned people I've taken the first person who ticked enough of the boxes that matter. Another audition in 3 weeks? The other guy must be really keen and available then

What kind of battery was it?

[quote name='christhammer666' timestamp='1490096325' post='3262090'] thanks for all the responses I think a lot of he touring thing is im petrified of flying as well as the playing to no-one.plus u get back knackered and need a holiday.I can do that and have done that hear multiple times I love nothing better then at the weekend driving up north in a sh*tty van playing in a dingy club then crashing on a hotel floor. But spending money paying for an album to sit on my shelf when I could have a week in the county with the mrs just aint for me Im either getting old or im turning into a miserable old git lol [/quote] Hanging around this forum will turn you into a grumpy old git if you're not careful. I think you're in the wrong band. If you're not building a fan base in the U.K. with the touring and current marketing that you're doing then someone needs to look at what you're doing wrong rather than throwing money at it and randomly expanding into Europe. Work smarter not harder. .

The problem with with trying to find a way of holding strings without ball ends, is it brings in an added complexity. You need a pair of cutters to cut off the ball end. You need an Allen key to undo and retighten the grub screw. Anything goes wrong with a string at a gig and instead of restringing in 30 seconds while the singer chats you have a minor engineering exercise on your hands. .

Either pop in or phone them. I've found emailing pubs is always a bit hit and miss, although I didn't know about the Hope.

Are you just looking for a way to hold the ball end so that you can't see the ball? Some kind of bar with recesses for each string. The only problem with recessing the ball is getting it out after it has been sitting there for several weeks/months/years under tension. You need some kind of slot as opposed to a hole. There are lots of small engineering companies locally who might be able to machine you a prototype. .

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1489489670' post='3257312'] IME you would need to set up a separate Spotify account on each virtual machine, and they would have to be full paid-for accounts as the free version will stop playing without user intervention every couple of hours. [/quote] Yes. I'm sure there is some way to make it unviable. Reading on the BBC website it's weighted so 150 streams=1 download anyway.

Yep. Set up a server with 100 virtual machines streaming the same song over and over again. You could increase the figures by 300,000 a week. Would be fairly easy to do at home in your bedroom, assuming Spotify isn't watching for this kind of behaviour.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1489479588' post='3257198'] I entirely agree ... except ... what makes the number of physical 45rpm singles sold a better answer? As a teenager I bought loads of 45s. Some got played twice and then never again, some were still being played regularly years later. The charts of my yoof didn't detect any of that. A 1973 Top 20 chart based purely on the number of plays each song got on UK radio would look different from a chart based on sales, but would be equally valid or invalid depending on your point of view. Streaming is just radio-on-demand. [/quote] It's a measure of how many people like what you produce rather than a measure of how much those people like you. Spotify works on a monthly fee basis, not a per play basis. So commercially they're more interested in someone who sells to a wide fan base rather than someone who has a small fanatical fan base. Downloads are similar. No one really cares how many times the download is played. It's irrelevant. What's important is how many sales the artist makes. It's what drives revenue and advertising.

They shouldn't include streaming, only downloads. My daughter has been streaming one song several times a journey every time she gets in the car. One person could be responsible for maybe 100plays in one week. To me that's not really a true measure of 'popularity' of a song. .

[quote name='Phil Starr' timestamp='1489421156' post='3256767'] When I pointed this out to my guitarist all I got was a blank look and 'it's a 12bar isn't it?' [/quote] Yep. That's usual. Shortly followed by "Well, let's just play it as a 12 bar it'll be simpler to remember."

I agree, but that Jonny B Goode turnaround is a nightmare to get anyone to agree on. I've played in bands where we're all playing off the same page at one rehearsal but come the next rehearsal or the gig, it's like we had never agreed how to play it.

[quote name='alyctes' timestamp='1489273765' post='3255733'] :like: [/quote] Thanks. See. Some people get it. Some people don't. I like to see who gets it. And who doesn't.

If you look in Account settings you can block anyone from sending you friend requests, stop people from looking you up via email or phone number and hide your profile information. Your name will still come up in a search but that's as far as anyone will get.