Twigman

It's not really a waste of time at all. On the stages I play, i am stage right, the guitar is stage left, perhaps 5 or more metres away..we have a mic'd drum kit in between. the keyboard player is on my side of the stage and is DI'd into the desk, only monitoring on the stage wedges. Much of our music's tempo is dictated by the guitar delay so it's imperative that we can all hear it. Without wedges I wouldn't hear it at all. We all take cues from various instruments at various times throughout the set - it's very important to strike the right balance or you lose a lot of feel and stop working together as a band.....we're not a collection of individuals, doing our own thing, we're a band, we feed each other.

I'm not bothered at all about hearing myself - I'm stood in front of my amp, it's never a problem - it's hearing the others that's important - if you can't hear what the others are doing you're not going to sound any good, as a band, out front.

I order it online and it gets delivered in a plain brown wrapping. Nobody's any the wiser.

Have you ever found an unexpected reference to your band? In the movie '500 days of summer' there's this: - see record divider bottom left...

It's not meant to be, is it? If I (accidentally) kick off my compressor mid song I absolutely can hear the difference

I think many who are mystified by compressors believe they do nothing because what they hear is more like what they think they should be hearing.

Yes really - the compressor makes the notes more consistent. That's what they're for - squeezing the peaks and raising the troughs, squeezing the waveform - making the whole sound more consistent.

Compressors, set up well, make you sound like a far better player than you really are.

Get a waistcoat with velvet buttons.

Another slightly related story. As some of you may know one of my bandmates is in a global DJ act and is significantly more famous than I am ( 2xgrammy award nominee). When we were in US, touring with SL&G, we were walking down the shopping street in Santa Monica. People kept coming up to us and were asking me if they could have a selfie with him. I think they assumed I was his minder or something. My response was always "why don't you ask him?" after which I was elbowed out of the way so they could get their selfie. I'll wager none of them even knew our band exists.

No I hadn't

At a bureau de change in Athens airport - the teller knew exactly who I was and told me she was coming to the gig the next day.

I have some SKB and Peli cases that need some stencilling so that they can be identified as ours in what is likely to be a crowded backstage at the Wave Gotik Treffen this weekend. SKB and Peli cases are ABS aren't they? I have acrylic paints (airbrush) - will they need a plastic primer? - Is airbrushing the best way or is there an easier way? I have some plastic letter stencils but it seems I will have to paint one letter at a time as they are too wide to tape together and maintain the correct spacing. Any advice?

One more thing to consider: keep it short so that making up stencils to spray identity on flight cases is easier

If we came across a sound ‘engineer’ with that attitude we’d refuse to play. If we can’t hear what we want to hear, we can’t perform to our best. We have to be in charge of our stage.

The soundcheck is as much, if not more, about what you want as what the sound engineer wants. We treat it purely as an exercise in getting our monitor mixes right so we do 90% of the soundcheck with the PA off.

Isn't it always raining in Hebden Bridge?

It'll be back up before long. His scam was rumbled this time.....but I've seen his type before

I change the battery more often than I change the strings.

Whenever I've played it - not often, granted - I've always played it in C# - that way the lowest note is an open E... Surely it depends on in which key the vocalist is comfortable singing it?

I have two of those. One with the old style metal clips on the side and one of the current model with the strap. They are useless:- 1) None of my gig bags were small enough to fit inside unless I removed the foam that's glued to the inside of the case. 2) The 'locking' clips on the side of the old model would easily come undone and did on a flight once 3) The strap on the current model can easily come undone - I didn't ever try to use this for transporting a bass as I couldn't get it to stay 'locked' So I have 2 - 1 of each type sitting around at home, free to anyone who wants to collect them.

Aye - that's why we play almost all our gigs on the continent. Northern France, Belgium and Holland we drive to, taking our own backline - promoters put us up, with our own rooms, in Holiday Inn style hotels - we get at least one proper meal a day thrown in - on top of the hotel breakfast. In the rest of Europe we fly, the promoter pays for flights, minimum 3* hotels with our own rooms and hires backline and drum kit (as close as our tech rider specifies)..we're always picked up from the airport and returned to the airport in ample time to fly home, as well as bussed around between, hotel and venue, radio if required etc....last month, while in Italy,we were even taken on a detour to the leaning tower of Pisa rather than going straight to the airport. Every gig seems to have more beer and whisky and soft drinks and water than we can consume. It almost feels like being proper rock stars! We're flying to Berlin next weekend where we'll get bussed down to Leipzig to play at Wave Gotik Treffen - headlining Haus Leipzig on the last night of the festival (Mon 10).

Really? In my experience promoters are totally ignorant of the logistics at venues. It's not so much whether the venues can accommodate but the grief caused by swapping gear out between sets. Nothing ever ends up being exactly as it was at the soundcheck. While I recognise we all had to start somewhere we always try to keep the number of supports to a minimum (prefer 1, 2 at a push - any more and we won't do the gig - apart from 'festivals'). Where possible we insist on no drummer in support bands and we never share backline. It's our gig after all.

Being in a band that often headlines such shows I would hope the promoter would tell you to fosters off. It's bad enough when there are 3 bands on the bill but 4? The hassle of doing a swap out with gear on stage - we will not share our backline. The pile up of gear backstage - the cramped backstage - we insist on max 2 support bands and prefer acts with no drummer. I would hope our promoter would tell you to fosters off.