Cat Burrito

I do two very different types of gigs so I'm going to give two different answers (assume playing well is a given) - Local - Good crowd, getting paid so we can invest back into the band, happy for us to do the sound (unless there is an engineer who is used to bands that don't just do the traditional formats), not going to bed too late. National / International - No big egos from other bands / promoter / my band(!) etc, decent stage / sound, proper rider that follows the simple instructions (although I am a professional so I rise above it!), decent crowd, shift a load of merchandise, quiet hotel. I must confess that since hitting 50 a couple of years back, I am deliberately doing more of the former as the later seems to struggle ticking some of those boxes! I'm definitely more selective with age.

I did this for a few years, mainly on the Americana circuit. I then took my Jazz out for a multi-(rock) band all dayer in Sheffield and confused the soundman - he couldn't work put why my bass sounded the way it did! 😸 I think all the other bassists were active 5-string players and I had that setup.

Ultimately, it is hard to control how others view you. I've left bands where seemingly nice people have got funny when I have tried to step back. I've offered to stick around and even go through parts with the replacement, which I would say is pretty decent of me, and still had a couple of people get funny. The last lot were completely reasonable though. It's certainly easier when there isn't a busy schedule. Nobody likes being told that they could be better so a small white lie about work getting busier and how you don't want to let them down sometimes works as a softener. Best of luck, however you choose to do it.

I was rounds for the first ten years of my playing as I didn't know any other way. In the late 90s, I moved to flats. I stayed with them until 2019 and currently have a mix. I surprise myself in mainly having rounds these days but have Labella flats on my bass IV and an acoustic bass. I guess it depends on the song and the style, as well as the bass.

I know it's a bit more but I have the Blackstar Unity 30 as I wanted it to be closer to my U700 but at home volume. That's a great practice amp but I wouldn't want to lessen the features. I don't remember Debut, unlike some of you.

Another reunion with our original drummer from our first band. Street parties always fill me with terror but this one was quite good last time, so I hope the Wicker Man reference doesn't upset anyone.

I did a thread on it a couple of years back. I love the tone of Jazz basses and I love the look but I definitely noticed a drop in low end frequency when playing in small bands with this one. I've had it since 2015 and usually play a range of different basses, from Precision to Rickenbacker to Hofner to Thunderbird. We never did get to the bottom of whether it was me, my settings, my bass, the pickups or something else. Coincidentally there was a younger band on after us and the bass player had a Fender Jazz which had no bottom end too - far worse than mine. The first Jazz bass I owned had different string volumes so I sold that on but I have had a couple of good ones in-between. I bet the Maruszczyk sounds good as I think it's some of the Fender ones that can be a bit of a mixed bag. Anyhow, it sounded good last night so hopefully the problem is solved.

A multi-band charity fund raiser for Dorothy House hospice, for us today. We planned to play an originals only set of Gothic rock with me dusting down my USA 2008 Jazz bass. I have been struggling with the lack of bottom end from J-basses but the addition of the Boss GE-7 to my board was hopefully going to fix this. I also added the Boss IR-2 as I often go ampless. First band on really struggled against a rogue sub-woofer and we immediately started to twitch about our set. Thankfully the second band sounded much better. We took our time setting up on the back of the truck. We’ve added little bits of finesse like roses around the mic stands and burning incense onstage (typing that, I realise it sounds pretentious but it does make a difference to the presentation and it was remarked afterwards that we are very professional in our approach). I thought we played well. The sound was fairly reasonable and my bass sounded immense. My wife said my vocal was getting stronger and we had a fair few compliments - comparisons to Joy Division and Bauhaus, without being derivative - which I will gladly take! One member of the audience hadn’t seen us since school and was very complimentary. A great day and a solid show.

People didn’t really bring cameras to gigs in the 80s so my earliest band pics are of us stood around smoking cigarettes, thinking we were a bit edgy! The earliest live pic I can find is on tour with SkinTrade in the early 90s at The Old Angel in Nottingham. That P bass did all my early gigs, as did that awful (& heavy Peavey combo). And bringing the world into colour, with Deadlight Dance in Salisbury back in April. I’m back to having basses / kit that isn’t sold on so quickly. However, now I have a handful of decent basses and both quality amp and ampless setups.

We were rehearsing for a big charity multi band event this Sunday. Rushing from work, I was shattered and our drum track edits hadn’t saved so it wasn’t as slick as Wednesday’s run through. However, I am loving my BCB-60 board and have rediscovered my 2008 USA Jazz bass. Once we got over the hiccups, it sounded immense!

I too have mostly stayed on very good terms with all my ex-band mates. However, I was in a duo in the early 2000s when I first got back into playing again, after a break. The duo quickly became a trio and ran for a few years with the three of us being thick as thieves. The singer used to get a lot of female attention but was always really humble. Then in the last few months, something changed. It was silly comedy things like him taking his shirt off onstage and posing with fans for photos. I probably overthought the whole thing but one possible turning point was us showing up to do an open mic and he was raving about some 19yr old who was playing. He really rated her and I remember saying privately when asked that I didn’t think she was anything special as a performer. He seemed really put out. I then noticed that having had a rock solid friendship that he was barely speaking to me or even looking at me. He was turning 40yrs old that summer and had a wife and two young teenage boys. His wife was always really intense and a little hard work. One day she phoned me whilst I was on holiday to say that the singer had left her and run off with a 19yr old. The band kind of broke up as a result. I saw him about a year or two later and was really pleased to see him. He was cool but a little distant. He then added me on his social media and was messaging me but as the messages started to dry up, I suddenly just started getting invites to like his new band. I wound up deleting him as I obviously wanted more from him than he did from me. I’m still on good terms with the other guy but it was not so much bitter, just bizarre. It had an impact on me for a couple of years but I just put it down to experience. I saw he was selling our albums as digital downloads on Bandcamp but I can’t imagine 20yr old recordings of a band that never made it do too well so wasn’t bothered. He tried to get the other guy to do a reunion without me about 10-15yrs ago but the other guy was classy enough to say all of us or not at all. Oh, and he’s now married to the aforementioned 19yr old, who is nearly 40 and they have kids together. Good luck to them. No malice on my part. A weird ending to what was a great run of music.

I think tastes naturally evolve. They also tend to come full circle, sometimes a few times over. I think age is a factor too. In my youth, I used to look longingly at the Ampeg ads. The dream became a reality as an adult. Then my back decided they weren't such a great idea. Good whilst it lasted though. I think I hold the view, never say never.

I use it on everything these days. It suits what we do.

We've had this twice and it is frustrating. I think the answer is always that you never get to the bottom of why. On both occasions I know that we had punters regularly asking the venue(s) for us to return. Both nights were packed, we played well and filled the dance floor. I put it down to the booker just not getting the band's style. I guess there are lots of bands jostling for positions that are limited and they have their favourites.

I don't have any - I must be getting quite Zen with age!

Thanks Martin - those were the days. I was doing similar in the late 80s Marlborough / Pewsey.

Raising money for our local hospice in a couple of weeks.

I'm tempted to start a thread called "How was your five gigs last night?" as we played a Shuffle in the village of Aldbourne. We did it a couple of years back and it was something of a mixed bag but the theory is six bands rotate around the village performing sets at the two pubs, two cafes and a club. The immediate downside is that I wanted to see a couple of the other acts but couldn't as we were playing. My duo expanded to a trio as our original drummer from 35yrs ago was dusted down and brought out of retirement, catapulting us back to Sixth Form 1989 / 1990! He even messaged to say his mum would cook for us before we set off. Bless her, well into her 80s and she catered for our dietary requirements! We'd driven down to Southampton to rehearse with Mike and it was a great day, in terms of sound and effortlessly cool company. We've all mellowed with age and are all much more self aware with age. This is 60% of an old Sixth Form goth band and as it is the internet, I can pretend that the three of us drove about in Mike's Lotus! First up was the Post Office cafe. I actually had my wedding reception there back in 2016 so it felt good to play. I had envisaged nobody being there but it was mobbed. It's a tall order doing 5 venues in an evening so I elected myself as chief whip cracker and we got on with our set. We opened with Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart before busting in to two of our own songs. We ended on The Cure's Just Like Heaven and a darker take of The Weeknd's Blinding Light. I could hear the nerves in Mike, and more surprisingly Nick. Plus I had a couple of people pointing at me and pointing up. That said, the video I saw on FB (set to friends only) sounded better than it felt. One bloke complimented on our original songs and said he couldn't believe how intelligent the lyrics were. I said "that's all on Nick, he's bright - he has O level Woodwork!" We deliberately had a two mandocello and a snare drum (dampened by a tea towel) set up, with two small Boss three pedal pedalboards to allow for easy travel between venues. We moved on to The Crown. Last time was a very frosty reception (a couple of rungs down from needing chicken wire!) and we'd not been back. This time we were totally on it and so were the crowd! It was mobbed and we went down well again. We had to stop the audience from chatting as we tried to leave as we didn't want to hold up proceedings but it as all very complimentary. We moved to what had been our second home, The Blue Boar. The owners are moving on and you can tell they are giving up. The PA suddenly looked tired and there were no leads and just one mic. The previous act was more mainstream and we walked in feeling like we'd be following the returning hero. A few people immediately left as she finished and I thought it might be a comedown. However, it started to fill with different people as we started and we did a fair set. This was the one set, I played less than my normal high standards. I'll say it was the worst show of the night but on balance I was happy with it. One thing I will say was it was a really interesting reminder of how much pedal settings need to vary between venues. My overdrive was screaming out at The Boar but barely audible on the same settings back at the Post Office. Funny how the room and the PA can make such a difference. *obviously, I adjusted accordingly! Anyhow, we arrived at The Forge, which was the second outdoor gig. I am yet to source a pic for this (I'm sure you'll all live!) but for me this was my favourite show. I thought we'd hit our stride here. With the exception of the Boar, all had on hand soundmen (basically local musicians who helped us set up). A great set. Finally, we finished at The Club. We did an extra song of Rain by The Cult, which we'd first played together in the very same village 35yrs ago. I noticed Mike's drumming was just slightly dipping here but he'd done so well on balance. Honourable mention to the two old school Swindon goths who came out and followed us around all five venues! Sorry for such a long post but it really was an amazing experience and an amazing night. We ended by returning to the Crown and hanging out with all the acts.

So last night we headlined a 5 band charity fundraiser for Wilts Air Ambulance at The Lamb in Marlborough. We’ve been working on our new original material recently and I think it’s fair to say that other aspects of the band have taken a backseat. A couple of you may recall that we go out in different formats, across a range of instruments. I have decided recently to upskill on the mandocello and have spent the last couple of weeks practicing on it. Always beneficial. When Nick and I sat down yesterday to rehearse, we may have been the worst we have ever sounded! To the point that we regrouped at mine to go through everything again and wound up being the best we have ever sounded. We got to the gig and there was a green room with drink and food laid on for the band. Enjoying alcohol-free irresponsibly! I resisted the urge to have a Nigel Tufnel moment! All the acts were excellent but everyone overran. We wound up hitting the stage at 10.55pm and I really thought we might be doing the world’s shortest set. However, we went on with a real focus and determination, playing a really charged set. We did a full show. I am resplendent in green here! Backstage, the camaraderie between bands was superb. We talked about men’s health (& mental health) which I always think is really positive. We then talked about first gigs and young Josh (our resident cool youngster) coughed to his being Chico (“It’s Chico Time” fame!). Sadly I don’t think we can let that go! Oh, I came home to discover that aside from my band being nominated for best act in multiple categories of the Wiltshire Music Awards, I have picked up a nomination for best bassist and best multi instrumentalist too! A near perfect day.

For the first time in over two years, and the third time since 1990, I reunited with 60% of my original band from Sixth Form. Everyone has massively mellowed with age and it was worth the trek from North Wiltshire to Southampton. I confidently took lead vocals on a couple and it stands out as a highlight of my year.

I’m one half of Deadlight Dance, Wiltshire’s darkest boy band! I guess we’d be filed under 80s goth. Nick and I met in a Sixth Form goth band in 1989. We did our first gig together and have been friends for over 35yrs now. Here’s a one minute showreel of our greatest hits. Deadlight formed over lockdown as we thought we’d have a jam when restrictions eased, to see if we could play the old songs properly. It just grew. We decided to write together and wound up signed to Ray Records with an album out. Last count, we’d been streamed in 75 countries. I appreciate it’s not rivalling the big bands but it’s not bad for two old mates just having a jam when the restrictions ease! As to the question of originals or covers, we do both. We booked an old Saxon Church (is there such a thing as a new Saxon Church?) in 2023 and recorded a covers album of the songs that first inspired us. We made a short film about it. We can go out as the “full” band with our backing tracks we wrote or chuck some quirky folk instruments into the back of the car and go out acoustic style. I did the numbers on gigs and it really varies. It’s usually at least 20 a year but it has been much higher. We get gigs whenever the Batphone rings.

We use a lot of (gentle) humour and pride ourselves on our between song chat. Our music is quite dark so it offsets that. We also don't play the same songs in the same way in the same order, which is my pet hate as a player - so I am sure some of the audience get bored too! At the last gig, the PA died ahead of the encore so we jumped into the middle of the crowd with acoustic instruments and played up close and personal. That definitely went down well.

We had nothing to do with the poster but delighted to be fundraising for Wiltshire Air Ambulance and knowing the bands on the bill, honoured to be headlining such a great collection of local talent.

Yep, it seems pretty much the only model in mainstream production. Bizarrely D'Addario seen to be the main Monticello string maker and the strings don't fit.