Muzz

In the now-sadly-defunct covers trio I was in for years, we never had a setlist per se, just a pool of maybe 75 songs we could play on the night, so the singist/geetard/BL could call it as he felt the audience wanted it. He was very, very good at it, too; it's an overlooked skill, and an important one for being all things to all gigs...

Oh, that's just a normal Friday night down the Dog & Duck round our way...if they like you, they let you live...

Donkeys years ago, we played a big health club Xmas Do in the city centre. This being a very chic health club (our BL was a very wealthy dilettante; he used to come to rehearsals in a Ferrari), the posh buffet was mostly unmolested, and after the punters had picked and faffed I went up to the ice stand where two lobsters were displayed above the prawns. 'Are those things just for show?' 'No, they're real' 'Right, I'll have them, then'... That was the same gig where the bloke who'd booked us came up to me as I was getting changed after the gig (black tie and suit had been the request) and gave me a wad of cash. I went up to the bar where the others were 'Lads, I've got the money' They looked at me... 'Yeah, so have we'... I looked at the wedge in my hand. It was more money than any band I'd been in till then had ever been paid. 'But....oh.' It was a shame that band fell apart, we never went anywhere near the Dog & Duck, the nearest we got to the hoi polloi was a golf club...

Nope, Beyer DT 770s. I use them as part of my home office setup, they're all-day comfortable. I'm playing sitting down at home, wired is easier.

Oh my word - that Treeline...I'm gonna guess it'll be plennnnty of money, but stick an EMG P4 in the right position and I'd play that every gig...

Yep, it's something I'm grateful for every gig: bass case, rucksack, Stomp/inears, my own mix and volume control. 3 minute setup, breakdown less. Given I've got 34 more gigs this year, that's a lot of happy sighing. Oh, and rehearsal/home playing? iPad/Jamup, Sonic Port, bass, headphones. Bingpot.

This ^^^...if they can do a four. The Dog & Duck won't know what's hit it...

Ohhhh, I'm nicking that for our pub band gigs...we can progress to the Autumn Concert Series, Winter Concert Series... We can stick another £50 on the fee if we go for that... 😁

It's the curse of pub/covers bands: you play like a bunch of individuals who've never met before and there's punters who loved it, the other side of the coin is a great gig without a note dropped, you're all nodding at each other at the end like the Muppets used to do coming off stage, and no-one in the audience blinks an eye...

Jenga Master Level on the packing...years ago, my friend and I had a Satdy morning job helping load his Dad's HGVs with furniture. We'd spend half an hour lining up the sofas and tables and armchairs and stuff into the back of the lorry, only to find ourselves with about a third of the load left still out. The driver would come out from the office, shake his head, point out three or four things that should be rotated or lined up differently, and hey presto, the lot would be in. It was baffling how they could just see it...

I've been IEM for about 18 months now, and unless there's a change of band bringing in the money, I won't be going back. Oddly, the band I'm in only myself and the drummer are IEM (and he went there because there's a single song to a click, which he needs to hear), the other two (singist/geetard and percussionist) aren't. Luckily we have a good desk which allows individual mixes, so I have just what I need (kick and snare and me, mostly, with a guide-level geetar and vox, and not much percussion) at the volume I need from the lovely dial on my P2... The PA isn't massive (just two RCF 745s, and the singist/geetard has a RCF 12 monitor), but it's more than enough for the pubs and clubs we play...in fact I think we're always too loud FOH, but that's another story... I've done a few bits with an originals band (see the album launch thing in the gigs thread), but it's a country band, so no massive volumes needed, and I go into the desk from my Stomp and rely on a monitor. If required, I'll use a stage monitor (I have a modded Rumble 100 on a stand, or for more ooomph a QSC 12.2), but I'd much, much rather use the inears. A personal mix of the band where you can hear everything clearly at a reasonable volume? What's not to like? The isolation thing I've become used to, tho there's still a decent level of ambient stage sound from the mics, so it's not extreme at all. Oh, and the load in and out? A struggle of the past...plus whenever we're jammed into a corner (and with a drummer and 3-conga/2-bongo percussionist, that's exacerbated) there's more stage room without backline.

Completely agree with that, especially if, like I did last year, you get a hosting band seat. Then you're really in at the deep end, but it's very liberating (once you've got over the 'I've never played/heard this before, how can I play it now?' thing)...

I believe there's a heavy steel rod in there, too...

Tempting...I need to find some tonelead first, tho...

Don't tempt me...the trouble is, if I did lighten the body, it'd neck dive, so the fix for that is...

9lbs 5oz...not a killer for some folk, but very heavy for me, especially with my gig calendar...

Oh my sainted aunt, that looks great...please tell me it's light...

So I tweaked my back (on the roof, too, doing a spot of DIY, tho not the full Rod Hull, thankfully) last weekend, and I've had a back-focused kinda week, so I decided to weigh all my basses. Tragically, my favourite gigging bass, the BB414, is (as I'd suspected/feared) the heaviest of the lot. What surprised me was by how much - after a bit of restringing/fettling, I gigged a Shuker that was nearly 2lbs lighter. I'm now trying to think of simple ways to lighten it (I've already done the tuners, there's not much else easy to do), I may even explore more radical solutions...

Another Satdy night, another bar...this one, however, was a bit upmarket/older clientele (a new venue to us), and when a 60th birthday Do walked in (about 15 ladies, there were balloons and sashes, that kinda vibe), a hasty rearrange of the set towards the Girly Dancy Songs led to a more engaged night than it could have been... Downside, tho, was something that hasn't happened for a bit: Singist/Geetard/BL got there first, and texted 'Lads, it's up two flights of stairs', which was followed by three immediate responses of 'Oh, f**k nooooo...' Still, as I say, that's the first one this year, so can't really complain, especially as I've tweaked me back (Physio booked Weds) and was able to honestly swerve much of the heavy lifting...thank the gods for Helix and inears...

As a matter of interest, does this pub put any other bands/live music on?

Before anyone gets near sorting out who might get what, bear in mind that £100 behind the bar from the landlord won't equate to £100 handed over by the landlord; £100 in drinks will be costing the landlord much, much less...and a rammed pub should translate into proper gig money for the band...round these parts that's £300. Cash.

A nice change from the pub gigs with pisht punters on Friday night - album launch gig (Persona Non Grata by Noel Fraser - it's on all the streaming sites) for my erstwhile Singist/BL...he's gone all Country(ish), hence the daft hat and my check shirt. Unusual venue (tho a touch epic), the sound was apparently good out front, but onstage it was the swirly, bouncy, reverby nightmare I'd feared. The drummer was using a mix of sticks, hotrods and brushes, and he and I had to have his drums in our monitor , because even standing next to him it was tough to hear what he was playing on the more subtle songs...a good evening, though... I like this one, tho it's more about the bass than me...

A smooth and easy transaction with Paul - he even helped out meeting me to cut down on my M6 drive. One of the good guys on here...

I've gigged extensively in pubs, some smaller clubs and all sorts of wedding/function venues with two RCF 12 tops and a single 12 sub, and it was never, ever short of volume - and that's with triggered drums and no backline (guitar/vocal, bass, drums trio doing all sorts of music). If you need to go much louder than that in the sort of places above then the people at the front are being deafened... We've even used a pair of Bose S1s with the RCF 12 sub, and that was fine for smaller places. Newer band is a four-piece, no backline, miked kit, and through two RCF 15 tops it can go stupidly, pointlessly loud for pubs. I use inears, which are a blessing because it's so loud. All the bigger gigs I've played have had backline and/or appropriate sized PA for the venue. I can't recall a gig in the last 15 years when I either thought or have been told by a punter that any band I was in wasn't loud enough. Too loud, yes, not loud enough, no. Only ever played with a single 12 sub, now and then.