Franticsmurf

I played a short solo spot in a relaxed multi-act gig to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the RNLI. I've never performed on my own before and to say I was nervous would be an understatement. I was joined for one number by the guitarist from the band I'm in - fair play to him he was there just to watch and I asked him to join me on the spot. Most of the rest of the band were there, either as punters or doing short spots of their own. I find it much harder to play in front of people I know so that didn't help the nerves. My guitar performance was not as good as I would have liked but I was happy with my vocals and even happier when people joined in, laughed at my attempts at humour and gave me a rousing cheer at the end! I was told it was strictly acoustic and yet everyone else there had little amps. I managed to borrow one from one of the other acts as the on-stage microphones ("they'll pick up everything on stage so you won't need an amp") weren't working and, in any case, I wasn't on the stage as it was being prepared for the choir coming on after me. No photos, probably for the good. I was using my Crafter semi-acoustic 6 string plugged into a small Fender acoustic amp. Edit: Photos have emerged!

Several of the folk in my main band, the Hulla, are volunteers at the local lifeboat station. Somehow, I've managed to get myself on the line up for a charity night celebrating the 200th anniversary of the RNLI on Saturday. No biggy, you say. Well, after 35 +years of gigging, Saturday will be my first solo spot. I've sung lead and backing vocals, played guitar , bass and even a bit of keyboards in duos through to 13 piece line-ups. But I've never stood on the stage on my own with just a guitar to hide behind. 🤐

We did that once, many years ago. We were the last act of a charity night and it had been a bit slow and down tempo so we figured we had nothing to lose. It was completely unplanned (basically we did all the up tempo songs from our set), but we were in the midst of a run of years when the gigs were plentiful and the band was very tight and we played non-stop for about an hour. There were some dodgy transitions, some stutters when we were trying to understand the singer/guitarist's gestures and mimes, definitely too many extended choruses and probably a few too many drum solos and bass solos but we did it. The dancers were up and down in relays but the dance floor was never empty. I was knackered coming off but I still remember it as one of the highlights of my live career.

We used to play a medley of rock cliches as although none of us really wanted to play them, we recognised that many of the audiences we played to wanted to hear them. It consisted of the 'recognisable' bits of Alright Now, Wishing Well, Sweet Home Alabama and Sweet Child of Mine. We were a busy and tight 3 piece and the medley evolved over a few gigs as the singer called the changes. Nothing was ever formalised and the transitions were quite good most of the time (when the singer was on top form). The tempo remained the same (or within a few bpm). Often the bit in Wishing Well after the descending riff, which we would play four times through at the start, would briefly veer into '500 Miles' and/or 'Psychokiller' before coming back out into Wishing Well again. Or, if the audience was bouncing to 500 Miles (which they often did) we'd just stick with it and drop the rest of the medley. It worked because we could react to each other after hundreds of gigs together. I did consider formalising the arrangement but to be honest in this scenario it worked well and I didn't want to mess with something that wasn't broken. From my experience if I was going to work out a medley from scratch, I'd be concentrating on getting the tempo right first. As we used the example above to keep people on the dance floor, we kept the tempo danceable. Had we inserted an abrupt tempo change it wouldn't have worked.

In my current band we have a fair turnover of songs, perhaps 50% of the set over a year. Of the 'new' ones, the majority come from the existing reservoir of tunes the band has played in some form over the years (there's a list dating back to before I was with them that runs to more than 100 songs). Because we tend to play functions, there are quite a few additions to the set from requests by the people booking us and the remainder come from within the band. There tends to be a reshuffle following the Hullabaloo festival we organise in the summer. This year, we have added 22 new songs to the set (of about 35-40 depending on the gig). Bucking the trend, only 5 were from the existing list this time. 6 were requests and new to the band and 11 were new and suggested from within the band. In addition, we rotate Christmas songs for any festive gigs we have. In my previous band, one of the reasons I left was because the set remained static and stale. It's very hard to be enthusiastic about a song with three chords that you've played for several years without any significant changes to the arrangement. 😀

Would it be an option to get one of the other band members to do the sound? Once the others start to appreciate the problems as well peer pressure may improve the situation.

Rock 'n' roll, baby! 😀

I recently sold three guitars as they were not being used and at the same time decided that my Sterling 34HH would finally head off to bass hospital to have its crackly selector switch replaced and a decent set-up job done. With a pretty important gig coming up I wanted a back up for my P Bass and settled on this Squier Affinity PJ. It has a chunk of the finish missing at the back which is hidden from view when I play it, and doesn't affect the sound, so I got the bass at a big discount from the local music shop. It helped that I know the owner (we've been in bands together on and off for nearly 30 years). I swapped the pick guard for the one that I had on the P Bass and while it's probably not to everyone's taste, I like it. In the meantime, I've been looking for a semi acoustic bass to complete the line-up and spotted this Ibanez AGBV200A on the PMT website. Second hand, it arrived this afternoon in perfect condition (if you take into account that the 'V' in the catchy model name stands for vintage which means the guitar has been 'relic-ed' to appear old. Edit: The photo doesn't do the finish justice). The action is low as I like it and the strings are relatively new. It has a lovely tone with and without amplification. It's a short scale but feels longer than 30", probably due to the larger body and playing position on a strap. I love the finish and I think it will have a place in the Hulla band set when we do the more mellow numbers in the set.

I was in the same boat - I spent 30 years in a job that wore me down little by little; slowly enough that I didn't really notice the effects. I stayed because for me that's what you did, and it was relatively well paid and easier than looking for something else. When the effects of the stress and pressure of petty politics and personality clashes finally started manifesting themselves to an extent that I noticed, I knew it was time to go. I went, and it was the best thing I ever did.

I had two back to back rehearsals, same venue, some of the same people, as we've been asked to put together a small acoustic group to play a gig celebrating the 200th anniversary of the RNLI. We spent an hour trying out a few songs to see which would work with three acoustic guitars, a sax and a pared down drumkit. It went quite smoothly as we've been playing together for a while. I had attempted to score the sax part for one song but being music notation illiterate, my efforts were only partly successful and one of the other in the band has offered to take on the scoring role. The main Hulla band rehearsal is leading up to the local Crown Court Christmas party which we play every year - the BL has connections. The set is currently fluid; we have around 45 songs on the 'short' list which will most likely drop to around 35-40 by the time we play at the end of November. And as a favour to an ex-bandmate, I'm playing in a trio on Sunday. It's very much a one-off, and we've only had a couple of hours of rehearsal time. As the guitarist and I have played together before, the drummer and I play together now and the set is only 20 minutes or so, I'm not so worried. We're practicing individually to a recording from one of the 'proper rehearsals.

My tuner of choice is Behringer, I use a UMC1820 to record with and since the band I'm in is using an X32 mixer, I now have the P16m as my IEM controller. A P2 acts as my IEM link for use with other bands and, of course, a BD121 is a cheap and compact back-up should the need arise. I started out using Behringer pedals to try out effects I wasn't sure about (usually guitars effects for bass) so I now have a collection of them. I did put together a Behringer pedalboard for fun and a couple made it to the main board for a gig in which I swapped between bass and guitar.

I've been campaigning for Sledgehammer to go into our set. I learnt it for a previous band that never took off. Great to play. Good luck.

With the band I'm currently in, it's about 8-10 gigs a year on average. They're good gigs (in terms of venues and attendance) but it doesn't quite satisfy the itch to play live. Add in deps and side projects and by the end of this year I'll have probably played 15. In the past, I've been in bands and duos that have played close on 100 gigs a year but as someone above said, quantity isn't everything and some of those nights were ones to forget 😀. I think for me, now, twice a month would be a good number.

Yeah - I was trapped on stage once with not so great music playing from the backing tracks 😀. It was a dep role for a mate, who had been going out as a 'guitar/guitar/vocal' trio. One of the guitars didn't turn up and at short notice, with no real prep, I said I'd cover for a couple of gigs. The female singer was good but doing modern dance pop mixed with show tunes, and my mate on the guitar was doing the same old stuff we used to do when were in a band together. The set lurched from 'Treasure' to 'Johnny B Good' to 'Penny Arcade' to 'Sweet Caroline' via 'Eye of the Tiger' and 'Abracadabra'. The audience (social club/bingo crowd) didn't know what to make of it. Nothing I could do except stand at the back and endure. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger. 🤣

In the Hulla Band, I love playing the more funky songs although I'm not really a fan of funk music on record. Currently we're playing through 'Land of a Thousand Dances', 'Take Me to the River', 'Stayin' Alive' and 'Your Love'. But then we're also working on more rocky stuff and my particular favourites in that genre at the moment are 'I Fought the Law', Town Like Malice' and 'Get Your Rocks Off'. Last night we were working on 'Suffragette City' and I really enjoyed the bass part. I think that will become a new favourite. The song that I look forward the most, though, is the Sheryl Crow version of 'Sweet Child of Mine' in which I am given free reign to play more melodic bass lines (if you know the song, I'm doing a lot of the little guitar fills).