Franticsmurf

Yes, I've had this experience and the singer told the band 'if you don't follow me, you'll be the ones looking bad.' He was right, of course, and is now on his own trying to make it as a solo artist. But the experience taught me (and the others in the band) how to quickly adapt to random changes to arrangements, keys and even moving from one song to another unexpectedly and although I hated it at the time, I have to accept that it made me a better musician.

Yes, I completely agree. Mistakes are natural for all sorts of reasons. I'd add that it's also about what you do to minimise making the same mistake again in the future.

Ahh, you're an experimental progressive jazz player? Like me 🤣

It does tend to look good if the band are singing backing vocals, even if the actual BVs are just following the main singer. I'm not the greatest singer and in my three piece I sing lead on three straight forward songs mainly to give the singer/guitarist a break. But I try to contribute BVs to the songs that benefit from it. For those I tend to sing the straight vocal and the singer takes the harmony.

Everyone makes mistakes, it's how you deal with them that matters. Follow the singer as the rest of the audience will be and if you don't, they'll only notice you going wrong. It's good for the band to have something definite to do as well, as there is nothing worse than everyone doing something different as a reaction or the stubborn 'well it wasn't me' plough on regardless approach on stage. Yes, me too (within reason). One of the bands I'm in has inexperienced musicians in the line up and I've told them if it doesn't clash too badly, repeat the mistake and own it. If it does, stop playing until you can come back in correctly as it's better to play nothing than notes/chords that clearly stand out as wrong.

You beat me to it. I have a couple of dead matches in the tool box and I've had to use them in the past.

I'm still friends with him and for all the faults (and there were many) I always trusted him with the financial arrangements. I don't believe he was every trying to con the band but he needed to be seen as the 'professional musician' and his ego struggled if someone said 'too loud/wrong music/you're not very good'. He would spin the situation sometimes so that it seemed as if the band was at fault rather than him. I depped with him and a scratch band last year to play an Eagles tribute gig at which there were a couple of agents and some club secretaries he hadn't p***** off. Honestly, given that we were six individuals with 4 rehearsals (2 in my case as i joined late) we played a good gig with some dodgy moments but afterwards he claimed that the agents had said we were scruffy and hadn't made an effort visually and that we needed to tighten up. Over the next few weeks he let slip that they thought he was scruffy and he needed to tighten up with the rest of the band. 😃

Definitely the psychedelic one. Maaaan. 😀

Yes, unfortunately.

I've had my V5 for several months now and I'm very happy with it. Great playability out of the box, looks good and sounds great.

About 10 years ago, over a period of about 6 months, our singer managed to p*** off a number of local contacts (landlords, club entertainments secretaries etc) until all our local gigs dried up. Until then we'd enjoyed a couple of residencies in local pubs (every 6 weeks or so) plus an informal club circuit netting us about 10 gigs a year and from these came the bigger gigs - weddings, birthdays, charity gigs and Xmas/New Year. Suddenly we were only getting work from the agent he was friendly with and it became clear that the agent was using us to fill gaps that his other acts wouldn't touch ("You're in Aberllanllinllyngweryngoch Sewing Circle club tonight, boys. £100 pick up.") The direct consequence for us was the loss of about 50 gigs a year but in the longer term it impacted on the reputation of the band because the nature of a network is that it shares information. The band very quickly drifted apart until it became just a collection of musicians who were available on the night. Needless to say I am no longer a part of that collection. Edit: Other bands are also part of the network - I've recommended bands I know when my band hasn't been available, and we've had gigs through recommendations from other bands.

I've told this one elsewhere. Three piece playing a holiday park with a proper stage so at the very last minute (as we're being introduced) the singer/guitarist decides he wants to start the set with him on his own playing 'Knocking on Heaven's Door', and me and the drummer are to walk on stage behind him and start playing after the chorus. We're not happy, but he goes on and starts. Very quickly it's obvious he's gone off too quick and sure enough, the 'Knock knock knocking on heavens' door' line is delivered at just less than the speed of a woodpecker creating a new home. Needless to say we allowed him to enjoy his own brain fart and only came on for the second song. 😀

I take two to a gig, but only one is on stage. The other is in hospitality (i.e. 'the broom cupboard') waiting for its moment of glory.

We launched into 'How Long' - the only song of the evening that I sang. Midway through the verse I become aware that something was wrong but as I was concentrating on singing and playing the bass line, I wasn't sure what it was. Into the chorus and I could just make out that the guitarist was still in the verse. I'm not sure where the mistake originated, but the guitarist (who was also the main singer) was notorious for 'winging it' and there were a few other problems from him with songs that didn't resemble the rehearsal versions during that gig, as revealed by the GoPro footage. Knowing the guitarist's stubborn streak, I stopped singing and allowed him to catch up. Meanwhile the drummer, also aware of the situation, played generic 4/4 patterns until everyone synchronised again. We got a clap so it must have sounded ok out front. 😬

"Hello Glastonbury are your ready to rock? A few announcements before the main act. The bingo starts at 9.30 and this week's prize is a fantastic £132.85p. The Committee meets on Thursday to discuss the new roof, please attend as it's your club. There have been some complaints about the state of the toilet; please clean up after you. The ladies committee cake sale will take place on the 13th. If you have any plates or paper serviettes you can spare, please give them to Gladys. And now, the main act. Playing hits from the 50's to the 90s, here's Arthur Gimble and his Rockin' Rebels....."

Happened to me once - not jiggling out of my dress - but the large lady in front of me jiggled out of the side of her top(!) and believe me, I wish I had been looking at the fretboard. I went straight into an experimental jazz odyssey. 🤣

I paid around £350 for mine last year from the Bass Gallery (there's one for sale there now) with a flight case but without the GK2B pick-up, which was another £100 or so new. So on the face of it, that looks a good price. My cynical and suspicious mind would be asking why is it such a good price, but that's just me. I use mine occasionally with a 4 string bass and I find the COSM tracking on all frets is very good. I also use it with my Guitarbass VI with a GK3 pick-up (originally intended for guitar) as you can set the unit up to receive from 4, 5 or 6 strings.

...and now I GAS for under board lighting! 😀

Nice one! We have a regular FOH engineer with the Hulla band and since I've joined them we've been working to get me a nice sound out front (this band is the first one where I've regularly gone into the desk). He mentioned the other day that my onstage sound (I'm having trouble weaning myself off a TE 1x10" cab and TCE BAM200 amp) forms part of his FOH sound. I was horrified - I'm too loud - but he was happy. 😃

+1 for the above. Dr Internet never graduated from medical school. 😃

I like the way you think. 😃

And pneumatic lifters? 😃

I'm just trying to organise a rehearsal space for our band as I type. We have a couple of places in Swansea - the one I'm familiar with is in an industrial estate and which has three smallish rooms (just about ok for a 5 piece) and basic kit and goes for £10 per hour. But we've just managed to get a hall for £20 all day so we're going with that.

Thanks. I have the pedals, I just need to see which ones work best and add them to the gig board, or make up a new gig board. GLWTS.

I'm the opposite in some ways - apart from making sure I had the basics (comp, chorus, pre-amp), I bought a few cheap versions of things (filters, overdrives and octaves) that I told myself were to test out the concept before buying 'the real thing' for a permanent place on the board. But for the most part, I haven't replaced the cheap ones with more expensive kit because I've found the sound I want with them. My MS60B has a permanent spot on the board for specific spot effects (a drastic EQ change for a couple of numbers, a flange effect for the start of 'Dakota' and recently a bass synth patch for ... well, I haven't found an ideal spot for it yet but its a great sound. 😃 I got a HB Stomp Control the other day to set up several loops of pedals on the creative board, and I recently invested in a Plethroa X3 which is now providing the comp, chorus and phase on the gig board. I thought long and hard about the X3 as I had individual pedals to cover the effects I'd use. But I decided that the footswitchable boards you can program into it would save me dancing on several pedals to get the sound I was after. So far it's been rehearsed several times and gigged once and it is making things easier for me. This is the current gig board: