scalpy

Yes when it comes to effects. I love my basic sound, G&L ASAT and Markbass set up, got a good octave sound too, but drive and filters I can’t quite dial in. I’ve got a Stomp now and am edging closer but home experimentation and in context with band are two very separate things.

On my ASAT that’s in passive. Not aware of there being a different version of that pre either. It’s a good tip about removing the jack but the G&L pre is not like a typical one as I understand it- the battery only operates if it detects signal from the strings moving. I’ve gone on holiday for a week accidentally leaving mine plugged in and the battery worked for another year.

My current band is in it's 12th year. We started as friends or friends of friends (the guitarist would join if his friend could drum etc) and we quickly progressed from village fetes and self organised gigs at pubs. This was after our singer who is ambitious and very positive about what is possible in life blagged us a large booking in front of the great and the good of the community and we started to play the local theatre and weddings for considerably more money than pub fees. Half the band (the core is 8 of us) got a bit casual about this work, thinking just to be booked was good enough for the clients but they weren't that interested in quality control, with charts not being played accurately, tempos not being met or chords being forgotten on a regular basis. But they liked the reputation and they liked the cash. The guitarist, much as he is a valued and trusted friend had us over a barrel as we rehearsed at his using a lot of his kit. The two singers, one of whom is my wife, and I were getting embarrassed and frustrated by this attitude as the male singer does a lot of the sales, my wife does all the organising and logistics and I do all the music prep. As a degree level trumpet player myself I grew particularly tired of writing basic charts for the horns that my students could play only for frequent car crashes to occur. I also hated counting tunes off at a certain tempo for the drummer to start at a completely different one- he had a complex about being the drummer that rushed. Our sax player had to leave after some ill health. We brought in a cruise ship level replacement. In the end I asked the trumpet player to re-audition for his place as one person playing the rhythms correctly and one of them wrong was worse than what we had before. He quit, then the guitarist realised the 20 year old dep we were using was kicking his behind and he went, eventually followed by the drummer. We restructured as a limited company and now have about three players available for each role depending on availability. If a player does a gig they invoice. If we've ended up working with players that don't turn out to fit in for whatever reason, we don't book them again. Result? A band that is friendly and happier by a country mile, also delivering musically on a much more consistent basis. If you're prepared to put in the work behind the scenes, I can thoroughly recommend this model for a band.

So after the show yesterday I rushed back to Hereford to see my band playing at the gig they had! They were booked for a party in the bar at the theatre and used the A guitarist on bass and the B guitarist on guitar, the A drummer was available, and the B trumpeter was as well (our hottest hot lips was on the show with me) so they took the gig. Really great to see them all play. But it was nice to back in the saddle this evening. Pleasant wedding at Stone Manor just outside Kidderminster, a nice gig, just Sunday evening vibes after a warm day, some were in the mood for partying but I think a lot had an eye on the clock. Still, enjoyed it and it was nice and rowdy from about half the crowd by the end.

Another annual week of WODYs, one of Worcester’s musical theatre youth groups at the local Swan Theatre. And another round of Addams Family and load of Englanders doing their best to read Latin rhythms and pass them off as convincing. The band are great people though, very much the opposite of Stewblack’s experience mentioned a little earlier, we have a blast. Didn’t play my absolute finest but passable. On the matinee the MD shortened a vamp during a scene change spontaneously just as I had a big leap up the neck which I had to look down for- resulting in a two bar unscheduled bass solo that I had to style out….Spent the rest of the day being ribbed mercilessly by the rest of the band.

Had a great night at Hereford Cathedral. When we were booked I was adamant we weren’t going to play inside as the epic acoustics are a nightmare with live bands, and fortunately the weather was on our side and we played in the grounds. The venue did a good job promoting it and we shifted over 200 tickets, quite a few mustard yellow cords and salmon pink trousers about so it was a bit like playing for the illuminati but they lapped it up. We put as many Cathedral related (albeit loosely in lots of cases) songs in the set, Locked Out of Heaven, Paradise, Living On A Prayer etc and started with a new mash up we’ve called (O Cum All Ye) Faithful which is Faith, Like A Prayer and Sympathy For The Devil. 😈 Worked well. Played ok with some brain fades or my clown feet standing on the new hx stomp and it doing things I’ve never seen before. Nice changing room as well…. edb11293-a373-457c-b993-026b5be1f9d4.mp4

Great work, sounds ace.

We were at the Corners Inn, Kingsland, Herefordshire with the 5 piece line up. New dep keyboards tonight who was still getting up to spec with the tech, so the first half he struggled with the in-ears mix but it was an easy fix at the interval. Crowd were a 70th birthday party so we took it easy on the volume and got them dancing (Sex on Fire was a sight…) New toy for me, finally got around to getting a hx stomp. Need to learn more about it and tweak some of my programming but on the whole a good laugh using it.

Final gig done in a busy weekend. Tortworth Hall, Gloucestershire. Massive hotel, very nice. The family are repeat clients and have booked us before for other weddings/ birthdays. The function room there is pretty large and has just enough room on stage for an 8 piece band. The event definitely felt like a Sunday gig, and it took a while for everyone to swop modes from lounging around the gardens with nice food into party time- we played their first (Bless The Broken Road) and most people headed for the fresh air immediately after. Had the first choice lineup though and by the time the second half started we had them partying. So glad this is the first day of the holiday for me, knackered this morning but just love playing. Incidentally, a very nice Dino in the car park, as well as us muppets.

50th birthday party last night, 80s theme, so everyone in good spirits despite being outside and the weather being on the cusp of disaster most of the evening. First obstacle however was getting to the place- in the middle of a woods up a very long and bumpy track. A few band members who hadn’t heard of what3words struggled… Next up was setting up on some decking outside the house with only a sail for shelter from the elements, a few gusts of wind almost drenched the drummer setting up but during the gig there were no issues. But apart from that, dep guitar and trumpet were acceptable if not spectacular but the audience were up for a party. Got everyone trained up for a super quick pack down, one more gig tonight with a complete band of first call players.

And you’ve already got an ASAT as well. 🤣

Have missed a number of gigs because I’ve forgotten to take photos- no issues tonight, the venue owner (Lyde Court, Hereford) suggested we got one by his plane, as one does. Horns on track tonight, punters don’t really care but they’re a bit cheesy for my liking but otherwise a great gig, works do, young-ish crowd and they lapped it up. Two more this weekend as well, best get some sleep!

No, but we did play Things Can Only Get Better, which everyone seems to be a little more familiar with lately for some reason!

P*ssed myself laughing when the band on before us started Freebird with 2 minutes to go of their slot leaving us in the rain with all our kit….

How was my gig last night? Wet.

Paul is multitalented fella, techs at an international level, mixes loads including this, plays guitar for The War of the Worlds tours and has a great sideline selling Avon beauty products!

Another batch of weddings to report on, after all it is the season. Friday, Glewstone Court, just outside of Ross-on-Wye. Only 90 minutes wait for food and speeches to be over, then set up the area in turbo time, carting gear in the pouring rain. Nice couple though and well received, small room (2 plugs) Venue very keen to have us back, especially as we had to shorten the sets and we hit their strict 11pm curfew with 30 secs to spare. I love having the countdown of each track in main stage. Tonight was a funny one. We had originally been booked up in Birmingham but the event got cancelled. Tuesday night I got a call from a local sound engineer saying a band had had to pull out of a wedding due to personal circumstances and could we do it. Unfortunately the male singer and keyboard player had both managed to find something else to do, so we decided my wife could manage the vocals by herself. There was a lot of desperate ringing round to find a dep keys, Friday afternoon we found an ex cruise ship player, so I sent him the parts and we were off to the races. When we turned up we found it was a large do, say 400 people, and the DJ was a proper purveyor of the boom and tizz boxes. Our FBT rig has got sufficient clout to play loud, live music in such a space but we weren’t going to able to compete, and had people asking us to turn up. Anyway, my wife got over her nerves, unusual for her, and won them round. They were a young farmers-esque crowd, the most notable moment being when a bloke fell of the shoulders, head first onto the stage into a load of glasses left on it. Fortunately no harm done but it could have been very different! Dep keyboard player remarked it was all rather different to his usual Warner hotel gig and we live to fight another day.

Thank you very much.

This is finally out after recording it last year. The video editing is slightly circumspect but I’m pretty pleased with how it sounds. There was some pressure as the engineer is one of the house guys at AIR and the bassist they used previously was John Giblin (RIP) Gear used was a G&L LB100 with chrome flats, Markbass vintage pre, Markbass lmt500 head and Aguilar db112 cabs.

Belated post, been waiting for some media from Mrs Scalpy who is also the female singer in the band and essentially band manager, promoter and video editor. Really good fun gig with the Hey Yahs at Lyde Court in Hereford, a room often seen in function band promo material with various agencies. We were able to set up the night before, after we'd mopped up the little owl poop all over the stage, apparently they nest in the eaves! The gig was for a local theatre company raising money for their next show- Footloose, so that was an obvious choice for the set list. Being thespionic they were all out with costumes and dancing, so great fun. The venue has a tremendous FBT in house rig and we had our first choice sound guy on hand- especially useful with a 5 piece horn section. Just one of those red letter gigs, happy days. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02M3NCEgwPchDirAkEQ98dXB3mRZHDmajYQghtPQcuP7cmgKagzdhdW2N63KGtTcAql&id=100009137232962&notif_id=1717962253558692&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic&ref=notif

The Thursday night wedding trend continues, another Hey Yahs gig, this time at Lyde Court just outside of Hereford. Nice venue to play, big stage, loads of plugs, easy load in and a brand new FBT PA install to use. Free bar meant the crowd were very excitable. One or two tech glitches but nothing to spoil the evening, out by 11:30pm. Nicely packed van and drove home sober.

Appears Basschat doesn’t have an appropriate emoji for this! 😵😵😵

Another Hereford gig to report. The Hey Yahs, wedding gig with the 6 piece line up at the Left Bank. First runout for the updated playback rig I run. Previously we ran two tracks one with click and a guide (me calling titles, cues etc) and the other was track (percussion, fx, occasional additional keys or guitar) and if no horns, horn tracks as well. This was a result of using tracks as an experiment to begin with, now we’re all in it needed improving, so up to four tracks now, separate guide, click, track and horns if necessary. Next stage is get enough money in the pot to go for 8 outs interface. This worked really well tonight though, singers much happier they could remove the click entirely, I don’t need the guide as much. Crowd were good, more interested in being outside earlier on but on the dance floor later, 2 encores.

Gordon Bennett’s must be one of the most frequent venues featured on here!

Happy with my band but I know what you mean about some audiences. I reported on here that our last wedding gig had been a roaring success, but when my wife and I reviewed the footage from the little Dji camera we put up for making content we found 4 or 5 of the guests leaving various lewd suggestions directly for us, spitting their drinks on it, then one guy tried to roundhouse it, falling spectacularly on the floor. If it wasn’t disrespectful to the clients and venue we’d post it and go ‘See, this is why we want a decent fee, this is what we have to put up with’