How has your summer been?

[Bilbo]

This summer has been my worst, gig-wise, in decades. Ever since I can remember, summer has been defined by two or three gigs, even four, every weekend throughout July and August, weddings, garden parties etc all good payers.

This year; next to nothing. One Jazz gig in July (with Phronesis pianist Ivo Neame so I am not complaining) - that was it. One gig in a whole month! Nothing else. August sees me getting one duo gig I have done once a month for about three years and two one-off Jazz gigs over the August bank holiday weekend. 13 gigs in July and August 2013. 3 in the same months in 2014. Everyone is speculating that, becasue there is no money around, the weddings/parties etc are less ostentatious and live bands were the first to go.

Any views? What's it been like at your end?

[RhysP]

Great for me personally as I did a gig a few weeks ago playing acoustic guitar & singing which I've never done before, so it was only one gig but a major milestone in my own little musical life.

I was part of a trio that consisted of another guitarist/singer & a superb female vocalist I've known since school.
We did a short spot at a food bank benefit gig in Cardiff & the positive reaction we received was overwhelming - loads of fantastic comments, offers of other gigs & even the offer of a UK support slot on somebody's tour.

Probably not what you were looking for with this thread but I wanted to mention it because it's probably the most enjoyable, positive thing I've done in 34+ years of playing music.

[Norris]

My GOR covers trio have been reasonably busy around the local pubs. We've been out most weekends except for planned holiday. We seem to have a spate of birthdays & weddings coming up too.

[KevB]

Similar to last summer really. Regular pub gigs with weddings thrown in as extras. We did one outdoor gig for a football club last year which i don't think is happening again but other than that its just the usual, working round band members holidays.

[Weststarx]

My band after a year of achieving nothing have finally got our first two proper gigs end of August and start of September so I'm just pleased with that!

[thisnameistaken]

No gigs this summer apart from one next weekend accompanying a singer on upright, but I'm not really missing gigging - busy working on new tunes with two new bands.

[bonzodog]

We agreed only to do every other Saturday and weve been able to maintain that all Summer so we are happy

[gary mac]

Very lean over the last couple of months. We have got a fair few coming up though, starting off this evening.

[EdwardHimself]

I've barely even picked up a bass in the last couple of months. The last gig I did was over 2 years ago.

[Muzz]

Very busy summer - normally two weddings a weekend, with the occasional Thursday pub gig. Loving it - and the cash!

[spike]

Five gigs in July, none this month because guitarist and drummer are on holiday. To be honest I've been enjoying the break.

[BigRedX]

Eleven gigs during June and July. And some pretty good ones too including supporting The Rezillos, one at Camden Underworld with The Meteors, and a launch event for our latest EP.

Had to turn some down as we didn't have a full time guitarist who could commit to all the dates that we wanted and even with two deps we couldn't play everything we were offered.

Having a short break from gigs while we work on a load of new songs and shoot a video to go with one of the tracks on the EP. Playing again next weekend, and then it's at least one gig a week on average until the end of November!

Probably the busiest we've been yet.

Edited August 15, 2014 by BigRedX

[discreet]

All going very well apart from this month - the drummer's on holiday the first two weeks and the guitarist the two weeks after that.
I hate August - everyone's away, nothing gets done and frankly it's a total waste of time!!

I had a holiday once - remember it distinctly.

[Number6]

Nothing in the diary until October

[DogHammer]

Gigs have been coming thick and fast. Good old sweaty underground music venues, outdoor party's, rally's, festival, quick cancellation support gigs. Good summer all round. Some more gigs in London for September now the weathers going away.

[Lozz196]

Done a good few, including a couple of dep gigs at short notice which has made me focus like never before!

The gigs with my own band have been great, though regulation-gig-wear Fred Perrys with DMs and black jeans has been changed to Fred Perrys with shorts and trainers for a couple of them. And even they were darn hot gigs.

[icastle]

Plenty of work this summer.

Main band have played weddings and various functions most weekends - we have work all the way up to 20th Dec.
Second band have just started gigging again and are filling in the weekend slots not taken by the main band.
Three recording sessions, dep work for various bands and a healthy smattering of folky stuff mid week most weeks.

Trying to get something in my diary for NYE ATM.

[discreet]

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1408123050' post='2527398']
Trying to get something in my diary for NYE ATM.
[/quote]

Oh, that Nye. He's a real card. I've known the Atm family for years. They're all nuts, you know.

[blue]

The summer has been good, my 3rd year with this 70s style blues/rock band ( 4 piece fronted by a young female lead guitarist. We have been busy with Festivals,Fairs and our regular bar gigs.

Paid gigs is what it's all about for me. I researched the bands gigging history and what they were projecting before I accepted their offer. So I knew what I was getting into and they have held up their end of the deal, keeping me busy.

However, at 61 the 4 hour bar gigs are starting to take their toll on me. I am hoping to find a "C" level national touring act and move into the show case 90 minute shows.

Blue

[Roger2611]

The summers been good for me this year (other than the rather stupid broken arm incident) played a few decent festivals and a few nice pubs, problem is our singer has been seconded to Japan for 3 months from the start of September so that's it for the rest of the year other than possibly a couple of slots with Yodaclub (the originals band) I will never have had so much time on my hands

[JTUK]

It has been good... I think we've got the right mix between Festivals, parties and a few pubs.
- normally we don't take pub bookings on a saturday during the summer - and we have 3 really nice
festival gigs in the next few weeks... and we've had to turn a few down which had we know the exact
details ect etc, we might have taken them. We were free but decided not to run ourselves ragged
over a weekend...but in retrospect, we should have made more effort and done them..
Still happy with what we've got though... Summer doesn't really finish for us until mid sept.

[JapanAxe]

3 in June
5 in July
4 in August

Average 4 per month - can't complain!

[TheRev]

Had a great summer this year, even with two band members missuses having babies right in the middle of festival season. We've played a load and headlined at a couple of little one day festies, played a handful of VeeDub and Harley Davidson rallies, put on a full 3 day festy in Somerset and played a stomping set at Boomtown Fair last weekend.

[Roland Rock]

It has been quite steady over the summer for us - a few nice ones like supporting Finlay Quaye, and a number of festivals, including One Love down near Milton Keynes tomorrow.

[Marvin]

One support slot several weeks ago... good gig, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Then I fell out with the guitarist and singer and quit the band. I feel somewhat vindicated as to my decision from feedback from others, but it still means no band at the moment.

Not being in a band has freed up my summer...I suppose.