Your first ever gig

[interpol52]

We discuss a lot on here about what is happening with us right now. A different thread on here got me thinking how our first gigs are often the source of much amusement when we look back on them now. So what was yours like?

Location/Venue:

Your age:

Your bass:

Your amp:

The set list (some of it):

Anything else that might be funny/interesting/embarrassing.

Edited October 5, 2017 by interpol52

[interpol52]

OK I'll get the ball rolling

Location/Venue:Horbury Youth Club, Wakefield, West Yorkshire

Your age:13

Year: 1989

Your bass:Squier Bullet Bass

Your amp: Gorilla 20w

The set list (some of it): A few originals, few Beatles songs.

Edited October 4, 2017 by interpol52

[Cat Burrito]

School assembly hall in the Sixth form Christmas pantomine (and it's not going to get better!)... I was 16, playing my trusty Squier through a Peavey. My boot strap broke just before we went on and I did it barefoot which proved to be something of a talking point (Graham Nash never got the gossiping I had). We were terrible. We played a goth classic "Bela Legosi's Dead". Badly. However we were invited back to play again 9 months later when we murdered Dolly Parton's Jolene and resulted in all the girls in the years below fancying us for the couple of weeks until the bigger boys won a rugby match for the school.

[blue]

6th grade talent show

1965

12 years old

Imotation Violin style Beatle bass, a borrowed Fender piggy back Bassman

We played Cleo's Back & Function at The Junction.

Blue


The above, while I keep my mouth shut it's why I have problems relating to younger musicians and those that started playing later in life.

They usually have a hard time relating to me.

Blue

Edited October 5, 2017 by blue

[TrevorR]

Location/Venue:

St Mary Clements Methodist Church, Truro

Your age:

1981 -17

Your bass:

Borrowed Fender Musicmaster

Your amp:

A Carlsboro keyboard amp

The set list (some of it):

A song the guitarist wrote and some CCM/gospel type type songs

[Hobbayne]

Location/Venue: White Hart, Acton, London

Your age: 19 (1983)

Your bass: Westone Thunder 1

Your amp: Vox 50 watt combo

The set list (some of it): Mainly covers by The Jam, the Beatles and some originals.

[Dad3353]

First gig..? 1968, The Martin Spicer Band, playing a pub on Kingsley Road, just across from Hounslow East tube station. Happy daze...

Age: just turned 18

Bass: A Hofner President guitar, playing just the lower four strings

Amp: Watkins Westminster

The set list (some of it): Apple Tree Warbler (An MSB original...), Fat Anget (Donovan; we did it more like the Jefferson Airplane version...), some Grateful Dead-ish stuff.

Edited May 6, 2018 by Dad3353

[Number6]

1986

14 years old

A Marlin Sidewinder (weighed a ton)

Carlsbro Stingray head and 15inch bass cab (i might have taken 2!?!)

I know we played some Black Sabbath songs and Paranoid was definitely one of them. Another was likely Symptom of the Universe.

[bazzbass]

1979

aged 17

Sturt FC Cheer Squad end of season pissup

venue: Scout Hall

bass: Cimar (by Ibanez) jazz copy 3tsb

amp: Coronet 30w



Band Name Whispering Steel / Celestial Brainchild, we could never pick ONE lol

set included Bodies by Sex Pistols , Paranoid by Sabbath, Communication Breakdown by Led Zeppelin

Edited October 5, 2017 by bazztard

[scalpy]

The Entertainer, Hereford 1994, 17.
Encore PB3, laney linebacker 100w head and hh215 cab. Was surprised by the size of the crowd, thought we were rock stars. Transpired the drummer supplemented his income selling herbal refreshment, everyone was there to see him.

[NancyJohnson]

Location/Venue: A party at Hope Cottage, Egham
Your age: 15? 16?
Your bass: I played rhythm guitar. I honestly have no idea what it was.
Your amp: A borrowed Carlsboro Scorpion.
The set list (some of it): I have a recording of the set. All originals. Titles included 'Woggle Your Bunkum', 'Let's Go Disco!', 'Underpants Are Naff', 'Rosie'.

Interestingly enough, Gerry Cott (Boomtown Rats) and Steve Lillywhite were standing about six feet away from us for the whole set. Steve was local. His sister Claire was lush.

[Norris]

A school hall in Munster, Germany. Around 1983 aged 17. A diabolical Kay SG copy through a home-made amp that also had guitar and vocal going through it. We played the two songs we knew - both originals.

[Jock]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Location/Venue: Anti Pole Tax Event, Pinkies Night Club in Dumfries, Scotland[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Your age:19[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Year: 1988[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Your bass: Marlin Sidewinder[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Your amp: unknown, house gear[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]The set list:[/font][/color]

[font="helvetica, arial, sans-serif"][color="#282828"]Alice - Sisters of Mercy[/color][/font]
[font="helvetica, arial, sans-serif"][color="#282828"]She Sell Sanctuary- The Cult[/color][/font]
[font="helvetica, arial, sans-serif"][color="#282828"]Temple of Love- [/color][/font][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Sisters of Mercy[/font][/color]
Transmission- Joy Division
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Wasteland- the Mission[/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Mr Pharmacist- The Fall[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Great gig that embraced many different genres of music. Despite being a rural area Dumfries and Galloway has always been steeped in music, still is.[/font][/color]

[Steve Browning]

First performance

Age - 17

Venue - College hall

Bass - Columbus Jazz

Amp - Carlsboro 50 Top through Impact 2x15 cabinet

Set list - various songs from Babbacombe Lee by Fairport Convention

First gig

Age - 17

Venue - Beach at Emsworth, Hants

Bass - Columbus Jazz

Amp - Carlsboro 50 Top through Impact 2x15

Set list - Included Roxette, She Does It Right, All Through The City (Feelgoods), White Riot (The Clash), Missiles On Pompey, Carnage In Currys, At Any Time, No Time For Dancing (originals).

Embarrasing moment - finishing setting up only to realise I had actually left my bass at home!

[BigRedX]

First ever public performance:

Venue: A community centre somewhere in Loughborough.

Age: 15 (1976)

Bass/Amp: I didn't have a bass at that point. I was playing an acoustic guitar fitted with a piezo pickup going into a Carlsbro Wasp 10W transistor amp. The other members of the band played acoustic guitar and percussion (mostly bongos).

Set List: We played 3 semi-improvised instrumentals of our own composition - I can't remember any titles.

This performance was part of a music evening organised by the teachers of various musical instrument evening classes. The band was made up of myself and two of my friends who all were in the same year at school and attended one of the "folk guitar" classes. The rest of the evening was made up of teenagers playing mostly classical music with varying degrees of competency. We were much louder and a lot less disciplined than the others, most of the audience were left perplexed by our music.


First proper gig in a proper gig venue:

Venue: The Ad Lib Club, Nottingham (later went on the become much better known as The Garage)

Age: 20 (1981)

Bass: Burns Sonic Bass. I also played a home-made electric guitar on some of the songs.

Amp: Whatever the headlining band had brought - probably a Carlsbro Stingray or an HH of some description. My guitar was amplified by my Carlsbro Wasp amp.

Set List: Mostly songs from the band's (The Midnight Circus) third cassette album "Do Modern Atoms Wear Fashionable Clothes?" which we had just finished recording earlier in the week, plus our two tracks "Silicone Baby" and "The Hedonist Jive" from the Angst In My Pants" EP which had featured on John Peel's radio programme a few months earlier.

This was the only gig the The Midnight Circus ever did which featured the same line up of the band that was on the recordings, but because we didn't know who was going to be available to play when we said we'd do the gig, we decided to play as "The Sickle Clowns" (fans of The Pretty Things will get it). To be honest I can't really remember much about the gig other than being very nervous because we were woefully under-rehearsed. It could only get better from here...

Edited October 5, 2017 by BigRedX

[bassbiscuits]

Mine was December 1988, for the Christmas party at the sixth form room of the school i was at in Swansea (I was only in fourth form, tho my brother and rest of band were sixth formers)

I was 14.

My bass was a white Westone Spectrum ST.

The amp was a borrowed Carlsbro combo, as i only had a tiny practice amp of my own.

Set list was about eight songs of 60s/70s/80s rock, including stuff by Poison (Every Rose has its Thorn), Cinderella (Falling Apart at the Seams), Wild Thing etc - can't remember the rest.

Someone videoed it, and the set is interrupted by some halfway through announcing there's still some sponge cake available for sale... very rock and roll. I had a mullet, a bright yellow shirt and puffy white trainers. Oh dear.

First gig at a proper venue was in 1989 at the Biko Bar at Coventry Polytechnic, when i was 15, with a four-piece band called Wile Air (again it was my older brother and some uni mates, with me on bass).

I used the same Westone bass, and a Thunder 1A too, this time with my Peavey TNT 130 combo.

We did covers from Marillion, Bon Jovi, Georgia Satellites etc. It was a really busy battle of the bands type thing and i felt like a god for the rest of the evening (we didn't win tho!)

Edited October 5, 2017 by bassbiscuits

[radiophonic]

Age 20 / 1987
Venue: Shipdham Beeches Hotel, Norfolk. Flat roofed function room in boiling heat.
Bass: Westone Thunder 1A
Amp: Marshall something with 2 x 15 cab, borrowed from the headliner.
Set: Original material post-G'n'R metal type stuff. - although we did do Train Kept A Rollin', I think.
The band was called Wiley Fox and we opened for another Norwich band called Witness. I was the least metal person present.

A photograph of this event does survive, but fortunately I don't have a scanner.

[RockfordStone]

Location/Venue: Norwich, cant remember the venue name, but it was like a loading bay painted black with a small stage.

Your age: 24

Your bass: Ibanez EDB 600

Your amp: Behringer BXH450 (which i still have) and Harley Benton 4x10

The set list (some of it): a set list of pop punk originals

Anything else that might be funny/interesting/embarrassing: I had been in the band for a week, we were called This Is My Honesty and we had a pretty decent following around Cambridge. we eventually imploded because we had an argument about how the band should progress.

Edited October 5, 2017 by RockfordStone

[mikel]

1968. I was 15 years old, had been playing guitar for 3 months and knew 7 chords. It was a CIU working men's club in Northumberland, the clientele was 95% miners. We played a 20 min set of Blues covers, and I was also the vocalist at the time. I had a Linear Phase 50 amp and a cab built by my father from half inch ply with a 15 inch speaker of un known make.

Oddly enough I don't remember being nervous at all, the arrogance of extreme youth I suppose. I also do not remember any applause. Not surprising really when you consider the audience. What 150 grizzled miners thought of 4 spotty, earnest teenagers playing "The Blues" and interrupting their bingo evening was never made public. The rest, as they say, is not history.

[EBS_freak]

So first ever gig outside of a school band went something along the lines of this...

18 years old - some school Jazz night thing I got roped into (I was playing trombone in the big band - doing all the Glenn Miller-esque stuff). The music teacher knew that I had been messing around on guitars and bass with my mate, who is a drummer so roped me into to perform. Had to rope in a keys player (who was an exceptional classical pianist but hadn't played jazz or boogie woogie before) and a guitarist/bassist. I ended up on bass because we found a guitarist. Only myself and the pianist went to the same school.

I can't remember the exact setlist... but there was definitely "Well alright, OK, You Win" was in there because I remember the keys player ripping this cool solo in there. When I asked him where the hell he pulled that from, he said he lifted it from Ground Hog day...!

Bass - I was playing my first bass, which was made by luthier Jim Cairnes. Theres a story how I ended up as a custom bass as my first bass... but I think I've already told it on this site before and it's not that interesting. Passive 4 string with 2 single coil esque things (but they are physically a lot larger than the single coils we commonly know).

Amp - I was playing through a Trace Elliot SMX300 GP12 that I had saved up for and washed a hell of a lot of cars for. I am pretty sure I would have been playing through the second hand Peavey Black Widow 115 cab that I had picked up because I couldn't afford the matching 4x10 cab that I wanted. Eventually I got the 1048H cab - but I'm 95% certain it wasn't on that gig.

There was a minidisc recording of it - I remember getting the minidisc and sneaking off into town into a hifi section of a department store to copy it from minidisc to tape because I didn't know anybody who had a minidisc player. It was a sweaty 40 minutes waiting for the minidisc to play whilst it recorded to tape... I was just hoping that no sales person came along to ask me what I was doing! This is what poor youngsters had to resort to!

We actually sounded pretty decent... it was the first and last time that the band played together though... we all went our separate ways to uni shortly afterwards. I did some work with the drummer for a brief period on our return from uni... but thats pretty much it. All change!

[Stylon Pilson]

My first gig was in a pub, at the age of 17. It was an 18th birthday party for a girl that I'd lusted after for years. After the gig she snogged me and became my girlfriend, so that was cool.

I was playing a Jim Harley P-bass copy through a nasty little 20W Stagg combo. Our set list was 50/50 covers and originals, and included such songs as Crazy Little Thing Called Love and I Wanna Be (500 Miles).

S.P.

[martthebass]

Location: Rotherham Arts Centre

Age: 18ish

Bass: Squier JV 57 Precision

Amp: HH VS Musician with a Peavey 2 x 15

Set: 50/50 originals and covers. Covers - Joy Division, Bauhaus, Bowie

I remember being p1ssed off because I lost a strap I'd just paid a tenner for....

[Cosmo Valdemar]

Location/Venue: Red Lion, Northfleet

Your age: 20

Your bass: Status Shark

Your amp: Trace Elliot and matching 1x15

The set list (some of it): Originals except for covers of Faith No More, Sepultura and Britney Spears. And the A-Team theme tune.

Violent Intent, my first 'proper' band. I'd played live before but only at school concerts.
VI were a bit ropey, rather naive metal but had a great local following and would pack venues out... Bit of a lack of quality local metal at the time!
I loved that Shark (sold it like an idiot) but hated the amp - the Trace sound was never my cup of tea, and I didn;t really know how to get a decent tone out of it. I also had to go really light on the low end or the speaker would make a dreadfull popping sound. the result was a strange mid-heavy tone which didn't really suit drop C-tuned metal.
Sadly, just as we were really starting to get good, it all fell apart.

[interpol52]

[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1507206515' post='3383906']
Location/Venue: Red Lion, Northfleet

Your age: 20

Your bass: Status Shark

Your amp: Trace Elliot and matching 1x15

The set list (some of it): Originals except for covers of Faith No More, Sepultura and Britney Spears. And the A-Team theme tune.

Violent Intent, my first 'proper' band. I'd played live before but only at school concerts.
VI were a bit ropey, rather naive metal but had a great local following and would pack venues out... Bit of a lack of quality local metal at the time!
I loved that Shark (sold it like an idiot) but hated the amp - the Trace sound was never my cup of tea, and I didn;t really know how to get a decent tone out of it. I also had to go really light on the low end or the speaker would make a dreadfull popping sound. the result was a strange mid-heavy tone which didn't really suit drop C-tuned metal.
Sadly, just as we were really starting to get good, it all fell apart.
[/quote]

Sepultura cover in a pub! Great, which song?

[Lozz196]

Aside from a couple of dodgy performances on guitar/lead-vox, my first actual proper gig, on bass was:

Location/Venue: The Adelphi, Hull

Your age: 21

Your bass: Yamaha BB1100s

Your amp: Fender Bassman of some sorts, with matching 4x something cab (10s or 12s)

The set list (some of it): All original material

Anything else that might be funny/interesting/embarrassing: It was my first ever gig on bass, the bands first ever gig with that line-up, and though the band were well known in the area, the audience thought it was the best they`d ever heard the band. Cue instant big-headedness, I`d arrived!