King Tut Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 I finished my shift today to greet five weeks off work - that's four weeks on tour with STRAY and a week Rest and Recuperation. This will be by far my most consuming musical exploit so far - we'll be playing 16 dates over four weeks travelling the length and breadth of England and Wales co-headlining with Ken Pustelnik 's Groundhogs. If you live along the road we'll be taking it would be fab to see you on the way. Feeling very lucky to have been given the opportunity to do this stuff with Del and the other Stray fellas - came a bit late in my musical career - but better late than never and I'm loving every minute of it! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreeneKing Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 Wow. I didn't know that they were still going. One of my favourite bands of the early 70's before I joined the RN and took myself way from 'all that'. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatrickJ Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 Feb 28th, you're playing my home town!! Whoop! @Al Krowwe still thinking of a BC get together March 12th? @King Tut my old Eden Cab going on tour with you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Tut Posted February 24, 2020 Author Share Posted February 24, 2020 1 hour ago, PJ-Bassist said: Feb 28th, you're playing my home town!! Whoop! @Al Krowwe still thinking of a BC get together March 12th? @King Tut my old Eden Cab going on tour with you? Yeah the Eden is coming with me. I prefer a taller rig - 2 12" cabs stacked vertically but it's gonna spend a lot of its time in a van so vulnerable to theft. I'd sooner leave the Eden in the van than a Barefaced for that reason. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Tut Posted February 24, 2020 Author Share Posted February 24, 2020 This'll be my pedalboard set up. Black Ric 4003, an old Trace AH300 GP7 SM and an Eden Nemesis 4 x 10. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickeyboro Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 See you at Southampton on Thursday! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Powertripper Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 Great band 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreeneKing Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 Jeez, I missed the other band due to the font confusing old eyes. Groundhogs! My absolute favourite band back in the day. I guess Tony McPhee isn’t up to it nowadays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Tut Posted February 26, 2020 Author Share Posted February 26, 2020 4 hours ago, GreeneKing said: Jeez, I missed the other band due to the font confusing old eyes. Groundhogs! My absolute favourite band back in the day. I guess Tony McPhee isn’t up to it nowadays. The official name of the band we're touring with is 'Ken Pustelnik's Groundhogs'. Ken was the original drummer. They're a great band and lovely fellas. Couldn't have asked for a better opening night - packed house, seamless changeover and nice performances all round. Chislehirst tomorrow (Wednesday)! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Tut Posted February 26, 2020 Author Share Posted February 26, 2020 (edited) I might do a daily entry for this as a little diary! So last night was the first night at The Boom Boom Club in Sutton which is located in Sutton Utd FC. Nice stage and sound and regular sound and lighting engineers for the venue (and tonight's at Chislehirst). They know their onions so that's half the battle. We had a great crowd and it went swimmingly well - a good turnout and good performances from both bands - nice smooth changeover too. I was using a Trace AH300 SM GP7. Ive had it for a while but been nervous about using it due to intel on the power side of the amp indicating that it's likely to go DC and take your speakers out. I found the official Trace Elliot solution thanks to this site and Facebook and got a mate who amp engineers to implement the mod. Anyway - matched up with a Tech 21 VTBass I got a passable approximation of an overdriven valve amp which i was pretty pleased with. On one song I needed the pedal off and I'm finding that the pedal adds an awful lot of top to the sound which i consequently backed off on the pedal. I understand later versions have a switch to turn off the speaker emulation which tames the top a bit. Generally happy with my sound but tonight I'm gonna edit my fuzz patch to add just a smidge of high mids and might try to add a bit of bottom around 100hz to see if i can get just a touch more meat without it getting boomy. I'm getting picked up in about 20 minutes then heading back up the M1 and M25 to tonight's Shenanigans at The Beaverwood in Chislehirst - nice venue. back to my own bed tonight before two nights away for Southampton (Thursday), Tavistock (Friday) where we have Ethyrfield supporting and Swansea Sin City on Saturday. Edited February 26, 2020 by King Tut 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Tut Posted February 27, 2020 Author Share Posted February 27, 2020 Second night - Chislehirst - was another cracker. The only drama was when Chris - The Groundhog's singer took a jolt off the mic during soundcheck that launched him back towards the drum kit - something definitely wasn't right there but he was ok and they managed to sort it. There was a proper comedy moment when we were sound checking when Del's guitar was coming out of Pete's rig and they all got a bit fingers and thumbs trying to sort it. All good sound wise with me so I'll keep on doing what I'm doing. We encored with 'Hallelujah' which was the first time i've played it live but its a pretty straightforward rock n roll tune - so that's all three new ones done now. Just waiting for the bus to head off to Southampton for a show at The Brook. Here's a clip from Tuesday's gig at The Boom Boom - the guy who posted it also has a 45 min clip from the gig on his feed if anyone's interested. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Tut Posted February 28, 2020 Author Share Posted February 28, 2020 So on to day four. We've just left Southampton and heading on to Tavistock for a gig at The Wharf tonight. Had a good gig last night and was great to meet @Mickeyboro Nice venue although a bit odd as the stage is really high and halfway between the lower and upper viewing areas. The sound engineer here also knew his onions and we had a cracking sound onstage. The Groundhogs were on fire. Very loud and a really nice out front sound. We usually have three roadies, one of whom drives but due to an unusual set of circumstances we've got none for last night and the next two. Really missed them as the load in wasn't great! We're all fed courtesy of Sainsburys but I'm suffering from sleep deprivation and feeling pretty knackered to be honest. Our keys player has bought his meth lab with him aka a mocha pot and stove and decent coffee to keep us going! Looking forward to meeting up with Ethyrfield tonight who are supporting. Onward and hopefully upward! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickeyboro Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 Good to meet you too, Colin. Impressive player as well as a nice chap! Also impressed by the Groundhogs bassist who played a Guild 301 through a Sunn amp. If you find out more about him please share... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Tut Posted February 28, 2020 Author Share Posted February 28, 2020 1 minute ago, Mickeyboro said: Good to meet you too, Colin. Impressive player as well as a nice chap! Also impressed by the Groundhogs bassist who played a Guild 301 through a Sunn amp. If you find out more about him please share... Thank you! Well all I know is his name is Latch! Nice fella, nice player, nice feel player. Like his vibrato! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Tut Posted February 28, 2020 Author Share Posted February 28, 2020 (edited) 8 minutes ago, Mickeyboro said: Duplicate post sorry Edited February 28, 2020 by King Tut Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Tut Posted February 29, 2020 Author Share Posted February 29, 2020 Last day of the first leg today. We're on the road from Tavistock to Swansea for a gig at Sin City. Weather aside, we had another good gig yesterday. Nice venue and a great sound. We had a bit of an issue with an irate stage manager regarding gear sharing but it all went well in the end. We had our first support in the shape of Ethyrfield, a young Cornish trio who are well worth a watch. We went on next and had a good show and The Hogs once more were on fire. Their bass player, Latch, managed to break a string on their last number but soldiered on. I really liked the venue, it's a mini theatre but they took the stalls seating out for a more rock n roll vibe.the building was all stone so the sound was really good, and a nice easy load in which is just as well as it was lashing down. We're driving home from Swansea tonight with only two gigs next week, Thekla at Brizzle and The Craufurd in Milton Keynes, our 'Home' gig. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Tut Posted March 1, 2020 Author Share Posted March 1, 2020 I'm going to write about yesterday's gig then call it a day unless anything of interest crops up. Swansea Sin City. We arrived and our first impressions were 'what a bloody awful load in'. Fortunately there were staff there to help us load in and out but what a bloody palaver. Limited parking and outside steps up three or four floors (hard to tell). This gig was spoiled really by the sound engineer who obviously knew his stuff, but made everything seem like it was too much trouble for him, huffing and puffing his way through the process. Diplomacy was not his strong point and it's really much better if we all treat each other with respect and try to get the best out of people rather than acting like a primadonna - that's our job!! Anyway - one of the monitor amps went tits up during the support band's set - he tried to repatch stuff but consequently both The Groundhogs and us had shite monitor mixes. Other than that we went down well. We drove back straight after the gig - I was first drop off getting in around 0430. Got to say, I'm officially broken! Absolutely exhausting. Just a quick mention for the support band - Bigfeat - really nice sounding five piece with 3/4 part vocals, two guitars and a keys player - kind of a southern rock laid back groove - really enjoyed them. We've only got two gigs next week - Thekla Bristol on Thursday and The Craufurd in MK on Friday - our home gig. Five the week after, all out and back on the day including The Garage in London, then the following week we're staying away for four gigs oop North. Really enjoying the experience so far but looking forward to a decent night's sleep in my own bed! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Tut Posted March 19, 2020 Author Share Posted March 19, 2020 Just wanted to share this rather nice vid from our show at The Garage. Essentially Rik 4003 into Joyo Orange Juice into Bugera Veyron 1001T. Di Post EQ. You can hear the bass a treat with headphones. I'm pretty happy with that tone. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_p Posted March 24, 2020 Share Posted March 24, 2020 Is it too late to say that when Stray supported the Groundhogs at the Caird Hall, Dundee, during the early 1970s they blew the headliners off the stage? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BBbats Posted February 18, 2021 Share Posted February 18, 2021 WOW! Didn't know STRAY was still around. I'm in the US & I actually bought Saturday Morning Pictures which came out stateside on Mercury. I also bought Houdini in 1976 which came out on Pye records here. Enjoyed both. They may have been the only records released in America. The Groundhogs were almost known in the States as a lot of their stuff was released here.I actually saw theGroundhogs live at the Pocono Rock Festival in the early 70's & they were great! I think T.S. McPhee broke his wrist & the tour got cancelled. Greetings from the USA & don't stop! You'd be surprised what rock collectors pay for those Stray LP's! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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