How was your gig last night?

[ratman]

I played a wedding last night. We found out just before sound check that there was going to be a rather special guest at the wedding. I say we, what I mean is, me, the singer and the drummer. Not the guitarist. We decided not to tell him until after the gig as he'd probably sh*t himself. So, right after we finished, we told him. He didn't believe us until the bride went and brought said special guest over to say hi. A thoroughly nice chap he was too. I may consider him for future deps. Only if he can prove he can play a bit, of course. And if he's got his own amp, transport, microphone and good references.......

[KevB]

Did my second house band at jam session yesterday, usual mix of stuff I either knew, only half remembered or in some cases never played before in my life. Despite suffering the after effects of Nottingham beer festival the night before it seemed to go OK, more players than there were 2 weeks ago but I still ended up playing a fair bit. A highlight was our very own [b]seashell[/b] turning up and rocking out on a few tunes with the house guitarist and a couple of other regulars.

[seashell]

Yes I was there at Kev's jam session. Really enjoyed it and glad I plucked up the courage to get up and play. Especially Johnny B Goode which I had never played before!

I enjoyed watching the other bands too, especially the house band featuring the estimable [b]KevB [/b]on bass! He's a terrific player and really versatile - can play virtually anything thrown at him and sing too!!

Had a bit of a nightmare journey back tho - Junction 11 of the M42 closed and I found myself driving round the midlands countryside in the dark and rain trying to find Junction 10. Sat Nav kept taking me back to J11! Enventually I had to stop at a garage and ask a real human being for directions

[KevB]

Sorry about your protracted drive home, by all means bring the rest of the band some time and have a good session, all very easy with the gear set up ready to go and someone doing the sound. I forget what proper monitoring is having to cope with my regular band!

[SpaceChick]

[quote name='ratman' timestamp='1381707083' post='2242783']
I played a wedding last night. We found out just before sound check that there was going to be a rather special guest at the wedding. I say we, what I mean is, me, the singer and the drummer. Not the guitarist. We decided not to tell him until after the gig as he'd probably sh*t himself. So, right after we finished, we told him. He didn't believe us until the bride went and brought said special guest over to say hi. A thoroughly nice chap he was too. I may consider him for future deps. Only if he can prove he can play a bit, of course. And if he's got his own amp, transport, microphone and good references.......
[/quote]

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!

Hubby met him during the Momentary Lapse of Reason tour and he was a complete arse, so good to hear he's mellowing! LOL!

[SpaceChick]

[quote name='seashell' timestamp='1381752185' post='2243096']
Yes I was there at Kev's jam session. Really enjoyed it and glad I plucked up the courage to get up and play. Especially Johnny B Goode which I had never played before!

I enjoyed watching the other bands too, especially the house band featuring the estimable [b]KevB [/b]on bass! He's a terrific player and really versatile - can play virtually anything thrown at him and sing too!!

Had a bit of a nightmare journey back tho - Junction 11 of the M42 closed and I found myself driving round the midlands countryside in the dark and rain trying to find Junction 10. Sat Nav kept taking me back to J11! Enventually I had to stop at a garage and ask a real human being for directions
[/quote]

So pleased it went well Shell

[silverfoxnik]

Played a charity gig last night in Littlehampton; it was celebrating the 20th anniversary of a band called 'Laughing Gravy' with all proceeds going to McMillan Cancer Support.

See here: [url="http://laughinggravy.info/"]http://laughinggravy.info/[/url]

Basschat's very own 'bassninja', a.k.a. Wal, who started this thread back in 2007, is the bass player in Laughing Gravy and I have to say, it is always a joy to hear him play! Wal is one of the best players I've seen over the years - truly gifted and creative in his approach to playing the bass.. Another local Basschatter, Chimike popped down too, and I know he'd agree with what I've had to say about Wal's playing..

If you ever get a chance to check out Wal and the band play, then you must - you won't be disappointed!

Also on the bill was John Bentley from Squeeze who played guitar last night as opposed to bass ([url="http://www.johnbentley.tv/Blog39,40.html"]http://www.johnbentl.../Blog39,40.html[/url]). John did a fine set which included on the drums for two songs, Woody Woodmansey - drummer in David Bowie's 'Spiders from Mars line up back in the early 1970s . It was just fantastic! ' The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars' was the first album I ever bought when I was 11 years old, so to meet Woody and hear him play was a real privilege.

I was playing with a local singer-songwriter/poet called Stewart Ross and we did about 20 minutes which went down well, so can't complain at all.

Thanks Wal for the use of your rig and for inviting us to come and join your party - here's to your next 20 years with Laughing Gravy

Nik

Edited October 19, 2013 by silverfoxnik

[bassninja]

Cheers Nik, it was great to see you. Kind words... ahem...team effort...wives and families... 'Jean Genie' with JB and Woody was a blast, big gurning grin on throughout.

Really enjoyed your set with Stewie, great sounding Levinson and no slouch yerself, buddy. You're tempting me back towards another string! Must talk to Frankie about getting you guys to do the 'bit in the middle' at The Crown soon. I have a reasonable tape of the whole evening, give me a chance to chop it about a bit and I'll let you know when its in my Dropbox.

Incidentally, have you seen JB's Markbass endorsee video? I don't think he's taking it entirely seriously [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc74uMH0O2c[/media]

ChiMike: sorry I didn't have a chance to catch up, would love to soon. Nik was telling me you're fond of the odd valve...

Thanks so much for helping us raise £575 for Macmillan.

Edited October 19, 2013 by bassninja

[silverfoxnik]

Hi Wal,

Cool - would love to see the video!

I'm sure Stew would be up for a gig at The Crown at some point..

I still use a 4 string as well, but I do like playing a fiver as well.. If you want to borrow one for a gig or two to try it out again, let me know?

Nik

[ezbass]

Apparently we were quite good (contains colourful language) https://www.facebook.com/michael.degouveia.5/posts/10151928020742509?

[Len_derby]

Played a charity gig for Sight Support Derbyshire with the Daz Kelly Band. A great night and £750 raised for the charity. We were due to share the bill with a young female singer who was going to sing some of her own compositions to backing tracks. She didn't show up so we did two sets, probably two hours of music altogether. There were lots of visually impaired people there, unsurprisingly, and the cliché seems correct. There were a lot more interested comments and questions afterwards about what we played compared to a normal gig. A hearing-attuned audience.
The event was held at the county cricket club pavilion. I particularly enjoyed parking my dirty Clio in the Chief Executive's named spot and having a vile dump in the visiting team's dressing room.

Edited October 26, 2013 by Len_derby

[steve-bbb]

six people - 3 fairly normal - 3 dribbling snot monsters (our band that is)

interesting

Edited November 2, 2013 by steve-bbb

[FinnDave]

We played a well attended gig in my local pub to launch the village's Movember campaign. Got our agreed pay plus a fifty quid bonus, so must have sounded OK. I thin we finally managed to turn down far enough to deal with the low ceiling and stone floor.

[EliasMooseblaster]

Our third attempt at running our own gig night - this time, down at the Star, in Guildford. Unfortunately a bit of a poor turn-out. For a pub which is apparently heaving most Saturday nights, I think we got caught out by being in between Hallowe'en and 5th November.

On the plus side, the crowd that was there seemed to enjoy it, and all the bands were excellent...well, of course they were - if we were running our own night, we were going to book bands we liked the sound of! I'd heartily recommend giving a listen to Stitch ( http://stitchband.com/ ), Monkey Militia ( http://monkeymilitia.co.uk/ ) and Thom Bowden ( http://thombowden.com/ ).

[BigRedX]

Four day Halloween Tour with Dick Venom & The Terrortones...

Thursday in York at the Fulford Arms in York. PA was a little on the quiet size and most of the small stage was taken up with the drum kit and our first stand-in guitarist's pedalboard! Gig went down well sold some of the new design T-shirst and a good number of singles. Many thanks to the brilliant Surf Sluts for letting us use their amps to save on setting up time, and if you are in York go and check out King Courgette who delighted with "bluegrass" version of "What's Inside A Girl" and "Blitzkrieg Bop"!

Friday was back to Doncaster's Vintage Rockbar where we had played earlier in the year. A six-band night with us playing last after a very popular local metal band which was always going to be hard work. However those that stayed to see us play were really getting into it and the final song prompted a stage invasion which I managed to avoid by standing on the raised bit ant the front of the stage area that covered the monitors.

Saturday found us in Manchester for the first time at a very wonderfully named and decorated Satan's Hollow. Unfortunately things didn't run quite as smoothly as the previous two gigs. Took us a while to find the venue as the address given wasn't quite right, so we were a little lat arriving. However that didn't matter as there wasn't anyone to let us in at the agreed set-up time of 4.00. By 5.00 all four bands were stood outside alone with an very stressed-looking promoter when the first staff turned up to open the club. However there was still no sign of the PA crew. Over the course of the next two hours various sound engineer types turned up did a little bit of setting up and then left in search of leads and other bits and pieces. Finally there was someone who seemed to know what they were doing and things started moving along at a decent pace. Of course by then there was no time for a sound check for any bands, so the first band on set up and kicked off their set. With everything being so chaotic the evening was running late, and the finishing time for the last band (us) of 9.30 was looking ever more unlikely. Luckily the venue was understanding of the situation and let the live music over-run into the club night. We didn't get on stage until after 10.00. In spite of all that the sound was actually pretty good - so well done to the engineer who actually stayed to mix them bands for getting everything up and running with a minimum of fuss in very little time. We had one or two microphone problems with an XLR that refused to stay put result in several moments of inaudible vocals. In the end the promoter was impressed and I think we'll be back soon for hopefully and more smoother running gig.

And so the last night of the "tour" in Sheffield at the Three Cranes Hotel. This turned out to be a small room upstairs from the main part of the pub - the sort of venue that I haven't seen since the late 80s. Again everything was running a bit late. The "headliners" who included at least one ex-member of a fairly well known band decided that they wanted to play before us and then after borrowing our guitar amp for their set, wanted us to cut our already truncated set even shorter so that they could pack up the bass amp 10 minutes earlier and leave. Not impressed in the slightest - especially when equipment sharing had been sorted out with both the other bands and promoter in advance. Meant that we ended on a bit of a downer for the last night. However both the promoter and the landlord of the pub were impressed with the Terrortone show, and we got paid the full amount.

All in all a good run of gigs. Made lots of new fans, sold a decent amount of merch and have a handful of potential gigs for new year. Didn't get fed up with the other band members after spending the best part of 4 days in close proximity with them. And I think both of our stand-in guitarists had a good time - one of them may even be persuaded to be the next full-time Terrortone. We now have a week off before a rollercoaster ride to the end of the year which includes a psychobilly festival in Portsmouth and a gig supporting The Meteors. All coming soon!

[ezbass]

Last night we had to help the engineer and chap from environmental services set up and calibrate a sound limiter; talk about sleeping with the enemy. To be fair they were very decent about it, but we still managed to trip it, even though we're not a loud band by any stretch of the imagination. The placement of these evil devices is so critical; we ran the iPad through the PA for them so loud that I had to resort to earplugs, all fine. However, when we started to play (really laying back, the drummer saying he couldn't hear me at all and he wasn't the only one, I was 'listening' with my calves) the combination of bass and bass drum on particular accents sent the thing into meltdown A fairly lack lustre first half ensued as we couldn't keep our eyes off the bloody thing. Much better 2nd half, no louder, but we ran the power from another, non limited, adjacent power source so we weren't sweating it all the time. A very happy landlady, more bookings to come.

[KevB]

City centre pub last night, not a big fan. Awkward load in and out then have to go find somewhere to park etc etc. Small fight broke out between two drink addled lads as we were packing up at end of gig, spilled over into the band area and if it hadn't been got under control (not from venue staff I might add, security never there when you actually need them) we could easily had some gear damaged, fortunately all well. Then after we got all the gear in the vehicals we were stuck in a one-way alley with the exit end blocked off with ambulance and police as there seemed to be another 'incident'. I was at the back of the line so once I'd squeezed over to let an ambulance through I did a u-turn and nipped the wrong way down to exit at the other end (it is also pedestrianised so full of drunks etc). If it is seen on cctv I'll probably get a ticket in retrospect but in fact it was the sensible thing to do to make as much free space for any other emergency vehicals that would have needed to get up, no other normal traffic uses that alley at that time of night, the other end is actually always blocked up with taxis puling up and blocking (my) exit anyway! Apparently band leader looking into getting more gigs at the venue but I won't be fussed if we don't get many, more trouble than its worth.

[Highfox]

Another average Pub gig for us.. Most punters were too pissed to even know what planet they were on..
.. seems very hit and miss with these types of gigs.. think we have to start being a little more selective over our choice of venues next year, even if the gigs and cash won't roll in.

[Donnyboy]

Trouble was brewing when we arrived, with some not entirely sober chaps ,who seemed to have an issue with the local constabulary. I'd say it's best not get aggressive ,shout,swear,threaten and push a Policeman,because when his colleagues arrive with a van,you'll end up cuffed,in the back of it.

Pretty good gig, one of the actors from Gregory's Girl had a couple of drinkies at the bar.

Afterwards a young lady correctly identified me as the bass player, and had been admiring my moves and that she was rather attracted to me. Her boyfriend confirmed this to be the case,and kindly offered to help me with my gear.

[chaypup]

A flipping amazing gig at our own night in Gwdihw on Friday!
Gigged my Daion Fretless for the first time, sounded great and allowed me to go a bit crazy on the solos too
The band were brilliant as were our guest singers and Mc's but best of all were the full choir I got in to join us on 'I am the Black Gold of the Sun'
Blew everyone completely away, still grinning now!

[Graham]

Pub gig last night, which was in a marquee; fortunately I planned ahead and brought fingerless gloves with me. We're there New Year's Eve, so the gloves should be a good investment at £1.50 from Primark.

Played well to a relatively sparse crowd, which for the first time in ages included the wife as we managed to get a babysitter. It was all going well until about half way through the second set when she hit the third bottle of Prosecco and managed to get the singer's wife paralytic - I ended up driving the singer and hs wife home with her almost passed-out on the back-seat.

Other than that, was all good lol

[Samashton12]

OK, i guess. I made tons of mistakes and we played some new material which sounded excellent, my Thunderbird into a tiny Kustom combo i lent off the headliners, tone was all low end with no treble

I dont like messing with other peoples EQ's

[goblin]

Thursday, hosted a jam night in town, was really good and it was really busy with various people playing, including others passing comment saying it was probably the best jam in town

Friday, played at Hard Rock Cafe in Manchester. That was hectic, loading in hail with no coat and having to park quite a way away. Eventually at 20 past 10 we could finally start setting up. Not so much fun with an unfamiliar PA where one of the power amps was playing up, and in a panic I'd forgotten to turn on all of the effects rack. Quickly solved by agreeing not to use monitors for the gig and I just pulled the effects rack from the sends on the desk (I hadn't realised I'd forgotten to turn everything on!) I didn't even get a chance to put my shirt on so did the gig in a T shirt, only for some smart arse to make the comment to our keys player about how the band's bass player needs to look smart too!

Yesterday was the whopper though, gig at one of the Havens and over 100 miles away from here, to make things easier I hired a van so we could take a van and a car. All booked online, everything fine until I'd travelled 30 miles to the van hire place, it turns out Sixt had put the booking through (I'm 21) and said there were no issues, yet the depot won't rent out to anyone under 25. You can imagine how that went down, obviously it wasn't the depot at fault, it's Sixt and I'm waiting for a call from one of the managers as apparently none are available to speak to on a weekend, and the girl I spoke to one the phone was about as useful to me as a split condom! They did offer me a van from Trafford Park where they could guarantee a van for someone of my age. The catch? I'd have to pay another £70 AND a £250 deposit.

Anyway, various phonecalls later we sorted it... we took 3 cars Got there, got lost on the holiday park, eventually found where we were playing and the only place to park was on the wet grass as the other two had got the hard standing...yep, my car got a bit stuck Did the gig, played really well considering we had two deps, and given the distance (120 miles), once played I just wanted to get out of there soon as. We finished playing just before 12, we got the 5 piece band and full PA packed up and on the road and I was in my own bed by 3.

I'm now absolutely shattered!

[funky8884]

Great Gig except for the Rugby Team On Stimulants stripping off on the Tables !

[chaypup]

Headlined the Oxjam takeover day in Cardiff.
Had a quick rehearsal beforehand to teach the drummer new tunes and remind everyone of structures of a couple that we hadn't played in a while.
And ...wow. We had 3 singers and an MC and we tore the roof off! Made up new arrangements on the fly and the crowd were going nuts for it... quote of the night was "every time I see you guys my face hurts from grinning so much!"