How was your gig last night?

[paul h]

[quote name='kevin_lindsay' timestamp='1385847373' post='2292897']
Good luck Paul, hope the gig is fun for you.
[/quote]

Thank you friend

Well, it went pretty well. We all stumbled here and there but recovered well.

The main thing is we had fun and so did the kids. The organisers were pleased so that counts as a win in my book!

[BassYerbouti]

Played to a 100 friends and acquaintances in sleepy Dorking at a working mans club which raised a grand for a cancer charity. Slightly unnerved by a drunk heckler during the sound check who explained where we going wrong on with our opening number. Kept it all together until the encore when we murdered Suffragette City. Such are the thrills and spills of our little band. what a blast

[barneyg42]

Great couple of gigs, first off the Tanners in Horsham on Friday. It was in fact more of a special guest night as we had a friend of our guitarist come over from Greece to do a few numbers with us. Now Vasilis Merziotis is a massive Gary Moore fan and has a tribute band back home. So it was half an hour of our normal set and then half a set of Moore classics. The place was rocking, also had his lady friend Eirini Movia come up to sing a couple and another friend up on drums for Sweet Child of Mine. Great stuff!!
Saturday and it's the Cock and Bull in Sutton, another good crowd and Vasilis is in again for a few, but this time our guitard is on drums and we're totally honoured to have Vic Martin on keys! Vic played with Gary Moore for quite a few years and it was a blast to play with him, lovely guy too! Finished off with half hour of our usual set, encored with What's Up (4 non blondes) and 25 or 6 to 4 (Chicago) which both went down an absolute storm!! Finished, got paid, and got booked for New Years Eve next year!!
Cracking weekend!! 😀

[seashell]

Not last night, but Saturday (just got round to writing this up).

Long story short - some of the regulars at KevB's jam at the Greyhound had persuaded into playing at a charity night in a pub just outside Notttingham. The details were somewhat sketchy, but I was led to believe this would also be some sort of jam, put on as a celebration for a chap who'd just done a firewalk. I asked if they wanted me to learn anything in particular, but they just told me to turn up and 'do what you usually do'.

Got there to find it was quite an event. There were 3 'proper' bands playing, plus me and some randoms from the Greyhound jam who were expected to get up and do a little set. No other bass players for this, so I was going to have to do about half an hour with this 'scratch' band!

The pub was a strange mixture of happy families there for the charity firewalk, and iffy looking characters with neck tattoos.

First up were a band of young teenagers, who were pretty good. During their set an old lady on a zimmer frame hobbled right up to the lead singer/guitarist, and stood glaring at him with her hands on her hips. Then she performed a series of emphatic and somewhat menacing gestures. The band played on like troupers. Then a woman's voice rang out from the back 'When's the reggae band on?' The kids left the stage to the sound of one person clapping. Me.

I was up next with the 'scratch' band. We quickly ran out of songs I knew, so then we had to play songs I didn't know, with guitarist shouting out the chords at me as we went along. I just played root notes. Mostly the right ones at that! We left the stage to the sound of tumbleweeds blowing through the bar. I tried to take that as a compliment - at least we didn't get the zimmer frame treatment or heckling.

What was really nice though was that the bass player from the reggae band came up to me afterwards, shook me by the hand and said some very kind words about my playing. So that cheered me up no end.

The reggae band were on next. Unfortunately the sound was a bit off and the drummer was more of a rock drummer who didn't really have the groove. They went down well though. They were 'zimmered', but she seemed to be enjoying it this time.

Finally there was a goth band who were excellent indeed. They all played really well, the sound was spot on and they all looked exceptionally cool.
The crowd really loved them.

So what I have learned from this is - all you have to do to get the crowd on your side is play really well, sound really great and look fantastic. Simples

[Roland Rock]

[quote name='seashell' timestamp='1385974149' post='2294124']
Not last night, but Saturday (just got round to writing this up).

Long story short - some of the regulars at KevB's jam at the Greyhound had persuaded into playing at a charity night in a pub just outside Notttingham. The details were somewhat sketchy, but I was led to believe this would also be some sort of jam, put on as a celebration for a chap who'd just done a firewalk. I asked if they wanted me to learn anything in particular, but they just told me to turn up and 'do what you usually do'.

Got there to find it was quite an event. There were 3 'proper' bands playing, plus me and some randoms from the Greyhound jam who were expected to get up and do a little set. No other bass players for this, so I was going to have to do about half an hour with this 'scratch' band!

The pub was a strange mixture of happy families there for the charity firewalk, and iffy looking characters with neck tattoos.

First up were a band of young teenagers, who were pretty good. During their set an old lady on a zimmer frame hobbled right up to the lead singer/guitarist, and stood glaring at him with her hands on her hips. Then she performed a series of emphatic and somewhat menacing gestures. The band played on like troupers. Then a woman's voice rang out from the back 'When's the reggae band on?' The kids left the stage to the sound of one person clapping. Me.

I was up next with the 'scratch' band. We quickly ran out of songs I knew, so then we had to play songs I didn't know, with guitarist shouting out the chords at me as we went along. I just played root notes. Mostly the right ones at that! We left the stage to the sound of tumbleweeds blowing through the bar. I tried to take that as a compliment - at least we didn't get the zimmer frame treatment or heckling.

What was really nice though was that the bass player from the reggae band came up to me afterwards, shook me by the hand and said some very kind words about my playing. So that cheered me up no end.

The reggae band were on next. Unfortunately the sound was a bit off and the drummer was more of a rock drummer who didn't really have the groove. They went down well though. They were 'zimmered', but she seemed to be enjoying it this time.

Finally there was a goth band who were excellent indeed. They all played really well, the sound was spot on and they all looked exceptionally cool.
The crowd really loved them.

So what I have learned from this is - all you have to do to get the crowd on your side is play really well, sound really great and look fantastic. Simples
[/quote]

Sounds like an interesting night! What was the pub, and what was the name of the reggae band?
Congratulations on completing your own metaphorical firewalk; you need to put on a band night to celebrate!

Edited December 2, 2013 by Roland Rock

[KevB]

Well done Shelly, sounds like a real evening. I know the pub and the village it's in very well, it's actually generally a fairly 'well to do' area but at weekends they get a few rough 'uns in from a neighbouring area which isn't far away but like the wild west in comparison. I'd laugh my socks off if our singer got 'zimmered'.

[vsmith1]

We had a Charity gig on Saturday night. Unusually for us, this village hall had a stage - so we were blessed with more space. After our last gig, another long story, I am (as seems to be usual for bassists) also the sound engineer and wanted to spend some time of getting our FOH sound really good as well as filling the hall. Thankfully the hall had also had some acoustic treatment which made things better. I used my wireless set up to go out front during the set up and tweak things.

As it was a Charity gig they had us for free, and had a raffle, an auction. So the initial plan from the organisers was that we'd go on at 1930 for an hour then have the raffle, then auction a load of donated stuff off then we'd be back on at 2215 and we would play until midnight. However, like most events like this, our start time got pushed back to 2000 and halved.

Well we started and got through the first half of set 1. We had it a bit quieter as requested. The usual thing of lots of people wanting to talk. We enjoyed our elevated position on stage and were brimming with confidence thanks to a good sound check.

I was reckoning that the raffle (lots of prizes) and the auction (at least 20+ items) would go on for ages. Well they got a local pro auctioneer. He rattled through the raffle and the auction in double quick time. The speeches, flowers, thanks etc. were pretty short. So it looked like instead of going back on at 2215 we'd be back about 2130. Plans made and remade. We'd do the rest of set 1 then we'd take a short break and then crack on with set 2.

BTW we do have longish sets with 43 songs in all.

That worked well. The bizarre bit for me was the net of balloons coming down early then our drummer being put off by what sounded like gun fire as the balloons burst on the dance floor. I just thought I'd moved into a scene from the Blues Brothers. The floor for set 2 rapidly filled up and we had a great time.

We also had some helpful "roadies" who made the pack up and load up much quicker. I got home by 00:35 after finishing at midnight.

[krysh]

played at a great jamsession on saturday. some great musicians made it possible to improvise some very nice tunes.
also got a lot compliments about my playing and sound (played my frankenjazz with the shuker neck) through the house combo (swr workingman 15 with di through house pa).
I didn't like the stage sound so much, but anyway: very happy!

[toneknob]

We played a 10-song set including The Chicken and Birdland on a Dec 1st show, Jaco's birthday.

Guess which songs featured my biggest flubs. Sorry JP

[MarkW]

[size=4][font="Calibri"][color="#000000"]It was a two-gig weekend for me. On Saturday we played to over 200 people at a charity gig in aid of the British Heart Foundation. We were on absolutely top form with a fault-free blistering performance, and the punters had a fantastic night. Unfortunately last night’s three-set gig at a local social club wasn’t quite so spectacular. [/color][/font][/size][size=4][font="Calibri"][color="#000000"] [/color][/font][/size]
[size=4][font="Calibri"][color="#000000"]For a start we were all knackered from the previous 2 am finish, severe jetlag had just caught up with our keyboard player after a fortnight in LA, and I was suffering from a horrendous head cold that made everything sound as if I had my head in a bucket. The main problem though was the mix on stage, which was atrocious. In fact atrocious doesn’t even begin to describe it. The only thing I could hear all night was the drummer and the odd bit of vocals – nothing else, and crucially not a single note I was playing. Despite this, everything was going swimmingly until we launched into ‘Don’t Stop Believing’, which we’ve done dozens of time before, and every time in E. For some reason that I still can’t fathom, last night I did the whole thing in F. Could hardly be worse really, could it? As the only one who couldn’t hear it, I was on stage wondering why the rest of the band weren’t giving it their usual grunt. I assumed that because it’s the bass line that drives it and I was feeling out of sorts I probably wasn’t giving it enough welly. So I really dug in. God alone knows what it must have sounded like to the punters out front, but given the hysterics the rest of the band were having I’m assuming not too great. [/color][/font][/size][font="Times New Roman"][size="3"][color="#000000"] [/color][/size][/font]
[size=4][font="Calibri"][color="#000000"]Ah well – as one of my old band leaders used to say: If you’re going to make a mistake, it may as well be a big one.[/color][/font][/size]

[seashell]

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1385974743' post='2294127'] Sounds like an interesting night! What was the pub, and what was the name of the reggae band? Congratulations on completing your own metaphorical firewalk; you need to put on a band night to celebrate! [/quote]


Thanks Roland
It was the Jolly Farmers in Ruddington. Unfortunately, I was in such a daze I can't remember the names of any of the other bands now!
I think the reggae band are quite newly formed though, which is why they haven't managed to find a proper reggae drummer yet. The rock guy is just helping them out ofr a bit.

Edited December 2, 2013 by seashell

[seashell]

[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1385977070' post='2294148'] Well done Shelly, sounds like a real evening. I know the pub and the village it's in very well, it's actually generally a fairly 'well to do' area but at weekends they get a few rough 'uns in from a neighbouring area which isn't far away but like the wild west in comparison. I'd laugh my socks off if our singer got 'zimmered'. [/quote]

Thanks Kev.

Sounds like your own gig that night went pretty well.

[gary mac]

[quote name='MarkW' timestamp='1385983644' post='2294242']
[font=Calibri][color=#000000]It was a two-gig weekend for me. On Saturday we played to over 200 people at a charity gig in aid of the British Heart Foundation. We were on absolutely top form with a fault-free blistering performance, and the punters had a fantastic night. Unfortunately last night’s three-set gig at a local social club wasn’t quite so spectacular. [/color][/font][font=Calibri][color=#000000] [/color][/font]
[font=Calibri][color=#000000]For a start we were all knackered from the previous 2 am finish, severe jetlag had just caught up with our keyboard player after a fortnight in LA, and I was suffering from a horrendous head cold that made everything sound as if I had my head in a bucket. The main problem though was the mix on stage, which was atrocious. In fact atrocious doesn’t even begin to describe it. The only thing I could hear all night was the drummer and the odd bit of vocals – nothing else, and crucially not a single note I was playing. Despite this, everything was going swimmingly until we launched into ‘Don’t Stop Believing’, which we’ve done dozens of time before, and every time in E. For some reason that I still can’t fathom, last night I did the whole thing in F. Could hardly be worse really, could it? As the only one who couldn’t hear it, I was on stage wondering why the rest of the band weren’t giving it their usual grunt. I assumed that because it’s the bass line that drives it and I was feeling out of sorts I probably wasn’t giving it enough welly. So I really dug in. God alone knows what it must have sounded like to the punters out front, but given the hysterics the rest of the band were having I’m assuming not too great. [/color][/font][font=Times New Roman][size=3][color=#000000] [/color][/size][/font]
[font=Calibri][color=#000000]Ah well – as one of my old band leaders used to say: If you’re going to make a mistake, it may as well be a big one.[/color][/font]
[/quote]

Sympathise Mark. I did the same a couple of years back with Johny B Goode. Sound was bad and I played the first verse half a step up to my band mates

[MarkW]

Cheers Gary - I felt like a right dickhead. Thankfully the band are used to my general incompetence and found it hilarious, and the punters were too far gone by then either to notice or care!

[KevB]

I'd forgotten places like last night still existed, proper old style wmc but now reinvented as just a 'social club'. I really was expecting bingo and a meat raffle during the half time interval but it never happened. It was actually some works xmas shindig who had just taken the place over though it was also open to general public. They had a wrist band system in place so those there for the official party could get a free bar and food. We were given wrist bands too as well as being fairly generously paid so a big thanks to them for treating us so well. Played from a high stage to a big room so not easy to get a rapport going with the crowd who were mostly happy to sit at tables and chat rather than dance. We got a few up in the second set and had more than a few positive comments from folks as we were packing up at the end, played till after midnight, struggle for me as I still haven't shaken off the cold I've had all week. Now I've got a load of stuff to learn for the jam session I'm doing in 3 hours!

[URL=http://s30.photobucket.com/user/KevB64/media/valexmas13_zps43c32631.jpg.html][IMG]http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c307/KevB64/valexmas13_zps43c32631.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Edited December 9, 2013 by KevB

[DarkHeart]

cracking gig last night, well worth the 100 or so yards i had to drive to get there yes it was that close and yes i did drive (the pa is heavy) first time id played a hometown gig in 30 or so years! made even better by a mate of mine coming up to me at half time and asking me if id like a free of charge Aria ZZB!

[RandomBass]

New venue for us last night. Rather compact inside, but we've played in smaller places before - interesting all the same. Couple of new songs for us last night (REM 'The One I Love', and The Cars 'Just What I Needed') which went down well.

For some bizarre reason I managed to mis-remember how to play about 3 songs in the first set - worst of all was Teenage Dirtbag which is making me cringe even now. We've done that one regularly since 2009 so god knows what I was on last night. I apologised to the rest of the band during the break, I was mortified. They were cool about it, as we all are when someone fluffs up. It's only a hobby, after all.

However the second set was a real stormer - we were firing on all cylinders. More punters came in, place was full, the merry-juice was flowing and the feet were tapping. All good

[BigRedX]

Two gigs in 2 days for Dick Venom & The Terrortones.

First on Thursday at the Bakers Vaults in Stockport. Nice venue with a decent sized proper stage and good sounding PA. Unfortunately the audience was a bit sparse. We played second and had by far the best crowd and reaction ( the "headlining" band played to us a handful of regulars). Sold some CDs and Mr Venom impressed the landlady with his on and off-stage antics - including climbing all around the venue and hanging off the victorian style street lamp fixture that sprouts through the middle of the stage.

Friday saw us at Vampire in Bradford. Another great venue with a good sized stage and PA. The stage itself though was covered in extra boards to cover up holes created during a gig earlier in the week... Got horribly lost in Bradford and arrived late. Not that it mattered to the world's most laid-back sound guy. He didn't seem to even want to do a soundcheck - although it was just as well we did since there was nasty low frequency feedback that needed to be sorted. Everything else sounded pretty good from the get-go. Unfortunately again the audience was a bit sparse... It was a bit worrying wondering whether we should wait a bit longer for some more people to arrive, or if we were going to risk those already there leaving. Finally it did start to fill up a bit when we took the stage and no-one left while we were playing. Plenty of positive comments afterwards and we sold an inordinate amount of merchandise considering how small the audience was! We got paid in full and the promoter want us back next year to do a support for a well-known psychobilly band, so in the end it was well-worth doing.

[steve-bbb]

apparently they raised over 1500 squid for charity

we were on 6-7pm - listened to the band before us do a large chunk of our set list then went on and did a few of them again plus we rolled out a whole load of new covers for us - then watched the band after us cover some of ours

[seashell]

[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1386502300' post='2300707']
[url="http://s30.photobucket.com/user/KevB64/media/valexmas13_zps43c32631.jpg.html"][/url]
[/quote]

'Ho ho ho, have I got a surprise for you little girl'

[indiegrungesound]

Not actually last night, but my band played The Roadhouse on Thursday night for the first time as a 3 piece. Really enjoyed it on the night! Then I watched the video back on Friday...


....We sounded awesome!

Can't wait for our next one!

[northstreet]

Apologies in advance for name-dropping. Was out with the rock and roll band on Saturday playing at the dinner dance of the sports club that Mrs Street belongs to. Our lead guitarist is no longer with us so we needed a dep. Our rhythm guitarist casually suggests his mate, who met on a campsite in France earlier this, a certain Mr Alan Warner, of The Foundations fame (chatters under 30 ask your parents). Who agreed to do it!

So there's me on Saturday, the original weekend warrior, playing with a real live, professional, gigging proper musician, trying desparately to keep the error count in single figures. Think I got away with it, Mrs Street is still talking to me, and we may have another booking from it. Alan himself is a real gent and still a great guitar player.

And I worked out that if you play an eighth note walking bassline for a version of Johnny B Goode that goes on for 5 minutes at 130bbm, you play 1,300 notes - which may explain why my hands ached the following morning.

[Cat Burrito]

My gig last night was somewhat lacking.... it lacked me! First time in my life after 25yrs+ of playing that I pulled a show because I had a 24hr bug. Gutted. The band went acoustic minus me.

[seashell]

Last Jam before Xmas at the Barge n Barell last night. Pub was really busy. We'd learned some new covers for our little 'set', so I was concentrating quite hard on getting them right. I wasn't really sensing what the audience was feeling, so I actually felt a sense of surprise when we received enthusiastic applause and whoops! I hadn't realised people were enjoying it so much.

I do think we are improving as a band now. We hardly made any mistakes last night Also our singer is blossoming into a really good front person. She was making witty quips in between songs and that helped to get the audience on our side. Added to which I was standing right up front next to her for BVs and we both were wearing red and black and covered in bling. So perhaps we looked rather fetching (ahem!) I think that helped to attract the punters attention a bit.

We'll have to take a bit of a break now until after Xmas, as the rest of them have lives.
But New Year's resolution is to actually get some gigs of our own in 2014. Bring it on!

[JuliusGroove]

Played on the Verda boat in Shoreham Friday with my Latin/funk band and it was absolutely rammed.. Our support was a Folk band who read Shakespearean Sonnets and a french magician in a Corset.. Peculiar.