How was your gig last night?

[tonybassplayer]

Just "bumping" this up to the top to remind people to post as I like to read the reviews on a Sunday morning.

Bit late this but we played last Thursday and Friday ( Queen Vic at Northowram and the Barge at Brighouse ) with yet another "never met before the gig" drummer depping for us but no worries as he was excellent and by the second night it was as if he had been playing with us for years. He is playing with us again tonight so looking forward to another lively gig.

One little tip that is worth passing on is that I always take my ipod to gigs to test the pa ( we rarely sound check these days ) and for backing music and he used it to listen to a few of the songs that he wasn't too familiar with through earphones to get an idea how the song went. It certainly did the trick.

Footnote

Low point of the Thursday gig was when we were loading up the dep drummer found his van had been broken in to and some personal stuff and his drum mic's had gone.......bloody annoying !!

[MuseMatt]

I had a great gig this afternoon! We got paid 'well' (for a non-big band) and merch sold good! Backstage a lot of booze and I'm a bit drunk now!

definately worth it!

[Happy Jack]

My first ever contribution to this thread, seeing as I've just played my first ever proper, paying gig.

Feeling ever so proud of myself.

The Mawson Arms on Hogarth Roundabout (the A4 at Chiswick) for a combined 50th for four people. Didn't do a headcount, but it looked like 70 or so in the house.

No PA so I had to provide one - it's amazing what you can find in my garage if you look hard enough. Setting up from 5:30 to 7:00, way longer than I'd expected, so only 30 minutes for a sound check.

Two 40-minute sets at 9:30 and 10:45, we made loads of mistakes but no one seemed to notice/mind, I was happy with my playing & singing (though I want to see the video), no worries.

Christ but I'm knackered!

[beerdragon]

Local pub, plenty of people in everyone enjoyed themselves.. broke a string again! E string this time. a couple of musos there where amazed to see someone break a bass string. but i was ready for the bugger. getting quite adept at it now changing them now. i think it was a combination of an old string and my atacking stylre of playing. my Korg tiner would not work just when i needed it most, had to do it by ear and it seemed to ages when the pressures on, glad when i get a back up bass.

[stingrayfan]

40th birthday party in a back garden in Dorking. Good laugh. Theme was: "wear a wig". I was in a mullet. Played in a small gazebo in the back garden which must have really wound up the neighbours but they had a really good turn out, so most of them must have been there. Lucky with the weather, it was the sunniest day for ages. Got fed a hog roast too, so all good.

[bassace]

Last night I was booked on DB for a pick up gig with a sax player, his son (16yrs old) on drums and a keyboard. I met the sax player at the gig and he said we were in for a good time because the host (a solicitor celebrating his 50th birthday) was one of his students - and there may be more. So at 6.00pm we settled down in a small marquee in the garden and did some straight ahead modern standards, some from the books, some from the head. Sax player was awsome, son on drums equally so and I had a big smile on my face all the way through. I noticed several people walking in with sax cases and in the second set we had no less than eight saxes lined up in the front. They had all rehearsed (more or less) Mood Indigo and Summertime and got through those, just. Then the sax player called C jam blues, which none of them had ever heard of. It's OK he said, It's only two notes. So they all joined in a made a terrible racket with some of the soloists(?) told to swap fours with the drums, which was an alien concept to most. A lot of fun and after three tunes order was restored and we did a funk set before the light went and we packed up at 9.00. Good food, booze and a good fee. Wonderful.

[tonybassplayer]

Deer Park pub in Rudding Park caravan park in Harrogate and it was f*****g awesome !!

Full dance floor from the very first second all through to the last note, 6 more bookings at more money for next year and two parties from members of the audience.

Apparently they are now getting a good amount of repeat bookings from people who want to stay on the weekends we play which is a pretty nice feeling.

Played Superstition for the first time and it went down brilliant.

All in all a cracking gig !!

[bassninja]

Hobbs Farm Festival, West Sussex.

Cool

Good sound from the off, asked to play an extra 30 mins due to the 'next band' being stuck in the mayhem that is currently the A27. Made a change from the usual 'we're running over a bit, could you lose two numbers?'

[smug]I was the only band member without a hangover[/smug].

Lots of people hanging out and the vibe was good, nice solos, good interplay with everyone listening well. An improbably tall drummer introduced himself to us afterwards (independently recommended by people who know), and it looks like we'll hook up for a jam at some point. Might be interesting...

[farmer61]

The Greyhound in Amesbury for us, they wanted to book us for New Years Eve after our soundtrack, which was strange 'cause it wasn't very good.

We played well to a smallish audience of regulars and a few in for the music. Played our usual 3 hours odd, so sore fingers, sore ears but good fun.

Good little venue although our lights tripped the electrics a couple of times!

Next up the Huntsman in Salisbury, first time on the % of the takings, just hope a good crown in!

[Merton]

Funny one last night, we did a 40th birthday party in a garden in Oxted. 2 doors down was a 21st party with an (apparently) crap band - so much so that half their guests appeared at our party to enjoy our sets instead... Was bloody cold by the end, no heaters anywhere to be seen. So cold that my amp and pedal power supplies weren't even warm after 6 hours of being switched on... Plus points - weird posh portaloos with fully flushing toilets, carpet and classical music piped in, and a fish'n'chip van. Hooray!

Friday was at the Crow's Nest in East Grinstead, was a fairly standard night there but I took my fretless along and had a giggle with that all night. Not sure anyone noticed, which I take to be a good thing (i.e. I can play in tune!!)

[lowhand_mike]

had our second gig of the year on saturday night at the CIU club in crayford, first half didnt go too badly, not too many mistakes and we covered the ones there were quite well. we also had a lad doing a solo set in our break for about 15minutes of acoustic songs, he was really good, great voice and playing especially considering it was his first time doing it live.
our second set however was a complete shambles, singer kept missing verses, lines changes etc even though he had the lyrics in front of him, the rest of us made some mistakes too, in the end i had to tell them to cut our set short it was getting that bad, though on the plus side i did finally nail the solo in My Generation, guess it was the anger in me at the way we were playing that got it done.
basically alot of things need looking at though it didnt help having only one practice the week before the gig as we had a 6 week break due to holidays prior to that, great planning.
much work to be done me thinks

[OldGit]

[quote name='Merton' post='283871' date='Sep 14 2008, 07:46 PM']Weird posh portaloos with fully flushing toilets, carpet and classical music piped in, and a fish'n'chip van. Hooray![/quote]

Wow! Fish and chips served on the potty .. Posh people reallly know how to live, eh?

We played one of those gigs a few years back. Posh portatloos with paintings, had to go outside for the burger van an air rifle stall, though ... .
At 11pm they lauched £6,000 worth of fireworks off a lorry, synced to comptuerised music, in the lower paddock ..
We should have charged more ...

[Merton]

[quote name='OldGit' post='284272' date='Sep 15 2008, 02:39 PM']Wow! Fish and chips served on the potty .. Posh people reallly know how to live, eh?

We played one of those gigs a few years back. Posh portatloos with paintings, had to go outside for the burger van an air rifle stall, though ... .[/quote]

[Kiwi]

Yesterday we played a gig at Babington House near Frome for Cherie Blair's Hairdresser, Andre Suarde. He was getting married to his partner in a civil partnership ceremony.

We were setting up when he introduced himself to us by saying "I'm the bride today, so sorry if I'm a bit poofy" Which was a great ice breaker considering he was wearing a black morning suit with a black kilt... ...yes, thats right he's french and he was wearing a black kilt. Everyone was too scared to ask him what was underneath it I think.

Anyways, the gig was a total riot, absolute hoot. The crowd were up on the dancefloor from the first song and the dancefloor stayed packed all night. They loved us, we loved them and it looks like we'll be marketing for more civil parnerships as we got offered another gig last night from someone who is Director of Purchasing at House of Fraser. Cherie was there as well and she stayed to watch us for a couple of songs and then left. She seemed to be a bit aloof generally, we didn't see much of her after that. Tony wasn't there at all which was a shame. Danny from McFly and Barbara Dixon were supposed to be performing too but we didn't hear or see them either so no telling whether they did their thing or not. Music was provided by Radio 1 DJ Rob da Bank.

Andre basically told us to help ourselves to the dinner menu and order whatever we wanted. So we did! Bloody hell was that food good, grilled sardines, poached brill with olive mash and whatever refreshments we liked. When we finished our final song, Andre was so happy he was almost crying and he even slipped one of the singers an extra 100 quid tip. Awesome, one of the best gigs all year. If all civil partnerships are like this, there are much much harder ways to earn the same money!

Tonight we played Brockley Hall Golf Club. The kitchen staff apparently gave others in the band quite a bit of grief and were being very pushy to the point of rudeness about us getting in the way (which we had no choice about given we HAD to load in through the kitchen). We came close to just telling them to f*** off and let us get on with doing our job so we could clear the place quicker but we held back. The stage was far too small and there was virtually no space for the singers to move about. But we got on with it I took the Smith 5, the MM Cutlass 1 and I've been trying out my Spector 6 too. On Thursday I tried it in the middle of Set 2 and tonight I used it pretty much instead of the Smith all the way through. It worked out quite well, the Spector doesn't have the scooped sound of the Smith and its quite easy to get a growly sound of out it. The one thing I became aware of with this 6 as well as the Smith 6 I used to own is that the fingerboard is so flat, its not possible to see all the strings when wearing the instrument. So there's a bit more muscle memory required in knowing what notes are on which string. I suspect this has been the reason why I struggled with the Smith 6 in the past. I was getting some really chewy, focussed and powerful sounds out of the spector tonight though. Very nice, its almost better than the Smith for live work!

The crowd were stereotypically Essex (think over dressed and voices that could grate cheese) and they were a bit cold in the first set, despite us pulling out all our crowd warming tricks. We reckoned it was because they weren't pissed enough. We noticed also that there were a large number of women who all shared the same platinum blonde bob hair cut, we couldn't figure out why until the percussionist suggested that it might be the Posh Spice effect in action. LOL

When it came to the meal, the Maitre D announced they'd made some sandwiches for us and we said "um, no, our contract specifies a hot meal". So we ordered off the lunch menu and the food was also pretty good. I ordered a medium rare ribeye and it arrived medium rare! As a contrast to the kitchen staff, the waiters were pretty cool. When we had eaten and came on to do our second set, the crowd were a bit warmer (read: pissed) and stayed on the dance floor. The groom came up to the percussionist while we were playing and basically said, I know I asked you to play until 11:30 but if you play for an extra half an hour, I'll see you right on the money front. So we did. We'll find out tomorrow what the extra dosh is going to add up to. He was a bit pissed when he mentioned it. The bride was ecstatic afterwards, couldn't thank us enough. Apparently this is the first time she's actually seen some of her friends dancing!

When we completed the load out back out through the kitchen, there was a mountain of empty sandwiches left on the side. The fillings had been more or less removed and the bread left behind!

[Dr.Dave]

Harrogate Blue's Bar for us. I like Harrogate - sort of place where they get out of the bath to use the toilet!

Parking wasn't easy because of the Carrera and the Aston outside and the folk milling around as the bar overlooks a big parky area called the Stray.

House PA/lights made life that little bit easier and the crowd were well up for a good night as always. Interested proprierter helps.

It's not massive by a long way - but you think it is if you catch my drift. Folk singing and dancing on seats gets you into that 'we're the best band on the planet and nobody can live with us' frame of mind.

Without hesitation I'd encourage any of you to get in touch with Peter at Harrogate Blues Bar and tell him I sent you.

[waynepunkdude]

[quote name='Dr.Dave' post='287859' date='Sep 20 2008, 10:11 AM']Harrogate Blue's Bar for us. I like Harrogate - sort of place where they get out of the bath to use the toilet![/quote]


Even for a number 1?

[Faithless]

So, I'm just back from the gig... Honestly, from small after-party, but, anyway, there was a gig before...


So, we were gigging in our capital, Vilnius - Lithuania's quite small, so, no big prob with travelling - about an hour trip...


A friend-of-bandmate asked me to help in his White Metal (in other words, Christian rock..) project, as their bassist was having a gig with his main group tonight in other city...


Aaaand, the event was - sorta Christian-festival with sorta Christian-bands..

We had [i]even[/i] two rehearsals before, but, as their stuff ain't that tricky [pure 4/4 heavy-rock/metal...], it was quite easy..

The hardest thing was to remember riffs (and even song names, to be honest... ), but, then, I repeat, we had [i]two[/i] rehearsals...

Got to the place about an hour before our 'play'...

There was some nice Ampeg combo [don't know the model..], but I didn't get enough time to take the 'right' sound.. It was OK actually, but not [i]good[/i].


Nice event, all in all, and, a good amount of practise for me

Btw, I've hated both bassists' sound, that were before and after us...
Where's the real need to turn the mid [high middies, actually], treble, and, practically no bass...
It wasn't a solo-bass-day event, at last..
One was Yammy [TRB, I think], other - Thunderbird.. Both were sh1te.

Ibbies own.



Faith.

[Delberthot]

Thought I'd wait until tonight (this morning?) to go over this weekend's gigs.

Friday night - doing a charity ball with the wedding band.

Its a 9pm start so I get there around 7.45pm, guitarist is already there. We get the gear in although not the easiest. They've just got a new extension on the place and as usual the bands were the last things on the owners minds when they designed the place. Had to lift, amongst other things, the rack with power amps which comes in around 125lbsup to head height to get it over the stacks of chairs in the corridor. Luckily I'm a strong guy but its still a PITA.

The drummer arrives next and we get all the gear set up. Its still early so we go to the bar to wait for the keyboard player / singer to arrive. He also brings the subs and the box of cables for the PA with him.

Its gets to around 8.10 and we're wondering where the keyboard player is. We try calling him on his mobile but it goes straight through to his answering machine and there's no answer at his house either.

The drummer eventually gets him around 8.25. the conversation gos something like:

D: Hi, what are you up to tonight?

K: Just sitting in front of the telly with a hot chocolate and about to go to bed, not feeling too good.

D: You do realise we are playing tonight?

K: F*****************************

You get the idea.

Luckily the dinner overruns so when the keyboard player arrives and we get set up we are more or less ready to begin when the audience are ready.

I must say that I had the worst sound I've had in a long time. It might be something to do with preserving my fingers for the other 2 gigs this weekend, it might be the room or it may be that the last 3 gigs I have done have been with the rock band and my settings are completely different for that band.

I had one of those gigs where I played a lot of random notes that luckily sounded ok.

I've had better gigs but I've also had worse.


This afternoon's gig was a freeby for the Cancer Research 'race for life' at Grangemouth Sports Stadium. Last year's one was really good but we played later in the day and got really drunk after it. The PA was also fantastic as well. It was so substantial that there was a desk on the stage to mix the monitors and another out front for the main PA mix.

This year it was different guys doing it and they were DJs with a relatively large PA by DJ standards. They had the smallest desk in the world and actually ran out of inputs long before everything was mic'd up or DI'd. It didn't really bother me as, just like us, they were offering their services FOC for the event.

Half an hour before we were due to begin the drummer asked the main guy if everything was all set up and he repled that it was. And he added "how difficult can it be to mix a band" to which my drummer repled "how difficult can it be to be a DJ"

There was no soundcheck - most DJs won't know what that is.

We began playing at the back of 5. Our first song was Gary Moore's version of 'the stumble'. While we were playing this the Dj was mixing us through a set of headphones plugged into the desk.

Do you know the story behind why Chris Squire's bass is so prominent in Yes' recordings? It was because the sound engineer mixed one of their albums through a set of headphones and kept turning up the bass so he could hear it.

I can only imagine how loud I was through the PA.

Anyway, we begin playing and our drummer tried to get the Djs attention as he couldn't hear his vocals through the monitor but the DJ had decided to leave the stage and go out front to hear how it sounded even though one of the other Dj guys there was giving a big thumbs up for the sound out front.

The drummer went mental shouting at the Dj to come back up. I can totally see his point of view- remember it was the DJ who said 'how hard can it be to mix a band?". If he had asked us questions or offered his ideas instead of being so blaze about the whole thing the situation may never have arose. They both had a shouting match and the DJ ended up going home!

The gig ended up being cr@p as I was on edge and getting myself ready for a fight as I could see people talking to each other and pointing toward the stage. Would've been a pretty onesided fight anyway as the drummer and I can both handle ourselves, the singer was Scottish Karate champion and the guitarist was UK champion. Sorry, I don't want to act the big man or anything but that was the situation as I saw it.

Finished the gig at 6.20pm. Stripped the gear and was at this evening's gig for 6.30pm (just round the corner luckily)

Got in etc etc etc and began around 8.20

I decided to use my new '56 Warmoth P instead of my usual gold one (the gold one is normally for the wedding band and the '56 is for the rock band) the soundwas absolutely fantastic.

Apart from a brand new lead cr@pping out on me the sound was fantastic.

I find that when I play too hard the pickup on the gold bass compresses the signal and makes it lot quieter whereas the Lollar pickup in the '56 comes alive when I really dig in.

The gig was ace and a sea breeze considering it was the third one this weekend - I could've gone on a lot longer.

One thing though - I'm not prone to GAS that often these days but one thing I would really like now is a good all valve amp. It would suit the bass down to the ground.

Not sure what to get though. I have thought about getting a Marshall VBA400 - those MBC cabs are stupidly cheap. An 8x10" for £399?

Bonkers

One thing I like is that Marshall use Celestions. There aren't many speakers that I trust but I used Trace cabs for years and they're pretty bomb proof, not like those nasty Fane drivers in my Ashdown ABM115 cabs.

Another one I fancy is a Schroeder 6x10" - probably about the same weight as the Marshall head!

Edited September 21, 2008 by Delberthot

[WalMan]

Back from the Fountain in Chichester and the first gig in nigh on 2 months because of holidays.

Considering we had one rehearsal a fortnight ago and threw in loads of extra stuff we don't normally do, or haven't done in years, it went really well.

Great crowd, singing all night (as usual for the Fountain), and a large cross section of ages all well up for it.

I had a young lady (well young to me) gyrating in front of me all night, showing me all her best pole dancing moves. Had a couple of "Please make the scary lady stop" moments, but she was harmless and her boyfriend was hugely amused by her actions thankfully.

Along with trying to mix some old multitracks during the break I have set a load of new patches up in the BOD, which by and large worked well and sounded good in the IEM's and through the PA without varying in level too much & throwing the sound guy. Might need a little more work but by & large fine

Played over time even more than usual with the landlord egging the crowd on through the 7 or 8 encores, but he stumped up more cash, so that was good. That said I am glad we stopped when we did because my fretting hand was cramping up badly towards the end and I don't think I could have done another.

Drank three litres of water throughout the evening to try to keep hydrated and the cramp at bay and it worked pretty much, however despite that and three pints of Coke I have yet to feel the urge 2p, so I must have worked pretty hard!!.

Shoulder held up well though in the end I did decide not to risk it & took a couple of painkillers before we started. The new RA drugs are bl00dy marvellous

Lots of nice comments at the end o the evening and got chatting to another bass player.........which was nice

[Dr.Dave]

OD's in Wakefield. Scene of our band forming 7 years ago and my former second home. A shadow of itself these days sadly but we still had a belter.

2nd night running I've taken the 54P reish out. Good fun. Basic sound and hardly a refined instrument to play but I love it.

Just rung round the band as we're off out for some lunch this aft. Drummer's knackered , Guitarists arm is locked , my knee's playing up and my shoulder's frozen !!!
Still , I'm the baby of the only band around seeking sponsorship from Sanatogen !!

[stingrayfan]

Pub in SW London. Bit of a locals out of the way place. Crap acoustics in past - you kind of play facing a wall, which bounces the PA straight back at you, resulting in early feedback. Means I have to try to get the guitarist to turn his Marshall down, which confuses him. I don't think he's read that bit in the manual yet.

Crowd warmed up though and whooped and hollared in the second half. We went for it, playing all the big punky stuff we do and got lots of compliments. Bloke came up to me in the break and said: "I've seen a lot of bands mate, and you're one of the best drummers I've seen in ages...". So I must be making a good impression.

Gave my [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=27342"]Status Stingray[/url] a blast too for the first time.

[Kiwi]

Last night's gig was at Grittleton House School, just off Jct 17 of the M4. The school itself is family owned and independent, what was most remarkable is that this place is set in 18 acres and has a series of impressive buildings but the school has only been in existence since 1951 and caters for 300 pupils. The two original founders are still alive and the school has moved location twice in its short history because of growth. Anyway, we were put in the ballroom and there were two receptions going on at the same time, ours was on one side. We couldn't get into set up until they'd cleared the cash bar (on wheels) which was another 45 min to wait.

After that, the gig itself was doomed from the set up onwards. After we set up, we discovered we couldn't soundcheck because our room was right next to the reception dinner. The acoustics were the worst we'd ever faced with peaks all over the place and no specialist eq to compensate for them. The bass was boomy and the midrange was swamping everything else. So we started badly and the monitoring issues meant we never really played with 100% confidence. There was no food provided, we'd been given an allowance but Grittleton is out in the wopwops, it was difficult enough to get a mobile signal there as it was. Our keyboardist suggested we get pizza delivered but we were too far from any pizza place to get delivery. Added to that, we were doing a 3 setter which meant shorter breaks, so if we collected the pizza there wasn't a lot of time. We started the second set early, and finished it after 45 mins so that we had enough time to eat between the second and third sets.

So we ordered after the first set and at the end of the second set the percussionist and keyboardist left immediately to collect the pizza. They were gone 40 mins and when they got back, we dived in and scoffed ourselves stupid as there wasn't a lot of time. Next thing we know, the best man has come up asking when we're going on as the bride and groom are leaving early. Turns out our finish time was 11:30 and someone in the band assumed that because the license wasn't over until midnight, we had at least 30 mins flexibility. Wrong! The sound man said the groom was absolutely fuming that we'd taken such a long break (even though we'd only had about 15 mins to eat). So we downed pizza and went back for the third set.

The crowd was pleased to see us (they'd obviously been enjoying the cash bar) and the third set went well until we got the message to finish 3 songs before the finish by the management who then wanted us out by 1am so we only had an hour to break the PA down and load up. So we all thought 'f*** it' lets wrap this up and get out.

We managed to pack the PA away in 40mins which was probably a record for us!

All in all, one of the more forgettable gigs mainly due to the lack of time after being caught between the venue management and the expectations of the groom. Ah well, at least we had the perfect amount of stage area for a change! I left the Smith 5 at home and just took the Cutlass 1 (for the Chic songs) and flew solo with the Spector 6. The Spector sounded so growly I thought the amp was distorting!

[OldGit]

Heloooooo Glastonbury!!

Well we've waited a while to say that but there we were actually playing Glastonbury[i] fruit and produce[/i] Festival!" Fab!

Kind of a repeat after Steve the squeezebox and I did a two hander at very short notice last year. Back this time with the whole band, including both Daves, one on guitar and one on guitar/keys/mandy .. they normally take it in turns to gig due to other band commitments so there was way too much guitar going on IMHO Specially when we were joined on stage by local hero guitarist Jon Cousins, ZZ Top lookalike and erstwhle diddly band strummer.. oh and main organiser of the event

Anyway That all aside the crowd went wild Lots of enthusiasm and energy going into the dancing and big smiles all round at the show - that always feel good . Lots of "best gig for ages" comments at the end which is nice from such a lively place as Glasto.

It's been our summer break and 6 weeks since the last gig so took a while to remember how the foot pedals are currently plugged in and I had an odd hum with harmonic over tones on playing .. arrgh! ..
Finally tracked it down the Zoom B2.1u and cured it by pulling the daisy chain power supply out and switching to batteries. I guess it needs a precise voltage and the daisy chains don't always manage that... Batteries went dead later on but that was no problem as I had a spare set to hand, and a gap in the music to fit them ..

I played my new old 1980's "Japanese market only" '62 RI Jazz and realised Jazzes just don't do what a P can do in our mix .. Significantly different to the Shuker P in terms of clarity, it was also honking away with lots of mids .. I've never really liked Jazzes and that just cemented my feelings ..
So that will be moving on at some point. Nice bass, it just doesn't fit me ...

Oh and there was a sound limiter hiding behind the side curtain of the stage. Set oddly, it seemed to be mids sensitive. Anyway we "accidentally" plugged in to a socket a long way away in the kitchen just in case ... At the end we found out that, had the other venue manager been on duty, doing that would have got us a life ban (!) but the guy on last night was Ok about it. Only saw two red lights all night anyway on the sound meter so we weren't that loud ...

Anyway, no discernible Eavisis in the room so I doubt that the gig will get us main stage at Glasto next year but who knows Maybe we'll get asked back for the Fruit and Produce show again

The auction of prize winning fruit and produce was fun too.. we managed to buy loads

Oh and note to self .. next year take vegan jelly babies to hand out and stop the squeezebox player asking for a bacon sandwich instead of the vegan soup ...

Edited September 21, 2008 by OldGit

[stewblack]

I had an interesting day yesterday. We played at a mate's wedding so mates rates , not much cash but a night out. During the day a few of us provided background muzak as the guests wandered around the grounds of the hotel sipping their champers and making small talk while the photographer bossed people about. However the interesting bit came earlier. We'd been asked to provide music in the ceremony itself; when the bride came in, the signing of the register and as the happy couple left followed by their guests. As it happened the guy who organises the weddings at the place also asked us to play a bit of background stuff as people came in so we just jammed some laid back 'lounge music' not having prepared anything. I got chatting to the guy afterwards and he was sooo impressed - he'd done nearly 40 weddings so far this year, all with recorded music, he thought it was so good having a band he asked for our details as he was sure it would be something other people would want.
So what was just a favour to a friend rehearsed (after a fashion) for one evening at a mates house could turn into a lucrative little sideline. The hotel is less than a mile up the road from where I live and if the guy wants to offer us as part of the package it's A) An easy 1/2 hours work and A foot in the door to the wedding circuit.
Could be good.

[stingrayfan]

[quote name='stewblack' post='288725' date='Sep 21 2008, 08:13 PM']So what was just a favour to a friend rehearsed (after a fashion) for one evening at a mates house could turn into a lucrative little sideline.[/quote]
Sounds promising....