teej Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 Book Launch for chef Allegra McEvedy at Leon Restaurant, Canvey St, Southwark, with 'The Ukes of Hazzard': Dom on vocals and ukulele; Ellie on vocals, ukulele and violin; Adrian on vocals, ukulele and acoustic guitar; and me on upright. A mix of trad jazz, pop tunes of '20s-'40s (Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington), and a smattering of contemporary stuff from US bands like The Hot Club of Cowtown (anyone seen these guys on their recent UK tour? fantastic bass-player), The Asylum Street Spankers, and Squirrel Nut Zippers. Leon is a large, smart, fashionable restaurant, all glass-front and plush brown sofas. It was rammed with smart fashionable people, with a decent percentage of beautiful women, and according to a couple of Dom's female friends some rather attractive men. There was a free bar with plenty of wine, beer and some tasty cocktails made with fruit juices, 2 different kinds of rum and cointreau. The nibbles, which were being carried around on trays were excellent but tiny. '50s style pinups on the tiles in the gents - a nice touch, I thought. We haven't gigged for ages, and I couldn't make the rehearsal on Monday, so there were some highly enjoyable cock-ups in a couple of numbers in the first set, but I don't think anyone noticed anything except our grins getting bigger. We fought against the background noise of excited chatter in our first set, but it seemed like the crowd had thinned out for our second and we had them dancing by the end and pleading for an encore. We obliged with our version of James Taylor's You've Got a Friend (or was it Carol King?), which segues into a snippet of Walk on the Wild Side and a chorus of You Can't Always Get What You Want before exploding into R.E.S.P.E.C.T. - all on 3 ukuleles and an upright. Gets 'em every time. Hung around for a while afterwards and took full advantage of the free cocktails and beer then headed back to Waterloo and a half hour wait (just long enough for a quick one in The Hole in the Wall) before getting my train back to sleepy Winchester with a healthy bundle of banknotes in my wallet. All in all a most satisfactory evening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_bass5 Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 [quote name='phsycoandy' post='302320' date='Oct 8 2008, 04:32 PM']Having just mad a totally out of order sexist remark, heres a pic of our last gig. hey look no pedals anywhere! [/quote] Hey look, book ends ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stylon Pilson Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 Played The Cellar Bar at Bracknell last night. The drummer had to stay home, through no fault of his own, so we had to go ahead without him. It turned out pretty well, but we definitely missed him. Not a flawless performance on our part, but we engaged the crowd, and the sound man made us sound really good. If every gig could be as good as that, I'd be a happy man. We had a slight technical hitch early on in one of the songs in our encore, which resulted in our frontman's acoustic guitar being totally lost. Took us a few minutes to get it back online, and we restarted the song. Slightly awkward, but we had a forgiving audience. S.P. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevB Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 Forgiving audience for us last night too. Probably highest profile gig for the band so far, certainly since I joined. Nottingham beer festival, held for the first time in the grounds of Nottingham Castle. We were in an old fashioned glass sided, wooden floored bandstand. The promise of at least 4 separate mains supplies turned out to be just 2 13amp sockets (thank God we didn't bring lights!). Halfway through the first set we blew all the mains to one side of the stage, including our PA. We fixed it in about 10 mins, dropped 1 song , skipped the interval and just played on until 11pm. Not our best performance but the crowd were up for it, I swear I saw people moshing and headbanging at one point, not what I'd expected from the real ale brigade... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waynepunkdude Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 The Walnut Tree in Eccles Pub gig in the middle of nowhere, play with Tyrannosaurus Alan when the were playing someone knocked another guys pint over and a fight kicked off ( it was that kind of place) so by the time we got on police were hanging around and it was a tense atmosphere so we said f*ck lets play as loud and annoyingly as possible, so I cranked the Ampeg up to 5 and we kicked off I played well not that the brain dead hick chav c*nts in the crowd would have noticed if I played badly. When I came of stage to put my bass away some moron grabbed it and said "let me play on your guitar" I said no and apparently now he is going to find me and knock me out, I don't know why he didn't do it then and there. Anyway if you get offered a gig there don't take it, it's full of inbred chavs. Oh and the promoter was 14 years old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WalMan Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 Last night was distinctly average. Small pub with only a few in & I was playing like a tit most of the night, which as we were guitar, bass, drums & vox left me nowhere to hide. Polite response until the end of the evening, when of course more was required Had a few people up afterwards with compliments & one chap in particular saying "Good night. Haven't seen you for ages, where have you been hiding? Going back into hibernation there's no more on the gig list for this year or next. When are you back?" Didn't like to busrt his bubble so just smiled, chatted and we all managed to avoid "When hell freezes over" in reply to the last. Hope tonight goes better. Back to the full rig in a bigger gig, but still the same line up as the second guitarist is n/a this w/e. Better reload the car & get off soon. Here's hoping!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beerdragon Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 [quote name='waynepunkdude' post='304465' date='Oct 11 2008, 05:00 PM']The Walnut Tree in Eccles[/quote] I was going to say what are you doing that far north. but theres an Eccles in Kent as well as Lancs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacDaddy Posted October 11, 2008 Share Posted October 11, 2008 [quote name='KevB' post='303721' date='Oct 10 2008, 11:39 AM']I swear I saw people moshing and headbanging at one point, not what I'd expected from the real ale brigade... [/quote] we come in all shapes and sizes and generally with a liking for a decent bit of ROCK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WalMan Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 (edited) Well that's a bit more frickin' like it. The Swan, Woolston. Good night with a nice noisy, dancey crowd. Back to the full rig and sounding much better. Still a few alien abduction moments, but all in all a good one. So pleased we ended the w/e on a good note. The Friday gig will not be rebooked, it's just not worth the aggro, but The Swan is always good. Even had a couple who come to see us regularly, but have moved to Swansea turn up for the gig, which was nice. Was a bit worried at the start of the evening when the drummer copped one at an off the cuff remark by the singer, but laughed it off & basically ignored it and all was well soon after. It all stems from the PA, which we had a meeting about a couple of months back as it had been getting out of hand, and while it was supposed to stay the same for all gigs (except really small ones) has started to expand a little now, but personally I find it difficult to get too worked up about it when the sound is good, there's just quite a bit of it. Still I can go to bed happy after my wind down to Jools from Friday Edited October 12, 2008 by WalMan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delberthot Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 (edited) Played the 'Inn Bred' pub in Brightons tonight. no that's not the name of it but cetainly fits the bill of many of the inbred, burberry wearing, schemie, chav, minkoids that were nuggets before we even got there. took a while to get into the gig and only really began enjoying it towards the end. Got held back by the obligatory 'I used to play in a band' punter. The best part of the night was when I was driving home with money in my pocket. Not had one of those gigs in a looooooooong time. I've had a lot of really good gigs this year and very rarely do I have one where I've felt like I'm just there for the money. Better luck next week hopefully. We're playing in Hicksville where most people's cousin's are also their mothers etc. Tune in next week for more 'Keep it in the family'. Take me drunk, I'm home. Edited October 12, 2008 by Delberthot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevB Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 Small pub gig last night, they'd originally cleared a space for us (all 5 of us with a reasonable amount of gear) fit for an acoustic duo at a pinch served by ONE 13amp socket. Clearly a non starter so I sussed out an alternative which meant them putting away their big screen (mild grumblings but the England match had long since finished) and we basicaly took over one end of the public bar, just right. All the chavs left after the football/local darts match leaving a small but musicaly oriented bunch, most of whom the band knew. Hence cosy friendly atmos but not really a 'crowd' to feed off. Played OK though, apparently about 3 people approached our singer after the gig mentioning the midi pedals. Result! now on to rehearsing some fresh songs for the next round of gigs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clauster Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 First gig in 14 months with our new guitarist and drummer, playing a mix of punk and indie, covers and originals. Went down like a lead balloon with most of the audience (50+ alcoholics) who wanted AC/DC, Motorhead, Sabbath etc, but our friends enjoyed themselves, the (twenty something) barman loved it (quote "thank f*ck for a saturday night without Mustang Sally or Sweet Child of Mine" ) and it went down well with one local promoter who the singer had invited along (he's got a few more appropriate gigs in mind for us apparently). The landlady at this venue did apologise to us and admitted that if she'd have listened to our demo properly she'd have booked us for a Friday night when there's a younger crowd in. One big plus point is our new sound engineer (who hadn't seen a mixing desk close up before last saturday, when I gave him a few hours tuition) got us a great FOH sound within a few minutes. Especially pleased about this as we only had 5 minutes for a soundcheck thanks to the bl**dy football. The guitard P8ss*d us all off by turning up an hour late and then having to be nagged to set his kit several times before he got off his (_!_) and did it. Think we're going to be advertising for another one this week Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teej Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 [quote name='clauster' post='304832' date='Oct 12 2008, 02:15 PM']First gig in 14 months with our new guitarist and drummer, playing a mix of punk and indie, covers and originals. Went down like a lead balloon with most of the audience (50+ alcoholics) who wanted AC/DC, Motorhead, Sabbath etc, but our friends enjoyed themselves[/quote] Lead balloons (and zeppelins) do down [i]really well[/i], mate... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 Friday night at the Point in Cardiff. Good crowd, not full to busting but more than enough to make it worthwhile. Excellent support from "Ponty's ugliest band", fabbo skameisters Tattsyrup... took me right back to my yoof. Listening to 'Ghost Town', it was strange to reflect on how topical it is all over again! The FOH sound was pretty good apparently, the in-house engineer certainly knows his onions. Sound on stage wasn't great though. Ah well. The new Jackson tunes went down an absolute storm, and are a blast to play. Alarmingly, I completely blanked in the last tune...just going into the 1st bridge, I suddenly realised that I had completely forgotten how it went... fumbled around for a couple of bars until I reached a bit I could remember. Then the 2nd bridge came along and nope, still can't remember it. [color="#FF0000"]Embarrassed[/color]? You have [i]no[/i] idea... Of course, I can do it now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldGit Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 [quote name='Rich' post='305226' date='Oct 13 2008, 09:27 AM']Friday night at the Point in Cardiff. Good crowd, not full to busting but more than enough to make it worthwhile. Excellent support from "Ponty's ugliest band", fabbo skameisters Tattsyrup... took me right back to my yoof. Listening to 'Ghost Town', it was strange to reflect on how topical it is all over again! The FOH sound was pretty good apparently, the in-house engineer certainly knows his onions. Sound on stage wasn't great though. Ah well. The new Jackson tunes went down an absolute storm, and are a blast to play. Alarmingly, I completely blanked in the last tune...just going into the 1st bridge, I suddenly realised that I had completely forgotten how it went... fumbled around for a couple of bars until I reached a bit I could remember. Then the 2nd bridge came along and nope, still can't remember it. [color="#FF0000"]Embarrassed[/color]? You have [i]no[/i] idea... Of course, I can do it now...[/quote] ha ha It didn't show Jacksons tunes were very good and very well received in the audience as you noticed .. I like Long Train Running "with horns" too. I didn't realise the doobies did it like that (found the youtube now) FoH sound was, indeed, pretty good, except for some confusion as your three singers took it in turns to sing lead vox ... Bass sounded good over the bass side of the stage but not really audible over the horns side .. oh well ... I still think gig PA should be mixed in mono ... Two hands on the neck "Walk on the Wild Side" bass intro raised a smile as always and a fine bass /drum solo duel in Carwash ... Nice one Rich .. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigBeefChief Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 Played the Bull and Gate in Kentish Town. We were covering for a last minute cancellation and didn't know we were playing until Tuesday of last week. Wasn't a problem but meant we couldn't bring many people along. That, coupled with the fact that it was a Sunday night meant we only played to a handful of people. Was quite a laugh though as we could have a bit of banter with the other bands and sparse crowd. We collectively made more mistakes than ever before, but no one seemed to notice to much. We were also totally out of place seeing it was punk/metal night and we're a mod/britpop type band. You could see a lot of people wondering what the hell we were doing there. Didn't bother us though, was a good rehersal. Also played through an Ampeg SVT and Ashdown stack. Was as unimpressed as I am with all amps. My hearings srewed (and getting worse) so I can never hear myself anyway. I just kinda guess what and when I should be playing. Next gig is at the Water Rats where we'll be bringing many more fans* *friends/family who are polite enough to humour us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigwan Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 (edited) Friday night was the second gig with my covers band (same venue as the first disaster!). First set was a blinder. Really enjoyable. Tempos were a bit high but still danceable, which is good. Second set was utter, mistake ridden, pants! No technical difficulties for the singer to hide behind this time so I'm going to rip him a new one at practise this week, although everyone needs a bit of a going over... Brain farts right, left and centre. Not impressed. Edited October 13, 2008 by Bigwan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakenewmanbass Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 (edited) Bit of a nice one last night. I was involved in a charity night for the teenage cancer trust (so my services were my donation) I played bass for Leanne Jones (from west end musical Hairspray) I also played with Yamit Mamo (with whom I work regularly) and then did a 15 min spot with The Casablanca Steps (my bread and butter gig) As well as what I was invoved in it was a great night with a host of very talented people. Mark Goodier compered the whole evening Lawrence Leyton (CH4 fear of flying) did an act, Judy Tzuke, and a few other singers did a spot, but the ones that really stood out for me were: Lucy Silvas... great voice and nice material, I must admit I have never really paid her much attention before (she was also very complimentary to me saying I "added a bit of dirt" with my bass playing) and the headline was Graham Gouldman of 10cc who is a fantastic songwriter. It was great to hear him do those songs I have heard for so long. A good night was had by all and many thousands of pounds was raised for charity. Edited October 13, 2008 by jakesbass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike257 Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 Sounds like a good night Jake, and a good cause, nice one! I've seen Graham Gouldman before, he's ace live. Does he still have that multi-instrumentalist fella hiding behind all the percussion singing the falsetto bits? My outing last night was a chuckle. An acoustic gig with my singer, just guitar and bass, which is a world away from my comfort zone of stacks and drum kits Went pretty well, although the highlight of the evening was a completely impromptu and unrehearsed rendition of Jovi's Wanted Dead Or Alive, that we dragged the drummer (wielding a Djembe!!) and guitarist of the headline band up to play with us. It could've been a disaster, but I think we pulled it off! A good time was had by all, anyway, and I got offered some dep work afterwards too.... paying gigs, whoopee!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave_bass5 Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 [quote name='OldGit' post='305296' date='Oct 13 2008, 10:54 AM']I like Long Train Running "with horns" too. I didn't realise the doobies did it like that (found the youtube now)[/quote] Yeah, i think that's off the Live at Wolf trap album. Very good live album. I also have a live version with a very nice, funky bass solo in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil_the_bassist Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 [quote name='jakesbass' post='305379' date='Oct 13 2008, 12:11 PM']Bit of a nice one last night. I was involved in a charity night for the teenage cancer trust (so my services were my donation) I played bass for Leanne Jones (from west end musical Hairspray) I also played with Yamit Mamo (with whom I work regularly) and then did a 15 min spot with The Casablanca Steps (my bread and butter gig) As well as what I was invoved in it was a great night with a host of very talented people. Mark Goodier compered the whole evening Lawrence Leyton (CH4 fear of flying) did an act, Judy Tzuke, and a few other singers did a spot, but the ones that really stood out for me were: Lucy Silvas... great voice and nice material, I must admit I have never really paid her much attention before (she was also very complimentary to me saying I "added a bit of dirt" with my bass playing) and the headline was Graham Gouldman of 10cc who is a fantastic songwriter. It was great to hear him do those songs I have heard for so long. A good night was had by all and many thousands of pounds was raised for charity. [/quote] you lucky, name-dropping git! lol! I had a charrridy gig last night too. We had me on bass, the ex-Foxcubs (if you've heard of 'em) drummer, a elec-piano&keyboard player, a lap steel guitarist, a lovely lass called Sophie Hill on acoustic/electric (looks like a hot version of KT tunstel, and sings better (imo)), a three piece string section, 12 piece female choir, and 140 schoolkids belting out the tracks. It was under-rehearsed, under equipped, overcomplicated and we were all dreading the first downbeat, but everything came together in that sorta "it'll be alright on the night" type way, where we played to a full (450ish) capacity audience, all the songs went down a storm and we raised £3.5k for Macmillan Cancer Support. Thoroughly enjoyable, especially now I don't have to spend most of my week putting up with the M.D. (who's just turned 16, and organised the WHOLE EVENT hats off to him!!) changing setlisting/ending/keys etc etc etc. Good fun in the end, but would I do it again..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elom Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 [quote name='Rich' post='305226' date='Oct 13 2008, 09:27 AM']Alarmingly, I completely blanked in the last tune...just going into the 1st bridge, I suddenly realised that I had completely forgotten how it went... fumbled around for a couple of bars until I reached a bit I could remember. Then the 2nd bridge came along and nope, still can't remember it. [color="#FF0000"]Embarrassed[/color]? You have [i]no[/i] idea... Of course, I can do it now...[/quote] Funny you should say that. We played a gig in the next village to me on Saturday - great crowd, all going for it. First set was a stormer, so was the second. Then we got to "Bohemian Like You" - not a difficult song and one we've been playing since our first ever gig 18 months ago. I completely forgot how to play it - absolutely completely. I looked to the guitarist but my brain would not compute. I flubbed around for the whole track not playing a single correct note. And at the end of the song the dancing crowd whooped and applauded having not noticed a thing! It knocked the stuffing out of me a bit and although I remembered all the rest of our songs I didn't enjoy it as much as usual. Ironically, we launched into a version of Chelsea Dagger at the end (which we are 'looking at' but have never even rehearsed) and of course that was perfect! I'm annoyed at myself. I'm not a great bassist but I know my job and I do a competent job so to screw up like that on a song we've played so often is pretty poor. The landlord was happy though and booked us up for next year at an increased rate! Oh well, on to the next one... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Foxen Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 OK, not last night but Saturday, was waiting for photos. Woke up horribly hung over having been stressing about the gig and gotten really drunk. Tried to practice to the recording and was rubbish, fell asleep and was woken by drummer saying he was on his way. Threw my stuff together and was off. Venue is tiny and my 2x15 is dwarfed by a huge Sunn guitar stack. Chipper, set to play before us had some tech difficulties with he laptop, so soundman/drummer mic'd her up to join our set with some improv. I didn't fluff anything major, pretty pleased in the end, nearly lost my headstock on the pump that gave the venue its name though. This is only pic with me in, thanks to some random blogger: [url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_x6fzq_Hk3fg/SPJgbQ6Nd0I/AAAAAAAABZY/GI1CSzF44UU/s1600-h/c2.jpg"]No hotlinking[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingrayfan Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 Sat night - 50th in Surrey for a friend of the band. Function room above a pub. Sloppy first half but cracking second one, firing on all cylinders. Crowd up for it from early in the second half so we turned the setlist upside down and started running out all the big crowd pleasers early. They loved it. Called out a few that weren't on the list and we did them too. They wouldn't let us stop playing which is always good. Took the smoke machine and smoked us and the crowd out! Small venue, so I used my new Trace combo - the 1x15, 300w job that I got from Raydn on this site for £150. It was great, loads of power and worked a treat. Doing a small wedding next week, so will prob use it again. Bags of power and great tone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MuseMatt Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 Technically not my gig but... Just saw Victor Bailey and damn he is good! He had a rough start (malfunctioning bass, no backup (WTF?), string snapping) but in the end he was just groovin' away like nothing happened! I'm a happy basser now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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