How was your gig last night?

[Bluewine]

13 hours ago, Oopsdabassist said:

New venue for us, and only 20 mins from home for me.  Was a VERY hot and sweaty night, but we had a great time.  Not a huge turnout but those there were really enthusiastic.  Hopefully we can get back!

Oh, and we threw in an Alex Harvey number, Amos Moses, sung by our very Scottish Drummer, pleasantly surprised at how well it went down

 

Nice pic!

 

Blue

[BrunoBass]

Busy weekend for us; on Friday evening we played at Banbury Music Mix, a new mini festival in our hometown organised by the town council. Five bands, full on stage in the market place, a beautiful sunny night. I love playing these kind of events, the FOH sound and on stage sound was great, big crowd of all ages and a real effort made by everyone to put on a good show for the local community. We played a forty minute set which went down really well, despite a bit of nerves.

 

On Saturday we travelled up to Kelbrook near Burnley to play a wedding. We were very well looked after with food, drink and yurts provided for the overnight stay. We played for an hour, were paid very well and had a blast. Brilliant crowd, really up for it. We followed a Commitments-style soul band who warmed up the crowd well. We had the floor full from the word go and we were absolutely on fire. One of the best gigs we’ve ever done, probably top three. It was great to have a drink and join in the fun after we’d finished, we ended up outside around a fire pit with some of the more hard core guests drinking and laughing well into the small hours. I’m absolutely shattered today but it was totally worth it; one of those nights where everything falls into place and reminds me why I do this.

Next stop for us is the Fairport Convention Fringe in neighbouring Cropredy the weekend after next. We’ve been trying to get on this for a while, can’t wait!

Edited July 29, 2018 by BrunoBass

[dontregartha]

A weekend of two halves...
Friday night, played a really good show in a poncy winebar in Northampton - the sort of place where the bar prices are so high the band sits in the car park with a carry-out, no free softs etc.

The money's not great considering the amount of money going over the bar - we packed it out and they were hammering it.

The upside is we always get a couple of private. full money bookings out of it.

Saturday night we played the Eager Poet in Neath Hill MK - this is a new place for us - a strange, modern MK pub with an unusual crowd who turned out to be really great and welcoming once we'd got in there. This was a gig we'd got through the Breweries' manager/licensee network - play a good show one pub, they talk about it and call you for theirs. Then you get a rebook etc.etc. We went down well though I personally couldn't hear myself as our dep keys man (piano player) was playing over my bass parts (wrongly). 

So Saturday won on welcome, Friday on music.

First pic Saturday - Second Friday

Edited July 29, 2018 by dontregartha
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[cheddatom]

Saturday night we played at the Sun Inn in Llangollen. We've played it before but I always forget how weird it is. Very friendly staff, great beer, but the crowd always seems thin until 11:30 when they start streaming in wasted. This time was better as there were a bunch in early specifically to see us. The sound on stage is awesome. It's a hollow wooden stage but quite shallow, adding the correct amount of "weight" to the drums. Brilliant night! Even if I did get home at 3AM

Sunday night I was on guitar, un-rehearsed, unable to hear my amp properly (should have taken a stand), guitar wouldn't stay in tune, tuner broken, and I was knackered from the night before. The first set was definitely ropey, but after a pint at half time I seemed to pull it together somehow. I guess it helps that we have a great drummer and amazing bassist! 

[FinnDave]

Second weekend gig with the Wirebirds yesterday, when we were the final band of the 3 day Follyfest in Faringdon (market town between Swindon and Oxford). The rain managed to hold off, and we had a blast playing there (again - our 6th year).

I would have taken the Alembic, but as the weather looked rather dodgy, I took the Gibson instead, its second gig in the year I've owned it, and to be fair, it deserves to be taken out more often, it acquitted itself very well. No idea what the backline was, it was supplied by the organisers and I just plugged in, tweaked the EQ and played.

Someone who was there (obviously!) sent us this pic:

 

[Oopsdabassist]

21 hours ago, Bluewine said:

Nice pic!

 

Blue

Thanks Blue, only an ancient camera phone used, but caught us in full flow!

 

[Bluewine]

I really appreciate you guys posting gig pics with your commentary. 

Pics are worth a thousand words.

Blue

[Bluewine]

9 hours ago, FinnDave said:

Second weekend gig with the Wirebirds yesterday, when we were the final band of the 3 day Follyfest in Faringdon (market town between Swindon and Oxford). The rain managed to hold off, and we had a blast playing there (again - our 6th year).

I would have taken the Alembic, but as the weather looked rather dodgy, I took the Gibson instead, its second gig in the year I've owned it, and to be fair, it deserves to be taken out more often, it acquitted itself very well. No idea what the backline was, it was supplied by the organisers and I just plugged in, tweaked the EQ and played.

Someone who was there (obviously!) sent us this pic:

 

Where's that Thunderbird Dave?

Blue

[FinnDave]

5 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

Where's that Thunderbird Dave?

Blue

I sold the Gibson T bird last year, still have an Epiphone through neck with gibson pick ups and a Babicz bridge which is a better bass than the Gibson! Having a bit of thinning of the basses at the moment due to buying the Alembic a few weeks ago.

[Woodinblack]

Still trying to recover from the weekend. Friday, our favourite pub, absolutely heaving, all went well. I took the messinger short scale, thought it needed an outing.

Saturday, little village pub. Actually a really bad building with not enough space that don't pay much (ie, 2/3 of our favourite pub above), so we do a shorter set. Also went well apart from the normal village life with the normal dramas that young women in little village pubs seem to go through. Probably similar to towns to be fair, but they are probably crying to their friends in nightclubs rather than pubs.

Sunday, birthday party in.. little village pub, but in a marquee outside. Weather not ideal but not too bad. Got to set up at 2, finally went on at 4:15, supposed to play for an hour until food was ready, played for an hour, DJ came on, food wasn't ready, hung around a bit, then thought we might as well go on again, played for another hour, then food was on, then DJ for a while while we had food and chatted, then played for another 45 minutes or so. Probably about 100 people who were friends of the guy whos birthday it was. He bought all the drinks, for those 100 people, plus the food (which was very nice), plus the DJ, plus us. 

They absolutely loved us and a few people from some local bands were there who said we were great. Which is odd, because we weren't, we were really tired and run down, the drummer very much so as he had been in the previous pub until 3. But I think we gave a good show and our singer may have been tired but he jumped around like mad, so I don't think anyone noticed

 

[NHM]

We (The Quiet Americans) played at the 'Dukes of Hazzard' event at the Black Griffin in Canterbury last Saturday. The event was themed imaginatively with two A5 colour pictures of an American car, two bales of hay and a couple of US flags. 

Having said that it is a great venue, lovely (wild) crowd, and all went as it should.

[jazzmanb]

17 hours ago, FinnDave said:

I sold the Gibson T bird last year, still have an Epiphone through neck with gibson pick ups and a Babicz bridge which is a better bass than the Gibson! Having a bit of thinning of the basses at the moment due to buying the Alembic a few weeks ago.

You'll know this one Dave.From Saturday playing The Duke of York in Wallsend,Newcastle.

 

[FinnDave]

43 minutes ago, jazzmanb said:

You'll know this one Dave.From Saturday playing The Duke of York in Wallsend,Newcastle.

 

The bass? Was it one of mine - I've been through a phase of buying and selling so many I forget what I've had!

[jazzmanb]

59 minutes ago, FinnDave said:

The bass? Was it one of mine - I've been through a phase of buying and selling so many I forget what I've had!

Yeah,cij 62ri .Year or so ago

[FinnDave]

Oh yes, I do remember, reckon to was more than a year ago, though! Glad it's still getting out and gigging.

[FinnDave]

Got home at half three last night (well, technically this morning) after playing at the Summer of Love party somewhere in Kent (not trying to be secretive, I just followed the directions from my satnav until I got there!). We (Grateful Dudes) were the last band on the main stage, and were delayed by 30 minutes by the organisers for some reason, so had to cut numbers from our planned set as we went. Still managed to get 2 hours in, straight through, even if it did feel like 30 minutes! My fourth gig with this band, and starting to settle in.

Played my Alembic Epic through AMB 600 and Barefaced Super Twin, but that was really just a stage monitor as everything was mic'd or DI'd.

Good to meet another bass chatter there, Steve Browning played a storming set with the Aguilar Blumenfeld Project and Barry 'The Fish' Melton (of Country Joe and...).

Two hundred and sixty mile round trip, the journey home was a lot easier in terms of traffic than the drive down on Saturday morning, the M25 was horrendous!

I believe we made a 32 track recording of the event, plus high def video, so might have something to remind us of the tremendous summer of 2018 when winter takes over. 

[louisthebass]

Did a couple of gigs Friday & Saturday night.

Gig 1 was in a pub in Whyteleafe to a small (but appreciative) crowd - probably the wrong night to do a gig as the temperatures that day had hit the mid 30's, but good fun all the same.

Gig 2 was a dep function gig with a band I used to play with on the outskirts of Farnborough. First one I'd done for a long time and brought home the fact that punters at these events can be very difficult to please. The band played straight through with no break and had to change the set list on the fly, so props to the front man in reading the audience...

[Dad3353]

15 minutes ago, FinnDave said:

...I believe we made a 32 track recording of the event, plus high def video, so might have something to remind us of the tremendous summer of 2018 when winter takes over. 

[FinnDave]

1 minute ago, Dad3353 said:

I'll let you know when the editing team (Bill the keyboard player and his son the cameraman) have finished weaving their magic with our raw material. 

There was a proper light show there, as well, so it should look good if you ignore the ugly bunch actually playing!

[Dad3353]

38 minutes ago, FinnDave said:

...There was a proper light show there, as well ...

You mean with ... [Gasp..!  ] ... oil wheels, as well..? 

[Mykesbass]

1 hour ago, FinnDave said:

Got home at half three last night (well, technically this morning) after playing at the Summer of Love party somewhere in Kent

Played that about 5 years ago - was the polar opposite, weather wise to this year. Sid Griffin was on after us, just as the thunder and lightning started, and everyone, apart from about 5 complete lunatics had retired to listen from their tents! Lovely bunch of people organising though.

[FinnDave]

45 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

You mean with ... [Gasp..!  ] ... oil wheels, as well..? 

Yep! (best as I can remember,  I was supposed to facing the audience, not the backdrop!) But the guy said before we started he had oil wheels, and I'm pretty sure I saw them in action.

[FinnDave]

38 minutes ago, Mykesbass said:

Played that about 5 years ago - was the polar opposite, weather wise to this year. Sid Griffin was on after us, just as the thunder and lightning started, and everyone, apart from about 5 complete lunatics had retired to listen from their tents! Lovely bunch of people organising though.

I can see it would have been a very different experience in bad weather, we were very lucky. And yes, it is very well organised. Because we are a 6 piece, with two drummers, they had set the stage with an extended drum riser, so I was a bit cut off in one corner, pinned in by the riser to one side, the edge of the stage on the other and the keyboard man in front of me. The sound crew took one look and added an extra monitor for me, which really helped.

[MoonBassAlpha]

Played the White House in Oxford last night. Good crowd in, mainly due to the popular Mighty Redox topping the bill. Got rave reviews for my new paisley shirt, and some nice comments about the bass playing. Played through a TC amp and small Aguilar cab. Sounded solid close up, but folks said the bass was quiet in the room, same for Redox. May have been the room shape. Oh, and the monitors were facing towards the audience, not the band. Couldn't hear a thing, even after I turned mine round. WTF?

[FinnDave]

17 minutes ago, MoonBassAlpha said:

Played the White House in Oxford last night. Good crowd in, mainly due to the popular Mighty Redox topping the bill. Got rave reviews for my new paisley shirt, and some nice comments about the bass playing. Played through a TC amp and small Aguilar cab. Sounded solid close up, but folks said the bass was quiet in the room, same for Redox. May have been the room shape. Oh, and the monitors were facing towards the audience, not the band. Couldn't hear a thing, even after I turned mine round. WTF?

The pub on the Abingdon Road? Last time I played there there were very few people around, and the pub refused to pay the agreed fee. I don't think we'll be back!