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How was your gig last night?


bassninja

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12 minutes ago, radiophonic said:

I played my final ever gig with the Hungarian prog-folk band at Whitwell Festival yesterday. The gig represented a microcosm of all the reasons I'd decided to leave. A mixture of not seizing opportunities, letting bad luck get your way and minor details like not giving the bass player a set list all contributed. They also showed up with my intended replacement too, which I thought was a bit on the nose. There was bad luck, in that we were on the indoor stage at exactly the point it stopped raining - having been persistently pouring all afternoon. This coincided with start of a very popular novelty / comedy band on the main stage. Didn't stand a chance audience wise. The organisers clocked it and rejigged the timings to prevent the same thing happening to the guy after us, but it was out of our hands really. The monitor sound seemed good to me,  but the singer was complaining - and I mean complaining - rather than sucking it up and giving it her best shot. Nobody likes to watch a moaner. I finally got a set list three songs in, which was then abandoned due to time being wasted moaning. The thing is, my wife filmed us and the sound was absolutely fine. Performance was OK considering we were pretty under-rehearsed (another bug-bear). Out on a curates egg and off to pastures new.

Sounds like you're better off out of it

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Another successful outing for The Dastardlys last night. Only a smallish social club which is a converted old stone built school, really nice. Easy load in and out, kept the sound low which always seems to make things sound better and plenty of people up dancing. It's an annual booking there so hopefully we'll be back next autumn. 

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The "Hot Rods on Hampton" gig actually went well.

Great Weather

Lot's Of Cool Vintage Cars

Well Organized

Great Sponsor

Lot's of people

Sold a respectable anount of merch, CDs & T Shirts

Good Event / Function Pay

The band sounded good to me today.

Blue

FB_IMG_1536535348616.jpg

Edited by Bluewine
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20 hours ago, Graham said:

Sounds like you're better off out of it

I think so. It's a real shame because the music is good and also quite unusual and I get to do quite a bit of stretching out. I even got complimented on my playing after Saturday's gig.  It's just everything else about being in the band is various shades of annoying. I'm already playing with another gigging band and the vibes are incomparable. 

Edited by radiophonic
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Last sunday of the year at the top of Ham Hill,  a local beauty spot with a pub on top. Sunday afternoon gigs there are often good if the weather is nice as they have extensive gardens, food, drink and a covered tent out there all summer with benches that people can come in to watch the music, and a second, less crowded bar than the main building.

Turns out the weather was nice, it was pretty well heaving, including a number of people who had specifically come to see us. We didn't mess up anything much and it went down well. Afternoons can often be a bit of a bust as noone is drunk enough to start dancing, but there was quite a lot of dancing, and the great thing is the age range, from just born to late 80s (who was dancing on a table near the end). A great afternoon, nice way to end that season

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14 hours ago, Bluewine said:

The "Hot Rods on Hampton" gig actually went well.

Great Weather

Lot's Of Cool Vintage Cars

Well Organized

Great Sponsor

Lot's of people

Sold a respectable anount of merch, CDs & T Shirts

Good Event / Function Pay

The band sounded good to me today.

Blue

FB_IMG_1536535348616.jpg

It would have been good to see pictures of some of the hot rods present.

Edited by steantval
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Once a month I play at an Open Mic ( with a difference). We invite people to sing/play in advance, we agree the material and they either play on their own, with their band or the house band will accompany them. The pros are we don't get many surprises, the cons, one loses a little spontaneity but the laundry bills are less.....

The venue is  cool restaurant in Langport that is sited in an old wharfe warehouse (Langport used to be a huge trading port with the colonies and USA until the estuary silted up).

So we have 2 rehearsals with the  material, then a quick soundcheck on the night with the artistes if we are backing them, and away we go. The house band is as per the first  enclosed clip and the guest trombone is Helen's dad who is 74 and still playing in the Sherborn Brass Band.

https://vimeo.com/288948373

The second clip is us accompanying Sarah Randle, a fellow LIPA graduate of Helen, our singer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIQZohN7fxE

Of all the stuff I do at the moment, this is the most fun, namely it's a regular gig, I get paid and the material changes each month.

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2 hours ago, yorks5stringer said:

Let me know as it gets very busy: a couple turned up at 8.10 and had no-where to sit. You need to be in around 7.30, oh and its £3 entry too! Next one is Oct 12th

Sounds good - will have to miss that one as I am gigging that night, but some other one I am sure I can come to, don't have many friday gigs.

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On 10/09/2018 at 07:18, radiophonic said:

I think so. It's a real shame because the music is good and also quite unusual and I get to do quite a bit of stretching out. I even got complimented on my playing after Saturday's gig.  It's just everything else about being in the band is various shades of annoying. I'm already playing with another gigging band and the vibes are incomparable. 

Is the new band anyone I might have heard of? Being Notts based if there's a local bc'er I try to get to the odd gig if I can.

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Great gig last night - the sort that makes sit all worthwhile. A street party in Brighton - road closed for the day, all the residents and their kids having a lovely time. Set up a bit tricky - the road slopes and has quite a camber so had to keep the PA stands very low. No stage - we just set up across the road! Love to have a photo but didn't think to take one. Two sets with an hour in between so they can have their raffle: 7-8 and then 9-10 so a relatively early night although I had agreed to keep the PA up until 11 so they could play music through it (and I knew it would finish then because that was the curfew and time to reopen the road). One guy has asked to sit in on a couple of songs on keys ( we knew in advance and had OK'd it) so he brings out a very nice Fender electric piano. He turned out to be surprisingly good!  We were well looked after, everyone was very nice and we had a lovely time: harmonica player brought his Fender Bassman and was like a dog with two doodahs as he got to turn it above above 2 for a change. People were dancing from moment one including a very nice lady right in front of me who had her shoes off dancing barefoot in the road within the first bar of the first song. A wonderful night, we played well even with a dep drummer (who is, to be fair, a great player and thoroughly nice guy) And we got paid. Great evening on all levels.

Edited by phil.c60
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Absolutely awesome gig headlining the MAG rally on Friday Night at Duncombe Park in Helmsley, North Yorkshire. Outside gig, under canvas, great stage and sound and lights crew. Packed tent with very enthusiastic crowd. Crowd loved our, slightly rocked up set of 70s Glam Rock classics. Wish all gigs were like this.

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Finally. We had an audience. Began to wonder if this band I joined ever played anywhere other than empty pubs! Blue Lagoon in Bristol. Great venue, people dancing from the first song, mixed crowd of all ages, happy and up for fun. 

Great thing about having a crowd up and dancing is it gives you chance to assess your set. It's a fairly new set and nice to know what works and what doesn't. 

Played my trusty Trace through two MB 1 X 15 cabs and got a compliment on my sound. Which is always a bonus.

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We did the Sherfield Beer Festival yesterday afternoon, really good fun. It's the first time we have done an event like this and I hope we can get some more of the same next year. Our set is a mix of soul, R&B, Disco plus a bit of more recent stuff - it's a kind of shove it out and hope some sticks approach. I think we went down ok, apparently there was some positive comment. Our singer led us down a couple of interesting structural variations, this and a dep drummer (who was excellent) kept me relatively alert throughout. I had a little more space to move around than I normally get and managed to step on my lead pulling it out during the intro to Proud Mary - other than that I was quite happy.

We don't practice much and this was just gig number four this year - we all left wanting more.

Following us were the very excellent Dolomites. All in all a lovely day.

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Last night was my final gig with the covers band that I've been playing with for the last year. Obviously there are various reasons for me leaving, but last night was as good a send-off as any. We were playing a private party on a boat, so space was fairly limited. Performing while pootling up the Thames, exposed to the elements, is a new experience for me! A hornet did make an appearance at a few points, but did not sting anyone. The audience size was fairly limited throughout most of the evening, with most people apparently preferring to be downstairs in the bar area, but they all came upstairs for the last half hour or so, and we've had lots of very positive feedback.

Last week I was looking for a small backup amp for my TC RH450, and rubis sold me his TC BH250 so I used that as my main amp last night, with the RH450 acting as backup - seemed like the best way to determine its suitability. It did the job very nicely - thanks rubis!

Next weekend will be my second gig with the 80s covers band that I joined a few months ago. I'm looking forward to being able to focus my attention on them now, and not having to try to juggle 5 hours worth of basslines in my head.

S.P.

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Gigs Friday and Saturday this weekend.

Friday was in a pub in a nearby town where we've played before. The place is very small, but the crowd are good and always like what we do. It was a little odd at one point. At the start of our second set, we were part way through the first song and a very young lady, wearing next what was supposedly a dress started posing in front of the band and her boyfriend was taking photos of her...all very weird. Highlight was our guitarist called over a guy who regularly goes to the jam night we go to. He's not a musician really but likes to get up and maybe join in singing a couple of verses. At the jam night, some of the snobs have asked him not to, so our guitarist saw he was in the crowd on Friday and got him up on the mic to join in with song he knew. It was a bit of a squeeze as the guy is not small :) 

Saturday was a all ticket fundraiser at a Village Hall. Lovely crowd, up dancing and having a good time. Afterwards we had lots of compliments and asking us to go back, result. Only thing is the sound in there was awful. The best description would be, it was like playing at a public swimming pool. The sound just bounced around everywhere, it was a reverb hell. Otherwise, a good night.

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Last night was one of our usual haunts; rushed setup due to the football being on telly, but was a hood gig. Usual 2 1/2 hours of shenanigans betwixt band members meant that we had a good giggle as well as the crowd.

 

This afternoon was a quick 40 minute spot at the Head for the Hills festival in Ramsbottom. Just took a bass and a lead and found an SVT Classic head and 6x10 ready to plug into. Equally enjoyable performance from all involved. Off to work now for a rest! 😉

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4 hours ago, Marvin said:

Gigs Friday and Saturday this weekend.

Friday was in a pub in a nearby town where we've played before. The place is very small, but the crowd are good and always like what we do. It was a little odd at one point. At the start of our second set, we were part way through the first song and a very young lady, wearing next what was supposedly a dress started posing in front of the band and her boyfriend was taking photos of her...all very weird. Highlight was our guitarist called over a guy who regularly goes to the jam night we go to. He's not a musician really but likes to get up and maybe join in singing a couple of verses. At the jam night, some of the snobs have asked him not to, so our guitarist saw he was in the crowd on Friday and got him up on the mic to join in with song he knew. It was a bit of a squeeze as the guy is not small :)

Saturday was a all ticket fundraiser at a Village Hall. Lovely crowd, up dancing and having a good time. Afterwards we had lots of compliments and asking us to go back, result. Only thing is the sound in there was awful. The best description would be, it was like playing at a public swimming pool. The sound just bounced around everywhere, it was a reverb hell. Otherwise, a good night.

Really nice gesture by your guitarist. Double thumbs up.

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