How was your gig last night?

[FinnDave]

5 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Stuff humblebragging, I'm just going to boast. The gig we did last weekend has had so much good feedback face to face and on Facebook. I've even had people who didn't go telling me they heard how good it was. That's never happened before, feels like we have "levelled up" 😁

 

Must all be down to my bass solo 🙄

Our gigs are always improved by my bass solo.

 

(If I decline to play it).

[ricksterphil]

Cracking gig at The Crown in Southwell, Nottinghamshire. Scratch 7-piece band, with 2 guitars drums and bass and 3 vocalists. Place was bouncing and we ran out of songs. Post gig grinning pic, I'm the one in the cap. Sound guy is in the red shirt

 

[dmccombe7]

2 hours ago, gjones said:

On stage sound is an interesting topic. At a venue, that I play at regularly with my band, I usually keep my bass amp at quite a low level (I use it just as a monitor as the bass is going through the FOH), as I like to hear the guitarist who is at the other side of the stage. Recently he was particularly quiet for some reason and I asked the sound engineer to put him through my monitor. I could hear him much better but it meant I had to turn up my amp significantly so I could hear myself. His loud guitar and my louder amp gave so much more balls to the onstage sound and we all had a great gig, which was full of onstage energy. The crowd really reacted to us that night and when I asked people, that I knew in the audience, why they enjoyed themselves so much, they said the sound was great (possibly my bass amp was so loud they were hearing that rather than the FOH). So next time I played there I set up the onstage sound just the same, yet again there was a great onstage sound and a lot of onstage energy, and we got the same response from the crowd. 

 

But as you say, I've never had a member of my band ask for any bass in their monitor, even when we've playing on a very large stage where we're playing far away from one another. I think many musicians are afraid to ask for a specific monitor mix and just go with whatever they're given, even if it detracts from the enjoyment of the gig.

 

So don't take it personally......and next time just take your amp and turn it up

 

Yep i've always found that there's a point where the energy is felt on stage but its still not deafening. Once you find that point you just remember where your volumes were and start from there. 

Some venues have asked us to turn down the guitar and bass amps so they can control sound out front but you need to balance your amp against the drummers volume on stage otherwise you cant hear yourself over the drums unless they have a decent monitor system and know how to use it.

Dave

 

[Greg Edwards69]

Decent one yesterday evening.  Back on Canvey Island (again) for charity gig in aid of the awesome Indee Rose Trust. Held at Concord Rangers FC, there was a memorial football match on in the afternoon for a local legend, followed by evening entertainment, raffle and auction all to raise funds for the charity.

 

We arrived during half-time and it was chaos! I really didn’t expect such a huge turnout of people. We also thought we were going to be in the main function room of the club house, which is a decent size and carpeted, but that had been booked for a 50th party (and nobody told the organisers of this event) so we ended up on the other, smaller daytime bar. This was fine, but was constantly busy all the time throughout load-in and setup. So we were getting under peoples feet and our own.  We also had to manage the sound on out own as our soundman has just had eye surgery and wasn’t fit to work last night.  We also had a message a couple of days before from Jenny, one of our singers that she had laryngitis! But was still hoping to sing - besides, she was the one who got us the gig as the event was being organised by her friend’s family.

 

Anyway, we had a great sound dialled in from the gig, just a slight tweak to the sub level and the IEM mix and we was good to go. The crowd was on it from the start, likely due to spending the afternoon drinking! Jenny’s voice held up here and there. Our other singer, Liam helped her out as much as he could, jumping in with parts he wouldn’t normally sing, as did I by covering some of her harmonies, and there was a couple of setlist adjustment on the fly. The place was buzzing, and heaving and we played well. Pretty much the whole room singing along and loads of dancers.

 

A particular highlight was Tina Turner’s “(Simply) The Best”. We’d been asked to learn it as it was the favourite song of the chap whose memorial charity event this was for. And we’d never played it as a full band until the gig. Jenny’s voice just about held out for this one, and everyone else had done their homework and it sounded great - we was all grinning at each other during the song. I reckon this one will be a keeper.

 

It was also an early start, around 6pm and we was home by 10.30… which was nice. However, our singer Liam overdid it, by singing more that he usually would, plus being roped into comparing the raffle and auction - the latter took nearly an hour! This would have been fine usually, except we had a rehearsal today as we have a wedding gig in a couple of weeks and it was the only available time we had to get a rehearsal in, so I had to provide a few guide vocals today, as well as trying to remember how to play several songs we haven’t played in ages!

 

Lastly, this is the second gig we’ve have the IEMs properly sorted out and sounding great, and didn’t need the backline FRFR speakers. So we’re planning on leaving them at home for the next gig and going properly ampless.

[peteb]

I don't always post in this thread, but last night was a little notable as well as being a great gig.

 

The reason it was notable is that on Friday morning I woke up in a hotel in the Malaga after a couple of weeks driving around Spain. We checked out at midday, then had to wander around the city centre in pretty intense heat for four hours, before retrieving the hire car and driving to the airport for our late (and slightly delayed) flight. We got to bed just before two in the morning.

 

About fourteen hours later, I had to load the car and drive ninety minutes in the rain for a Led Zep tribute gig at the Waterloo Bar in Blackpool. It turned out to be a good night at a great venue with a decent sized and enthusiastic audience. We haven't played a gig for a few weeks and it was the only the singer's second show with the band, but it sounded really good playing to a great crowd. I hadn't picked up a bass in anger for a couple of weeks (apart from my mate's not so great little Hofner bass in Spain), so it took a toll on the old fingers, but all in all a top gig. A decent payday as well, which was nice coming back from holiday... 

 

 

Edited July 16, 2023 by peteb

[Bluewine]

2 hours ago, peteb said:

I don't always post in this thread, but last night was a little notable as well as being a great gig.

 

The reason it was notable is that on Friday morning I woke up in a hotel in the Malaga after a couple of weeks driving around Spain. We checked out at midday, then had to wander around the city centre in pretty intense heat for four hours, before retrieving the hire car and driving to the airport for our late (and slightly delayed) flight. We got to bed just before two in the morning.

 

About fourteen hours later, I had to load the car and drive ninety minutes in the rain for a Led Zep tribute gig at the Waterloo Bar in Blackpool. It turned out to be a good night at a great venue with a decent sized and enthusiastic audience. We haven't played a gig for a few weeks and it was the only the singer's second show with the band, but it sounded really good playing to a great crowd. I hadn't picked up a bass in anger for a couple of weeks (apart from my mate's not so great little Hofner bass in Spain), so it took a toll on the old fingers, but all in all a top gig. A decent payday as well, which was nice coming back from holiday... 

 

 

I love Malaga!

 

Blue 

[Bluewine]

On 16/07/2023 at 04:39, warwickhunt said:

 

I generally play in a 3 piece (other band is essentially a 3 piece with the 4th member being the vocalist), I'm pretty sure if they couldn't hear me they'd be stuffed!   

 

We do however regularly use dep drummers and I have to say that if they aren't listening to me and the guitarist and reacting to how we play a particular song (is that valuing us?), they generally don't get asked back.  The drummers who know what they are doing and listening for nuances are the ones I want to have in a band with me. 

 

That's the way it should happen if the drummer is a true mate. If our drummer or a dep strays I'll make a few motions and try and que them back in. 

 

I was out gigging before all my band members were born. Which means I have a bit of a different reference to the whole " being in a band" thing. And I get it, I know the way I see things tends to be a bit dated, out of step and old fashion. I guess I'm no longer considered part of Young America.  Lol

 

At the end of the day, I'm a hired gun and have learned to keep my mouth shut. Probably why I'm still in the band after 15 years. 

 

If you blow up the image and have good eyesight you can read it. It's about my high school band in 1971. I really can't expect my bandmates to have any kind of reference to 1971.

 

Blue

 

 

Edited July 17, 2023 by Bluewine

[Stub Mandrel]

7 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Congratulations to a paper that had the attention to detail to spell Daryl and Darrell correctly AND get them the right way round!

Edited July 17, 2023 by Stub Mandrel

[stewblack]

13 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

You are lucky Dave. 

 

Daryl

Seconded

[stewblack]

13 hours ago, gjones said:

On stage sound is an interesting topic. At a venue, that I play at regularly with my band, I usually keep my bass amp at quite a low level (I use it just as a monitor as the bass is going through the FOH), as I like to hear the guitarist who is at the other side of the stage. Recently he was particularly quiet for some reason and I asked the sound engineer to put him through my monitor. I could hear him much better but it meant I had to turn up my amp significantly so I could hear myself. His loud guitar and my louder amp gave so much more balls to the onstage sound and we all had a great gig, which was full of onstage energy. The crowd really reacted to us that night and when I asked people, that I knew in the audience, why they enjoyed themselves so much, they said the sound was great (possibly my bass amp was so loud they were hearing that rather than the FOH). So next time I played there I set up the onstage sound just the same, yet again there was a great onstage sound and a lot of onstage energy, and we got the same response from the crowd. 

 

But as you say, I've never had a member of my band ask for any bass in their monitor, even when we've playing on a very large stage where we're playing far away from one another. I think many musicians are afraid to ask for a specific monitor mix and just go with whatever they're given, even if it detracts from the enjoyment of the gig.

 

So don't take it personally......and next time just take your amp and turn it up

 

I get told to turn it down. The last time I used an amp in that band I literally couldn't hear myself. 

[casapete]

Two gigs for me this weekend, both a good distance from home.

 

Friday saw us at a new venue, The Forum in Bath. Dreadful journey due to issues on the

M5 and torrential rain so we ventured off the motorway and ended up on many A roads

across the Cotswolds.

Then our PA van broke down en route due to a faulty brake caliper, with our engineer fixing

it on the hard shoulder after our lighting tech sourced a replacement from the nearest 

garage. Everyone arrived late at the venue, meaning a mad dash to get set up and 

sound checked. Anyway, a great old theatre with good staff and around 800 punters

so we were hopeful it would be okay. It turned out to be a belting gig, audience with us

right from the off and excellent sound both onstage and FOH. Absolutely knackered 

afterwards though, and we didn’t even have a few drinks afterwards when we got to

our hotel.

Not too bad a drive to Cardiff next day for a gig at The New Theatre, another venue new

to the band. Right in central Cardiff, with very limited loading space which meant only 

one van at a time could be accommodated so had to take it in turns with our 4 vehicles.

No parking facilities either, necessitating a lengthy walk to find anywhere that would take

LWB vehicles. Lovely stage crew very helpful though, and plenty of places to choose from

to eat before the show. We had another healthy turnout of around 850 people.

The gig started fine, but some annoying drunk people in the first few rows were causing

problems for many others all through our first set, nearly resulting in a fight at one point.

The staff were on it though, and after many warnings ejected 5 people in the interval! 
Rest of the gig went really well, so another venue to hopefully return to next year.

Long drive back to East Yorkshire afterwards, home around 3.30am and totally wiped

out all day Sunday! 

(pic below shows me dragging our PA guy Rik onstage for a bow, after his epic

efforts in fixing his truck roadside!)

 

 

Edited July 17, 2023 by casapete

[Mickeyboro]

4 minutes ago, casapete said:

 

The gig started fine, but some annoying drunk people in the first few rows were causing

problems for many others all through our first set, nearly resulting in a fight at one point.

The staff were on it though, and after many warnings ejected 5 people in the interval! 

Great pic of you there Pete! The smile says it all…

 

Funnily enough, when we saw you a couple of weeks ago we were sitting next to two of the drunkest people I have ever seen in a seated venue (Bournemouth). Perhaps you drive these folk to drink…😂

 

And, having driven back from the Who at Badminton late last night, I sympathise with your journey through the backroads. That nearly drove me to drink! 🍺 

[BigRedX]

26 minutes ago, stewblack said:

I get told to turn it down. The last time I used an amp in that band I literally couldn't hear myself. 

 

After 3 or 4 gigs in a row where I was asked by the PA engineer to turn down on stage so much that I could hear the bass guitar louder from the guitarist's monitor on the other side of the stage then I could from my own rig immediately behind me, I sold all my bass (and guitar) amplification and bought an FRFR to use in rehearsals and those few gigs I do where the PA foldback isn't up to the job of letting me hear myself.

[casapete]

1 hour ago, Mickeyboro said:

Great pic of you there Pete! The smile says it all…

 

Funnily enough, when we saw you a couple of weeks ago we were sitting next to two of the drunkest people I have ever seen in a seated venue (Bournemouth). Perhaps you drive these folk to drink…😂

 

And, having driven back from the Who at Badminton late last night, I sympathise with your journey through the backroads. That nearly drove me to drink! 🍺 

Beginning to think you may be right Mick!  It’s certainly a growing trend, not helped by theatres leaving

their bars open during performances meaning a constant stream of people going for more booze. 
That’s fine in standing venues, but in theatres where whole rows of people have to stand to allow 

people to get past can be a pain. I remember at a gig in Manchester a couple of years ago, the

police had to be called to sort out a fight in the theatre foyer about this!

(Always surprises me that it’s not just the younger folk causing grief either. At the Cardiff episode 

all concerned were in their 60’s & 70’s !!)

Edited July 17, 2023 by casapete

[Paul S]

Saturday night we 'headlined' the Beetroot, Beer and Blues Festival, held at the Wheatsheaf, Tattingstone - a lovely country village pub a few miles east of Ipswich.  There were bands all through from Friday afternoon until Sunday evening.  Food and drink free top bands, camping available for those who wished.

 

It had been raining the night before but Saturday was just very windy - the small tent we played in was blowing aorund, as was everything else.  Still, it calmed down a lot by the time we were on - 8pm-10pm.  I saw all of the band before us - Joel Fisk and the Breakdown.  Great set from them, really good band.  Some lovely slide guitar on show.  We decided to use our own pa - 2 x RCF EVOX 8 - which doesn't take us long to set up and it means we can sit it at the back and dispense with monitors.  Rain clouds gathered during our set which, because of the wind, would have meant finishing but - luckily - it held off all night.  I reckon there were probably 120 or so people there, many of whom migrated indoors once the sun set and it got a bit chilly.  So it did seem a bit lonely outside, playing to the 50 or so die-hards who stayed outside to listen and dance.  Still, we played well, were well received and got fed, watered and paid.  A12 was shut, went home along the back roads but still only just over an hour, so all good.

 

Here are a couple of vids someone took on an iPad, now uploaded to our Facebook page.  Shows how clearly the pa, which was still coasting, comes across even outside.  Bass sounds fab, by some measure my best and favourite at the moment- a 70s Eros EB=3 short scale.  Unusually one of our regulars who came to see us made a point of mentioning it.

 

Sweet Home Chicago - we usualy play through the last bit, don't do the stop  

 

https://fb.watch/lQQPuW29P8/

 

Jesus Just Left Chicago.

 

https://fb.watch/lQRKWoPpzJ/

 

Two of the less challenging bass lines  

[Cat Burrito]

Yesterday afternoon, was a little bit more of a standard acoustic gig for my duo Deadlight Dance at the local pub. After a mere 33 years, my old Sixth Form Goth band who first played live on 22nd December 1989, reunited minus the singer, for a five song finale. This meant in one case, travelling over from Atlanta, GA in the USA. The original band have largely tried to stay in touch and the seed was planted when I started working with the guitarist as a duo over lockdown. The original singer is AWOL (last seen in Thailand) but this didn’t stop the rest of us getting together.

 

 

I was amazed at how good we sounded. We’d rehearsed a fair bit. Sadly this was back in 1990 (& not since!) and we did well getting the show, so the rehearsals were just a step too far. The whole performance had a nice nostalgic gentle humour and almost half of the audience were old faces from Sixth Form. Definitely as close to a bucket list gig as I’ve had in a long while.

 

 

Just from a bass point of view, my father in law dug out and lent me an original 1985 Boss Dimension - C chorus pedal so my bass had just that little bit more authenticity to the bass tone (I flit between a few instruments with this band). Oh and my friend who is mates with Cure bassist Simon Gallup, messaged him about the show and apparently he's keen to come and see us soon.

 

I've had worse days! 

Edited July 17, 2023 by Cat Burrito

[BigRedX]

16 hours ago, ricksterphil said:

Cracking gig at The Crown in Southwell, Nottinghamshire. Scratch 7-piece band, with 2 guitars drums and bass and 3 vocalists. Place was bouncing and we ran out of songs. Post gig grinning pic, I'm the one in the cap. Sound guy is in the red shirt

 

If this is the venue I'm thinking of, I'm amazed that you fitted in there!

[tony_m]

This weekend saw two outings for Rascallion, the first a short set at a local outdoor charity festival on Saturday, then a normal two-setter (again outdoors, in a semi-covered beer garden) at a local pub.

 

All week, gloomy prognostications had been going around regarding the weather on Saturday, but after consulting the village pine cone, Anderby Rocks 2023 was declared a goer despite strong winds and occasional heavy showers. Having opened the festival last year, this year we were on fifth out of nine bands, with a 4:00pm slot. To cut a long story slightly shorter, the band before us overran by a good few minutes (I wasn't there when they went on, but presume they'd been delayed by previous bands themselves as they didn't get the hook at their scheduled finish time), so we were under a degree of pressure to just get on with it when it was our turn. To add to the fun, unlike all the other bands on the day whose 30 minute changeover slots featured a DJ (or in one case, a cheerleading demonstration) to keep the crowd entertained, ours featured a solo acoustic spot by another local musician. Originally the plan was he'd set up in front of the covered stage, but as it started lashing down just at that moment and he's a mate of ours, we agreed he could use the stage and we'd just work round him setting up (and also throw in the odd BVs / heckle here and there). In the chaos, we only managed a basic line check, and the sound guys never did get the monitor sound tweaked to our satisfaction - as a result we were all a bit tentative throughout, and felt we didn't really do ourselves justice, but several people complimented us afterwards on how good it sounded out front, and we had a few folks up and dancing for the second half of our set, so guess it can't have been as bad as we all thought. By dropping a couple of numbers we ended up doing just 35 minutes instead of the planned 45 to help the organiser (another mate of ours) to get things slightly back on schedule. It was great to see that when the rain arrived just before our set, a number of folks did leave, but the majority just put up their brollies or zipped up their waterproofs, and stuck it out until the sun reappeared. 

 

So, on to Sunday. The last time we played here was on a busy Easter Saturday, but today was a quiet Sunday on which the pub weren't doing food, there were several other events on in the area, and the weather forecast was again decidedly iffy (though not as bad as Saturday had been). We were scheduled to start at 2pm, but as of 1:55pm the audience consisted of two partners plus one dog, and two blokes sitting inside the pub. Fortunately, a number of folks arrived just after 2pm, so we eventually kicked off about 10 minutes late. As predicted by the pub, there was a further influx of folks at about 3pm for the Meat Raffle, so for the second set, whenever the sun came out the audience sitting in the covered area was swelled by a number of people coming out of the pub to watch, but who then disappeared back inside when it started raining again. The temperature also fluctuated significantly whenever the weather changed which led to rather more retuning being necessary than normal, and nice warm fingers turning into frozen ones, but we got through with only a few minor off-piste moments / brain freezes, and once again everybody was very complimentary afterwards. We're back at the same venue again late August Bank Holiday, so are hoping for a larger, more stable audience then!

 

Next on the calendar is a short performance at the care home where Mr Lead Guitar's mother resides, followed the next day by a trip to an army barracks where they apparently want us to provide music from 4pm to 8pm for a Families Day thing, so we're aiming to do 45 minutes on / 15 minutes off each hour. Should be interesting to say the least, and we're going to have to add a few new numbers to our repertoire if we're not going to run out of material! We've also not rehearsed much recently due to people being away (me included), and it showed this weekend - definitely need to put that right over the next three weeks.

 

Pic from Saturday, probably during "Have You Ever Seen The Rain"... 🫢

[ricksterphil]

36 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

If this is the venue I'm thinking of, I'm amazed that you fitted in there!

We did take up a fair bit of space

 

The Crown Hotel
01636 375025

https://g.co/kgs/xRk12m

[Bluewine]

9 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Congratulations to a paper that had the attention to detail to spell Daryl and Darrell correctly AND get them the right way round!

 

Yeah that was pretty cool. I bet it was one our parents that called in the story and made sure our names were spelled correctly. 

 

Winning that contest means more to me now than it did back in 1971.

 

I think the prize was $400.00. Good money for 1971 and a bunch of 17 year olds.

 

They mentioned " Red Bread" an awesome power trio. They could cover Led Zeppelin like nobody's business. They had my friend Chuck Burgi on drums. He's  been Billy Joel's drummer for the past 25 years. He replaced Liberty Devito.

 

Blue

[Bluewine]

3 hours ago, tony_m said:

This weekend saw two outings for Rascallion, the first a short set at a local outdoor charity festival on Saturday, then a normal two-setter (again outdoors, in a semi-covered beer garden) at a local pub.

 

All week, gloomy prognostications had been going around regarding the weather on Saturday, but after consulting the village pine cone, Anderby Rocks 2023 was declared a goer despite strong winds and occasional heavy showers. Having opened the festival last year, this year we were on fifth out of nine bands, with a 4:00pm slot. To cut a long story slightly shorter, the band before us overran by a good few minutes (I wasn't there when they went on, but presume they'd been delayed by previous bands themselves as they didn't get the hook at their scheduled finish time), so we were under a degree of pressure to just get on with it when it was our turn. To add to the fun, unlike all the other bands on the day whose 30 minute changeover slots featured a DJ (or in one case, a cheerleading demonstration) to keep the crowd entertained, ours featured a solo acoustic spot by another local musician. Originally the plan was he'd set up in front of the covered stage, but as it started lashing down just at that moment and he's a mate of ours, we agreed he could use the stage and we'd just work round him setting up (and also throw in the odd BVs / heckle here and there). In the chaos, we only managed a basic line check, and the sound guys never did get the monitor sound tweaked to our satisfaction - as a result we were all a bit tentative throughout, and felt we didn't really do ourselves justice, but several people complimented us afterwards on how good it sounded out front, and we had a few folks up and dancing for the second half of our set, so guess it can't have been as bad as we all thought. By dropping a couple of numbers we ended up doing just 35 minutes instead of the planned 45 to help the organiser (another mate of ours) to get things slightly back on schedule. It was great to see that when the rain arrived just before our set, a number of folks did leave, but the majority just put up their brollies or zipped up their waterproofs, and stuck it out until the sun reappeared. 

 

So, on to Sunday. The last time we played here was on a busy Easter Saturday, but today was a quiet Sunday on which the pub weren't doing food, there were several other events on in the area, and the weather forecast was again decidedly iffy (though not as bad as Saturday had been). We were scheduled to start at 2pm, but as of 1:55pm the audience consisted of two partners plus one dog, and two blokes sitting inside the pub. Fortunately, a number of folks arrived just after 2pm, so we eventually kicked off about 10 minutes late. As predicted by the pub, there was a further influx of folks at about 3pm for the Meat Raffle, so for the second set, whenever the sun came out the audience sitting in the covered area was swelled by a number of people coming out of the pub to watch, but who then disappeared back inside when it started raining again. The temperature also fluctuated significantly whenever the weather changed which led to rather more retuning being necessary than normal, and nice warm fingers turning into frozen ones, but we got through with only a few minor off-piste moments / brain freezes, and once again everybody was very complimentary afterwards. We're back at the same venue again late August Bank Holiday, so are hoping for a larger, more stable audience then!

 

Next on the calendar is a short performance at the care home where Mr Lead Guitar's mother resides, followed the next day by a trip to an army barracks where they apparently want us to provide music from 4pm to 8pm for a Families Day thing, so we're aiming to do 45 minutes on / 15 minutes off each hour. Should be interesting to say the least, and we're going to have to add a few new numbers to our repertoire if we're not going to run out of material! We've also not rehearsed much recently due to people being away (me included), and it showed this weekend - definitely need to put that right over the next three weeks.

 

Pic from Saturday, probably during "Have You Ever Seen The Rain"... 🫢

 

Very nice covered stage.

 

Blue

[Bluewine]

5 hours ago, Paul S said:

Saturday night we 'headlined' the Beetroot, Beer and Blues Festival, held at the Wheatsheaf, Tattingstone - a lovely country village pub a few miles east of Ipswich.  There were bands all through from Friday afternoon until Sunday evening.  Food and drink free top bands, camping available for those who wished.

 

It had been raining the night before but Saturday was just very windy - the small tent we played in was blowing aorund, as was everything else.  Still, it calmed down a lot by the time we were on - 8pm-10pm.  I saw all of the band before us - Joel Fisk and the Breakdown.  Great set from them, really good band.  Some lovely slide guitar on show.  We decided to use our own pa - 2 x RCF EVOX 8 - which doesn't take us long to set up and it means we can sit it at the back and dispense with monitors.  Rain clouds gathered during our set which, because of the wind, would have meant finishing but - luckily - it held off all night.  I reckon there were probably 120 or so people there, many of whom migrated indoors once the sun set and it got a bit chilly.  So it did seem a bit lonely outside, playing to the 50 or so die-hards who stayed outside to listen and dance.  Still, we played well, were well received and got fed, watered and paid.  A12 was shut, went home along the back roads but still only just over an hour, so all good.

 

Here are a couple of vids someone took on an iPad, now uploaded to our Facebook page.  Shows how clearly the pa, which was still coasting, comes across even outside.  Bass sounds fab, by some measure my best and favourite at the moment- a 70s Eros EB=3 short scale.  Unusually one of our regulars who came to see us made a point of mentioning it.

 

Sweet Home Chicago - we usualy play through the last bit, don't do the stop  

 

https://fb.watch/lQQPuW29P8/

 

Jesus Just Left Chicago.

 

https://fb.watch/lQRKWoPpzJ/

 

Two of the less challenging bass lines  

 

 

I watched both iPad clips. Solid !

 

Blue 

[Bluewine]

8 hours ago, casapete said:

Two gigs for me this weekend, both a good distance from home.

 

Friday saw us at a new venue, The Forum in Bath. Dreadful journey due to issues on the

M5 and torrential rain so we ventured off the motorway and ended up on many A roads

across the Cotswolds.

Then our PA van broke down en route due to a faulty brake caliper, with our engineer fixing

it on the hard shoulder after our lighting tech sourced a replacement from the nearest 

garage. Everyone arrived late at the venue, meaning a mad dash to get set up and 

sound checked. Anyway, a great old theatre with good staff and around 800 punters

so we were hopeful it would be okay. It turned out to be a belting gig, audience with us

right from the off and excellent sound both onstage and FOH. Absolutely knackered 

afterwards though, and we didn’t even have a few drinks afterwards when we got to

our hotel.

Not too bad a drive to Cardiff next day for a gig at The New Theatre, another venue new

to the band. Right in central Cardiff, with very limited loading space which meant only 

one van at a time could be accommodated so had to take it in turns with our 4 vehicles.

No parking facilities either, necessitating a lengthy walk to find anywhere that would take

LWB vehicles. Lovely stage crew very helpful though, and plenty of places to choose from

to eat before the show. We had another healthy turnout of around 850 people.

The gig started fine, but some annoying drunk people in the first few rows were causing

problems for many others all through our first set, nearly resulting in a fight at one point.

The staff were on it though, and after many warnings ejected 5 people in the interval! 
Rest of the gig went really well, so another venue to hopefully return to next year.

Long drive back to East Yorkshire afterwards, home around 3.30am and totally wiped

out all day Sunday! 

(pic below shows me dragging our PA guy Rik onstage for a bow, after his epic

efforts in fixing his truck roadside!)

 

 

 

Nice pics. Looks like a " big time" gig.

 

Blue

[tony_m]

2 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Very nice covered stage.

 

Blue

 

Aye, it wasn't bad - kept the rain off OK, but was rather flappy in the wind! 

[Bluewine]

1 hour ago, tony_m said:

 

Aye, it wasn't bad - kept the rain off OK, but was rather flappy in the wind! 

 

Yeah, I can see a little of that flapping. Unfortunately I've played some outside gigs with embarrassing accommodations for the band.

 

Blue