How was your gig last night?

[dmccombe7]

5 hours ago, markbunney said:

I did actually today think about getting one of those folding festival carts.

 

Ideally I’d like a lighter cab as well, my orange one is bearable for a short walk, but gets heavier with distance! It’s only got one handle on the top so is awkward

i use a Screwfix one coast me £40 or thereabouts. Lightweight and folds up flat and packs away. Decent size wheels too and i can carry my two Mesa Subway cabs on it without any probs.

Just checked but its up to £85 now and i've only had it 2 years

Dave

[Gasman]

Another gig with my band Mustang Sally (I know!), this time at the George Inn, Mere, Wiltshire on Carnival night last Saturday. The pub is in the centre of the town so the parade goes right past the front door. Although this means that we got a good view of all the Majorette teams twirling their batons and the gaily lit Tableau and Action floats before we played, it also meant that we had to get to the venue by 5:30 'cos that's when the roads were closed to vehicles not in the parade. I made it by 30 seconds after a 45 mile drive from Bridport, after leaving home at four - I got back at 1 am.

 

We are in a handover period between our departing rhythm guitar/vox and incoming keys/vox, so both are doing all gigs up to the end of October making us temporarily a six-piece. We somehow managed to all cram into one end of the front bar. I'd been feeling rather fluey/brain dead that morning so was a bit away with the fairies when loading up to leave home; result, no Ag700 amp in the jeep on arrival!  Calling myself a proper See You Next Tuesday, the day was saved by remembering that I did still have my trusty old TH350 in the all-purpose travelling spares box, thankfully with the right speaker lead, so I dodged a bit of a bullet there. 

 

The pub was absolutely rammed all evening, plus loads of people outside in the town square all singing along and having fun - I have added a pic (not very good quality!) of the bar area that I grabbed whilst our guitarist and drummer worked their way through the verse of encore All Right Now. The lady on the table is our singstresse, thank heavens for her carefree approach to pub furniture , sense of balance  after a few bevvies and some decent batteries in her radio mic!

 

We were immediately re-booked for 2024 - that's a plus - but on the minus side all three of us plank spankers in the band are still feeling a bit deaf today...

[martthebass]

8 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

Cheaper by far to buy another amp and do active management.

We only got the Dynacord new last year….not really looking to make another investment of that size at the mo. The retailer assured us the passive crossover route was the way to go….we’ll see.

[dmccombe7]

Emergency Exit Punk covers band last night in The Cave in Glasgow.

Brilliant staff who are always dancing away.

Small venue but always a great friendly atmosphere.

I'm at the stage now i just leave my amp set and plug and play. Mostly flat with a little bass boost and a touch of compression.

Ampeg SVT7 into Mesa 210 / 115 cabs on a Gramma pad with Sandberg MarloweDK bass. 

Tried 3 new songs last night and went down really well. Few mistakes made thru the night but not too noticeable. 

Dave

 

Edited September 18, 2023 by dmccombe7

[Jo.gwillim]

10 hours ago, Gasman said:

Another gig with my band Mustang Sally (I know!), this time at the George Inn, Mere, Wiltshire on Carnival night last Saturday. The pub is in the centre of the town so the parade goes right past the front door. Although this means that we got a good view of all the Majorette teams twirling their batons and the gaily lit Tableau and Action floats before we played, it also meant that we had to get to the venue by 5:30 'cos that's when the roads were closed to vehicles not in the parade. I made it by 30 seconds after a 45 mile drive from Bridport, after leaving home at four - I got back at 1 am.

 

We are in a handover period between our departing rhythm guitar/vox and incoming keys/vox, so both are doing all gigs up to the end of October making us temporarily a six-piece. We somehow managed to all cram into one end of the front bar. I'd been feeling rather fluey/brain dead that morning so was a bit away with the fairies when loading up to leave home; result, no Ag700 amp in the jeep on arrival!  Calling myself a proper See You Next Tuesday, the day was saved by remembering that I did still have my trusty old TH350 in the all-purpose travelling spares box, thankfully with the right speaker lead, so I dodged a bit of a bullet there. 

 

The pub was absolutely rammed all evening, plus loads of people outside in the town square all singing along and having fun - I have added a pic (not very good quality!) of the bar area that I grabbed whilst our guitarist and drummer worked their way through the verse of encore All Right Now. The lady on the table is our singstresse, thank heavens for her carefree approach to pub furniture , sense of balance  after a few bevvies and some decent batteries in her radio mic!

 

We were immediately re-booked for 2024 - that's a plus - but on the minus side all three of us plank spankers in the band are still feeling a bit deaf today...

It's heart in mouth time when you realise you've forgotten and amp isn't it. I drove from West Wales to Northumberland to find if left mine at home once. Luckily a GK mb200 always lurks in my gig bag and although it's DI is noisy it's good enough to get me through the PA. I like the blurred pic, for those gigs we have where no-one is dancing a bit of camera movement compensates. Not saying in your case but certainly with my band sometimes!

[BCH]

Phew that was a hot one...raising funds for volunteer fire service 

[markbunney]

41 minutes ago, BCH said:

Phew that was a hot one...raising funds for volunteer fire service 

What is that multi fx you have? I can't quite zoom in enough to see

[asingardenof]

54 minutes ago, markbunney said:

What is that multi fx you have? I can't quite zoom in enough to see

Looks like one of these: https://www.tc-helicon.com/product.html?modelCode=P0DEG

[BCH]

16 minutes ago, asingardenof said:

Looks like one of these: https://www.tc-helicon.com/product.html?modelCode=P0DEG

Yes VOICELIVE 3 EXTREME..I use for vocals & acoustic....no bass fx

[cheddatom]

Yardi Gras festival at The Brit Bar in Weston-super-Mare on Sunday night. Terrible weather all day and the stage is outdoors in a semi-covered smoking area. We were promised hot pizzas would be there when we arrived but all we got was a begrudging apology and a free pint. Very cramped conditions, 15 minutes change-over between bands. I opted to use the house kit, our bassist went with the house bass rig, we were ready to go in 5 minutes but the sound guy took his time meaning 2 songs were cut from our 45 minute set. I reckon we played to 25 people at the most. It's a bit frustrating travelling all the way from Stoke for a gig like this, but we stayed positive, won some new fans, sold some merch, and enjoyed a few van-beers on the way home. I'm still starving though!

 

I've not seen any photos but there was a woman stood to the side of the stage filming me (not the whole band) for at least 2 full songs. Very weird if a little flattering.

[Bluewine]

On 18/09/2023 at 09:23, BCH said:

Phew that was a hot one...raising funds for volunteer fire service 

 

Nice drum riser!

 

Blue

[Bluewine]

Late post. 

 

Sunday, the day after the " Po Dunk" Ringling Brothers gig in Baraboo,  we played a 3 hour acoustic gig for a 2 year anniversary for a brewery. 

 

The weather was fantastic and we had a nice receptive crowd.

 

Blue

[warwickhunt]

4 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

Late post. 

 

Sunday, the day after the " Po Dunk" Ringling Brothers gig in Baraboo,  we played a 3 hour acoustic gig for a 2 year anniversary for a brewery. 

 

The weather was fantastic and we had a nice receptive crowd.

 

Blue

 

Nice.  What have you got in the way of tone shaping between your bass and the floor monitor?

[mrtcat]

Worst gig ever on weds. 

 

Wedding in a swanky tipi in a beautiful setting. Forced to use in house PA and no backline. Like so many venues they send details to the bride and groom stating "we have a state of the art in house sound system with over ten trillion watts of power and speakers hand crafted by angels using components delivered direct from the gods". 

The reality was that it was all cheap junk and limited to the point that the stereo in my old 1989 mini had more clout. Couldn't keep up with a drummer using brushes.

 

If you ever get enquiries to play at Hadsham Farm Weddings near Banbury just walk away and say no thanks.

[taunton-hobbit]

Sounds like they have a neighbour problem - moral - don't be surprised if the bloke across the road kicks off - this looks like a pretty expensive way to rent a tent and some potential bother.

 

😎

[neepheid]

30 minutes ago, mrtcat said:

Worst gig ever on weds. 

 

Wedding in a swanky tipi in a beautiful setting. Forced to use in house PA and no backline. Like so many venues they send details to the bride and groom stating "we have a state of the art in house sound system with over ten trillion watts of power and speakers hand crafted by angels using components delivered direct from the gods". 

The reality was that it was all cheap junk and limited to the point that the stereo in my old 1989 mini had more clout. Couldn't keep up with a drummer using brushes.

 

If you ever get enquiries to play at Hadsham Farm Weddings near Banbury just walk away and say no thanks.

 

 

Hmph, doesn't sound like they know what "professional" means.  And they have the nerve to make it seem like it's just plug and play - that's pretty disingenuous

[Jo.gwillim]

2 hours ago, mrtcat said:

Worst gig ever on weds. 

 

Wedding in a swanky tipi in a beautiful setting. Forced to use in house PA and no backline. Like so many venues they send details to the bride and groom stating "we have a state of the art in house sound system with over ten trillion watts of power and speakers hand crafted by angels using components delivered direct from the gods". 

The reality was that it was all cheap junk and limited to the point that the stereo in my old 1989 mini had more clout. Couldn't keep up with a drummer using brushes.

 

If you ever get enquiries to play at Hadsham Farm Weddings near Banbury just walk away and say no thanks.

That's a complete nightmare. Sorry mate. An old friend used to quote

 

Love many

Trust few

Always paddle your own canoe.

 

Works when it comes to  house sound systems!

 

 

 

[Bluewine]

8 hours ago, warwickhunt said:

 

Nice.  What have you got in the way of tone shaping between your bass and the floor monitor?

 

All I'm using is a DI box. 👍 

 

Blue

[Cat Burrito]

It's been an amazing 7 days for my little gothic duo Deadlight Dance. The album came out a week ago and we had some surprise radio play in France ("un groupe darkwave d'Angleterre" - or as my partner rechristened us - "The Sisters of Merci" 😂 We have our biggest show to date tomorrow so decided to venture down to the open mic night. Armed with two massive effects pedal boards and two mandocellos, we seem to be accepted by the locals like the strange teenage kid of the friends who is going through a phase. Nick's vocal is so strong that people can't help but watch us - I am not convinced that means they are all liking it but we certainly seem able to captivate. That appeals to my punk rock spirit. We recently opened with Joy Division's New Dawn Fades which kinda bombed recently in a rival village pub. The decision at the time was we shouldn't open with it again - a couple of weeks had passed and we totally ignored our own advice to much more success! We then did our current single "Infectious" where audience members were shouting about Spotify and YouTube - "our Bentley is outside" I replied! Finally ending on The Cult's Revolution, it was just a very brief but fun outing. 

 

 

My one grumble about open mic is the musicians who arrive late, expecting to play and those who play early and disappear. I'll add those who outstay their welcome onstage. I appreciate that people have busy lives and there can be legitimate reasons for having to go but some people here are posting on their own social media about friends not supporting local venues and then not really walking the talk. Minor rant.

[Stub Mandrel]

2 hours ago, Cat Burrito said:

My one grumble about open mic is the musicians who arrive late, expecting to play and those who play early and disappear. I'll add those who outstay their welcome onstage. I appreciate that people have busy lives and there can be legitimate reasons for having to go but some people here are posting on their own social media about friends not supporting local venues and then not really walking the talk. Minor rant.

 

100% agree with this, always seems poor when people can't seem to wait to get out the door.

 

I know a baschatter who may feel a bit sheepish if I mention one band that started their three songs with Dark Star 🤣

[tony_m]

Friday night saw Rascallion providing the entertainment at a 30th Anniversary party for one of the committee members and his wife at a local village hall we've played a few times before.

 

The evening didn't get off to a particularly good start when my trusty Ashdown Five Fifteen minirig started buzzing horribly, and nothing we tried would get rid of it completely. When I realised it was at its worst and most obvious when I rolled the tone above about 20% (or added treble on the Ampeg Scrambler), we decided to just crack on, and I'd keep the tone rolled back. 

 

Then we realised it wasn't just my amp that was buzzing, Mr Lead Guitar's was too, particularly when he kicked in his boost pedal. We've had buzzing amp issues at this venue before, but we always just put it down to Mr Singer's crappy old amp playing up as that seemed to be the only one affected. Long story slightly shorter, another local muso who runs an open mic at the same hall and was attending the event confirmed that he had the same problem here all the time, so we came to the conclusion it must be an issue with the mains - oddly, neither Mr Singer's nor Mr Rhythm Guitar's amps seemed to be affected on this occasion, nor were Mr Drums's electronic kit or the powered main PA speakers, so... 🤷‍♂️

 

Anyway, we fired up at 8pm, trying to forget about the odd buzz here and there. First set went well, and neatly on the dot of 45 minutes (with four tunes still left to do - we really must sort our set timings out!), Mr Anniversary came up to say the buffet was now being served, so we took a break for food (very nice it was too).

 

Once everyone had finished troughing, we kicked off again at 9:30pm, running through the remaining four numbers from the first set, then continuing through the second, dropping a couple of numbers here and there. Think we may have inadvertently hit upon a new closing number for the first set / opening four numbers for the second set going forward, as it seemed to work really well this way! 

 

After we reached the end of the planned set, we got Mr Anniversary up to join us on the Kenny Rogers cover he'd requested (well, sort of - he'd wanted to do "Lady", but we'd decided it was too orchestrated for our meagre talents so opted for "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town" instead), which went OK apart from Mr Singer (and thus also Mr Anniversary who was following him) getting the phrasing wrong in verse 3 (yet again). 

 

Mr Anniversary then treated us all to an a capella, solo version of "Lady", despite the fact his beloved lady had already gone home as she wasn't feeling well (nothing to do with us, apparently). 

 

After we'd churned out "Bad Moon Rising" in response to loud requests for one more song, Mr Anniversary then came forward again, this time asking for just one more, possibly romantic number - I'd already suggested we should perhaps play "You Do Something To Me" given the nature of the event, so despite not having played it for months (even in rehearsal) we did something to them, and then rounded things off with a final "Stand By Me" to send everybody singing and swaying into the night.

 

After a near-as-dammit faultless first set, there were few miscues in the second set (my major flamingo-up being total brain- and finger-freeze on the opening run in "Long Train Running", though I did nail it the second time round!), but on the plus side, the two numbers getting their first public airings ("Peaceful Easy Feeling" and "Listen To The Music") both went well and were well-received. We only had a couple of our regular friends from another village hall up and dancing, but then we didn't really think it was likely to be that sort of a do anyway given our previous experiences at this hall, with this crowd. 

 

So, that was that. Our final planned gig for this year, the intention being to now take four weeks off completely (mainly to prevent Mr Drums properly losing his temper with Mr Lead Guitar during yet another disagreement about timings, particularly on intros - Mr Drums can actually count well, Mr Lead Guitar apparently less so... ), then spend the rest of the year re-jigging the sets and nailing down a few new numbers, plus some we've dabbled with in the past, but which have never made it to gig-ready.

 

At least, that was the plan. Then last night's parting shot from Mr Anniversary and his colleague on the hall committee was...... could we do New Year's Eve at the hall? And would twice our usual rate be OK? 

 

Well, it's sort of next year really, isn't it...  🙃

[Richard R]

2 minutes ago, tony_m said:

Then last night's parting shot from Mr Anniversary and his colleague on the hall committee was...... could we do New Year's Eve at the hall? And would twice our usual rate be OK? 

 

To which you replied

"Of course, provided you get an electrician in to look at the wiring as I think you have an earthing problem, which could be dangerous"

[scalpy]

25th birthday of our local theatre tonight, we were the after party in the bar. The main event overran which was great as a) gave us more time to set up and soundcheck and b) we didn’t have to play as long afterwards! Crowd arrived eventually so we launched into them and kept them on the dance floor. A good one tonight, enjoyed it.

[Merton]

Awesome.

A relatively last-minute booking for Katy Hurt at Buck’n’Bull London - essentially they put on Country/Americana themed nights and forgot they needed a band! A sold out show at Phantom Peaks in Surrey Quays (what an absolute pig to get to!) and an amazing crowd. The only spoilers were me messing up a couple of tunes (I blame jet lag) and my rig cutting out during our encore. Some investigation needed today - I think it’s a dodgy input socket to my pedalboard.

 

Bur other than that, what an immense night it was. We have footage from at least 3 angles and hopefully we can get a live video of a song or two from it 🤓

 

 

[martthebass]

On 22/09/2023 at 17:31, Cat Burrito said:

It's been an amazing 7 days for my little gothic duo Deadlight Dance. The album came out a week ago and we had some surprise radio play in France ("un groupe darkwave d'Angleterre" - or as my partner rechristened us - "The Sisters of Merci" 😂 We have our biggest show to date tomorrow so decided to venture down to the open mic night. Armed with two massive effects pedal boards and two mandocellos, we seem to be accepted by the locals like the strange teenage kid of the friends who is going through a phase. Nick's vocal is so strong that people can't help but watch us - I am not convinced that means they are all liking it but we certainly seem able to captivate. That appeals to my punk rock spirit. We recently opened with Joy Division's New Dawn Fades which kinda bombed recently in a rival village pub. The decision at the time was we shouldn't open with it again - a couple of weeks had passed and we totally ignored our own advice to much more success! 

 

My favourite JD song, always brings a tear to me eye.