How was your gig last night?

[dmccombe7]

2 hours ago, Franticsmurf said:

I've managed to squeeze a bass break from 'Leave It' (from 90125) into the Edwin Star song '25 Miles'. It doesn't derail the song and it satisfies the prog bassist hidden within me.

 

I remember you saying this a while back, and now I do the same. 

Pretty sure i got it from a fellow BC'er many moons ago and thought it made a lot of sense. Can't remember who it was tho. ?

Dave

[dmccombe7]

1 hour ago, scalpy said:

Much belated weekend update-

 

Friday, trio gig, on acoustic guitar, playing for a mencap do at the local football ground function room, Radfords. Great fun.

 

Saturday- a gig that almost never was. We had a dep guitarist booked and with 10 days notice he bailed, as he had ‘a better gig’. If we couldn’t replace him it would game over for us in the time available, and we’d have to let down the (repeat client) After much scrabbling and frantic rehearsing the 6 piece went out for the do, replacement guitarist much better than scheduled dep and two audience members joined us on horns- very nice.

 

Sunday- band call for a week long am-dram run next week. Hadn’t really looked at the part, didn’t look too hard on initial viewing. Made it through, but one number I’d failed to spot it was minim equals 106 rather crotchet. Bit of a Sunday roast! 

That looks like an interesting band set up. Do you mind if i ask what style of music you play.

Dave

[scalpy]

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

That looks like an interesting band set up. Do you mind if i ask what style of music you play.

Dave

Standard line up is 8 piece function band. Guitar bass drums keys, male and female singer, trumpet and tenor sax. Saturday the horns were on track, but as the clients were a brass band celebrating their centenary the organisers asked to sit in for three numbers. We also scale up to a five piece horn section, can add percussion on that as well. Then we scale down to the two singers and me on acoustic. The guitarist sometimes joins us for the trio plus. 
 

The main trick we pull is putting a lot of the standard function material into medleys such as singalongs or dance alongs. 

[dmccombe7]

9 minutes ago, scalpy said:

Standard line up is 8 piece function band. Guitar bass drums keys, male and female singer, trumpet and tenor sax. Saturday the horns were on track, but as the clients were a brass band celebrating their centenary the organisers asked to sit in for three numbers. We also scale up to a five piece horn section, can add percussion on that as well. Then we scale down to the two singers and me on acoustic. The guitarist sometimes joins us for the trio plus. 
 

The main trick we pull is putting a lot of the standard function material into medleys such as singalongs or dance alongs. 

Nice. Sounds like a fun band to be in. 👍

Dave

[Jackroadkill]

On 28/11/2023 at 17:14, dmccombe7 said:

On 28/11/2023 at 11:40, neepheid said:

 

The funniest ones are when people buy a ticket clearly advertised as a 70's Glam Rock covers band and then asks us to play some funk, AC/DC or even U2.

 

Don't forget the shouts of "Play something we know!".... 

[tony_m]

1 hour ago, Jackroadkill said:

 

Don't forget the shouts of "Play something we know!".... 

 

Which to be fair, is better than "Play something you know!" as we used to shout at a mates' band... 😁

[Stub Mandrel]

10 hours ago, Franticsmurf said:

I've managed to squeeze a bass break from 'Leave It' (from 90125) into the Edwin Star song '25 Miles'. It doesn't derail the song and it satisfies the prog bassist hidden within me.

 

 

So what bits of other songs do we transplant? Our guitarist switches to Third Stone from the Sun in his solo during Take Me To The River, so I've started playing the bass from Hey Joe over the chorus 😁

[dmccombe7]

Once saw Ray Stiles bassist with Mud play Radar Love riff over the talking part of Tiger Feet and i've occasionally done that at our gigs but i play it quietly except for the standard notes that are on the original. 

Dave

[Muzz]

12 hours ago, tony_m said:

 

Which to be fair, is better than "Play something you know!" as we used to shout at a mates' band... 😁

The new one is 'Alexa! Next!'... 🙁

[Franticsmurf]

13 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

So what bits of other songs do we transplant? Our guitarist switches to Third Stone from the Sun in his solo during Take Me To The River, so I've started playing the bass from Hey Joe over the chorus 😁

We often do an extended version of Hey Jude at the end of 'Hulla' gigs, usually because of audience participation but occasionally singer inebriation. At the end, once I've exhausted the main bass part and variations thereof, I will ascend to the dusty end and start alternating between a slow version of the melody of 'Norwegian Wood' and the main 'Day Tripper' riff. Often with full psychadelic flange. 😃 I'm careful not to go too loud and I'm guessing half the punters never notice. But it makes me smile.

[dmccombe7]

Not a gig tonight but a 3hr rehearsal to polish up on our Xmas songs for our first Xmas show on Sat. night.

All went well from the start. So we just had some of the cake we bought for our singers birthday today.

Dave

 

[Stub Mandrel]

On 30/11/2023 at 11:32, Franticsmurf said:

the main 'Day Tripper' riff.

 

Back in the late '60s you couldn't count yourself a real guitarist if you didn't slip it into your solos.

[Franticsmurf]

12 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

Back in the late '60s you couldn't count yourself a real guitarist if you didn't slip it into your solos.

As a Yes fan, their extended live version of 'Every Little Thing' is often playing, and the Daytripper riff appears in the introduction. Norwegian Wood also makes an appearance mid song, and it was this that made me think of doing it myself.

[NoRhino]

A freezing cold Thursday at the Falkirk Blues Club.  A brilliantly run club well attended by Blues fans. Venue is the Wine Library on the last Thursday of each month. All seated audience in a small capacity room so 50 people makes it a sell out.  

[JapanAxe]

Just got home from an abysmal gig with a band I frequently dep with - so many issues I can’t bring myself to start listing them. I’m going to be far less available next year!

[msb]

A couple of kids with a couple of geezers in the rhythm section , 2Young2old played in my favourite dive downtown last night. Crowd was a bit smaller than expected , but a pretty good turnout. The kids were a bit loud , and like to jump up on tables and stuff. It was a fun night , more exuberant than polished. Mixed crowd , bunch of other musicians. Good dancers. They say the blues only appeals to 2% of the population , but that’s 2% of everything. Young old , rich poor , good looking ugly. And anyone can feel at home in a good blues dive.
We were all happy at end of the night. 

[dmccombe7]

9 hours ago, JapanAxe said:

Just got home from an abysmal gig with a band I frequently dep with - so many issues I can’t bring myself to start listing them. I’m going to be far less available next year!

You need to give us an idea of what went wrong so we can avoid it 

Dave

[dmccombe7]

Gonna be fun getting to our Edinburgh gig tonight. Both singers in Bathgate and Boness have about 3-4" snow this morning. 

Happy days.

Dave

[JapanAxe]

20 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

You need to give us an idea of what went wrong so we can avoid it 

Dave

Ok then.

 

A lot of it comes back to the BL. I can live with him being a fairly basic drummer but he clearly doesn’t sit down and listen to the song so that he has a clue what to do. One song starts with everyone coming in on 3 big chords and then there’s a simple drum pickup before the rhythm proper kicks in. I even counted the song in, but the drums came in wrong and caused a train wreck.

 

Most pub bands I’ve played with take no more than a 20 minute break in the middle of a 2-hour slot, but BL insists on ‘two 45s’ like some kind of cartoon 70s shop steward. In that half hour break you can lose an audience. To make it worse, he and his other half (also in the band) were arguing (audible through PA) about how long we had left to play. This was on top of the obvious friction between them whilst setting up and packing down. Overall it’s very sloppy and unprofessional, especially for someone who makes their living as an entertainer.

 

The vocal monitors are set painfully loud, even when I wear earplugs.

 

The lead guitarist is a recent addition to the band. He still seems very unsure of what he’s doing and is forever losing his place in his folder of chord sheets - bear in mind 90% of the set is 12-bar sequences.

 

I’ve put up with this for too long, simply because of the relatively easy money if I’m honest. But I’ve already flagged myself as ‘unavailable’ for the venues which for various reasons I don’t want to play - crap travel, dodgy parking, or just a $h!t-hole.

[Richard R]

8 hours ago, msb said:

We were all happy at end of the night. 

Great poster!

[dmccombe7]

11 minutes ago, JapanAxe said:

Ok then.

 

A lot of it comes back to the BL. I can live with him being a fairly basic drummer but he clearly doesn’t sit down and listen to the song so that he has a clue what to do. One song starts with everyone coming in on 3 big chords and then there’s a simple drum pickup before the rhythm proper kicks in. I even counted the song in, but the drums came in wrong and caused a train wreck.

 

Most pub bands I’ve played with take no more than a 20 minute break in the middle of a 2-hour slot, but BL insists on ‘two 45s’ like some kind of cartoon 70s shop steward. In that half hour break you can lose an audience. To make it worse, he and his other half (also in the band) were arguing (audible through PA) about how long we had left to play. This was on top of the obvious friction between them whilst setting up and packing down. Overall it’s very sloppy and unprofessional, especially for someone who makes their living as an entertainer.

 

The vocal monitors are set painfully loud, even when I wear earplugs.

 

The lead guitarist is a recent addition to the band. He still seems very unsure of what he’s doing and is forever losing his place in his folder of chord sheets - bear in mind 90% of the set is 12-bar sequences.

 

I’ve put up with this for too long, simply because of the relatively easy money if I’m honest. But I’ve already flagged myself as ‘unavailable’ for the venues which for various reasons I don’t want to play - crap travel, dodgy parking, or just a $h!t-hole.

WOW i see what you mean. 

The 45 min set thing is a bit "out of date" these days. General rule of thumb is two 1hr sets. Because we have costume changes in Glam band we take a break of circa 20mins sometimes shorter and depending on venue sometimes its nearer 30mins at request of venue to allow for buffet, raffles or Bingo. (yes there are still clubs that do all that  and to be fair they do supply us with sandwiches, sausage rolls and juice at the break and my wife and our female singer have won in the various raffles so all good there)

Its no fun being in a band where there's friction and i'd only stay if it was purely a business arrangement that benefits me. 

Not learning their parts and not getting a decent on stage mix is poor. Its something we strive to get right at soundcheck to allow each other to be heard and to be able to hear the others enough to follow what's happening.

You have my sympathy with this band. I don't think i could work with that @JapanAxe. Serious thought on where you go with it might be required.

Perhaps stay with it for now but look around for other options. Its easier to find work when you are already working. ? Its a busy time of year for bands too and dropping out now could mean losing a fair bit of gig money on run up to Xmas.

All the very best with what you decide.

Dave

[mep]

The last time I played 2 x 45 minute sets in a pub was when they shut at 11pm! 2 x 1 hour is the norm nowadays. 

[Salt on your Bass?]

Had a run of four southern dates last weekend from Thursday to Sunday as part of my doom bands recent album launch. 

 

Played B2 Norwich,  club 85 Hitchin, the Gryphon Bristol and Komedia Brighton. 

New material we'd only outed once live prior, and we ran two of the four gigs ourselves which added a bit of extra admin and messing around. That said, it was an awesome little run, well attended and we played pretty well (or at least it felt right on stage). 

 

Also had probably the best sound guys I've experienced every night which was awesome. Got to crank out amps a bit which was reeeeally nice.

 

Sadly I had my first major live technical hitch mid set. Lost my bass signal between about minute 3 to minute 9/10.... Went through cables, patching, amp, Di box.... Think the gremlin was the bass...maybe the battery as it's active, but once I'd got my signal back, I was then too afraid to move for fear of losing it again - not great when you're only playing one 43 minute song 🤷‍♂️

Anyway, remainder of the nights were ace and back out next weekend in London. 

 

Just thought I'd share. Bristol and Brighton pics. ✌️

 

 

 

Streaming via Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/7lgXKxHzRflsK6LP0nbUJh?si=d-1hX7SwQrmq--vLQ0928Q

Edited December 2, 2023 by Salt on your Bass?

[BillyBass]

21 minutes ago, JapanAxe said:

Most pub bands I’ve played with take no more than a 20 minute break in the middle of a 2-hour slot, but BL insists on ‘two 45s’ like some kind of cartoon 70s shop steward. In that half hour break you can lose an audience.

 

 

4 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

The 45 min set thing is a bit "out of date" these days. General rule of thumb is two 1hr sets. Because we have costume changes in Glam band we take a break of circa 20mins sometimes shorter and depending on venue sometimes its nearer 30mins at request of venue to allow for buffet, raffles or Bingo.

Our singer struggles with a set longer than 45 minutes and his voice needs at least a 30 minute break between sets.  Our songs are punk/indie/rock and are often a bit shouty.  He is worried he has done a bit of damage to his vocal chords.

 

But, the start of the second set does sometimes seem like a struggle to get the crowd back into it again, if they haven't left!

[JapanAxe]

9 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

WOW i see what you mean. 

The 45 min set thing is a bit "out of date" these days. General rule of thumb is two 1hr sets. Because we have costume changes in Glam band we take a break of circa 20mins sometimes shorter and depending on venue sometimes its nearer 30mins at request of venue to allow for buffet, raffles or Bingo. (yes there are still clubs that do all that  and to be fair they do supply us with sandwiches, sausage rolls and juice at the break and my wife and our female singer have won in the various raffles so all good there)

Its no fun being in a band where there's friction and i'd only stay if it was purely a business arrangement that benefits me. 

Not learning their parts and not getting a decent on stage mix is poor. Its something we strive to get right at soundcheck to allow each other to be heard and to be able to hear the others enough to follow what's happening.

You have my sympathy with this band. I don't think i could work with that @JapanAxe. Serious thought on where you go with it might be required.

Perhaps stay with it for now but look around for other options. Its easier to find work when you are already working. ? Its a busy time of year for bands too and dropping out now could mean losing a fair bit of gig money on run up to Xmas.

All the very best with what you decide.

Dave

To be fair, this is a depping situation so I don’t have to take any of the gigs, but BL is very persistent and Mrs Axe has become good friends with his missus.