How was your gig last night?

[StingRayBoy42]

TONIGHT!
More of a concert than a gig... depped with Tamworth Wind Band in a church in Tamworth.
Lovely bunch of folks, really nice vibe, good players and appreciative of me standing in.
They'd commissioned the ex principal director of music at the RAF (!) to write a piece celebrating Tamworth (!) especially for the band, so we rehearsed/workshopped it with him in the day and performed the **World Premiere** at the concert.
He's a phenomenal musician, he picked up and pointed out loads of tiny little things that really elevated it. Lovely bloke as well.

It's not often you get to perform a world premiere in Tamworth... I certainly don't.

There was about fifty of us, so it was a fantastic sound.
The tuba player was playing an absolutely beautiful old horn- I don't know much about tubas but I'd guess it was a BBb Conn 20J with a recording bell made in the Elkhart factory some time in the mid-late 1920s?
He even let me play it. Cheers, Colin!
The rest of the repertoire was pretty standard wind band stuff - Vaughan Williams, a couple of film medleys, a slow one with a lovely Cor Anglais solo and some Andrew Lloyd Webber - not my favourite, but Jesus Christ Superstar has got some bangers in it.
The highlight (apart from the piece specially commissioned for the band 😳) was the music from 'The Incredibles' - spoof/cheesy superhero film music - a cracking Bass riff driving the whole thing along, bars of 5/4 mission impossible type stuff all over the place... loads of fun to play.
Played the 'Ray -> Thumpinator -> VTDI -> MB 802, Rainbow Converse foot fans.
Radio 4 on the way home - the evolution of instant messaging, from the invention of the emoticon on MSN messenger to a woman who married a chatbot. Weird.
Home just after 10 for a G&T, a slice of raspberry cheesecake and a very stupid cat.

[MacDaddy]

14 minutes ago, StingRayBoy42 said:

Home just after 10 for a G&T, a slice of raspberry cheesecake and a very stupid cat.

 

What does cat taste like?

[msb]

Chicken … so they say. 
Chicken chow meow …

[StingRayBoy42]

12 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

 

What does cat taste like?

Tears.

[scalpy]

10 hours ago, neepheid said:

 

Heh, team G&L/Markbass in da house

#metoo, albeit with Aggie cabs.

 

The Louisiana, Bristol with George Montague. 90 minute set, attempted from memory which I’ve got lazy at of late with more regular gigs, using a iPad most of the time. Helpful sound guy and the ever excellent Tom Hooper on drums. 
 

Much easier to keep the cable runs tidy at this one….

 

 

[bottomfeed]

I know the Louisiana really well! ... Been there many times! 

...nice rig! 

How was the gig? 

🙂

[dmccombe7]

6 hours ago, scalpy said:

#metoo, albeit with Aggie cabs.

 

The Louisiana, Bristol with George Montague. 90 minute set, attempted from memory which I’ve got lazy at of late with more regular gigs, using a iPad most of the time. Helpful sound guy and the ever excellent Tom Hooper on drums. 
 

Much easier to keep the cable runs tidy at this one….

 

 

Yep that's much better. You've now passed the cable tidy test. 

Dave

[MichaelDean]

7 hours ago, scalpy said:

#metoo, albeit with Aggie cabs.

 

The Louisiana, Bristol with George Montague. 90 minute set, attempted from memory which I’ve got lazy at of late with more regular gigs, using a iPad most of the time. Helpful sound guy and the ever excellent Tom Hooper on drums. 
 

Much easier to keep the cable runs tidy at this one….

 

 

The Loui looks so much tidier than it used to! Not hard, but it's nice to see a bit of an effort has been made. Haven't played/been there in years now despite it being in walking distance. Ought to rectify that. 

[King Tut]

Back to the pubs for me last night with a dep gig with my old band Isabelle at The Brave Old Oak in Towcester.

 

Drummer really struggles with loud bass players, so I took in ears to supplement my rig so I could be fairly quiet on stage. Next step with this band will be to go amplesss for me.

 

Anyway, I remembered all the stuff, decent crowd and went down well, home by 0045. Happy Daze!

[uk_lefty]

The Roundabout club in Sandy, Bedfordshire. Decent gig in the end. We don't often use our own PA and we have this digital system that none of us really understand. Worked fine last week. This week, full of gremlins. We also managed to blow our sub somehow so I was trying to play to the venue through a 100watt amp I was planning to only use as a stage monitor, plus a bit of bass in the tops. Regardless of those and other sound issues the actual gig was good. We were really relaxed so no starting at 200mph or messing up of songs. Decent venue, good little crowd who seemed to be enjoying it. Played my "new" MIM Precision throughout and was very happy with this through my SWR Working Pro, good job that amp has a built in limiter considering how much I was having to push it.

[Paul S]

Strange weekend for my lot, Tore Down - unusually back to back gigs Friday night and Saturday daytime.

 

Friday night we resumed our residency at The Shamrock in Ipswich.  Drummer is a farmer and had a lamb problem so we started late at 9.45pm.  Hardly anyone there, even fewer listening to us, didn't bother with an encore.  This was the place at 8.45.

 

Opps, didn't mean to post yet.  Late start meant late finish - less than convenient because next day we had a gig in Newmarket at the Harley Davidson dealerhsip there.  We played 2x 1 hr sets, starting at 11am, needed to get there for 9.30am-ish.  I'd booked a Travelodge locally to save going all the way home then all the way back, which kind of worked out OK - managed to get about 6hrs sleep.

 

We'd played a gig at the Harley place before - odd.  On the face of it there was no reaction at all - the band seem to be completely ancillary to the event, with nobody watching, virtually no applause or reaction after the songs.  But afterwards loads of people came up to say how much they enjoyed it - especially the manager there, Mick who, true to his word, booked us for their 28th birthday bash this year.   Which proved to be exactly the same Saturday.  Dull drizzly day although we were outside under cover - dry but cold.  Good turn out but very little reaction.  Every now and then whatever we were playing was drowned out by someone starting up a bike and revving it - particualrly one of our lovely slow blues tunes 'Blue Jean Blues'.  Nice food available - either a free BBQ although I opted to buy a stone baked pizza.  At half time someone who runs a Harley club asked us to play at their summer bash next year.  Mike and the crew at Newmarket loved it and are going to ask us back again.  Loads of good feedback from punters, too.  Strange.  Good pay, though.

 

 

 

Edited April 28 by Paul S

[Franticsmurf]

The Hulla played an 80th birthday party in the local village hall last night. The potential for getting the setlist wrong was great as we didn't know what the demographic would be. Fortunately, we have a range of tunes on tap but as it turned out we found the right mix with the initial selection of songs. It was a small hall, there were around 100 people there and everyone was handed a glass of Prosecco as they walked in, so the atmosphere by the time we squeezed on stage was pretty good. Unsurprisingly there was dancing from the first song and for every tune thereafter.

 

I was using IEM and my mix was great. The stage was very cramped (there was a plan for getting everyone on and off!). My B6 was under the cymbal stand where I had to stretch my foot to tap the switches without kicking over the ride cymbal. The saxophonist on front of me was occasionally stepping on the mic stand leg, so I had to anticipate him and move my mouth away from the mic to avoid impromptu dental work. I played my Ibanez EHB1000s as any regular scale bass would have been brushing up against the curtains at the side of the stage, or slapping the guitarist on the back (I don't play slap style 😃). 

 

Overall a most enjoyable gig without the pressures of the drunken city mob. An earlyish finish and the birthday girl really enjoyed herself.

 

[scalpy]

7 hours ago, bottomfeed said:

I know the Louisiana really well! ... Been there many times! 

...nice rig! 

How was the gig? 

🙂

The rig is old faithful, but to be honest it was barely on, stage was boomy and the monitoring/ FoH was more than sufficient for me. Nice crowd for George, doesn’t take many in there for it feel like an event, so rhythmic gyrations of a clothes nature were spotted in the audience. 

[dmccombe7]

25 minutes ago, Paul S said:

Strange weekend for my lot, Tore Down - unusually back to back gigs Friday night and Saturday daytime.

 

Friday night we resumed our residency at The Shamrock in Ipswich.  Drummer is a farmer and had a lamb problem so we started late at 9.45pm.  Hardly anyone there, even fewer listening to us, didn't bother with an encore.  This was the place at 8.45.

 

Opps, didn't mean to post yet.  Late start meant late finish - less than convenient because next day we had a gig in Newmarket at the Harley Davidson dealerhsip there.  We played 2x 1 hr sets, starting at 11am, needed to get there for 9.30am-ish.  I'd booked a Travelodge locally to save going all the way home then all the way back, which kind of worked out OK - managed to get about 6hrs sleep.

 

We'd played a gig at the Harley place before - odd.  On the face of it there was no reaction at all - the band seem to be completely ancillary to the event, with nobody watching, virtually no applause or reaction after the songs.  But afterwards loads of people came up to say how much they enjoyed it - especially the manager there, Mick who, true to his word, booked us for their 28th birthday bash this year.   Which proved to be exactly the same Saturday.  Dull drizzly day although we were outside under cover - dry but cold.  Good turn out but very little reaction.  Every now and then whatever we were playing was drowned out by someone starting up a bike and revving it - particualrly one of our lovely slow blues tunes 'Blue Jean Blues'.  Nice food available - either a free BBQ although I opted to buy a stone baked pizza.  At half time someone who runs a Harley club asked us to play at their summer bash next year.  Mike and the crew at Newmarket loved it and are going to ask us back again.  Loads of good feedback from punters, too.  Strange.  Good pay, though.

 

 

 

Yep being a Harley owner i've been to quite a few dealership events with bands but people are solely there to look at bikes and grab a burger. Bands are just background music and i sometimes wonder why the dealers even bother with a live band rather than just a DJ. Bit different on a nice sunny day as i've stood and watched the band for a bit but i'm in the minority. Its definitely an odd one. 

One dealership during sunny summer put all their tables and chairs in front of the band and that certainly helped as when folks bought food or drink they sat and watched the bands while eating.

Looks like a good event tho.

Dave

Edited April 28 by dmccombe7

[neepheid]

30 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Yep being a Harley owner i've been to quite a few dealership events with bands but people are solely there to look at bikes and grab a burger. Bands are just background music and i sometimes wonder why the dealers even bother with a live band rather than just a DJ. Bit different on a nice sunny day as i've stood and watched the band for a bit but i'm in the minority. Its definitely an odd one. 

One dealership during sunny summer put all their tables and chairs in front of the band and that certainly helped as when folks bought food or drink they sat and watched the bands while eating.

Looks like a good event tho.

Dave

 

Same story at these types of gigs.  Not played a bike event but I have played a few beer festivals and yes, you're well aware that you're secondary to the main draw, which is the bikes/beers, and probably tertiary when you throw the food in.  Just go in knowing that you're performing a supporting role and accept that while you may not get any direct appreciation, people will have subliminally enjoyed it and assimilated it into their overall memory of the event.

[dmccombe7]

17 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

Same story at these types of gigs.  Not played a bike event but I have played a few beer festivals and yes, you're well aware that you're secondary to the main draw, which is the bikes/beers, and probably tertiary when you throw the food in.  Just go in knowing that you're performing a supporting role and accept that while you may not get any direct appreciation, people will have subliminally enjoyed it and assimilated it into their overall memory of the event.

Paid rehearsal is how i would look at it.

Dave

[jezzaboy]

19 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

Same story at these types of gigs.  Not played a bike event but I have played a few beer festivals and yes, you're well aware that you're secondary to the main draw, which is the bikes/beers, and probably tertiary when you throw the food in.  Just go in knowing that you're performing a supporting role and accept that while you may not get any direct appreciation, people will have subliminally enjoyed it and assimilated it into their overall memory of the event.

We played a couple of bikers gigs in the past, zero reaction all the way through but at the end of the gig some came up and said they loved it. But the last one we played, a guy was very aggressive towards me and kept telling me to smile. After that little escapade we agreed on a no more bikers show rule. A pity as some of us were bikers in the past but it`s not worth the grief.

[tony_m]

The Gig That Nearly Never Was...

 

Or... (cue silent movie style music)

 

The Perils of Facebook Videos.

 

A bit of background to the tale. As a band, we (Rascallion) have always agreed that any of us could go and play with anybody else as long as they were open and honest about what they were doing, and it didn't interfere with or compromise us as the main band (our drummer, for example, has been hosting a weekly jam session in his studio with some other local musos, but has also been keeping up to speed with our core material). 

 

Having been on hiatus since October 2023 while our esteemed frontman recuperated from an operation to fuse one of his ankles, we finally resumed rehearsals in March when he declared himself fit and ready to go. We were all a bit rusty, but things soon slotted into place and we spent the first couple of rehearsals working up three new songs, which went surprisingly well (though I do have to wonder what @casapete and his bandmates would make of our rendition of "Showdown" sans strings!). 

 

We then turned our attention to the rest of the setlist, most of which we've been playing for the past couple of years, and this is when things started to go pear-shaped, with Mr Frontman failing to remember how to start the tunes he'd normally start, along with most of the chords, lyrics, and arrangements to the rest of the set.

 

Initially, we jokingly put this down to his age (70+), but then at our next rehearsal, it was even worse, with umpteen songs grinding to a lyricless halt (if they even got started in the first place), so in preparation for our third rehearsal, I printed up a new setlist for him which included the first line of each verse as cues. 

 

Then, on the evening before said rehearsal, and with just over two weeks to go until our first gig of the year, our drummer came across some videos on Facebook of a new-to-us band playing at a local pub back in February, and who should be there, upfront and centre? Yep, our frontman. 

 

Despite his protests, the rest of us (particular Mr Drums, who's a great drummer and a lovely chap, but has a very short fuse when he thinks someone's taking the proverbial) struggled to accept that Mr Frontman was apparently fit enough to gig (and presumably rehearse) with another band in February, but not to rehearse with us, and must also have been concentrating all his efforts on learning their stuff rather than keeping up to speed with ours. To be honest, we've had our suspicions that he's been "playing away" before now, but this is the first time he's actually been caught in the act.

 

Anyway, after initially refusing to ever set foot on stage with him again (and insisting that he removed his gear from our rehearsal room), Mr Drums finally cooled down and we all agreed that rather than pull the gig, we'd let Mr Frontman back into the fold for it, and after three more rather edgy but improving (in both mood and performance) rehearsals, the gig went ahead last night.

 

After all that drama, not much to report really. A smaller than usual turnout (possibly down to an outbreak of random end-of-the-month-itis), and less dancing than we've had before, but still a great reaction from everybody, with a bit of singing along and plenty of complimentary remarks afterwards. Performance-wise, it's probably safe to say we were still a little ring-rusty, but we managed to negotiate the occasional curve-ball thrown by various members (an extra verse added here, a breakdown section omitted there), and our revised, slightly rockier setlist seemed to work well. For some reason, I really struggled to get my onstage sound sorted on this, the first live outing for the Squier 40th Anniversary P, and eventually resorted to just pressing the "Deep" button on the Ashdown - luckily this produced a suitably deep (sic) tone which I could both hear and feel, so I felt a lot happier in the second set than the first.

 

On the plus side, it apparently sounded OK out front, and in what seems to be a new atmosphere of entente cordiale, it looks like we won't be having to find either a new frontman or a new drummer before our next scheduled gigs in July after all!

 

Quick FB reel from the first set - really must ask our man with a phone to shoot some footage of our second set sometime as that's a bit more lively! 

 

https://www.facebook.com/reel/438884908720268
 

[Stub Mandrel]

Went to a private 'birthday party open mic' last night. Good idea for a party, my btother is planning something similar for his 60th.

 

Some friends debuted their new band with a few songs. I got asked to back a few people. A fun, mellow night.

[Chienmortbb]

On 26/04/2024 at 08:15, dmccombe7 said:

We also wont use gaffa tape as it leaves everything sticky when removed again.

Real Gaffa Tape is low tack and does not stick. The cheap stuff sold as gaffa tape is really duct tape..

 

See https://advancetapes.com/products/gloss-cloth-tape-advance-gaffa/

[dodge_bass]

Last night I was depping for a NE based big band - it was an absolute roast sight-reading these charts having never seen / heard them before! Still I managed to quite myself pretty well! 

[Mickeyboro]

A first gig of the year at an award-winning Glamping site in deepest Dorset. 
 

We - the Otis Jay Blues Band - had to tweak our repertoire to include more danceable/recognisable stuff as the glampers have come for a good time. Hence a closing Mustang Sally with three young ladies around the mic adding the responses! (Sadly not pictured…)

 

The applause sounded tumultuous, though that was clearly assisted by downpours onto the clear plastic covering of the bar. Only mystery to be solved was why four cop cars and a paddywagon turned up during set two. A Blues Brothers moment😂

 

Gear: Flea Jazz, Elf, 2xBarefaced One10. 

Edited April 28 by Mickeyboro

[Woodinblack]

Up close and personal kind of gig, a bit too up close because someone hit the end of my microphone stand hitting my microphone into my teeth, and a bit too personal as a rather drunk young lady forgot to not keep herself clothed in public!

 

So this was the first gig with no bass amp, and as my dwarf is off being fixed I was playing with the zoom. It was the first time with 2 Evox8 speakers.  It takes a bit of getting used to it, and for some reason the mixer was working weirdly, and as the keyboard player has a huge monitor speaker hard to get the sound right. It sounded quite good at the start but people complained the vocals weren't loud enough although this might be positioning, as the guitarist has now put his amp up high and point out to the crowd, if you are on that side that is all you can hear.

But as I pointed out, sound through their monitor is their issue, it causes feedback sometimes and unbalances things, and the guitarist looks to me to sort it out, but I point out it is their monitor.

I was getting over my cold, my first songs sounded ok, but then I do the high bit in crazy horses and my voice just said, nah, not doing those notes, would you like another note just a bit lower? So I cancelled doing any of my songs (which is only a few after that, although one of our encores). my voice even for backup vocals started getting bad after that. Glad my main songs were at the beginning!

 

I recorded it, but unfortunately as it was  on the guitarists side, it is basically just his guitar.

 

Still, hugely interactive crowd (possibly too interactive at times), and not a bad gig at all.

 

[dmccombe7]

3 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

Real Gaffa Tape is low tack and does not stick. The cheap stuff sold as gaffa tape is really duct tape..

 

See https://advancetapes.com/products/gloss-cloth-tape-advance-gaffa/

Yep this was duct tape. I remember the old gaffa tape didn't leave any residue. It wasn't until you mentioned this i remembered from years ago.

Cheers for reminding me.

I'll maybe see if i can get some proper gaffa tape and try that.

Dave

[dmccombe7]

4 hours ago, jezzaboy said:

We played a couple of bikers gigs in the past, zero reaction all the way through but at the end of the gig some came up and said they loved it. But the last one we played, a guy was very aggressive towards me and kept telling me to smile. After that little escapade we agreed on a no more bikers show rule. A pity as some of us were bikers in the past but it`s not worth the grief.

Done a few Blue Angels gigs with the punk covers band and its much the same although last one had a lot of women there who were up dancing all night. Well oiled when they arrived but a good fun night and we were well applauded by them but not so much the majority of the guys who didn't seem to have any great interest in the band until we finished and they came over and said it was a great gig. We've never had to carry gear at the Blue Angel gigs either, they unload our gear and bring it to the cars for us to reload at the end. All very helpful TBH. Don't get that anywhere else so i have a lot of respect for them. We were even allowed to buy some of their Blue Angel T shirts at the end of the night and the guy that organises us to play turned up at one of our Paisley near Glasgow gigs but he is a big fan of the band. 

I can't say i've ever had any trouble or issues with them at all.

All decent enough towards us and they allow us to share in their buffet which was pretty impressive.

Dave