How was your gig last night?

[casapete]

Just got home from our now monthly gig at The Sun Inn in Beverley.

Usual request style gig with my acoustic duo, and some great tunes asked for

including ‘A town called malice’, ‘Shotgun’ and a bizarre Pulp Fiction medley

comprising  ‘Miserlou’ segueing into ‘You never can tell’!
At one point they had the door locked to prevent any more people coming in,

and also ran out of glasses - the place was absolutely rammed. Although a 

great crowd of people, it is one of those gigs that is very full on - we do three

40 minute sets and with so many people it is impossible to play all their requests.

Still, plenty of good comments afterwards, and the landlord was pleased with the

turnout too.

 

( Picture below is from last week at Scarborough, just sent to me by a punter).

 

 

[leschirons]

5 hours ago, Bluewine said:

Unfortunately gigging is about what the crowd likes and wants to hear. Gigging is not about our personal taste.

 

Daryl

Gigging, is not my number 1 priority Daryl. Great if I can spend an evening playing smooth jazz to people who want to hear smooth jazz but also great if I can just get together with like-minded players and  play to no-one other than ourselves.

 

I don't need to get paid for playing. I'm happy to play charity gigs all day for nothing however, having said that, I wont play for £50 as I believe commercial gigs like pubs, clubs etc, should reflect the work musicians put in, not devalue it. 

Edited May 5 by leschirons

[Stub Mandrel]

7 hours ago, peteb said:

 

The problem is that this isn't mainstream covers stuff that you could play down a pub. To get any audience, you have to be able to market it, which realistically means doing a tribute to one of the bigger prog bands. 

 

 

I'd enjoy being in a tribute to Gong or Soft Machine (early stuff only). 😁

[Stub Mandrel]

5 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

by some obscure Canadian bands (s

 

Max Webster?

 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

Decent gig tonight in Blackwood. Took my Thunder 1 and used it for the first set. Was a biker pub so the blues rock went down well. We knew dj on later, and about 20 minutes after we finished the jukebox got cut off a short way into a Metallica song, and awful club music started. By the timecwe finished packing up the clientele were almost completely different.

 

I wore my Ryuk/Deathnote t-shirt I got sent from the USA which always gets more compliments than my playing!

[peteb]

9 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I'd enjoy being in a tribute to Gong or Soft Machine (early stuff only). 😁

 

Good luck with getting gigs with that project! 

 

7 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Max Webster?

 

 

A Max Webster tribute would be a blast! I'm definitely up for doing a Kim Mitchell tribute if anyone is thinking of putting one together...! 

 

[super al]

Our 2nd gig of the year Sunday, 8 days after our 1st!

This was the 1st event for the month long Salisbury Live and as we were the 1st band on we've billed it as us kicking the whole thing off but in reality we knew it wouldn't be busy. The switch from an outside event to an inside gig probably did us a favour as there was about 40 people in the room with a few more punters in another room and outside.

The performance from our POV was great. Our drummer's 2nd gig and there was a nice pace to the songs, not rushed. Jon, our singer was hopping and strutting about, it was definitely what I would expect from a Felis Leo show.

A few positive comments which helps, I like the random stranger ones 👍🏻

I didn't stay too long but the two tribute bands who played later were Slady and the Smiths Ltd.

No gigs now until late July ☹️

Picture courtesy of the band after us, 3mo. I'm suitably obscured by Chris our lead guitarist.

[dmccombe7]

5 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

Max Webster?

 

 

Saw them support Rush in the early years. Great band.

Dave

[dmccombe7]

5 hours ago, peteb said:

 

Good luck with getting gigs with that project! 

 

 

A Max Webster tribute would be a blast! I'm definitely up for doing a Kim Mitchell tribute if anyone is thinking of putting one together...! 

 

Amazing bassist with Max Webster too. Think it was Dave Myles when i saw them support Rush in UK. Hemispheres 1979 Tour

Dave

Edited May 6 by dmccombe7

[Franticsmurf]

10 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

I'd enjoy being in a tribute to Gong or Soft Machine (early stuff only). 😁

The first band I was in had Gong, Steve Hillage and Hawkwind as the headline influences. Back in the late 80s there was some interest from the student population, but not enough to sustain gigs and we reluctantly moved away toward mainstream rock. 

[dmccombe7]

6 hours ago, Franticsmurf said:

The first band I was in had Gong, Steve Hillage and Hawkwind as the headline influences. Back in the late 80s there was some interest from the student population, but not enough to sustain gigs and we reluctantly moved away toward mainstream rock. 

Oddly enough i was listening to Steve Hillage the other day. Did see him late 70's / early 80's.

I was following the history of Camel bassist Colin Bass who played with Gong back in the day.

Dave 

Edited May 6 by dmccombe7

[peteb]

6 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Amazing bassist with Max Webster too. Think it was Dave Myles when i saw them support Rush in UK. Hemispheres 1979 Tour

 

 

I saw them on that tour when I was 16. 

 

Max Webster were a bit too out there, but I've loved pretty much all of Kim Mitchell's solo stuff, from 'Go For Soda' to 'Rock'n'roll Duty' to 'Ain't Life Amazing'! 

 

[StingRayBoy42]

LAST NIGHT!
Katie O'Brien's 'Irish' bar in Leicester with the 3 piece version of Azura.

We've played here before and had a cracking night *and* it was our first gig for a few weeks so we were looking forward to it.
We were anticipating a mad one as Leicester Rovers had just won the Big Soccerball Challenge or something, lots of football shirts in there when we arrived. Not massively full, but it was only half six.
Load in is a bit of a pain, down a dark, slippery, murder-y alleyway, there was a solo acoustic guy on so we had to unpack the stuff 'backstge' (in the corridor to the kitchen and the staff smoking area - glamorous!) and stand around nursing a lime & soda while he played.
Set up was pretty easy (using the house PA speakers) and the place was filling up nicely.
First set went down a treat, we played really well and enjoyed ourselves. Couple of flubs, nothing too heinous.
Second and third sets were even better, the crowd was out for a good night and got well into it, packed dancefloor all singing along.

We had a couple of new songs in the set which kept us on our toes and the DJ played a couple that we happened to know so we decided to chuck them in as well.

It wasn't as rammed as we were expecting, but nicely full and a decent crowd.
I sang lead on a couple which is always gratifying (for me, not for the audience).
Played the Jazz for a change -> small board -> amp board -> MB 802.
Wore the 'other' leopard print Converse, foot fans!
Lots of compliments afterwards including from the manager, so we're looking forward to a rebooking.
Home about 1 for a Thatcher's Vintage (8.3% ABV)

A good night out!


 

[Stub Mandrel]

38 minutes ago, peteb said:

 

I saw them on that tour when I was 16. 

 

Max Webster were a bit too out there, but I've loved pretty much all of Kim Mitchell's solo stuff, from 'Go For Soda' to 'Rock'n'roll Duty' to 'Ain't Life Amazing'! 

 

 

Other way around, I haven't heard his solo stuff but got several Max albums in the early 80s.

[dmccombe7]

54 minutes ago, peteb said:

 

I saw them on that tour when I was 16. 

 

Max Webster were a bit too out there, but I've loved pretty much all of Kim Mitchell's solo stuff, from 'Go For Soda' to 'Rock'n'roll Duty' to 'Ain't Life Amazing'! 

 

Not heard any of his solo stuff. Will have a listen on youtube today.

Dave

[peteb]

35 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Not heard any of his solo stuff. Will have a listen on youtube today.

Dave

 

Beware, he's not prog at all, more quirky hard rock with a sense of humour. 

 

I would start here (but also look for Go For Soda, Rockland Wonderland, Ain't Life Amazing & anything off the Itch album): 

 

 

 

Edited May 6 by peteb

[WalMan]

20 hours ago, peteb said:

 

The problem is that this isn't mainstream covers stuff that you could play down a pub. To get any audience, you have to be able to market it, which realistically means doing a tribute to one of the bigger prog bands. 

 

One of my less frequent bands is a prog cover band nowadays doing mainly Floyd, Yes & Genesis. In the past we also did Porcupine Tree, UK & Spock’s Beard, which confused many 🤣
 

Fun gig to do, though the Floyd covers are a bit of a nothing for bass (IMO). It is a very few and far between gig - two + years between last March and the previous gig.

The last gig was self promoted and had just under 100 paying customers through the door. Went pretty well as well. Photos of the set up for that including McMillen 12Step bass pedals through a soft synth on my iPad and acoustic on a playing stand. Probably the most demanding from that set was Firth of Fifth, Roundabout or Spirit of Radio and a lot of the ‘standard’ prog covers feel like it’s just pedalling a single note whilst stuff shifts around on keys and guitar.

 

Volunteer Club in my sig is a proggy project with one of the guitarists in my main band.

 

 

20 hours ago, mrtcat said:

Pretty much my dream bass. I feel I've earned the right to own one having played 512 gigs in the last 5 yrs but the prices are really high at the moment so I'm just struggling to justify pulling the trigger.

I was lucky and got the S2 during lockdown and just before Rob announced his retirement. The S2 was a constant at South East Bass Bashes for years and I eventually bought it from Barney when I was in need of a 5 string quickly to use whilst I had an insurance repair carried out on my old L2500. It looks a mess and was cheap, but plays well and sounds great so is always in 

[Leonard Smalls]

We had a trip to Telford yesterday to play at a "punk and alternative all-dayer".

Our other bass player had to bring his kit, but I had a lovely TC electronics head and 2x 2x10 cabs to play through that the venue had provided; Parker into Helix into that sounded great, a proper meaty slap tone that cut through beautifully.

We played well, weren't booed off or even beaten up, was accosted in the toilets by a chap who though we were great which is always nice when you're having a piddle. I was stopped a few more times by folks who enjoyed us... But strangely, we had the smallest crowd! As soon as the hardcore growlers started the room was rammed but our far more melodic punkyfunky stylings were much less popular. Each to their own I spose!

However, there was a most excellent Indian restaurant 100m away which did Paneer Chilli so I was very happy. Not only that but I discovered a B road route back that took us 61 minutes for the 50 mile drive...

Next week we've got a Dingle To Dottingham, supporting the incomparable Soap Girls (!) at the Old Cold Store.

Edited to add photie!

Edited May 6 by Leonard Smalls

[spacecowboy]

Last night we headlined the Off The Rails event in Leamington Spa. We only got an hour to play, considering we usually play for 3 it felt like it was over before it began, but really awesome night. 

 

New things learned though, playing in arches with lots of walls and chambers and...well arches meant the sound went everywhere, P Bass sounded incredible as usual. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Woodinblack]

3 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said:

We had a trip to Telford yesterday to play at a "punk and alternative all-dayer".

 

 

We played well, weren't booed off or even beaten up,

 

 

Well, I would say that sounds a good result for being in telford!

[StingRayBoy42]

TODAY!
My third outing of the weekend, depping on Sousaphone for a local wind band.
You wait ages for a wind band concert, then two come along at once.
They're like buses - big, noisy, unwieldy and no-one likes them.
Full on suited and booted (Midnight Blue DMs) affair, I even wore a dicky bow!
The band are really good, really high standard, I did OK considering I was sightreading.
Usual wind band stuff, including three pieces I played last week.
The highlight was fitting into my suit trousers and still being able to breathe.
 

[BigRedX]

On 05/05/2024 at 16:59, Bluewine said:

Unfortunately gigging is about what the crowd likes and wants to hear. Gigging is not about our personal taste.

 

Daryl

 

IME it depends on what you are playing. For covers this is almost definitely the case.

 

However if you are playing songs that you have written yourself and you are playing to the right audience - i.e. one that has come to see bands in the same genre as yours then you can pretty much play what what you want. It is harder work at the start because you have to build up a following from pretty much nothing, but if you are entertaining, it can be done.

 

 

 

[moley6knipe]

On 05/05/2024 at 19:20, steantval said:

Edited May 6 by moley6knipe

[moley6knipe]

On 05/05/2024 at 19:20, steantval said:

Edited May 6 by moley6knipe

[moley6knipe]

On 05/05/2024 at 19:20, steantval said:

We have a band in our area dedicated to playing just prog covers, the band is made up from the cream of the crop musicians in the area, they only do a few gigs a year and they are always rammed with punters and a lot of local musicians seeing how it’s done, the musicians in the band play in mostly party/wedding bands on a regular basis.

 

 

 

Jon Haire on guitar! If you play guitar in this part of the world you know Jon. He’s probably fettled your guitar. He’s beyond awesome and a thoroughly excellent human!!