How was your gig last night?

[cetera]

1 minute ago, casapete said:

Ha, yeah Chris has been doing gigs with FGtR for quite a while now. He fits everything in around

the ELO Experience dates, works well for him. I must get to see him with them sometime soon. 

 

I'll be playing with them at Whitby Pavilion on 14th Feb & Wakefield Theatre Royal on 15th Feb if you fancy coming? Not sure if Chris will be on those shows though? You'd need to check in with him...

 

[MacDaddy]

6 minutes ago, cetera said:

 

I'll be playing with them at Whitby Pavilion on 14th Feb & Wakefield Theatre Royal on 15th Feb if you fancy coming? Not sure if Chris will be on those shows though? You'd need to check in with him...

 

 

 

Will you be ok? You might get a nosebleed going that far north!

[cetera]

I've got my oxygen tank and my listen/translate app ready!

[StingRayBoy42]

2 hours ago, cetera said:

I depped with the Spandau Ballet/Duran Duran tribute show 'From Gold To Rio' at Eastleigh Concorde Club last night!

 

People don't believe me when I tell them I've got a favourite Spandau Ballet song, but it's True.

[MacDaddy]

1 hour ago, StingRayBoy42 said:

People don't believe me when I tell them I've got a favourite Spandau Ballet song, but it's True.

 

I could go on at great length about my favourite Spandau Ballet song, but to cut a long story short...

[dmccombe7]

Barricades are required 

Edited December 12 by dmccombe7

[Bluewine]

On 09/12/2024 at 04:26, Greg Edwards69 said:

Saturday was the first of a busy December for us at the Crumpled Horn in Upminster. We play here every Christmas and the landlord is a former DJ and agents and is an old friend of the band (indeed, he even DJ'd at .

 

The doorman told us that this pub is half empty whenever there is bad weather, so we can take solace in the fact that we didn't cause the lousy turnout. The landlord was happy with us too and gave us a little extra on top of our usual fee.

 

 

 

 I'm a big fan of extra on top of the fee. Lol

 

I remember we played one night and there was a huge blizzard.  As you can guess, attendance was weak. The owner blamed us and we never went back. The place closed, it's a daycare center now.

 

Daryl

 

[dmccombe7]

3 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

 I'm a big fan of extra on top of the fee. Lol

 

I remember we played one night and there was a huge blizzard.  As you can guess, attendance was weak. The owner blamed us and we never went back. The place closed, it's a daycare center now.

 

Daryl

 

He blamed you for causing a blizzard ? Did you tell him you were actually Jack Frost in disguise.

Did you still get paid ok as he was probably looking for reasons not to pay you. 

Dave

[Lozz196]

We`d heard you lot were trouble Daryl, but bringing your own blizzard, well that`s just taking it too far!

 

🥶 🥶 🥶

[Bluewine]

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

He blamed you for causing a blizzard ? Did you tell him you were actually Jack Frost in disguise.

Did you still get paid ok as he was probably looking for reasons not to pay you. 

Dave

Lol, Dave, we got paid , but I don't know how. They didn't make any money that night.

[Obrienp]

57 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

We`d heard you lot were trouble Daryl, but bringing your own blizzard, well that`s just taking it too far!

 

🥶 🥶 🥶

Pretty cool though, literally! 🤟

Edited December 12 by Obrienp

[Muzz]

Very posh Do* last night at the Radisson Hotel (ex-Free Trade Hall) in Manchester last night; a national solicitor's company, so I had a bath before I went, and dressed tastefully (for once)...didn't get time for a soundcheck, and no time to set up monitoring, so all I heard was floofy sub-bass, but played most of it on muscle memory, and of course no-one else noticed. It sounded good out front, though, and that's what matters, and the punters danced all night. Done for midnightish, home after dropping the drummer off (he's a fantastic pro (reading) drummer, a talented producer and music-tech guru (his day job is teaching Logic), but he doesn't have a car, so swings and roundabouts...) about 01:45. The alarm for work this morning was a bit gritty, but the money was four times a pub, so... 

 

Off now till the 20th, when I'll be up at Weasel Dust Central in Burnley, fending off the chemically-altered denizens of the place and stopping them turning the tops round on their stands (the new Funniest Thing In Burnley). Oh, the rich tapestry of experience...

 

* BL went to the bar, no draught, so he got two 330ml bottles of lager. £12.40. In Manchester, for Buddha's sake...we both photographed them, in a vain effort to get more out of his £12.40...didn't help...

[dmccombe7]

10 hours ago, Bluewine said:

Lol, Dave, we got paid , but I don't know how. They didn't make any money that night.

I guess from a venue point of view its a risk they take that weather will hold up on the night of a gig. If the band made it then you can't hold them responsible for poor attendance.

Dave

[Jackroadkill]

9 hours ago, Muzz said:

turning the tops round on their stands

 

Surely the time is ripe for some sort of Beano-style booby trap here?

[Dad3353]

14 minutes ago, Jackroadkill said:

Surely the time is ripe for some sort of Beano-style booby trap here?

 

Clip these on to re-centre the pa cab if it's turned..?

 

Edited December 12 by Dad3353

[Stub Mandrel]

7 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

 

Clip these on to re-centre the pa cab if it's turned..?

 

 

I think fitting those to the local weasel-dusters is A Very Good Idea, Piglet.

[dmccombe7]

Last night with BLOCKBUSTARZ Glam covers at Longstone Hearts Club in Edinburgh was the first of two gigs this weekend.

Fantastic club where everyone involved is just so nice and helpful. Only holds approx 70-80 and it was busy possibly sold out as i couldn't see any spare seats.

Gig went really well. The 4 Xmas songs worked a treat in the set. We are now doing 2x1hr sets most gigs these days so that's good news instead of almost 3hrs worth.

Audience loved it with few requests for pics with the band after the gig.

Sandberg VM4 into Shure wireless, Mesa TT800 and Mesa SW210/115 cabs. Running the amp with a little distortion when i really dig in for some of those rockier songs.

Here's a pic of stage just after sound check. 

Today we travel over to Methil in Fife for a slightly earlier time of 4-7pm. approx 2hr drive each way and with only 6hrs sleep last night i'm getting a little bit tired this morning but once on the road all will be well again.

Dave 

[casapete]

First gig for a while with blues band The Alligators at a nice little pub ‘The Imperial’ in Filey,

which is a small seaside town on the East Yorkshire coast.

Very quiet when we were setting up, but gradually more punters arrived to make it feel

better, and they were very appreciative of our efforts. The landlady is a big music fan

and we have a few more dates booked here for 2025, mainly Sunday afternoon gigs which

I really enjoy.

Gig went well - a few minor things forgotten - but overall an enjoyable evening. Used my

passive Precision Lyte into the Rumble 500 combo.

Roads quiet on the way back so made it home by 1pm. We are playing just down the road from

Filey tonight at The Queens in Bridlington, so pretty much the same journey again for me.

 

 

[Mickeyboro]

6 minutes ago, casapete said:

First gig for a while with blues band The Alligators at a nice little pub ‘The Imperial’ in Filey,

which is a small seaside town on the East Yorkshire coast.

Very quiet when we were setting up, but gradually more punters arrived to make it feel

better, and they were very appreciative of our efforts. The landlady is a big music fan

and we have a few more dates booked here for 2025, mainly Sunday afternoon gigs which

I really enjoy.

Gig went well - a few minor things forgotten - but overall an enjoyable evening. Used my

passive Precision Lyte into the Rumble 500 combo.

Roads quiet on the way back so made it home by 1pm. We are playing just down the road from

Filey tonight at The Queens in Bridlington, so pretty much the same journey again for me.

 

 

Looking good my friend. You’re clearly the ‘babe magnet’ of the outfit😂

[WalMan]

Last gig for the year and at a venue that has tried but just not been able to break through for a while now and is closing down - another one bites the dust.

 

Quietish night but those that were there were enjoying themselves so that was ok.

 

Swapping between the Status S2 5er that I have been using as go to for a few years now, and the new FrankenJazz 4 with a Status neck and Hipshot that I am currently loving. Only problem with the latter is the missing string I have been used too and getting back to the mindset of the D-tuner so there were a number of moments where I ended up in the wrong place, either because I normally play in a different position higher up the neck, or I was switched down and hadn’t rethought position 🤦‍♂️

 

Both basses sounded great in my IEM’s. Crowd video I saw this morning had little bass on it but I am consoling myself that it was shot the wrong side of a pillar to me and right in front of the guitars that were definitely there.

 

First gig out of the Aircast boot since the operation on my ankle in September but I should probably still wear it to stand that long. One of the painkillers I take regularly dropped off my repeat scrip and I didn’t notice and ran out. By the end of last night I was crippled and could barely move. Managed the hour drive home but was virtually immobile by the time I got home so straight to bed with no wind down. Picked up some more this morning so hopefully they will kick in soon 😢

[Al Krow]

Third Xmas back to back Xmas party over a week - it's been great, but has involved quite a lot of travel: last night's was a two hour trek across town to Twickenham for me, and setting up before party guests arrived with a relatively short 1 hour slot before the DJ came on, following dinner, two hours after setting up. Not unusual for a function gigs though. Normally I might find such a balance between travel, loading and setting up and then doing everything in reverse on the way back, a little disheartening when combined with a relatively short set - I'd much prefer to do two hours playing than one given that playing is where the fun is for me, and I suspect for most of us!

 

However last night Harlequins RFC was a great venue, with a really fun receptive audience and clicked well as a band and seemed to be very well received. We even managed to get Xmas dinner at the end of the night, so the stars were obviously aligned!

 

A little clip of the gig with one of our regular dep singers fronting us.

 

Edited December 14 by Al Krow

[Stub Mandrel]

Last night was our final gig of 2024. The venue is nearly two hours away in rural Wales, but we had such a great night the previous time we were happy to go.

 

It was brilliant, totally rammed with two parties. Loads of dancing from about two songs in. We did two one hour sets and only had energy for one encore. Landlord put three songs on Facebook live. The fairly young audience this time still loved our classic rock numbers. They want to book us 'more' next year and for the landlord's new pub

 

Nearest we got to a Christmas song was "Socks on Fire(place)".

 

Afterwards we gorged on leftover buffet. Mmm Stilton. I  dropped the singest and his pa back and hit the sack at about 2:20. Woke up at 10:30 as Yodel delivered new broadband router. First decent sleep for a few days.

 

Nice to end on a high note. But our poor lead guitarist and his wife amost ran out of petrol. Made it to the 24 hour garage in Brecon with 1 mile range left. Except it wasn't 24 hour so they slept in the car until 6:00 am...

 

 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

Addendum:

 

Last night brought home how venues can affect your sound. Started off with a flat setting and moderate volume. Sound was loud and boomy, I ended up cutting bass more than ever before and boosting treble and adding a bit of mid. Gain in the normal spot but master volume lower than I would use in a rehearsal.

 

The floor was stone under thin carpet, I was in front of a stone fireplace in a stone wall and the ceiling was little more than seven feet up. My cab is rear ported and that open fireplace must have acted as a resonant chamber.

 

There must have been huge passive gain on the bottom end. Odd and took a few tries to get a decent sound.

[dmccombe7]

Tonight's gig was an early start for BLOCKBUSTARZ at Methil Ex-Services Club from 4-7pm.

Pretty  busy for an afternoon session so that was good. Afraid they only started advertising the gig 4 weeks prior. From what we heard their ticket sales have been quite low with only 40 sold for Hogmanay which for a club is quite poor. Reckon we had approx 80-100 in today. 

Everyone seemed to be having a great time but dancing in first set was a bit spurious. 2nd set things picked up a bit and decent crowd of dancers. 

We've been asked for 2 dates in 2025 which i believe have now been confirmed with one being in Dec 2025.

Finished dead on 7pm paid, packed up and on the road for 8pm and home for 9:30pm road was pretty clear and no closures at that time.

Usual Glam gear of Sandberg VM4, Shure wireless, Mesa TT800 and SW210/115 cabs. 

Next gigs for us are next Sat & Sun in The Dreadnought, Bathgate. One of my fav gigs as its always crammed at our Xmas party gigs. We were booked for this and 2025 Xmas weekend since last year. I think the owner is a Glam fan. 

Dave

[bigthumb]

Warrington pub gig where for around 90% of the evening was played to my poor wife. Poor lass sat there in complete boredom, on her own! 
We played a ‘party’ set as we expected it to be a lively pre Christmas Saturday night and wanted to do something a bit different and have a laugh with the audience but sadly not. Left feeling genuinely sorry for the venue.