How was your gig last night?

[Bluewine]

5 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Yep no stage is a sore point with me too. I find that audiences think they are part of the band if you set up on the dance floor area. 

Had one experience with the Glam band on a stage that as only about 6" high and a girl came up on the edge of the stage in front of the band and started dancing to her friends. It was the last song to be fair but she seemed to think that was ok to use the stage.

No gigs till 8th Feb for me. I'm actually quite enjoying the free time TBH. New classic rock project has a meet on Sun to decide what direction and songs so that a start. It started as an 80's rock project but singer found it a bit limited and suggested we try classic rock instead.

Dave

 

Dave, No stage is a sore point for me too.If a pub has live bands on a weekly basis is it that much of an investment for an owner to have a small no frills stage built?

 

Not many bars/pubs have proper stages in my neck of the woods. I know I boast and brag with my " we don't play bar/pub gigs" Well we're playing one tomorrow.  However it is a 2:00-5:00 home by 6:30. So, at least it's not a late night gig.

 

Daryl

Edited Saturday at 15:30 by Bluewine

[Bluewine]

On 14/01/2025 at 04:43, casapete said:

We end up doing a lot of laughing at our gigs, and usually the audience are laughing with us rather than 

at us ( I think anyway…). We do have our serious moments too of course, and the best gigs are when the

balance of the two are just right. We like to think our audiences leave the gig with a smile on their faces. 

Thinking about this, looking back to gigs I’ve seen over the last 50 years, the best ones are those which

made me smile too - usually those when you can tell the band are really enjoying it. I don’t have much time 

generally for overly serious stuff, happy upbeat music is what mostly floats my boat. 😄

 

 

We laugh when we have a good crowd we're engaged with and we're sounding good. It's hard to laugh when it's one of those gigs that's going downhill by the minute. Lol

 

Daryl

[dmccombe7]

3 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Dave, No stage is a sore point for me too.If a pub has live bands on a weekly basis is it that much of an investment for an owner to have a small no frills stage built?

 

Not many bars/pubs have proper stages in my neck of the woods. I know I boast and brag with my " we don't play bar/pub gigs" Well we're playing one tomorrow.  However it is a 2:00-5:00 home by 6:30. So, at least it's not a late night gig.

 

Daryl

Most of the Glam gigs are stage venues but some only have small stages and our singers have to move forward on to the dance floor. Sometimes it makes for a more friendly atmosphere as most of our audiences are women and they usually control themselves better.

The punk band was almost entirely bars with no stages and we would set up monitors as a makeshift barrier that does help but not always.

Our singer Lynn had her nose and eye burst open when a drunk guy fell over a monitor and hit her mic stand. Luckily no major damage to her other than a black eye the following day at her work. Being a nurse it was a bit embarrassing. 

Dave 

[dave_bass5]

My old band used to put a rope light around the playing area if we were on the floor. Not sure how much it helped but we would quite often see people not step in to our area but walk around it.

[dmccombe7]

1 hour ago, dave_bass5 said:

My old band used to put a rope light around the playing area if we were on the floor. Not sure how much it helped but we would quite often see people not step in to our area but walk around it.

Such a simple idea that i reckon would work quite well for most bands.

Might look into that. 

Dave

[Norris]

New venue for us tonight, a sports and social club. We set up and with about 10 minutes until we were due to start it looked pretty bleak

 

 

It did perk up a bit as more people arrived. We also started messing about musically (while keeping it tight) which made it a lot more fun for us. The audience also fed off the happy vibe and we ended up having a great night. Oh and the main musical silliness was putting quick "zips" up the fretboard into inappropriate places 😁

 

Drummer in the middle of his Moby Dick solo

 

Slight downside were the cheese and onion cobs - not enough cheese, too much onion.

 

Sire P7-5 > Boss GT-6B > Fender Rumble v3 500 combo

 

Black bass, black shirt and jeans, so black DMs to match

 

Nice bit at the end: the landlord told us we needed to charge more money. Apparently he pays some other bands a lot more than us and says we are much better. So a substantial pay rise for bookings next year 🤷‍♂️

[SuperSeagull]

6 hours ago, Norris said:

 

Nice bit at the end: the landlord told us we needed to charge more money. Apparently he pays some other bands a lot more than us and says we are much better. So a substantial pay rise for bookings next year 🤷‍♂️

Sounds a plan.  We are pushing our fees up as well but I’ve no idea if where we sit versus other local bands. We just agreed two one hour sets for £400. 

[Obrienp]

3 hours ago, SuperSeagull said:

Sounds a plan.  We are pushing our fees up as well but I’ve no idea if where we sit versus other local bands. We just agreed two one hour sets for £400. 

That’s good. You don’t say how many you are but standard pub pay local to me is £50 a head; even for a 3 hour gig. One of my bands has just grown from 4 to 6. It’s yet to be seen if we can get £300 locally, especially when we have  our regular sound guy; inclination is to go for £350 but we often end up having to tax ourselves to pay him.  I got £100 for depping in a 6 piece on New Year’s Eve but that was a special occasion premium.
 

The sadness in all of this is that two of the guys were playing in bands in the 80s that used to regularly get £1k a gig locally but live music has been so devalued, that you are pretty well expected to play for free. There are so few venues left and people just don’t turn out. Takings for pubs are pretty poor and they can’t afford to pay proper money. It’s kind of come down to: do you want to price yourself out of the market, or do you want to play? There are some local bands that do better but they have spent decades building a reputation and following.

[Cat Burrito]

Definitely going to be filing this one under "strange". Thursday evening on FB and we were tagged in a 7 bands in 7 hours festival as one of the bands had been forced to cancel. Less than 36hrs notice and they needed a band to open a festival in Calne. It was to raise money for a young man who'd been killed leaving a young family. I messaged the organiser and initially had no response. A few people "liked" that we got tagged so I sent a 2nd, more personal message. No response but just as I gave up, he messaged in the morning saying we could open. Very much an electric set but we've only rehearsed the acoustic set recently so in a head vs heart decision, we decided to stick with an acoustic set. I then got added to a bands Messenger group (normally my pet hate in band life but this one had pretty much sorted out the 100s of messages about high hat stands and 4ohm cabs. Everyone seemed cool, which was nice. Pro sound guy, full backline etc, by all accounts.

 

Playing acoustic versions of original gothic songs on folk instruments was going to be a tough sell, especially in what was effectively a working man's club but I was adamant in our self-belief. We had little more than a line check but the plan was I would play my bass parts on the mandocello, before moving on to guitar (a recent addition) and ending on my mandolin. I'd talked Nick into a smaller, more discreet music stand and we now have a band flag that we hung behind us. We go on and it was immediately apparent that we meant business. The (initially) small crowd were actually fairly intent on listening and gave us a warm reception. I noticed the sound on the mandocello kept completely cutting out and coming back in. That was down to the soundman and not the kit. I figured it was purely onstage as nobody batted an eyelid. And like Nigel Tufnel, I am a professional so I rose above it. We were going great guns until when Nick took the mandocello, it completely died. It rather killed our momentum and the soundman was initially clueless. We had a second mandocello (I refer you back to the Nigel Tufnel comparsion) and we bypassed the pedals to get a signal. Initially nothing but then Nick spotted the error (him, not us) and we finished our set. He checked all the kit at home and there was no problem with our gear. Chalk it up as experience. 

 

We stayed for a couple of the bands and mingled a bit. All the musicians we spoke to were super friendly but we left as the young teenagers with the Axl Rose style egos showed up. Some of the audience were absolutely wrecked. We saw one woman turn around and offer to smack some bloke in the face. I don't know what he had done but it seemed very OTT. We also made the mistake of momentarily stopping outside the ladies during load out. As the door opened a very mad (in every sense of the word) lady shouted at us for stopping outside a doorway. We'd only stopped momentarily and it was purely coincidence that she'd opened the door as we stood there. She started screaming about it being an entrance (we'd already immediately moved and apologised) before she added very loudly that she only had one eye. I felt the evening was starting to take a surreal turn so we made our excuses and left. 

 

We played well, overcame the technical problems, met some great people and encountered one or two characters. Business as usual in a small Wiltshire town. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Sunday at 12:10 by Cat Burrito

[neepheid]

FIrst gig of 2025 last night and it was a cracker!  Played with Nine Lives at Wilsons in Aberdeen.  Was a little worried that it wouldn't be busy, being the middle of January and right enough when we first arrived to load in it didn't look great.  But part way through the first set a big group of ladies came into the bar and they were well up for a dance.  Plus a few regulars came along to support us, which was lovely.  Not wishing to disappoint (and fearing that our enthusiastic dancers would naff off if we stopped) we decided against taking a break and just plowed on through the entire three hours.  Plenty of songs in "the box" to plug in.  Played some new stuff too which went well.  I was a wireless pest as usual.

 

Great to get back in the saddle.  Because we didn't take a break, the second bass didn't make it out of its bag!  Got a few weeks off, but we'll be back with a double header at the start of February.

 

Gear was the Reverend Triad into the usual Markbass tone cubes.

 

 

Footwear was a pair of Vans classic slip on in a teatowel/picnic basket cloth type pattern.  Got complimented on them as well - bonus!

 

[msb]

A reunion gig with what we call the old Sunday band , one that hosted a jam for about eleven years , and one that is generally ready to try most anything. In the spirit of things we did some requests we’d never done (later period Elvis tunes)  , and everything worked out fine. Great Remington Ride , an instrumental take on Goldfinger , some surf , some Dick Dale and a nice mix of blues grooves. We’re in the dead of winter but the weather was mild. Unfortunately a lacrosse game was happening around the corner , parking was a misery. Big appreciative crowd , great night. Big orange Gretsch with Monique , the Forte and Berg cab. Back to the old dive ( well , really the new dive) for the jam tonight. I’ve got a new power amp in the mail that should arrive this week , might be the last run with the Forte for a while.

It was an absolute joy hearing the guys play last night.

[JapanAxe]

Late-notice stand-in with Dire Streets at Axminster Guildhall, having spent a day and a half getting back up to speed with a 2-hour set that I hadn’t played in a year (although I had done some more gigs with them on rhythm guitar).

Excellent venue with great lighting and PA and a good-sounding room, plus nice green room with refreshments. Not a capacity crowd so the seats were set out to leave room for dancing in front of the stage, which plenty of people made good use of - more during Sultans of Swing than Private Investigations it’s fair to say!

 

Got a compliment from the sound guy on my bass sound: '73 Precision > Origin Effects Cali76 Compact > Origin Effects Bassrig '64 Black Panel > DI to PA. I had been suffering some IEM angst over my Sennheiser XSW setup but it worked brilliantly last night. In the close-up pic I must be playing the solo run from after the last verse of Telegraph Road, as none of the other songs take me so high up the fretboard!

 

Edited Sunday at 16:32 by JapanAxe
Typo

[Norris]

4 hours ago, neepheid said:

Footwear was a pair of Vans classic slip on in a teatowel/picnic basket cloth type pattern.  Got complimented on them as well - bonus!

 

Kudos for gingham Vans! 😂

[markbunney]

1st gig of the year for me (and first in about a month) at The Duke Of Edinburgh in Maidstone.

 

Nice venue and friendly staff etc. we had a decent space to play, it was a bit quite which we put down to the time of year, but those who were there enjoyed it.

 

I am now used to playing my 5 string (after 30 years of playing 4 strings). The landlord booked us for a summer outdoor event, so that was a big positive.

 

 

[Lozz196]

I like the lights on the stands @markbunney, they provide a nice and subtle boundary line, something other posters on here have mentioned needing.

Edited Sunday at 19:35 by Lozz196

[dmccombe7]

1 hour ago, Lozz196 said:

I like the lights on the stands @markbunney, they provide a nice and subtle boundary line, something other posters on here have mentioned needing.

100% i think they could be worth looking into. Any further info on them would be helpful.

Dave

[DGBass]

First gig of the year this afternoon and it was a dep for some old band mates.  4pm-7pm Sunday afternoon type easy going blues/jazz event at Baker Street in Stirling. Band going by the name Blues Delux this time. The name seems to change every gig at the moment for these guys as does the lineup. Drums/bass/guitar/saxophone/vocals and harp. Very enjoyable three hour gig and for the most part a bluesy jazzy jam with good friends. Only downside was not having a huge amount of room to set up. The new LFSYS cab was a godsend size wise and there wasn't really any room for anything bigger. New Mighty Mat carpet square is my latest gigging accessory and its job is to keep cabs and stuff off dirty pub floors. Works perfectly! Over-did the amp side of things but well I just had to hear for myself if Trace Elliot watts are different from all other watts😉  Good feedback from quite a few punters asking the name of the band, and surprisingly good feedback about the bass sound from several band mates. The cab was phenomenally good and it takes some getting used to hearing everything so clearly. It's easy to assume the amp is up far too loud, but it wasn't.  Saw some folks taking video footage but nothing available yet. Home by 8pm, got paid, and relaxing with a nice Bowmore malt to see out Sunday evening. Lovely.

 

 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

3 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

I like the lights on the stands @markbunney, they provide a nice and subtle boundary line, something other posters on here have mentioned needing.

 

It's the 150 kV forcefield in between them that really helps keep the drunks at bay 😉

 

[markbunney]

2 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

100% i think they could be worth looking into. Any further info on them would be helpful.

Dave

They already had them when I joined, however I think they were from Temu and £13 each from what they said. They have different colour settings, and powered by USB - C and are very effective, but they are very flimsy and lightweight.

 

We use something similar in my other band, but usually have them round the drum kit, as seen in this picture. 

 

Edited Sunday at 23:24 by markbunney

[Bluewine]

On 14/01/2025 at 21:05, Bluewine said:

We're back out this weekend at The Twisted Pair. 2:00-5:00. Usually I like Sunday afternoon gigs but more in the Summer time and playing outside. 

 

Daryl

 

I was home by 6 00. It was -3°. Sunday afternoon bar gig. Dep drummer, a good amount of dancing and lots of mistakes and sketchy endings.

 

Good pay and good tips. My gear was functioning properly. 

 

I sat down at a table and spoke to some nice folks. I pretended I was famous.Sad 😔 

 

Daryl

[Bluewine]

On 18/01/2025 at 19:19, Norris said:

New venue for us tonight, a sports and social club. We set up and with about 10 minutes until we were due to start it looked pretty bleak

 

 

It did perk up a bit as more people arrived. We also started messing about musically (while keeping it tight) which made it a lot more fun for us. The audience also fed off the happy vibe and we ended up having a great night. Oh and the main musical silliness was putting quick "zips" up the fretboard into inappropriate places 😁

 

Drummer in the middle of his Moby Dick solo

 

Slight downside were the cheese and onion cobs - not enough cheese, too much onion.

 

Sire P7-5 > Boss GT-6B > Fender Rumble v3 500 combo

 

Black bass, black shirt and jeans, so black DMs to match

 

Nice bit at the end: the landlord told us we needed to charge more money. Apparently he pays some other bands a lot more than us and says we are much better. So a substantial pay rise for bookings next year 🤷‍♂️

 

Thanks for posting the pics Norris.

 

Nice to see that many of us are in the same boat. Meaning , as I look at all the gig pics posted here allot of these bars and pubs look the same to me.

Daryl

Edited yesterday at 06:51 by Bluewine

[Muzz]

Fourth gig of January so far Satdy night, pretty busy pub (thank Buddha that virtue-signalling nonsense Dry January has faded away; all it does is shut pubs), the punters enjoyed it and danced in between the tables, and I got to watch the American Football on a big screen right in my eyeline over the bar (we really must change the setlist up a bit; I play it 90% on muscle memory these days). No nutters, for a nice change...sorry...

 

On the point earlier, we've put the money up to £300 for 2 x 45s for a trio, no-one's complaining and the diary's filling up...

 

As always, cheapo lightweight P, Stomp, inears. Still unidentified trainers (I'll look at them properly for next time, promise..)

[Stub Mandrel]

5 hours ago, Bluewine said:

sat down at a table and spoke to some nice folks. I pretended I was famous

 

You're "internationally renowned". 😎

[Wombat]

Intentionally renowned?

[12stringbassist]

Saturday night was our second gig of this year at Hogarths in Bolton. A decent sized venue and usually quite busy. It was fairly packed while we were playing and our two spots went down really well. They even went a bit mad when we played one of our own songs off our album. Back in September.