How was your gig last night?

[Mickeyboro]

6 hours ago, Bluewine said:

For our acoustic offering our lead singer plays her Fender Strat.

 

Daryl

But does she plug it in?😈

[Chienmortbb]

On 28/01/2025 at 07:41, Bluewine said:

 

I'm 71. When I arrive at these clubs and the staff are all under 25 it gets to be a little tough. Once, I'm almost sure I overheard heard a young sound lady say to another staffer " oh boy, what are we going to do with this guy"

 

Daryl

 

 

You sir, are a mere youngster. You repost should be, “ I hope they can wait until the break until I have to change a nappy/diaper”

[SICbass]

23 minutes ago, casapete said:

Not a gig goes by when I don’t realise how lucky I am to be in the duo,

it really is a joy. When I retired from my gig with a touring tribute band last year, I knew that I’d be

still wanting to keep playing so just hope the duo carries on for many years to come. 😊

 

It sounds like you're being very modest there ( typical bass-player) I'm sure your duo partner would say the same thing about you. The lead sheets would be a great support with some of those odd bass movements favoured by Fagen and Becker and, as you say, you'd definitely need help with the lyrics in general.

Now I think about it, that sounds like it could be a lot of fun.

Edited Wednesday at 09:09 by SICbass

[Stub Mandrel]

8 hours ago, casapete said:

Have just had two really good gigs with the acoustic duo. 
 

Sunday we were back in Scarborough at ‘The Lookout on the Pier’. Usual request based

early evening gig, and we had some great tunes asked for.  Also a few friends in so some

particularly good heckling / interruptions ensued making it very funny. A capacity audience

in this small venue makes for a very intimate atmosphere, with no hiding place when we 

stray too far from our (fairly broad) comfort zone, so have to be quite ‘on it’. Just so 

rewarding when it works well though - got an enquiry for a private gig too.
 

Then tonight we’ve been at a monthly residency at the Anlaby Park pub, on the outskirts of 

Hull. Really busy with all tables reserved, and plenty of folk standing too. Varied requests 

included ‘Do it again’, ‘Strangers in the night’, ‘Fire and rain’, ‘Why does it always rain on me’

‘Penny Lane’ and ‘Highway to Hell’. I used a borrowed Sire U5 short scale for a change,

and enjoyed it immensely - has made me wonder whether it matters if I play electro 

acoustic or not TBH. Going to use it again for our next gig this Sunday to see if it works

for us there. 

 

I turned up at a couple of open mikes with an electro acoustic bass and ended up  playing to a few songs I know and several I don't. I was amazed how many people hadn't seen one before and how excited they got about it.

[casapete]

23 minutes ago, SICbass said:

 

It sounds like you're being very modest there ( typical bass-player) I'm sure your duo partner would say the same thing about you. The lead sheets would be a great support with some of those odd bass movements favoured by Fagen and Becker and, as you say, you'd definitely need help with the lyrics in general.

Now I think about it, that sounds like it could be a lot of fun.

Thanks, it is a lot of fun. It’s great when we nail stuff, and often great when we don’t! The audiences

appreciate us attempting their requests, and are usually very gracious if we miss the mark slightly.

Also if we get a request for a song that we can’t do, we’ll try and do another by that artist - handy 

when some wag asks for ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ etc. Sometimes when people continue to ask for

stuff we’ll give in - some songs we’ve done include ‘Bat out of hell’ , ‘Stairway to heaven’ and 

‘Africa’ which was pretty tricky. Last night the daughter of a couple who are regulars asked for

a song by Ariana Grande, so we’ll have to consider something by her. A good song is a good

song so if it can be done we’ll give it a go! 

[casapete]

9 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

I turned up at a couple of open mikes with an electro acoustic bass and ended up  playing to a few songs I know and several I don't. I was amazed how many people hadn't seen one before and how excited they got about it.

Me too! I’ve used various basses over the years with the duo - ones that got the most interest were my

Countryman uke bass, Taylor mini bass and Washburn AB20. 

[AlexDelores]

16 hours ago, casapete said:

has made me wonder whether it matters if I play electro 

acoustic or not TBH. Going to use it again for our next gig this Sunday to see if it works

for us there. 

I had this for a long time. I use an electric Bass all the time now in my duo. For years I used an electro acoustic (Ortega KT walker) because I felt I had to play acoustic. Then, I got so fed up of changing the strings so regularly on the acoustic I gave up and bought electric. Not a single person has ever mentioned that it’s a shame I use an acoustic bass in the last 2 years. 
 

[Bluewine]

20 hours ago, Mickeyboro said:

But does she plug it in?😈

Di box to the RCF Sound.

 

Daryl

[dmccombe7]

Jings not having a good start to 2025.

Our gig next week cancelled due to only half the tickets sold. Was sold out the same venue last summer. Time of year maybe ? who knows.

Then we get told our March gig in Arbroath is possibly cancelled. Again we sold out there last time. Committee in the club think the fee is too high. They asked us to half our fee. We said no. Arbroath for me is a 2.5hr drive and 110 miles each way. The club committee have gone thru several changes end last year and apparently there's a lot of bitterness. Several shows in the club have been cancelled at short notice recently. We decided the Xmas gig we had booked there this year was now at risk and decided to take another booking. We decided to clear the year at this venue and if they decided to have us back they can get in touch.    

Next gig is in March, that's 2.5 mths since last gig. Not so good. Band are looking at other avenues for getting gigs.

Dave

[msb]

Many are paying for Christmas purchases right now. And here , the weather sucks. So it’s generally a tough time of year to get people out. 

[martthebass]

27 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Jings not having a good start to 2025.

Our gig next week cancelled due to only half the tickets sold. Was sold out the same venue last summer. Time of year maybe ? who knows.

Then we get told our March gig in Arbroath is possibly cancelled. Again we sold out there last time. Committee in the club think the fee is too high. They asked us to half our fee. We said no. Arbroath for me is a 2.5hr drive and 110 miles each way. The club committee have gone thru several changes end last year and apparently there's a lot of bitterness. Several shows in the club have been cancelled at short notice recently. We decided the Xmas gig we had booked there this year was now at risk and decided to take another booking. We decided to clear the year at this venue and if they decided to have us back they can get in touch.    

Next gig is in March, that's 2.5 mths since last gig. Not so good. Band are looking at other avenues for getting gigs.

Dave

Same this side of the border mate. Had quite a few cancellations for this year, even at our very friendly £ ask venues are struggling. Think we’re all hoping it improves in the next few months. Down to about 25 gigs booked for this year after about 10 cancellations due to closing and whatnot.

[peteb]

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

Our gig next week cancelled due to only half the tickets sold. Was sold out the same venue last summer. Time of year maybe ? who knows.

 

 

We've cancelled a gig tomorrow due to low ticket sales. We played there last year and got a pretty good crowd, but its a difficult time of the year. The guy promoting there wants to try again later in the year, so we will see... 

 

[Woodinblack]

We are down quitea  few bookings this year, although a large amount of that is the singer being signed off for quite a few weekends due to a new child. I think it might be time to find something else to be doing as well

[cetera]

I hardly ever gig in January. Got 16 gigs booked so far before summer though, with more to come in, so that's pretty good...

[BigRedX]

The last time I had a gig in January was 2019...

 

However this year is looking pretty healthy already with 8 definite gigs between now and July and a few more still be confirmed.

[casapete]

Sorry to hear some people are struggling with gigs.

I’ve had 4 this January, with 5 coming up in February and then 7 in March.

Mainly duo stuff plus a few pub gigs for the blues trio. The duo has 3 regular

monthly residencies which helps a lot though. People I know in other bands 

have been saying that pub gigs are getting harder to source, and fees are the

same as they’ve been for a long time too. 
 

[mikebass456]

Nothing for me in January this year (I play in three bands to varying degrees).

Only got one in Feb as well currently, but it starts to pick up in March.

 

[Stub Mandrel]

I thought I had none in January, but had missed one, then two more pop up at short notice, one quiet (well it was 8pm on a Thursday...), two decent but not as busy as normal. Always hit and miss this time of year, although I didn't gig last Saturday, numbers at two local gigs were good.

 

We've got a very good local Steely Dan tribute at the club tonight - fingers crossed, it is free admission. Tomorrow's band cancelled due to illness, but we got a stnad in (miffied I didn't act quick enough to get it!)

 

I've got 14 or 15 gigs booked in over the rest of 2025, a bit clumped. Not particularly impressive given I played seven in six weeks from the start of november. Would like about 2 a month in an ideal world.

[Len_derby]

Two of the local pubs where my covers band play cancelled all their music events in January, one of which was ours. That said, my acoustic trio have played one cafe and a micro-pub this month. From my experience, it’s the bigger pub and full band sector that is struggling.

As a slight aside, I took a first trip down to The Mini Monocle bar in Loughborough this week. It was their regular open-mic and very lively and busy on a late January Wednesday night. So, there is an appetite for live music and people are prepared to go and hear it.