How was your gig last night?

[dmccombe7]

12 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Great gig at the Earl Haig with Bluesfire. Numbers a bit down but somewhere north of sixty, not bad for a £3 cover charge on a really foul day (westher warning - wind and yellow rain 🤣).

 

The big room with a proper stage and lights, but the lighting and smoke meant we could hardly see the audience (they could see us).

 

We had a good time, played Spoonful - it was in a film I watched on Friday night, under the influence of jack Daniels and hobgoblin, I suggested it.  we hadn't ever played it before, but we managed to nail all the stops and it was nearer to Cream than Howlin' Wolf.

 

Some dancing (we aren't dancy) and at the end one woman assured us we were the best blues band she's ever seen 😎 Plenty of compliments for Al's guitar playing. Nice to see a friend who's a pro level musician there... and he was telling my SO how important it is I buy a real Bongo not a Sterling one 🤣

 

Used the Sire P10 for the first set and AVII Precision for the second. Took a while to get a good sound with the sire. The P... just plug it in.

 

Video screenshot 280 views already!

 

Looks like a decent venue there. Nice one.

Dave

[urbanx]

Bedford Esquires on Saturday with For The Hornets:

 

Venue:

We’ve played there about 6 years ago. I arrived early and started setting up on the exact spot as 6 years ago near-ish the bar.

 

Barman: “Whoa, what do you think you are you doing?”

 

Me (paraphrased): “I’m setting up. Now look here son, I’m not sure if this is your first day, but I’ve played here before, and this is where I set up”

 

Barman: “Mate, this is the bar. You’re playing here….”

 

He opens a door to a bustling live venue, already filling with punters.

 

 

Turns out we hadn’t played there before… we’d played the BAR of the venue!!!

 

Wow, that was embarrassing.

 

Sound:

Sound was incredible. As were the lights. Easy peasy sound check. 

 

Gear:

I borrowed a Mesa Boogie Subway 4x10 cab – 1000w 4ohm. About £2ks worth. I want one.

 

Promotor:

ADK.

Amazing promotor, they spam everywhere before the show. It was a great crowd. Additionally they have 4 GoPros set up around the stage and transfer you all of the footage, and the sound desk recording in the morning. Excellent touch.

 

 

 

 

Last pic is a screenshot from the GoPro on my side of the stage! 

 

Edited February 24 by urbanx

[BigRedX]

52 minutes ago, urbanx said:

Bedford Esquires on Saturday with For The Hornets:

 

Played the venue part several years ago supporting Balaam and the Angel who had a rather Spinal Tap moment when after setting up their drum riser and drums the road crew realised that it was now too close to the venue's ceiling for there to be enough room for the cymbals!

[dmccombe7]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

 

Played the venue part several years ago supporting Balaam and the Angel who had a rather Spinal Tap moment when after setting up their drum riser and drums the road crew realised that it was now too close to the venue's ceiling for there to be enough room for the cymbals!

Oh to be a fly on the wall at the point. 

Did you laugh ?

Dave

[Stub Mandrel]

Some video from yesterday's gig... you can see I was having a lot of fun from about 1/3 of the way through!

 

 

 

[ezbass]

Loving that bass tone at the start, @Stub Mandrel, it even manages to hold its own when the guitar gets a bit more lairy.

Edited February 24 by ezbass

[dmccombe7]

50 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Some video from yesterday's gig... you can see I was having a lot of fun from about 1/3 of the way through!

 

 

Liking your plucking technique there @Stub Mandrel. At first i thought you were using a pick. Some nice playing going on there.

Enjoyed that a lot.

Dave

[tauzero]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Some video from yesterday's gig... you can see I was having a lot of fun from about 1/3 of the way through!

 

 

 

The way you were looking at the ceiling, I wondered if you were channelling the Duke of Gloucester and were about to ask if it was insulated.

[Stub Mandrel]

9 minutes ago, tauzero said:

 

The way you were looking at the ceiling, I wondered if you were channelling the Duke of Gloucester and were about to ask if it was insulated.

 

At least you didn't say the duke of york... 🤣

[Bluewine]

12 hours ago, JPJ said:

Last nights ‘gig’ was an appearance at the Black Horse Sunday Sessions - a buskers night in Boldon Colliery that features guess artists and last night it was us!

Lovely old pub that was packed with music lovers and performers, and really well run by two stalwarts of the local music scene up here in the north east, Paul ‘Big Red’ Randall & Paul ‘Chumsy’ Chambers. This is the second of such nights we’ve had the pleasure of playing and I’ve got to say I love them.
For the gear heads I was playing my Boosey Hawkes Excelsior ‘Lilly’ through the rather marvellous EBS Stanley Clarke preamp and SushiBoxFX ‘Finally’ valve DI straight into the house PA. Sound was run by fellow bass man Paul Chambers who got me a great natural tone. 

 

 

Looking good guys.

 

Daryl

[Bluewine]

4 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Some video from yesterday's gig... you can see I was having a lot of fun from about 1/3 of the way through!

 

 

 

Nice job Stub Mandrel!

 

Very cool clip.

 

Daryl

[BigRedX]

Better photos from Friday's gig:

 

 

[dmccombe7]

30 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

Better photos from Friday's gig:

 

 

You seem to get some really good pics from your gigs. Lot of pro level pics. 

Dave

[Obrienp]

You all look so cool in your gig pics! Any pics of the bands I play in look like entertainment day at the old folks home and we are the residents! 🥴

[BigRedX]

Thanks.

 

IME there are a number of things that go together to make good live band photos:

 

A good photographer - which should go without saying.

An interesting and appropriately lit stage space. Ideally the rest of the venue should be relatively dark compared with the area occupied by the performers

Interesting looking band/artists. IMO there is no point getting up on stage to perform if you are not also going to give the audience something entertaining to watch. Otherwise you may as well stick to the recording studio. For me, live performance is as much about the visuals as it is about the music.

 

When all those things come together the results are usually rewarding. Of course I only post the photos I think look good. There are probably an equal number of terrible phone shots of the band looking uninteresting also posted on Social Media. I just choose not to share those.

[ezbass]

4 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

A good photographer - which should go without saying.

An interesting and appropriately lit stage space. Ideally the rest of the venue should be relatively dark compared with the area occupied by the performers

Absolutely. Also, I find that either monochrome or a limited colour pallet helps immeasurably.

 

6 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

Of course I only post the photos I think look good.

The other secret  . 

 

[vbance]

Some phone footage of our performance on Saturday...plenty of room for improvement, most obvious being lead vox too low in mix.

[cetera]

Played an afternoon show today at Warners hotel in Bembridge, Isle Of Wight with Duran/Spandau tribute 'From Gold To Rio'. Nice big room and stage and a great sound in the IEMs and out front 👍

 

 

 

Edited February 25 by cetera

[casapete]

Just back from our monthly outing at The Anlaby Park Hotel ( just outside Hull ), with the acoustic duo.

Usual full lounge of punters, with stacks of requests. Tunes played included ‘Highway to Hell’,

’Enjoy yourself’, ‘No matter what’ x2 ( Badfinger tune and the Boyzone one after some confusion)

’Harvest Moon’ and ‘Everlasting love’ which was a bit fast for playing fingerstyle! 
A good night and a small increase in our fee so happy days. Home before midnight too. 😁

[dmccombe7]

7 hours ago, casapete said:

Just back from our monthly outing at The Anlaby Park Hotel ( just outside Hull ), with the acoustic duo.

Usual full lounge of punters, with stacks of requests. Tunes played included ‘Highway to Hell’,

’Enjoy yourself’, ‘No matter what’ x2 ( Badfinger tune and the Boyzone one after some confusion)

’Harvest Moon’ and ‘Everlasting love’ which was a bit fast for playing fingerstyle! 
A good night and a small increase in our fee so happy days. Home before midnight too. 😁

Badfinger were a great band. Good choice.

Dave

[casapete]

2 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Badfinger were a great band. Good choice.

Dave

Agreed Dave, they did some great stuff.

It was quite funny last night - a punter requested ‘No matter what’ which I thought was the

Badfinger classic so we played it. As we finished it the guy shouted out that he enjoyed it

but had actually wanted to hear ‘No matter what’ by Boyzone ( which I’d forgotten existed)

so we did that straight after! Made us think of doing nights where we only play songs which

exist in this way, although unsure about whether it’s feasible - maybe just do a featured song

title each gig or something till we run out of ideas! 

 

[police squad]

11 hours ago, cetera said:

Played an afternoon show today at Warners hotel in Bembridge, Isle Of Wight with Duran/Spandau tribute 'From Gold To Rio'. Nice big room and stage and a great sound in the IEMs and out front 👍

 

 

 

are you playing The Mill at Sonning?

[Franticsmurf]

2 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Badfinger were a great band. Good choice.

I bought my first guitar, first amp and far too much other stuff from Pete Hamm's brother, John, who had a music shop in Swansea for years. Very friendly bloke and never made a deal out of his more famous brother. But when I asked, he did say that he had all of Pete's guitars and other kit in storage above the shop. The shop is long gone now.

[cetera]

Sadly I'm not on that one or Fleet (both gigs closest to where I live!).

[police squad]

2 minutes ago, cetera said:

Sadly I'm not on that one or Fleet (both gigs closest to where I live!).

shame, on my list to come and see you. Did have tickets for Sonning but something else has come up