How was your gig last night?

[stewblack]

Gig number two was a success. Afternoon Sunday gigs can be a bit slow but these guys were up for it.

Set up ready for number three now back in the centre of Bristol.

My feet hurt.

[ezbass]

3 hours ago, Boodang said:

The mid rack tom looks like it's about to fall off the bass drum! An extreme angle but looks like it's mic'd up that way. 

You’re not the first person to notice that. It was shared kit and backline for the night and our drummer prefers one rack tom. As it already had a mic on it, he swung it out of the way, rather than take it off.

[markbunney]

Played at The Market House in Maidstone last night, which is my favourite venue in the local area.

 

The pub was packed and gig went really well. Only downside was that I got a parking ticket in the loading bay, which was annoying and I’ll be appealing that tomorrow.

 

I'm playing in the same place next Saturday with a different band, which I’m looking forward to.

[Cat Burrito]

Yesterday saw a return to the Blue Boar in Aldbourne, Wiltshire. It's been 6 months since we last played there and the deal is normally a 2hr acoustic set. Load in started with the "help" of our new furry roadcrew, Puma. She is lovely but I can't see her making old bones - too inquisitive! 

 

 

We get to the pub and some people had come down from London to see us which was humbling and nice. To be fair they were here anyway but had seen our poster and heard the name. We'd sold a CD before we started and set up our massive amount of kit. I was on mandocello, upright bass, mandolin, acoustic guitar and backing vocals.

 

 

The London couple were quickly upstaged by a couple that saw us 2yrs ago and were from Spain! Again, I think they happened to be in the area but saw we were playing and remembered us from before. The landlady came up afterwards to say that the locals had been worn down by our consistency in playing gothic music and had to admit we were really good players. That made my night! 

 

 

And we were rebooked for June. I appreciate we're all bombarding each other with our bands, but if anyone is curious, we are live tomorrow on Swindon 105.5FM from 8pm for an hour of music and chat. The show is aptly called "Don't Stop the Music"... and why would we? 

 

[msb]

We had a nice surprise last night at the blues jam in the old dive , great little band doing some classics from the 20’s. Steel bodied guitar , trumpet , euphonium ,and drums. Sounded gorgeous. 

[asingardenof]

19 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Yep i only use my comp as more a limiter than compression. It only just triggers when i hit the strings slightly harder or i add a bit more treble or bass on the actual bass. On normal playing with bass EQ running flat the led never triggers.

Dave

Mine is a pretty cheap and basic one so is either on or off. Might have to invest in a better one where I can play about with the sensitivity and whatnot but for now I'm just going to leave it off.

[dmccombe7]

19 minutes ago, asingardenof said:

Mine is a pretty cheap and basic one so is either on or off. Might have to invest in a better one where I can play about with the sensitivity and whatnot but for now I'm just going to leave it off.

I tried various comps over the years but settled on the Keeley Bassist as i like simple. Less is best for me. Only 3 knobs and 2 of them are left in same position every gig and the middle one i tweak for different basses.

The Keeley is the only one i've tried that didn't colour the bass tone when on.

I quite liked the comp on the Ampeg SVT7 which was literally one knob - the ultimate simples. It did work quite well.

Dave

[Bluewine]

On 16/03/2025 at 09:04, neepheid said:

Last night at Wilsons, Aberdeen with Nine Lives.  Weird gig, definitely a game of two halves.  First half was rank rotten - sound in the room was awful - could barely get the vocals loud enough without feeding back, started five mins late because of all the mucking about (not Axl Rose levels of lateness, but it still bugs me).  It was passable out front, and people could clearly hear the words because I could see them mouthing along, but there was very little coming back making it hard to hear where we were in a song.  No room for monitors in this pub, we basically had to rely upon reflected sound.

 

So spooked I was that I didn't change basses at half time - I didn't want to introduce another variable to an already tenuous situation.

 

But we sorted it.  The table nearest the right PA speaker emptied at half time, so we took the opportunity to move it forward, not much - couple of feet maybe, but what a difference it made - it opened up the possibility of increasing the gain of the singer's vox without feeding back and made for a much better sounding second half.  It got busy too, and it was much more fun. Went for a couple of walkabouts in the crowd which went down well.
 

Lesson learned - kick people out of the way if you have to to get your PA far enough in front of the band.

So, it was the BB1200 for the whole night, into the usual Markbass rig.  Footwear - Vans calf hair checkerboard slipons.  Hmm, quite colour coordinated last night, just realised.

 

I love hearing about these gigs. What's coming up on the horizon for you?

 

Daryl

[neepheid]

40 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

 

I love hearing about these gigs. What's coming up on the horizon for you?

 

Daryl

 

Cheers man, next gig is on Friday, another bar gig, this time in a place called Fraserburgh, a pub called The Balaclava.  Got three new songs added to the set so should be an interesting evening!

[Bluewine]

Maple Road will be performing (not competing) at The Paramont Blues Challange this Saturday .

 

Were one of six bands performing.  I'm not sure how many bands are competing. 

 

It should be interesting because we're not a blues band, we just happen to play a few bluesy songs.

 

If your a blues historian Google Paramount Records Grafton WI.

 

Daryl

Edited March 19 by Bluewine

[Bluewine]

27 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

Cheers man, next gig is on Friday, another bar gig, this time in a place called Fraserburgh, a pub called The Balaclava.  Got three new songs added to the set so should be an interesting evening!

 

Nice, I know a few local bands struggling to get any kind of gig.

 

Daryl

[Stub Mandrel]

Bendricks Rock have a gig at the Earl Haig on Saturday.  I've played there a lot with Bluesfire and on jam nights. It's in the bar, not on the big stage, but a lot of people consider it one of their favourite places to play because of the atmosphere. Lots of regulars in a smaller space. Hopefully we match our last two gigs.

[Bluewine]

5 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Bendricks Rock have a gig at the Earl Haig on Saturday.  I've played there a lot with Bluesfire and on jam nights. It's in the bar, not on the big stage, but a lot of people consider it one of their favourite places to play because of the atmosphere. Lots of regulars in a smaller space. Hopefully we match our last two gigs.

 

I hope you guys pack the place.

 

Daryl

[NoRhino]

Friday and Saturday was QuoVention, a gathering of Status Quo aficionados in Bilston's Robin 2 venue.  Seven tribute bands over two evenings including guest appearances from Quo drummers Jeff Rich and Leon Cave and Rick Parfitt's replacement, Ritchie Malone.  

All the bands were excellent and gave the punters what they had come for.  

The backline and drum kit provided for us did the job perfectly and the sound engineer put in a sterling shift over the piece.   The event took 18 months to organise and was a great success.  

Bands and fans came from England, Sweden, Belgium. Germany and Scotland.

Back to publand for our next gig to bring us back down to earth. Ha ha.  

[Cat Burrito]

The return of Richard Davies & the Dissidents last night at The Beehive in Swindon. Wonderfully cramped and it felt like a proper rock ‘n’ roll gig. Good to blow off a few cobwebs ahead of tonight’s sold out London show.

 

[Thor]

2 minutes ago, Cat Burrito said:

The return of Richard Davies & the Dissidents last night at The Beehive in Swindon. Wonderfully cramped and it felt like a proper rock ‘n’ roll gig. Good to blow off a few cobwebs ahead of tonight’s sold out London show.

 

I really enjoy playing there - great venue! 

[Cat Burrito]

2 hours ago, Thor said:

I really enjoy playing there - great venue! 

Yeah, been playing there for years. Once I played there and came away with a wife… not bad when most people leave a concert with a CD or t-shirt, at best! 

[mikebass456]

26 minutes ago, Cat Burrito said:

Yeah, been playing there for years. Once I played there and came away with a wife… not bad when most people leave a concert with a CD or t-shirt, at best! 

Yours, or someone else's? 🤪

[Bluewine]

7 hours ago, Cat Burrito said:

The return of Richard Davies & the Dissidents last night at The Beehive in Swindon. Wonderfully cramped and it felt like a proper rock ‘n’ roll gig. Good to blow off a few cobwebs ahead of tonight’s sold out London show.

 

 

Looks like a cool gig. Any future gigs coming up for Richard Davies & The Dissidents ?

 

Daryl

[casapete]

First two of four gigs for me this week.

 

Tuesday afternoon I played with our duo at a ‘retirement village’ near Hull, the first time

we’ve done anything like this. It is a purpose built complex for people 55 and over,

with many facilities on site. They have a monthly lunch in an Italian restaurant that features 

varied sorts of musical entertainment. The guy who booked us saw my guitarist mate playing

in a jazz club a few years ago, so we weren’t sure if it was that sort of stuff they wanted to hear.

Fortunately ( for me in particular!) they were after us doing our requests thing, and did we get some

varied ones - from Django Reinhardt, Tom Waits and James Taylor through to Deep Purple and Led Zep!
Always try not to underestimate audiences like this, so we’re mostly ready for them now. 
The gig went well, with a nice meal before we started too. We’ve been offered another gig later in the

year, and the restaurant manager wants us for a private booking in summer so all good.

 

Thursday evening we played at my local pub just down the road. Again, request night format with a 

fair spread of stuff. Some wag asked for ‘Sir Duke’ and we duly obliged - glad I hadn’t availed myself

of the free beers on offer before that one. As we were packing down we got offered a gig for this afternoon

at a 21st birthday party near York. We’ve accepted it, but I will have to get on a flyer afterwards as I have

a gig with the blues band straight afterwards at Hornsea over on the east coast. Been a while since I’ve done

two gigs in one day, so hope my fingers last out.

 

 

[dmccombe7]

24 minutes ago, casapete said:

First two of four gigs for me this week.

 

Tuesday afternoon I played with our duo at a ‘retirement village’ near Hull, the first time

we’ve done anything like this. It is a purpose built complex for people 55 and over,

with many facilities on site. They have a monthly lunch in an Italian restaurant that features 

varied sorts of musical entertainment. The guy who booked us saw my guitarist mate playing

in a jazz club a few years ago, so we weren’t sure if it was that sort of stuff they wanted to hear.

Fortunately ( for me in particular!) they were after us doing our requests thing, and did we get some

varied ones - from Django Reinhardt, Tom Waits and James Taylor through to Deep Purple and Led Zep!
Always try not to underestimate audiences like this, so we’re mostly ready for them now. 
The gig went well, with a nice meal before we started too. We’ve been offered another gig later in the

year, and the restaurant manager wants us for a private booking in summer so all good.

 

Thursday evening we played at my local pub just down the road. Again, request night format with a 

fair spread of stuff. Some wag asked for ‘Sir Duke’ and we duly obliged - glad I hadn’t availed myself

of the free beers on offer before that one. As we were packing down we got offered a gig for this afternoon

at a 21st birthday party near York. We’ve accepted it, but I will have to get on a flyer afterwards as I have

a gig with the blues band straight afterwards at Hornsea over on the east coast. Been a while since I’ve done

two gigs in one day, so hope my fingers last out.

 

 

2 gigs in one weekend is a struggle for me never mind 2 in one day. WOW.

Dave

[AlexDelores]

Last nights wedding was good fun. decent crowd albeit a small number of people. 
 

Struggled a bit with IEMs though. It’s a bit of a rubbish room anyway but we’ve added some vocal reverb pedals into the setup to allow us to talk to the crowd easier in between songs. It makes the vocals sound great in our IEMs but for some reason they’re sitting so far in front of everything in the mix that it looses everything else a bit. Bass was a bit lost in the mix. 
 

Need to spend a bit more time in soundcheck getting the in ear mix right next time I think!
 

 

[Obrienp]

I must remind myself not to accede to every request from a band mate to play a freebie. Yesterday evening it was a fund raising for a community hall in a very bijoux local town with a large private school. It was billed as a Spring Spectacular and we were the last act. There were 10 acts on before us, with an opportunity for us to put our gear on the stage but not sound check during a 20 minute break.
 

Anyway we sat through various acts singing along to backing tracks with the odd guitar player, mostly flat (excruciating) but with the exception of a couple of teenage girl soloists, who could go far with some coaching; a choir (some good moments); couple of acoustic duos (one of which involved our lead guitarist, so good) and a “comedy” act involving some of the volunteers dressing up and miming to three Shawaddywaddy tracks: the joke wore very thin after the first song. All of this to rapturous applause from the audience.
 

At the point when we were about to go on ( one and a quarter hours after originally scheduled), one of the organisers (and perpetrator of a great deal of flat vocals) announced that it was the end of the main show and over to us! Oh thanks mate! The audience quickly reduced from around 150, to around 12 by the time we had tuned up! We got in about 6 truncated numbers before noise had to stop at 11pm. This having sat there for three and a half hours, being as encouraging as possible to the other acts (and some were a bit grim). I thought some of them could have shown a bit of solidarity, including the one we lent some gear to but obviously it was past their bed time. We were probably pretty torturous too, as our on stage sound was dreadful, due to lack of a sound check and no PA support. My bass sound was heavily and inappropriately distorted, for some reason I couldn’t work out but that can be the drawback of FRFR cabs (LFSys in my case), garbage in/garbage out to pinch an old computing adage. The vocalists couldn’t hear themselves, despite a couple of monitors. Anyway the remnants of the audience seemed to enjoy it and were dancing away. I can only assume they had over-indulged by that stage in the evening.

 

Best forgotten now, I think! Note to self, be very wary of any further freebies!

[neepheid]

Weird one last night with Nine Lives at the Balaclava in Fraserburgh.  When we went in, the place was reasonably busy.  Started off OK, but then it went through waves of being busy then dead, then busy again, like groups of people were coming in for a couple of drinks then bogging off, but repeatedly.  Very strange!  Also a drunk guy who was shouting very loud "encouragement" at us, including one time when he yelled out "YEAH, BABY!" which sounded like he was possessed by Austin Powers which nearly had me corpsing.  At the end we were playing to one table of folks who came in super late, like 2 songs before the end.  They were enthusiastic, so we played a couple of extra songs for them, and even had one of them up with us for a sing song (because you can have fun like that when it's quiet).

 

On the plus side, we added three new songs to the setlist and they all went pretty well, both in the playing and in the audience reaction, so that's good.

 

As for gear, it was the double, triple threat of the Reverend Triad followed by the Greco LGB-700 into the usual Markbass toan cubes.  Sorry, shoe fetishists, no footwear pic, but it was a pair of slip on Vans in a red/white gingham pattern.

 

[Norris]

Blimey it's not looking like a good weekend from the reports so far. I'll add to the woes...

 

We were supposed to have a cricket club presentation evening tonight, but it was called off because so many of the members called off ill. Oh well, tomorrow's gig... nope, the guitarist is now ill, plus he's the main singer so that's called off too. Our next gig is not until May because of his ongoing tour!

 

At this rate I might need to do some practice at home to keep my hand in 😮