How was your gig last night?

[tauzero]

The originals band is intended to perform the BL's songs live, while he records them solo and gets a production job done on them. Last night's gig was to promote his first single. We were at The Yard, Coventry's premier LGBTQ+ venue (according to their website). The drummer is also a sound engineer and had just taken delivery of 90% of his PA system, the FOH tops and subs being the missing components, so I brought my Alto TS408s and we used those for monitors and his DB Technology wedges for FOH.

 

All set up and ready to go with Robert having a little tinkle. I was playing a Sei Original 5-string fretless through a Zoom MS-60B into a Tecamp Puma 900 and GR Bass AT212 cab, footwear was a pair of unbranded slip-on memory foam trainers, Ebay item 185202385506.

 

 

I made a couple of cockups but it all went well, we got a very good reception.

[Boodang]

Blues/Hendrix band last night. We had a guitarist friend come up from Karachi for the weekend so we did an impromptu gig. Only a days notice to advertise it but our loyal band of blues fans turned out and it was a great atmosphere. Even had our main guitarist playing his strat behind his head during voodoo. Just need to get him to set fire to his guitar now for the authentic experience! 

[martthebass]

A ‘charridy’ job for the Glam lads last night supporting Leukaemia and bowel cancer charities. We were asked to finish the night off but for various reasons we asked to be penultimate. Didn’t get a sound check as time was tight and we were rushed on….consequently I struggled the first few songs as there was no backfill or monitoring on my side of the stage….still the show went on and apparently it sounded fine out front. A fairly full gig list until the end of May now…onwards and upwards.

[Bluewine]

On 17/03/2025 at 19:42, Bluewine said:

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

 

 

Nice event, however not a great gig for me. It was very loud and I couldn't hear our guitarists. I'd been practicing all week and I had a bad night.

 

Hopefully I'll be better next weekend. 

 

I've attached a few pics.

 

Daryl

[HeadlessBassist]

An odd weekend - On Friday evening I went to a little studio in Nottingham and played for the first time with a similarly aged keyboard player and drummer on some original tracks (sort of funky jazz with a dance beat). It's always interesting creating baselines to go with other people's music. I was particularly pleased with one track where my line made the track sound quite Flecktones-esque. (Not that I'm comparing myself to Mr.Wooten!)

 

I was all set for a quiet Saturday evening when an old school mate Drummer (can't believe it's 40 years ago!) asked me to go to a local reopening of a pub with his son and daughter in the band and do a guest spot. Nothing too challenging, but I did have to figure out Elton John's "I'm Still Standing" on the spot - never played this before!

 

 

[casapete]

I had two gigs yesterday, first one with the acoustic duo and then later with the blues

trio ‘The Alligators’. 

 

The duo gig was a 21st birthday party for the daughter of a couple who had come to see us at my 

local boozer on Thursday. The venue was a large pub in a village just east of York, playing in a long 

room with about 50 guests of all ages. Lovely people to play for, and a set of requests that spanned

the generations - ‘Strangers in the night’ and ‘Fly me to the moon’ through to ‘Fields of gold’ and 

‘Watermelon sugar’. Played for nearly two hours with only a short break, finishing at 7pm. When the  lady

who booked us came to pay me she had also bought us a bottle of wine each too, such a nice gesture.

 

I quickly packed down and set off to gig number two, some 30 miles away in Hornsea on the east coast.

Venue was ‘The Green Owl’, a modern cafe bar in the town centre. We’d been booked to cover for a 

cancellation by another band so didn’t know what to expect. When I arrived it was heaving with people,

but fortunately we had a good amount of room to set up. The band are quite loud so I need to wear 

earplugs which often compromises my sound. Strangely in this room it was fine and had my Rumble 500

combo set in just the right place to hear a nice balance of everything, along with my passive Precision Lyte.
Two sets of largely unfamiliar blues stuff went down well with the punters, and we managed to get through

’The Hunter’ by Free / Albert King which was requested by a friend of our guitarist. The encore was for 

the landlady - she asked rather bizarrely for ‘ 2-4-6-8 motorway’ by Tom Robinson which we attempted

by blagging the lyrics with prompts from her! Overall a great night, and we’re back at this venue in April.

Got in around 1am, absolutely knackered. Quiet day to recover today. 
 

 

[martthebass]

Wish I had your level of versatility Pete…..I go ashen when someone requests Sinatra at a jam night 😂

[neepheid]

Requests?  Aye, if we've got it, you can have it, we're not an effing jukebox!

[taunton-hobbit]

... Which is one reason that I re-named my sound system 'Music Machine' ........

 

😎

58 minutes ago, neepheid said:

Requests?  Aye, if we've got it, you can have it, we're not an effing jukebox!

 

 

[JPJ]

I was back up in deepest darkest Northumberland in the Coquet valley with our acoustic Americana trio. Lovely old pub, very cramped but packed with locals and friends of the band, and a thoroughly enjoyable night. The drive to/from the gig was challenging due to the rain, flooded roads, and fog - thank the heavens for four wheel drive. This is the sort of gig this trio was created for, and last night didn’t disappoint. Oh and my double bass fumblings received praise from a couple of audience members who are also musicians, and we were rebooked for what will be our third gig there this year. Job done 😎

[dmccombe7]

Last night with BLOCKBUSTARZ Glam band in Bishopton Social Club turned out a fantastic wee night.

When we arrived we were quite taken aback by the size of the venue. It was small with only 8 tables seating around 40. It apparently holds 80. Manager said things have been slow but he was surprised at ticket sales being so poor.

Anyways it didn't look too empty so we just went for it and the audience were up for every bit of it. This was THE best audience interaction we've ever experienced. Enough so that when the singer was introducing the band he mentioned it was my birthday and the audience erupted into a "happy birthday" to me. When he mentioned its the drummers next week they did the same all in great humour. For a laugh he said the guitarists was in 2 weeks and off they went again and then Lynn's birthday was May and off they went and finally our singer Mikey even got a "Happy Birthday" too because they thought he was missing out.

The whole night was like this. Not a lot of dancing first set but when we came back 2nd set they had obviously been lubricated at the bar and were up from first song. When we joked about what song we were doing next they responded by cheers or disappointed "awe's" when we didn't do an Osmond ballad, but just a great fun night. One of the best nights i've had as far as audience participation goes.

Great positive comments at the end of the night too. Had one guy come over at the end and asked if i was the bass player and when i confirmed yes he said it was the first time he'd seen a bass player play the proper Jean Genie bassline with all  the runs and fills. He was a guitarist himself. 

Organiser told us we were the best band they'd ever had in the club and those that never showed will regret not being there, but we have been asked to come back with date to be confirmed.

We even had the honour of the amazing DJ Celebrity in Scotland Mr Tom Russell in the audience and at the end he couldn't be any more complimentary. "Band was very tight, obviously well rehearsed and compared to other Glam bands i've seen, far superior." Our Sweet covers were superb but unlike tribute bands we were covering just about every Glam band.

His mate has provisionally booked us for Jan 2026. When we asked about the venue and if PA and lights etc his reply was "i want you to replicate exactly what you have tonight" so i'm guessing he liked it 

1 hour drive home so not too bad. Was home for 2am. 

Usual gear. Sandberg VM4 into Shure wireless, Keeley comp, Mesa TT800 and Mesa SW210/115 cabs, platform boots as standard. 

Dave

Not from last night's gig but the boots can be seen.

[dmccombe7]

1 hour ago, neepheid said:

Requests?  Aye, if we've got it, you can have it, we're not an effing jukebox!

We played that one before you came in OR we'll be doing that in set 4. 

Dave

 

[neepheid]

1 minute ago, dmccombe7 said:

We played that one before you came in OR we'll be doing that in set 4. 

Dave

 

 

That does actually happen!

 

Actually, I thought of a better line - "the only requests I want to hear are "ONE MORE CHOON!""

 

[dmccombe7]

5 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

That does actually happen!

 

Actually, I thought of a better line - "the only requests I want to hear are "ONE MORE CHOON!""

 

yep i like that. 

Dave

[Cat Burrito]

The second of two gigs for the Dissidents and it was something of a mixed bag. On paper it was a rip roaring success but I must confess that I let the little things get to me, which I don’t normally do. A great start, in that my neighbour’s cat once again tried to come along.

 

 

She’s a lovely little cat but I can’t see her making old bones - far too risk adverse. I managed to depart on my own and pick up the keyboard player. The venue was Tufnel Park’s Aces & Eights. The sound guy was great, the promoter was super friendly and we had sold out. Despite my fully charged  wireless packing up during the first song, it was a great show. Relaxed, friendly vibe and we played well. 
 

 

I had a fair few old friends who I hadn’t seen for years come down and it rounded off what should have been a great night. The problem came around doing the merch store. We shifted 10 CDs, which is good going. However, I had one wannabe haggler, one drunk lady who inexplicably thought I was keeping money from the singer (it’s called being the sober sensible one!) and then one idiot who was actually really rude a couple of times to me. Being pragmatic, this doesn’t normally happen and the problem is clearly them, not me but it did kind of take the shine off of things. I am usually okay with idiots but I must confess that it definitely touched a nerve. I think going forward, we need to split working the merch more and I need to work out why my usually much thicker skin wasn’t so good on this occasion. Bizarre as I am letting a total of 2 minutes cloud what was an otherwise fantastic evening. 

[tauzero]

3 hours ago, martthebass said:

Wish I had your level of versatility Pete…..I go ashen when someone requests Sinatra at a jam night 😂

 

I used to be in a club band where the singer would ask if there were any requests, much to the despair of the rest of us. He would also ask if anyone wanted to have a sing, causing additional despair. And we had to be pretty alert when playing, because he was liable to rearrange a song on the fly, or randomly come in after seven bars on what should have been a 12 bar solo.

[markbunney]

2nd week in a row playing at Market House in Maidstone on Saturday (with a different band).

 

Not quite as good as last week, it was quieter but picked up for the last hour and so ended well. 

 

Had to ditch the IEMs half way through and go back to my ear plugs. I think it was due to having to stand so near to the PA and these were drowning out the IEMs.

 

I keep thinking about getting a Quad Cortex, but then talk myself out of it with gigs like last night with drinks getting spilt near the equipment. This venue has a good barrier between the crowd and band but still doesn’t stop the flying drinks!

 

. I used the bare minimum equipment of bass & amp last night and I thought it sounded good. I just changed the drive setting on my amp for the heavier songs.

 

ive next weekend off before 5 gigs in April.

[Jackroadkill]

39 minutes ago, Cat Burrito said:

why my usually much thicker skin wasn’t so good on this occasion.

 

Sometimes things just hit a nerve, somehow, i think, and there's no real understanding of why.  Hope this unpleasantness is a one-off and that you're back in the swing of things for your next gig.

[martthebass]

1 hour ago, Cat Burrito said:

The second of two gigs for the Dissidents and it was something of a mixed bag. On paper it was a rip roaring success but I must confess that I let the little things get to me, which I don’t normally do. A great start, in that my neighbour’s cat once again tried to come along.

 

 

She’s a lovely little cat but I can’t see her making old bones - far too risk adverse. I managed to depart on my own and pick up the keyboard player. The venue was Tufnel Park’s Aces & Eights. The sound guy was great, the promoter was super friendly and we had sold out. Despite my fully charged  wireless packing up during the first song, it was a great show. Relaxed, friendly vibe and we played well. 
 

 

I had a fair few old friends who I hadn’t seen for years come down and it rounded off what should have been a great night. The problem came around doing the merch store. We shifted 10 CDs, which is good going. However, I had one wannabe haggler, one drunk lady who inexplicably thought I was keeping money from the singer (it’s called being the sober sensible one!) and then one idiot who was actually really rude a couple of times to me. Being pragmatic, this doesn’t normally happen and the problem is clearly them, not me but it did kind of take the shine off of things. I am usually okay with idiots but I must confess that it definitely touched a nerve. I think going forward, we need to split working the merch more and I need to work out why my usually much thicker skin wasn’t so good on this occasion. Bizarre as I am letting a total of 2 minutes cloud what was an otherwise fantastic evening. 

Sadly you can’t cure stupid Cat!

[Franticsmurf]

2 hours ago, tauzero said:

 

I used to be in a club band where the singer would ask if there were any requests, much to the despair of the rest of us. He would also ask if anyone wanted to have a sing, causing additional despair. And we had to be pretty alert when playing, because he was liable to rearrange a song on the fly, or randomly come in after seven bars on what should have been a 12 bar solo.

I had exactly the same experience with a band I was in. Often there'd be a request after he'd asked, and he wouldn't (or more likely couldn't) play it which made things worse. His arrangements of songs we played regularly were based on whim and his response when we spoke to him about it was along the lines of 'I don't care because it's you that look bad, not me', usually with an annoying laugh. 

 

We dropped him in it one night when he decided in the van on the way to the gig to change the set order so that he could start 'Knocking on Heaven's Door' solo on stage. The rest of the band were expected to join him after the first verse and chorus. We waited in the wings as he began far too fast. We could see the inevitable approaching, and his 'Knock, knock, knocking on heaven's door' in the chorus was delivered staccato about four or five times faster that even Axl Rose could manage. We waited for him to finish the whole song, giggling like schoolkids, so the bemused looks from the audience were his alone, and then joined him. We all left him en mass after he started a rehearsal session with a white board showing how much better we could be if we followed his 'masterplan'. 🤣

[Stub Mandrel]

Last night it was the Bendricks Rock gig at the Earl Haig.

 

We had a good one. A venue where people know their music and expect good bands. Not quite rammed (apparentlyfor my brother's band lastweekbthey had to tske allthe rables out!... they arecrhulars though and this was our first time). Even so it was pretty full. Loads of banter, dancing and vocal appreciation. Lead guitarist switched off instead of standby on his valve amp so when he switched on for encores the fuse blew. We only realised after starting superstition so it was a bitof an improvised jam. My Joyo XVI helped thicken up the sound.

 

We'd forgotten a vocal monitor so the rhythm guitarist's spare, a snall peavey, was used. We pressed it into service for our final song.

 

As well as very happy punters and venue, we got some nice comments from a fellow bassist as well as a couple of local guitar legends.

 

We left very happy that the recent sequence of gigs has done a lot to establish a fan base for us.

Edited Sunday at 19:23 by Stub Mandrel

[Norris]

8 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Last night with BLOCKBUSTARZ Glam band in Bishopton Social Club turned out a fantastic wee night.

 

8 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Organiser told us we were the best band they'd ever had in the club

 

8 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

provisionally booked us for Jan 2026.

Sure you want to leave? Your last few posts sound like you're having a whale of a time

[dmccombe7]

12 minutes ago, Norris said:

 

 

Sure you want to leave? Your last few posts sound like you're having a whale of a time

That's exactly what happened. I agreed to wait until after the next gig and take it from there. The band have been really understanding about it all.

After the gig i realised how much i enjoyed it and decided it was better to stay with it. Band were over the moon about it and were not looking forward to searching for a replacement. As they said its not just about technical ability, its being a good fit for the band on a personal level too.

I can't deny its a lot of fun, both on stage and off.

Dave

[Jackroadkill]

2 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

That's exactly what happened. I agreed to wait until after the next gig and take it from there. The band have been really understanding about it all.

After the gig i realised how much i enjoyed it and decided it was better to stay with it. Band were over the moon about it and were not looking forward to searching for a replacement. As they said its not just about technical ability, its being a good fit for the band on a personal level too.

I can't deny its a lot of fun, both on stage and off.

Dave

 

Ah, glad to hear this, Dave.  I always enjoy reading your gig reports.

[Staggering on]

Good gig Saturday night with the seven piece swing/Dixie band and we had our guest vocalist with us again. BL rented a small hall where we have played before and we had around 50+ that included a number of folks who had never seen us and a bunch of our regulars. We also had about six musicians in the audience that most of us had played with in the past or present in other bands, that was a bit different but they all seemed to enjoy the show. I was particularly pleased at the end when the best jazz guitarist in our area and his wife who plays bass complimented me on my playing and especially the sound of my bass. They both wanted to try the bass and checked out my pickup and we had a really nice chat. I have met both of them several times and they have seen me play but I must have been doing something right for them to spend so much time with me after the show.

We did our usual three sets, two of swing/jazz and a shorter set of trad/Dixie where I switch to tenor banjo and the sax players go to clarinet and bari sax to play a bass line. The Dixie set was a bit rough with two new songs that we had only played once in rehearsal but all in all a good night.

No photos but I was using my Shen SB 100 straight into the Bose PA and the banjo was acoustic, the horns aren't mic'd so I could hold my own in a room that size.