alyctes Posted October 7, 2015 Share Posted October 7, 2015 Thursday: First half, OK. Second half, not so good. Overall, could have been worse. (My singing was terrible, but I knew that before I started... and now they do, as well ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seashell Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 Did a little gig on Wednesday at a local acoustic night. Was playing with a guy who does some original songs and a few 'unplugged' covers (I was plugged in though, obvs!) Just him on guitar, another guy on mandolin and me on bass. It was OK, but there weren't that many people in. We got aripple of polite applause. Last night I was back at the same venue for ththeir blues jam night. Got talking to a young man who had been there the night before. He said 'I loved that Song you did last night 'The Weight'. I'd never heard it before so I went home and googled it. Found out it was by The Band. Never heard of them before, so I found some more of their stuff. It's great, isn't it?' I was so pleased about that! This is what it's all about, ladies and gents. Spreading the love of good music between generations. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzyvee Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 (edited) I had a good gig last night with a Jazz big band even though, if you exclude number of family members and partners of band members, we outnumbered the audience. But we got them dancing and a good time was had by all. Edited October 9, 2015 by jazzyvee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 Turned out to be really good, was a bit of a scratch band as we had a dep drummer and a dep singer who's command of the lyrics wasn't always perfect. However, he's a great showman so he kept the crowd happy. It was a social club, but was full-up for a 60th birthday party. Like I say, a bit scratchy on the vocals at times, but the singer covered it up fairly well and I think people were lubricated enough not to care and turned into a really fun gig. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spike Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 What could have been a good gig was spoiled by the complete indifference shown towards us by the pub staff. How difficult is it to show us where to set up, tell us the finishing time and let us know you have a sound limiter? The answer is 'not very', but obviously too difficult for the fat slob of a landlord who was only interested in sitting on his stool at the bar and holding court with his mates. Worst gig for a long time and we won't be going back. The sad thing is that with a little bit of effort it could have been a great evening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lurksalot Posted October 11, 2015 Share Posted October 11, 2015 We played a pub in town last night and it was quite busy ,we knock out roadhouse blues for a sound check as it is dead easy to jam out and set the levels to , and we got some great applause . Rhythm guitar gets up to the mic when we open and says 'right then , we always have a proper party when we play here and tonight is going to be no different ......OK ' and a big cheer went up ..........we had a good night a proper party Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roland Rock Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 Hockley Hustle big city centre charity festival sprwad over about 40 venues: We were supposed to be on at 3:30 We soundchecked at 5.00 The PA dude had many issues, including lack of cables and lack of grace under pressure. Gig turned ouf to be pretty good though and thd later time meant a decent crowd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHW Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 1st set, was bloody hard work. Various people at various tables were singing along through most of the set but a couple of numbers ended to pretty much the sound of the pub chatting. As an acoustic duo that can be tough. Even our big ending songs, didn't seem to go down that well. If I do say so myself we do a cracking version of Little Lion Man which we finish on a harmony acapella ending. -Nothing, no response. Break, Singer disenchanted and annoyed, cue a bit of singer love and reassurance. 2nd Set. Great fun, numerous people up dancing, singing along, loads of great feedback. Was it a different band? Different Pub? Probably just 3 more drinks inside everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverfoxnik Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 [quote name='seashell' timestamp='1444374341' post='2882589'] This is what it's all about, ladies and gents. Spreading the love of good music between generations. :-) [/quote] +1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevB Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 [quote name='CHW' timestamp='1444660900' post='2884858'] 1st set, was bloody hard work. Various people at various tables were singing along through most of the set but a couple of numbers ended to pretty much the sound of the pub chatting. [b]As an acoustic duo that can be tough[/b]. Even our big ending songs, didn't seem to go down that well. If I do say so myself we do a cracking version of Little Lion Man which we finish on a harmony acapella ending. -Nothing, no response. Break, Singer disenchanted and annoyed, cue a bit of singer love and reassurance. 2nd Set. Great fun, numerous people up dancing, singing along, loads of great feedback. Was it a different band? Different Pub? Probably just 3 more drinks inside everyone. [/quote] I think this is it, rather than how well you are doing it. I've been in loads of pubs where it's been an acoustic act on and frankly, even though they have been good, the general clientele treated them like sh*t or just background noise until something else came on. The exceptions are where it being billed specifically as a 'folk' night where a targeted sympathetic type of audience comes in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jono Bolton Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 (edited) Tonight's gig went really, really well. We were asked to fill in for a band at relatively short notice, and we ended up playing last. It was only our second gig and the first/last one was a bit of a car crash (set cut to 15 minutes as we were going on stage and the sound was awful), but almost everything was on point tonight. A few folk came up and complimented us on our set afterwards and I think we've bagged ourselves a support at a good gig at the start of next month. I'm just a bit annoyed we didn't really promote it given our low expectations. Edited October 15, 2015 by Jono Bolton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 Late and brief, we were playing for Central Sussex Conservatives and got there for 8, to start at 9. When we arrived they all filed into the hall for whatever the event was, and an hour the later main course was brought out. It carried on in this vein and we actually started at 11 and just played for an hour. We didn't stay any later than we would have done anyway, but the sitting around waiting was quite tedious. TBH, they didn't need a band, the people who did stay really enjoyed it, but wasn't a large proportion of the people there; was really just a waste of their money due to the poor organisation. Sound wasn't very good either - flat, hard wall about 10 metres in front of us and not a lot of bodies in the room. We played pretty well, but it wasn't the most fun gig we've done, definitely felt like work last night. Still, got paid anyway, or at least will be paid when the cheque clears - don't you hate it when clients want to pay by cheque or bank transfer on the night. I must talk to the band leader about changing the payment terms to payment in advance for private events. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Sharman Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 Odd one last night. Played at the annual presentation night for the cricket club that our drummer plays for in a rural village hall in Staffordshire. Intending 2 x 45 sets with a short break between them. by the time we were meant to start they had just started the presentations so we were invited to help ourselves to the buffet and we retired upstairs to a room they had set aside for us, had a beer and a chat and some vol-au-vents and chicken drumsticks and waited..... an hour after we should have started we kicked off, first track almost no response, applause increasing track by track until a third of the way in a couple of people started dancing over by the bar at the far end of the room. Generally no-one seemed that iknterested except one or two that had obviously "imbibed freely" and the barman who was dancing like a loon behind the bar. In the end we decided to just play straight through and cut a couple of tracks for time reasons. Three tracks from the end I did the intro to "One Step Beyond" and the place went mental! everyone was up dancing so we followed up with 'lip up fatty' to continued mayhem. Finished off with one of our own tracks that is very much of the genre and everyone loved it. It was like a different audience for the last ten minutes. We got paid, fed and watered and everyone went home happy but I was left with a sense of "what the hell was that?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lurksalot Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 A bizarre twist to our gig last night, the room had been split by some dividing doors since our last visit. we effectively had the band set up in one room and the PA front of house in another, it was like we were on the inside of a TV screen playing out to the room , it was noisy in our box though, one advantage was that we had plenty of space so setup and breaking down was really quick as we all had room without the normal falling over each other. Not a massive audience , but very enthusiastic , the brother-in-law is over from living abroad for a fortnight and got to see us for the first time in 2 years , so he was chuffed as well . in general a good night . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gary mac Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 The usual difficult load in and out, due to drunken punters gathering around the doorway and in a little narrow corridor, which is just about wide enough for my cabs. We played well, although I had a couple of brain blanks, strangely, in the numbers that I've played countless times in just about every covers band that I've ever been in. I'll put it down to the strong pain killers, combined with Sudofed and Imodium Getting a bit jaded with the pub scene. Roll on next Saturday when we do it all over again in another pub just down the road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 Better than Friday, pretty much a standard pub gig: Very friendly, very drunk Irish man wanting to talk our ears off whilst setting up, inhebriated, heavily tattooed local dancing madly by himself (and sometimes with a tree) from the start, small audience of local barflys. All in all, fun show, they enjoyed the rock numbers more than the dance ones too, so was nice to break out some of the more rocking ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanAxe Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 Dep gig last night with a Slade/glam tribute band at a holiday park in Cornwall. 4 hour journey in band van, set up, wait for 'Tina Turner' to do her turn, soundcheck, wait nearly 7 hours to go on! Then pack down, home at 4am, and up again for work at 6.45am. I am Donald Ducked. The 1-hour-plus on stage was brilliant, arsing about in 70s glam dress-up - the place was packed and they loved us. I used the band's own rig - HiWatt solid state 300W head into 2 H&K cabs. On-stage sound was excellent. I played my Pawn Shop Mustang, the nearest thing I have to Jim Lea's short-scale HB-loaded Gibsons. Sounded great for that music, up against a Marshall 100W head through an 8x10 cab that once belonged to Andy Scott of the Sweet, but it wouldn't have suited much else: Here's the rig: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fisheth Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 Surprisingly good. Two support bands dropped out and it was us and an acoustic act. Who brought a good crowd, our drummer has friends (Shock horror) and they enjoyed it too. We had fun on stage, which is a plus and my Ashdown and Barefaced sounded great. Pretty good stage sound, not overbearing like my Orange is. Also got a video too. It's a shame it's from a small condenser microphone. But hopefully it'll get what we do across. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqQsbCaZFOo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassace Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 I've gotta tell you this. Yesterday we played for a posh lunch at the Orangery, Blenheim Palace. It's only a few miles down the road, we were a three piece gtr, drums, bass and playing mainly wallpapery jazz standards. Audience middle aged and generally not very responsive. One number we played was The Night Has a Thousand Eyes -.not Bobby Vee but John Coltrane. And we got a good round of applause. A Coltrane number! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanAxe Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 [quote name='bassace' timestamp='1445284668' post='2890312'] I've gotta tell you this. Yesterday we played for a posh lunch at the Orangery, Blenheim Palace. It's only a few miles down the road, we were a three piece gtr, drums, bass and playing mainly wallpapery jazz standards. Audience middle aged and generally not very responsive. One number we played was The Night Has a Thousand Eyes -.not Bobby Vee but John Coltrane. And we got a good round of applause. A Coltrane number! [/quote] I can confirm, that is a posh venue. So posh we had to load in through the window! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassace Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 [quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1445285393' post='2890322'] I can confirm, that is a posh venue. So posh we had to load in through the window! [/quote] French doors via the Serpent Gate - if they haven't mislaid the key. How did you get on with the jobsworths? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzyvee Posted October 23, 2015 Share Posted October 23, 2015 Great I just got back from my first straight ahead jazz gig on bass. Had a couple of rehearsals and got a set of chord charts last weekend. Nerve racking but worked out well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seashell Posted October 24, 2015 Share Posted October 24, 2015 (edited) Fan bloody tastic, still buzzin. Charity night at a local venue . Bloke who organised it put together various local acts in various combinations. I played bass with 2 of the support bands. Including a cover of Copperhead Road yee ha! Love that song Then did congas and backing vocals with the main band. Mostly Rolling Stones covers. Totally beasted it on Gimme Shelter. Afterwards, I think I got more compliments on my singing and percussion than on my bass playing! Hmm not sure about that... Bloody good night though, and all in a good cause. :-) Edited October 24, 2015 by seashell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gary mac Posted October 24, 2015 Share Posted October 24, 2015 Chuffed for you Shell, good work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve-bbb Posted October 24, 2015 Share Posted October 24, 2015 [quote name='bassace' timestamp='1445284668' post='2890312'] And we got a good round of applause. A Coltrane number! [/quote] maybe try thewm next time with some jazz arrangements of some classic Cardiacs tunes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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