How was your gig last night?

[Rich]

[b]The Pilot[/b], Bowerhill, Melksham SN12 6TA.

Avoid like the plague.

My band played there last night, not the first time but certainly the last. I'm out of action bass-wise at the moment but went along to provide BVs (and moral support for my dep, who did a superb job).
We played the usual 2x45mins, as on the other occasions we've played there, playing to a virtually empty pub apart from a couple of scuzzy pissheads and a group of cackling superannuated chavettes. Every song met with total indifference.
Started packing up and the landlady (I use the term 'lady' in its loosest possible sense) threw a total wobbler. She said that we were supposed to be playing till midnight and said that if we didn't do so, she would not pay us a bean. So we set up again and carried on playing till witching hour.
When our drummer went to see about cash after we'd cleared up, she tore into him again.
She said that we had agreed to play from 9:30 to 12:00 with a ½ hour break (utter bollocks #1).
She claimed that we had played that long last time we were there (utter bollocks #2) and that was their normal terms (not when we've played there before, it wasn't).
She then said that even our first set was only 35 minutes (utter bollocks #3), and she was not prepared to pay us the full amount, and shorted us by 50 quid. She also cancelled our future bookings, which is fine because after that lot we'd have done it anyway.
And to put the old tin lid on it, as our drummer was leaving some arsehole in the other bar piped up and told him to “f*** off out the pub”.
So there you go. The Pilot in Melksham. The ideal place to play if you like being ignored by chavs and abused by bolshy jumped-up barmaids & pissed-up wifebeaters. Personally, I hope the f***ing place burns to the ground.

[Cato]

[quote name='Rich' timestamp='1489351213' post='3256302']
[b]The Pilot[/b], Bowerhill, Melksham SN12 6TA.

Avoid like the plague.

My band played there last night, not the first time but certainly the last. I'm out of action bass-wise at the moment but went along to provide BVs (and moral support for my dep, who did a superb job).
We played the usual 2x45mins, as on the other occasions we've played there, playing to a virtually empty pub apart from a couple of scuzzy pissheads and a group of cackling superannuated chavettes. Every song met with total indifference.
Started packing up and the landlady (I use the term 'lady' in its loosest possible sense) threw a total wobbler. She said that we were supposed to be playing till midnight and said that if we didn't do so, she would not pay us a bean. So we set up again and carried on playing till witching hour.
When our drummer went to see about cash after we'd cleared up, she tore into him again.
She said that we had agreed to play from 9:30 to 12:00 with a ½ hour break (utter bollocks #1).
She claimed that we had played that long last time we were there (utter bollocks #2) and that was their normal terms (not when we've played there before, it wasn't).
She then said that even our first set was only 35 minutes (utter bollocks #3), and she was not prepared to pay us the full amount, and shorted us by 50 quid. She also cancelled our future bookings, which is fine because after that lot we'd have done it anyway.
And to put the old tin lid on it, as our drummer was leaving some arsehole in the other bar piped up and told him to “f*** off out the pub”.
So there you go. The Pilot in Melksham. The ideal place to play if you like being ignored by chavs and abused by bolshy jumped-up barmaids & pissed-up wifebeaters. Personally, I hope the f***ing place burns to the ground.
[/quote]

Sounds like a 'character building' experience.

[Mykesbass]

Early Sunday Night gig in a new to us venue. Had been postponed a couple of times, then the lady who booked us told us she was ill and not at the pub so contact the pub direct. Nearly lost the gig as the landlady was considering dropping the Sunday evening sessions. Instead she put the time back from 5 to 7 which suited us. Got there at 6 to set up, only a small handful of people at the bar. All talking about music - Shirley Bassey, Tony Bennett and even Joe Longthorne. The jukebox was playing some dreadful stuff, including Max Bygraves! We were there to play some pretty lively blues based stuff, so I was a bit worried.

Made a quick change to the set list and started off with a couple of more mellow numbers. People were up and dancing, and out of nowhere the place had filled up.

Ended up being our best gig to date! Shame it was our guitarist's last, as he has moved away, but what a night to end on!

Landlady was dancing behind the bar, landlord loved us, paid straight away, didn't even have to ask, and booked back for later in the year. Landlady also said it was lovely having a band that knew what they were doing. Makes me wonder what others get up to?

[BrunoBass]

We played a private party on Saturday night, just a 45 minute set in a small hotel bar / function area, weirdly half underground as the building is built on a hill. Very hot and sweaty, about a hundred people squashed in with a small dancefloor in front of us. Great fun, everyone dancing, from toddlers to grandparents.

[FinnDave]

The Wirebirds played in a venue new to us last night, and despite getting phoned by the place on my way there to tell us that they were experiencing a power cut that was expected t last for two hours, in the event it was restored before we arrived, and the gig went very well. Probably the easiest load in-out I have had, my car was parked right by the door to the pub! Good crowd, including a few people who have seen us before and came along to see us again, and we were asked to re-book. Home by half twelve and in bed just after one, a good night.

A friend managed to really capture the spirit of the band with this picture last night:

[attachment=241004:Version 2.jpg]

Edited March 18, 2017 by FinnDave

[cheddatom]

Saturday night at The Station in Ashton near Manchester. A tiny pub packed with pissed up punks throwing beer and vegetables at the bands. It was an experience!

[mcnach]

[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1490004843' post='3261325']
Saturday night at The Station in Ashton near Manchester. A tiny pub packed with pissed up punks throwing beer and vegetables at the bands. It was an experience!
[/quote]

sounds like the kind of gig that would either get me in jail, or hospital...

[bassbiscuits]

Did a double-header Friday/Saturday night in O'Neills Bar in Leicester city centre. Absolutely insanely busy on both nights (one for St Patricks Day, one for the final Eng V Ireland Six Nations match).

To my relief they were both excellent gigs - really good vibe and lots of people up for dancing/singing along, which always makes all the difference really!
Had sung myself hoarse by the middle of the first night tho, so had to keep nipping to the nearby McD's between sets to grab some coffee to sooth my poor throat.

Currently talking like Barry White as a result. Whole mid/upper section of my voice has disappeared for now. Oops.

[cheddatom]

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1490006471' post='3261342']
sounds like the kind of gig that would either get me in jail, or hospital...
[/quote]

I was on drums and just batted some of the missiles away with my sticks. The bassist took a whole pint of lager to his gorgeous old Bass Collection 5er and was not happy

[Graham]

Friday was a pub in Kent, nice people but volume restrictions made it hard to get into the gig too much; tough to enjoy it when you can't hear yourself properly.

Saturday was another pub in our home town, brilliant night - had our A team line-up and people on the dance-floor from the first song. This venue is less worried about stage volume, so I could hear myself clearly above the others; The set-list was mainly modern floor-fillers and the crowd (lot of rugby players, some in fancy dress) were dancing all night.

[DaytonaRik]

Was going reasonably well until one guitard got a track monumentally wrong as in completely the wrong chord progression...drummer pulled his IEMs out it was so bad, and i got so distracted by the godawful noise in my IEMs I couldn't pitch the vocals. Embarrassingly bad, but not as bad as said individual continuing to play the entire track incorrectly whilst starring at him amp, hoping that this would either 1) mystically stop the train wreck emanating from his amp or 2) give divine inspiration and remind him what he should actually be playing...which just glancing at my fretting hand would have told him! He then had the nerve to pull me up for not continuing to sing!!!

I'd be morotified if I hadn't realised that I was the one making such a catastrophic error!!!

Edited March 20, 2017 by DaytonaRik

[JPJ]

Simply awesome, out with the nine piece line up at the Cluny in Newcastle, at least half the set was new material, and I played Db on three songs. Despite being up against a Thunder at the City Hall, we still attracted a sizeable and enthusiastic crowd, and made some great new friends. One of those gigs that make it all worth while.

[Telebass]

Out as a 3-piece again - my favourite! Very good gig in a small pub on the old A30 in Devon. Was rammed! Where did they all travel from? Well, one bloke apparently timed his holiday in Miami so's he'd be back for the gig...!

And really good pay to top it off. Result!

[Woodinblack]

Cancelled. Found out half an hour before I was about to set out. The venue had been taken over by someone and noone had mentioned it.
That was a bit deflating.

And whats more, when some people complained on our post about the event on our facebook page, the venue posted saying 'sorry for the mixup, but you can all still come down here and enjoy the disco'!

[blue]

Great bar gig, packed room, 8-12. We went over and played till 12:30.

I had been working on my pedal board this week and it worked great last night. No cut outs and pedal engagement was silent, no popping sounds.

Blue

Edited March 29, 2017 by blue

[DaytonaRik]

Everything back on track at TL Towers! Our stand-in deep drummer Chris took the seat and I must say I enjoy having him sat there as he's such a stickler for perfection that every signpost fill is there - gigging becomes a pleasure and I can forget about everything for a few hours as I know he'll be rock solid.

[radiophonic]

Bit of an odd one, but generally positive. We played a mixed media event, which turned out to have a strong Christian/redemptive theme. We were the only full band, although there were other solo/duo performers, plus film and discussion. The odd bit was that just as I was starting to relax into the set, we had to stop and play the second half an hour later. It would have been nice to know that in advance. Quite a buzzkill. The gap did give our guitar player the opportunity to educate the sound guy about the gain structure of his mixer though, so we had much better sound second time around and we got called back for an encore (a proper one - not the 'we've held back one song' type of deal). There was also a giant mirror filling the whole back wall of the room, so I watched us play over the heads of the punters. A bit disconcerting! I got to run my full rig at proper volume and hear what a Pike distortion really sounds like through a cranked 4 x 10. I'm duly impressed. I think I need more low end in my sound though. Can't decide if it's the bass or the speaker configuration, I suspect the latter.

[cheddatom]

first gig with my new band Dandelion Pussy last night. Playing funky drums all night in a packed local pub... does it get any better?

[T-Bay]

Second gig with the new band and found out Wednesday that the second guitarist was injured following a judo match the night before. At 2pm yesterday we found out that we would be a three piece. We looked at rearranging the set but decided just to go for it. It worked very well and a good night was had by all, the extra body fills out the sound but we could do three of us again if we had to.

[Telebass]

Go three-piece! Wish we could go back permanently!

[FinnDave]

We were in Abingon-on-Thames last night, at a venue new to us, and we had a fine time there. Good, enthusiastic audience, we played for three hours with a 15 minute break. Totally knackered today! My injured foot and hand are both playing up, but I won't have to do it again until next weekend.

[BrunoBass]

Not great. We played at The Bell in Banbury, to about 8-10 people at best, very quiet. There were several covers bands on in town last night, as well as a '90s one hit wonder so competition was stiff. One of our guitarists had amp problems all night which set the tone for a frustrating evening; little issues here and there, timing problems, people getting lost, all of which are probably imperceptible to our 'audience' but soon mount up and frustrate the hell out of me. I gave my new Genz Benz rig its live debut, but it's hard to judge how it sounded with two Marshall / humbucker equipped guitarists to battle through. Tweaking the eq between every song soon became tiresome. I couldn't wait to get home and if I'm honest I'm getting fed up with the whole bloody thing. Sorry to be negative.

[mcnach]

Fantastic gig last night with Urang Matang (ska/reggae, a mix of originals and a few classic covers). My first 'official' gig as a member (I've been playing with them every gig for the past 8-9 months as a 'dep', it feels like the longest ever audition! - finally it became clear they need a permanent member so I said yes). I got the proper introduction and a cople of impromptu 'solo' spots I wasn't really ready for that but I got away with it... good job I have played these songs for a few months now and I like playing about with changing phrasings and adding a few extra bits here and there for fun when I practice them at home, to keep me interested s I got away with it without embarrasment or resorting to slap Still... I enjoy playing bass because I don't get the spotlight on me, so I'm not sure I want that to be a regular thing

We got Big Jim Paterson on trombone with us (due to geographical issues, he can't make every gig) and it's just so much more fun when he plays with us... I especially love it having the sax on one side and the trombone on the other... stereo bliss... Sound guy was great, adding extra echoes and things at the right places on the vocals and brass... and there was a large crowd going crazy. What a blast! I'm still smiling

Maruszczyk Jake P/JJ + Markbass LMIII + Barefaced Two10... *in love*

[Telebass]

Birthday party at an out-in-the-sticks social club in Cornwall. Good crowd spoiled by one or two falling down drunks and girls that want to sing and try and snatch the mic. Front man doesn't mind, but I do!
Otherwise very good.

[cheddatom]

The Rigger in Newcastle Under Lyme on Friday night supporting Ferocious Dog. It was sold out, never seen the place so busy, and it was ace

The Live Rooms in Chester on Saturday night. A bit of a weird one in aid of charity. Great venue! Hopefully we'll play there again