How was your gig last night?

[Bridgehouse]

Bit late with this one, but Friday night was support slot at the O2 Academy Leicester supporting The Men They Couldn’t Hang.. great venue, great gig and loads of fun..

[Mudpup]

We had a blinding weekend.......

Friday night - a new venue to us in Hounslow. Rock venue with an established crowd and no worries re hazers/smoke alarms so we could use all the lights and lasers to best effect and make a good show of it in front of a healthy amount of punters. We've been on a good run of form for a few months now, playing well and switching the set around to freshen things up a bit and we played really well on the night. And we trotted out some nichey widdley stuff that we cant normally do in regular pubs. They have some very good bands in there so they know their music (and typically stand around at the edges watching rather than jumping around until we got a few ladees dancing at the front and dragging the old man up too ☺️) We went down a storm, loads of people bothering to come up after with compliments, musos checking the gear out and having a chat etc.....a great night. It was a cheapo tryout night but the owner just asked what the usual rate was and coughed up voluntarily so that was a bonus. Rebooks secured for next year and i think we're going to enjoy this one.

Saturday night - a regular gig in a Hertford pub. The people that run it are lovely and they have a resident crowd that just start dancing from the first note. We've got to know quite a few of them over the last 2 years and its become like playing to all your mates. Again we played well and the sound was great - big and ballsy but not too loud for them. And again loads of nice comments afterwards - one bloke even insisted on helping cart the gear out afterwards (we've got a ton of stuff so thats a massive bonus). Oh and theres a brill kebab shop 50 yards away thats open late.....

[stewblack]

23 minutes ago, Mudpup said:

We had a blinding weekend.......

Friday night - a new venue to us in Hounslow. Rock venue with an established crowd and no worries re hazers/smoke alarms so we could use all the lights and lasers to best effect and make a good show of it in front of a healthy amount of punters. We've been on a good run of form for a few months now, playing well and switching the set around to freshen things up a bit and we played really well on the night. And we trotted out some nichey widdley stuff that we cant normally do in regular pubs. They have some very good bands in there so they know their music (and typically stand around at the edges watching rather than jumping around until we got a few ladees dancing at the front and dragging the old man up too ☺️) We went down a storm, loads of people bothering to come up after with compliments, musos checking the gear out and having a chat etc.....a great night. It was a cheapo tryout night but the owner just asked what the usual rate was and coughed up voluntarily so that was a bonus. Rebooks secured for next year and i think we're going to enjoy this one.

Saturday night - a regular gig in a Hertford pub. The people that run it are lovely and they have a resident crowd that just start dancing from the first note. We've got to know quite a few of them over the last 2 years and its become like playing to all your mates. Again we played well and the sound was great - big and ballsy but not too loud for them. And again loads of nice comments afterwards - one bloke even insisted on helping cart the gear out afterwards (we've got a ton of stuff so thats a massive bonus). Oh and theres a brill kebab shop 50 yards away thats open late.....

You my friend are living the dream! Sounds like a perfect weekend.

[Mudpup]

15 minutes ago, stewblack said:

You my friend are living the dream! Sounds like a perfect weekend.

Yep....downhill all the way now 😉

 

[cheddatom]

Friday night we played a festival in north wales. The organiser told us there'd be a drum kit there, mine is a bit of a PITA to move at the moment, and it was called a festival with more bands on after us so I thought it was a safe bet. When we got there we realised that this festival was just a Friday night in the clubhouse/pub at a campsite. Every other act was a rock tribute, and we're playing original folk-punk. So I was starting to feel a bit un-easy when the organiser walked up and said "I've been told you want some drums". "I was told there was a kit I could use" I said. He had me follow him to his car to collect the smallest bass drum I've ever seen. Maybe 18 x 14" at the most. I'm a fairly big guy and usually play a big 24" kick. Anyway, no matter, I loaded it in and then saw the skin on the bass drum. Some sort of ancient brittle glossy white plastic. I was convinced I'd break it on the first hit. Next I tap the toms which are horribly out of tune, but they don't have standard lugs so my drum key won't work. Obviously I just have to make do but the set was an hour and a half of gently tapping the bass drum while asking the sound guy to turn up my monitor

Apparently we were really good and the rest of the band had a great night. I've learned my lesson. I'll never go to a gig without my kit again

Saturday night was local at The Rigger and I got to use my own kit. Matt on the sound is always awesome and it just puts you at ease. We played well, went down well, and apparently they raised over £700 for charity which is a lot more than I was expecting considering the turnout. Brilliant!

 

I don't know if this will work but this is a photo of me standing behind the tiny kit, our singer put it on Instagram: 

 

Edited October 15, 2018 by cheddatom

[Stylon Pilson]

42 minutes ago, cheddatom said:

I don't know if this will work but this is a photo of me standing behind the tiny kit, our singer put it on Instagram

That looks like someone's put a tom on its side and cut a hole in it.

S.P.

[casapete]

Played a large function last night in Derbyshire at an old hotel. 350 guests, long narrow stage, high ceiling in the room so acoustics were dreadful. Our 6 piece band was put together for the event, but 4 of us used to play together years ago so was a great chance to catch up. Our sax player was doing this gig, then going to start a tour the next day in Glasgow , supporting Saxon! Musically it was a bit hit and miss, but we got a good percentage of the audience up to dance at some point so think it went okay. Lots of hanging around so plenty of time to drink and socialise! Also on with 3 ladies who did a vocal act during the meal, 40’s style harmony stuff which went down well. Event finished at 1am, me and the guitarist then loaded out the PA and our gear ( thank god for my BF Compact ) and got in at 3.30am. Must admit I’d forgotten how tiring these sort of gigs can be, guess it’s my advancing years not helping either. Still, Sunday night gigs are not that common so was glad of the work. Day off today though, need it to recharge my batteries after 5 gigs this week.

[KevB]

On 14/10/2018 at 09:30, radiophonic said:

We had a great night. The annual Oxjam Takeover in Nottingham. It was an evening where it easily could have crashed and burned but somehow everything just worked out, including:

I was in a few of the venues on Sat so might have seen you - which pub?

[radiophonic]

20 minutes ago, KevB said:

I was in a few of the venues on Sat so might have seen you - which pub?

We (Scriptures) played the Malt Shovel

[Raymondo]

2 hours ago, radiophonic said:

We (Scriptures) played the Malt Shovel

If that was The Malt Shovel in Beeston ...I was there ...doing my best dad dance routines🍺🍺😲

[radiophonic]

17 hours ago, Raymondo said:

If that was The Malt Shovel in Beeston ...I was there ...doing my best dad dance routines🍺🍺😲

Yes! Given the demographic, some dad dancing was probably inevitable.

[KevB]

Bald lad with the blue Ernie Ball? Yes I think I caught a bit of your set, sorry didn't see Ray though otherwise would have had a natter. I was in and out of about 4 venues at various times. Ended up in the Berliner watching basschat's Chris Sharman's band Water For Dogs. He's playing a nice Shuker 5 string fretless these days.

[Raymondo]

1 hour ago, KevB said:

Bald lad with the blue Ernie Ball? Yes I think I caught a bit of your set, sorry didn't see Ray though otherwise would have had a natter. I was in and out of about 4 venues at various times. Ended up in the Berliner watching basschat's Chris Sharman's band Water For Dogs. He's playing a nice Shuker 5 string fretless these days.

I was with my family ( sister lives in Beeston) and wandered around all day. Started at the star at 2 o'clock and ended up slightly the worse for wear back there around 11 0'clock. I  can't remember any of the basses being played😲

I would most certainly have said hi Kev if I'd spotted you.

[gary mac]

On 14/10/2018 at 22:31, Mudpup said:

We had a blinding weekend.......

Friday night - a new venue to us in Hounslow. Rock venue with an established crowd and no worries re hazers/smoke alarms so we could use all the lights and lasers to best effect and make a good show of it in front of a healthy amount of punters. We've been on a good run of fSaturday night - a regular gig in a Hertford pub. The people that run it are lovely and they have a resident crowd that just start dancing from the first note. We've got to know quite a few of them over the last 2 years and its become like playing to all your mates. Again we played well and the sound was great - big and ballsy but not too loud for them. And again loads of nice comments afterwards - one bloke even insisted on helping cart the gear out afterwards (we've got a ton of stuff so thats a massive bonus). Oh and theres a brill kebab shop 50 yards away thats open late.....

That'll be Dancing Man SteveDoesn't stop dancing until the very last note.

[Mudpup]

6 hours ago, gary mac said:

That'll be Dancing Man SteveDoesn't stop dancing until the very last note.

Yep that's the one - he scared us when we first met him, thought he was the resident weirdo but he's a smashing guy with dancing bones! 🙂

Edited October 16, 2018 by Mudpup

[grandad]

There were several episodes of spontaneous polite applause from the clientele throughout a very pleasant evening with my quartet at a restaurant/bar in Sutton Coldfield.

[Frank Blank]

Just home from doing two songs at a local acoustic club. I tuned every string apart from the E for some reason (first song was slow and sparse so able to rectify whilst playing) but that seemed to set the tone for the rest of our little spot. We’d rehearsed those two songs so assiduously as well and then boom, the wheels came off. Disheartened and dejected right now.

[Witters]

5 hours ago, Frank Blank said:

Just home from doing two songs at a local acoustic club. I tuned every string apart from the E for some reason (first song was slow and sparse so able to rectify whilst playing) but that seemed to set the tone for the rest of our little spot. We’d rehearsed those two songs so assiduously as well and then boom, the wheels came off. Disheartened and dejected right now.

Bummer, I feel your pain.  I remember one of my gigs from years ago, so embarrassing! I was playing a double neck (pretentious, moi?).  It was all tuned up ready to go.  I didn’t have a stand for it so I laid it flat on an innocent looking black box......which turned out to be the lights. It was so far out of tune when I picked it up to play that I couldn’t rectify the situation as there were 18 strings all out and no reference point!  The shame!

Still, learnt a valuable lesson and didn’t use the double live again, and checked where all the heat sources were at each venue (my favourite being the real log fire just behind the drummer).

i still have gigs that don’t go well but I just swear a bit, play my bass or guitar at home to remind myself why I play, then go do it again (maybe having learnt what went “wrong” and taken steps to avoid it, also accept mistakes happen and are no big deal).

Get together with your music partner and play those tunes again, then drink beer and play some more.  Then drink more and play some beer; tune some beer and drink s9me play, repeat......

[Frank Blank]

6 hours ago, Witters said:

Bummer, I feel your pain.  I remember one of my gigs from years ago, so embarrassing! I was playing a double neck (pretentious, moi?).  It was all tuned up ready to go.  I didn’t have a stand for it so I laid it flat on an innocent looking black box......which turned out to be the lights. It was so far out of tune when I picked it up to play that I couldn’t rectify the situation as there were 18 strings all out and no reference point!  The shame!

Still, learnt a valuable lesson and didn’t use the double live again, and checked where all the heat sources were at each venue (my favourite being the real log fire just behind the drummer).

i still have gigs that don’t go well but I just swear a bit, play my bass or guitar at home to remind myself why I play, then go do it again (maybe having learnt what went “wrong” and taken steps to avoid it, also accept mistakes happen and are no big deal).

Get together with your music partner and play those tunes again, then drink beer and play some more.  Then drink more and play some beer; tune some beer and drink s9me play, repeat......

Thanks dude, this sounds like the perfect remedy. Christ 17 Strings more than my problem, I’d have had a conniption!

[Witters]

54 minutes ago, Frank Blank said:

Thanks dude, this sounds like the perfect remedy. Christ 17 Strings more than my problem, I’d have had a conniption!

A conniption? What a great word! Did you know there is a Conniption Gin?

[Frank Blank]

On 19/10/2018 at 15:32, Witters said:

A conniption? What a great word! Did you know there is a Conniption Gin?

I’m sometimes to be found recovering from a fully Victorian conniption being pushed around the grounds in a bath chair, legs wrapped up in a tartan blanket, coughing gently into a neatly folded hanky, upon which, on closer inspection, one can find tiny specks of blood. I’ll be in the library until dinner.

Words are great. I was feeling a bit under weather once, way back in my teenage years, just the first inklings of a cold, someone asked me if I was ok, to which I replied “Yes, fine, just a touch of ontological nausea” their comeback was a grumpy “In English mate...” My love of words was partly inspired by that incident and my mother’s (spits) habit of cracking me around the head if I asked her the meaning of a word and yelling “There’s a dictionary in the cabinet, go and use it.” I no longer drink, haven’t for many years, but I did occasionally drink gin but on those rare occasions I’d always find myself sitting in the dark at 4am listening to Dead Can Dance, gin eh?

Edited October 22, 2018 by Frank Blank
Sunblest

[Bluewine]

1 hour ago, Frank Blank said:

Thanks dude, this sounds like the perfect remedy. Christ 17 Strings more than my problem, I’d have had a conniption!

I'd have " blown a gasket"

Blue

[Frank Blank]

9 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

I'd have " blown a gasket"

Blue

Amen.

[josie]

10 hours ago, Frank Blank said:

Words are great. I was feeling a bit under weather once, way back in my teenage years, just the first inklings of a cold, someone asked me if I was ok, to which I replied “Yes, fine, just a touch of ontological nausea” their comeback was a grumpy “In English mate... 

I've always loved words and where they came from. When my sons were little, when they asked me the meaning of a word, without thinking, I would tell them a bit about the history of the word and why it meant what it did. Until the day when the younger - then about 8? - said "Mum what does  - mean but don't tell me the Latin!" 

(OT, sorry...)

Edited October 20, 2018 by josie

[JapanAxe]

Rather fun actually. Regular gig at a large chain pub, which can get a bit over-lively. Slightly quieter tonight, but lots of young people dancing enthusiastically. Apparently there were quite a few 'freshers' out on the town. I was somewhat  mortified to think that it is 39 years since I was a fresher myself!

Anyway, I took my Mustang rather than the usual Precision, to give my fretting hand a bit of a rest. It sounded superb - I think it is probably the rockingest bass that I own. Here's me (looking like the BFG's nephew) and my rig: