How was your gig last night?

[colleya]

Turns out Todmorden doesn't do dry January. Great crowd and really fun place to play. I had one of those nights and dropped a few more clangers than average but the feedback was that the sound was great, so the new pink stringed Stingray is doing the job very nicely.

 

[Bluewine]

3 hours ago, MacDaddy said:

At halftime they bring out a mini Sunday lunch, platters of roast potatoes, sausages, onion rings, etc. 

All free 😀

You guys really value free food at gigs. Must be a cultural thing 

I never eat at gigs. I did get a $75. 00 gift certificate from our New Year's Eve gig. I like that.

Blue

 

 

 

 

 

[peteb]

55 minutes ago, colleya said:

Turns out Todmorden doesn't do dry January. Great crowd and really fun place to play. I had one of those nights and dropped a few more clangers than average but the feedback was that the sound was great, so the new pink stringed Stingray is doing the job very nicely.

 

The Polished Knob in Tod...!

It can get a bit cramped up there, having to share the new stage with the contents of a secondhand music shop all pushed to the back so that they can be on hand for the landlord's midweek jam session...

[Bluewine]

2 hours ago, peteb said:

The Polished Knob in Tod...!

It can get a bit cramped up there, having to share the new stage with the contents of a secondhand music shop all pushed to the back so that they can be on hand for the landlord's midweek jam session...

I've seen a lot worse set ups.

We played a restaurant that books live music . It was so small we couldn't bring in lights or sound.

But the place was packed and the crowd was fantastic. 

A good engaged crowd will make up for a lot of other evils we have to deal with.

Blue

[peteb]

4 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

I've seen a lot worse set ups.

We played a restaurant that books live music . It was so small we couldn't bring in lights or sound.

But the place was packed and the crowd was fantastic. 

A good engaged crowd will make up for a lot of other evils we have to deal with.

Blue

Absolutely right about the crowd and it is a pretty good set-up, which could be great if there had been a little bit more thought. 

The Landlord at that pub is a nice guy who is a real enthusiast. He also has made a bit of money from other ventures, which means he can afford to do what he wants with the pub and what he wants to do is to make it into a good local music venue. He has succeeded in this to a degree, it's just a shame that he didn't ensure that there was enough room to site a decent sized PA without blocking the audience's view, have enough room on the stage for a desk and have somewhere to store his extensive collection of various musical instruments. 

I'm not knocking it too much - it's a decent gig with an impressive little stage and the people who run it are great, as are the punters. It just could be even better... 

[colleya]

5 minutes ago, peteb said:

The Landlord at that pub is a nice guy who is a real enthusiast.

He is. Talking to him last night they had two full range PA speakers waiting to be wired up so next time he just wants us to bring our desk which will save loads of room and make my life a lot easier.

A lot of the clutter had been tidied/organised to the rear of the stage, which was miles better than our previous gig there. Plug sockets all round the stage and built in lighting too.

Oh, and the crowd were great as always. I'm usually anxious about January gigs as I've ended up playing to two bored barmaids and a passing cat before, but they turned out in force and were up for a party. As Blue said, I'll overlook a lot for that.

[josie]

Aynsley Lister's guitar tuition weekend. I put my Ibby 6 through a good rig at good volume for the first time ( @Steve Amadeo 's Aguilar rig) and it sounded even better than I expected. Played a few blues standards with a great drummer and an assortment of excellent guitarists, great energy and synergy. Audience of maybe 30, mostly other guitarists, wonderful vibe 🙂 

[stewblack]

Lovely Sunday afternoon gig in a super friendly pub. We are a disparate gang of musicians who gather unrehearsed and sit at the end of the room jamming out mostly well known tunes in a vaguely blues / country style. Myself, singer and slide guitarist are regulars, others may or may not show. We also encourage the locals to join in. Yesterday a guy brought his harmonica collection, he was really good.

It's more than background music, less than a full on gig, and enormous fun. And getting paid for a Sunday afternoon never did anyone any harm.

[FinnDave]

5 minutes ago, stewblack said:

Lovely Sunday afternoon gig in a super friendly pub. We are a disparate gang of musicians who gather unrehearsed and sit at the end of the room jamming out mostly well known tunes in a vaguely blues / country style. Myself, singer and slide guitarist are regulars, others may or may not show. We also encourage the locals to join in. Yesterday a guy brought his harmonica collection, he was really good.

It's more than background music, less than a full on gig, and enormous fun. And getting paid for a Sunday afternoon never did anyone any harm.

Is that Andreas' jam at Coleshill?

[bassbiscuits]

Did a Saturday night city centre gig in Leicester, depping on bass with my old band.

Proper busy rowdy one tho - some drunk bloke flossing and pole dancing, and a drunk bloke at some point was pushed/thrown/fell into the stage, destroying the singer's mic stand and splling everything. Oops.

The new guitarist also has his own PA and live sound business on the side, so we had an awesome rig and FOH sound.

Good gig.

[Monkey Steve]

17 hours ago, Bluewine said:

You guys really value free food at gigs. Must be a cultural thing 

I never eat at gigs. I did get a $75. 00 gift certificate from our New Year's Eve gig. I like that.

Blue

 

 

 

 

 

I wouldn't say it's a cultural thing, more that it's so unexpected that when it happens you remember it as being a really nice gesture.

An old band of mine used to play an excellent music pub about three hours drive away - we always got on with the landlord and he treated us brilliantly.  But despite doing a roaring trade in food and drink all night, and knowing that we'd have set off mid-afternoon and wouldn't be in until the small hours, he never once offered us as much as a free pint or a bowl of chips

[stewblack]

2 hours ago, FinnDave said:

Is that Andreas' jam at Coleshill?

Whaaat? You know my Teutonic sidekick?? It's similar but no longer at Coleshill.

[FinnDave]

32 minutes ago, stewblack said:

Whaaat? You know my Teutonic sidekick?? It's similar but no longer at Coleshill.

Yeah, I've played with Andreas a few times, we were rehearsing a band together a couple of years ago, but the promised monthly gig vanished when the venue's manager changed and the band lost impetus.

Does he still have that Soundcraft mixer? He bought that off me.

Where is the jam now? I think we met at one of them at Coleshill, Rob Beckinsale was there as well. I had an acoustic bass (guitar) that I had just bought, that was the one and only time I played it!

[stewblack]

3 hours ago, FinnDave said:

Yeah, I've played with Andreas a few times, we were rehearsing a band together a couple of years ago, but the promised monthly gig vanished when the venue's manager changed and the band lost impetus.

Does he still have that Soundcraft mixer? He bought that off me.

Where is the jam now? I think we met at one of them at Coleshill, Rob Beckinsale was there as well. I had an acoustic bass (guitar) that I had just bought, that was the one and only time I played it!

We did, my goodness, didn't know that was a fellow Basschater. We move the gig around. We're in Pewsey next week, Minster Lovell yesterday. Andreas is upping sticks and moving to darkest Dorset so the future is unclear.

[FinnDave]

8 minutes ago, stewblack said:

We did, my goodness, didn't know that was a fellow Basschater. We move the gig around. We're in Pewsey next week, Minster Lovell yesterday. Andreas is upping sticks and moving to darkest Dorset so the future is unclear.

I was half a mile from Minster Lovell yesterday, would have dropped in had I known. I'll get in touch with Andreas, he's a good chap, ought to see him before he moves.

[Bluewine]

20 hours ago, Monkey Steve said:

I wouldn't say it's a cultural thing, more that it's so unexpected that when it happens you remember it as being a really nice gesture.

An old band of mine used to play an excellent music pub about three hours drive away - we always got on with the landlord and he treated us brilliantly.  But despite doing a roaring trade in food and drink all night, and knowing that we'd have set off mid-afternoon and wouldn't be in until the small hours, he never once offered us as much as a free pint or a bowl of chips

Ok, I get that, however a 3 hour drive and he wouldn't comp anything? That be a tough one for me unless the pay is outstanding.

Blue

[Monkey Steve]

2 hours ago, Bluewine said:

Ok, I get that, however a 3 hour drive and he wouldn't comp anything? That be a tough one for me unless the pay is outstanding.

Blue

he always treated us well otherwise, which is what made it jar a little - if the crowds were good then he'd pay us extra, and if the crowds were poor (it really dropped off after the 2008 recession hit) he'd make a point of paying us even though he was losing money, and inviting us back.  We weren't doing it for the money so we didn't mind, and he made sure that we were never out of pocket, we certainly weren't going to earn money, more because it was a great place to play.  I wouldn't say that we expected the food, or were disappointed not to get any - we wouldn't have expected to be fed if we were playing the pub five miles away - but when you do get fed it does stick out

[dontregartha]

15 hours ago, Bluewine said:

Ok, I get that, however a 3 hour drive and he wouldn't comp anything? That be a tough one for me unless the pay is outstanding.

Blue

Even worse than that is when you order and pay for a meal out of your own pocket because you came straight from work on a Friday.

You say - could you make sure it comes out before we go on and with enough time to wolf it down, and then the staff forget your ticket and you chase it up, they say... we didn't know what table you were sitting on, so couldn't find you - 'I'm WITH THE BAND...you know that pile of kit just THERE'

I did get my money back and a fresh comp dinner, but I wonder what would go down if you said, 'oh, the gig... we didn't realise you wanted to go on at 9.00pm'

On the other side of the coin, we play a venue, where the Landlord offered us food, a drink on the house and didn't charge us for the two rooms in the pub/hotel that we crashed in that night.

[Bluewine]

2 hours ago, dontregartha said:

Even worse than that is when you order and pay for a meal out of your own pocket because you came straight from work on a Friday.

You say - could you make sure it comes out before we go on and with enough time to wolf it down, and then the staff forget your ticket and you chase it up, they say... we didn't know what table you were sitting on, so couldn't find you - 'I'm WITH THE BAND...you know that pile of kit just THERE'

I did get my money back and a fresh comp dinner, but I wonder what would go down if you said, 'oh, the gig... we didn't realise you wanted to go on at 9.00pm'

On the other side of the coin, we play a venue, where the Landlord offered us food, a drink on the house and didn't charge us for the two rooms in the pub/hotel that we crashed in that night.

99% of our gigs are local, half hour or less in most cases.

We only travel once or twice a year and we make sure we charge appropriately. We do a gig every year in Minnesota, that's 3 hours one way. We, charge $1,500.00 and now that I think about it, that's not really enough.

Blue

[Monkey Steve]

14 hours ago, dontregartha said:

Even worse than that is when you order and pay for a meal out of your own pocket because you came straight from work on a Friday.

You say - could you make sure it comes out before we go on and with enough time to wolf it down, and then the staff forget your ticket and you chase it up, they say... we didn't know what table you were sitting on, so couldn't find you - 'I'm WITH THE BAND...you know that pile of kit just THERE'

I did get my money back and a fresh comp dinner, but I wonder what would go down if you said, 'oh, the gig... we didn't realise you wanted to go on at 9.00pm'

On the other side of the coin, we play a venue, where the Landlord offered us food, a drink on the house and didn't charge us for the two rooms in the pub/hotel that we crashed in that night.

there was one excellent place we used to play - a tiny pub that had no entertainment budget, but the best landlord who would give us free booze all night.  Great crowd, and I'm sure I drank more than my usual cut for a paying gig every time we played.  The band member with the largest vehicle lived ten minutes walk away, so on more than one occasion the landlord let us leave all our gear in the pub to be picked up at opening time the following morning, so that we could all  enjoy the free beer.

The drummer typically didn't indulge, preferring to stay sober and drive home (which suited me as he could drop me off).  he once stopped off at the pub for lunch and the landlord recognised him as the non-drinking drummer, asked if he was driving that day, and on finding out that he would be drinking, gave him free beer for the rest of the afternoon.

That's exactly the sort of place I want to play (with the caveat that I've never been fussed about even covering costs, so YMMV)

[josie]

Can't resist sharing this pic by the excellent Andy Hibbs from the Aynsley Lister guitar weekend. 

 

 

[leschirons]

Last night's gig quite strange. Capacity crowd that we kept there right to the end. It's a restaurant/bar that changes to a nightclub at 1.00am. Great place to play, great owner however, he's just sold the business so although everyone was really up for it, it was our last gig there as the new owner won't be having bands there.  A privalage to get the final gig of course but mixed emotions.

[Graham]

Very much a game of two halves last night, decent sized crowd at a pub but in the first half got absolutely nothing back from them, they just stood watching in silence. Then, second half, more booze in them and us playing Sweet Caroline, it's like a different audience have walked in, much more fun.

The singer was having some feedback issues, but it wasn't until the end of the set I realised I could surreptitiously turn the gain down on his mic from the XAir app on my phone when he wasn't looking; I'll keep that in mind for the future.....

Edited January 26, 2019 by Graham

[Mickeyboro]

Now if you could turn the drummer down too...

[scalpy]

Annual fundraiser for the  Courtyard Theatre in Hereford.