cheddatom Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 3 minutes ago, Lozz196 said: I watched some of your set, tried to catch some songs from all the bands but was protecting my ears for our set later on, what I saw/heard of yours was good. It was a great event, and as always the crowd there were - shall I say it due to it being Manchester - mad for it. Hah, very good. Cheers! I'd normally have stayed the whole night but I had to rush off. I love the atmosphere at these punk gigs We did have some technical difficulties. Half the set should have been acoustic but for some reason the soundman couldn't get it to work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 Errr, interesting one on Saturday night... Private Party, supposed to be us headlining, one other band and a few people having a bit of a busk/jam earlier in the evening. That's what was arranged. Week before the gig our trumpet player realises she is double booked, luckily just round the corner so as long as we go on at our allotted 11:00pm start all is good. Everyone is there for the soundcheck, no sign of the geezer that booked us, sound guy already very stressed, venue owner is at least as stressed and already talking about shutting the evening down - he has been waiting for about 3 hours for some comms with the booker. Meanwhile every ten minutes another couple of chaps turn up with guitars or drum kits or what have you. All the signs are there, the wheels have well and truly come off this one! We get on stage to do our soundcheck and lo and behold the PA has a desk with 9 functioning channels!! We are a 7 piece band FFS, we run 18 channels into our mixer for a pub gig (IEMs require this kind of thing for everyone to be happy, but its worth it in our experience). There will need to be compromises, sure, but really! I choose to forego the PA - with a Big Twin II and a Quilter, I am very confident that I have got enough grunt for the quite large venue. This is absolutely the only thing I am confident about at this point. At this point a couple more full bands turn up with a ton of gear each - the sound guy looks about ready to quit... An hour after this our man turns up, with a full entourage of party goers. He is in no fit state to really organise taking a leak, and can't cope with the immediate barrage of questions. I hang back, two groups leave with their kit. I pin him for the fee, and he pays half up front. He then explains that he is charging £5 on the door - for his own party (?!?!?!?!) - to recoupe, we will be paid the rest of our fee when its been made. Hmmmmmmm.... Really? I explain we will be going on at 11:00, because that's what we agreed with him, and that none of our gear is to be used by anyone else (because we haven't agreed to that at all and this is well out of hand and there is no way I am going to let a bunch of unknowns have a crack on my gear - the amp is borrowed anyway, its not mine to lend). He then proceeds to play a set of terribly performed covers of Beatles songs with some of the aforementioned busker types. Dear God. I am not keen on the Beatles' efforts on their own songs, but this is some new and truly awful Hell. The single worst effort at Hey Jude I have ever heard. No amount of money is worth this! Whilst this is going on two more groups of buskers and another band walk. Thinning the heard is a very good thing, so ta-taaa! So there is a lot of people milling around with assorted gear, this makes me nervous, we ensure we have a watcher over the kit in the green room and another over the kit on the stage for the entire evening, how tedious, and rotate going for food. But at least things are moving now. And we can see the people turning up and turning away when they find out they aren't coming to a party, but instead coming to a gig played by a bunch of buskers having a dodgy jam. Another band storms out, the herd is fully thinned down now Finally a band proper goes on, they are a glam rock covers band, and have all the gear on to make that very obvious, lots of Sweet, T-Rex, Bowie, good singers, great rhythm section, its not my all time favourite set, but they are very good at what they do, and people start actually coming in to the venue, handing over cash, even having a boogie for a bit of the set. Things may be looking up. When they come off its clear they have had a great time too, really nice bunch too. Birthday boy has another crack after them, couple of bluesy tracks, way better than the earlier effort, then it our turn. He hands over the remainder of our fee just as I am setting up my pedal board. Result! After all this utter chaos and uncertainty (we would have walked too to be honest, but to be fair it was a long drive to not end up playing), we ended up starting our set at 11:02pm! Good God! Our set is completely redesigned and re-organised for this gig, we only have an hour and half rather than the usual 2 and a quarter hours to fill, so anything that isn't a funk monster track has been binned, the transitions are great fun and a nice change. We don't know quite how this is going to work but we have a decent idea it should really work. And, it really really does, we get a bunch of people dancing from the get go really enjoy the entire set, couple of squeaky moments mainly because the onstage sound is pretty much garbage (two monitors, and nothing for the drummer so he can't hear a damn thing properly). Come the end of the set we sell a few CDs have a chat to the revellers, and for the first time I can remember 3 people come over and talk to me specifically about the bass sound, which they reckon was immense, and superb. Kinda make up for a lot of the grief! Like I say, a really weird one, and we have decided we aren't going to do another party again without some very specific conditions, and if that means we never do another party again, I will be fine with that!!!! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dubs Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 It's been a while since I looked much further than the Marketplace on BC, so apologies if I've missed it but is there a pinned thread anywhere of venues to avoid? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monkey Steve Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 20 minutes ago, 51m0n said: Errr, interesting one on Saturday night... Private Party, supposed to be us headlining, one other band and a few people having a bit of a busk/jam earlier in the evening. That's what was arranged. Week before the gig our trumpet player realises she is double booked, luckily just round the corner so as long as we go on at our allotted 11:00pm start all is good. Everyone is there for the soundcheck, no sign of the geezer that booked us, sound guy already very stressed, venue owner is at least as stressed and already talking about shutting the evening down - he has been waiting for about 3 hours for some comms with the booker. Meanwhile every ten minutes another couple of chaps turn up with guitars or drum kits or what have you. All the signs are there, the wheels have well and truly come off this one! We get on stage to do our soundcheck and lo and behold the PA has a desk with 9 functioning channels!! We are a 7 piece band FFS, we run 18 channels into our mixer for a pub gig (IEMs require this kind of thing for everyone to be happy, but its worth it in our experience). There will need to be compromises, sure, but really! I choose to forego the PA - with a Big Twin II and a Quilter, I am very confident that I have got enough grunt for the quite large venue. This is absolutely the only thing I am confident about at this point. At this point a couple more full bands turn up with a ton of gear each - the sound guy looks about ready to quit... An hour after this our man turns up, with a full entourage of party goers. He is in no fit state to really organise taking a leak, and can't cope with the immediate barrage of questions. I hang back, two groups leave with their kit. I pin him for the fee, and he pays half up front. He then explains that he is charging £5 on the door - for his own party (?!?!?!?!) - to recoupe, we will be paid the rest of our fee when its been made. Hmmmmmmm.... Really? I explain we will be going on at 11:00, because that's what we agreed with him, and that none of our gear is to be used by anyone else (because we haven't agreed to that at all and this is well out of hand and there is no way I am going to let a bunch of unknowns have a crack on my gear - the amp is borrowed anyway, its not mine to lend). He then proceeds to play a set of terribly performed covers of Beatles songs with some of the aforementioned busker types. Dear God. I am not keen on the Beatles' efforts on their own songs, but this is some new and truly awful Hell. The single worst effort at Hey Jude I have ever heard. No amount of money is worth this! Whilst this is going on two more groups of buskers and another band walk. Thinning the heard is a very good thing, so ta-taaa! So there is a lot of people milling around with assorted gear, this makes me nervous, we ensure we have a watcher over the kit in the green room and another over the kit on the stage for the entire evening, how tedious, and rotate going for food. But at least things are moving now. And we can see the people turning up and turning away when they find out they aren't coming to a party, but instead coming to a gig played by a bunch of buskers having a dodgy jam. Another band storms out, the herd is fully thinned down now Finally a band proper goes on, they are a glam rock covers band, and have all the gear on to make that very obvious, lots of Sweet, T-Rex, Bowie, good singers, great rhythm section, its not my all time favourite set, but they are very good at what they do, and people start actually coming in to the venue, handing over cash, even having a boogie for a bit of the set. Things may be looking up. When they come off its clear they have had a great time too, really nice bunch too. Birthday boy has another crack after them, couple of bluesy tracks, way better than the earlier effort, then it our turn. He hands over the remainder of our fee just as I am setting up my pedal board. Result! After all this utter chaos and uncertainty (we would have walked too to be honest, but to be fair it was a long drive to not end up playing), we ended up starting our set at 11:02pm! Good God! Our set is completely redesigned and re-organised for this gig, we only have an hour and half rather than the usual 2 and a quarter hours to fill, so anything that isn't a funk monster track has been binned, the transitions are great fun and a nice change. We don't know quite how this is going to work but we have a decent idea it should really work. And, it really really does, we get a bunch of people dancing from the get go really enjoy the entire set, couple of squeaky moments mainly because the onstage sound is pretty much garbage (two monitors, and nothing for the drummer so he can't hear a damn thing properly). Come the end of the set we sell a few CDs have a chat to the revellers, and for the first time I can remember 3 people come over and talk to me specifically about the bass sound, which they reckon was immense, and superb. Kinda make up for a lot of the grief! Like I say, a really weird one, and we have decided we aren't going to do another party again without some very specific conditions, and if that means we never do another party again, I will be fine with that!!!! I have plenty of experience of the opposite - a four or five band gig (more if it's a charity bash) with an inexperienced promoter where we think everybody has agreed in advance to be sharing backline to save on soundchecks, and the (usually inexperienced) openers arrive with a van full off stuff that they insist on using, pushing everything back because the soundman was thinking he'd only have to do a quick linecheck before they went on and the doors are open before the openers have finished arguing about how loud they think their amps need to be in order to get "their sound" Glad yours turned out OK in the end 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martthebass Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 Private party on Saturday night, not often we do this but it was local and the punter had seen us on the book of face and thought we'd be ideal etc..... A small village hall type place but, even with the DJ there was sufficient room and utilities to see us all happy. Nice leisurely sound check until we come to checking vox - mine dead as a dead thing. Fortunately traced to a duff lead so not too bad. Sound check finished and into the back room to get changed, suit bag zip bust and ended up cutting my way in to get to my sparkly Glam gear grrrrrrrr. At this stage thinking, well that's 2 where's number 3? First spot goes without a hitch so I assume the laws of bad luck have taken the night off. Come to the second spot and the Guitarists wireless pack dies before the start of the first number......I grin and think the gremlin has passed me by and moved to him. Halfway through the same number my wireless pack dies; battery fine, receiving fine, no interference just no noise! Bugger, manage to struggle with a 2ft patch lead for the rest of that and the next number before being able to dash off stage for another lead. Fortunately despite all this the audience was good natured and had a blast - well at least no one commented at the end of the gig and we even got a bonus. Hope this coming Saturday is less technically compromised. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzmanb Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 Good weekend depping Classic rock covers with a twist Young lads birthday so he grabbed the mic in between sets and started rappers delight by the sugar hill gang .After a minute or so I picked up my bass and he was bang in tune as I dropped the Good times bassline in . 😎🤣 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewblack Posted March 2, 2019 Share Posted March 2, 2019 Played to a packed whizzed pub in Bath last night. Usual crammed in a corner set up nightmare, slow tide of dropped pints advancing on me throughout the night, angry guy insisting we play 'Oasis' storms off disgusted when we don't comply, landlord fancies himself a sound engineer, keyboard player has flu and I play with a cut finger on my fretting hand. It was awesome! Really great gig. My old Aria into SVT through two BF 15s. Warm and solid. Only downside, it was my wonderful singer's last gig for a while as she is having a baby next month. We will miss her, her deps have an impossible job. Here she is still finding the strength to crush the life out of her singing partner at last night's gig. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewblack Posted March 2, 2019 Share Posted March 2, 2019 Thanks profanity filter for A) imagining 'whizzed' is considered a swear word and B) ruining my alliteration Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonard Smalls Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 First gig for Choked last night at a teenytiny venue in Leominster... The place was full (though being teeny that meant maybe 30 people!) as we were supporting 2 local bands. And despite the fact that there was no monitoring so we couldn't hear the vocals, and the drummer couldn't hear bass or guitar as we had to be in front of him, in went OK - too fast obviously but hopefully that'll calm down. No major woopsies, tight and in tune - couldn't ask for much more! Apart from monitoring, less drum speeding up and louder bass out front (or that could just be phone video didn't pick it up - though octave up plus down, 2 envelope filters and bass synth usually cut through; never sounds the same playing through someone else's cab - a 4x10 Trace just doesn't cut it compared to my usual PD 15 and Markbass 2x10). Next one 23rd March, at Paradiddles in Worcester. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul S Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 First gig with my new 'blues power trio' Tore Down at a small blues-friendly venue - The Grand Old Duke Of York' in Ipswich. We've only had 3 rehearsals and I think it showed with tops and tails but the guitarist totally captivated the small but appreciative audience. Bodes well for the future. I also proved to myself that I can happily revert back to 4 string basses after spending the last 2 years playing just 5 strings. Dusted down my remaining JV Precision and it sounded lush with TI flats through my old Trace Elliot head. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewblack Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 11 minutes ago, Paul S said: . Dusted down my remaining JV Precision and it sounded lush with TI flats through my old Trace Elliot head. Ah. Precision, flats, Trace Elliott. The holy trinity. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stylon Pilson Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 Last night's gig was at a fairly small pub on the outskirts of Maidenhead. It was one of those venues that isn't really ideal for live music, as the bar is in the centre and the pub wraps around it, so half of your audience is always out of sight. At the interval our singer/guitarist was grumbling a bit that owing to the fairly shy crowd he was struggling to really get into it. I countered that it's when the crowd is quiet that you need to double down and give it even more beans to try and wake them up. In the second half something magical happened and we sounded better and tighter than we ever have before, and it became one of those intensely rewarding gigs. The audience reception also warmed up a bit, and I think we probably got the best out of them that we could have. I think this was probably helped by one particularly drunk guy, who we befriended. Not to the point of inviting him up on-stage to sing, but when he showed up during the second set and asked for something by A Flock Of Seagulls, we obliged by playing I Ran despite the fact that we'd already played it once halfway through our first set. We've only recently added it to our set and it sounds awesome, so we didn't take much arm-twisting. As I mentioned in this thread after my first gig with this band back in September, I've been mostly playing in originals bands all my life and have become accustomed to having PA support, so have always EQ'd my amp for clarity on-stage and not had to worry about pushing much low-end out into the room. Now I'm in a pub covers band with vocals-only PA, I've been finding myself having to EQ for the room, resulting in a fairly bassy and indistinct sound standing right next to my rig on-stage. A few weeks back I bought a little foldable camping table for £10 with the intention of raising my cab by about 30cm. I was sceptical that this could have any significant effect but I used it last night and was wowed by the difference. On the drive home I was listening to Gameshow by Two Door Cinema Club and loving it so much that I missed my turning. S.P. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staggering on Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 Two gigs this week. On Thursday the jazz standards quartet played four sets of "wallpaper music" music while about 150 of Canada's mining company executives mingled and networked and ate a stand up banquet of seafood "finger foods" in a large ballroom and drank lots of booze. Nice crowd and several came over to say nice things to us about our music and we had several enquiries re future gigs.The organizers have already booked us for next year. We play quite a few gigs like this and while it may sound like a really boring and thankless job it is interesting to watch toes tapping in the crowd even as they talk and eat and to watch someone walking around doing a bit of grooving to our "background" music which some would call live Muzak. We look at these gigs as paid rehearsals and play a lot of music we don't get to play at our normal gigs and often stretch the song and our solos by adding a few choruses so it is actually fun, believe it or not. You have to have the right attitude to survive these gigs and the fact that we were well paid helps. Last night the seven piece "little big band" played two sets of swing(me on DB) and a set of Dixieland (me on tenor banjo) in a smallish function room at a craft brewery.We drove through a snowstorm to get there and were worried about the turn out but the room was almost full(about 40 something people) and we had a great night with a standing "O" at the end and are booked back for a date in August. All in all a good week and my Engelhardt Swingmaster ES 9 sounded great using the KNA DB 1 pickup into a Schatten Mini Pre (input gain and volume control only) that goes into our Bose PA so I don't even need to take an amp.😊 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewblack Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 Just looked up Game Show and was treated to a 360 video. Which was mind blowing for this old fart. Great tune too so thanks @Stylon Pilson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
12stringbassist Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 Last night we played near Wigan. Our first time at the venue. I could have unloaded at the front, but the pub was full because of a 50th party. So I drove onto the rear car park. Mistake. I had a terrible time turning round to get back up towards the rear entrance and carrying the gear via a very very circuituous route to get into the pub. I vowed at that point to cancel the gig there later in the year. However, what turned out to be the party gig went well enough and we managed to load out through the front. Maybe it would be an idea to arrive a bit earlier next time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonard Smalls Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 Photo from Reet Petite last night... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 Had a good gig at the local lairy late venue, the Helix Stomp (and in-ears) was just fantastic until a mystery cutout near the end (to be investigated), but also memorable for a not-that-drunk, obviously-muso punter coming up at the end and advising us with a completely straight face that our last number (Killing In The Name: it went right off ) should have been replaced with something 'that people who appreciate music could get into'. His suggestion was Take Five. I looked at him expectantly, waiting for the punchline, but no, was serious. A set-closer in a lairy, lively, jump-around pub at 1am. Really. Pffft. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dontregartha Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 After reworking almost 50 numbers over the last 6 weeks, we started our main campaign last night. We had a couple of gigs last week, but that was with a dep keys player, who although great wasn't up speed on the details of the new arrangements. Last night we went out with our new singer who is an audio wiz so the sound was awesome. The venue was weird, well received and the pay was good, the hospitality ace, but its a snooker and pool hall - so half the audience is shooting pool. We were pretty tight - soul/funk/disco and listening back to the recording, we delivered a good show. Can't wait until we've gigged it a bit tighter. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheddatom Posted March 4, 2019 Share Posted March 4, 2019 (edited) Headsticks launched our new album on Friday so we'd arranged 3 gigs this weekend to launch/celebrate. Friday night at The Salty Dog in Northwich. This venue is ace and it was pretty full. The crowd were obviously all fans as they knew all the songs, even the ones from the new album, and half of those even we struggled to remember! It should be a great sound here but they seemed to struggle with some dodgy gear. The sound check was perfectly clear and balanced but a DI failed early on in the set meaning our guitarist had to rely on his tiny amp to try and fill the room and this turned the stage sound to mush. It sounded great out front apparently, which is all that matters Saturday was Katie Fitzgerald's in Stourbridge. This is another great venue, but similar issues again. The room sounded awesome, but the mixing desk had clearly seen better days. It was obvious from the music playing from an Ipod that kept jumping up and down in volume. That thing needs a service! Anyway, it sounded great out front and we got a great reception Last night was Foreman's Bar in Nottingham. This place really is tiny. Sold out at a capacity of 55 people and they were packed in like sardines. I used my tupperware bass drum contraption instead of a normal kit just so we could fit in. The whole place was singing along and dancing Brilliant weekend! Now I need a lie down EDIT: Someone posted some footage so you can hear my tupperware kick drum in action Edited March 5, 2019 by cheddatom 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sté Posted March 4, 2019 Share Posted March 4, 2019 That was 2 weeks ago. Our jazz trio with a reader. We did it as a single event project: mix music and text reading. The guy is a professional; his main gig is to read in public as "the man who reads everything". You give him a text (from book, songs, ads, Tv program, newspaper, ... anything you want) and he reads it live with his artistic interpretation. It was an awesome experience for both 4 of us and we have decided to continue together; as a side project of the jazz quartet we already have with a sax player. Pics of our better gig to date: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casapete Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 Did the first gig for over 6 months with my country band The Fork Handles last night. Venue was a pub which myself and the guitarist do every Tuesday as an acoustic duo. The landlord is a great guy, and offered the gig to us so we decided to do it ‘unplugged’ in an effort to keep the volume sensible. 4 piece band, myself on bass/vocals, guitar /mandolin / lead vocals, guitar / lap steel / dobro / vocals and drummist/vocals. The room is not massive with a stone flagged floor (an old brewery!) so we set up in a corner and used 4 xBose 802s - two for out front and two for monitors, running off each side of a Yamaha EMX mixer amp. No backline amps for the first time so a bit scary. It actually worked well, although I could only just hear myself towards the end of the second set when the drummer started his usual malarkey of heavy handed snare and cymbals, but despite that we got away with it. Room was rammed with punters, so the landlord well pleased and talking of it being a regular thing so job done. 🙂 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 On a whim I took my Thunderbird out last night - its first outing for a couple of years. It made a sound that I can only describe as "majestic". We were at a fairly large and relaxed social club with plenty of room on the low level stage. The Thunderbird always has a level of "grit" to it, but with the contour button engaged on my Fender Rumble v3 500 combo it even sounded quite funky in the songs that needed it. On the more rocky stuff it came into its own. Gorgeous sounds on either pickup, although less distinct with both We often do random requests, especially at this club due to the relaxed atmosphere. Last night we did a rather good rendition of Knights in White Satin, and a sliver of Hotel California - finishing on the line "They stab it with their steely knives" and then falling about laughing Tonight's gig is a pub, crammed in the corner, so I'll be back to the workhorse Squier P-bass Special. I might throw a new set of strings on this afternoon though - I can't remember the last time I changed them. Then we have 6 weeks off while the guitarist goes touring with his "bread and butter" band (Martin Turner). Some free weekends - what do normal people do on a Saturday night?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 10 minutes ago, Norris said: On a whim I took my Thunderbird out last night - its first outing for a couple of years. It made a sound that I can only describe as "majestic". Spooky, I was looking at things for the gig tonight and I thought, oh I will take my thunderbird out, haven't done that in a while. I will mess stuff up as it has a string missing, but I figure I will look cool doing it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 5 minutes ago, Woodinblack said: I will look cool doing it That's what Thunderbirds are built for Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Len_derby Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 24 minutes ago, Norris said: On a whim I took my Thunderbird out last night - its first outing for a couple of years. It made a sound that I can only describe as "majestic". I remember trying that out at a Bass Bash a couple of years ago. Afterwards I had to whip myself with my empty wallet until the GAS subsided 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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