cheddatom Posted July 22, 2019 Share Posted July 22, 2019 We played The Sugarmill (Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent) on Friday. It's the big local venue and for the first time in the 20 years I've been going there, the place didn't stink of fosters. Maybe I've been whining within earshot of the right people? Maybe they've contracted new cleaners? Anyway, we were supporting The Membranes. They're really nice guys and I actually like their stuff, although I wish the drummer would replace his broken cymbals, I'm sure he's getting paid enough. We had a dep on bass, Pete the guitarist from Slice Of Life. He's done such a good job preparing for these couple of dep gigs, I'm sure he knows the songs better than us. It could be a nerve-wracking experience playing with a dep but this was super tight and loads of fun. Our gigs are a bit thin on the ground at the moment so it was brilliant to get back on stage and play the stinky poo out of my drums. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikanHannille Posted July 22, 2019 Share Posted July 22, 2019 18 hours ago, stewblack said: Sounds beautiful, where was the venue? Camp House Inn in Grimley, Worcester. It’s a lovely place for small outdoor parties. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Blank Posted July 22, 2019 Share Posted July 22, 2019 (edited) Just played four songs at the Monday night Open Mic at The Railway in Southend, sat back down in my seat only to be unceremoniously dragged into conversation with a very drunk man who a) complained about the lack of good electronic bands in Essex, b) went on and on and on about how good Squarepusher is and finally, c) tried to get me to drink his pint which, after ignoring my gentle ‘sorry, I don’t drink’ refusals he finally tipped all over me, great. Edited July 22, 2019 by Frank Blank 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul S Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 8 hours ago, Frank Blank said: Just played four songs at the Monday night Open Mic at The Railway in Southend, sat back down in my seat only to be unceremoniously dragged into conversation with a very drunk man who a) complained about the lack of good electronic bands in Essex, b) went on and on and on about how good Squarepusher is and finally, c) tried to get me to drink his pint which, after ignoring my gentle ‘sorry, I don’t drink’ refusals he finally tipped all over me, great. Justification, were it needed, for my never setting foot in the place! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonard Smalls Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 Played a new festival yesterday - Funk in the Forest near Welshpool. Unfortunately they'd only been given a licence for 500 people due to complaints from the village (on the other side of a hill and 1.5 miles away!), and we were playing at 1530, which meant we only played to 10 people! However, PA was good, sound person was good,I was provided with an Ashdown rig that sounded very punchy indeed which meant all those unnecessary notes i play could be heard. And despite the drummer being unhappy as he had a bad chest and had to carry some stuff a couple of hundred metres, we all played well; couple of minor fluffs but nobody noticed, 5 of the audience danced about quite a lot (perhaps they'd started very early on the "Festival Spirit? Or maybe we were actually groovy? Who knows...) and we got interviewed by some fanziney podcast thing who I gave yet another false name (*) to. You've got to keep them guessing! The picture shows me doing my impression of the Incredible Melting Man... * I went for Leonardo di Piccolo. They said I sounded very English for an Italian! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Bay Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 Played a new pub for us in Lichfield, very nice but tiny space to set up in. Small but keen crowd. I just took the supercompact due to space but it sounded good on its own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doomed Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 Very hot, very sweaty and very very loud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 We were in Purley last night, not especially busy, but that was probably down to the weather as apparently all the pubs in the area were quiet. We must've been doing something right though, as an asian lady came up during the first set and handed each of us a £10 tip, it was mid-song (Alright Now) so hard to thank her, but it was a really nice gesture - for us at least tips are very rare, but always appreciated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steantval Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 (edited) 4 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said: Played a new festival yesterday - Funk in the Forest near Welshpool. Unfortunately they'd only been given a licence for 500 people due to complaints from the village (on the other side of a hill and 1.5 miles away!), and we were playing at 1530, which meant we only played to 10 people! However, PA was good, sound person was good,I was provided with an Ashdown rig that sounded very punchy indeed which meant all those unnecessary notes i play could be heard. And despite the drummer being unhappy as he had a bad chest and had to carry some stuff a couple of hundred metres, we all played well; couple of minor fluffs but nobody noticed, 5 of the audience danced about quite a lot (perhaps they'd started very early on the "Festival Spirit? Or maybe we were actually groovy? Who knows...) and we got interviewed by some fanziney podcast thing who I gave yet another false name (*) to. You've got to keep them guessing! The picture shows me doing my impression of the Incredible Melting Man... * I went for Leonardo di Piccolo. They said I sounded very English for an Italian! Really, ten people? It must be hard to summon up the enthusiasm to get up a perform. Edited July 27, 2019 by steantval Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 49 minutes ago, steantval said: Really, ten people? It must be hard to summon up the enthusiasm to get up a perform. Played to that amount once. 10 people of whom 5 are engaged are a lot better to perform to than 100 who are ignoring you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonard Smalls Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 1 hour ago, Woodinblack said: 10 people of whom 5 are engaged are a lot better to perform to than 100 who are ignoring you! All 10 were actually engaged - just 5 of them were jumping about... One of them was extremely enthusiastic saying we were awesome and how he wanted to have my babies and everything. Let's hope there's more folks at our next gig - though Down On The Farm is a much bigger festival; Coghlan's Quo are headlining Sunday eve and we're on in the afternoon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluewine Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 (edited) We have a boat cruze gig on Lake Michigan tonight. Join Maple Road aboard The Vista King Saturday Night 7/27/2019 9pm - 11pm Milwaukee Boat Line 101 W Michigan St, Milwaukee Blue Edited July 27, 2019 by Bluewine 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazzbass Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 10 hours ago, Bluewine said: We have a boat cruze gig on Lake Michigan tonight. Join Maple Road aboard The Vista King Saturday Night 7/27/2019 9pm - 11pm Milwaukee Boat Line 101 W Michigan St, Milwaukee Blue sounds like an ideal gig,Blue. Hope it went well mate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluewine Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 (edited) 12 hours ago, Bluewine said: We have a boat cruze gig on Lake Michigan tonight. Join Maple Road aboard The Vista King Saturday Night 7/27/2019 9pm - 11pm Milwaukee Boat Line 101 W Michigan St, Milwaukee Blue The boat cruise was good .It was a lot of work but still fun We played 2 hours straight, no breaks. We were loud. Our band drew over 100 people that paid $25.00 a pop to see us. The crowd was fantastic Blue Edited July 28, 2019 by Bluewine 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 Had a gig in our regular monthly pub on Friday, and it was the first after we resumed practicing, the guitarist got an evening job so we hadn't had any practices in months, but now he has lost it. This was the first time we were going to do 'feel it still' with me singing. We learned it about 4 months ago but hadn't practiced it since so I was beginning to forget it again. When it came up to doing it we were in all the high energy songs so I was a bit nervous and said to the frontman that we should skip it, but he insisted it would go down well, so we did it and it went down very well. This means that all the songs I sing go down well. If I was more arrogant i would assume that means I am a good singer, luckily I know it is just because they are good songs and people are more tolerant of singing in a live band! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 Hard work last night, was dead when started, then a few more people turned up, one of which was very extroverted and dancing and of course turned into a pain in the derrière. I suspect he'd had some chemical as well as alcoholic stimulants. Second half was better, still not a big audience, but at least an enthusiastic one 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oopsdabassist Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 Last night we did a 60th birthday party for the landlady of a pub we played about 3 months back, it was in a barn, on a farm, in the wild depths of South Bucks, adjoining field for car parking and camping..there were a few there Hog roast and free drinks all night, nice, but 1 x 13amp power lead and no lights in the barn meant many nervous glances regarding taking out the power...but all good. Polite, but very appreciative audience until about halfway through 2nd set, when suddenly EVERYBODY decided they wanted to dance, including the 83 year grand matron of the clan, we ended up doing a 40 min encore including many songs we had already played but no one was oiled enough to dance to 1st time round. Absolutely brilliant night, and we got a couple of taps for future gigs as well. Breakdown was...interesting as we had to use car headlights to illuminate the barn once we had broken down our lights, people were still dancing in a field with cows when we left...I love my life! 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 1 hour ago, Oopsdabassist said: people were still dancing in a field with cows when we left Not the famed concrete cows? 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oopsdabassist Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 That's my neck of the wood Aye, but this was nearer Thame......smartypants! 😁 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewblack Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 What began as a jam has slowly morphed into what almost resembles a band. We still don't rehearse but we had a list of songs for yesterday's gig. Not that we played them in any particular order mind you. We basically spend the late afternoon into the early evening playing vaguely blues oriented tunes, but anything goes really (Led Zeppelin followed by Dolly Parton anyone?). Drummer kicks a cahon and rattles a few bits and pieces, outrageously good singer and a couple of guitars trading solos. The pub, despite not receiving our posters so no advanced advertising, was pretty quiet, but the landlord paid us. An honourable man. If you're ever in Pewsey buy a pint at the Royal Oak and tell him Stew sent you. People who show proper support for live music need to be cherished. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluewine Posted August 1, 2019 Share Posted August 1, 2019 (edited) I have an acoustic gig tonight and full Maple Road gig tomorrow night 6:30-9:30 Blue Edited August 1, 2019 by Bluewine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaypup Posted August 2, 2019 Share Posted August 2, 2019 Played at a business networking event in Oxford on Wednesday. Why? Why book a band that isn't background music for an event that exists solely for people to talk to each other? Anyway, as was predicted, everyone went outside to continue talking whilst we played to the bar staff. Off to Wilderness festival today and then have a dep disco wedding set tomorrow so a nice busy weekend of music playing 😀 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluewine Posted August 2, 2019 Share Posted August 2, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, chaypup said: Played at a business networking event in Oxford on Wednesday. Why? Why book a band that isn't background music for an event that exists solely for people to talk to each other? Anyway, as was predicted, everyone went outside to continue talking whilst we played to the bar staff. Off to Wilderness festival today and then have a dep disco wedding set tomorrow so a nice busy weekend of music playing 😀 Sounds like a nice fun weekend, nice to be busy. I have a triple header weekend. Blue Edited August 2, 2019 by Bluewine 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted August 2, 2019 Share Posted August 2, 2019 Played at the Rebellion Festival in Blackpool. Our biggest audience to date, not sure how many but the room holds 2500ish and there wasn’t much free space. Played well, sold a load of our new album which we released today, got loads of good comments/feedback. Think the grins say it all. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itu Posted August 2, 2019 Share Posted August 2, 2019 Whoa, two long sets, long stairs to carry the stuff in an island... The place was like a wooden tube and the percussionist as well as the drummer beside me were stunts. There were several songs where I had no idea, what the others were doing out there, in front of these two guys. We gathered our stuff to a boat and left the island just 45 minutes after the last song. Not bad at all. OK, this time we were only 8, usually we are 12. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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