How was your gig last night?

[EJWW]

Played a rather rough pub in a northern suburb of Brum last night. It was packed and they loved us (we always deliver a big crowd) but too many idiots and pi55heads for my liking.

Plus the landlord didn't offer us a drink before or after the gig and has the bloody cheek to switch to online payment and forcing me to wait for my money.

On the plus side the stage sound was excellent and I dropped barely a bum note all night. 

The Squier Cv P once again delivered the goods with ease and comfort. It really is a terrific instrument and I can't understand why the GAS for another P bass just won't subside 🤷‍♂️

[ricksterphil]

A gig in the village hall to raise money for Ukraine. We raised £1800. The local Ukrainian centre provided a choir of young ladies to sing some traditional songs and one of them is a refugee from the conflict

 

Followed by various ditties from local acts and scratch bands, one of which I was in.... we're mulching our way through 'Sorrow' here. The chap on the left of the pic in the white shirt is Forest & Newcastle legend Frank Clark

[Mickeyboro]

9 hours ago, ricksterphil said:

A gig in the village hall to raise money for Ukraine. We raised £1800. The local Ukrainian centre provided a choir of young ladies to sing some traditional songs and one of them is a refugee from the conflict

 

Followed by various ditties from local acts and scratch bands, one of which I was in.... we're mulching our way through 'Sorrow' here. The chap on the left of the pic in the white shirt is Forest & Newcastle legend Frank Clark

Blimey, Frank Clark! Remember seeing him in the audience at a Dave Edmunds gig many years ago… 

[Mickeyboro]

On 10/04/2022 at 14:30, EJWW said:

Played a rather rough pub in a northern suburb of Brum last night. It was packed and they loved us (we always deliver a big crowd) but too many idiots and pi55heads for my liking.

Plus the landlord didn't offer us a drink before or after the gig and has the bloody cheek to switch to online payment and forcing me to wait for my money.

On the plus side the stage sound was excellent and I dropped barely a bum note all night. 

The Squier Cv P once again delivered the goods with ease and comfort. It really is a terrific instrument and I can't understand why the GAS for another P bass just won't subside 🤷‍♂️

Glad the Precision is still doing it for you, mate! Long may it do so.

[EJWW]

4 hours ago, Mickeyboro said:

Glad the Precision is still doing it for you, mate! Long may it do so.

Is a great bass Mick 👍

[Bluewine]

Not last night, however I'm really looking forward to our gig opening for

Larry McCray Friday night at The Bend Theatre. It's sold out so we'll be playing to 350 people. It's a small theatre. I've never played a theatre gig.

 

Blue

[dmccombe7]

Nice one Blue.

Enjoy. I'm sure you'll have fun.

Dave

[Stub Mandrel]

2 hours ago, Bluewine said:

Not last night, however I'm really looking forward to our gig opening for

Larry McCray Friday night at The Bend Theatre. It's sold out so we'll be playing to 350 people. It's a small theatre. I've never played a theatre gig.

 

Blue

 

Brilliant,  name up in lights!

[Bluewine]

10 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Nice one Blue.

Enjoy. I'm sure you'll have fun.

Dave

 

Thanks Dave,

I've only played with signed recording artists a few times. I plan on doing a little networking if possible. Larry McCray is a part of the Joe Bonamassa camp.

 

Blue

[Bluewine]

10 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

Brilliant,  name up in lights!

Thanks Stub,

 

Our set is only an hour. It will be fun to blast through an hour of our best stuff.

 

Blue

[dmccombe7]

25 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

 

Thanks Dave,

I've only played with signed recording artists a few times. I plan on doing a little networking if possible. Larry McCray is a part of the Joe Bonamassa camp.

 

Blue

Even better and hope you get some more work out of it.

Dave

[bassbiscuits]

I’m bit late with this one from Sunday afternoon. Fair weather vintage rock band we put together during lockdown but which has run it’s course really, so this was probably our last planned gig. 
 

As a result it was super chilled and a really good fun vibe. Had a great time and went down well - judging by some snippets on Facebook it sounded half decent too. 
 

[dmccombe7]

38 minutes ago, bassbiscuits said:

I’m bit late with this one from Sunday afternoon. Fair weather vintage rock band we put together during lockdown but which has run it’s course really, so this was probably our last planned gig. 
 

As a result it was super chilled and a really good fun vibe. Had a great time and went down well - judging by some snippets on Facebook it sounded half decent too. 
 

If the vibe was there just because you were all more relaxed about then keep it going but stay relaxed about it all. If a band gets too serious the fun disappears for me and time to move on to the next project.

Dave

[Stub Mandrel]

2 hours ago, Bluewine said:

Thanks Stub,

 

Our set is only an hour. It will be fun to blast through an hour of our best stuff.

 

Blue

 

Have a good un'!

[Bluewine]

4 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

If the vibe was there just because you were all more relaxed about then keep it going but stay relaxed about it all. If a band gets too serious the fun disappears for me and time to move on to the next project.

Dave

 

Agreed,

 

There are allot of elements that can take the fun out of being in a band. Once the fun is gone there's not much left.

 

Blue

[Bluewine]

Our gig with headliner Larry McCray last night went really well. 

[Paul S]

Had a gig at Ye Olde Smack in Old Leigh, played there before.  The quaint old fishing village of Old Leigh was totally rammed when we got there - a sunny easter weekend - and the pub is one of those ramshackle old places that has random spaces and very low ceilings.  A mixed night.

 

Plus - the load in is pretty easy, the space cleared and available from 6:30pm. 

Minus - the area for the band is inbetween two areas of the pub and punters continually use it as a short cut to get to the bar.  Including one drunk girl while we were actually playing, having to pick her way in between all the gear. 

Minus - it is almost impossible to get a good sound 'on stage' the low ceilings and room configuration just gives a weird muffly reverb effect. 

Plus - it sounded good further out into the pub. 

Plus - sound check (SRV's Mary Had a Little Lamb) got a huge cheer.  Given the genre - blues rock - surprised to see loads of people were up dancing from the start and everything went down well.  Even Red House  

Plus - at half time I popped into the gents and overheard a couple of chaps saying how good the band was.

Minus - a big drunken idiot kept shouting 'Play Wonderwall' in between every song. 

Minus - most of the people who liked us left at 10:30pm so we played a lot of our best stuff to a handful of people who were not really interested. 

Plus - guitarist Alan had got into his stride by then so played like he was at Wembley Arena.

Minus - all the people who said they were going to come along didn't.  

Plus - break down and load out was quick and incident-free.

Plus - I was in bed by midnight.

 

We are playinig there again in September, I expect it to be the same mixed affair. 

 

[stewblack]

2 hours ago, Bluewine said:

Our gig with headliner Larry McCray last night went really well. 

Great stuff Blue.

[stewblack]

3 minutes ago, Paul S said:

Had a gig at Ye Olde Smack in Old Leigh, played there before.  The quaint old fishing village of Old Leigh was totally rammed when we got there - a sunny easter weekend - and the pub is one of those ramshackle old places that has random spaces and very low ceilings.  A mixed night.

 

Plus - the load in is pretty easy, the space cleared and available from 6:30pm. 

Minus - the area for the band is inbetween two areas of the pub and punters continually use it as a short cut to get to the bar.  Including one drunk girl while we were actually playing, having to pick her way in between all the gear. 

Minus - it is almost impossible to get a good sound 'on stage' the low ceilings and room configuration just gives a weird muffly reverb effect. 

Plus - it sounded good further out into the pub. 

Plus - sound check (SRV's Mary Had a Little Lamb) got a huge cheer.  Given the genre - blues rock - surprised to see loads of people were up dancing from the start and everything went down well.  Even Red House  

Plus - at half time I popped into the gents and overheard a couple of chaps saying how good the band was.

Minus - a big drunken idiot kept shouting 'Play Wonderwall' in between every song. 

Minus - most of the people who liked us left at 10:30pm so we played a lot of our best stuff to a handful of people who were not really interested. 

Plus - guitarist Alan had got into his stride by then so played like he was at Wembley Arena.

Minus - all the people who said they were going to come along didn't.  

Plus - break down and load out was quick and incident-free.

Plus - I was in bed by midnight.

 

We are playinig there again in September, I expect it to be the same mixed affair. 

 

Easy load in, bed by midnight. Always the best gig.

[dmccombe7]

Riverside Bar in Dumfries. My 2nd time in this venue with this band and always a nice welcome.

Large conservatory type ad-on to the original bar with a wooden floor so sound i was hearing was a little bit more boomy and couldn't hear the top end too well. Used the para EQ to cut the low frequencies helped 

Lot of dancers as always with the punk band.

Quite a civilsed gig as we arrived 5:30 set up the gear by 6:30, went for dinner in nearby restaurant and on stage 8:30pm. 2 sets and had to finish 11pm.

Usual conversations at the end of the gig with punters which is always good. Several compliments even better. Offer of several drinks but driving meant no drink for me.

Packed up and ready to go by 12:15am, home by 01:30, bed at 2am after my coffee and biccies.

While packing my car the singer came out to say lots of nice things about the new bass player (me) all positive and complimenting me. I do love compliments at the end of the night.  The band have been regulars at this venue for quite a few years now.

Dont know how to copy a FB vid onto BC i'm afraid.

Dave

[tony_m]

First "pub gig" for the new band last night, at a drinking establishment frequented by Mr Drums - the newish owners are looking to put bands on regularly, so this was a bit of a tester.

 

After a late afternoon domestic crisis (dripping heating oil tank = large bill incoming... 🙄 ) I finally arrived 40 minutes before showtime, and managed to a) get parked right outside, and b) squeeze myself into the little remaining space in the small area they'd set aside for us. Quick soundcheck, and blimey - everything sounds absolutely spot-on! 

 

First four numbers went brilliantly, if I say so myself. Then the landlord approached - uh-oh, what's wrong? "Can you turn it up, the folks at the back can't hear!" he says. Turn it UP???!!! Eh? OK, so we do pride ourselves on being just loud enough, but this is a first in our short, five-gig career. 

 

So, up goes the volume in the mains, and...... everything starts to fall apart. Monitors peaking and crackling, singer's electro-acoustic booming (which of course everybody thinks is down to me... 🤨 ), generally just horrible. We make it through to the end of the set, which amazingly closes to loud applause and many complimentary comments. Really? Are your ears painted on? 😆

 

After much head-scratching and tweaks to the desk during the break (over the course of which I was totally absolved from being the cause of any issues, obvs... 😇), the second set went a lot better, apart from the number where Mr Lead Guitar tunes to drop-D (Steve Earle's "Guitar Town") - normally this makes his Tele sound amazing, but last night it sounded like a herd of trumpeting elephants! We made it through to the end of the song, at which point we all looked at each other and just cracked up - fortunately the audience seemed less nonplussed than us, so it can't have been too bad out front after all.

 

Second set ended to more loud appplause from the admittedly smaller audience than was there at the start, but I suspect that's just the way the pub works with people wandering in and out all evening. We even treated them to a quick encore of a song we worked up at rehearsal last week (Tom Petty's "Yer So Bad"), which ended the night on a high for us at least.

 

So, seems we really do still need to get to grips with our new desk (Yamaha MG16XU), and especially why a monitor mix carefully crafted in the rehearsal shed suddenly falls apart. It'll be interesting to see how things go at our next two gigs (a charity event in June, using our PA but the venue's in-house soundman, and an outdoor charity festival in July where PA and soundman are both provided). Onwards and upwards!

[Bluewine]

8 hours ago, Paul S said:

Had a gig at Ye Olde Smack in Old Leigh, played there before.  The quaint old fishing village of Old Leigh was totally rammed when we got there - a sunny easter weekend - and the pub is one of those ramshackle old places that has random spaces and very low ceilings.  A mixed night.

 

Plus - the load in is pretty easy, the space cleared and available from 6:30pm. 

Minus - the area for the band is inbetween two areas of the pub and punters continually use it as a short cut to get to the bar.  Including one drunk girl while we were actually playing, having to pick her way in between all the gear. 

Minus - it is almost impossible to get a good sound 'on stage' the low ceilings and room configuration just gives a weird muffly reverb effect. 

Plus - it sounded good further out into the pub. 

Plus - sound check (SRV's Mary Had a Little Lamb) got a huge cheer.  Given the genre - blues rock - surprised to see loads of people were up dancing from the start and everything went down well.  Even Red House  

Plus - at half time I popped into the gents and overheard a couple of chaps saying how good the band was.

Minus - a big drunken idiot kept shouting 'Play Wonderwall' in between every song. 

Minus - most of the people who liked us left at 10:30pm so we played a lot of our best stuff to a handful of people who were not really interested. 

Plus - guitarist Alan had got into his stride by then so played like he was at Wembley Arena.

Minus - all the people who said they were going to come along didn't.  

Plus - break down and load out was quick and incident-free.

Plus - I was in bed by midnight.

 

We are playinig there again in September, I expect it to be the same mixed affair. 

 

 

Playing far from the bar has always been the kiss of death for my band.

 

Blue

[Bluewine]

8 hours ago, stewblack said:

Great stuff Blue.

Thanks Stew. I didn't realize how

"old school" our little band looks. Four pieces and 4 vocals. We really can't fit keys into the budget yet.

 

You can really get spoiled with these plush gigs. Next weekend, back to reality.lol 😀

 

Blue

[stewblack]

3 hours ago, Bluewine said:

Thanks Stew. I didn't realize how

"old school" our little band looks. Four pieces and 4 vocals. We really can't fit keys into the budget yet.

 

You can really get spoiled with these plush gigs. Next weekend, back to reality.lol 😀

 

Blue

Yeah I know what you mean. At the end of the day, a gigs a gig, I guess. 

But I do miss a green room with a stocked chiller and a couple of guys sorting the sound. 

Don't really miss soundchecking four hours before showtime though 😂

[stewblack]

10 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

 I do love compliments at the end of the night. 

We're all applause whores at heart