How was your gig last night?

[Stub Mandrel]

Why have the rest of the band all got 'interesting' objects attached to their heads?

 

[Angelus]

2 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Why have the rest of the band all got 'interesting' objects attached to their heads?

 

Party head gear, hoping it will catch on next year. 🤣

[Mickeyboro]

1 hour ago, Angelus said:

Party head gear, hoping it will catch on next year. 🤣

Blinking singers, always think they are the star…

[Bluewine]

On 29/12/2023 at 19:23, bassbiscuits said:

Just back from two shows at Bibi’s Italianissimo - sort of big 1920s-themed restaurant in Leeds. We do a matinee and evening gig there most times we play, as we did today. Really good vibe, nice crowd, up for singing and dancing. 
 

Took my Mustang bass along for its first gig this year - I’d put it up for sale, then withdrawn it, and thought I owed it another bash to see how it performed at a live gig. 
 

And the answer was “brilliantly!” Glad I hung on to it. 
 

The projection of a cosy winter hearth on the backdrop did make it look like our drummer was on fire when viewed front on…
 

Classy looking room. 

 

Daryl

[Norris]

When the remote button on the smoke machine gets gummed up with old beer and sticks on, and you only notice when your bandmates are yelling you from inside the bank of fog...

 

🤣😂🤣

[Rayman]

Good gig….. first one using the TC BQ500 head via a house Hartke 4x10 cab. Happy with amp, although I didn’t really need the cab at all, because the DI sounded great without it. Great crowd, a lot of fun.

 

 

[dmccombe7]

7 hours ago, Norris said:

When the remote button on the smoke machine gets gummed up with old beer and sticks on, and you only notice when your bandmates are yelling you from inside the bank of fog...

 

🤣😂🤣

We've stopped sing my smoke machines as most venues won't allow them nowadays.

Dave

[Rayman]

9 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

We've stopped sing my smoke machines as most venues won't allow them nowadays.

Dave

Not only did we have ours going, but the owner of the venue got his out too….. “most bands who play here don’t want smoke, but I bet you do””……. we did.

[dmccombe7]

10 minutes ago, Rayman said:

Not only did we have ours going, but the owner of the venue got his out too….. “most bands who play here don’t want smoke, but I bet you do””……. we did.

Same thing happened to me in 80's where the venue DJ had a smoke machine and i had one but neither of us knew the other had one. As we stepped on stage i immediately fired up ours at same time DJ decided to do same. Audience told us they couldn't see the band for the first 3 songs until the smoke cleared. In those days it was oil based smoke machines and the smoke tended to hang about longer than with the modern water based units.

Some folks said it was a bonus not seeing the band 

We were a rock / prog covers band back then. Not many local bands used a smoke machine so it was quite a novelty for most venues. No smoke alarms back then either 

The ones i have use either a wireless remote or footswitch so you can fire it up with the wireless switch pre-getting on stage to create a bit of atmosphere and once plugged in use the manual footswitch as the wireless switch interfered with my old Mesa head. 

Dave 

Edited December 31, 2023 by dmccombe7

[Mickeyboro]

1 hour ago, Rayman said:

Good gig….. first one using the TC BQ500 head via a house Hartke 4x10 cab. Happy with amp, although I didn’t really need the cab at all, because the DI sounded great without it. Great crowd, a lot of fun.

 

Tell us where and with whom please!

[Rayman]

14 minutes ago, Mickeyboro said:

1 hour ago, Rayman said:

Good gig….. first one using the TC BQ500 head via a house Hartke 4x10 cab. Happy with amp, although I didn’t really need the cab at all, because the DI sounded great without it. Great crowd, a lot of fun.

 

Tell us where and with whom please!

Expand  

The Spinning Top in Stockport, never played there before, but it’s a great little venue, great house PA and monitors and the guy who runs the place knows what he’s doing with it all.

 

The band’s called Crisis, original 80s heavy rock….. 2023 was our 40th anniversary. 

[dmccombe7]

4 minutes ago, Rayman said:

The Spinning Top in Stockport, never played there before, but it’s a great little venue, great house PA and monitors and the guy who runs the place knows what he’s doing with it all.

 

The band’s called Crisis, original 80s heavy rock….. 2023 was our 40th anniversary. 

40 yrs anniversary is impressive for any band. Is it still all the original members or is it a bit of Triggers brush scenario. 😂

Dave

[Rayman]

Yep, all original members. Although I was just the singer when I joined as a teenager. Our bass player left maybe 20yrs ago….. so I took on bass/vocals around that time. 
 

We’ve had long periods of doing nothing over that time, while we all did different things, but always came back to it.

[Obrienp]

On 29/12/2023 at 14:39, Obrienp said:

Forthcoming New Year’s Eve dep gig is now looking shaky, as the singer has done his back in big time. Spent most of today chasing my contacts for possible dep vocalists. Actually got two potential takers from a post on Norfolk & Suffolk Musicians Wanted Facebook group. Not bad seeing I had only posted a couple of hours previously. Unfortunately, my top candidate (who can play all the instruments in the band too) has the cold and cough that is doing the rounds. Over to the BL now 🤞. Rehearsal booked for this evening could be interesting with two deps!

This is turning into a bit of a nightmare. The singer has decided he can do the gig on strong pain killers (could be interesting). However, the drummer has tested positive for Covid! Apparently he feels fine and only tested because his son’s girlfriend has tested positive and they were all together over Christmas. The organiser has said do the gig anyway: there will be people in the audience with it knowingly, or unknowingly. I guess it’s too late for him to get a replacement act. Personally, I feel that is a bit irresponsible but the band have said they are going to play with, or without a bassist.

 

I am due to have a heart “procedure” on Tuesday, which I don’t want to compromise but I spent 4 hours in a rehearsal room with the drummer on Friday, so if I am going to get Covid from him, I will have probably caught it then. All the same, I’m going to stand the opposite side of the stage from him tonight!

 

All this for a deep gig!

[dmccombe7]

23 minutes ago, Rayman said:

Yep, all original members. Although I was just the singer when I joined as a teenager. Our bass player left maybe 20yrs ago….. so I took on bass/vocals around that time. 
 

We’ve had long periods of doing nothing over that time, while we all did different things, but always came back to it.

Well done.

Dave

[Rayman]

4 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

This is turning into a bit of a nightmare. The singer has decided he can do the gig on strong pain killers (could be interesting). However, the drummer has tested positive for Covid! Apparently he feels fine and only tested because his son’s girlfriend has tested positive and they were all together over Christmas. The organiser has said do the gig anyway: there will be people in the audience with it knowingly, or unknowingly. I guess it’s too late for him to get a replacement act. Personally, I feel that is a bit irresponsible but the band have said they are going to play with, or without a bassist.

 

I am due to have a heart “procedure” on Tuesday, which I don’t want to compromise but I spent 4 hours in a rehearsal room with the drummer on Friday, so if I am going to get Covid from him, I will have probably caught it then. All the same, I’m going to stand the opposite side of the stage from him tonight!

 

All this for a deep gig!

Blimey mate, best of luck with all that!

 

Make sure the singer drinks plenty of water. Pain killers can dry your mouth out.

 

As far as Covid….. it’s a difficult situation as it’s a big gig night, but personally I’m of the opinion that one shouldn’t take chances passing it on to others. Like you say, the venue need you to do the gig, but the virus is a potentially dangerous infection for many people.

 

All I can suggest is that the drummer stays well away from everyone.

[Chienmortbb]

My band. The Rebbels played a tiny bar just up the road from me (almost exactly 1 mile away) on Dec 3rd.  It was so small we left half the PA in the cars. It was not that full, but there were enough there for a good time. Staff and customers told the absent boss that we were good, and we got a rebook for last Friday 29tn Dec. I thought was an odd night to play, this close to NYE, but we were pleased to get it having no NYE gig this year (BL decided to increase our fee buy £150 so no takers).

 

It was pretty full and got fuller as the night went on, It was a great night, but next time we play there I will take some pictures. Next time I will take a headless bass as I was constantly hitting the Hi Hat with the headstock of my Fender.

[dmccombe7]

16 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

This is turning into a bit of a nightmare. The singer has decided he can do the gig on strong pain killers (could be interesting). However, the drummer has tested positive for Covid! Apparently he feels fine and only tested because his son’s girlfriend has tested positive and they were all together over Christmas. The organiser has said do the gig anyway: there will be people in the audience with it knowingly, or unknowingly. I guess it’s too late for him to get a replacement act. Personally, I feel that is a bit irresponsible but the band have said they are going to play with, or without a bassist.

 

I am due to have a heart “procedure” on Tuesday, which I don’t want to compromise but I spent 4 hours in a rehearsal room with the drummer on Friday, so if I am going to get Covid from him, I will have probably caught it then. All the same, I’m going to stand the opposite side of the stage from him tonight!

 

All this for a deep gig!

The show must go on is a nice myth. Under certain circumstances it needs to be cancelled. I'm not sure i would go ahead with this one if you have a heart procedure scheduled for Tues. That's a bit irresponsible from a health point of view.

Its not just you or the band you need to think about. Our guitarist's girlfriend suffers from ME and if he catches Covid and passes it on to her she can become seriously ill.

I'm lucky that covid hasn't affected me at all even tho i've had it. As a band if any one of us catch it now we would probably cancel the gig but its a difficult one for any band.

Our singers wife caught it few weeks back and he confined her to upstairs bedroom and he slept downstairs and they literally lived apart for 10 days until she got the all clear and he never caught it at all. 

Wish you all the best on Tues and take care.

Dave

Edited December 31, 2023 by dmccombe7

[dmccombe7]

5 minutes ago, Rayman said:

Blimey mate, best of luck with all that!

 

Make sure the singer drinks plenty of water. Pain killers can dry your mouth out.

 

As far as Covid….. it’s a difficult situation as it’s a big gig night, but personally I’m of the opinion that one shouldn’t take chances passing it on to others. Like you say, the venue need you to do the gig, but the virus is a potentially dangerous infection for many people.

 

All I can suggest is that the drummer stays well away from everyone.

And he wears a mask of some kind.

[Chienmortbb]

27 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

And he wears a mask of some kind.

Slipknot Tribute?

[stewblack]

Another Bandeoke in my end of year gig run. This time we were joined by a sax player who clearly missed the brief and thought it was a jam session. Nice chap though.

Took my sexy white bass and paired the Promethean with a Barefaced 1x12. Yum.

 

 

 

[msb]

Our little Mexican instrumental band , The Spurs played last night in our favourite dive , not a great crowd , it was a dirty old night  , but a warm and appreciative one. This time of year the police set up checkpoints to nab drinking drivers. I drank ginger ale all night and had one beer for the tear down and wait for the pay. Sure enough , there was a check point on the way home and I did confess to having one beer so it was the breathalyzer for me. Blew into the tube and the officer said “ You did have just one beer”. 
Don’t have any gig pics yet , but here’s the stage after drum check.

Edited December 31, 2023 by msb

[peety]

Last gig of what has been another extremely busy year for us a wedding in Garstang up in Lancs. Nice change as for the last 5 years covid permitting we have played a dinner dance at a hotel in Ashton Under Lyne which year by year has had less people attending, so was really looking forward to tonight. 

 

However, like many others it seems I've been afflicted by a sore throat and chest infection for most of December so just going to dose myself up and struggle through. Good luck to everyone who is gigging tonight hope you all have a good one and happy new year to you all. 

Edited December 31, 2023 by peety

[dmccombe7]

Tonight is BLOCKBUSTARZ Glam covers band last gig of the year at Westlands Country Activity Club in Annan.

Its only an hours drive for me but 3 hrs for guitarist from Perth. At least we don't have snow today.

Not sure how this gig will pan out as the staff had no idea what we did when the drummer dropped in to see what size PA we need etc. 

No stage and having to play in what looks like a Hotel Reception foyer. Getting paid well and we need to finish for 11:45 to allow the piper to bring in the bells in a traditional Scottish fashion which i always like to see.

Dave 

[msb]

A pic of the band last night