How was your gig last night?

[police squad]

Did a dep gig yesterday with my Police tribute guys (their normal pub band)

I decided to use my Ltd Edition Hofner 500/1 union Jack bass. The whole band have just gone IEM and my bass sounded unbelievable in my ears.

Great gig, we wheeled out lots of Beatles songs, some Small Faces, The Who, The Jam, The Police, Oasis

 

IEM have totally changed gigging for me

[cheddatom]

We did the Gifford Arms in Wolverhampton on Saturday night. I've been having some serious stress recently and was really looking forward to a few beers, a curry, and playing f|_|ck out of the drums.

 

Google maps directed us to the wrong side of the pedestrianised high street. 20 minutes of manoeuvring and bickering about signage and fines later, we got to the back door of the pub. The load in was punishing and I was drenched and out of breath by the end of it. Our roadie stood on a bench to hang up some merch, and the sound engineer immediately told him to get down. Apparently it was a health and safety concern. A little alert went off in my head and so I opted for my quieter, dampened snare drum, just in time for him to start telling us that we'd need to keep the stage volume down. There are only 2 monitors, one at each edge of the front of the stage. Our guitarist doesn't use an amp, and all 4 of us sing, so it was quite a challenge to get a sound. 

 

The engineer insisted our bassist turn down to almost zero, but then fed a load of bass through the stage monitors, making them work far too hard, and making it weird on stage with no low end. We play a lot of gigs, so we're used to compromise and the occasional sub-par PA, but this engineer was talking to us in a very patronising manner, as though it was our first gig. I'm sure he sensed the frustration as after our sound check he tried to win us round "That was amazing guys, is that song on spotify? I love it" etc. 🙄

 

The support bands turned up, and we start discussing kit share and stage space between ourselves, which is all pretty normal, but then the engineer started speaking to the whole room, over the PA. When he realised we were still talking to each other, he turned up, and literally said "lend me your ears for just a minute" in a tone that I can only describe as "caricature of bingo caller". He wanted to tell everyone the stage times, and the very strict load-out times. Obviously you'd usually get this info from the promoter/rep before hand, and maybe on the night too, but I've never had it announced at top volume over the PA by a sound engineer. It was all very bizarre

 

Anyway, we trudged off through the rain to find a curry. We failed. I got some chips. I don't think I've ever been that grumpy getting on stage before, but as usual, the crowd cheered me right up. Ace gig, and by all accounts the sound was excellent, so I guess the engineer knew what he was doing (although our bassist turned up quite a lot, and I switched to my louder, un-damped snare drum). 

 

Nightmare load out through a wasted crowd but paid and home before 1AM

 

[ricksterphil]

We played the Grand Union in Leicester on Saturday night. Our first outing of 2024 and it went really well and the crowd loved it. We're a Country band so hats and boots are de rigueur for us, but the bar staff joined in and also wore their western gear. 

 

Pre-gig photo with said bar staff

 

 

We got free food and a drink post gig so all in all a good un.

The band is Southern Frontier Country Band and I was using my Mike Lull P4 through a Handbox R400 and matching Handbox 1x12 cab. I used my Thumpinator, bought off here, for the first time live and was pleased with results. I'm not sure what that gizmo does but it seems to focus the sound somehow

Edited March 18 by ricksterphil
Text adds

[Mickeyboro]

Do tell us the names of your bands and the gear used🙏

Edited March 18 by Mickeyboro

[dmccombe7]

6 hours ago, Mickeyboro said:

Do tell us the names of your bands and the gear used🙏

I try to remember that but sometimes when you post regularly you do forget so a nice wee reminder every now and again is always appreciated @Mickeyboro 

Dave

[scalpy]

7 hours ago, police squad said:

what are those lights please?

Those are my babies, one of the best purchases I’ve made for gigging. Apesticks by ApeLabs. I got a tour pack of 10 from Thomann, which means you can charge them in their flightcase, plus you get 20 small metal panels you can attach to anything suitable (I got a load of cheap photography stands off amazon) so the lights magnets can clamp on. You can operate them with a remote but I forked out for the wireless Bluetooth controller, which means you can control them via an app. The app will run 4 groups, you can assign the lights to any, and you can create your own colours and programs, then design a scene for each song. You can set the sensitivity to sound or speed a cycle runs in seconds. I’ve had a ball coming up with different set ups using the stands then having different moods for different songs, plus the controller will send DMX to other devices, so all our old up lighters match the scene as well. 
 

Here’s a few set ups I’ve used over the past year.

[police squad]

12 hours ago, scalpy said:

Those are my babies, one of the best purchases I’ve made for gigging. Apesticks by ApeLabs. I got a tour pack of 10 from Thomann, which means you can charge them in their flightcase, plus you get 20 small metal panels you can attach to anything suitable (I got a load of cheap photography stands off amazon) so the lights magnets can clamp on. You can operate them with a remote but I forked out for the wireless Bluetooth controller, which means you can control them via an app. The app will run 4 groups, you can assign the lights to any, and you can create your own colours and programs, then design a scene for each song. You can set the sensitivity to sound or speed a cycle runs in seconds. I’ve had a ball coming up with different set ups using the stands then having different moods for different songs, plus the controller will send DMX to other devices, so all our old up lighters match the scene as well. 
 

Here’s a few set ups I’ve used over the past year.

amazing but too rich for me atm

thanks for the info

[uk_lefty]

14 minutes ago, police squad said:

amazing but too rich for me atm

thanks for the info

If they did them in red could you do something like the Synchronicity digital logo thingy? That would be awesome 

[police squad]

1 minute ago, uk_lefty said:

If they did them in red could you do something like the Synchronicity digital logo thingy? That would be awesome 

don't you mean ghosts in the machine logo (that would be clever)

[uk_lefty]

Played the crooked crow bar in Leighton Buzzard on Saturday night. It's a funny venue, it used to be a Blockbuster video rental shop but now it's a live music venue. The boss, the staff, the sound people, each time we've played there they've just been so good to us. Not in the way of loads of free drinks or whatever but just in the sense that they really want you there and want to make sure you've got everything you need for a decent gig. I'd highly recommend anyone in this area to look them up. 

 

Anyhows, we are doing another specialist 00's gig on Friday so we trialled about five new songs and they went down very well, so we were pleased with that. 

 

Best part of the night: an artsy bloke in the crowd who fancies himself as a poet started peeling and eating an orange while doing some strange crouched down dance.

 

Band's the Desert Penguins.

Gear: Ashdown ABM600 with 2x15" cabs

Bass: Stingray

[uk_lefty]

1 minute ago, police squad said:

don't you mean ghosts in the machine logo (that would be clever)

D'oh

[Lozz196]

If I recall correctly @uk_lefty the Crow is run by the same people who ran the Wheatsheaf, or at least had something to do with it. 

[dmccombe7]

34 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

If I recall correctly @uk_lefty the Crow is run by the same people who ran the Wheatsheaf, or at least had something to do with it. 

I played The Wheatsheaf back in the mid 80's.  That was the one in Dunstable ? 

Happy days touring with a broken leg. 

Dave

[uk_lefty]

1 hour ago, Lozz196 said:

If I recall correctly @uk_lefty the Crow is run by the same people who ran the Wheatsheaf, or at least had something to do with it. 

I don't know tbh, it was a new one out the blue for us last year and we've played there three times now. The singer is originally from Dunstable so he might know. 

[MacDaddy]

28 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

I played The Wheatsheaf back in the mid 80's.  That was the one in Dunstable ? 

Happy days touring with a broken leg. 

Dave

 

My mate was stabbed in there 20 years later.

[Lozz196]

48 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

I played The Wheatsheaf back in the mid 80's.  That was the one in Dunstable ? 

Happy days touring with a broken leg. 

Dave

Different Wheatsheaf Dave, a much more pleasant one (going by the above) in Leighton Buzzard

[dmccombe7]

5 hours ago, MacDaddy said:

 

My mate was stabbed in there 20 years later.

Wisnae me. 

Have to say we were well looked after and we left our gear in the venue until following morning and several folks that were at the gig came down to say hello, gave us a hand loading the gear and wished us all well when we actually left.

If memory serves me right i think it was a bit of a bikers pub.

Dave

Edited March 19 by dmccombe7

[Simon C]

We had a good night last night: plenty of dancing and singing to 3 of the 4songs we did.  The exception was “Everything but love” by Jaime Kyle.  It’s a banging tune but I think the 4 of us were probably the only ones in the pub who knew it - now we’ve played it once hopefully a few remember it for next time we do it.  “Price Tag” and “Perfect” (the one by Fairground Attraction) are good singalongs, and my bandmates covered my cock ups in “Perfect” well.  I thought we might struggle with “You can call me Al” but we played it well and the crowd seemed to enjoy it.  We had plenty of positive feed back afterwards.

 

We performed for the 1st time with a band name: "In Progress" 

 

The video is less than 40s.  It’s the only footage my mate took, but he managed to catch the bass solo in “You can call me Al” (not the original recording version, but something I could fit into 2 bars).

Edited March 22 by Simon C

[King Tut]

Played in Ramsgate last night with Verity Bromham. Had Kev Hickman depping on drums who did a marvellous job. I tried an XVive in ear unit that John lent me along with my rig. The engineer pointed me to an app to put on my phone and I set up my own monitor mix - bloody amazing. Journey home was a nightmare due to road closures, road out of Ramsgate was shut as was the M25, A1 and M1. Bolleaux! Got halfway home and realised I’d left my house and car keys at the venue. So I had to leave my car at Johns, get Del to go right out of his way to drive me home then wake the misses up at 3am to get in! Why the funk do I do this?!! Was a cracking gig though!

[police squad]

1 hour ago, King Tut said:

Played in Ramsgate last night with Verity Bromham. Had Kev Hickman depping on drums who did a marvellous job. I tried an XVive in ear unit that John lent me along with my rig. The engineer pointed me to an app to put on my phone and I set up my own monitor mix - bloody amazing. Journey home was a nightmare due to road closures, road out of Ramsgate was shut as was the M25, A1 and M1. Bolleaux! Got halfway home and realised I’d left my house and car keys at the venue. So I had to leave my car at Johns, get Del to go right out of his way to drive me home then wake the misses up at 3am to get in! Why the funk do I do this?!! Was a cracking gig though!

where was the gig in Ramsgate?

[Mickeyboro]

2 hours ago, Simon C said:

We had a good night last night: plenty of dancing and singing to 3 of the 4songs we did.  The exception was “Everything but love” by Jaime Kyle.  It’s a banging tune but I think the 4 of us were probably the only ones in the pub who knew it - now we’ve played it once hopefully a few remember it for next time we do it.  “Price Tag” and “Perfect” (the one by Fairground Attraction) are good singalongs, and my bandmates covered my cock ups in “Perfect” well.  I thought we might struggle with “You can call me Al” but we played it well and the crowd seemed to enjoy it.  We had plenty of positive feed back afterwards.

 

We performed for the 1st time with a band name: "In Progress" 

 

The video is less than 40s.  It’s the only footage my mate took, but he managed to catch the bass solo in “You can call me Al” (not the original recording version, but something I could fit into 2 bars).

 

I used to hate the approach of that solo… gave me the willies! Well done for bluffing it.

[King Tut]

30 minutes ago, police squad said:

where was the gig in Ramsgate?

Red Arrows Club

[Simon C]

19 minutes ago, Mickeyboro said:

I used to hate the approach of that solo… gave me the willies! Well done for bluffing it.

I think James the guitarist stopped playing 2 bars early too (he doesn't think so!) and Jake the drummer (who was otherwise on top form) had no clue when he was supposed to stop - luckily I was already in the place I planned to be for the solo.  So all good in gigs and bars 😁.

 

Edited March 22 by Simon C

[Woodinblack]

4 hours ago, Simon C said:

The video is less than 40s.  It’s the only footage my mate took, but he managed to catch the bass solo in “You can call me Al” (not the original recording version, but something I could fit into 2 bars

 

We were going to do that, I learned the bass solo (hideous thing) but the song sounded really flat when we did it, so we dropped it. Now the guitarist who hated that we dropped it is trying to bring it back, but I have completely forgotten it and am sure as hell not learning it again!

[Chienmortbb]

29 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

We were going to do that, I learned the bass solo (hideous thing) but the song sounded really flat when we did it, so we dropped it. Now the guitarist who hated that we dropped it is trying to bring it back, but I have completely forgotten it and am sure as hell not learning it again!

Its one of those songs that I hate, seems to go down well but hey. Maybe its just me.