How was your gig last night?

[cheddatom]

11 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

Great looking bass set up there Tom, I bet your bassist had no probs hearing himself.

 

It's an awesome rig and he's an awesome player! Always sounds great and his timing is impeccable 

[dmccombe7]

2 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

 

We have had discussions about these sort of things before, like weddings of 'friends of the band' - I am happy to do a wedding for a friend of the band for normal gig money, rather than wedding money, but 'friends of the band' tend to be friends of the singer and guitarist, sometimes the drummer, and rarely mine. If they were mine, then yes, I would be happy to do it free. If they want to do a free gig for someone, I am perfectly happy to take their cut of the fee out of what we are charging, leaving mine.

 

I'm same. If its for a friend of mine i won't take my cut but i expect the others to get their fair share of the fee. I also expect the others in the band to  do the same. I think both my bands tend to agree on this.

We have done freebies for band members birthdays kind of thing even tho i never bother celebrating my own birthdays but i'm sort of ok with that.

We've also done freebies for a guy that lets us use his 8 bedroom holiday home with large function room and pool area for free. He seven supplies all food usually BBQ grub so its usually a great day / night out and only 25mins from my house.

Dave

[dclaassen]

23 hours ago, walshy said:

Gig last night at Whittles - Tokyo in Oldham with Sons of Nirvana. It was mighty!!!! The RD Artist is an amazing beast, even managed the 2 hours no bother with the incredible Pinegrove strap. The Ripper was a standby and is equally awesome, I do own 4! The Hiwatt and Barefaced 610 combination is just sublime!

I had a RD artist when they first came out…awesome tone beast!

[tony_m]

On 29/09/2024 at 13:52, Cliff Edge said:

Thanks for the good wishes. I’ve had all the take it easy stuff from the cardiac nurses at Brighton, as well as the surgeon. And my wife polices me incessantly so I am doing my best to behave. I suspect that will be even more intense after the surgery and I’m actually looking forward to a relaxing build up to Christmas. Although I suspect I will get very bored. 

 

Hope all goes well, and a speedy recovery has you back to giving the Poppydog cause for concern asap!  😉

 

 

Edited September 30 by tony_m

[tony_m]

<snip>

Edited September 30 by tony_m
double post due to shonky technology

[Bluewine]

On 30/09/2024 at 06:37, Gasman said:

A gig I’ll never forget! A tale of disaster and a moral question…

 

 

 

 

I would be very embarrassed to ask a band to set up and play on grass.

 

Daryl

[casapete]

Played our monthly residency at a local pub last night with the acoustic duo.

A shocking load of weather going on so we thought it may be on the quiet side, but

pleased to see all the tables booked so it was reasonably full. No big surprises with

strange requests, so most were played. Inevitably we got asked for some Kris 

Kristofferson stuff so we obliged with ‘Me and Bobbie McGee’ and ‘For the good times’.

This last one was followed by ‘Highway to Hell’ so plenty of variety! 
Had a slight buzz/rattle from one side of the PA so that’s going to need looking at -

think it’s maybe time to invest in something new. Got soaked loading out as it was

still siling it down, home by midnight though. 

[Chienmortbb]

On 30/09/2024 at 12:51, Woodinblack said:

We have had discussions about these sort of things before, like weddings of 'friends of the band' - I am happy to do a wedding for a friend of the band for normal gig money, rather than wedding money, but 'friends of the band' tend to be friends of the singer and guitarist, sometimes the drummer, and rarely mine. If they were mine, then yes, I would be happy to do it free. If they want to do a free gig for someone, I am perfectly happy to take their cut of the fee out of what we are charging, leaving mine.

In our case we charge our minimum fee and the friend's friend does it for love.

[Jack]

On 30/09/2024 at 12:37, Gasman said:

...After a fairly heated discussion (without me, I was making the long trek to the Gents 150 yard away!) they’d agreed that we should take the full fee, but individually we could then donate whatever we thought appropriate back to the event… fair enough or not?...

That's easy, what did your contract say? It's easy to do a pub gig on a handshake but when it gets into things like this I don't think we handle it very well as a breed. I think because for most of us this is our hobby and not our job.

 

There's a local band who buys PAT test stickers from ebay and fills them out themselves.

[dclaassen]

On 30/09/2024 at 12:49, taunton-hobbit said:

That is a nightmare - I think you were pretty good about the money. As an aside, I wouldn't have set up like that, no pallets (or similar) - no music - simples !

 

😎

Totally agree here..I've done these types of gigs, and have actually damaged gear by playing on the ground. They should at least provide a pallet or something for the gear. You did a great job with the money issue. Noone should be upset about that....

[dmccombe7]

I just wouldn't play out in the open at all unless it was a glorious sunny day with no risk of rain. That's virtually never in Scotland. 

At the end of the day i'd rather stay alive than not. Water or dampness and electricity just don't go together.

I've spent too much money on good gear to have it ruined because some organiser can't do their job properly.

I've also spent too many years living to throw it all away for same reason.

You'll get no thanks if it kills someone. Just remember that you would be liable if you agreed to it.

Dave

[martthebass]

On 30/09/2024 at 12:37, Gasman said:

So this is where the moral issue arose – your thoughts are welcome on whether we dealt with it in the best way.

 

To be honest I think you were more than reasonable.

Our band had a similar situation last year; we had played a venue in Leeds with an outdoor stage the year before we were booked but not told it was an outside gig with no cover until we got there, however as the weather was fine (amazing for a late September evening) we played and had no issues.  We did inform them on rebooking though that we would only play the outside stage again if there was cover.

Fast forward to the rebooking, we looked at the weather forecast and it was predicting biblical rain, we contacted the venue and asked if the cover was indeed in place.....not unexpectedly it wasn't.  We informed them on that on this basis we had no option but to cancel.  The venue then slapped us on social media until the rebuttal and we mutually agreed to remove comments.  I was amazed the venue had no concept of rain and electricity......

Edited October 2 by martthebass

[dmccombe7]

4 hours ago, martthebass said:

To be honest I think you were more than reasonable.

Our band had a similar situation last year; we had played a venue in Leeds with an outdoor stage the year before we were booked but not told it was an outside gig with no cover until we got there, however as the weather was fine (amazing for a late September evening) we played and had no issues.  We did inform them on rebooking though that we would only play the outside stage again if there was cover.

Fast forward to the rebooking, we looked at the weather forecast and it was predicting biblical rain, we contacted the venue and asked if the cover was indeed in place.....not unexpectedly it wasn't.  We informed them on that on this basis we had no option but to cancel.  The venue then slapped us on social media until the rebuttal and we mutually agreed to remove comments.  I was amazed the venue had no concept of rain and electricity......

Unbelievable attitude from the venue. You should have made them aware that in the event of electric shock or death they would be liable to see how they react.

I'm finding this all a bit unbelievable how stupid some organisers are.

Dave

[Stub Mandrel]

On 30/09/2024 at 12:37, Gasman said:

A gig I’ll never forget! A tale of disaster and a moral question…

 

The venue was the Turnpike Showground near Shaftesbury in Dorset, and the event was a ‘Tractor Run’ over a Sunday lunchtime. This raised a smidgeon of alarm, but a gig’s a gig – so the organisers booked our band to play from 13:30 to 16:00 to entertain the multitude of attendees they were expecting. Now, the showground extents to 39 acres, it’s flat and exposed to the wind from nearly all directions and can accommodate 10,000 people at a time for big annual shows (we’d played there for one of those back in May).

 

However, tractor runs are really meant for the owners and die-hard enthusiasts of agricultural machinery, giving them a chance to watch and drive their pride and joy in procession around the back-roads via as many pubs as possible – the general public aren’t very interested and don’t usually attend unless it’s held in a town-centre or as part of a bigger event (e.g. county show). Add into the mix the truly awful weather forecast (gales all day and heavy rain from around 15:00 til midnight) and you get the picture.

 

We turned up at noon – no rain yet - only to find that the gazebo they’d promised as the band shelter wasn’t there – it had apparently been blow away overnight and ended up half a mile away in a hedge, completely wrecked. There were thirty security staff but just 17 other punters sitting miserably on a few straw bales in the biting wind. Would we play out in the open air, pretty please, the organisers asked? After a band huddle we said OK, but at the first drop of rain we’d be packed up and gone. The pix below give some idea of the vastness of the field but it can’t tell you that we were playing directly into a Force 5-6 gale – no need for foldback, I thought sardonically.

 

There were no tractors there when we arrived. They were away on their run, leaving us to set up next to the burger tent and raffle stall. The tractors (about 20 of them) returned at 13:00 and we started playing early, all of us wearing a motley collection of whatever warm hats and coats we could beg or borrow. The tractor chaps collected their souvenir plaques, and ignored us (as well they might – we didn’t have three-point hitches or turbochargers!)

 

At halftime, the organisers tried to hold an auction for the colossal amount of bacon, baps and burgers that were never going to sell – they virtually gave away most of it (to the tractor guys) for token amounts. They then embarked upon a lengthy raffle draw, where most of the ticket holders had long gone home so the same prizes were re-drawn again and again. At this point the first drops of rain began to fall – our well-oiled band-emergency-packing-up machine swung into operation, as it had to – we needed to get the gear into our cars asap as there was no other shelter! End of gig for us…

 

So this is where the moral issue arose – your thoughts are welcome on whether we dealt with it in the best way.

 

Should we have insisted upon being paid the whole fee? On the minus side we only did one set, not two, but that was after agreeing to risk our gear in inclement weather so as not to disappoint the organisers who hadn’t (through force majeure) been able to provide the agreed shelter – and before playing we had insisted upon a rider that if it rained we stopped.

 

I had a lot of sympathy for the organisers as I’ve been on their side of the fenceas an organiser of similar events myself. However, experience had rapidly told me that they’d been wildly over-optimistic about public attendance, had invested far too much money in the wrong venue, over-catered for food drink, security etc, and were entirely at the mercy of the weather – they should have at the very least cancelled the band to save money but they didn’t.  Anyway, as always it was about money…

 

·         I said I’d be happy with token diesel money to help out

·         Our dep guitarist (yet another!) made the valid point that he’d made a 100-mile round trip, played under difficult circumstances, fulfilled his commitment and so wanted the full fee

·         The other three thought that accepting half-pay would help the organisers while recovering something for a partly-wasted afternoon

 

After a fairly heated discussion (without me, I was making the long trek to the Gents 150 yard away!) they’d agreed that we should take the full fee, but individually we could then donate whatever we thought appropriate back to the event… fair enough or not?

 

My goodness, what a shambles, and what rain came down yesterday after we left!

 

 

I'm sorry, there's no way I would set up on grass with the slightest chance of rain coming.

[casapete]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

I'm sorry, there's no way I would set up on grass with the slightest chance of rain coming.

No way I’d set up on grass, period! 

[mep]

Crikey, what a joke. No stage, no cover! No band then.

[Geek99]

21 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

I would be very embarrassed to ask a band to set up and play on grass.

 

Daryl

What if it was bluegrass? 
 

I would absolutely love to play bluegrass

Edited October 2 by Geek99

[Leonard Smalls]

11 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

there's no way I would set up on grass with the slightest chance of rain coming.

Back in the day we learnt that if the grass was strong enough you didn't care if it rained or not.

This is perhaps why we stopped imbibing before gigs!

[dmccombe7]

Gig tomorrow and band still haven't agreed on what our set list will be. Why is it i'm always the one chasing up set lists for a gig. I detest it when we dispute on stage what we do next hence having a set list on stage for everyone.

We've even had gigs where we had different sets on stage.

Problem is we added some new songs in and removed a couple but it was done on the hoof at the last gig.

Looks like i just have OCD when it comes to set lists being prepared well in hand so i'm not running about trying to print stuff out for others who don't have printers.

Dave

[Gasman]

Funny how many folk nowadays don't have (or don't admit to having!) a printer, but are quite happy for mugs like me to do all the work on sets, spend time and pay for the ink and paper. Admittedly the ink thing is so much cheaper now I've converted to an Epson ink-tank printer (first black fill has lasted over a year) compared with the HP ink cartridge rip-off...

[dmccombe7]

34 minutes ago, Gasman said:

Funny how many folk nowadays don't have (or don't admit to having!) a printer, but are quite happy for mugs like me to do all the work on sets, spend time and pay for the ink and paper. Admittedly the ink thing is so much cheaper now I've converted to an Epson ink-tank printer (first black fill has lasted over a year) compared with the HP ink cartridge rip-off...

Anymore info on the ink tank thing. Not heard of that except in the workplace. ?

Dave

[rwillett]

53 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Gig tomorrow and band still haven't agreed on what our set list will be. Why is it i'm always the one chasing up set lists for a gig. I detest it when we dispute on stage what we do next hence having a set list on stage for everyone.

We've even had gigs where we had different sets on stage.

Problem is we added some new songs in and removed a couple but it was done on the hoof at the last gig.

Looks like i just have OCD when it comes to set lists being prepared well in hand so i'm not running about trying to print stuff out for others who don't have printers.

Dave

I wouldn't say you have OCD, more like organised and sensible.  Why wouldn't you want to have the set list agreed before  you go on? You may have options to play if needed but you all know which way you're going. 

[Obrienp]

Just use EasySetlist on a tablet or phone. Cheap as chips and not complicated.  I’ve converted 4 out of 5 in the covers band I play in to use it. It will store your chord sheets and allow you to create play lists on the fly and share them.  No printing stuff.
 

As they say, other set list apps are available.

[rwillett]

11 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Anymore info on the ink tank thing. Not heard of that except in the workplace. ?

Dave

Ink tanks convert printers from highly expensive cartridges into a refillable tank of ink that you can fill as needed. It means you don't need to buy dedicated cartridges but can use cheaper inks. 

 

Some printers are easy to convert, some less so. Google for ink tank conversion kit and your model of printer.

 

Rob

[Jackroadkill]

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

Gig tomorrow and band still haven't agreed on what our set list will be. Why is it i'm always the one chasing up set lists for a gig. I detest it when we dispute on stage what we do next hence having a set list on stage for everyone.

We've even had gigs where we had different sets on stage.

Problem is we added some new songs in and removed a couple but it was done on the hoof at the last gig.

Looks like i just have OCD when it comes to set lists being prepared well in hand so i'm not running about trying to print stuff out for others who don't have printers.

Dave

 

That's one of my pet hates; in my recently-defunct covers band I insisted that we had the set list agreed on and printed by the rehearsal prior to the gig.  I would then print spares, because it seemed as if holding onto a bit of paper for a few days could be more challenging than it sounds.  Anyway, we never went on without knowing exactly what we were playing, and when we did gigs that we knew were likely to run over/under we used to know in advance what songs we'd drop or add; it was the same for encores.  Instrument and tuning changes were included on the set lists too.

 

It may all be a bit anal but it grinds my gears something chronic to see a band faffing about trying to decide what to play.  I know some bands have a pool of songs and the BL calls them on the fly, and I'd do this if circumstances allowed, but in my eyes it takes a lot of balls, a lot of organisation and a lot of being able to read the crowd on the fly.

Edited October 3 by Jackroadkill