How was your gig last night?

[Bilbo]

A bit crap last night. The band couldn't find its groove, punters were at the ambivalent side of appreciative but probably picked up on our feelings on the less that exemplary offerings. Still, noone died, noone quit and we are there New Years Eve for another crack at it (and some rehearsals between now and then).

[tonybassplayer]

Very quiet pub gig on Friday with horrendous snow on the way home which made me question a little bit why I was not snuggled up in bed with my girlfriend but awesome function ( Brownie and Guide leaders ) gig on Saturday night with a rammed dancefloor and beyond for every song in both sets

[bassace]

My final gig with the seven piece on Saturday. Drove to Sidmouth, Devon to play in a large carpeted room but the PJ Super Flightcase dealt with it well. 320mile round trip with no overnight accommodation. I dropped the sax player off in Stroud and saw minus 7.5 degrees on the car's gauge. Got home at 3.00am. Up at 9.00 to help Mrs Bassace muck out her four horses. Today the band (minus me) goes to Gran Canaria for two weeks. Hey Ho.

[Clarky]

Well a weather-ravaged version of Rattlin Bone (5 out of 14 made it!) played in the Proud Gallery, Camden tonight to, erm, Mrs Clarky, the other two bands, and about a dozen other people. Outside it was blowing a blizzard and the pavements were treacherous. Got home without any accidents, mercifully. I guess it was a free rehearsal ....

Thank you, British weather

[casapete]

Made it to big event last night at a Park Lane Hotel from a very grim East Yorkshire.
Glad we did too, went well, made some contacts etc.
Got home at 6am, so bit tired now but hey! - did n't let anyone down and got paid!

[obbm]

Just got home from Bisley Pavillion where our Jug band, The Jug Hounds, played the interval for the SAS Band. Who are the [url="http://www.sasband.com/pages/pagedisplay.php?part=1&page=4"]SAS Band[/url] I hear you say, well SAS stands for Spikes All Stars, Spike being Spike Edney who has been Queen's keyboard player since the mid 80s. He seems to be able to produce some amazing line-ups which tonight included Grahame Gouldman singing "For Your Love" and "Rubber Bullets". Madeleine Bell was supposed to be singing but must have got stuck getting over from Spain because she didn't show. They are there again tomorrow so perhaps she'll make it for that one.

Steve Stroud (ex Cliff Richard, The Hollies, Eric Burdon, etc) was on bass. Interestingly he was playing a Stingray 5 with a Status neck, almost the same as my one. I turned up on time for sound check with my PJB Cub and was told to plug into his stack (Harke LH1000, SWR Henry) as it was already DI'd into the huge PA system.

We had a good reception for our short set and even got the audience to be the brass section for "Ring Of Fire". Interesting evening and some good comments.

[WalMan]

Not a bad night on the first of the last two for this year. Five new songs in the set(s) all of which went pretty well - though I played the opener better in the sound check (forgot a bit but noone woulkd have realised as its a song by a virtually unknown Norwegian band).

Turned up first wrapped in numerous layers & carrying a thermos mug of coffee to a cheer, and "Oh good you are going to make it tonight, I'll text all the people who've been asking".

Good crowd that seemed to enjoy themselves, and we got to play over time somewhat which was a bit if a twin edged sword. Did WPOD, which we haven't done for a while and all going swimmingly until it got to ending (basically the "Love's a Mystery" bit from the Overture section of "Remote Control") and the massive finale disintegrated quite spectacularly Hey ho, there's always tonight.

Onwards to tonight and the last for 2010. Set to be a long one as usual I think, and in a venue that has just been refurbed from a cosy pub stylee to eye searing white apparently. Need to get some kip, but I'm just not tired at the mo. It'll hit me bad on Sunday I'm sure

[tonybassplayer]

Big function at the Renaissance Hotel just off Deansgate in Mancheter last night.

Nightmare load in one floor up and then down long corridor but we seemed to strip down fast and was back up that M62 for 1.30 with a mini snow blizzard starting that fortunately didn't amount to much

Great one set gig with crowd well up for dancing

Montey's Rock Cafe in Harrogate tonight if anyone at a loose end

[Cat Burrito]

We'd stopped for the year as we're not really a Xmas functions band and like to have the month off for people's various work & family commitments.

However last night saw the singer and I head down the local open mic night that is run by our mandolin / banjo player. We opened with a tune off the last record and it was a disaster. The hall was half empty, I was the only one in tune and Pete (singer) broke a string. He quickly restrung and broke the string again. So we sat back down for a while.

However we decided to play all the outtakes from the new album when we got back up. So after a couple of pints each we got up and did a really laid back stripped version of our heaviest song "Dragging the River" which I thought sounded superb and more than redeemed the opener. Then we all lept off the stage and came and stood in the middle of the audience to play my favourite "Don't Ever Hold My Hand". I'd be surprised if my acoustic dobro bass was heard by anyone other than me but it was an almost magical moment. One of those I wasn't expecting this to be any good situations. Of course without any mics it really drew the audience in.

We finished up the night back on the stage with an accordian player performing The Felice Brothers "Whiskey in My Whiskey". And then we went off drinking.... Merry Xmas!

[WalMan]

BU99ER. It wasn't as #1 guitarist came over funny before the second set, but soldiered on.

Got a text this morning to say he had a temperature and was being vioently ill so after much discussion it's been cancelled. So last night was it for this year

[tonybassplayer]

Montey's Rock cafe in Harrogate seemed a little quiet before we started last night but one song in and it was rammed and a very noisy and lively night was had by all.

Great gig with a few mistakes but the audience loved it and thats what really matters

[BigRedX]

Another fantastic gig with Dick Venom And The Terrortones.

First outing with out new guitarist. She's changed the feel of the songs so their more "garage rock" than "psychobilly" now, which isn't a bad thing.

Anyway we stormed through a 25 minute set with a couple of dodgy moments but I doubt that there was nothing that was noticeable to anyone not in the band. The two new songs went down well, and Mr Venom didn't break the mic stand this time (I think) although he did manage to hit me on the head with it twice!

[Delberthot]

Played the first of the Christmas party nights on Friday. My car was still beached on a big lump of ice so the guitarist kindly came and picked me up.

Of course, the Laney cab I ordered a fortnight ago has been sitting at my local courier depot (20 miles away) since the 29th so I had to use the drummer's Thomann 'The Box' powered monitor. Surprisingly good. I had it up full whack and not a hint of distortion, although as soon as the band started playing I couldn;t hear a thing.

I decided that since I wasn;t driving to have a couple of beers and tan half a dozen glasses of cava that were left over from the guests arriving so I played the gig quite drunk and every song entirely from memory as I couldn't hear a single note I played and managed not to make a single mistake as our keyboard player could hear me and would've said something

Snow's 10 times worse today than it was last week so I don't hold out much hope of getting my cab delivered this week

Edited December 6, 2010 by Delberthot

[rOB]

good gig with the covers band at Olives in Leicester. One short set played as an opener/support for a more established band. Gig went well but getting set up was a nightmare, organisation within the band was terrible so we turned up with less equipment than we needed.

The last time I ever play at a gig organised by our singer.

On the plus side, the on stage sound was great, I could hear everything really clearly with a lovely tight bass tone. I also got asked if I wanted to join another band, very flattering.

[Bottle]

Played my usual Sunday morning slot for church, but we were in the cafeteria rather than the main hall, which was a shame. Couldn't use the mahoosive rig, so made do with my Line 6 Lowdown and SansAmp into the PA desk. Still, played a blinding set first off (with our lovely new worship leader - all the way from Spain - so some of the songs are in Spanish ). Then we all got up to do an impromptu couple of songs at the end of the service, which was a nice way to round off the morning.

Ian

PS Oh, and going to the resurrected 'Funk Jam' in Cambridge on Wednesday evening Result!

Edited December 6, 2010 by Bottle

[tauzero]

Saturday night's gig with the rock/blues covers band was at the Black Horse, a pub in Birmingham with a mixed clientele of goths and bikers. It happened to be the Outlaws MC Christmas party too. Got there nice and early, set up, and part way through the soundcheck the mixer amp blew up. I suspect an iffy mains socket which had resulted in it going on and off several times in rapid succession, combined with it being a Behringer. Fortunately the gaffer intends
to make the pub a general all-round music venue and consequently has a couple of powered mixers knocking around, so we were soon back underway.

While it was our last gig with our powered mixer, it was our first gig with new vocalist Mrs Zero, and it was Mrs Zero's debut as a vocalist with a rock band. All went well - she acquitted herself very well and we're getting a few more bookings there, which is nice. And Mrs Zero was able to tick one last thing off her list of things to do before she was 50, as we finished playing about half an hour before her birthday.

I took my #2 5-string Tsai out for a change - needs some sorting out on the fretting front (fret ends are a bit sticky-out and rough, and there's one or two slightly high frets) but it did the job.

Oh yes, and I need a new power amp or powered mixer, anyone got anything cheap that'll do around 300-500W per side?

[derrenleepoole]

We've just a had a very favourable review in 'The Local Review'

If anyone is interested, check it out [url="http://www.facebook.com/notes/the-local-revue/live-cottonhouse-shakers-the-crown-darwen-26112010/168496153189156"]here[/url].

[JTUK]

Played a local pub out in the sticks so getting people out there can be a struggle in the winter. It will be a fab venue in the summer though.
We ended up with a nice attendance at the end..but we were stonking, I have to say.
A good few local band players were in that night and it was a nice marker to put down after not playing for a few weeks.

Really good buzz off that gig.

Next up is Earls in Maidstone on Jan 1st..which is nice as it is our 1st time there.
Very hard place for a new band to get into.

[rOB]

[quote name='derrenleepoole' post='1059385' date='Dec 15 2010, 11:13 AM']We've just a had a very favourable review in 'The Local Review'

If anyone is interested, check it out [url="http://www.facebook.com/notes/the-local-revue/live-cottonhouse-shakers-the-crown-darwen-26112010/168496153189156"]here[/url].[/quote]

congrats, lovely review.

[chaypup]

[quote name='Rich' post='1032058' date='Nov 21 2010, 11:09 PM']Belting night at The Globe in Cardiff. Top quality skanking support from Tattsyrup, an excellent FOH sound from the house engineers, good crowd up and dancing from the 'g' of go, went mental for everything we played. Fresh strings on the Shuker, played through the full Genz+Nemesis rig, sounded utterly beautiful.[/quote]

Was about to post about my gig last night when I saw this. I played in a Ska musical with Jenny, the sax player from Tattsyrup.
It was the 4th show and the band are really getting it now, difficult dialogue cues and all.
AND I get do some fight scenes! Ace.


EDIT: [b]AND[/b] I get to do a 5 - 10 min improvised bass thing interacting with dialogue.

[b]AND[/b][u][/u] I'm playing in a ska band! Thanks Santa!

Edited December 15, 2010 by chaypup

[derrenleepoole]

[quote name='rOB' post='1059500' date='Dec 15 2010, 01:13 PM']congrats, lovely review.[/quote]

Cheers fella, it's just nice to know that someone was listening

[BigRedX]

Dick Venom And The Terrortones were braving the snow to bring our mutant garage psychobilly to Liverpool last night.

The venue "Don't Drop the Dumbells" is in a disused gym. Weird decor and bitterly cold it looks like a squat, but the vibe and the crowd is great.
Really enthusiastic and not at all scared of Mr Venom when he descends into the audience - normally this has anyone down the front scurrying for cover. New guitarist Vicky Twist played fantastically and has brought a big improvement to the sound and on-stage dynamics.

Just a pity that the arctic conditions resulted in a smaller turn out than hoped for although we thought it was pretty good, and fears of getting snowed in meant that we decided to leave after our set which meant missing Bad Taste Barbies who sounded great in the sound check. :-(

The organisers love it and hopefully we'll be back in the new year in more clement conditions!

[steve-soar]

[quote name='BigRedX' post='1062883' date='Dec 18 2010, 08:16 PM']Dick Venom And The Terrortones were braving the snow to bring our mutant garage psychobilly to Liverpool last night.

The venue "Don't Drop the Dumbells" is in a disused gym. Weird decor and bitterly cold it looks like a squat, but the vibe and the crowd is great.
Really enthusiastic and not at all scared of Mr Venom when he descends into the audience - normally this has anyone down the front scurrying for cover. New guitarist Vicky Twist played fantastically and has brought a big improvement to the sound and on-stage dynamics.

Just a pity that the arctic conditions resulted in a smaller turn out than hoped for although we thought it was pretty good, and fears of getting snowed in meant that we decided to leave after our set which meant missing Bad Taste Barbies who sounded great in the sound check. :-(

The organisers love it and hopefully we'll be back in the new year in more clement conditions![/quote]Sorry I couldn't make it, glad you had a good time.

[BigRedX]

Never mind. We'll be back some time in the new year...

[karlfer]

Gig fine, 2 hours to drive 14 miles home wasn't
11 of those miles were motorway!
Karl.