All Activity

First proposition for sure.

Black Uhuru are my favourite band and I play a lot of their basslines but there’s quite a few that trip me up if I haven’t played them in a while, Robbie Shakespeare had a wonderful way of slightly changing things around part way through, darkness is one

Played a gig at a classic car show yesterday afternoon with the covers/originals band. The venue was a farm/caravan site in Nelson’s birthplace. We were playing in the doorway of a barn which had been converted into the amenities block for the caravan site, so not as bad as it might originally sound: it even had coir carpeting in the band area. This faced across the main entry road to a courtyard/stable block which had been converted into a cafe, bar and shop. The classic car display was in a field to the right of this area. All a bit odd in terms of our audience but on the other hand, the owner was extremely welcoming, told us to get whatever we wanted from the catering for free and paid slightly more than the usual local pub rate👍. It turned out that kit messages were somewhat confused prior to the gig, such that I arrived with my EV active 12” PA speakers, as did the keyboard player with his Yamaha equivalents, the drummer also brought an active sub. Given the distance from our location to the punters, we opted to use all of it and DI everything. That made my two LFSys Monzas somewhat overkill for “onstage” and consequently I didn’t get my chance to open them up. The gig itself went OK but seemed a bit of a paid rehearsal as most of the punters were a long way away. It was like a sauna in the barn entrance but fortunately I had brought a towel and a change of shirt. I got somewhat irritated with the lead guitarist who was constantly turning round, urging us to speed up. I agree that we took a few numbers at a leisurely place but given the lack of A/C, or fans, I thought our drummer was heroic. Everything has to be taken at breakneck speed, or the lead is not happy. IMO some stuff just doesn’t work fast: I Can See Clearly now at almost 150 BPM; nah! It’s also pretty tiring over a 2 to 3 hour set. Anyway, we got a lot of compliments from punters; even some we couldn’t actually see during the set but evidently they had no issues hearing us given our double PA 😀. More importantly we have got a follow on booking from the venue.👍🤟

He made a lovely little gesture after one of his songs, made him seem one of the audience rather than the star 👍

I think it's impossible not to like him. My wife watched a documentary about him while I was (pretending) to read a book. He and his family seemed lovely people.

I did see the Lewis Capaldi set. I don't like or dislike his material, but he always seems a decent sort. I saw it the last time he played Glastonbury, when he had problems. Excellent that he's back and great to see the crowd get behind him. Being a bit soppy, it rather lovely all said.

It wasn’t very nice in a stew

You're My World - Cilla Black.

I was once asked to dep for a band, and the next thing I know, two years later I was still playing for them. ... wait.. *penny drops*

That looks quite familiar ….