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The king of Rock & Roll - Prefab Sprout

This has made a big difference to my ability to function on the next day

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For me, the hardest part about gigging now is the late nights. If I have a gig where I'm going to be late to bed I try to have a lie-in on the morning and/or have a 30-40 minute snooze around 4pm. Last autumn I did a gig where I was giving the sound guy a lift and had to get him home the same night/morning as he had a lunchtime gig the next day. I didn't see my bed till 4am and I was basically wiped out for 2 whole days after the gig.

Four gigging fitness aspects seem to affect me. All mentioned in the thread by others: 1. The physical bass playing, I wonder how many notes I play in a night, until recently I rehearsed for about 8 hours weekly, hand strength, back strength no problem. 2. Concentration, I now find being 'on it' for 3 - 4 hours increasingly hard, pa problem solving then instant switch to musical stuff, blunders happen due to concentration fails. 3. Moving kit, even with lightweight kit (and the pa is not) it is all too easy to damage yourself - rotator cuff injury anyone. 4. Driving 2 hours to a gig in the daylight can be very pleasant on a sunny day. Driving back in the dark after doing the business is no longer fun. The result is that I am usually shattered the day after, at nearly 67 age is catching up despite pretty good fitness. Hence, my decision to scale back my musical efforts - I do not need 30 gigs per year.

In my current band, due to both different style of music and my now glass back I finish a gig barely sweating, however really aching the next day. A marked contrast to my last band where as the music was harder after a 30min set I’d walk off stage with it feeling like someone had tipped a bucket of water over me.

Originals band up to 9 songs now, plus we added a lead guitarist tonight. First gig booked. Finished by jamming a few songs including Sweet Transvestite 😁

My band hasn't done a gig in 5 months, when we do start gigging again (if we ever do), we'll need zimmer frames to get to the stage

Singer wanted to rest her voice so we went through the set for Friday without her...turned out to be one our best/tightest practices 😎

My last (unbeknownst at the time) visit to PMT was in the Cambridge branch earlier in the year. I was a bit concerned when the sales staff tried to tune the 5 string bass before handing it to me and gave up admitting he didn't know what he was doing. He was using a clip on tuner and it took me seconds to remedy it after he gave it to me.

King - King's X 😆

Charles. The Skids

I play weekly in church and thought I was relatively match fit with regard to playing. I took a 13 hour light ents TV job today. It turns out that I am not. The problem with the church stuff is that I am making up my own lines using chord charts and vibing with the (really good) drummers. So it is all good. However, today was much more involved with regard to reading. There was one solo fill high up the neck which I managed to nail down in practice but when the red light was on I made THE most spectacular dogs dinner of it. There is zero chance that will ever be broadcast. So my reading is certainly not match fit. I also did some Double Bass work there. I have not played DB in anger for a few years. WOWZERS, it is hard physical work. Actually getting the instrument to respond in the way I want takes a lot more hand strength than I have at the moment. I mean, I did stuff, but I am knackered now and I am going in for round 2 tomorrow. So I guess I am going to have to practice. Ugh.

In fact I just remembered - it was in PMT that a young fellow told me "We don't deal with Neutrik" this was about a year and a half ago .

Charlie Sheen - King's X

Was in PMT a day or two before they shut in Cardiff - bought a snark tuner I found the service in there very pot luck - sometimes helpful - other times zilch I started getting things a few mile out in A Strings a couple of years ago - now that place is excellent for service - I can get all the things that the other places wouldn't have in stock - like Neutrik plugs and lengths of speaker cable - or literally anything I asked them to get in - they have been growing slowly and its well deserved .

Eagles tribute show in Newcastle... a great venue, but a big space with a very high domed ceiling. A great house PA, engineer and lots of punters mitigated any issues. Lots more shows coming up with these chaps. I absolutely love it.

That’s interesting to know @Phil Starr, I know a good few amps have a baked in eq with controls set flat, nice to know Ashdown went that way.

Normal service now resumed! A couple of weeks ago Mrs Axe decided that decorating the landing, stairs and hallway, and fitting new skirting boards and carpet in the latter, was suddenly The Most Urgent Thing In The World Ever. While I was at it I took the opportunity to re-route some ugly cabling and hide it in the walls and behind the new skirting board. The Draper chisel arrived nice and sharp, so rather than blunt it by trying to sharpen it further, I set to easing the upward-bowed edge of the chassis shelf. I was able to get it so that the chassis went in freely, and I smoothed the chiselled surface down with various grades of sandpaper and gave the raw wood a couple of coats of clear satin varnish to match the existing finish. I won't be winning any woodwork prizes but now I can press ahead with the build - yay! I've carefully measured and marked up the chassis lips for where the M6 cage nuts will go and drilled them out with an 8.5mm square bit. Only joking, I've drilled 7mm diameter holes and will need to file them out square to take the cage nuts. I've had to widen the existing mounting holes in the top of the headshell to take M6 bolts. I've decided to use spring retainers for the 6L6 valves rather than bear traps as there won't be the amount of vibration that you'd get in a combo - and I hate those bleedin' bear traps! I also did a quick review of my components and realised I was missing a few bits so I added them to the order. It's good to be back in the saddle!

Good score there

I'm 43, 6"2 and in decent shape, but I'm gubbed the morning after a gig! Dont expect it to get easier.