Leaderboard

A couple of kids with a couple of geezers in the rhythm section , 2Young2old played in my favourite dive downtown last night. Crowd was a bit smaller than expected , but a pretty good turnout. The kids were a bit loud , and like to jump up on tables and stuff. It was a fun night , more exuberant than polished. Mixed crowd , bunch of other musicians. Good dancers. They say the blues only appeals to 2% of the population , but that’s 2% of everything. Young old , rich poor , good looking ugly. And anyone can feel at home in a good blues dive. We were all happy at end of the night.

Had a run of four southern dates last weekend from Thursday to Sunday as part of my doom bands recent album launch. Played B2 Norwich, club 85 Hitchin, the Gryphon Bristol and Komedia Brighton. New material we'd only outed once live prior, and we ran two of the four gigs ourselves which added a bit of extra admin and messing around. That said, it was an awesome little run, well attended and we played pretty well (or at least it felt right on stage). Also had probably the best sound guys I've experienced every night which was awesome. Got to crank out amps a bit which was reeeeally nice. Sadly I had my first major live technical hitch mid set. Lost my bass signal between about minute 3 to minute 9/10.... Went through cables, patching, amp, Di box.... Think the gremlin was the bass...maybe the battery as it's active, but once I'd got my signal back, I was then too afraid to move for fear of losing it again - not great when you're only playing one 43 minute song 🤷‍♂️ Anyway, remainder of the nights were ace and back out next weekend in London. Just thought I'd share. Bristol and Brighton pics. ✌️ Streaming via Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/7lgXKxHzRflsK6LP0nbUJh?si=d-1hX7SwQrmq--vLQ0928Q

A freezing cold Thursday at the Falkirk Blues Club. A brilliantly run club well attended by Blues fans. Venue is the Wine Library on the last Thursday of each month. All seated audience in a small capacity room so 50 people makes it a sell out.

Ok then. A lot of it comes back to the BL. I can live with him being a fairly basic drummer but he clearly doesn’t sit down and listen to the song so that he has a clue what to do. One song starts with everyone coming in on 3 big chords and then there’s a simple drum pickup before the rhythm proper kicks in. I even counted the song in, but the drums came in wrong and caused a train wreck. Most pub bands I’ve played with take no more than a 20 minute break in the middle of a 2-hour slot, but BL insists on ‘two 45s’ like some kind of cartoon 70s shop steward. In that half hour break you can lose an audience. To make it worse, he and his other half (also in the band) were arguing (audible through PA) about how long we had left to play. This was on top of the obvious friction between them whilst setting up and packing down. Overall it’s very sloppy and unprofessional, especially for someone who makes their living as an entertainer. The vocal monitors are set painfully loud, even when I wear earplugs. The lead guitarist is a recent addition to the band. He still seems very unsure of what he’s doing and is forever losing his place in his folder of chord sheets - bear in mind 90% of the set is 12-bar sequences. I’ve put up with this for too long, simply because of the relatively easy money if I’m honest. But I’ve already flagged myself as ‘unavailable’ for the venues which for various reasons I don’t want to play - crap travel, dodgy parking, or just a $h!t-hole.

You are Milli Vanilli and I claim my £5.

More Vintera Porn !

Chanson D'Armour (sic) - Manhattan Transfer

I don’t see it that way at all. They actually offered dep work when they play closer to my area but I said I would be happy to travel to their area. I expect their ideal candidate would live in the same area, whereas I’m about 70 miles away. There was always the risk that the travel to gigs would at some point start to get wearisome for me, but not if it’s just the odd dep gig. I do actively promote myself as a dep, and we discussed that at the audition, so that’s all fine with me. YMMV!

Just got in from a short set gig. Was a mates surprise 40th birthday do and although there was a band booked his missus asked if a few of his old mates would do a few songs. She asked this last week! So 4 of us said yes, bass, drums, 2 gtrs, shared vox amongst us. We had 2 rehearsals, only 1 with the drummer who hurt his ankle last week (not good). We put together a 40min set of classic rock songs and am pleased to say it went really well, to the point where many in the audience (most of whom are old mates) said we should keep it going and we all feel the same which is great. A few timing issues but fortunately all of us are experienced enough to know “ok, add another 2 bars” rather than fall apart. I really enjoyed it.

Take 2. Another one arrived. This one was broken too!! The ‘full’ triggering mode gave a constant oscillation and although 1/2 trigger mode sounded fine, you don’t get the full range. Also the switches sounded really dirty. The range switch in particular was very crackly and sometimes affected the sound until you wiggled it. I bought this one on Facebook and paid with PayPal (goods) so although the seller is a bit miffed (mostly because he had to post it which seems like it was quite difficult for him) he’s agreed to take it back. I haven’t got the energy to send it for servicing and waiting who knows how long, so I’m giving up on meatballs for now. I have a good sense of how they should sound, and that’s great - but if I’m honest I’m not a fan of the construction (Valco have improved in this design considerably) and I don’t think I could trust one now!!

No lightweight either!

Yep. What those not in the business don't realize is that both amps and speakers spend a lot of time being Beta tested before they hit the shelves. It's done so that it sounds good out of the box with as little EQ adjustment as possible. The manufacturer of one speaker that I designed took close to a year of Beta testing with dozens of players just to dial in the crossover. 😲 It was worth it, it won numerous new speaker of the year awards, but still that's a lot of testing. Using an FRFR you usually end up using a lot more EQ to get the sound you're after, which means it's not going to be a simple plug and play unless you have an modeling amp or accessory speaker emulating circuit. Think about that. You have an FRFR speaker and then you need an amp or accessory to make it sound like a speaker that's not FRFR. 🤥

No amp, just the Regal. I’ve tried an IR after it at home and it sounded ok but on gigs its awesome by itself. I have tried it with an amp model but I thought it wasn’t great. I’ve just done tonight’s rock band 1st set and I’m still chuffed with it. I’m playing a Retrovibe 51P short scale (+Lollar p/up) I’ll post the preset when I’m home if anybody wants it.

I take the same approach, if the band are up to it

Now there’s a player that always has epic tones in whichever band he’s playing in at any given moment.

Completely agree with both you and Robbie, the downside is that you need a recording space that is capable of housing a full group and sounds good enough to act as recording space, that's why the legendary rooms found their fame, Abbey Road studio 2, The Mill, Rockfield studio 1 (although the coach house is better for drums IMO), Knopflers GB studios, Konk, Rock City etc. The trend for total isolation and overdubbing came as studios got cheaper and smaller, you can record and mix to excellent results on a laptop IF you have a decent acoustic space to record and mix in. I always track at least drums and bass together with guide guitars and vocals if possible, I'll only OD bass if really necessary, but the groove has already been established between the players, it fells better generally. If I can get the whole band together then the majority of the backing track goes down in one go and the overdubs are done to fix errors or add parts. Generally vocals are the only exception. This does mean musicians have to be good enough tp play a whole song all the way through without errors however, this is not a given.

Last couple of gigs we have played straight through to try and avoid the loss of crowd at half time. I did notice my hand hurting a bit during the “second set” songs and was worried I was going to get cramp, but it worked out ok. We did have to do an impromptu version of Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) as drummer needed the toilet, so I think we might go back to having a quick break next time.

Running a recording studio is like being in virtual insanity all the time !

There's one in the practice space we use. Our guitarist used it while his Marshall was being repaired. He developed a deep hatred for that thing because it doesn't work with pedals and all the high gain settings sound terrible. We did recently find a use for it, it makes a good weight to stop the kick drum moving forwards. Terrible amplifier, useful dead weight.

+1. Been using Stainless strings for a long time, and I have yet to have any of my basses re-fretted because of wear.

Another day, another session, drummer turns up without a ride, no worries, I'll loan a cheaper one from my collection, even though I specified to bring cymbals. Wants to play to a click but can't do it. Hits one of my clip on condenser mics and tries to fix it himself, won't admit to hitting it. Thankfully the mic is fine else the session fee would be wiped out! Oh well, it takes all sorts and I've got to pay the rent!

I’ve recently been looking for a quality band to join, on either bass or guitar. In the last month I’ve attended 3 auditions and I thought I’d share my experiences here. (1) Lead guitar in a 5-piece playing a mix of pubs and festivals. I wasn’t sure I wanted this as I’m trying to move away from pub gigs, but I thought it would be worth trying in case I really liked the band. I played the audition numbers ok but I reckon my lack of enthusiasm showed and the next day I got a polite and friendly Dear John message. (2) Lead guitar in a start-up function band. The audition venue was an old farmhouse in the middle of an industrial estate populated mostly by dodgy car repair businesses. A bass player turned up to unlock the door but had little idea what was going on. Inside the building, which smelled strongly of mould, a first-floor kitchen had been equipped with a PA, drum kit, and a couple of amps. The BL (drummer) was late and the singer who was to be auditioned at the same time had cried off, so we played one song with no vocals, and I sang a couple more. As I was leaving the next candidate arrived and I was amused to see him heft a huge speaker cab from his boot, oblivious to the steep and narrow staircase that awaited him. All I’ve heard since is that the BL had had some car problems. (3) Bass guitar in a well-established party band. Although the band is not especially local to me, they do decent well-paid gigs including weddings. I did a fair bit of preparation before the audition, going through their online videos to see how they tackled the songs - not just the 3 audition numbers. The auditions were in a proper well-equipped rehearsal studio, and I took my cue from the band by taking my ampless rig and IEMs. They were a nice bunch of guys and all went well. Next day I got a message thanking me for coming and inviting me to be on their dep list - they are still looking for a permanent bassist. I call that a result. My search continues - on Thursday I am playing guitar at the first try-out rehearsal for a start-up functions band. The organiser is an excellent female singer who I’ve worked with previously. The best leads often come through people you already know. The rest of the rhythm section seem to be from the big band / theatre pit world so I’ll be interested to see and hear how that translates to a party band environment.

That's vewry funny, and good advice too. Especially funny what he calls bass players and pretending to think they are the most useless liability in the band... he is joking right?

You need to give us an idea of what went wrong so we can avoid it Dave

Only one month to go ( how exciting 😁), albeit a difficult one if your family buy you music gear (mine do). I managed to get through the SE Bass Bash in November unscathed. The raffle was an obvious banana skin that I planned for in advance - hand a strip’s worth of money over but politely refuse said strip (I bet you didn’t know that went on at bass bashes matron) - a shame as there were some good prizes.

Whale meat again - Vera Lynn

I Am The Walrus ～ wild guess?

First rehearsal with the covers band last night. The guitarist has his own rehearsal room at the end of his exceedingly long garden, which is convenient. At times we sounded great, other times not so much, but we're still looking for a second guitarist, which is desperately needed for some of the songs we're doing.

You do realise you are only on the start of the slippery slope that leads to a garage full of amps and cabs? It's not too late to hop off. When I started golf setting my gear I got to three rigs and started selling extras. For a while I was good. Then a bargain came along. Still I was good. Then another, and another... presently at 5 amps and 3 cabs which I can all justify for liking the sounds and the hefts and the looks and the practicalities. But nobody would complain if I went down to 1 of each, until something broke, and I could still cobble up a rig out of PA gear if all the bass stuff was stolen. Slippery slope I tell ye!

As a Yes fan, their extended live version of 'Every Little Thing' is often playing, and the Daytripper riff appears in the introduction. Norwegian Wood also makes an appearance mid song, and it was this that made me think of doing it myself.

Paper Plane - Quo

The flowers of romance - PIL