Leaderboard

I was rather bemused when my son told me there was a pedal-sized parcel for me today. I knew I hadn’t ordered anything as I’ve been having to tighten my purse strings due to impending major change of circumstances. I was therefore completely taken by surprise to find this incredibly lovely gesture and gift when I opened the box: Folks, this was totally unexpected and unnecessary, nevertheless I want to express my profound gratitude to the anonymous benefactors who were kind enough to do this. Thank you! My faith in humanity has been given a much needed boost after the kicking it’s been getting lately. ❤️

Continuing my post-midlife crisis 'straying from Precisions' period, I couldn't resist this absolute stunner over the weekend. Just... look at it. It's a 1998 model, and was actually the L-2000 they used in the catalogue that year. A couple of honest dings here an there, but otherwise spot-on. I'll be gigging it on Friday.

An Eagles tribute show at The Fire Station in Sunderland, a relatively new 550-cap venue. I reckon it's probably one of the best in the country. The hall is beautiful... acoustic perfection. The PA is premiere league. The staff are lovely, and absolutely on it. It even has parking! Used my MIA Standard Jazz, with the G&L L2000 on standby. Rig was, of course the Handbox R-400 (with its lovely on-board DI) and TKS S212.

Late report... you'll see why. Saturday's Bendrix Rock gig at Penarth Ex's was memorable for all the right and wrong reasons. I help organising/publicising gigsat the club and it was where we had our first gig so I put out a press release bigging up our dinosaur connections. It got taken up by a local paper and I heard stories it was being talked about. Expectations were high but we were down to a four piece. Indeed the drummer and lead guitarist handwrote two setlists of what we could do after setting up. We also had our mascot for the first time. Around this time I got really dizzy while setting up some simple lights. Tried rehydrating but was so bad when we soundchecked with War Pigs I expected the rapidly expanding audience to disappear. This was unusual as people normally arrive at quarter to nine. We had lots of new faces arriving from eight. I did recover a bit but wasn't 100% right through and had a nasty wobble and nearly fell backwards playing Saturday Night's all Right. We went down a storm. Right through the first set we got not applause, but cheering. We played War Pigs, Paranoid and Crazy Train (we had to from our list) and this went down well, of course, but so did everything else. We finished saying we literally had no more songs (our current full band list is about 10 longer). But after several minutes of chanting and roaring we gave in and our singer said what do you want us to repeat. They all shouted "Muse". Fortunately it was Uprising not Hysteria! I turned up the sub on my octaver and you could see the audience's glee when I shook the whole building. Don't say people don't notice bass. It took longer to deal with all the handshakes and well wishes than to pack up. Several people said how much better we were than our first gig. I've been to literally hundreds of gigs there as it's my local club and I can honestly say it was as packed as I've ever seen it and the best reception I've ever had for a gig. People spilled over from the 'Music Alley' into the lounge, but were coming in to join the dancing. We all agreed this was why we gig, and we donated a modest bit of our fee to the raffle for the stroke association. I packed my gear, dropped it to my partner's nearby house and walked to the pub, feeling a little wobbly. I joined her and friends but managed no more than a sip of my Inches cider when the bar stated pulsating and swaying. She walked me home (I was crashing into walls and generally swaying like a drunk). I didn't get to the loo before the first 🤮 I ended up on the floor for three hours, my brother came over as we were told four hours for a priority ambulance. They got me downstairs somehow and I was lying in the porch contemplating how to get to his car when the blue lights appeared after less than an hour. Cutting it short, it's probably severe positional vertigo. I puked so much I had to go on a drip but thanks to the wonderful NHS and lots of pills/IV, I am recovering and hoping to go home soon. Waiting on a cat scan to be sure it's not a brain injury. So good and bad! I gave the Performer an outing. It sounded glorious. This really doesn't give an impression of how full it was.

Had an absolutely banging gig today down in Poole at Country In The Park with Katy Hurt. We opened proceedings and had an absolute blast. Interesting moments..: I didn’t read the set list so was almost caught out by the first song My (Dunlop) strap lock popped out during the first song so I ended up having to improvise til I could sort myself out (embarrassing photo below) Cris, playing lap steel/acoustic guitar/mandolin kept stepping on my lead so I couldn’t wander the stage as freely as I’d been trying to do. Ironically I drove home via @franzbassist to pick up his Rockboard Tree 3.0 so I can have a bigger board to fit my wireless receiver… needed more forward planning on my part! But on the whole, an absolute blast of a gig. Very hot, very fun, and I hope we made some new friends. Shoes were the lo top Soul Cals again. Me pretending to play djent when the strap popped out: The whole band just having fun:

Blockbustarz Glam covers at The Dreadnought in Bathgate. One of my fav gigs to be honest. Sound check went well and everything sounded great. Then for some weird reason i started to struggle to hear the bass out front. I had deliberately kept my on stage volume low and assumed the SE was on top of FOH. Unfortunately i spoke with my wife at the end and she said she struggled to hear the bass at times. I'll have a word with SE next time we play. He was experienced a deep feedback ring that we couldn't identify and maybe he's dropped the bass FOH to help and possibly forgot to turn it back up. My wee fingers are aching tonight as i automatically play harder when i'm struggling to hear myself. In future i'll be setting my stage volume to suit me if FOH are just gonna turn me down. I always set my stage level to balance drum levels. Other than that we had dancers from the get go. Only sold 40 tickets but a lot of walk-ins which the owner said was pretty normal these days. Ended up reasonably busy when we started and the audience remained. We had folks up from Galashiels and some came over from Livingston to see us so we have a fan base out there 😂 2x1hr sets or thereabouts. 2 encores which was nice. Odd thing was we had a crowd of Goths in and they were loving it and dancing virtually every song. At the end while loading car I overheard one of them say he's not danced that much in ages and loved it. So that was nice. It was an 80-20% ticket deal tonight and we did OK with that as we usually do. Back again Sat before Xmas which is always a fun party night and very busy. Usual gear :- Sandberg VM4 Shure GLXD+ wireless Keeley Bassist Comp. Handbox WB100 Barefaced 212 cab Loving this bass cab. Its lightweight and easy to lift but retains so much depth and the wide angle dispersion means i can clearly hear it if standing right next to it. Only downside is i always find 12's lack the mid punch of a 10" speaker but its still a superb cab and i just need to tweak my EQ abit more. I am loving the tone i'm getting with this rig. No more distortion when i play slightly harder now since i dropped the P pick up a touch on the VM4. I can still trigger it if i dig in really hard but i'm trying to play a bit lighter these days to save damaging my wee fingertips on plucking hand. All in all a great wee night and the Pizza from next door was pretty good too. 50min drive home on quiet roads and a nice wee toasted pancake and coffee and now time for bed. Night night guys. Dave

Sounds…. Just like a Stingray. For a lot lot lot lot lot less money. Aguilar pickup, OBP-2, 18volts. nice.

Played my usual Everlys & Friends Live Tribute Show last night at Warners' Alvaston Hall near Crewe. First show for the full lineup in two months and was a belter, despite the ridiculous 30 deg heat. Luckily the powers that be at Warners actually had the air conditioning switched on, so playing was bearable! Two hour set straight through with no interval is always a challenge, but was very rewarding. Full six-piece setup, including fake Grand Piano housing for Pete's Digital Piano!

I did two gigs this weekend, and they couldn’t have been much more different. Saturday night I was playing at Burton Agnes Jazz and Blues Festival with blues trio The Alligators. It was actually my final gig with them, as I’ve started a local weekly residency at a rock n roll club and it was getting a bit much - I’m supposed to be semi retired for gawds sake! Anyway the gig was okay - some great bands on before us including sax player Tom Waters (son of pianist Ben Waters). A friend of mine was on directly before us doing some of his original stuff, and then I joined him for a few covers to get the crowd dancing. Then our band got started at 11pm, to play for around an hour. Onstage sound was really loud, so was glad I’d taken my old Barefaced Compact to use in addition to my Fender Rumble 500. Played my sunburst P Lyte and it sounded good, just about keeping up with the guitar. As is customary, we were joined by a couple of sax players towards the end, and it was in danger of getting out of control. Managed to steer it to a conclusion, and I was quite relieved it was all over. A really steamy gig, drove 50 miles home with the sunroof open. Sunday evening I was back in the familiar ‘Lookout on the Pier’ in Scarborough with our acoustic duo. Really busy along the beach, blisteringly hot weather so parking wasn’t easy due to the crowds but we got set up and ready to play by 6pm. Loads of requests, with some good ones including ‘Out of reach’, ‘Tears in heaven’ ‘Human’ (Rag and Boneman!) and ‘Iris’. Fender Kingman bass into Rumble 100 combo - nice and quiet after the previous night’s gig. Couple of days off now - next gig Wednesday so will give my fingers a rest.

Second dep gig with 'The Gowertones' last night - a birthday bash for the pub landlord at the Plough and Harrow in Murton, Swansea. The weather made the potential for sweaty, melting horror a distinct possibility and when I turned up, I saw we were outside which added the risk of sunburn. But on closer inspection, we were under a pair of gazebos and sheltered by a wall. By some miracle, the only breeze in the area was funneled through a gap between wall and gazebos down onto the drummer and me. I had a small USB powered fan which directed some of that breeze onto my back overall it was a very pleasant environment. We were due to play 2hrs between 5pm and 8pm and the crowd, a respectable 50-60 or so, stayed all evening. Inevitably, we played on and the second hour slot lasted well over 90 minutes, fueled by chips and coke (from a bottle, not a mirror) gratis. A great set which included 'Paranoid' (I've never played it before but what a great 'live' song) and 'YMCA' (please don't judge). My second outing for the Sterling 34HH/Ampeg SCRDI/Peavey Minimax/twin TE1x10" line up and it's really giving me a sound that I'm pleased with. For years I've heard that sound in my head but never really managed to get it and while going DI into the sound desk with my main band is good (for that line up, it makes sense), having the bass banging out behind me is great. As mentioned, the kit list was my Sterling 34HH (mainly the bridge pick-up but for a couple of numbers both pick-ups selected) through an MS60B (for tuner/mute, noise gate and compressor) and the Ampeg SCRDI (with a shallow mix of distortion for the punk/rock numbers) and both bass and treble boosts selected. This went into the FX loop return of the Minimax and through two TE 1x10" speakers. The Minimax retains volume control when using the FX return so I used this to control the volume rather than the control on the SCRDI. There was plenty of volume without pushing either stage. Footwear was the now inevitable Skechers which proved both comfortable and cool (in the temperature sense) for the night. Although they only have one setting, I find that Skechers have nailed that setting and they work for me for all styles of music. Photos and video are slow to appear this morning but I will edit to add any that appear. This is one I took of the ground level kit. Edit: One came through this morning: Some images from video I shot on a GoPro.

Cool weekend of gigs. Friday night playing bass with Superbad at the Sapcote Social Club in Leicestershire. Really good turnout, lots of dancing and good sound. Saturday night playing bass with my own band (the Andy Wales Band) at Bar Dos Hermanos in Leicester. We were all knackered and it was a bit ragged and “seat of pants” at times but still plenty of good bits, a decent crowd and some righteous noises were made by all. Gear for both gigs was a Yamaha BB604 and little Markbass traveller rig. Then Sunday, helping our local village guitar teacher with his twice yearly gig for his students (including my eldest lad who’s just discovered Nirvana). It’s quite inspiring to see the youngsters grow as musicians over the few years we’ve been involved. The biblical rain from the morning thankfully stayed away all afternoon and it was a lovely outdoor shindig in his back garden, with me providing the PA and bass gear, being a general helper and being roped in on bass for one song. Gig below from Saturday night and Sunday afternoon’s gigs.

A bit of electrical tape on my old CV Squier Jazz and she's ready to rock for tonight's gig with Stray at 'Time to Rock' Festival in Sweden!

So new (to me) bass day, a rather nice Sandberg SL. Been looking for one for a while due to back issues and when I saw this up for grabs, in my favoured black/black/maple it just had to be. Just played it for about an hour and even without being set up as I like, and without my favoured Elixirs (currently has Elites steel rounds) it’s simply a dream to play. Not usually a fan of matching headstocks but I think it really suits it, plus - and shows my levels of OCD - it matches our guitarists Ibanez like this so I’m more than happy. I’m giving up gigging so this will be used at home and with my non-gigging classic rock band, this 6lb bass will make 4hr rehearsals a lot easier.

So last night we headlined a 5 band charity fundraiser for Wilts Air Ambulance at The Lamb in Marlborough. We’ve been working on our new original material recently and I think it’s fair to say that other aspects of the band have taken a backseat. A couple of you may recall that we go out in different formats, across a range of instruments. I have decided recently to upskill on the mandocello and have spent the last couple of weeks practicing on it. Always beneficial. When Nick and I sat down yesterday to rehearse, we may have been the worst we have ever sounded! To the point that we regrouped at mine to go through everything again and wound up being the best we have ever sounded. We got to the gig and there was a green room with drink and food laid on for the band. Enjoying alcohol-free irresponsibly! I resisted the urge to have a Nigel Tufnel moment! All the acts were excellent but everyone overran. We wound up hitting the stage at 10.55pm and I really thought we might be doing the world’s shortest set. However, we went on with a real focus and determination, playing a really charged set. We did a full show. I am resplendent in green here! Backstage, the camaraderie between bands was superb. We talked about men’s health (& mental health) which I always think is really positive. We then talked about first gigs and young Josh (our resident cool youngster) coughed to his being Chico (“It’s Chico Time” fame!). Sadly I don’t think we can let that go! Oh, I came home to discover that aside from my band being nominated for best act in multiple categories of the Wiltshire Music Awards, I have picked up a nomination for best bassist and best multi instrumentalist too! A near perfect day.

I really needed this one. Great gig. We were clicking on all 6 cylinders from the first couple bars of the first song. We played from 3-5 with a 20 minute break. Stage volume was great. The crowd loved us. Daryl

I'm a lil' late with this but my main squeeze (Felis Leo) had a gig on Saturday afternoon. A bit of background...the only promoter who will offer us a gig in town offered us a gig at a village pub, seven bands starting at 3pm. The gig was offered and Paul deals with it, we all say yes after a day of back n forth. Paul gets back to the promoter with a yes and gets told the gig's been offered elsewhere as we took too long. Paul takes umbrage at this and we get the gig, we're the first band on and we've got 30 mins! Paul is a quiet fella and slight but he don't do flaky. I've promoted the hell out of this one as I always do and we get the occasional comment about how much we promote our gigs, I usually have a day off work during the week and post loads. I get to the venue and the rest of the band and our 1 fan are there saying "we're not sure if we're playing" 🤔 they then show me the poster and our logo and the band after us have been removed and these posters are all over the pub! Jon, our singer, said we're not on the Salisbury Gig Guide either! Brian the SE said our name was on his list so we started to set up under a tiny gazebo (the only shade in 30+° heat 🥵). The 3pm start time also came and went as the guys were still setting up, there was a pile of cardboard next to their van and it was pointed out to me that the PA speakers were brand new (and big!). Quick soundcheck, everything good and away we go! The sound on the tiny stage was just mash potatoes, I was stood next to my cabs so found it hard to hear myself. There seemed to be a humming noise coming from a new speaker and Brian was fiddling with the back of it. I looked at the (sparse) audience and they seemed to be enjoying it, nobody was covering their ears or wincing so it must be ok. About 10 minutes into the set Brian goes to his van and comes back with the instructions for the new speakers! I kid you not, proper Spinal Tap moment... I'm looking at him reading and then looking at the band and...it was just a weird, tense gig, difficult to explain but you don't know if there's a problem or not and you're just trying your best to get through it 😂 Anyway, the gig went great! There were some small teething problems but our 1 fan who filmed some of it said we sounded really powerful (big, new speakers), the bassist of another band said we were really tight (should've bought him a drink but didn't 😄) and other comments were really positive. Maybe the tension and playing by your wits is the way forward 😬 We broke our RnR rule by wearing shorts I'm afraid, Darrell the drummer is allowed shorts but we're not...it was hot though! I used my lakland 55-02 through a TC electronic BH 550 into a pair of Barefaced one10s propped up on one corner due to an uneven stage surface (dead grass 😂).

We closed the Home Grown Music Festival in Regner Park tonight. We started at 8:30 and played an hour set. If any vids appear I'll post them. Daryl

Just played to 400 or so Swedish Bluegrass fanatics at a festival by a lake. I’m taking the photo, not in it!

Just back from a sports and social club over in Nuneaton about 12 miles away. There were quite a few in, which made for a good evening, and a bit of dancing in the last set. We've played there before but I think there were a few more in this time. The guitarist had a bit of an off night, making some silly mistakes in songs we've played loads of times. However we were pleasantly surprised at how well Sir Duke came together after just learning our bits at home and then playing it together for the first time in the gig. I love playing with such talented guys. I love the painted back wall. The usual Stingish bass into GT-6B (operated by burgundy suede Converse one-stars) into Fender Rumble v3 500 combo. Passable cheese and onion batch (we ventured from our native cob-eating Leicester into batch-eating Nuneaton) from the bar - only £1.50 - bargain

Gig last night was a little two hour, two set, Thursday night soiree. Everything went ok and it was free from any technical or equipment issues. The pair of G4M 1x12 powered pa speakers bought used for less than a ton nearly a year ago as a stop gap when our previous singer left with his EV’s continue to provide sterling service, and have more than paid for themselves. They aren’t hugely powerful but 1x12 + horn seems an ideal configuration for pub gigs. It’s only vocal, saxophone, and kick going through them. First time out for my new LFSYS Silverstone II cab, and also first gig with my newly restored Trace Elliot SMX head. Both worked perfectly and the clarity and sound quality were quite astonishing. I used my Sadowsky M/J for this gig. If there was anything to be noted for after gig discussions, it was that the second set started to get a bit jazzy rather than blues and perhaps a bit louder than was necessary. Both the guitarist and drummer were suffering from “The Guiness Effect” by then.🤔 Venue was Baker Street in Stirling, not the most spacious of venues. The band name seems to be sticking now as Blues Delux( for the last three gigs). Must admit I prefer the Sunday afternoon shows at this venue rather than late week nights. It also rained tonight, and the venue was late advertising the show. So it wasn’t a big crowd we played to, but they seemed to enjoy it. Everyone was happy, the band all enjoyed themselves, and we got paid to boot. I’ll take that any day. I believe there was video footage but it's not available yet. That maybe a good thing😊

It's been a while since we played at the Horse and Trumpet and at the end of the gig the landlord and lady were telling us how July is always their worst month, with a lot of people on holiday. We very pleased then to see a lot of familiar faces that we'd managed to pull in. The A4 laminated QR code to our Facebook page took a few more hits from some new faces too. It was... darned hot, and I forgot to take my fan! Cue a very sweaty bass by the end of the gig ... the Stingish bass (Sterling Sub5 with Retrovibe Stinger preamp). Usually a lovely matt finish. Of course we just had to do War Pigs in the second set, and saved Paranoid for an encore at the end of the night (how did we know?! 😂) - RIP Ozzy. I was very pleased that Sir Duke on its 3rd outing, and especially after a couple of weeks break, was tight and got the crowd dancing and singing along. It's a right earworm that riff! As seems to be the case recently I forgot to take any photos until we'd finished playing. There were a few people taking photos, so some decent shots might turn up. For now here's the kit-spotter's wide angle shot (Fender Rumble v3 500 combo and Roland Boss GT-6B on my side) The purple suede Gazelles got another outing

Bendricks Rock played Edmondes in Cowbridge. Originally meant to start at 8:30 there was virtually no-one so we started at 9 when we had a bit of an audience. It rapidly filled up although it was a bit tidal with people moving around thd pub coming in to dance to songs they liked. There was an engagement party in the pub. Their friends wanted us to spoof them so we got them up for a slow dance and played War Pigs 😂 Our original singer (didn't get as far as gigging) came to see us and said we were good. I took an anti-nausea pill again as squatting and standing to set up the gear set me off again. After tgat I was fine and managed to join in on backing vocals but was pretty shattered by the end of the night. Worst thing is the nausea means I can't drink... so had three pints of alcohol free - then spent the night waking up to pee.

Simply Blu Trio, three members of our 5 piece bluegrass band playing at The Block bistro in North Bay Ontario last night. We have played here before and do a mix of standard bluegrass songs and a few others including some Gordon Lightfoot and keep it light and friendly, it's not a show as such just background music for the diners and it went over well with some nice comments afterwards. We had a request for Ian Tyson's Four Strong Winds from a lady celebrating her birthday and although we had never played it together we picked a key and ended up surprising ourselves with a very nice version of it with three part harmony! Smallish crowd but early gig (6-8:30, two sets) and we will be back next week for something new, a lunch time gig. 😊

Sunday afternoon gig with the covers/original band at the Red Hart in Bodham. We were meant to be playing outside in the beer garden under the newly completed covered area (nice job) but the governor was worried by the forecast of thunderstorms and the likelihood of the rain being driven under the shelter (guess there are insurance implications). It was decided we should play indoors in the dining room but needed to wait until the end of the main service before setting up. I have been to jams and open mics in the dining room and wasn’t too impressed with the acoustics, so I was a bit apprehensive, especially as we had come equipped for playing outside. Fortunately, our drummer plays an electronic kit, so we can turn him down 😀. I had my two LFSys Monzas driven by a Blackstar U700, with a MB LMIII as standby. Basses: Guild Starfire 1 and a custom made P/J shorty. In the end I only connected the top cabinet and the guitarists just used their amps, with only vocals, drums and keys going into the PA. Somehow we managed to get a good sound, according to friends who had come to watch. I had the master on the U700 so low it was almost off but apparently could be heard throughout the pub: testament to the amazing projection of the LFSys cab. Unfortunately, waiting until the main service was over meant that we lost 50% of our audience and instead of a full beer garden, we ended playing to about a dozen people, with some leaving and new arrivals taking their place. The governor said he would normally have a full beer garden but the weather forecast had obviously kept the punters away. We were supposed to do a three hour stint but ended up doing an hour and 10 minutes for the first set and almost an hour for the next two sets. This was largely because the audience was appreciative and we decided to see if we could get through every song on the set list (bit of a paid rehearsal). Despite the temperature dropping it was very humid and with 5 of us crammed into the end of the room, it felt like a sauna. Anyway, we got good feedback from the punters and the governor has invited us back, so not a disaster. No pics: I must remember to take some next gig. Footwear: trainers to cope with being on my feet that long.

Our gig Saturday night was expected to be a bit of a muted affair, due to a range of other events happening in the area the same night. While we did lose a few of our usual following to these, it turned out to be a busy night after all, with plenty of new faces (and future followers). These included one bloke who I know from our village who never knew I was in a band, but had us recommended to him by the postman who regularly attends our gigs. Also there was someone I'd not seen since leaving school! Gig wise, the usual two 45 minutes sets of the British 76-82 punk classics - first outing for Stay Free by The Clash was a bit wobbly but well received! Played my shortscale LP Junior DC custom bass through the Orange Terror 500 and twin Isobaric cabs (lurking in the darkness with it's one glowing orange eye!). The Samsamp Geddy Lee YYZ pedal put a touch of damaged/overdriven speaker cone effect into the sound for authenticity, while the usual Dr Martens black safety boots (health and safety at all times!!) kept me the right way up all night! Next one is in a marquee at a scooter rally in a couple of weeks.....

Busy weekend, after a while of not doing anything. Had an hour slot at a local festival, Party by the Parrett, and got the 6pm slot which was nice. We had played a wedding and a party at the venue, and the guy that run the club liked us. Very well organised (stocked fridge back stage and everything) and handily the two main sound guys were the guitarists friend and one of the guitarists in my other band. We had argued a bit trying to get the set list down, we had been asked to do mainly rock (there was a more poppy band and a ska band on after us, so we stuck to the rock mostly) seemed to go down well and we managed to get it down to 1hr and 3 minutes, so went over a bit, which messed stuff up a bit but not too bad. We had quite a few dancers . My guitarist / sound guy did a video from the side WhatsApp Video 2025-07-05 at 18.45.55.mp4 Today we played a pub, outside, on shingle which is a bit of a pain for getting dust everywhere and trying to stand your drink up. Also not good for wasps (or well, good depending on if you are a wasp or not!), back to the normal 2.5 hour set. To be honest I wasn't really feeling it as my hand hurt for some reason but it went well with only a few notable mistakes, like going to do the organ backing section of Brick in the wall, and not realising I didn't change my patch from the backing track of Baker street (which is like a bell), which was quite amusing. We had a request for timber which we hadn't done for a year or so but the singer couldn't remember how to play it! Glad to get back to work tomorrow for a rest!

Yesterday I was a Punk Pirate, having been to the Brighton Guitar Show with #2 son during the day and managed to avoid an impulse buy of a 72 P bass. It was very nice as was the 73 and the canary yellow 75 , but I just resisted. Having left there around 3:30 and dropped son off I headed over to Emsworth for a little light pirating at Kingsfest. Almost didn’t bother with IEM’s because it was quick turnarounds, but guitar from my usual main band said the onstage sound was a bit muddled, so in the end I set it up and just took a mono aux with bass, guitar and vox and put one plug in and it worked well. Timings for the day got out of sync due to weather and the Fest starting indoors then moving out. Would have helped if the acoustic duo had used the second stage rather than main, so when the compère said “the Pirates will be on in 15 minutes” there were cries of “I don’t think so!” but we were on pretty quick. Still somewhat curtailed of set time, not helped by my right leg going through the stage just before we started so so quick patching required…”I be capsizin’ cap’n” … “‘‘tis but a scratch ya scurvy scum” 🤣 Pretty solid set generally. Some flubs, but we’re Punk Pirates, nobody died, and it was generally good. Good crowd up for it and a lot of money made for a dementia charity, so all good. 90725182-ba33-4dba-ac6a-e0da656b2980.mp4

Hurtsfall played the Nottingham Pride event yesterday on the Gladrags stage at Rough Trade. Second time we've played at Rough Trade in less than a month and once again it was joy to be performing in an air-conditioned venue when it was uncomfortably hot outside. Once again excellent sound on stage and FoH. Due to time constraints we did the shortest set ever - under 25 minutes comprising just 5 songs. However we managed to pack the gig space at the end of the bar with plenty of people dancing and cheering as well as picking up a load on new fans, if our Facebook profile is anything to go by. Early finish and back home before 6.00 in the evening! Here we are giving it some at the end of our last song: "12 Long Years": Next gig is Twisted Firestarter which is the Infest Festival warm-up party at Rebellion in Manchester on 14th August.

Just got home from a Knock Off gig at The Hope & Anchor, Islington, supporting GBH - apparently there never played there in their 40+ years so Knock Off arranged the gig for them. Went great, we played very well and the audience reaction was amazing, literally bodies flying all over the place, and singing along. I used my Fender JMJ Mustang and Behringer BDI21 into the 100w Ashdown house combo, which with a bit of help from the monitors was fine. Only downsides were it was incredibly hot in there so given the music type and how we play I’m now very smelly, and I ache all over - a reminder of why I’m giving up gigging. Footwear was a pair of black Vans trainers. Edit - I forgot to add, GBH were amazing, as they always are, great bunch of guys, really good to work with, and such an awesome sound.

The acoustic trio, The Desperate Cowboys played The Doghouse pub in Alfreton. I’ve played there a couple of times before with a full band and was a bit concerned about how we’d go down with a ‘softer’ sound. As it happened, we got as many people up and dancing (without any drums or percussion) as on previous visits. So, a good night and well appreciated by the pub and the audience. The pubs of the Derbyshire/Notts ex-coalfields are not for the faint-hearted or easily offended. But if they like you it can be a great night. Taylor mini-bass through Trace Elliott Elf and Barefaced One 10.

Reformed the function band after a 3yr break, albeit with a fresh lead guitarist. We had four rehearsals to get up to speed for the local pub festival / charity event. It was a great success, sounded fantastic and had 'em up dancing from the off of the 90 min set. Good to be on the trailer with the guys and gal again. I do ache a bit today though 😄

Another totter along the pathway to full-on gigging on Friday, but (spoiler) alas not on bass. Leader of my former band couldn't find a dep guitar player for the 5-7pm slot she had been given at a mini-festival in Shaftesbury. Dep number 3 in her little black book could do the first set, so I got the call to do the second set on sax. It felt like a good idea as up til then the furthest I'd driven post my stroke op and recovery had been a 30 mile round trip, so the chance of doing a 90 miler in daylight and getting some pay for it was nice. Mrs G came along too... The traffic was very bad most of the way (it's getting to peak holiday time down here in Dorset) so we were a bit late arriving at the venue, which was a de-frocked church converted into a social event centre. The stage was set up amongst the gravestones, (in the dead centre of town?) and was rather impressive, being an inflatable shell over a proper raised playing area, with a pro sound guy and a full PA with massive speakers and foldback monitors - top marks! We sat and listened to my old bandmates doing their first set,after which the guitarist packed up rapidly and exited to get to his next gig. With just my tenor sax to set up and radio mic to plug in we were ready to continue after a few minutes with set 2. If you're a sax or brass player you'll be familiar with the need to transpose chords and melodies when playing with keys and guitars; I'd been used to playing most of the numbers in set 2 on bass without this embuggerance, but this time I was busking 9 out of 12 for the first time, which was a bit of a challenge especially with 'Sweet Caroline' and 'Country Roads' both played in B concert = C# on the tenor, with 7 accidentals to manage in the root key, and no chance of cheating with a capo... Anyway, it went OK 95% of the time and the punters seemed to appreciate the different sound of a sax-led band for a change, so I was able to successfully chalk up gig 3 after my 5 month medical lay-off - however, I was cream-crackered today!

Great private party gig last night celebrating a 40th and an 80th so wide age range watching. Outdoors in the garden of one of the local farmhouses and all up for a good time. Only the 5th gig of the new band but they liked us so much that they paid us more than the agreed going rate. Same happened last at last gig so we must be doing something right. First outing of my s-s Sandberg Cali since new Aguilar pickup set fitted. Much more heft that OE pups. Didn't realise just how much in fact. No need to engage the 'deep' button on my Mesa D800+ from now on methinks. So nice to see all the old folks having such a good time. That includes me btw 🙂

Two gigs for Hurtsfall this week. First on Thursday at Rough Trade in Nottingham Supporting the brilliant Miranda Sex Garden. Lovely air-conditioned venue which was a relief from the heat and also meant I could wear my normal stage gear rather than something that wasn't going to make me pass out due to heat stroke. Played to an audience who were largely unfamiliar with our music but it looks like we won them over, and consequently sold loads of CDs afterwards. As always here's some photos from the gig: Then on Saturday we were near Ellesmere on the Welsh border for Goths On A Field. The bands play inside a barn which could have meant it was like an oven, but luckily it turned out to be marginally cooler in barn than outside in the field. My sister (who last saw me play live in 1985) and her husband who live nearby came along and seemed to enjoy it almost as much as our usual Goth audience. Plenty of people up and dancing from the first song, and the new song we were playing for the very first time got a great response. Despite the fact that most of the audience must have seen us play before we still sold a decent amount of merch and we had a number of people saying that we were their favourite band of the weekend which given who else was playing was high praise indeed! No photos as yet, but I'm sure there will be some posted when everyone is back home later today or tomorrow. For both gigs I was using my Eastwood Hooky 6-strong bass going direct into the PA via a Line6 Helix. Footwear was a pair of black and silver Converse-style boots bought years ago from TK Maxx Next gig is back at Rough Trade on 26th July as part of the Nottingham Pride festival.

A very hot sweaty gig playing at the new Rodeos Birmingham. Bizarre stage with the back end of a pickup truck slap bang in the middle, a solitary monitor, no sound man, a drummist we’d never met before, several drunk hen parties… had the makings of a nightmare alongside the heat. On the whole though, it was great fun. We threw in a few covers alongside Katy’s originals, had a delightful interaction with someone in the break asking us to play all the artists we’d covered in the first set 🙄, and made a few new friends along the way I think. The dep drummist was fantastic, so he can come again 🤓 Bass as ever my sexy ACG RetroB, through Handbox WB100 and Barefaced Two10. Shoes were my Soul Cals again. No decent photos of us playing (yet) so have a photo of my side of the stage 😆

Had a great afternoon at Summer Soul Vibe Festival in Ipswich. We played a 40 min set mid-afternoon. Exellent stage, crew and pa playing my first gig with my new Sadowsky ME. The back line the same SVT I played with a year ago at another festival, same hire company! Proper green room in Venue 16, with lasagne, soft drinks tea and coffee and staff looking after you. Really nicely done. Good to get great comments from the sound guys and I could see the foldback engineers having a good time stage left of us. Which is always nice.and reassuring. IMG_0666.mov

I'm out at last. Mri was clear but still unsteady and probably will take a weekor two to recover. Had to bow out of three gigs with three bands this weekend but they have all been great about it. Gutted as was really looking forward to it

It's been a while since I've been able to post in this topic, as our old guitarist opted out at the beginning of May. It's been cancellations, auditions and just a couple of rehearsals since then. I think we've got the right new guy. I was slightly nervous in the run up to last night's first gig, as we didn't manage to rehearse this week as our drummer has been taken into hospital for urgent surgery. He's going to be out of the game for a while. A good friend of ours is going to sit in on drums for a while when he can and I am meeting another drummer this evening, when we play another gig (and he's on drums). We're deviating from usual set to a degree, as our new guitarist has some songs he's pretty good at, so to get a set together, and to change things a bit (the old band was a bit of a museum, as we couldn't add new songs without a distinct lack of enthusiasm from one corner of the room). We've pulled the best set together of crowd pleasers that we can . There were a couple of hairy moments, but the punters didn't notice. The good news for us is that we are back doing it and enjoying it.

Finished up at the bluegrass festival this afternoon in very heavy rain. Full 5 piece band and we had a good rehearsal before our set and then found out it was shortened to 30 minutes instead of the normal 45-55 minutes. Not much playing and a two hour drive each way. Yesterday we played at noon and the band was in good form and we were very tight and did a beautiful version of Seven Bridges Road, the acapella part was wonderful four part harmony, a good set and the crowd enjoyed it and our leader and lead vocal was back in good health. Usual festival set up, Czech DB with Nux wireless into Traynor amp and DI to PA, excellent sound guys and we sounded good.

Did a really lovely gig by the seaside near Swanage and, as well as a large fee, was allowed to order anything form the menu, which included this £70 lobster. Would have been rude not to!

We played the fabulous Richard Jefferies Museum in Swindon. A beautiful setting with what I thought was a respectable crowd. I flew back from Spain yesterday so we hadn’t really rehearsed. I think we have it in the bank though. A varied crowd from 3-87yrs old and the under 10s all helped us pack up. Luckily, the other half of my duo is a teacher so he was able to coordinate them so we had no breakages! Everyone was super friendly and it was certainly one of the more memorable gigs.

I bought this bass on Ebay recently and am totally blown away. I've owned loads of basses, USA Precisions, Road Worn series, Fender Japan but this trumps them all in my opinion. To me it feels like the perfect bass. I may be being hysterical but I literally can't put it down and have had it for a month now. Wow!!

Saturday Night party gig in New Wellington Newmarket. Rock Covers Trio - apart from drunks knocking the boom of the mic stand into the singer/guitarist mouth and teeth several times, overall a very good night, 50+ people, great crowd couldn't ask for better. I'd decided to go back to a P bass (reverse, no tone pot) after stints using my Dingwall ABZ and G&L Trib M2000, turns out simple is best for me, also went back to the Keeley Bassist compressor after using a UAFX 1176 and struggling with all the extra knobs and choices! Raised the crossover (Sine Effects X24) point for my drive from 680hz to 800hz ish and I was very pleased sound wise, my P has the D'addario EXL160BT 120-50 strings tuned to Eb, still plenty of tension and plenty of "heft" through the Tecamp Puma 900 + BF Super Twin set up. Still getting used to filling out the mix since going down to a trio line up.