gt4ever

Yeah I always find myself noodling around to unsuspecting songs in different genres. I play in a function band too that forces me to dip into a wide selection of genres. For me, i feel it can only improve you as a musician and also surprise you into new and enjoyable musical experiences.

Yeah wristbands all the way, go all out with the 118 look with matching headband too

If you like Indian with a twist and dont mind delving a bit deeper into the wallet The Ambrette is extremely good, other than that all the usual suspects are in the town.

Yeah Ladyluck is your best bet for up and coming punk rock bands/scene. There’s a great pizzeria near top of high street called Chapter that is easily best pizza place in town.

Mountain song by Janes Addiction

Yep good advice. Starts, endings and structure and just play within the boxes, keep it simple. The more you learn the nuances of each song the more intricate you can tailor your fills and runs etc. Keep it simple. Good luck and try to enjoy!

Sounds like you need some time out and focus on more important things in your life. Enjoy the early days as much as you can, they grow up quick! I find most things happen and pan out for a reason most of the time. Good luck!

Yep I gotta be stage left too, become a habit now. Means I hit the pa speaker with headstock in Small venues instead of the singer 😜

I tend to avoid too good to be true as in my head the only explanation could be that it’s been teafed from an unlucky musician.

Keith Flint hit me harder than I expected, not sure why.

Chatting to local music shops, finding out where open mics are being help could open up a few contacts. Rich

I love throwing pop songs into a set, playing them a bit harder and funkier. Enjoy throwing in a bit of Katie Perry myself 😜

Yeah you have to ignore the drummer in the intro and have faith in your own arrangement. Drums are syncopated in the intro. If you see KOL play it live they dont do it too well more often than not. It’s a tricky thing for us bassists to block out the drum rhythm isnt it!?!

Yeah last year was pretty epic weather and crowd wise. I’m in a band called Indigo Stone at the moment, but most our gigs are ashford down to Folkestone way.

Yeah we play Birchington and Christies in my current band and played the others over the years. Towns like Faversham seem to be a closed shop to outsiders though for some reason. Would love to get into the hop festival this year. There must’ve been close to 800 people in the railway tavern last year for the bands most the day.

Yeah Thanet has a great few pubs with good punters and landlords. Where else do you guys play in Thanet? We’re slowly creeping up that way. Play a few in Birchington and hoping to get into Churchill’s in Ramsgate and the Britannia in Margate soon. Most of our gigs are down the M20 corridor but need to tap into the Thanet scene.

Our band use an app called unrealbook to upload music saved in dropbox. We use it to create and save set lists, works well. Rich

A good mate of mine worked on the film Baby Driver with flea and as a result, he invited him and a mate to see him perform at the O2. Luckily I happened to be THAT mate. It was a very spoilt backstage affair with all friends and family hospitality, and I made sure I was prepared with a sharpie for him to sign my bass clef. He was incredibly generous with his time and chatted with us for a good 20 minutes after he’d just performed. A night I will never forget and I subsequently got his sharpie scribbles tattooed the next day.

Buy a really old iPad for twenty odd quid and only use is it for gigging, that way if it gets damaged or nicked it ain’t the end of the world. I use a generic holder with an old iPad, combined cost about 30 quid. Happy days

I’ll be putting a few bars of ‘invaders must die’ into a bridge of one of our tunes on Saturday. RIP Keith

Know your enemy RATM was my first bass line I ever played, followed by gratitude beastie boys.

I joined a new band about 14 months ago. They showed me 86 songs and said that they never play the same set twice. As said before, we were all sensible about it and worked on 12 songs over 2 weeks and then another 12 songs and we gigged those the next month. There was a mix of tricky and easy. I had to decide to play the trickier ones within boxes first so I could jam them at rehearsal to see if their arrangements were true to original. From there it was a case of putting in the time and having fun with it. I’m now fully up to speed, have put forward a good dozen of my choices and I’m now comfortable playing duke box gigs with them. This is where clients get a full list of our repertoire on their tables and they tick ones they like. We gather them up while they’re finishing their meal and make a set list on the fly, keeps you on your toes as a musician and it’s pretty good fun. Main thing is to enjoy yourself, have fun, and be realistic as to what is possible in time constraints. Good luck!