casapete

Our duo is at our favourite gig in Scarborough this coming Sunday….

I’m guessing it’s the old Duncanson and Edwards shop on the corner of Frederick St / Queen St? Glad someone else is still selling musical stuff from there. I have a nice Strat purchased from there in the early 2000s, was a great place.

All of this reminds me of seeing the wonderful Hank Wangford band, back in the 80’s. Hank (aka Dr Sam Hutt) had a superb set of musicians with him, all with great stage names too. The ones I can remember included Irma Cetas on vocals, guitarists Brad Breath and Jett Atkins, Manley Footwear on pedal steel ( the legendary BJ Cole) and Milton Keynes on drums.

I watched the whole programme and was very impressed with the band ( just superb ) and most of the headline acts, with the exception of the Mumfords contributions. Their vocals were a bit frail and not quite in tune, especially compared with the other main performers. ( I didn’t know the Mumfords were even considered to be a country outfit TBH.)

Three gigs this week for me. Tuesday saw the duo at our monthly residency at The Anlaby Park hotel. A full house, lots of requests and generally a good one for us. There’s a family with late teenage kids who often come in, and the daughter always asks us to play something by Ariana Grande so we will have to see what we can manage - we’ve done the odd Taylor Swift or Lady Gaga tune so challenge accepted! Got a few requests for ‘new’ country stuff too, so we did ‘Tennessee Whiskey’ by Chris Stapleton which went down well. Used my Squier Jag SS with the Rumble 500. Wednesday I was playing at the local rock n roll club night in Hessle. 3 piece band with two friends on guitar and drums. Not quite as busy as usual, so I hope it’s not starting to slide down as we get paid according to how many we get in. Still, plenty of dancers who get up for pretty much any songs we do, whether fast, mid tempo or slow. My usual P-Lyte into a Hartke 3500 and Loud 4x10 cab. Despite being heavy I do like the Hartke, but it helps being able to leave the gear at the club. Then Thursday the duo was at my local village pub, 200 yds from my front door. Possibly the last time we might play there as it’s currently up for sale, so it may have explained why it was rammed with people when we arrived. We had so many requests we had to play longer sets to try and make sure we didn’t leave anyone out. Along with the more regular stuff we did ‘Streets of London’, ‘Bat out of hell’ ‘Leaving on a jet plane’ ( for a lady who was emigrating this weekend ) and finished with ‘Another brick in the wall’. My guitarist partner was absolutely on fire on this, so we had to do a couple of encores after it. Great to see so many locals and friends in, including my daughter and her in-laws who are over from Australia. Used my Kingman electro acoustic with the Rumble 500, but TBH wish I’d just stuck with an electric as it got a bit loud towards the end. A great night, made even better by the short journey home. A bit knackered after 3 gigs on the trot, so nice to have Friday and today off. Next gig for us is tomorrow at our favourite venue The Sun Inn, Beverley, starting around 5pm. Hopefully the storm will have died down by then, as it’s a lousy get in if the weather is bad - fingers crossed.

I get that it’s a way of changing sounds, but for me it’s all about finding an amp you really like the sound of in the first place. Personally I don’t get buying an expensive pre when you could get another amp for the same outlay. I think that if you have to run one as well as your amp then you need to maybe reconsider which amp you use.

Absolutely. I carry mine as a last resort really, just to see me through the gig. I use an amp for the consistency of sound , and for the gigs I do relying on just the PA / potentially dodgy (or non existent) monitors isn’t an option.

I carry the ubiquitous Behringer BD121 pedal everywhere in my leads case. An absolute no brainer for less than £30. 😃

Just received a twin pack of 4 string EXL170s from Amazon, £22.99 delivered via Prime / Royal Mail. Seem legit, codes etc so looks like a good deal for £11.50 a set.

Years ago I was playing in a country rock band. We’d been booked by a rugby club somewhere near Doncaster to play in the bar after a big local derby match. As we were setting up our pedal steel player let us know he’d forgotten his instrument! He played it on around 80% of our songs, so pretty key to our sound. Around the same time we noticed a distinct lack of punters too - apparently the home team had been given a thrashing so their supporters had either gone home in a huff or ventured into town to drink away their disappointment. We kept quiet about our own problem, and sure enough the club steward shuffled over and apologised for the lack of an audience, offering us most of our fee to go home! We tried not to look too relieved as we packed down. 😂

So did I ! I’ve settled on ‘semi-retirement’ Mart - no longer doing the touring thing, just mainly duo and occasional dep gigs nearer home. Oh yeah, and a weekly rock n roll club night too! Not sure I’ll ever stop completely, although my body may decide otherwise. 😄

Our first gig for the duo ( since our annual break ) was yesterday afternoon at a local vineyard, playing for a 60th birthday party. Great venue set on the edge of the wolds, overlooking the Humber estuary. Only about 40 guests, and a surprise do for the birthday lady so we played ‘Happy Birthday’ as she walked into the room. Not many requests, but the family were big Fleetwood Mac fans so it gave us a challenge to sort some keys out for a few of the female led vocal tunes, some of which worked and the odd one didn’t! Still, some dancers towards the end of the afternoon so we just kept the well known material flowing, along with the sparkling wine which was delicious! Used the Fender Kingman into my Rumble 100v3 combo, more than adequate in rather lively room - barn like with bare wood everywhere. Home by 6pm, well paid / fed / watered etc. We have 3 more gigs this week, so back with a vengeance!

My guitarist mate in our duo is pretty good with the ‘bants’. I sometimes interject when I think it’s appropriate, especially if he’s getting inappropriate and needs digging out of a hole. As we rely a lot on requests for our gigs, there is plenty of opportunity to discuss the song selection, and also apologise for the ones that are beyond us ( including ones we’ve just attempted that weren’t that clever). Another topic that comes around quite often is my age ( being 8 years older than him) so he gets a fair bit of mileage out of that , which doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I think the golden rule is chat when it helps the gig move along, and just shut up and play the tunes when it’s obvious that’s all they want. Add alcohol into the equation and it can get harder knowing which is best of course….😆

Mine too Mart, seen so many bands there over the years & always a great sounding room too. (Onstage sound surprisingly not so good though, with a pronounced ‘slap back’. Rest of my band were on IEMs so I just had to have extra wedge monitors to overcome it!)

In my acoustic duo I use a Fender Rumble 100V3 combo. I plug a Fender Kingman V2 acoustic electric bass into it and it sounds really good to my ears. I’ve also used this combo with other small line ups including percussion and it’s coped very well. The best bit is it’s weight - 22lbs / 10 kg. People who pick it up can’t believe how light it is, and it is the best thing I’ve bought for years. I also have a Rumble 500 combo and that is a great bit of kit too.

I honestly think that if you can play an instrument then you can probably sing as well. Even if your tone isn’t great it can be of use, especially in smaller bands where any ’extras’ may prove invaluable in making the sound bigger / better.

I have a very ordinary singing voice, but it’s ideal for BVs where it’s not threatening any lead vocal….ever….. 😆 I think that’s what has often helped me get gigs, as there are quite a few players around here who are a lot better than me. ( Nothing to do with me being cheap either…)

Exactly this! I played with the same main band for 15 years, and people would often assume I wasn’t available for deps, even though I often was! Since leaving this band ( and supposedly semi retiring! ) I’ve done a fair few dep gigs, so people are realising I’m around more and give me a call. Mainly pub / function bands, who rarely have parts available so I’m winging it most of the time. I’m amazed how many bands don’t have chord charts / guide parts for any possible dep situations though. It really helps if you can offer backing vocals too, however limited.

Ah yes, I forget the grey - that Sterling looks fantastic!

Black is the best colour IMO. Goes with the headstock well, and easily made a bit stealth with the addition of a black guard once the original has been binned. IIRC the colours available were teal, black, white and a kind of burgundy red, all textured.

I had a couple, and regret selling one in particular ( on here IIRC ). Mine were teal and black. Great basses, although weren’t the lightest of things. MM did a passive one as well, along with a SUB Sterling which are really rare.

Quiet couple of weeks for me, our annual 2 weeks blanking the duo’s diary for holidays etc. However, I’ve had a couple of gigs this weekend with friends. First one was my favourite boozer, The Sun Inn in Beverley on Saturday evening, depping with a band of mates in their dad rock band. Absolutely torrential rain so expected it to be quiet but by 9pm we had a nearly full pub when we started. It was one of those gigs that didn’t really gel for some reason - guitarists struggled a bit, and it was a bit too loud towards the end. Still, went down well so job done I guess. Played my P-Lyte into the Rumble 500 combo. Then yesterday it was playing at a memorial gig for a good friend Lynn Blakeston ( Blako ) who died in April. This was in a local civic hall, with a big PA and backline / kit supplied. Plenty of acts / bands lined up to play, and of course we were on last ( bit annoying because we all arrived early but hey ho). I was playing with an old Hull band called ‘Uncle Sam’ who were an early country rock band in the mid to late 70’s. Four original members plus myself. John Cambridge on drums ( ex-Bowie) and Steve Lee on lead vocals ( also a writer / multi instrumentalist with a CV including Joan Armatrading, Lionel Richie, Will Young, Then Jericho). Steve came up from London for the gig, and was amazing - a pleasure to play with such a talented singer. I used my 63 Precision which had done a lot of gigs with Blako so seemed fitting. Used the house HA5000 / 410 which was fine. We did eight songs, including stuff from Poco, The Eagles and Linda Ronstadt and went down well, with a few dancers at the front and a good reception from the rest of the audience who were mainly made up of musicians. Despite the sadness of the occasion it was still good to see loads of people I’ve not seen for ages, and we all agreed we’d have to do it again in happier circumstances.