casapete

This was supposed to be my rig at a gig last night, but unfortunately it developed a fault during soundcheck that meant me having to use my normal GK set up. Shame, as whilst it was working it sounded marvellous, and took me back to when I had a great vintage SVT rig 25 years ago.

BBC2 this evening - 10.10pm : Van Morrison ‘Up on Cyprus Avenue’ 11.10pm : Phil Lynott ‘ Songs for while I’m away’

We did a Butlins 70’s weekender at Minehead last night. We nearly didn’t due to our singer all but losing his voice, but the gig was saved by bringing along a possible future replacement for him. He did very well considering the circumstances and at such short notice, so they shared the vocal duties along with me doing a bit too. Had the use of an SVT rig which I’d been looking forward to. Unfortunately it seemed to have a problem during soundcheck so ended up using my GK set up. We got through the gig okay - great audience of around 2000 mostly in 70’s themed fancy dress and up for a good time. After we’d finished some of us caught Bootleg Blondie on another stage who were really good. Plenty of beers afterwards and a good night’s kip in surprisingly nice lakeside accommodation. Dreadful journey home today though due to an accident on the main road in and out of Minehead, necessitating a massive diversion using very narrow roads into Devon! Took us over 5 hours to get home so absolutely knackered now, looking forward to a night in etc. ( Got a break of 3 weeks now before our next gig in Milton Keynes, one of the 5 left before I leave the band. )

Very sad news, one of our BC stalwarts. RIP Nick.

Good call, although the OP is situated in Georgia USA so I thought Peavey heads may be more easily available there.

Older Peavey bass amp heads often come up for sale quite reasonably and would go well with the Peavey 410 speaker cabinet. Look at something around 200 watts + and you won’t go far wrong.

Problem with doing theatre gigs Mart is that most of them are in city centres, so no way to avoid it.

Yup, we got clobbered recently when we did Sheffield City Hall. If I’m not mistaken, you can’t check anywhere as to what you owe either, you just pay it or risk a fine when you haven’t paid it. 🤨

Sounds like a belting gig. We are at Minehead next week, looking forward to reacquainting myself with an SVT rig!

We occasionally use local ( to the venue) PA hire companies Dave - recently Dundee for instance (although they came from Glasgow!) but generally we prefer to use our own Lighting & PA people. Lighting comes from Lincolnshire, PA from Derbyshire, sound engineer from West Yorkshire. The band come from East, West, South and North Yorkshire as well as Nottingham! It’s amazing we all manage to get to the venue every time really, does take some organising. Occasionally we will use a theatre’s PA if it’s up to the job, but doesn’t happen that often. Next week we are at Butlins in Minehead doing a 70’s weekender, and will use the house system there ( and the house SVT rig too 😊).

Would be a plan Dave, but our guys all have different needs outside of working with us. PA in one van, lighting in another, backline in another and then the band in our Merc splitter bus. Also just to make things worse we all come from different areas!

Bacon, mmmm. Just wondering what the Bacon / £ Conversion rate would be? 😋

Our band is considering the same Dave. Four LWB vans really cane the ULEZ fines, and some of our tech guys work that area more than once a year so theirs gets doubled every time. Crazy.

Our second gig this week tonight at The Grand Theatre in Swansea. A magnificent late Victorian theatre with a seating capacity of just over 1000. Nice combination of old impressive architecture with modern facilities backstage. We’ve played here many times now and always get a great enthusiastic crowd in. Tonight was no exception, good natured heckling and enthusiastic applause after every number, with plenty of communal singing. A really enjoyable gig. ( I now have only six gigs left with the band before my departure at the end of next month.) 🙁

Easy tiger……

If anything changes give me a shout and can probably get you a couple of tickets if there’s some left. 🙂

In Tewkesbury last night at The Roses theatre. Capacity audience of just under 400 in this arts centre probably dating back to the 70’s. Easy load in and set up, then a great Thai meal just round the corner at the historic Black Bear Inn. Superb Pad Thai for a tenner, and some marvellous ales too. Oh yeh, the gig - it went well, no problems, well received and that’s it really! Just about to set off to Swansea now for our gig there tonight at The Grand Theatre.

Just got some more details of our Butlins gig at Minehead 70’s weekender next Friday, and I have a choice of two Ampeg rigs! 😊

I’ve fallen victim to ‘want’ over ‘need’ for many years now, and yes it’s a curse! I’ll soon be leaving my main band and think it will be the right time to start selling stuff that is no longer relevant to my needs. After years playing my Precision Lyte I think that one is a keeper, although it’s identical twin ( originally bought as a back up but never used) will be going. As will the lightweight Jazz bitsa and some others as well as my main GK amp/cab. I’ve recently sold my Washburn AB20 ( after owning it for 30 years) because it just wasn’t getting used so that’s a start. I’m looking at settling on two acoustic basses for my duo, one short scale and one medium so will need to decide on those in the near future. ( Then there’s only the guitars to consider, which will be much more difficult as I rarely play any of ‘em). 🥴

I did that a year or two ago playing at a 70’s weekend bash at Butlins. We hauled my GK rig up a long flight of stairs, set it up and then I pulled a curtain to one side and behind it was a proper Ampeg SVT amp / 8x10 set up! My favourite rig, and nobody thought to tell me there was a house amp. We have another gig there soon so will make sure I check to see if it’s available this time.

In my old function band we used to do a fair few military bases, and ( apart from the hassle of getting through the guards on the main gates understandably searching the van) we used to get help unloading and then loading again at the end of the night. Always well looked after as well, with excellent food, drinks and dressing rooms etc. Played some of the US bases in Suffolk / Eastern England and they were amazingly helpful, plenty of guys to haul the equipment. Very enthusiastic audiences too, did some great gigs with a country band in the early 80’s - you only had to ask if there was anyone from any particular US state and a tray of drinks would appear on the front of the stage. Happy days.

Which leads me back to Curry’s. I found a NAD CD player online that I was after, only problem was it was at a Curry’s branch 50 miles away. Eventually found a number for the branch and they said they’d keep it for me so I drove over to pick it up. It became obvious that they’d not put it aside for me, and as it was the last one I was lucky it was still in stock, according to the assistant who checked it on their system. Anyway told her I’d take it, and she went to get it from the shop floor, returning 5 minutes later empty handed. She then asked me what a CD player looked like! Bearing in mind this was some years ago when CD players were not exactly rare. Anyway, I went and got it myself, and she found the box and I paid and drove home with it. On unpacking it I noticed it was the wrong remote control ( for a large NAD amp I think), so rang them to arrange posting me the correct remote for my CD player, presumably in the wrong box. Said they’d send it to me once I’d returned theirs, which I told them was not going to happen. About a week later I received the correct unit, but looking like a 5 year old had wrapped it up! One layer of brown paper and my address scrawled on. Amazingly it survived the journey intact. I returned their remote a week later wrapped up in the same manner. Never been in their shops since.

Thanks. I’ve often considered myself fortunate to be able to play in some amazing buildings over the last few years, and their history always fascinates me. Theatres have been my main places of work, and although new ones are often impressive it’s the older ones that are the most interesting. Since handing in my notice with the band last year, I’ve played at many of my ‘old favourites’ whilst thinking I won’t be returning to them. 😕 Still, all good things etc…..

Dead right Paul, it’s certainly going to take a while to adjust. I’m hoping to continue with more gigs with the acoustic duo though so not fully retiring, more just down sizing!