casapete

Seen him a few times but not for over 20 years so fingers crossed. The E Street Band are one of the best bands I’ve ever witnessed, and I’m a massive Steve Van Zandt fan too so expecting a good show. The superb Eddie Manion on baritone sax as well, another favourite from The Asbury Jukes.

Going to see Springsteen in Manchester on 20th May. Not seen him for a long time, and he’s now 75 so may not be quite the 3+ hour sets like he used to do. Still, really looking forward to hearing the band (17 piece) making a wonderful noise.

Sky Arts tonight Saturday) on Freeview at 7pm - Jeff Beck Live at Ronnie Scott’s , followed by The Jeff Beck Story at 9pm.

Great song, with a fine Chris Spedding guitar solo largely based around one note IIRC.

Guy Pratt has appeared on many of Bryan Ferry’s albums over the years, along with ace guitarist Chris Spedding who started working with Bryan early on in his solo career. He also toured with Roxy.

Just seen this on FB

We played at an open mic type evening yesterday. It’s a weekly session at St John’s pub in Hull, and run by an old friend of ours who is a sound engineer, and a lovely bloke. Anyway, each week they have an act on first ( who get paid) followed by various folk doing their thing, be it covers / originals / spoken word etc. Our friend has been asking us ( acoustic duo) to do the opening set for a while, so we relented and gave it a go. There was a great PA to use ( QSC etc) so a fairly easy job to set up in the tiny room. We did an hour of various stuff, working from a set list rather than our more usual requests format. I actually found it a bit daunting being in such a small room, crammed with people including a lot of musos. We settled into it after the first couple of tunes, opening with an instrumental version of ‘ I heard it through the grapevine’ and then working through some blues, country and rock stuff. It went very quickly, and we got an encore too so people seemed to like what we did. It made an interesting change from our usual gigs so glad we did it - we’ve been asked back so happy days. Fender Kingman bass / Rumble 100 / Clark’s boots

I think it’s an old 210 watt mixer amp. We use it with a pair of 1x10 passive cabs ( just for two vocal mics ) and it’s actually pretty good! Bloody heavy though. On every gig we just turn it on and don’t touch any settings and it sounds great, whatever the room. No soundchecks needed! One day it will surely conk out I reckon, but old Peavey USA stuff was always pretty bombproof - I had a Mark111 bass amp from the same era and it was just as reliable.

I played two gigs this weekend with blues rock band ‘ The Alligators’. Saturday night we were at a pub on the east coast, which we’d done before. Not many punters in when we started our first set, and then quite a few left due to a guy who was off his head ( not from drink) floundering dangerously around the dance floor in front of the small stage. At one point he tried climbing the stairs onto the stage, so I stopped playing and gave him my best death stare, something I’m not great at to be fair. Amazingly he backed off ( thank god) but by this time the damage was done. Second set was brought forward and only saved by a group of ladies coming in on a night out. Got paid and then beat a hasty retreat - we have two more dates at this venue later in the year, but I’m not keen to return. Sunday’s gig was entirely different, thank goodness. Nice pub in Filey where we played a late afternoon session, starting at 4pm and finishing around 6.30pm. We had nearly a full pub of blues fans, including a few local musos, and went down really well. The landlady is soon moving to another venue in West Yorkshire and wants us to play there, so could be interesting. Used my usual passive Precision Lyte straight into my Rumble 500, along with a very comfortable ( but potentially uncool/embarrassing ) pair of Clark’s trainers. No photos of the gigs, but a nice one of Filey looking towards Bempton Cliffs RSPB reserve. Also for the vintage gear heads, a shot of our ancient ( (1970’s?) Peavey PA amp - and yes, those are jack inputs 😆

Antique / junk shops, car boots, auctions, eBay, Etsy etc etc as others have mentioned. Or how about this? Vintage ‘Wash Board’ for £22 - gdads.co.uk Or even this although £56.44 - amazon.co.uk Search for ‘Behrens BWBG12 Galvanized Washboard, Large’ Same Behrens model as the Amazon one available for £37.50 - desertcart.co.uk Good luck! 👍

This ^^^ 100% ! We had a similar gig yesterday, our regular slot at The Sun Inn, Beverley. It was pretty full by the time we arrived at 4.30pm, then absolutely rammed by the time we kicked off at 5.30pm. Obviously the bank holiday had a fair part to play in the amount of people coming in, but we managed to keep them from moving on to other local drinking places. We did our usual request thing, and probably the most we’ve ever had. ‘Dad rock’ was the main theme on a lot of them , so we hit them up with ‘’Smoke on the water’, ‘Highway to Hell’ and ‘Stairway…’. These were intertwined with ‘Copacabana’ , ‘Don’t dream it’s over’ and the awful ‘Hi Ho Silver lining’ Drink does appear to affect a lot of people’s preferences it would seem. Funniest thing was when a group of young lads came in, with a trophy held high as they’d just won it at a local football tournament. As they were about to be served one of the bar staff asked what the team was called, to be told it was a village under 18 side!! A swift exit followed ….. No pics taken, except for the lovely Beverley Minster as we were loading out.

Probably just under an hour then I reckon. 🙂

Where are you Mike?

My main ‘band’ is an acoustic / electric duo, ‘Milestone’. What makes us unique? I think it is mainly how we let our audiences pick what we play. At most of our gigs ( decent pubs, cafe bars and private parties ) we run a request system, where we put forms on the tables with space for 3 songs, then try to play them! We do anything from the 1920’s to the 2020’s really, and have literally thousands of songs to call on. Of course we get plenty of requests for stupid or little known stuff, but we try to cater for as many styles as possible. We both sing, and sometimes the limits of just having acoustic guitar and bass can be rewarding as well as limiting. What do we have that others don’t? A truly phenomenal guitarist and singer. My mate Gary is generally acknowledged as being ‘the’ guitar player in our area, and never ceases to amaze both me and our audiences. He can play pretty much any style of stuff, and sings well too. My role is to keep things anchored and add harmony vocals, and somehow this combination works really well. We’ve been doing gigs as a duo for over 30 years ( without ever having one rehearsal! ) and have developed that telepathy that makes playing together so much easier. Our best selling point? We can play gigs anywhere! We can adapt what we do to suit pretty much any venue / occasion. Last week we played at a rural village hall for a VE Day party, this weekend we are in a great local music venue full of musos who come to check us out. Birthdays, weddings, themed parties, pub acoustic gigs, we do ‘em all! Gary is a pro player, and I’m semi retired ( after being pro as well) so we can ask for good money too. Areas we can struggle in ? Not much really TBH. We do tire of playing some of the more obvious stuff, and sometimes have to chuck in a few of our choices to compensate. Also two blokes in their late 50’s / 60’s do have some limitations , but we manage pretty well most of the time. I absolutely love being in the duo, and can’t imagine it not continuing for a while yet. It’s great having just your best mate as a colleague - none of those stupid band politics to contend with, although he can get a bit loud after a couple of glasses of Pinot 😆

IIRC the song ‘Footsee’ is generally regarded by true Northern Soul fans as being a bit naff and subsequently doesn’t appear in many band’s repertoires who specialise in the genre. I remember it being released when I worked in record retail and even then it was considered too ‘poppy’, but at least it introduced many to the delights of NS. ‘Wigan’s Chosen Few’ was the band credited on the label, but I believe it had it’s roots in an earlier recording from the 60’s.

I’d say whatever option is cheapest! If you have access to some foam offcuts that’s probably best, especially the dense black type. However, some roll end cord carpet would do the job, although will weigh more than the foam option if that’s an issue. I did a case in this ages ago and used rather smelly but strong carpet adhesive and it was fine. Easy to hoover out too.

Couple of gigs for me this weekend. Friday night I was with The Alligators blues band in Hornsea on the East Yorkshire coast. Gig was The Green Owl, a decent cafe bar more popular with locals than holidaymakers. Used my P-Lyte straight into the Rumble 500 combo which is now my go-to setup for this band. The Rumble is astonishing both tonally and volume wise - one of the best amps I’ve used. Anyway, the gig went well, with an appreciative audience for us - I’m the only band member not from the area so it’s nearly a complete hometown gig for us. Saturday saw the acoustic duo playing at a lovely big village hall in the Yorkshire wolds near Driffield. It was an early VE Day / late St George’s day bash! They hired a local fish and chip van for the catering (see pic) and by the time we started the hall was full. Some fairly normal requests, with no surprises so an easy gig really. 2x50 minute sets flew by, followed by a quick pack down as my guitarist mate was flying off to another gig, in Hornsea! I was home by 9pm so well happy - these late afternoon into early evening gigs suit me just fine, after decades of getting in at 2 or 3 am.

What PA do you use Paul, and are you DI’d straight into it with your bass? Am curious as to how it sounds with the system behind the band, looks interesting!

That looks like a great gig Daryl - just the sort of place we’d like to do with our acoustic duo. You get some great venues!

7.5 lbs would be a tad under the weight of my 63 Precision. Even when I was younger I would definitely have struggled with your mate’s 1977/ 14 pound Jazz. I honestly didn’t know they could be that heavy!

Robbie sometimes does gigs around your area playing with Hamish Stuart from the Average White Band. He’s a great player, saw him with his own band years ago with Pino on bass.

I have the same problem Lozz, and the same solution. Damned cymbals….

I had one of these, the 600 watt Delta head. Was okay IIRC, I believe they wanted to steal some of Trace Elliot’s thunder. Weighed about the same too….

I’d forgotten I had put a short scale Squier Jaguar into my usual gig bag. It’s a friend’s bass which I haven’t played in anger, so wasn’t really ideal for the gig. I’ve had the Dano for a long time, and it was just like putting on a pair of old slippers, one of my favourite instruments. It is actually a Longhorn Pro, which is one of the slightly less authentic Korean reissues from the late 90’s. Factory upgraded bridge / tuners / pickups, and no tape around the edges! Sounds immense though, and weighs the same as a packet of crisps.