casapete

I have a lot of respect for players who can use different tunings. I can’t even get my head around 5 string basses, so guess it’s ‘old dog / new tricks’ syndrome for me.

I think the only people who have left on bad terms in bands I’ve been in have been singers! We always had a policy in our function band of giving a minimum of a month’s notice if you weren’t happy, but some of the singers seemed to want the drama / attention of storming out for some reason. This was usually preceded by weeks of being argumentative, late, sulking etc. We always believed if you’d had enough then just do the decent thing and give notice before leaving. (Unfortunately we also had people who seemed to thrive on conflict and creating bad feeling who didn’t leave!) I’m so fortunate in my current band that everyone is so easy to work with. Any issues are dealt with in the proper way, and there is a genuine feeling of all working for the common good.

I honestly think Dave that it is better to keep doing frequent gigs than the odd one with gaps between. For me I find your body gets into a ‘routine’ of doing it, and so long as you can get quality sleep most days it is more of a state of mind than anything else. For example, in the last ten days of July, I managed to do gigs in Bury St Edmunds (2 days), Scarborough, Hull, Swindon, Manchester, Sunderland and Beverley, plus a full day’s band rehearsal too. At 65, I do get the usual aches and pains but can fortunately overcome them most of the time - worst bit is getting out of the band bus after a 5 hour journey!

God only knows is just one of those tunes that still stops me in my tracks whenever I hear it. Sorry it evokes sad memories for you Mick, as you say the lyrics are amazing especially combined with the song structure and vocals. I went to see Brian Wilson a few times in the early 2000's ( before he sadly declined & when he had that amazing band) and it was a truly spiritual point in each gig when they played that song.

Mine would be these -

I love a great Dylan cover song - earliest I recall were by The Byrds, probably before I knew who Dylan was! 'Mr tambourine man, 'My back pages' and 'All I really want to do' being some of my favourites, along with 'You ain't going nowhere'. Loved the way the Rickenbacker electric 12 string was used on some of these. However, along with 'All along the watchtower' by Jimi, this is probably my most played Dylan song. Also covered by Sam Cooke, Stevie blew me away with his version from 1966 when he was not yet 16 years old. Backed by The Funk Brothers (and sounds like JJ on bass?), this always makes me stop in my tracks, just wonderful.

Absolutely. We play at The Caird Hall and it’s always a great audience there. (We’ll next be there on Thursday 19th October.)

Cheers Mick. The band has always been my priority, although in fairness due to finances as much as loyalty!

We were in Glasgow last night, one of my favourite cities and also one of my favourite venues, The King’s Theatre. Opened in 1904, it seats nearly 1800 on four levels, and we had over 1300 in so felt great and full of atmosphere. Crowd were well up for it from the first song, and the onstage sound was loud due to having a PA stack next to me! A really enjoyable gig, my last one for 2 weeks though - due to a family thing I’m unable to play at a festival gig next week, so I have put a dep in (first time ever in over 12 years!). Back with the band at Buxton Opera House on September 2nd, another superb old venue. (Also had a dep cellist with us last night, Ayla from Glasgow who did a great job despite never having heard of ELO!).

Have you checked all the Facebook pages dedicated to musicians wanted / available? There seem to be constant ads on these for deps wanted / available throughout the UK.

I’ve never done pantos, but have known many players who have. From what they said, you have to be an excellent reader, same as any pit job. Provincial pantos don’t pay much per gig, but usually do 7 or 8 shows a week ( Mon to Sat plus one or two matinees) so the money does add up. Problems occur though when the panto isn’t near your area, so the dreaded ‘digs’ have to be factored in as well, or lots of travelling and fuel costs. Improved fees if you ‘double up’ on another instrument can help, but generally it seems that smaller bands (or even 100% tracked music) are sadly becoming more common these days.

I was a bit late to the party regarding Bonnie for some reason - remember friends raving about her years ago but only discovered how great she was in the early 2000’s. Then I managed to get good tickets to see her (and James Taylor) in Leeds in 2018, but en route to the gig I got a call to say my dear old Dad was failing. We turned round and rushed back but sadly he passed away just before we made it home. Then I couldn’t make any of Bonnie’s recent dates over here due to my work, so am guessing I’ll probably never get to see her in concert, so will hopefully enjoy the BBC programme. Love her band - Hutch is fabulous, and George Marinelli is one of the most tasteful guitar players I’ve ever heard.

Friday 18th August at 9.55pm on BBC4 - a ‘BBC Sessions’ featuring Bonnie Raitt.

In my previous band, we played functions all through the year. Christmas gigs started end of November and ran into January! We used to play at a local hotel for all their Christmas parties, often maybe up to 20 nights in December. November and February were probably our leanest times, (as you say few weddings etc) but company events sometimes turned up along with the odd birthday / retirement party etc. We usually made enough to see us through the quiet times, but some of the band did teach to supplement this. I started playing with a friend in an acoustic duo at this time, so any gigs we fitted in always helped out. Function work then (90’s / 2000’s) did generally seem more plentiful than now, and a lot of bands round here have struggled - most of them semi pro though so not their primary income source. With my current band, we play mainly theatres. December is always out for us due to the panto season, likewise summer holiday period when not so many punters around. Again, we do okay for the rest of the year, but some band members have side gigs they fit in around our schedule - our violinist runs a string trio doing weddings, and our keys player does deps with other bands. I still do gigs with my acoustic duo, and the occasional dep with pub bands. Not a lot of dosh but it all adds up.

Although speaker size isn’t everything, I’d get the most robust cabs you can ( probably the 12’s). Have you considered s/h at all? You may get lucky and find something otherwise out of your budget when new.

Wow, The Piper Club! Played there a few times, and it was that strange mix you mention of traditional WMC and then student hangout with stupid cheap drinks offers. The compère for a while was Trev Tye, a legend around Hull clubs & pubs, who was a great singer and a lovely bloke. Still open now I think, but purely as a student club staying open till 3am a few nights per week.

A band I was in during the early 80’s did a fair amount of working men’s club gigs. One of the band used to remove one ball from the bingo machine on our gigs, and put it into the subsequent one. Many clubs would leave the bingo machine unattended near the dressing room/cupboard so it was often an easy manoeuvre. Unfortunately we never got to witness the mayhem that would have ensued. 😆

I agree Mart. A couple of hours worth of stuff should see you through most gigs, whether pubs, clubs or festivals. In our theatre band we do around 2x60 min sets, and never had any complaints about us short changing people! Also in seated venues in particular, people have a limited period of concentration, and also need to walk about / use the loo / get a drink etc. ( Or maybe that’s just our audiences.) 😁

Time for a bit of new amp GAS then? 😀

I do that, but it’s only on small gigs with an acoustic duo. Electro acoustic ( Ibanez or Washburn) plugs straight into a Yamaha powered mixer. Never had any problems, although in some cases I do also DI from a Fender Rumble 100v3 when I need to hear myself more. Some rooms just require more monitoring than the FOH speakers provide, ( and with an acoustic it’s best not to be too near them as feedback can be an issue).

Spot on. The way arena gigs and their ticket prices have become the norm amazes me. A lot of people must attend these gigs just to say they were there or something, backed up by footage taken on their phones. If people abandoned being ripped off on such a grand scale by not paying such exorbitant prices, things would soon have to change, with artists reverting to playing more audience friendly venues. (Incidentally, this is nothing new - the Albert Hall has sold tickets behind the stage at concerts for years.)

Absolutely. The UK charts in the late 50’s and early 60’s were dominated by mainly US acts, with a few British performers like Cliff Richard, Tommy Steele and Billy Fury doing their best to keep up. The arrival of bands like the Beatles and Stones couldn’t have been more timely and pretty much changed everything.

Colin Crompton, IIRC?! Most northern clubs had a Concert Secretary, who’s job was to source the bands and performers appearing ( usually via one or maybe two agents ) and then ensure the evening went well. Any problems (bands being late / too loud / not up to standard etc.) were dealt with by him. Most of them had little or no idea of music / entertainment in general but did it for the kudos and probably free ale. They in turn usually had to answer to ‘the committee’ , a group of similar blokes, so you can imagine why club bands were tolerated rather than respected. Bingo was the main draw in clubs, and 3x30 or 40 minute sets were fitted in around the games, throughout which dead silence was expected. In Hull they had a thing called Link or Allied bingo, where most of the city’s clubs combined to play for large sums via a telephone link. This was deadly serious stuff - when I was in a resident club house band we played most weeks, and actually won it twice! Prize on a Saturday night was around £1100, which was quite a lot in the 1980’s.

This for me too. Prefer clip on tuner so as to minimise leads / clutter. ( A DI box is the only addition, as our sound guy prefers it to using the amp’s XLR out.)

I spent a lot of time in WMC land in my first few bands. So many memories of doing gigs in these places, and the programme mentioned above ( as well as a bit of ‘Phoenix Nights’) brought a lot of it back. Despite often being frustrating, it did prove a great training ground for me in many ways, musically and socially. I was the youngest player in those bands, and still living at home. Never told my parents what went on - my first ever paid gig was playing for a stripper! My drummer mate got offered the dep gig but was scared to go on his own, so I joined him and we split the fee. Medium sized club full of drunk blokes, it was certainly a massive eye opener for me - we made a pact not to tell anyone in case it got back to our folks. A band I was in during the late 70’s had a Transit, although ours was an ex Lincolnshire Health Authority ambulance! Bought from an auction, it came straight from NHS service, and had various medical items concealed in cubby holes all over the rear section, much to our amusement. Main problem with it was fuel consumption though - engine was a Ford 3 litre V6 job, and you could almost see the fuel gauge going down as we drove. Went like stink but unfortunately often attracted attention from the police as it looked like a standard ambulance but contained 4 scruffy blokes and often girlfriends too. (Unfortunately the ‘blues and twos’ had been removed prior to us buying it, probably for the best.)