casapete

Still occasionally get asked by audience members, and still find it a tad embarrassing. The whole tribute band thing is sometimes bizarre enough without people wanting you to sign merch IMO. Still, we’re always grateful that we have a following so who am I to say? We sometimes get asked to sign stuff by the theatre we’re performing at, often for them to display in the venue either front or backstage. Good promo for the band so no problems there.

I have the Sansamp which I use as a DI to FOH, but also have a Behringer BD121 as a spare. The Behringer is remarkable value for money, sounds really good and is ideal for what you require. Worth £25 to try in comparison, and handy for backup should you need it. I’ve lent mine to a guitarist and it actually sounded okay for that as well. 🙂

A Behringer BD121 will do the job well for you I reckon. Currently advertised at Andertons for £24.99, they are a Sansamp rip off, combining a pre amp and active DI . Really useful bit of kit, and sound great. If you really want to change your combo, a s/h Fender Rumble 100v3 has a great DI, is only a couple of pounds heavier than your Orange and can be used for smaller gigs. They sound ace, and can be picked up s/h for c.£150.

Must admit CSN&Y passed me by too in the 70's. Only 25 years later I came to realise the importance of their output, and ended up liking Neil Young's stuff the most.

Well, a first for me - playing with my acoustic duo at a baby shower! Must admit I had to ask someone exactly what one was. Turns out it’s just a get together of the mum-to-be and her friends and family. Gig was at a local Italian restaurant earlier today, and they asked for some quiet-ish background stuff during and after the buffet. The father-to-be was a lovely bloke (who we later found out is a well known footballer) and had invited some of his mates along too. We played a mix of recent tunes as well as some older stuff which I was surprised they knew / requested. We were well looked after, and nice comments from many of the guests. Gave out a few business cards as well so hopefully may lead to some more stuff. Home by 6pm so a nice change for me.

We kicked off our 2023 gigs at the now customary Hull New Theatre, a great place. Sold out house of 1330 people who come to see us play in our 'hometown' venue every year. Always a bit of a nervous one (nobody wants to fall on their ar*e in front of a local crowd), we played well and threw in a couple of songs we've not played for years which were well received. Also significant for me as my 9 year old grandson came along, his first gig etc. He actually loved it and didn't fall asleep even after a long day at school! Home by 11pm so quite a novelty for me. Next week we're in Weston Super Mare and Wimborne so back on the road for real - hoping the weather stays mild.

I actually got into Country in my mid/late teens - and of course my mates thought I was a weirdo! Mind you, I think they already had made that call because I liked 'girls music' too - Motown, soul etc. For me though, my love of these genres has remained all my life. I had older mates in bands who got me listening to Emmylou Harris, early Eagles stuff, Joe Ely, Steve Earle etc, and I was fortunate to see all of these live at the time too. I guess what I'm saying is I've not done a 180 on any music from my younger days, whilst hopefully remaining receptive to new stuff that gets my interest. In fact, a lot of what I liked then has become acceptable to like by musos now who derided it back in the day - Motown & soul, Abba, country etc.

Absolutely this ^^^^^ Love Newcastle and all the areas around it. We play at The City Hall every year, and it's one of my favourite venues. For a theatre band like mine it feels like a 'proper' gig! The tech / crew guys there are fab, really friendly and with that great Geordie humour. Also have so many memories of going to gigs there myself - Springsteen in particular in 80/81? A few years ago I got a job to be part of a strolling jazz band in a BBC TV documentary hosted by Matt Allright. We had to play as Matt entered the council buildings in to award the council an 'award' for being the drinking capital of the UK (or something like that - was a while ago!) We all got ejected by security at the building who were really nice guys and laughed as they did their job. Of course we ended up doing a few pubs ourselves with Matt who it turned out was in a band and a thoroughly decent chap - got a picture of him playing my mini-bass somewhere! Through all this, the people we encountered were great, very friendly and welcoming.

Another +1 for the Rumble 100.V3. Have used mine for way more gigs than I originally intended. It’s stupidly light, loud, sounds great and can be picked up s/h for bargain money. Get a cover for it and you’re sorted. Love mine, best bit of kit I’ve bought for ages.

Given the overwhelming wave of dislike for Hootenanny on here then, I’m wondering what we would like to see instead? Bearing in mind it’s supposed to be a jolly NYE party with something to cater for as many tastes as possible without losing the audience along the way? A genuine question. 🙂

I wish ! Not sure the punter demographic would have stretched that far TBH! Why thanks Dave - when needs must etc.

My NYE gig was in sunny Scarbados on the Yorkshire coast. Fairly standard dinner dance type do, in a nice hotel. Good to play with my pal Gary Gillyett, along with a singer and pianist. Played for ages - started at 8pm, and finished around 12.30am with barely any breaks, so a bit of a slog. Hotel manager and staff were great though, and really looked after us and our ladies. I was pretty knackered the next day, it's been a while since I've done such a marathon. (Forgot to add - used my lightweight Jazz bitsa into Fender Rumble 100 - proper portable old gimmer's rig!) No beach babes around, but there was Thor, the magnificent walrus you may have seen in the news. Scarborough Council very wisely decided to cancel their midnight fireworks display in case of scaring Thor, but I reckon someone tipped him off as he slid back into the harbour at around 11.55pm to continue his journey North. Happy New Year to all you BC folk! (PS Thor is the one in the last pic.)

I watched Hootennay this evening on catch up and really enjoyed it. Didn’t hit the fast forward button once, despite there being a couple of acts I thought I wouldn’t like. Thought the big band were great, and noticed Dave Swift played EUB on most if not all of the show? Watching The Real Thing took me back to the late 70’s when I saw them at a local gig, and they’re still sounding fine. Thought Cat Burns was good too, as well as Rachel and Vilray - great vocals / amazing guitar playing.

Looks like an interesting Motown evening on BBC2 tonight, starting with Lamont Dozier at 9pm, followed by ‘When Motown came to Britain’ at 10pm and then Marvin Gaye ‘Live in Montreux’ at 11pm.

A few years back I broke my shoulder quite badly, and couldn’t play bass guitar for a while. (A worrying time for me as I play for a living and my partner was struggling with her job too.) My band at the time allowed me to play our gigs for about a 3 month period using a Roland keyboard (which I purchased on here) for bass duties and could manage with my good arm/hand. As I also couldn’t drive it was quite a nice change, being able to enjoy the hospitality on gigs and all without a bass round my neck, strangely liberating. Then gradually moved on to a light short scale bass for a while before getting back to my Stingray, and being sober again!

Tonight on Sky Arts they are showing some great Roy Orbison stuff, including ‘A Black and White Night’ which is sublime. Starts at 7pm.

I’ve played Fenders for over 40 years, and they remain my favourite electric basses. Ibanez stuff rarely appeals to me for some reason - probably due to their aesthetics as I’m sure they make fine instruments. Quite like the retro Talman electrics, but can’t see me deviating from Fender. However! I really love my little Ibanez short scale acoustic electric. It’s the PNB14E model, and is a superb little bass, especially for the price. I tend to use it for most of my acoustic duo stuff now, which puts my big old Washburn AB20 out to grass for the foreseeable I think.

Just in from my monthly acoustic duo gig at a pub in West Hull. Due to illness we couldn’t do our November gig, so this was our first one for a while. It was absolutely slinging it down when I was going out, and thought the lousy weather would impact upon the number of punters. Got there at 7.30pm to find the room full, with booked tables and some people willing to stand all night too. Am guessing that a lot of folk just wanted to get out after a couple of days of family stuff over Christmas. The evening is based on requests, and we’ve never had so many. Managed most of them, although despite trying to get my head around ‘Ghost Town’ in the car on my way there, thankfully nobody actually requested it. Plenty of other good song requests though, including an older lady who loves Toto, so we attempted ‘Africa’ for her and she didn’t leave so think we got away with it. Had a couple of enquiries for private gigs during the evening too, so all in all a good night. Next one is on Friday at a nice pub just outside Sheffield, so if it goes pretty much like tonight we’ll be well happy.

Nowt in or out this year - first for a long while. Must try harder. (Largely down to recovering from a drop in earnings due to Covid methinks.) 🙁

In my acoustic duo we use it for all the parts, be it lyrics and / or chord sheets etc. As a lot of the gigs we do are based on audience requests - we have a lot of stuff on there, I reckon in the 1000’s. We can usually remember the song’s formats, but the lyrics are usually where we need help so have an iPad each and use a pedal to scroll through them both simultaneously. ( We keep the iPads fairly low down so as not to be obtrusive, and nobody has ever complained. Works really well!)

I have a Rumble 100 too, and absolutely love it. As you say though, loud drummers are just a bit too much for it, but I’m guessing the 200 or definitely the 500 versions would do the job.

I’m in Scarborough at a hotel, as part of a 4 piece band. Not the same one we’ve done for the last few years, so will be good to have a change of venue and audience. Arrive 7.30pm, finish around 12.30am then hopefully home by 2am. Always worked NYE for many years with no problems, and means I can watch Hootenanny the next day - I’m one of the few people on here who actually enjoy it. Happy New Year everyone! 😊

I should have said that we use it for set lists and also parts/words for hundreds of songs. With my main band I find that a paper set list is best for me - these days written using a black Sharpie and with the keys on each song, as some days I can’t remember them to save my life.

We use forScore with no problems in my acoustic duo.