casapete

Thanks Dave - in the ELO Experience it was intended to appeal to theatre audiences. We tried to strike a balance between doing the songs justice but also being entertaining and not taking ourselves too seriously and we hopefully achieved that. The cellists worked out some routines that seemed to work and the audience loved them! The band is still going strong too - people want entertainment.

We end up doing a lot of laughing at our gigs, and usually the audience are laughing with us rather than at us ( I think anyway…). We do have our serious moments too of course, and the best gigs are when the balance of the two are just right. We like to think our audiences leave the gig with a smile on their faces. Thinking about this, looking back to gigs I’ve seen over the last 50 years, the best ones are those which made me smile too - usually those when you can tell the band are really enjoying it. I don’t have much time generally for overly serious stuff, happy upbeat music is what mostly floats my boat. 😄

It was a particularly fun gig Dave - this is me after I messed up ‘Duelling Banjos’ would you believe……

Our first gig this year at The Lookout on the Pier in Scarborough harbour. The weather had improved so apart from some patchy fog the journey was fine. Usual full house of diners with plenty of requests, some of which I’d not played for ages. These included ‘Waterloo’, ‘Moonlight in Vermont’, ‘Losing you’, ‘Starman’ and ‘Ever fallen in love’. ( We couldn’t manage ’Peaches’ but swapped it for ‘Golden Brown’ !!). We are there again at the end of the month and it’s always a pleasure to do.

I’m sorry, assumed your iPad was running up to date.

I went to see VM at Hull City Hall in the early 80’s. He didn’t once communicate with the audience and sat on a stool for most of the gig, randomly picking up a guitar or an alto sax occasionally ( and being pretty dreadful on both IIRC ). Thinking he must have been having an ‘off day’ and being a fan of his stuff, I booked to see him again a year or so later at the same venue. He was exactly the same then too. 😆

We’ve used forScore in our duo for years now with no problems. Think it’s £19.99 on the App Store, one off purchase.

My mate in our acoustic duo always brings two electro acoustics on every gig. He has one of those double gig bags, bulky but not that heavy to carry. He has previous for breaking strings, although just lately seems to be on a good streak. From my experience strings usually break for a reason - they need replacing, sharp bridge saddles / tuners etc , being thrashed to death or any combination of these.

I honestly don’t know, but think I may have remembered if it was VH as support. Or maybe not of course….🤣

Black Sabbath, Hammersmith Odeon around 1977/8. The worst noise I have ever heard at a gig of any size, and I’ve seen some shite. Painfully loud, dreadful vocal, the worst mix and also a lunatic crowd. My ex-girlfriend had procured the tickets, and I felt so bad that I had to leave after two/maybe three ‘songs’ but just couldn’t tolerate any more of the assault. We found a nearby pub though with an excellent band playing, so the night wasn’t entirely lost.

Vox AC30 combos normally featured 4 x EL84 valves in their power section. Marshall 100 amps sported 4 x EL34 valves, completely different.

Sorry you’ve had a rough Xmas, and hope things go well for you Mart.

Ah, sorry. 🤐

Not sure I get your drift on this. Used my Rumble 500 2x10 combo for many very loud gigs, and sounds great. In the 1980’s I was lucky enough to own an Ampeg SVT rig with 8x10 cabinet. An industry standard for the last 5+ decades, I’ve never heard anyone say they were lacking in bottom end either. How many people these days use 2x15 or 2x18 cabinets I wonder? 😯

Played at our monthly residency with the acoustic duo in Beverley again today, The Sun Inn. Horrible weather when we arrived at 4.30pm, and not very busy. However,by the time we started at 5.30pm it was getting comfortably full, and we started our first of three sets with a good handful of requests. These included ‘Piano man’, ‘Substitute’, ‘Love the one you’re with’ and unusually ‘anything by Boz Scaggs’ so we did ‘We’re all alone’ which I’ve never played before but is a great song. Had a few friends in, including one of The Beautiful South - fortunately no requests for any of their stuff from the audience as could have been rather embarrassing. Finished the last set off with Albert Lee’s ‘Country Boy’ at breakneck speed - don’t know how my guitarist mate can play it like that. Packed down and still heavy rain outside so got wet loading the van, but overall a very pleasant gig ( after our last one there being rather mad just before Christmas.) Nothing now till next weekend in Scarborough, when the bad weather will hopefully have subsided.

Sounds good Dave, just try it for a while and it will be evident which way is forward for you. Regarding rehearsals, you’re right about frequency. In my old theatre band we rehearsed once a year, when we selected new songs and perhaps changed one or two arrangements to make them work better. For me, having to rehearse often would drain the fun out of gigging - maybe that’s why our duo is still going strong after over 30 years without one rehearsal? 😂

Sorry to hear this Dave but you may find the gaps are actually good for you, time to reassess whether you want to fill them with another band or not. Whatever, hope you find a gigging schedule that suits, all the best.

Whenever ‘Alright Now’ gets played on the radio they always seem to use the Clearmountain remix version. As you say the original mix was so much better in all respects - I find the remix really annoying and disrespectful to how it once sounded.

Looks like a standard Mexican Jazz going for slightly less than normal s/h price to me. Maybe the seller maxed his credit card over Xmas and needs a quick sale?

Thanks Dave. Most of our gigs are quite the opposite really, I’m not great at ‘formal’ ( until I see the money of course!) Done lots of them though, and they’ve been my ‘day job’ for a long time. The duo has plenty of regular gigs lined up for 2025, so if you’re ever down this way then give me a shout. Also playing with the blues band too, so my diary is so far looking healthy. 😀

Played at The Palm Court Hotel in Scarborough last night for a NYE dinner dance. Despite horrendous weather warnings we made it there okay, the 50 mile journey affected mainly by high winds. Got set up in the hotel lounge whilst the guests were dining - took my usual Rumble 100 combo to use with a Squier SS Jag bass which has been given to me on permanent loan by a friend. Sounded fine and easy to play for the three long sets we did, starting around 8pm through to 12.30am. We were well looked after by the hotel manager - we took our partners and they were given lots of bubbly and stuff, and we had a few drinks too although as I was driving I stuck to water and coffee. 🙁 Playing wise it went okay. Had a keyboard player with us ( old mate Steve ) as well as singer guitarist Doug who is well known in the Scarborough area. Songs requested and played were the usual dance standards ( Sinatra etc) right through to slightly more recent stuff. I got a request to sing ‘Dead Flowers’ by the Stones - slightly unusual choice for a NYE do - so duly obliged , along with some other 60’s and 70’s stuff and of course ‘Auld Lang Syne’ at midnight. Got packed very quickly and then had a dreadful journey home - roads were virtually rivers in places, with biblical amounts of rainfall. My trusty Skoda didn’t miss a beat though, so back around 2.30am, absolutely knackered! Not the best of gigs I’ve done recently, (made worse by wearing dinner suit and bow tie which I despise!) but a lovely venue and being well paid made up for it. Mrs CP had great fun too, and after the terrible few years she’s endured health wise it felt like we were celebrating the start of better times. Here’s hoping. 😃 A very Happy New Year to all BC people, may 2025 be a great one for you.

You don’t specify what sort of small gig set up you need it for ( venue / music / drummer? etc ) but I recommend Fender Rumble V3 combos. I have two - a 100 for duo / quiet-ish gigs and also a 500 for anything else. Both are great sounding plus very lightweight & portable, and can be found s/h for around £200 and £350 respectively. If you don’t need the 500’s power, the 100 has virtually no background noise for home practice too.

Sounds like a plan. Don’t forget ( assuming you’re using rubber/ plastic strings like Aquila ) to allow for plenty of ‘settling in’ - they take ages before they stabilise IME.

Sold Jono a Squier bass after seeing his wanted advert on here. The whole transaction was a pleasure, even though we had to juggle around with the delivery options. All in all a great guy to deal with, highly recommended.