dmccombe7

Hope you guys don't mind but i had to share this local reviewers comments from Sat nights gig courtesy of Big Hastie (Alex Hastings) Just makes me feel good knowing that people enjoy what we do for fun. Dave "On entering the Dreadnought on Saturday it was obvious there was going to be a 'bit of a party', as the tinsel wearers and battery operated plastic glasses wearers were in evidence, in amongst the 'doon the fronters'. Blockbustarz were in town for their customary Christmas Soiree, and it was going to be a belter going by the number of folk in the house.... Before we start, let's not kid ourselves, Glam Rock must be one of the most uplifting genres of music ever . No twenty minute guitar solos, no meaningful lyrics, just in and out 3 minute simplistically written songs, Before you could say "Pass me my tinsel please", we were all hand jiving and giving it some fancy footwork. Within seconds I was the proud wearer of a pair of the aforementioned lit up glasses.. ... All the classics were here as you'd expect... 20th Century Boy/T-Rex, Ballroom Blitz/Sweet, The Cat Crept In/Mud... (Best lyrics EVER in my book...) "The Cat Crept in, crept out again..."....Beat that Chris Martin.. .... "Hey Rock and Roll" sang the masses as Micky Blitz and Lynn led the way on vocals... Barry 'Bazza' Haywood was in his element, clattering his glammed up drum kit and suitably attired in silvery /gold garb , Colin was in 'full disguise' mode also glammed up assisted by a belter of a wig, playing some incredible guitar riffs. David too was in "Who's that playing bass??" mode. Barely recognisable from the lad I was speaking to before kick off... And how does Mike look 6 foot 8?... Oh wait, the 9 inch heels are a give away.. The long blonde haired Lynn doesn't need a wig gimmick but she was also tinselled and glittered up . We had Sailor/Glass of Champagne, Devil Gate Drive, Suzi Quatro and Roxy Music/Virginia Plain all added to by the folk 'going for it' doon the front.. None more so than my good mate Chris who is a one man 'what's what' of music in his choice of clobber. Rock and roll beetle crusher shoes, punk drain pipe trousers, a Rod Stewart leopard skin top, Elton John sparkly glasses, a Bing Crosby Hat, and a Wattie from the Exploited Red mohawk underneath the titfer.. Remarkable . We had Bowie/Rebel Rebel, Mud /Rocket, Elton/Saturday Night and a sing along rendition to Let it Snow! , Let it Snow! , Let it Snow! Great stuff.. "School's out for summer! " yell the punters as Micky Blitz spins his baton. .Who let the horses in?, here come the Osmonds.. "Crazy Horses" roar the crowd. Hell Raiser from Sweet takes us to the interval and a well deserved break for the band.. (I'm knackered just reading that back and that's only the first half of the gig. )...Part two began with Waterloo/Abba, Little Willy (who's been talking?) /Sweet, and my all time favourite up beat song, Tell Him by Hello..What a song!. It was a case of "Hold my pint please" while I had a wee jump around (for the 40th year in a row to this song going back to Thursday nights in the Greentree in 1984!)... Joan Jett/ I Love Rock and Roll and Suzi Quattro/ Can the Can took us to our first Christmas song..."It'll be lonely this Christmas" sang a swaying crowd to the Mud classic.. Brilliant... We had more Bowie and more Roxy Music before another Christmas Classic, Here it is Merry Christmas from Slade... "Are you hanging up your stocking on the wall?" sang everyone in unison.. ....More Sweet , T-Rex and another Alice Cooper number Elected, took us into the Mud classic (Have you noticed how many times the word classic has neen used so far. ) Tiger Feet which was followed in turn by Blockbuster.. "Does anyone know the way.... TO BLOCKBUSTER!". Class.. Now it was time for our third Christmas Cracker, Wizzard's, "I Wish it Could Be Christmas Every Day".... More crowd participation as my mate Chris turned from being Johnny Rotten to Bing Crosby by just putting his hat back on .. "Let the bells ring out for Christmas" sang the tinsel wearing crowd.... A spine tingling Loch Lomond /Shang a lang ended the night.. No Scottish person and I mean NO Scottish person doesn't have a wee tear in their eye listening to Loch Lomond, especially a rousing Shang a Lang assisted rendition.. Tremendous.. .. What a gig, what a band, and what a crowd .. Thanks to all concerned in making this another great night. Band, staff sound engineers etc.... Big Hastie over and out from the dread... "How was your night bigman.?"... "It was a classic!"

Many many thanks for sharing the pics. Some great ones there. Great when you have a fellow BC'er in the audience cause they take pics of the bass player. Cheers @grapefruitmoon Dave

Now that made me laugh a lot. Dave

Its no different from bands using screens disguised as monitors on stage. When you have that many songs to remember it must be difficult remembering so many lyrics. You see a lot of pub / club bands using their phones or tablets on stage, same thing. My attitude to them is simple. If the band sound top notch i'm happy. That's it. Dave

Any pics just fire them up. Its all good fun for us. Many thanks for coming along and so glad you enjoyed it. Dreadnought at Xmas is always a good night. We were back in there again this afternoon at a private party which turned out really good fun too. Slightly different set list to accommodate the more mature audience members which all worked really well. Hopefully i'll be able to catch you guys at The Dreadnought next year. Dave

Last nights gig with BLOCKBUSTARZ was at The Dreadnought in Bathgate. Very Busy i think 150 tickets sold so almost full. Great audience as always and just a real fun night of Glam songs. This is now the 3rd year in a row we've played the Sat before Xmas and we were already booked for next year. Ticket deal but we did better than our normal fee so that was a huge bonus at the end of the night. Back there today for a private party so all the gear barriered off and locked away so no load out last night or load in today. I felt like a proper pro musician last night with no packing up to do. Just turn up and play and then walk away at the end of the night. 🤩 Sound guy who is top notch and another bassist came in at break and said i was too loud on stage and nothing going thru PA. At the back where he was it was booming. Turned it down for 2nd set but couldn't really hear myself on stage so i ended up playing harder and getting sore fingers. Not good when i have a gig this afternoon. Going to look at a decent IEM set. I had been playing around with the Mesa TT800 amp during the week as i was finding last few gigs i was bass heavy on my tone so went back to the manuals "instant gratification" setting but didn't get time to set the volume level on stage. Had a slight change of bass during the night. 1st set Sandberg VM4 because it matched the sparkly purple outfit i was wearing that set. 2nd set Sandberg MarloweDK because it looked more Christmassy in red and white for the Xmas songs especially the Wizzard one where i also adorned a nice Santa cape. The things we do for our audiences 🤩 Keeley compressor into Shure wireless then Mesa TT800 and Mesa SW210/115 cabs. No pics as yet but hopefully will get a few up later. Not sure how this afternoon will go as i'm not really a fan of private birthday parties as not everyone there will be into Glam rock and we'll end up getting the numpties asking for Girls Aloud or Ed Sheeran even tho were fully Glammed up. Oh well them's the breaks Dave

And they paid you in bikes. That's a good gig Daryl. Dave

Sorry to hear about your Dad. Never an easy time but your positive attitude, music therapy is good to hear. Hopefully things will fall your way and a new band will emerge from all this. As always family comes first. Take it easy Dave

The one venue i hated playing was with the punk band and they finally agreed with me that its not worth the money. At long last they listened to the bass player. Most other gigs i'm fine with and if not too busy its just a paid rehearsal. Luckily the Glam gigs are nearly always full or very well attended so that gives me a nice warm glow especially at Christmas. Dave

What breakers are you plugging in to the wall. ? Not heard of that before. Dave

You guys are slowly coming into the 21st century. Dave

I just think 2x1hr sets leaves an audience wanting more of the band whereas 3hr sets can become a bit boring for an audience. Depends on the venue to be fair. Dave

I know how you feel. There are gigs i've done and have made it clear i don't like playing there and even tho we get paid ok there's little or no audience at times and therefore no atmosphere. Response is usually "its a paid rehearsal" and i guess that's true. I wouldn't travel any distance for a gig like that tho. This one is appox 50 miles from me. Dave

Superb Daryl, looks like your reputation as a top band is getting out there. Long may it continue. Well deserved IMHO. Cracking pic of the band too. 👍 Dave

Our drummer even has IEM's so he's not affected by his own loud noise. Dave

Brilliant. Almost fell of the sofa when i saw this.

Yep he bought the PA and has various desks. He knows his stuff too. Helps that he comes from a pro background and has close friends in large PA hire business. He has both analogue and digital Allen & Heath desks of varying sizes. Cabs are all QSC from 2 way 12's to 3 way 15's to subs. Never under-estimate your drummer. They are a sneaky bunch and know more than they let on. Dave

Each of us in the Glam band knows their own input channel number on the desk and therefore runs their own cable to the desk. Desk is usually on the stage next to our drummer who owns and controls it himself. On the odd occasion the singer will take over control of it depending on stage space. My XLR cables are all custom made and labelled as Dave 5m or 10m for cable length. Dave

That's an unusual T bird colour. Very nice, like that. Dave

That looks like a good fun band. Not my kind of music but you just know a good band when you see them. My big criticism .......... cant see the bass player in this vid 🤩 Dave

You're quite young looking to be going to pubs. Dave

Tonight's gig was an early start for BLOCKBUSTARZ at Methil Ex-Services Club from 4-7pm. Pretty busy for an afternoon session so that was good. Afraid they only started advertising the gig 4 weeks prior. From what we heard their ticket sales have been quite low with only 40 sold for Hogmanay which for a club is quite poor. Reckon we had approx 80-100 in today. Everyone seemed to be having a great time but dancing in first set was a bit spurious. 2nd set things picked up a bit and decent crowd of dancers. We've been asked for 2 dates in 2025 which i believe have now been confirmed with one being in Dec 2025. Finished dead on 7pm paid, packed up and on the road for 8pm and home for 9:30pm road was pretty clear and no closures at that time. Usual Glam gear of Sandberg VM4, Shure wireless, Mesa TT800 and SW210/115 cabs. Next gigs for us are next Sat & Sun in The Dreadnought, Bathgate. One of my fav gigs as its always crammed at our Xmas party gigs. We were booked for this and 2025 Xmas weekend since last year. I think the owner is a Glam fan. Dave

Last night with BLOCKBUSTARZ Glam covers at Longstone Hearts Club in Edinburgh was the first of two gigs this weekend. Fantastic club where everyone involved is just so nice and helpful. Only holds approx 70-80 and it was busy possibly sold out as i couldn't see any spare seats. Gig went really well. The 4 Xmas songs worked a treat in the set. We are now doing 2x1hr sets most gigs these days so that's good news instead of almost 3hrs worth. Audience loved it with few requests for pics with the band after the gig. Sandberg VM4 into Shure wireless, Mesa TT800 and Mesa SW210/115 cabs. Running the amp with a little distortion when i really dig in for some of those rockier songs. Here's a pic of stage just after sound check. Today we travel over to Methil in Fife for a slightly earlier time of 4-7pm. approx 2hr drive each way and with only 6hrs sleep last night i'm getting a little bit tired this morning but once on the road all will be well again. Dave

They don't get paid as much as the two on the end. Dave