okusman

You Can Call Me Al. Paul Simon Love it!!

Loooong thread.... My band has been going 17 years. We are playing 50 gigs a year. Probably 1/2 in public venues. People still like watching bands. Watching is an important word here. Many, many bands are visually soooo introspective and dull. Smile, engage, accept that you are being paid to do a job, so earn your fee. 15 mins uplighting the drum kit, 'washing' the playing area and illuminating your mugs, no matter how ugly, is 15 mins we'll spent. "Bloody hell, that looks cool"...and that chap stayed for both sets. Equally put yourself in challenging situations where you have to adapt. If you can't be bothered to test yourself, carry on playing your 3 best songs at the local open mic. It's dull isn't it! Average Joe Public does not care how clever you are on bass, or guitar or whatever. They wanna be entertained. The two factors are sometimes miles apart!! Save/invest in the best PA gear you can afford. Pay an engineer to come and mic up and mix the band properly. We played last night in standard pub. 4 piece band was all mic'd and DI'd and punters always say, it sounds good. Not that it was good....it sounds good. If you are screeching out through an underpowered 80s Peavey PA, why would anyone listen. 30% of the fee went to the engineer. Money well spent. You're a pub covers band, then give the varied audience a varied set. New material feeding in. If you've got regular followers coming to watch every public gig, keep them coming with a mix of new stuff. Last night we fluffed through E, W and F, "September" and Ed Sheeran's, "Castle on the Hill". Poles apart and accordingly different people engaged with them differently. The 2nd song left me a big cold, until we realised it bore an uncanny resemblance to U2, "Streets have no Name". Make it a brief medley. 2 genres, different eras, but people smiled....and stayed. Pubs have changed and evolved...so what. We've gotta adapt adapt adapt! Don't blame anybody, get on with, work hard and the rewards are there. There might be a living in it for some people, but not for most. To be honest I'd hate playing 5 times a week. I see it as a great hobby, that keeps me in the BEST kit. I'm as irritated by the stream of backing track singers as you may be, but they have every right to do a night for £100 and price bands out. That's life. My job is to nail the gigs we do and accordingly we have a diary full till the Autumn. Can't believe someone moaned that the pub didn't promote their gig. Good grief, do it yourself. 1000 followers on the band Facebook page...it's not difficult. Posters are a pointless waste of time. I live and gig in a standard pub town. Look hard, adapt, evolve, promote yourself and you'll be just fine.

It's a really good idea. You are covered wherever you play. Some venues will insist on it before you play; especially hotels/venues It tells a client that you take your product seriously. We keep a copy of our policy and our PAT test documentation on Dropbox...You can never forget it. Often you can get a degree of kit cover bundled in with it. One gig/year will pay for it.....No brainer.

Same. Opened up. Re-seated the pre-amp valve, then servisoiled everything. The issue presented 20mins b4 a show. Cool head and a keen screwdriver...sorted.

Have QSC 10s and Ksubs as PA. A 'musical' PA. clear and powerful. Will often gig with just one sub. Plenty for a pub. You'll only have the kick and some bass fundamental going through the sub. Buy with confidence.