cheddatom

He's been doing this for 35 years. His teeth are all chipped but he still does it. He knows it's bad technique but insists he can't change the habit. I was hoping to find a silver basket, like the standard one, but made out of rubber or something like that

He can't deal with the look of the wind shield! I know it's technique but ironically he's too long in the tooth

Our singer apparently hits his front teeth on the grille of his sm58 beta. Is there a replacement grille that looks the same, but isn't made of rigid metal? I've had a search but can't find anything. He can't be the only one with this issue!?

It really isn't about the equipment. I played a little cafe venue earlier this year. We sold the gig as "almost acoustic" which basically means the guitarist and bassist use acoustic instruments that plug in. I played my usual set up minus a couple of crashes, so 26" bass drum, bell brass snare, 24" ride, 22" crash, 16" hats. I'm a big guy and I use big sticks. I just played to the mix all night, which basically meant leathering the un-mic'd bass drum, and tippy-tapping everything else. I had a great time!

Drums are my main instrument at the moment. I play loud and quiet, but just wanted to note that the size of the shells or cymbals don't dictate the volume. Big =/= Loud. In my opinion, the drummer should be playing to the room, and if the room is small, he needs to take it easy on the cymbals and snare.

Great venue and festival, we've done it a few times in the past, hopefully we'll be on again in the future!

The old transit was fine. This "upgrade" has all sorts of tech under the front seats. If you sit in the back, you can't get your feet under the front seat. If you sit in the front and there's no-one next to you, you can just about fit on an angle. Unfortunately I have either the bassist or the front man sat in the tiny middle seat to my right. My shoulders touch the window and my fellow passengers' shoulder. My feet are jammed against the bulkhead and my left knee is crushed against a cup holder. I am quite a big guy. It only takes 45 minutes for my knees to start hurting, then it's my hips, then my upper back cramps up. Stockton on Friday was 4.5 hours on the motorway. with one stop. This is why I call it Vantanamo

Stockton on Friday night. This is a fair old drive from Stoke. I'm not sure if I've fully ranted about our van #vantanamo on here before but it is absolute torture. Any other 6ft members here forced to endure a Transit Custom? Anyway this was a killer journey. We went straight to a premier inn to get keys and drop off bags. When we parked up the roadie flipped out. Apparently no-one told him we were staying over in Stockton so he'd not brought any toiletries or clothes! 🤣 The gig was at NE Volume Music Bar which is pretty cool. Stockton looked a little dire (and I'm from Stoke) so I didn't wander around town. A lovely rider of home made veg curry and an assortment of snacks and beers. The room was pretty full when we went on and they seemed to know all the words. Such a great feeling to be able to do this so far away from home! We played 1hr 30. It was incredibly warm on stage and I was fully soaked. I drank 2 litres of water and 660ml of Punk IPA on stage. I had a pint of beer after the set, then another after the load out. Too much information perhaps but I didn't need the bathroom until we got to the hotel! I was starting to get very worried but I guess I sweated all that out! One for The Road festival at Fulford Arms in York on Saturday night. A shorter 45 minute set at this one. I was cajoled into using the house drum kit again. I need to remember why I usually refuse. The hi-hat stand was basically broken and the bass drum wouldn't stay still. Terrible sound after a rushed line check. This is all stuff that would ruin my night years ago but we're so used to it now. We smashed the set and went down really well, although I don't think there was anyone there who wasn't already a fan. Long drive back to Stoke got me to bed at 2AM Sunday morning

I've got my rack tom on a snare stand. If I wanted two I could hang them off the crash stand to my left. The 26x10" BD is very cool though. I have a load of foam inside it so it's all just low end punch. Sorry for the drum chat! I can play bass, honest!

Yeh we played there earlier this year with The Professionals and it was great then too. Friday night was quite funny. They had a band on in the front room/bar, which was rammed full of young people. The band were young too, but they were playing Beatles and Stones covers. In the venue room it was full of old people all dancing along to original folk punk!

It's an old marching drum, 26x10". I put legs on it. I did it for the look of the thing to be honest but it sounds great and it's depth is super useful for these support slots

Crauford Arms in Milton Keynes supporting The Men They Couldn't Hang on Friday night. I can't find any photos! It's a great venue we've played before. No kit share this time as TMTCH were recording for a live DVD (does anyone buy DVDs any more?) and didn't want to move anything. No problem for me as my bass drum is only 10" deep! Great set, super tight, and we were staying over so we all had a few beers and watched TMTCH on their last gig of the year. Hopefully we'll get some support slots with them again! Dogfest at Boston Gliderdrome in Saturday. We were scheduled for 6:15 but a band pulled out and they moved us back to 7:30. Terrible house drum kit. Terrible monitors. Terrible sound. Great crowd who sang along to every word. Must have been 800 at least but again I can't find any photos! This is a great old venue and hopefully we'll get to play there with a decent sound some time Only 4 left this year now. I'll try to remember to take some pics at those

It's an awesome rig and he's an awesome player! Always sounds great and his timing is impeccable

Headsticks on Saturday at Eleven in Tunstall (Stoke-on-Trent) It was an all day event with 6 acts on, starting at 3:30. We got there at 1pm to load in up a fire escape. Not too bad. The sound engineer tried arguing that we couldn't use our own mics. We insisted that we use our own due to hygiene concerns. We have this problem very occasionally, and it's only ever with the stereotypical grumpy sound guys. The rude control freaks. You know, the classic soundman. Anyway, that's exactly what he was, talking to us in the rudest possible way all night. We (including the other acts) all tried to kill his attitude with kindness, lavishing him with praise and thankyous. It had no effect. Why do people stay in jobs they hate? Anyway, despite that it sounded great on and off stage, and the lighting was great too. Here's a photo with us doing our song Miles and Miles with Carol Hodge on guest vocals. She did it on the record so whenever she's on the same line up we persuade her to get up for it. What a voice! That's me on drums. I supplied the kit for the whole day with the following note to be sent to all drummers in advance "Drum shells will be provided. Please bring your own hardware. Your own stool is a MUST and not negotiable" This is because sharing stools grosses me out on account of the arse-sweat. I nipped out from the venue to get my girlfriend and when I returned I saw the drummer from another act sat suspiciously high up. Yep, he'd helped himself to my stool, which had been at the back of the stage with other equipment piled on top of it. You'd think musicians would have more respect for each other but this is pretty common in my experience. 🙄

We played Nightrain in Bradford on Saturday. Ace venue, great stage and PA, just ridiculously loud. We complained at the start of soundcheck but the engineer said "yeh, it's a loud stage". WTF is that? Turn it down man! He just had the FOH cranked and as is the case at such venues, the subs were wobbling the hollow stage making the whole stage sound muddy and rumbly. No worries, just EQ it out? Apparently not possible. Anyway, the gig was cool even if we couldn't tell what we were doing

I'd never heard of Blue DeTiger but I've just listened to "Figure It Out" which has a great bassline, great tone, and over 41M streams. It's automatically gone on to "Vintage - Flight Facilities Remix" which is basically modern disco and the bass playing is truly sublime. Great fills, really tasteful and funky. Great tone So 2 songs in and it's clear this artist is commercially successful, putting bass at the front of the mix and the image. Why would Fender not want to do a signature bass?

They're touring at the moment and we have a few of the support slots

Thekla in Bristol on Saturday night supporting The Men They Couldn't Hang. The venue is a boat which is very weird. Loads of steps to load down. They shared their drum shells, but I still had to carry my hardware box down. Sweating before soundcheck! A long way to drive from Stoke for a 30 minute set but it felt worth it. Amazing reception from a crowd that don't know us, although we didn't sell much merch. Hopefully some of them will come to our headline show in Bristol later in the year. No photos from the gig but this is us waiting to soundcheck

An all day punk lineup at Whitehaven Civic Hall on Saturday. We were on at 5pm. I didn't realise but this clashed with a football game. It could have been that, or our reputation, but the crowd really thinned out for our set. That was a little embarrassing as I'd taken my partner to see me play for the first time. She seemed impressed but I think that might have been because she'd helped herself to most of our rider 🤣. Anyway, it's a nice venue with a great stage. The sound was absolutely terrible, as was the provided drum kit, but we just roll with it. I was staying in Whitehaven so the band took all of my gear back for me. A 5 minute walk to the hotel had me feeling pretty smug. Apparently we sold some merch to new people so that'll do

Yep. It's bad enough from drunken fans but when it's a promoter, and they say things like "you owe me a hug" etc, it's extra gross

our bassist once gave our guitarist his spare 9V for the acoustic guitar. It was a big gig ad he saved the day. He charged the guitarist £2.50, which I thought was a bit ridiculous, but having read this thread I think he knew exactly what he was doing. The guitarist has taken spares from then on, as opposed to relying on the bassist. Start charging for your spare batteries!

Friday we played Cropredy Fringe at the Brasenose Arms. I've done this gig before, depping with someone else, and this was pretty much the same deal. Great weather, a bunch of middle class families out enjoying the food and drink, and not seeming too interested in the music. However, about 3 songs into our set, the generator failed. Our singer is a master of this, and he went straight into an old folk song. He got everyone to join in, AND he got them to gather down by the stage making it feel like a proper gig. Once the generator kicked back in, everyone stayed down the front and had a good dance. Not a huge crowd, but good fun, and we sold some CDs and Vinyl. Saturday we played Gig In A Field which is a small outdoor festival near Doncaster. Maybe 500 people there. We did an hour set and they sang along to every song. We sold loads of merch and the pay was good. The only downside was the creepy female promoter (she was there as a punter but has given us gigs in the past) who insists on touching me up. It's so gross. I think I've mentioned her previously in this thread. Sunday we played at Grand Social in Dublin. We go to the ferry 10 minutes before sailing which was a bit nerve wracking. We had a few beers and a good laugh on the way over, then drove into town. We couldn't park by the venue but it was only a 2 minute walk from the van. They'd insisted we didn't bring any gear, just guitars and sticks. I (on drums) tend to break gear so I took my snare, stool, pedal, and cymbals just in case. In the end used all of their gear except for the snare drum. This meant I didn't have to pack anything away so I could go from stage to my brother (who lives in Dublin) and stroll out for a brief pub crawl round Temple Bar. Apparently we went down well and sold a decent chunk of merch. I went to meet the guys at the accommodation at midnight. Unfortunately the guy assigned to meet me with a key was very drunk and his phone wasn't working, so it took a cold and lonely 30 minutes to get to my bed for the night. I didn't get any photos from the shows but here we are on the ferry home

Not many of that size, although we do a few festivals through the summer that'd be playing to around 1000. I'd love to do more of them. The other guys would prefer 45 or 60 minutes. Most of our headline shows are 90 minutes or more. I personally love the short sets as it feels "full on" all the way through

We played the Woodland Stage at Bearded Theory on Friday. I'd read a load of horror stories online about the weather and mud. Apparently they were towing people on to the site! Anyway, we got there at 1:30 for our set at 4pm. I'd forgotten my boots so was stuck hanging around back stage in my converse, trying to avoid getting stuck in the mud before our set. I got to set up my kit to the side of the stage so the changeover was only about 5 minutes. The sound was fantastic, as you'd expect at a proper festival like this. The field in front of us was packed, and it sounded like every one of them was singing along. Only a 30 minute set which makes it super easy on the drums as I don't have to hold back at all. Ace gig

The Tivoli in Buckley on Saturday. If you play there and go to the back stage room, you'll notice a little piece of cardboard with the words "Mind your head Tom" written on it perched just above the doorway. That's from last time we played there in November when I walked into the door frame with the top of my skull which sent me to the floor and gave me some dizziness and a lasting headache. Well, I didn't notice, and I did it again, even worse. My head still hurts today! Anyway, I played OK. We were supporting The Men They Couldn't Hang who have a big following, but I reckon there were less than 100 in, which feels pretty empty in "The Tiv" which is a huge room. It was quite reassuring that the crowd for the headline act was basically the same size as for us. Rescue Rooms in Nottingham on Sunday. This is one of my favourite venues to play, just great in every way. It was an early start - doors at 5, we were on at 6, then The Men They Couldn't Hang on at 7, all done for 9pm. The room was packed and we went down really well. Loads of compliments, loads of merch sold etc. so job well done. I thought this photo was cool, even if I do look a bit confused. I'll blame that on the concussion