cheddatom

Honestly it was beyond comical. He had me play just ghost notes on the snare for a few minutes, then asked me to play the snare normally for a few minutes. Has anyone ever seen that before? He EQ'd each close mic for ages, then asked me to play with plenty of cymbals. No overheads or hi-hat mic, no vocal mics plugged in, and he's already EQ'd the close mics without hearing cymbals. And as for EQ'ing the bass at the amp, after he'd spent ages EQing it at the desk (with a mic on the cab and post EQ DI), I've never seen anything so ridiculous. Just undoing all that work at the desk. The FOH subs were so loud, I thought he'd put the tom mics in the stage monitors. He said "no, that's just the acoustic volume of the drums, you are playing very hard, maybe you could play a bit gentler?". I tapped the floor tom and it was on the edge of feeding back. I told him but I can only assume he thought it was my first gig as he just shrugged it off.

I didn't get any photos this weekend, oops! Headsticks gig at Sidney & Matilda in Sheffield on Friday night. It's a cool hipster bar with a proper 'orrible basement venue underneath. It stank of BO down there and I didn't see any ventilation. Perfect Only about 50 or so people in but it's a small room so that was cool. Plenty of newcomers too which is always a good sign. Sound checking my snare, the engineer asks "Is there any chance you have a drum key with you?" and I laugh and say yeh. He says "Do you think it needs a little tune up? It's quite resonant!". I laugh and say no. Then he asked if I always rimshot or if I play a standard snare hit too. I say both. He wants to know what material my snare is made of and what model it is... He gets to bass guitar, our bassist plays for 2 seconds, the engineer shouts "woooah, can you notch out 400Hz on your amp please?". After 10 minutes of EQing the bass from his mixing desk, he tries guitar. He's forgotten to plug the guitar in. He walks on stage to plug it in, but instead walks up to the bass amp and starts messing with the controls and asking our bassist to play. I think he got the message after a minute of that. I thought a fight was about to break out! Anyway, the gig was cool, even if the sound was ridiculously loud and bassy. Supporting The Undertones on Sunday at the Tivoli in Buckley. I love this venue, it's so weird. The manager (I assume he owns it?) was talking quite proudly of all his renovations, which were great, but when I asked him if there was a toilet with a lock on the door he was stumped. It's a big room but there were 300 or so in which is plenty for a great night. There were a few of our fans there but we went down really well with the others too, sold a load of merch and signed setlists etc. I've never seen The Undertones before, and I only knew the one song, but I was blown away. So much energy for older guys, absolutely rock solid performance (well, the last minute dep drummer might have struggled a little but we'll forgive him that), great vocals... they're just cool AF on stage.

I'd want Steinberg's Quadrafuzz VST in a pedal format. There are 4 bands, and on each band you can choose from 4 different saturation types, gain, attack time, and clean blend, then you can set where the bands crossover... very useful for bass distortion IMO

The first time in Hull for us (Headsticks) at the New Adelphi Club. I've heard of this place and I gather a lot of big names have played there. Apparently the sound engineer has done every single gig there since it opened. He really knows the venue and it sounded fantastic. Not a massive crowd but it's a small place so felt good. Everyone wanted to chat before and after, which is always nice although I do get a bit bashful if I haven't had a pint. Another sweaty one! I changed after the set, put my stage shirt in the van, and chucked it over the line when I got home at 3AM. It was still soaked at 10AM! I might have to bin that one. I've nicked a photo from a fan on facebook.

Yeh I figure the excessive bass was the problem, he's using a 4 x 10 and 2 x 10 BareFaced stack, and it's loud as hell, but by the time bass had been sent to everyone's monitor, it sounded just as loud and just as bassy to me. I guess it gives the engineer the control once we get going - he could cut the low end out of the monitors but couldn't cut it out of the bass amp. It sounded great by all accounts anyway

No that's the Ferocious Dog rig, they were headlining 3 nights on the trot, so left all their gear set up. I'm on drums with Headsticks so was just showing off my fancy kit on the riser

Settle Down festival on Saturday. We were on first at 3pm and I didn't have high hopes for a crowd but they really packed in. My mate has loaned me a very nice drum kit to try and I always think you get a new source of inspiration when on a different instrument... either that or the fresh heads I'd just put on, but it sounded awesome. Our bassist was told to turn right down on stage, which he hates. The engineer did explain the issue to him but I wasn't paying attention. Anyway, I asked for bass in my monitor as I couldn't hear the bass amp, and he says "sure, you can have as much bass in the monitors as you like". What's the difference between loud bass on stage from an amp, or loud bass on stage from monitors? I must be missing something there Anyway, the crowd were on our side from the first note. It felt like the best gig for ages.

Hah, sorry! Same thing though innit 😛 It really did sound fantastic

Hope & Anchor last night. I'd been on a bit of a bender in London with my brothers and the booze combined with the heat was really getting to me. It turns out all I needed to do was play a sweaty gig to sort myself out! Great to bump into @NancyJohnson . I really enjoyed your set! Great sound from that Warwick (despite the tiny combo). The bottle of red from your singer was very generous! When we got there to load in at 1:30, we were told we had to wait upstairs until the sound engineer arrives. The guy blamed the "corporate knobheads at Green King". Fair enough but the load-in time was agreed. The soundman turned up at 2:40 and doors were supposed to be 3pm. There was a house kit on stage, even though we'd said we'd be bringing drums and agreed kit share with the promoter. The soundman says "oh, you're not using the house kit? But we're already running so late!". Obviously I wanted to say "yeh, isn't that your fault?" but I smiled and nodded, moved the house kit to the side, set up my kit, and watched as he was still slowly lifting mic boxes out of his store room. I guess the house kit wouldn't have saved any time after all Our 3 guys at the front always take their own mics, it's a hygiene thing, and it's on the tech spec that goes to every gig. For some reason it's 50/50 whether the sound engineers will be happy or whizzed off about it. I don't get it. This guy was in the latter camp. Honestly, the speed he was moving and his general demeanour had me judging him to be the stereotypical horrible soundman and I was expecting a nightmare of a gig. Anyway, it might have taken 3 times as long as usual and delayed the whole gig, but it sounded absolutely fantastic! We played well to a very small crowd. It looked like 15 people to me, maybe a couple more, but in a small venue like that when everyone's having fun, it really doesn't matter. Flat tyre on the van delayed our departure by almost an hour. Back to bed in Stoke by 1:30 so not too bad. Photo from a fan on facebook

Yep, the same guy once got a great sound out of a marshall mg100, one of the most derided amps ever! Some people have a prejudice against modellers but I can only assume they've just failed to understand how to get the sound they want

Our guitarist used an original POD for years, now he's using a Nux modeller, always straight into the PA He always sounds amazing!

Thursday supporting Terrorvision at HMV Empire in Coventry. The van said 30°C when we got to the load in. There's an ancient lift to take the gear up, but people have to walk the 48 stairs up to back stage. I reckon I went up and down at least 10 times during the course of the evening and my legs are still feeling it 4 days later! Ace venue, good sound on stage, and a great reception despite the fact most of the people there had no idea who we (Headsticks) are

Here for the music festival in Devon on Friday night. Only 45 minutes on drums but I've never sweated that much in my life! I must have drank 5 litres of water and still got dehydrated!

We just played Quake at lunchtime. So rebellious!

When I was a kid we got a hash of the school's network admin password and cracked it in just over 3 days with a computer running constantly at home. That would have been 1999 ish

Under The Castle festival near Bolsover. We were the "headline" for Friday night but that just meant we were on at 10:30pm and everyone was too drunk, tired and cold. Apparently this festival was SOLD OUT but I reckon we played to 100ish people. Still, worth doing and I had fun. The highlight was a fan who's been coming to see us for years. He grabbed me early on, way before our set, and insisted on introducing me to his friends. He was ranting on about how he first saw us playing tiny little gigs and now we're "massive". Very amusing as I looked around the festival counting the number of punters

Our guy had ordered a few different ones, each time he returned it underwhelmed (helix was one, some sort of Hotone was another) until he go the Nux. I imagine they're all capable of the same thing it's just he found the Nux more intuitive. Anyway, point is you can order online and trial it pretty much risk free as lonng as you return within a couple of weeks.

Our guitarist uses a NUX MG30. No in-ears or amp, he just uses whatever monitors are provided at the gigs. It works really well for us and has done for at least 100 gigs

When lock down happened and all the gigs were taken away, I used the time to get good at the drums. Where I used to concentrate, I'm now totally relaxed. I think this in combination with the sheer joy of being able to play live again has given me a permanently grinning gig face. People regularly stop me after gigs to tell me I'm the "smiliest drummer ever". Some started calling me "smiley Tom". It's a bit embarrassing but it's just genuine happiness, and people seem to like it

Ey Up Mi Duck festival near Doncaster on Friday night (late, I know). We were last on and the tent was absolutely packed. I'd guess around 800 people or so. We played an hour and 15 minutes and they went absolutely mad for it. Ace gig. Here's a photo of the rest of the band as it's all I could find. Credit to Martin Borrett Photography https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087496146690

I don't want to give the lad too much stick, I really felt for him as he was obviously way out of his comfort zone. However, we take our own mics, and make it clear it's for hygiene purposes, but the sound guy rushed on to the stage and started shouting down our mics to see if they were working - not very cool. Also, even though 8 channels isn't a lot to remember, I reckon it would have been a good idea to write down which instrument/mic is going into which channel.

I gig a fair bit, and of all the cities/areas Nottingham consistently delivers. There's always an audience for us, and walking around at night, the place really feels alive. I assume other bands do just as well in Nottingham but maybe not!

Cool! I'm on drums, say hello if we're on again!

Bit late sorry... Friday night supporting China Crisis in Nuneaton. Why would they put us (Headsticks) on with China Crisis? Anyway, I love the venue, sound was ace, and we went down well with the 80 or so people there Saturday night supporting Terrrorvision at The Sugarmill in Hanley which is the local big venue. It was totally sold out and it's such a pleasure to play here when it's full. Unfortunately there wasn't room for a drum kit at the back of the stage so we were in a line right at the front. Our bassist played to the bar staff and communication with the guitarist was near impossible. Still, we smashed the 30 minute set and definitely won over some new fans Sunday night in Derby - Doors were supposed to open at 4pm, but that's when the promoter arrived with a curry. The lad on sound hadn't got a clue how to use the ancient behringer PA head. He'd never been to this venue before and was used to pro theatre gear. The stage box was 4 x XLR 4 x Jack (WTF?) and he couldn't remember what he'd plugged into which channel. Thank F for ear plugs as it was just random feedback every few minutes - that's the soundcheck AND the gig. At the end of our sound check we'd got a usable sound, so I took a photo of the head and sent it to the sound guy, but that seemed to have no effect. I got a little frustrated which lead to an over the top rimshot which lead to serious pain in my left wrist for the remaining hour and 10 minutes of our set! Ouch! Here's the PA as I didn't get any other photos

Yeh, indeed, which if we were saying "F the Tories" or the like, you could understand, but we're just saying "Isn't it sad there are so many homeless people in the UK in 2023" and the like - hardly radical socialism