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cheddatom

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Everything posted by cheddatom

  1. cheddatom
    The first time someone asked for my set list I was completely freaked out. I had no idea why they might want it but they took it and asked me to sign it, which freaked me out even more. That was probably 7 years ago or so. Now it's every single gig, signing CDs, Vinyl, and always set lists. People have collections of our setlists and they compare them. We don't get played on the radio or anything so it's still weird, but I got used to it.
  2. cheddatom
    Bit late on these but it's an amusing juxtaposition... Friday 6th Jan, Great British Folk Festival. Our guitarist donned his Crass T-Shirt but other than that we played a very civilised acoustic/folk set to a massive sitting audience. Polite applause at the end of each song is all we got, but no-one left the room which was near capacity. Apparently it was a great reaction from this crowd, just a lot more subdued than we're used to. Wednesday 11th at the 100 Club supporting Subhumans couldn't have been more different. The venue is about 1/4 of the size for a start. It was absolutely rammed and they went crazy for us, even though most people were there for Subhumans. I love the 100 Club but it's very difficult because of the shape of the room. The PA fires everything straight at the back wall which immediately bounces back on stage. I was absolutely hammering the drums just to make myself heard on stage. I've never had so many compliments after a gig so we obviously did something right.
  3. cheddatom
    I got a pretty bad concussion at the start of 3 days drinking in France. I thought I was fine, got home to the UK, then straight to a gig. I thought it was weird that everyone in Uttoxeter was speaking French but I just went with it. When it came time to play I had no idea what was going on. I remember going out of time (on drums) loads and getting a few "looks". Oops!
  4. cheddatom
    Surely the people losing the most record sales are the ones in the charts with mass audiences. The local metal bands I go to see are selling tapes and vinyl to hipsters. I started gigging 25 years ago, and most of the original bands I spoke to weren't making money at all. They'd sell some CDs and merch, and occasionally get paid for a gig. Not much has changed about that. The big change is that the bigger artists on big labels are no longer shifting the physical product they once were Anyway, my band are doing OK but it still amazes me when fans think we do it for a living. One lady properly guffawed when I mentioned my job as an IT guy "I thought you were a rock star but you're just a geek!" I guess there were also people getting a fair bit of royalties from radio play but I don't know a lot about that. I imagine royalties are less now there are fewer listeners.
  5. cheddatom
    we can produce our own product cheaper than ever, and we can reach a wider audience than ever, we just have to convince people to buy direct rather than (or as well as) streaming We gig loads, and sell loads of CDs and vinyl at gigs. All our albums are on streaming services but not many people listen at all. I can think of a few reasons: all the fans have the physical product and prefer that all the fans are old and scared of streaming/technology the fans just like the gigs, and buy the music to support the band, rather than listen to
  6. cheddatom
    Just tried to buy it but it's discontinued
  7. cheddatom
    Good shout! My first 6 string bass was a Brice from Rondo and I still have it! Just can't play long-scale basses any more
  8. cheddatom
    One day
  9. cheddatom
    your instruments look amazing but I'm assuming they're way out of my budget (circa £500)
  10. cheddatom
    yeh I was hoping someone might know of one that's "off the shelf" IE cheap(er)
  11. cheddatom
    Are there any short scale 6 string basses? Like a proper 6 string bass tuned B, E, A, D, G, C but short scale?
  12. cheddatom
    Saturday night at Cafe Indie in Scunthorpe. So many stairs to load in, I was sweating before I'd even started to set up! They had a brand new set of monitors, some sort of passive d&b things, but apparently they were totally maxed out and we could barely hear them. I switched to a quieter snare drum which seemed to pacify the singer somewhat, but it was still a terrible on stage sound. Apparently it was great out front so I guess the engineer did their best with the equipment available. Still, it makes for hard work Sunday afternoon at the Black Bull in Gateshead. This is a proper punk venue. No dressing room but as much beer as you can drink. This was a "matinee show" which our singer has started doing on Sundays, so we were on just after 5pm. It didn't feel that early in such a dark venue, and everyone had been drinking for a while. The landlord did the sound from around the corner. One monitor at the front of the stage, one on-top of the PA stack to one side, firing across the front... after Saturday night my hopes were not high, but somehow this guy got an awesome sound out of his rig. We've been playing some proper big professional shows recently, and this little punk venue in Gateshead had the best sound we've had for ages! That was the last gig of the year for us, nothing now until January. I might get some sleep!
  13. cheddatom
    I'm hearing a lot of panic from promoters and the like, and we have had a couple cancelled due to low sales, but every gig I've played seems to be as well attended as I expect. We've got loads in for 2023
  14. cheddatom
    Katie Fitzgerald's in Stourbridge last night. It's a small venue, and I'm bringing acoustic drums, so sound is always going to be tough. I tried my best to control volume but got most of the blame for the terrible on stage sound Personally I'd blame the fact that the gain was too high on every channel (could clearly hear horrible clipping), the vocal monitors were tiny 10" 100W Behringer jobbies, and the engineer wasn't sure which monitor was on which send Anyway, as usual, we went down well, loads of compliments after, sold a load of merch etc. so it really don't matter how it sounds on stage, as long as we keep our cool and do our best
  15. cheddatom
    The old cold store in Nottingham last night. So nice to be playing my own drums again after a 10 date tour using small sizes on a shared kit We played 1.5 hours which is very tiring, but an enthusiastic crowd provided the adrenaline to get me through
  16. cheddatom
    2 years old but this is the first track from my lockdown album, plenty of angry tracks on there
  17. cheddatom
    I'm not talking about playing infront or behind the beat, I'm talking about other musicians trying to speed up (or slow down) the song against the drummers steady beat. I absolutely hate it when people do this. It sounds terrible, and it's patronising to the drummer. The worst is when they start stamping their foot on stage trying to indicate to the drummer that they should speed up. F OFF!!!!
  18. cheddatom
    I see a few bassists suggesting they're helping the drummer keep time. If you start trying to push or drag me I just play louder and stare at you
  19. cheddatom
    I hope that's not a reference to my bassist!! 🤣 I play a lot of drums. I like a bassist who doesn't have too much low end in his sound. It's really quite common for bassists to think they need a big booming load of bass that fills the room and it's impossible to play with
  20. cheddatom
    Prague last night was hot and sweaty, a perfect end to the tour. On the way home now. What an experience! Hopefully I'll get to do it again some day
  21. cheddatom
    They are! There were vegan burgers and wurst Last night was Weisbaden, great gig, although Steve collapsed early in their set. He seemed to get it together after 5 minutes to cool down but we were all worried. It's a pretty intense tour and I think at his age it's taking its toll. One more date in Prague tonight and then a long drive to Rotterdam tomorrow
  22. cheddatom
    Alte Hackerei in Karlsruhe last night. Another small and sweaty one. Excellent catering, they cooked burgers or wurst to order for both bands and all the crew. Free beer all night. Awesome sound and I played the best I have so far
  23. cheddatom
    Les Tanniers in Dijon last night. This is a big warehouse covered in graffiti. They call it a "squat gig" and everyone there was crustier than your average punk. The Dressing Room was a large room upstairs full of bunk beds and one random guy who'd been told he could hang out there and stay over. The sound crew didn't know which channel was which, messed about for almost an hour until we gave up saying "that'll do". When we went on it took 10 minutes for them to get the acoustic guitar to work again, so what was the point of soundcheck? We struggled through, the crowd got into it, then halfway through the set we switch back from electric guitar back to acoustic. The channel was muted and the sound man was nowhere to be found. When he finally appeared, he couldn't get it to work, and angrily blamed our guitarist. The only option was to play all the acoustic songs on electric. It was still a great gig, but very hard work!
  24. cheddatom
    La peche in Montreuil, Paris last night. The smallest venue on the tour so far. They blocked off the road to park Steve Ignorant's bus. I thought they'd be worried about police but apparently the police avoid this neighbourhood. Soundcheck took forever but dinner afterwards was lovely. A huge old topless punk was kicking off during our set, trying to start fights with everyone. The venue staff refused to do anything about him but eventually Steve Ignorant himself came down and dragged the guy out of the venue. This was while we were still playing! Concentration was a challenge
  25. cheddatom
    Me too!
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