HengistPod

Would love to go back 30 years and play for pure fun again, but nowadays I'm a bit of a sentimental mercenary. Got to be the money. Gear doesn't buy itself. Only time I'd play a regular gig for half the cash is if it was in the local pub and I didn't have to leave the house til 7pm. £20 of my cut goes straight to the Mrs, which helps to keep her tolerant. Another 20 in the whisky bottle, 5 for the bairn's pocket money and the rest in my pocket for frittering away. Having said that, if you're out for £300 at a venue 2 or 3 times and people still aren't turning up then re-bookings start to look unlikely. Unless the landlord likes you ... we played a place for the first time recently where the landlord could be seen mouthing along to a Wildhearts tune, which surprised us somewhat. He loved us. Bar had maybe 10-12 punters in (3 or 4 dancers), but he's booked us several times for next year - as well as to play at his birthday party! What does annoy me is pubs that don't bother advertising and then go on about how quiet a night it's been. I send posters to every gig 2 weeks in advance (enough for a few in the pub and some in local shop windows or boards), and am genuinely taken aback when we rock up and there are none in sight. "Did you get the posters?" ... "Aye, they're here under the bar somewhere" ... "Any ads in the local paper?" ... "Naw, that costs twenty quid".

A new gig for us, and one we haven't managed to poke our nose round the door to check out yet. The landlord is a bit concerned about lack of space. Sure we'll manage. Haven't been out for a couple of weeks, so hopefully we'll all remember the intricacies of Rockin In The Free World. [attachment=232287:ParkHotel_b 19_11_16_poster.jpg]

Dunno. Perhaps you could recommend some gigs in Perthshire and Fife though, along with what sort of cash you're likely to get at them?

I was a huge Floyd fan and partook of the Publius Engima for a time in the mid 1990s whilst replenishing my extensive PF bootleg collection with trades from all over the world on cassette (so much easier nowadays where you just download a torrent!). I drove to the Wall in Berlin in 1990, too, and still have my "Pink" mask from it. Persons were observed driving back along the Berlin Access Road autobahn with huge polystyrene "bricks" tied to the roof of their cars afterwards. I always preferred Roger's grumpy, whinging and occasionally manic style to Fat Dave's sleepy blues, although the two together obviously work very well. My fave Floyd-related moment is "Amused To Death". It is utterly fantastic.

To the OP ... if you think of the number of bass guitars that are sold around the country, and compare that to the number of bands (and assuming we don't all own 100 basses), then you'll quickly figure that there are many people who only play at home, by themselves, in whatever way suits them. So nothing unusual there. There is absolutely no reason to play in a band if it's not for you. Especially not one with a keyboard player.

We currently have a girly singer and do stuff like Echo Beach, couple of Blondie tunes (Call Me always seems to work, and is a piece of piss), the two Tourists songs everyone knows which are already rocky (Only Want To Be With You, So Good To Be Back Home), and are considering something from the Eurythmics. Journey is always an option too, depending on her range. Any Way You Want It is fun, and Don't Stop Believing can be played atrociously and still go down a storm at beer o'clock. Girlschool are worth a look ... Emergency, or any of the singles off the Hit & Run LP, which also has a good version of Tush on it.

In case this hasn't already been mentioned ... new Epi Explorer bass in "antique varnish" Korina. [url="http://www.epiphone.com/News/Features/Features/2016/Limited-Edition-Korina-Instruments.aspx?platform=hootsuite"]http://www.epiphone.com/News/Features/Features/2016/Limited-Edition-Korina-Instruments.aspx?platform=hootsuite[/url] Only price I can see so far is £469 from GAK. Hundred quid less and I've had thought about it.

Was Zee's any good of a place to play at? They offered us a gig some time ago, but wouldn't go above £100 at the time. Said they might revise that figure considerably upwards if they had any success with live bands ...

Currently: 1. white Epi Thunderbird Classic Pro 2. ebony 1991 Gibson Thunderbird 3. Epi Blackbird 4. ebony 1990 Gibson Thunderbird This changes constantly, though, and may soon include the Epi Explorer if I decide it won't look too daft at my age.

Have a look on Songsterr ... they have an online tab player, and you can print the tab off. Either you pay and print it easily, or don't pay and just do a series of screenshots. Beware that there are two versions, though ... the original is in G and the re-recorded Steve Vai version is in A. Once you figure out the three or four basic patterns it's a straight enough tune and fun to play.

Most of those bands' logos aren't nearly illegible enough. Bonus points to the one in the middle, though.

A similar thing can happen when a drummer loses a stick. They become terribly confused when this happens, and their brain has to remember where the nearest spare is. This can cause a momentary lapse in beat. Anyway - you have to go with the drummer. What else are you going to do ... play the rest of the song 1/4 of a second in front/behind him? He's generally not even listening to what you're doing, and will glower and sulk if you don't step back into line after his mistake. As said above, re-evaluate where he's at, then fit in. If the guitarist is also looking confused, watch what he's playing and let him see where you are. Might take a couple of bars, but it'll come back together. (Also agree that if the singer isn't paying attention and is just hammering on, then everyone needs to fit back in with them.) And remember ... the average punter will NEVER notice anyway.

I had serious GAS for a Thunderbird for 15 years before I eventually got one. That was 20 years ago now, and I'm beginning to wonder whether to try playing a proper bass guitar. As we know, a 'bird is not proper - to me, it's almost like a different instrument. This idea of "change" comes into my head every so often, but to tell the truth I always find it quite dull and end up back in my happy Thunderbird place. So I have several "normal-type" but slightly-different-from-each-other basses up in the attic. Currently, I'm quite fancying either a black Aerodyne Jazz, or a 5-string Jazz. My heart knows that the latter would soon be another attic job, but the former is continuing to make eyes at me. Meantime, I'm currently gigging my Epi Classic Pro, having decided to rest the Gibsons. It's a revelation, much better than I'd expected it to be in a gig situation.

Our guy is always on the ball. Has a tuner on his pedal board thingy and is always in tune before and during a set. If it becomes necessary, he manages fine in a standard between-song gap being filled by some nonsense from someone with a microphone.

"Yeah, I do know most of the words, but I just like to have this enormous black music stand with an A4 folder full of printed lyrics in front of me to act as a prompt." "I don't need a setlist, thanks. I've put all the lyrics in order in my folder." "I know the words to this one. Do you mind if I just put this enormous black music stand in front of you for a while so I can dance around a bit?" "No, I have learned most of the words. I won't need the enormous black music stand in a couple of gigs time." (repeat at monthly intervals) "I didn't know any of these well-known classic rock songs with simple lyrics before I joined, you know. And it's only been 6 months." "Do you mind if I play a bit of keyboard on this one? Obviously I can't have it in front of me or people will knock into it. Can I put it in front of you?"

We've recently been starting with "Jailbreak", count 4 off the last beat and into "Breaking The Law". Once they're done and we've got rid of the hen parties, we'll know what direction we're heading with tonight's audience. As above, we do keep most vaguely danceable things for the second set, with a couple of tasters in the first to gauge what people are expecting, and how dancy they're likely to be. The setlist for the second set can then be adjusted and tweaked at break-time. What's a BL, by the way?

I just took it into my head to look at Gibson's 2017 range. Multiple variations on the Firebird theme, no Thunderbird return apart from the headstock on this odious bit of wood. A few custom colour limited runs on Thunderbirds (whilst returning to 1990 or so model specs) would have done nicely. Stripey, or sparkly red or something. Gibson need to rediscover their wacky bass attitude. Probably be hugely collectable in 20 years, on account of very few people buying one. (I have a couple of Corts lying around - perfectly fine basses but do feel a bit fragile for gigging with.)

The deal is that gig money gets split equally. Service or fixing of the PA comes off the top of next available gig money as a lump sum.

There is a "single edit" of Wayward Son that would be fine for a pub band, chops out a lot of the more noodly bits. You'd be surprised how many people know it ... the receptionist lassie at my work, for example ... it crops up on a lot of compilation CDs - "Greatest Driving Songs" and stuff like that. In fact, I quite fancy giving it a shot myself. Must speak to the chaps ...

Ian Dury - Warts'n'Audience. Recently acquired on CD after owning a cassette copy since it was released (with consequent non-listening for many years). ... Norman ...

We had a semi-regular gig at RAF Lossiemouth about 15 years ago, in the Sergeants' Mess. Can't remember how we first got in there, but it was always a great night, without fail, and the money was twice what we got in pubs. Also did Kinloss a few times, and on the back of that we did a week going round bases in England. Fed, watered, well paid, well looked after. Now that the idea's been raised, I might look into getting the current band into Lossie ...

We had a kind of permanent loan of the PA from an ex-guitarist who didn't need it for anything else. But then he decided he needed to sell it, and our singer bought it. He then became our ex-singer, and took his PA with him. So I, being the only one with any spare cash at the time, bought a system which will tide us over meantime. I'd rather own something outright than have it shared. So much easier if someone leaves the band - the PA either stays, or it goes - and no-one needs to be paid anything. I don't see any great problem with one guy owning the mixer/amp, and someone else owning speakers, stands, wires, etc. If the drummer wants a monitor, he can buy one for himself (though a fridge, washing machine or cooker may be a better way to spend his fags money). If one person leaves, not so much gear to replace.

Most was probably around 1000 at a local indoor festival thing about 15 years ago. Least is usually nobody except the bored-looking barmaid, which happens occasionally at more rural pub gigs. You'll spot that there's only one table of punters and hope they don't leave to go to the next pub ... either that or you're booked to start at 9.00pm and there's no-one in because they all sit getting pished at home before they go out to the pub ...

Slightly more remote up here, perhaps, so most gigs are an hour each way (e.g. in to Aberdeen). Wouldn't really go more than an hour and a half tops. A couple of Aberdeen gigs seem to have taken an unexplained dislike to us recently, so we won't be going there so much anymore anyway. I suspect some of the long established bands were having words in ears because we were increasingly replacing them at their regular gigs ... Having said that, the Aberdeenshire rock/blues cover band I was in about 15 years ago used to regularly gig in places like Ullapool, Isle of Skye, Tobermory, Dingwall, Dundee and even a couple of air bases in the north of Englandshire. We'd organise two gigs somewhere like that over a weekend with food and accommodation, and quite happily played at being proper weekend rock'n'roll warriors for a couple of years. We were much younger then.

Classical musicians. Lots of stuff to play. No way they can remember it all ... meh. Perhaps if, like Andre Rieu or Nigel Kennedy or Nicola Benedetti, they bothered to learn the 200-year old tunes ... they might make a few quid out of actually entertaining people instead of sitting around in a semi-circle peering at sheets of music and flipping pages with strange foot pedal gizmos.