KevB

Mike, do you have a list of the Nottingham venues which are receptive to covers bands and have their own PA? The PA belonging to the band I've joined is primitive in the extreme and I'd like to push them toward venues providing in house PA, preferably with an engineer. I know The Greyhound in Beeston has an excellent system and I guess The Approach in the city centre will too but not played it. Others that are mainly covers venues?

[quote name='Big_Stu' timestamp='1363960225' post='2020164'] About 10 years ago I was in Nottingham I was surprised to see a small Hard Rock Cafe! Assuming it was a genuine one & not a copy. It had closed next time I was there. [/quote] Forgotten about that, somewhere around King Street/Queen Sreet. I think they used to occasionally have live bands on too. Didn't last long. I think I went in once out of curiosity but not really into that sort of fast food so not a regular.

Don't know how regularly they were put on but I did see live acts at The Palais in the 80's as a student. Some of them were things like student xmas parties. I'm sure I saw Sweet there in the early to mid 80's. I also recall seeing a Thin Lizzy tribute in which Brian Robertson was guesting and though not 100% certain I think that was in the same building but not sure of the name by that time, probably some time on the 90's. There was also an additional venue made from the basement area of The Palais which was 'The Zone' and acted as a competitor to Rock City for rock nights for a while. Not sure if they booked live acts though.

Hard cases should be subjected to a 'courier test' during design and manufacture. If they can't handle typical handling by third party transport companies they are not fit for purpose. Do we now need cases for cases? where does it end?

[quote name='Norris' timestamp='1363957223' post='2020111'] Main bass: Squier P-bass special (Indonesian), cost £150 second hand - I prefer playing it to my Fender US Jazz and Gibson Thunderbird that stay at home, and will proudly extoll its virtues to anybody who notices the name on the headstock. In fact I prefer my Mexican fretless Jazz to the US one [/quote] I had one of the Indonesian Squier P specials too and also have a USA jazz. Whilst the Squier was excellent value for money and was almost as playable as the US jazz after a bit of tweaking I thought the quality of the pickups on the jazz blew the Squier ones out of the water. If I'd kept the Squier long term I'd certainly have upgraded the pickups. As it turned out I found a US P bass deluxe which made the Squier redundant and I sold it on but it was, as I said, very very good value.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1363944040' post='2019781'] If you're out there gigging you're in with a chance of progressing. Sit at home and you go nowhere. [/quote] Whilst I broadly agree with this it is probably because I am closer to your age. Things may well change in the future. As technology becomes cheaper and with traditional pub venues closing all over the place could we see a time where bands play from a room which has cameras installed and the sound is streamed live to pay per view type audiences sat at home watching it on their computers? Without that audience interraction it wouldn't be the sort of gig I'd find much fun to play personally but it would change the whole dynamic of bands going 'out there' to play live. Bedroom players forming bedroom bands and playing bedroom gigs to millions of bedroom fans. All a bit weird but it could happen one day.

If you are playing mostly covers and functions I'd go along with the majority here and say the Sadowsky. Not only that but being a 5 string it will give you more options anyway. If you use or are likely to use in future the 5th string [b]a lot [/b]then none of the others are actually much use for you are they?

The one thing I would say about the Behringer stomp box type pedals is that I don't like the design of the battery access. I imagine they had to come up with something different enough from Boss so not to get sued but it's a faff if you really insist on using them battery powered. I always use my tuner pedal with a power brick but if I were on batteries and it died I wouldn't relish having to swap a battery on a darkened stage. I'd probably end up cutting a hole in the bottom of the pedal and making a hinged lid to get to the battery like the Boss designs.

Presumably a fake ad created by disgruntled band members having had to audition a bass player fitting some or all of these characteristics. Good way of spleen venting.

I still think that jetglo is the definitive colour scheme for ric 4000 series. Even with a white pickguard.

Main Behringer gear I've had over last 6 or 7 years; 450H bass head originally bought in as part of a rehearsal set up. Then became a spare to take to gigs but the main gear (Trace)never failed so sold it on and apparently it is still being gigged regularly by the next owner. Xenyx digital mixer used regularly for gigs for a couple of years. Band broke up, not had to use it since. Never had any issues with it. Tuner pedal. Fraction of the price of the equivalent Boss at the time, seems to do exactly the same job. Still use it at every gig.

I'm not going to backtrack through pages of posts so sorry if this has already been mentioned but at one time it was pretty much the norm for bands to establish themselves playing other people's music before writing their own material, eg The Beatles.

Looking atyour posts it seems the new band's set is quite different to the old ones. This can be good for developing different aspects of playing. I've really only been in 2 bands simultaneously on one occasion but it can be fun if they are different enough. What sort of stuff are you doing with the new lot?

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1363781372' post='2017430'] Where's the cover material going to come from in ten years? [/quote] Same place it came from in the previous ten years. It just probably won't come from any of the bands that people who post on here are in.

I've seen Bravado 2 or 3 times, impressive standard and seem nice guys. I think the 'Geddy' in the band works in a music shop in Doncaster as his day job.

The last time I checked it looked like the Samson bass version had been discontinued but they were still doing the guitar model, could be wrong though and I've often wondered if they weren't pretty interchangeable in any case.

I've heard of other bands that spend this amount of time rehearsing without gigging. It all gets more and more introspective until someone in the band is always looking for an excuse not to do the gig. These bands rarely end up being regular giggers. No first gig is going to be perfect, just need to take that plunge and then work on it from there. As a contrast I didn't even audition for my latest band, they sent me a set list, learned it at home and we thrashed it out on the night from cold. Not something I'd done before or necessarily recommend but the gig went fine, a full pub of happy customers drinking lots of beer for the management.

Depending how much noise you are going to make and the proximity of neighbours you might also think about some sound insulation on the walls/floor maybe?

You should see the state the moulded hard case for my P bass special was in when the owner handed it over. Looked like it had been stood in some strong organic solvent, part of it had actually melted away. Gaffa tape covers all manner of hidden blemishes! I haven't got round to replacing it as the body shape is different to a regular P and most off the shelf cases won't fit it without going to those huge rectangular jobs.

Whilst it isn't unknown for bands to start small, get big and play bigger venues then toward their autumn years end up playing small clubs again I can't see it happening with Rush. Lifeson and Lee might be up for it but I don't see Peart going with it for any length of time.

I have to say after putting in what I considered a slightly mediocre effort at my last gig I was bemused when a middle aged and apparently reasonably sober punter came up to me at the end of the set and said how he 'particularly enjoyed my performance'. I didn't feel any disdain or disrespect so much as bafflement. Still, rather that than a queue forming to tell me I was complete sh*te I suppose.

Lots of people are taken on in bands for their looks in addition to what they bring in musically, sometimes it overrides the musicality (though I doubt it is the case here due to the type of act Jeff Beck is). I don't think we need to get our knickers in a twist just because on this occasion it happens to be a young woman.

I wasn't going to go to the last tour mainly for most of the reasons WoT pointed out in his first post. Then when it became common knowledge they would do all of MP as a 'suite' I finally caved in and bit the financial bullet. Not this time, far too expensive and I just don't get the buzz from seeing them anymore. Looks like the DVD will be out BEFORE the UK shows so people can see what will be pretty much the same show in advance. A mate of mine is a lifelong fan but as soon as the ticket prices came it out he said he'd just buy the DVD and that would be it.

I've never gone to the trouble of actually monitoring enough of his auctions to see if most of them sell. I wondered if he was just some nut job 'enthusiast' who wanted a public place to show them off with little real intention of actually letting them go. The pricing of most of the items suggested he didn't really want to sell them or there was a massive mark-up involved. Alternatively he might just be such a loon he keeps buying stuff in at way over what it is worth. Seems to have been on eBay for years and years.

Quite like Costello's version myself, each to their own I guess.