KevB

Yes, Jo is an acceptable singer if the song is right but not a particularly good front person (despite the intervening 8 yrs in the duo which surprised me on rejoining them). The other curious thing in the email was that they finally decided to let me go after they saw me get up and do a few numbers at an open mic and thought I was 'fantastic'. Not sure if it was some sort of back handed compliment or not. I would respond to that by saying that in the jam session I had a monitor that I could actually hear my vox through and was playing with people who respected what I brought to the table. Sadly I think both were a bit lacking in the band. Hey ho, draw a line under it and move on. Not losing sleep over a pub covers band.

The set wasnt obscure but it didn't evolve much, lots of potential songs in the genre we were covering but sadly it did show up the singer's limitatons. Not a bad voice but not great either and limited range (needed a second bass tuned down a whole tone as that was the only way she can sing some of the songs, a whole tone lower than originals) so our choices were always compromised. I think the real issues run deeper. They are never wrong and won't listen so any sound issues are met with knee jerk swapping of gear and if the gigs arent so good then swap out a band member, always seem to be looking for a quick fix than working on getting the best from what they have. I thought I might hack it for a couple of years once I'd seen that they hadn't really changed from 8 yrs ago but in the end I was ready to go before we got that far.

One of the first Focus albums I ever heard was Live at the Rainbow. If I'd been of the right age and lived close to it in the 70's i would probably have practically lived there. So many great bands passed through.

[quote name='Woodinblack' timestamp='1489174670' post='3255038'] So what was the reason you were let go - was your dissatisfaction obvious? I have moments of getting annoyed about things, but I love gigging, and you can't expect everything to be perfect. [/quote] No I dont think it was obvious at all. There had been some pretty crap venues to play in recently and the set list was getting stale, there seemed to be inertia in learning new stuff but I was prepared to ride it through. However when any input I tried to make was pretty much ignored because when it boils down to it they want total control and then in the email being told I was not interacting enough in the band then it becomes a bit laughable. I think its the band leader (I'm afraid his other half just tends to parrot whatever he says) who is looking for unattainable 'perfection' and just seems to go through endless amounts of gear to get some sort of magic fix and treats other band members much the same. Thought they might have matured a bit in the intervening 8 years but sadly it seems not. I wouldnt be at all surprised if the whole thing doesn't fold within next 2-3 years and they return back to their default position of duo with backing tracks because they 'cant find the right people'. As I said theyve been through 3 drummers and 3 or 4 bass players since getting the band started under 2 years ago. But its always someone elses fault, right?

Didn't even realise the ND version had been released as a single tbh, always assumed it was one of those obscure album tracks that others had taken to cover.

Started a thread in general discussion mate, anything else you need to know just pm me.

I'm not much of a bedroom player tbh, getting out there in front of people is what its about for me. I'm not ruling out another band or even another classic rock band if the right one. However I've now had no breaks at all between bands for the last 3 and I have other interests so I will be making use of the timing to do other stuff for a few months before I consider other projects. I knew the score, I had been in a band briefly with guitarist and singer 8 yrs ago before it folded. Since then they have pretty much only worked as a duo with backing tracks until getting a full band back together a couple of years back. I was curious to see if they had changed their ways a bit in the intervening years but some of the old problems started to become apparent and in truth I was ready for a change.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLCEUpIg8rE Which kind of tells me that the frustration I've been having recently with the quality of the venues, performances and lack of new material to play wasn't likely to go away. It's a bit a relief though the money's been handy (low paid gigs but enough of them to make it worthwhile) it's time to move on. I think the current drummer is about 3rd and next bass player will be 4th or 5th in under 2 years proper gigging (band revolves around guitarist and singer couple) which probably speaks volumes. I just wondered if I still had a classic rock band in me at 50+ and after nearly a year of doing it I think I'm happy that I can tick it off as job done and think about something else.

Final bump to say that 1. Tomorrow night's gig (Mar 11th) has been cancelled 2. I'm no longer in the band

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1489054934' post='3253972'] Yeah, me too - he just screams 'open mic night' to me. Clearly though, I have no clue. [/quote] Thought it was just me, clearly not. I can understand the appeal in the sense he seems more 'authentic' than a lot of the overproduced and manufactured pop so his popularity is a bit of a backlash against the never ending soundalike hits of 'X' featuring 'Y'. However from some of the sycophantic nonsense you'd think he was the first person in the history of music to sit down and perform a song on acoustic guitar that he'd written himself.

Police squad, how did you get on with Demolition Man? I've never tried it but it sounds a bitch to get the singing and bass line timing spot on.

So I guess the real question is 'what is solo4652 actually doing now?'.....

Quick bump for a new month's worth of gig dates.

Bass -> tuner -> bassattack pedal -> combo with extension cab. It's not rocket science.

All this said we've all been to big arena gigs where a top pro is playing through top end gear and using a well qualified sound engineer. And it sounds a bag of sh*te if you can actually hear it at all above that bloody kick drum. There are limits to everything.

Theres a lot to be said for getting either a long lead or wireless and being able to go out front whilst everyone else is playing at soundcheck, sound (tone and relative volume) can be entirely different from what you are picking up standing 2 feet away from your cabs. It's really only getting some idea of what joe public is actually hearing that you can then start addressing what needs tweaking on stage.

I find the easiest way to forget tunes is just learn more. It's becoming clear my brain only has room for so many. I'd struggle to remember any songs immediately from my last band's set (unless its ones I've done at a jam session more frequently since) and it was only just over a year ago I quit. I'm almost at the 'one set in, one set out' level now, probably age. How some of these 'walking juke box' guys do it I don't know.

Problem with most stage gear now is it's cut for rail thin twenty somethings. Manufacturers should spare a thought for us middle aged fat bastards slogging round the pubs on a weekend. What do you mean 'diet'? It's just their way of saying 'retire you sad git' I guess.

[quote name='Mickeyboro' timestamp='1486475980' post='3232105'] Big question - where is Simon Kirke? [/quote] Probably busy promoting his new solo album 'All Because Of You'.

It wasn't even a late night gig, one of those early eve Sunday jobs so we probably started the second set around 7:15. What cracked me up was her initial expression when she realised it was only 50% lager and 50% lemonade but then just carried on drinking it anyway. Probably been on the sauce all day, not alone in that respect in that particular venue either. Generally a pretty good atmosphere though, just a stupidly cramped playing area which I never like much.

Routine pub gigs last weekend, both Sat & Sun happened to be in tiny pubs with very small playing areas, not very comfortable but thought I gave it my best shot. Funny moment, the playing area was so small on Sun I had to leave my interval shandy (half drunk) on a shelf in a public area couple of foot away from me as there was nowhere onstage to put it. Glanced over during 2nd song of second set to see some local old boiler finishing it off, obviously thought it had been left and was therefore up for grabs. Had a streaming cold so she might be equally under the weather by now, glass must have been well contaminated.

[quote name='yorks5stringer' timestamp='1485789084' post='3226680'] I can now say I've played Glasto....! [/quote] I'm playing at a pub in Donington on Sat, needless to say I shall be using it that way in future too

Real shame but he's not been well for quite some time. Terrific player and fine vocalist as well. RIP.

Recently it's been 'Dont Believe A Word' but I think we opened up with 'Its My Life' at the last gig. It's all of 3 days ago, completely forgotten by now

John McCoy