Kiwi

Sounds like a "Bass-Off" in the making with voters deciding who wins. No accounting for taste though... ...are we going to end up with the funkateers vs the metal heads?

I'm starting to find something slightly interesting about Jewish Horah medley songs. If I'm capable of, that I reckon I can find interest in just about anything... ...apart from prog metal maybe.

[quote name='bremen' post='197281' date='May 12 2008, 04:37 PM']Haha! I was going to add 'having current and at least one ex- girlfriend in the audience' as happened to me on Saturday. Please tell me that she was intelligent, witty, generous and friendly and danced unselfconsciously all night.[/quote] Haven't met her yet, but we've got a gig in September for Cherie Blair's hairdresser (civil partnership) so some celebs are bound to be on the guest list for that one.

[quote name='crez5150' post='197203' date='May 12 2008, 03:09 PM']........It's like we're in the same band....... left my jeans at the venue Sat night..... and not in a good way either...[/quote] I've just quoted precedents so far. Haven't yet mentioned turning up and finding one of the guests is an ex gf (happened to our keyboardist) or worse yet, Jordan...

My nightmare gig scenario would be along the following lines: [list] [*]Having to arrive early at the percussionists house to help load in the PA because of an need to set up by 2pm. [*]Leave in loaded van at 9:30am and drive 2.5 hours to the venue because noone checked the drive time when the booking and fee was taken. [*]Finding we have 5 hours to kill because we're not actually going on until 9:30pm, but we still have to finish at 11:30. [*]Discovering during set up that the clients request to hook up his own wireless mic and the lack of power sockets means we're a couple of multi plugs short. [*]Discovering the venue has a noise limiter that wasn't mentioned in the original booking form. [*]Getting there to discover our dressing room is in fact a grubby store cupboard full of furniture moved from the main room where the dance floor is. [*]One particular singer decides to have a diva hissy fit over the state of the room just so everyone knows she's upset and then she takes it out on anyone who even approaches her about anything related to the gig or the client. [*]No soft drinks or water provided, or food organised (as per our contract). [*]No chairs in the dressing room. [*]No air-conditioning or heating. [*]No privacy coz punters keep walking through dressing room on the way to the toilets. [*]The speeches go over time by so much that we face having to slash our 2 sets to 1.5 and we forgo a break. [*]When we start playing, the punters spend the first half either watching us or (worse yet) ignoring us and talking over the music. [*]Half way through, the guitarist starts deviating from the set list he gave out before the gig and we have to wait for him to make his mind up after each song finishes to hear which song is coming next. [*]Some old bugger in the crowd staggers up to me half pissed while I'm performing wanting to request "Mustang Sally", I can't hear him because I have plugs in and he has to scream it 3 or 4 times before I can actually lip read him. My playing goes to pot because I can't hold a conversation and play at the same time. I get funny looks from the rest of the band. [*]The punters start dancing 3 songs from the end and when we finish and give them one more encore, they still want more and won't take no for an answer. [*]When we start packing up, the grooms group decide they want to make their own entertainment and start trying to have a go on our equipment. [*]Sound man charges in and tells ushers and best man to all f*** off and give him the mics back. [*]Percussionist/manager hauls sound man off group of angry ushers and best man and explains carefully to the group that we're packing up and need the equipment back. [*]Client comes up to the percussionist and notes that we played one set instead of two and he isn't happy. Percussionist has to explain the reasons were that the speeches went on too long and we had to play with a fixed ending time because the venue staff want to clear up. [*]We finally pack the PA up and start the 2.5 hour journey back to London instead of sleeping over in a B&B somewhere. [*]Load out of PA back in garage at 3:30am. [*]Go to car to find that someone's creased it where it was parked and driven off without leaving any details. [*]Get home after 30min drive and realise I've left a coat back at the venue. Curse loudly and go to sleep angry at 4:30am after hauling bass rig up stairs to flat. [/list] Next morning: [list] [*]Wake up at 7am like a normal weekday, feeling like I've gone ten rounds with Evander Holyfield and nursing a stinking hangover despite not having consumed any alcohol because I've become so dehydrated. [*]After consuming copious quantities of fruit juice and water as a pick-me-up, brain is on sugar high but body wants to be left alone to die. Too tired to cook any kind of breakfast. [*]I call venue and they say they haven't seen my coat. I try to remember if I left anything in pockets... [*]Rest of the day is useless as I'm too tired to do anything but stare at the TV or computer monitor like a brain dead zombie. [/list] NB: All of this stuff has happened (apart from leaving the coat) at one gig or another. Hasn't all happened at the same gig yet.

[quote name='Ba55me15ter' post='196832' date='May 12 2008, 12:11 AM']As regards PA, I would say invest in finding a good, local hire company. Running a good rig and more importantly getting the best sound out of it is a huge investment in time, money and effort.[/quote] We made enough in deposits before our first gig that we ended up buying our own £4000 1k Mackie rig. Hiring didn't make any financial sense to us. Yes we have to hump our own PA around, but we've got a roadie now as well to help out and the PA gets stored in the garage belonging to our percussionist. We also run a pair of light stands with lighting controllers and a cheap projector which casts psychadelic patterns on the wall behind us. Looks fantastic!

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='196940' date='May 12 2008, 09:54 AM']The band taht recorded 'Mr Benn' has some top notch players in it, including Kenny Wheeler. To the Producers credit, the musicians are listed on the end credits. I once saw Alphonso Johnson's name on a US kid programme.[/quote] Abe Laboriel ended up writing all the incidental music for the final season of CHiPs. Apparently the producers dumped the orchestra and just left him in the studio to get on with it!

Looks like the action on his bass is pretty low, I haven't seen many players with that kind of set up. The 5 string sounds like a high C? [attachment=8611:Renaud_G...__action.jpg] There's barely a still shot in that entire video to try and keep things visually interesting. He must have had cameras swooping around him all day like king kong with biplanes. EDIT: Just saw a production shot included at the end of the clip - 1 camera on a boom swooping around!

[quote name='Joao_Moura' post='196870' date='May 12 2008, 06:49 AM']The problem is that most bass players just follow the guitar, and don't come up with basslines that add that special flavor to the song.[/quote] Thats a pretty sweeping statement as it stands. Presumably you're talking about a specific style of music? Or does your assertion include jazz, funk, soul, etc. where the bass actually plays a distinct and different role to any other instrument? Personally, I wouldn't get so worked up about it. Who cares what someone writes about in some hillybilly rag? No, really, who actually cares? St Petersburg, Florida? The only thing St Petersburg has credibility for is pelicans that dive bomb swimmers, giving them 30 stitches in the head!

[quote name='OldGit' post='196787' date='May 11 2008, 10:57 PM']It is in a Local Shop, perchance?[/quote] Oh yes, and so many precious things! There's lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots!!!

I live for funky music and so do most of the punters dancing to our music. If they're enjoying it and I'm enjoying then thats all that matters to me.

[quote name='OldGit' post='196561' date='May 11 2008, 03:51 PM']Dear Sir Norman, Please have a band on your design consultancy panel for buildings that will be used for gigs. Thanks CK[/quote] LOL, yeah. I didn't even mention the lack of power sockets. For where we were, there was only one pair of sockets in the floor and another pair under the raised shelf that ran around the periphery of the floor area. Certainly wasn't a building designed for big functions. Actually, Sir Norm's practice has its critics. I don't think I'd be happy working there. Speaking of which, I have a new job any way. Woooo!

Oops, permissions updated accordingly. Sorry!

I'd be happy to put you in touch with our Percussionist/Manager who seems to have done a pretty good job with our band, if you like.

Here's a wee vid of the venue while we were setting up. I've got one of us sound checking where the acoustic issues are easy to hear so I might splice that vid into this post later when its finished uploading. EDIT: Intro to Ain't Nobody

[quote name='silverfoxnik' post='196457' date='May 11 2008, 12:07 PM']What kind of audience was it?[/quote] Wedding party of a surprisingly diverse range of ages. We had a request to play River Deep again from the grandfather of the bride so we obliged. The best man told a story that the groom was a huge Michael Jackson fan had actually ran through Madison Square Garden on their stag night dressed up like Michael Jackson complete with rubber face mask! The more that the bride and groom got into it, the more everyone else did as well. Thats happened at quite a few gigs so we might note that for situations in the future where the punters are a little reluctant to get on the dancefloor. Apparently we're only the second band to ever play here.

This was the view from our dressing room looking east on the 37th floor yesterday afternoon. I swear this is the most dramatic sky I've ever seen over London, made me think of a Constable painting. The load in was truly horrendous. The entire PA, all the amps, drum kit, percussion and lighting had to be loaded into the goods lift from the loading bay, taken up to the 34th floor then shifted through half the kitchen area to another lift that went from 34 to 39. THEN we had to lug everything up 1 flight of granite steps to the 40th floor before we could actually set up. The acoustics were terrible as you might imagine with glass dome, but at least there weren't any standing waves where we were. (Although frequencies from all parts of the space did get reflected into the centre of the space very effectively. Made me wonder if the dome was nearly parabolic in shape). Having said that, we did actually hear ourselves a lot better than some of the conservatories we've played in.

Was the venue you played long and narrow? There might have been issues with standing waves. Is the cab front or rear ported? (I can't remember on the one I used to own)

Well they had the guy who made them on breakfast TV and he gave a demo of the guitar and one of the horns.

Welcome aboard They're very bright basses, I installed an EMG BTC pre on the one I used to have, and had to max the bass to get satisfying levels of warmth out of it. Those unwanted harmonics might be due to your technique maybe?

[quote name='Ham fisted Bass' post='195478' date='May 9 2008, 03:10 PM']I'm sorry....what does this mean?[/quote] Beats me, I heard it somewhere. Probably a bit of verbal diarrhea.