Mickeyboro

From sixties contemporary Bob Hall… talking of pianos. Memory of Christine McVie (née Perfect). Back in the day club pianos were often out of tune and missing notes. Club owners had their pianos painted more often than they were tuned and pianists had to develop all sorts of ways around it, transposing where possible and working around the missing notes. Savoy Brown and Chicken Shack were with the same agency and I found a real improvement if we played a gig after Chicken Shack. Christine was a rather limited pianist in those days and apparently lived up to her name, insisting that the piano was tuned to concert pitch and in good shape before she would perform. Thanks Christine, you made life much easier for those who followed.

Pics?

Huang Chung, to be accurate!

Played under canvas in Dorset in a howling gale. The audience, all hardy campers/mobile home owners, were made of stern stuff and stuck with us. We got a fish and chip supper and free drinks thrown in! Here’s our audience (taken by me when soundchecking as I am wireless).

We have played two gigs with him and wanted to iron out the mistakes. Not quite as easy as playing to the record, as intros and such are often changed. The singer should surely think of the band, not just himself? We have played the same songs (ie 90 percent his old repertoire) all thi# year so need new ones. The issue is who chooses…

Cheeky!😈

He just didn’t get on with me! Quite unreasonable😁 But they were pals - or at least musical allies. So maybe he does feel threatened. Do you have to be a blues fanatic, to the exception of all else, to be in a blues band. I’m not, and I am!

Thanks for this. It’s difficult, as we did have ‘this meeting’ over material a while ago and he seems to have erased it from his memory. The drummer issue is kind of separate from the repertoire, but may be the sticking point - esp if he fancies putting something together with the first guy. Suspect that would last two minutes, though! We shall see - three gigs to get through yet.

Any chance of a trade? 😈

Thanks for all the responses, guys - it’s always good to hear what you think! Of course my original post was very negative - there is much this guy brings to the stage, including image and virtuosic harmonica, so we would likely need two people to replace him. This of course changes the dynamic - if only it were as easy as one in, one out… There haven’t been many who think he could be rehabilitated. I’d like to hear anyone who thinks we could go down that route. (We did have a band meeting a while back to democratise choosing new material, but this seems to have been forgotten about).

The first 4 albums were indeed fabulous. But since he is no longer with us I can’t offer him an audition…

I think you may be thinking of Addicted To Love? Also, rather than the horse’s head, it might be kinder to send you down and do three-point turns on his driveway. In the words of Mr Palmer, that would ‘make my day’😁

Well I haven’t mentioned the band name, my screen name isn’t my real name and the guy in question doesn’t have a mobile let alone a smartphone. So the risk is worth it for the collective wisdom of my fellow forumites. Anyhow, seems like I will be saying this to his face shortly if I go with the majority. I appreciate every post by the way, as a problem shared is a problem halved!

We have achieved a great deal this year by mainly performing blues material already familiar to the main vocalist. We are now at the stage of widening our repertoire. Unfortunately he seems to feel he has the sole right to approve and/or veto what we do. His communication is poor - email is the limit, he doesn’t own a mobile phone and we keep getting the same demanding mails sent and re-sent instead of any kind of discussion. If we lose him we will need another frontman- undesirable as we have recently had to replace our drummer. I suspect he wants the departed drummer back… It has got to the point that he won’t come to rehearsals getting the new drummer up to speed as ‘I’ve been doing these songs for nine months’. (In fact he’s done them for 30 years snd still needs a music stand!) Have things gone too far to rein him in and/or persuade him to be a team player? Bringing in a new person might bring similar ego problems and would set us back a second time. Opinions welcome.

That track at that festival will be with me till my dying day… What a song, what a performance, what an audience response!

The Dive Bar in Poole, our debut and a groovy experience! Band: Otis Jay Blues Band Gear: MIJ Jazz ‘Sonic’ Peavey Minimax Barefaced One10 Shameful secret: we played a request, Mustang Sally 😳

That's an interesting piece of personal history- thanks! I can now rank you among my ‘nearly famous’ pals👏

The original band was billed as Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac… and at one point did t even have Mac in the ranks! Funny how things turn out…

We did a deal on Facebook which was utterly straightforward. I told him about BC and have no doubt @Quintin A will be an asset to the membership!

Hi! Do tell us your musical story, don’t be shy.

Its the stuff of TV drama! 😕

So what happened? His fb and website are typically useless info-wise. Tour cancelled?