Silvia Bluejay

I received from the pub who booked the band a couple of PDFs with step-by-step instructions on where and how to start on Concur. I can't find online version of those I have, I'm afraid. You should probably ask the pub to direct you to the correct link to join their own flavour of Concur, so you can be sure you're both reading from the same, er, online page.

LOL I didn't bother with the video, I went old-school and RTFM'd... 😉

It wasn't too bad for us, when we used it for the first time a few weeks ago. However, it has a rather steep learning curve. Quite apart from the weird terminology, which doesn't match any of my experience as a self-employed person, there are some unexpected steps. To start with, it's not the Client who gives you a Purchase Order; the onus is on you, as the Supplier, to put a Request in the system, mentioning the agreed job and fee, BEFORE the job is carried out. The Client then approves your Request - possibly several times (twice in our case, by two different people). Then you do the job, play the gig. Then the onus is again on you to put the same amount you previously 'requested' in the system again, but this time in the form of an Expense to which you attach an invoice. You should do that just after playing the gig. Then, in the following few days, several people at the Client and at SAP Concur approve your Expense. Then you wait. And wait. And wait. Then you get paid, eventually, into the bank account you entered when setting up your Concur account. With us, it wasn't too bad, we were paid about 10 days after the day of the gig. I hear that Event UK normally takes 3 weeks. Mustn't grumble... 🙄

Good old Richmond riverside. And yes, no video trick or anything, Paul does do that with his bass, and the audience always loves it. 🙂

I can't even imagine not having a spare of anything, unless it's exceedingly bulky. We tend to only carry one set of PA speakers, because I guess we could get by with a kludge using the backline if one of them died. But in the 10 years I've been gigging with @Happy Jack's bands, we have had several occasions when we needed - or very narrowly avoided needing - almost everything else: spare power amp, mixer desk, bass (usually because of the input jack failing), double bass, every possible type of cables, adaptors and wireless systems, lighting components and, if we include photo equipment, spare cameras, tripods, and external battery packs. Er, not to mention the times when we needed a spare car or van due to the battery dying or the vehicle having been written off by an idiot while parked in front of the house just a few hours before a gig... 😱🤦‍♀️

Yes. 🙄

Yup, definitely no change here - it all looks normal. What browser are you using? Which operating system?

Following several enquiries, Jack has asked me to point out that he doesn't have a cardboard box big enough to take a beech tree, and anyway he won't sit in the wood all day waiting for your courier to collect. 😉

I already do with the EQ, both on the bass channel and on the PA channel. The Mark Audio system sounds good only at high and very high volume, hence our using it so rarely. It's something to do with how the system deals with crossover. Regarding the low frequencies, their wavelength - even after the HPF - tends to benefit from large spaces as opposed to small ones. The low mids are what we can mostly hear from the bass in small rooms at relatively low volume, and that's what's missing from the Mark Audio system. All the above from extensive experience with the system and a lot of playing with the settings.

Well, I do prefer systems that don't need HPF in the first place. It's not just down to the composition of bass signal, in the Mark Audio case.

Yes to what @Happy Jacksays. Only thing I'd like to add is that, at least post-covid, I'm noticing a trend in all kinds of venues towards asking bands to be quieter than ever, or, as in our case (both bands), being very happy and grateful that we're not too loud. Consequently, we use our Mark Audio system rarely. I must say, unless the system is a. in a large room full of people, preferably all dancing, and b. cranked up to almost max, I really, really don't like its sound. Normally, it has far to much treble coming from the linear arrays and far too much very low-frequency bass coming from the subs. No mids worth a damn! So the result is that the bass almost always sounds like an indistinct rumble no matter how savagely I EQ its channel and the PA system output, while the guitars will pierce your ears (the linear arrays are at exactly the right height to do that!). From the point of view of the sound, I'm far happier working with our cheapo, lightweight passive PA speakers which even we oldies can lift up 1.5m/5', considering that we usually play in small venues. The only drawback is that they look horrible, and often hide one or more band members from the main camera, depending on where I am allowed to position myself.

I don't quite agree that it's not a beautiful bass! Looks very nice to me. Have fun playing it and keep us posted!

I'm small too - although no longer a teenager! - and concur in recommending Ibanez basses. I play a supercheapo SR375 5-stringer. It's normal long scale, but with a thin, narrow neck and a small body; very comfortable to my small, nay tiny, hands. Only drawback, it's heavy, but more expensive models may be lighter. Incidentally, I would be wary of getting a 5-stringer that's shorter than 34 inch: the low B is likely to feel a bit floppy and sound thuddy, IME. Usually the longer the low B string is, the better it sounds. My NBD review is HERE. @lapolpora, you have a very cool daughter.

Same for our posters for Damo And The Dynamites. Background wash of the logo, prominent band name (which is a kind of logo in itself) and ordinary Calibri font (possibly with added minimal formatting/colouring) for the rest of the information on the poster. Never forget to add the address/postcode of the venue!

Another thing to keep in mind is that, for a band poster to be effective, you shouldn't get too arty. A poster is mainly there to say that band X is playing at venue Y on date Z. The logo is massively important (and should be the topic for a different thread altogether). If the date and place information is carried by exceedingly fancy fonts or drowned by heavy background, it will be less effective. Keep things simple and make sure the logo/band name is at the centre of it all.

True, but making good ideas come to life is vastly helped by decent software. My very first posters were created in MS Word. In a matter of weeks I moved to Elements, and suddenly the quality of the posters shot up!

When I started creating band posters I had a copy of Photoshop Elements 9, which I subsequently upgraded to Elements 15. I still use the latter, although I'm planning to move to Photoshop proper when I buy a new PC next year. Up to version 18 (I think?) Photoshop elements could be bought old-style, on a CD you loaded on to the computer to install. None of the current extortionate subscription model. I don't know if you can still buy a copy of an old version of the software on Ebay or similar.

That's a brilliant system! Excellent work. Thanks for explaining.

That looks brilliant! How do you take the pin out of the neck heel once it's been inserted? It's such a subtle system that it looks like you might need a blade or a sharp object to lift it.

Damo And The Dynamites have an early evening gig on 19th Sept... 🤔 Hope you guys have a good one.

Conscious decision, as it's not easy to show the entire fingerboard from the side in a 'legible' way in a photo. All those dot inlays, bar none, are stupid anyway!🤦‍♀️

And we mods have been given an extra shield! I'm lucky that my pic, by sheer fluke, has a small empty space at the bottom left and at the top right, so it's not obscured by all this, er, visual clutter. Yes, you can still see that the bass is a Warwick Corvette!

Same here - no theme button. Firefox on Win 10.

Hovering with the mouse over someone's name doesn't bring up the option to look at their profile, when the name is in olive green (Supporting Member). It works with mods, admins and names in black font. In the case below, I don't get a popup if I hover over Woodinblack. Same here. I don't get a popup if I hover over casapete, for instance.

LOL LOL, it all seems to have become visible 40 minutes ago! 😂