jimmyb625

I was counting up for the "how many bases do we own" thread. At first count, it was 5, then it went up to 6 when I remembered the fretless. 7 with the uke bass and now 8, as I've still got my '73 P-bass, which I'm not allowed to have until November next year. I also have 2 x electric, 2 x acoustic, a banjo and a regular uke. I think I have a problem...

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Ah, that's a bummer! Why was it cancelled?

I've bought 4 guitars/basses from Thomann over the last couple of years, without any problems. There is the old saying that an unhappy customer is more likely to share their experience, but that's not to dismiss their concerns. I think with any high volume organisation, there will always be a few problems, but as a %age of total sales, it's probably quite small.

Energy prices are going to be a killer. Our gas bill at the little theatre I help run has gone up to over £3k a year, almost double what we were paying. We've held ticket prices at £10, even offering 2 for 1 for the first run of a performance, as we're still struggling to get people through the doors. A lot of folks have found something else to do with their time over the last couple of years, so it's a challenge to get them back. I think a few venues are going to struggle to stay afloat over the next 12 months.

Day 9 - Bournemouth Quite an interesting day, although not for the best reasons. We played well, the minor problems of the previous night were quickly forgotten during soundcheck and we were pretty happy with the onstage sound. We played the set well and seemed to get a good reception from the crowd, so all was good. There's a 30 minute changeover slot, allowing us to off-load our gear, during which time the crew do final line checks on the stage mic's etc, with the house music being the same timed number of tracks each night, culminating in the walk-on track for Kiefer and the band. As I was stripping down some of the equipment in a side room, off the main hall, I heard the usual huge cheer from the audience, but without the track playing. He then went on to announce that, after 3 days of feeling unwell, he'd tested positive for covid and couldn't continue on with the show. Obviously the crowd were very dissapointed, but in the majority were very understanding. We hung around and chatted to people afterwards, which was nice as usually we would have been travelling to the next venue, but we'd already decided to stay locally. Sadly, the three remaining dates have now been cancelled, which included Manchester, the nearest one to home for us all, but these things can't be helped. Still, it was an amazing experience and we were extremely lucky to have been invited onto the tour, so, many thanks Mr Sutherland and get well soon!

We don't know anything at the moment. Today was a planned break anyway, so we were going to head over to Norwich, but we've come home instead to save on at least one night of hotels. It's just a matter of waiting now to see what happens.

Cheers! It came as a surprise to us as well, we hadn't heard anything until he went on and announced it.

Day 8 - Cardiff Tramshed. The first of the run using the keys player instead of the drummer. The main take-away being that I really, really miss the drummer! Some interesting happenings with the FOH sound, resulting in the desk apparently being carted out at some point. The on-stage mix went awry at some point as well, which resulted in me asking, for the first time ever, for some more guitar in the stage wedge. Hey ho, we'd been really lucky up to that point, so put it aside and head to Bournemouth.

Day 7 - Hull - Asylum I think it went well, I keep forgetting where I'm up to! I decided to support the cause, by buying a T-shirt!

I've been using this "big rig" for a while now and it'a still proving to be a source of amazement. The bassrig pedal is used for DI into the PA system, with the amp just providing a bit of personal monitoring. It can quite easily keep up with our drummer, as he's not a particularly loud player. The front 3 in the band are on IEM's, so the stage wedges are just there for us two at the back, meaning we can keep acoustic noise on stage relatively low. I was considering getting another one10, just in case I needed a little more displacement, but at the moment, I don't think I really need one.

I've used both of these for a variety of different cables. Both are very good and reasonably priced.

Day 6 - O2 institute, Birmingham Despite the initial dissapointment of finding out crowd-surfing wasn't allowed, we nontheless soldiered on with the gig. During soundcheck, we experimented with an alternative line up, consisting of the drummer and me at the front of the stage, but for some reason, it wasn't thought to be the ideal setup, although we did manage to capture a few seconds of footage. There's a rest day tomorrow, before heading across to Hull on Thursday and then down to Cardiff and the Southern dates. VID-20221101-WA0016.mp4

Day 5 - The Leadmill, Sheffield Quite rushed for soundcheck and an earlier start of 19.30, as opposed to the usual 20.00. There were a couple of moments of feedback from the system, as it did seem to be a difficult room. Aside from that, another great audience and we seemed to go down pretty well. The drive home was pretty awful, lots and lots of rain, then fog and some monumental puddles on the road. Wasn't fun!

Shepherd's Bush Empire! Brilliant evening, met some family down there and an imaginary internet friend, who I'd only ever spoken to as a part of Lee Sklar's clubhouse. We're playing pretty well (although I did manage to find an online review which said we were terrible in Aberdeen. Hey ho) and we seem to be getting better each time. Tonightbreally seemed to gell well and I even managed to do a bit of "Dad" dancing, much to the amusement of the drummer! The Barefaces one 10 with the TC head is proving to be astonishingly good, I had to turn it down on stage, as it was too loud! 🤣 Fortunately, it's only really there for a bit of extra monitoring, as most of the "sound" is generated via the bassrig pedal.

Newcastle City Hall last night. Quite a big one for our singist, as he grew up in Morpeth, so he was pretty thrilled to be playing there. There's been enough of my rubbish pictures, so instead, here's a nice review. https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/23087116.review-kiefer-sutherland-impresses-newcastle-city-hall-2022-tour/

Day 2, Aberdeen Beach Ballroom. We met Mr Sutherland today, who was very pleasant. Another good sized crowd, obviously not there to see us, but appreciative and friendly and they seemed to enjoy our set. We're stylistically similar to his music, so it's a dream support slot for us. For some reason, I always seem to have my eyes closed in these pictures now...

Just finished playing support at SGW3 for Kiefer Sutherland on the first leg of his UK tour. Went ok, didn't fall off the stage and any bottles of p!ss managed to avoid me. I kept mis-timing when the lights went up, but there were quite a few people there, honest.

I don't think so. You might be able to use a "y" cable to split your bass output to go into one side of the P1, but you'd still need to send to the PA and you'd (possibly) need a return for the other instruments and vocals

He won't be taking it easy, he's a workaholic. He's got a book signing coming up next week, where he'll be lugging piles of them into the venue. Still, good to see him back on his feet as it were.

True, but oh my word are they heavy!

Did you do all of your course through the OU? Fair play, a lot of people don't realise how much work is involved in it.

Not on a super cardioid, they have a lobe to the rear, so rejection from there isn't as good as a cardioid.

I did! Less than a week ago! 🤣

We're Americana/Country/Folk, so quite "traditional" in that sense. There's a photo of the album cover in the "where are you playing next thread" so I don't clog up this one.