spike

We Whamageddoned our audience on Saturday, it went down well with everyone having a good old singalong.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer, I used to have all their albums when I was in my teens, haven't wanted to listen to them for at least the last 30 years.

Is it any good for metal?

Donny Hathaway - I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know

Rick Beato interviewed him a couple years back, well worth watching.

We have, but for reasons I won't bore you with, we've decided to put things on hold for a few months. I may well be doing some deps myself.

Almost perfect yesterday, we had a late afternoon slot at a small festival in Harpenden. Great weather, we played well, the crowd liked us, saw some good bands before and after our set and saw the mighty Hatters win the Championship playoff on the pub TV! And I got paid too! the only downside is our singer is pregnant so this will be our last gig for a while.

Possibly the guitarist looking for a pop punk band has just left a pop punk band who are now looking for a guitarist. But most probably not.

Neil Francis - Can't Stop The Rain

I used to play several Blues Brothers tunes when I was in a soul band, fantastic fun. The Blues Brothers film was my gateway into soul and R&B back in the 80s, watched it for the first time in a long time over Christmas and it still delivers.

I thought they played both kinds of music, country AND western

Thankyou for your kind thoughts. I normally spend Christmas at my relatives so the plan is if I feel well enough I'll test myself on Christmas morning and if it is negative it will be Christmas as usual. If not, It'll be just me at home. Merry Christmas to you and your family too.

Our drummer was looking forward to us gigging at his local on Saturday, then three days before, our singer was diagnosed with pneumonia and had to pull out. We got in a dep singer who saved the day for us and we had a reasonable gig but not the massive triumph our drummer was hoping for. Then it turns out that three out of the five of us ( including me ) have caught covid at the gig.

We did it as a encore at our gig on Saturday and it was very well received. When I was learning it I was surprised at how much fun the bassline is to play.

51

I used two fingers and I still didn't get the gig

I'd like to have been bassist in the Motown house band. Except Motown wouldn't have been nearly as good with me instead of James Jamerson.

Sorry, I wasn't commenting on your post and years ago in my area there was a similar system to yours regarding pay.

A similar thing happened with our band last year. We needed a dep drummer for a pub gig and our guitarist put ad on Facebook offering £80. We got loads of flak along the lines of how we were devaluing live music, stealing money from professional musicians, no decent musician in their right mind would take this gig etc. etc. , it went on for days. In the meantime we were contacted by several drummers who were willing to do the gig and we ended up with a pro drummer who was honestly the best drummer I have ever played with but was happy to do the gig for £80 rather than just sit at home complaining on Facebook. A couple months later we offered him a wedding gig for three times the money. There seem to be loads of 'professional' musicians on Facebook who don't seem to realise that pub gigs and functions are separate markets. If you are a pro musician who thinks that pub money is a threat to your livelihood you are in the wrong job IMO.

My NYE gig was cancelled yesterday, our singer has come down with covid, luckily she's not too ill. I had reservations about doing it in the first place so I'm not too disappointed.

In the early 2000s our band played a Sergeants Mess in one of the camps on Salisbury Plain. It was in early November but it was a Christmas do because they were going to to be in Iraq for Christmas. After our set we started leisurely packing away until a group of MPs turned up and told us to pack up and leave as quickly as we could because it was all going to kick off at any moment and they even guarded our van while we loaded it.

So was Page on a bit of a downward heroin spiral at the time?

I still have that programme in a box in a cupboard somewhere. I went on the 4th and can barely remember any of it but I was so drunk and stoned I could barely remember it the day after. My main memory is of Todd Rundgren leaping up in the air and doing the splits. Led Zep's laser show was good too.

Nice one 🙂 I only live 15 miles away, not sure I would have liked the trek down from Manchester even without the breakdown.

We played a very short notice wedding gig on Saturday as a last minute replacement for another band who had to cancel due to covid. The landlady of the pub we'd played the previous Saturday recommended us and we got the call on Thursday evening. We had to get a dep drummer we'd never used before who turned out to be excellent. In the end we had a really good gig, plenty of guests up and dancing, free drink and buffet and the venue was amazing. The Old Palace at Hatfield House, Herts, built in 1485, this must be the oldest venue I've ever played at.