chrisba

Do performers get a ticket too ??? I assume they do.

My daughter is working at her third consecutive Glasto, having failed to get tickets each time. My understanding is that the event is 8-10 times oversubscribed, and if just a small percentage of those unsuccessful applicants are prepared to work in exchange for a ticket, then the event is cheaper for everybody. She works for a charity ( firstly Wateraid and now Oxfam ) , who presumably get paid for providing staff ( toilet cleaner first time, now marshal/steward ). In return for a number of hours work ( 4 x 6 hour shifts, I think ) she gets full festival ticket, exclusive camping area with showers, access to staff bars and food for each work shift. If they fail to complete the work aassigned to them, then they have to pay the full price for everything provided, and will never get invited again. Almost never happens. Apparently, there are many people who do this every year, and the charities tend to look favourably on applications from previous workers. Usually, they are expected to do another festival too, to get into Glastonbury. This year, she's been invited to go early ( she went down on the previous Saturday ) and do all her shifts before it all kicks off on Friday. She was well chuffed about that, but it means spending 9 nights in a tent !

I hope they made an album called "What Knees ?"

When we came up with our new band name, we checked everywhere we could like Spotify, iTunes, Twitter, Soundcloud and MySpace and eventually found a party covers band in Worthing or somewhere that had the same name and a page on Facebook. They didn't seem to have had any activity for 5+ years, and as an indie originals band in Reading, we were unlikely to cross paths, either in real life or online. As coming up with the new name had been a long and occasionally fractious process, we decided to stick with the it. No regrets.

Sit Down by James. I was sitting in a pub watching a couple of mates playing acoustic covers, sitting around a table. The bass player wandered off to get the beers in, and I picked up his bass and asked how to play it. 3 notes later, I knew I had to get one of my own and learn how to play it. The rest, as they say, is his story.

Thanks, but I think I'll just get some lead-free solder instead.

I've got the opposite problem. I lent my ( very ) old soldering iron to my boss, who, rather inconveniently, died before returning it. I didn't feel it was appropriate to approach his widow for it's return, so I bought a new one. This is obviously designed for modern, lead free solders, but I've got a massive reel of the old stuff. The new iron seems to practically incinerate it rather than gently melt it. I guess I need to get some new solder to match.

Dropzone played the Purple Turtle in Reading last night. Much bigger crowd than I was expecting for a cold Monday night in December. Lots of cheering and dancing, and good feedback afterwards. Hopefully will get some more gigs there soon. ( We've played in the rather dingy basement before, but this was our first on the main stage ) I used their house Blackstar bass combo, I managed to make it sound like I wanted fairly quickly, but I'm pretty undemanding in this regard.

I have seriously considered making a 3 string bass, as I rarely use the G-string on my P bass. Pickups would be an issue, thought about using half of a 5-string p-bass set, but they are expensive and would force me into quite tight string spacing.

I think the boot is a great look. I need to get one myself. Perhaps two.

Well, Git is a general purpose insult for somebody ( usually male, I think ) that you don't like. Tight just means mean, miserly, parsimonious, very unwilling to spend money or use resources.

Yeah, I'd do it if I was really keen to get the gig and it was genuinely important to look a certain way to get it ( and keep it ) . I wouldn't do anything permanent, like a tattoo or a facelift, but fllers, make-up , hair cut and dye, yes. Don't want to open can of worms, but I assume the OP is male ? How differently would a female think ? My guess is they wouldn't think twice.

Played at a private party at a friend of our singer/guitarist, who has a house with a garden that runs down to the Thames and it's own private island. Every year, he has a mini festival over a summer weekend, inviting friends and neighbours , of which he has lots ( inviting the neighbours gets around the noise problems, but the pub next door complains if they play after 11pm, ironically ) "Stage" is on a patio, that normally has a sail cover over it, but as it was a beautiful evening, and we were on first, it hadn't been rigged. Amp was basically in the flowerbed to give me room to stand. Played a hour plus set, split in half by some great homemade curry being served. Lots of dancing and good feedback from the small but lively crowd. Mrs B enjoyed being pampered. I think there are about 6 more bands over 3 nights in total. Lovely, generous people.

We're similar. About 2m x 1m, with metal rings in each corner. We bring a lot of bits of string ( reasonably thick and decent quality, I think it's old tent guy ropes ). Never failed to find something to hang it from, usually try and loop the string over something and tie it lower down for a quicker removal.