Tom Brookes Music

My wedding band tries to offer this type of thing.....funk, blues and soul stuff. http://www.somethingblues.co.uk/ we're Staffordshire/Cheshire based, so not too far away at all.

We're back in action finally! 8pm start, should be a good night.....we play a mixture of blues and funk covers with an excellent female vocalist!

Not sure if I'm a pro, or a semi pro or what really. Music is my sole source of income.....but 90% of my earnings are from teaching guitar rather than cash from gigs. Basically I have two projects that only do paid gigs....they're both relatively new so pay isn't yet as high as what it could be. Hopefully they'll be doing around 50 paid gigs a year between them. Add that income to my income from teaching and before expenses on a good year I probably scrape the national average salary. I don't think that I'd have it in me to just rely on gigs for an income though. I've got a mortgage and a wife etc and like the the relatively stability of my teaching income. I absolutely love my job though. I put in a lot of hours term time, especially if I'm teaching 9-7 then have a gig too! But I only work full time for 38 weeks a year. The rest of the time, I'll do a gig a week to tide me over and spend time relaxing etc

Not me but one of my mates was doing a function of some sort (he plays Sax) girls walks up to him and says "Can you play any Britney Spears on that trumpet" A few weeks back some guy told me that I am better than the bassist in Parliament (I'm sh*t!)

[quote name='hubrad' timestamp='1422811246' post='2677028'] I've had a couple of blokes now, who I vaguely knew for years but hadn't seen in ages, claiming to have taught me either a specific song or in one case all I know! What's that about? Total delusion, or a craving for reflected glory? [/quote] My dad does that at my gigs on guitar!!! Hahaaa he bloody loves watching me play though, tells me how proud he is at the end of the night still!

....happends every week without fail. People + Alcohol =people saying daft/random stuff. Last night at my gig, midset, some guy asked me what I tune my 5th string to!! Still smiling now!! Why he needed to know just as the singer was introducing our next song i'll never know.

Yeah it's alright man, the odd murder or two yearly in the general vicinity but nothing too OTT by Stoke's pretty low standards :-) I've heard that it's a pretty decent place to play tbh.

Nice one dude! We're on at 9pm I think so I guess you'll still be playing. Are you at The Furlong?

[quote name='Lifer' timestamp='1422304715' post='2670994'] The closest I think is Eb - Db - C - Bb - C - Eb. [/quote] Yep thems the notes that I play...well actually I play E D C# B C# E but we do it in E not Eb :-)

[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1422272766' post='2670460'] Yo Tom, just out of interest, did they open the doors on time? It always seems to badly organised there, but it's an ace venue [/quote] Dunno, I went for a curry after soundcheck so got in half way through the first bands first song....only 3 bands on though so less to go wrong. Friday just gone I turned up to a gig that one of my students was playing. Doors opened 20 minutes late!!! I agree, pretty poor organisation with the new promoter, and we only got paid £25 for selling £125 worth of tickets :-(

We're back on stage again this coming weekend. It's our last gig for a month as snowboarding in the Alps is calling :-) The other band on are called Dirty Vertebrae, and they're awesome. Cracking little venue. £5 quid to get in.

Do you ever book out of area bands at all? I've been looking into possibly getting my Blues band some Jazz and Blues festival booking a bit further afield.

Nope it took me about a week to get used to it (I'd been playing for 14 years prior to getting wed), but it's fine....as said previously, you'd have to have a pretty odd technique for it to be a real issue. ....and congratulations too, getting wed is bloody brilliant!

I've done a few this year, inclusing 2 new venues. De Bees in Winsford last Thursday. Not that many people there, but those that were there really enjoyed us (me in particular!) Great sound on stage and out front too. We got a few new facebook likes etc Box in Crewe the night after, always a great sound there and we always go down really well too. Probably just under 100 in when we played so a reasonable crowd. The Shed in Leicester last night. Good little venue, great sound on stage and out front. It's was the best that we've played in ages. However, it was a 90 minute drive from home.....we were told that we'd be the main support on an otherwise local lineup.....headliners were a very poor band from Birmingham somewhere (I hate saying stuff like that, but there was an all round really low standard of musicianship!) band before us were from Nottingham and the band before them were from Hull. So not a single band with a decent fanbase locally meant that we played to 27 people! They seemed to like us though! The whole originals band scene is slowly grinding me down I fear.

I like. Bass Direct. Mark is a certain breed of bassist, very much of the modern school of thought RE amps etc and only wants to stock stuff that he'd be happy to own and play, which is fine by me. I'm currently gassing for a USA Deluxe Jazz so obviously wouldn't go to Bass Direct for it, but it'd be the first place I'd look if I were to get a new amp. He's a really friendly guy, but more importantly is just incredibly passionate about his business. For me, the bass playing community is a better place having Bass Direct as part of it. As a side note, one of the staff in there the last time that I visited was a bit of a tit!