Happy Jack

Early Cheap Trick carries an absolute truckload of great memories for me, but you just don't hear their stuff played any more. I suggested to my covers band that we should do Surrender and was met with blank, puzzled stares ...

Is it a drone?

If I start a petition, d'ye think I could get this thread locked permanently?

Paging @Owen ...

I get all this and I'm not arguing, but my experience has been that a problem which needs solving with one band will invariably surface again later with another band. I've sold and then had to re-buy just too bloody often. 🙄

Bizarrely enough, across the three bands I'm in this hardly ever happens. The rock'n'roll outfit has a spare drummer on call, I suppose that in an emergency the soul band could call on a spare bassist, and ... erm ... well, that's it really.

Worst of both worlds ... "Who appointed you God, then?".

I was in a band with a really bad ukelele player who helped herself, which is why there was never any gig money ...

Curious stringing. Rather than a pukka 6-string set he appears to be using a set of four bass strings plus a couple of guitar (?) strings up top. Is that actually a thing?

Agreed. Assuming no actual corrosion, then those strings will form part of your grave goods.

Or, of course, you could cover it with gaffa tape

I'm guessing there's a lot left unsaid there. On the face of it, 'twould be a sad fate for a 120 gigs a year outfit if it folded without some very substantial reasons. If that leads to you ceasing playing altogether, then so much the worse. I hope it won't come to that.

It's not often I agree with every single comment made on a thread but this one is currently ticking all my boxes. @Silvia Bluejay and I jointly manage (for want of a better word) all three bands I play in. We get all the gigs for all three bands, we supply the PA and lighting and cameras at every gig, we provide the rehearsal space and organise the diary, we do all the marketing and social media. My long-gone Mum used to say to me, "The more you do for other people, the more they'll let you do." She wasn't wrong. In this environment, inevitably (almost) all the others just sit back and let us do the work whilst displaying the impressive range of issues catalogued above by others. In addition I spent my entire career in managerial positions so I'm not completely clueless when it comes to steering an organisation, plus I don't suffer fools gladly and I'm not scared of confrontation. That means I end up running HR as well as being CEO. 🙄 When one of my bands needs to part company with someone, it invariably falls to me to do the dirty. So I should give it up? Walk away? Join someone else's band and let them do all this? No chance! There are compensations for all these problems ... If you want a job done well then do it yourself. Silvie and I have no diary clashes between bands because we control the diary. We don't have to tolerate an appalling mix or excessive volume at gigs because we control the PA. We don't have to play gigs at shit-holes (well, not often) because we choose which gigs we get. We don't waste time & money on rehearsing at smelly, rubbish studios because we have one right by our back door. I could easily list all the things wrong with all my bandmates (and it would be a long list) but I'm always acutely aware that they could then make up a list of all my failings (and it might well be the same length). @Mickeyboro (and for that matter @Beedster) the issue isn't how awful band leadership is. It's whether the advantages of band leadership in any given environment outweigh the drawbacks. For me, the answer remains a definite 'Yes' and long may that continue.

Put a tuner pedal in front of the A/B and mute first?

That's the intended use (not the knees) - outdoor gigs on sunny days. The debut ([Eddie Waring] and first appearance also /[Eddie Waring]) will now be on 25th August at MarlowFest with the RBL.

Get a room ...

And you can set the oil feed to spray onto the boilers to produce a smoke screen during torpedo attacks ...