Stylon Pilson

I've been reading this book ("Weekend Rockstars") on and off over the last couple of weeks, and finished reading it just now. I really enjoyed it, thank you! S.P.

I've already achieved that, but I'm guessing you were referring to music being your source of income at the same time. S.P.

Radio Ga Ga by Queen. Simple, but effective. First run through will be at rehearsal on Tuesday. S.P.

Likewise, the room was fairly empty for our first set as most of the punters were in the other room watching the boxing. Second set was much better though. We had a trio of Christmas songs prepared but we ran out of time so only ended up being able to play one of them. It seems to be fairly common that we have to cut a few songs from our set list on the night these days - what generally happens is the drummer (who books the gigs) sends round an email saying something like "Okay, they've told us to play from 9-12, so shall we aim to get there at 7:30?" to which the guitarist then replies "I can't get there until 8". Inevitably we don't start our first set until 9:30, and so by the end of the night we are forced to skip a few songs. I'm not entirely happy about it - I pride myself on my personal reputation for being punctual. I think it's probably out time I raised my concerns. The gig was a pretty good one, on the whole. I didn't get my EQ quite right for the circumstances (hollow wooden stage) but I got by. One thing I've noticed recently is that I seem to sometimes start a song in the wrong key. It seems to happen where we have two songs with a similar feel, and one's in E and the other's in Eb, and I get them the wrong way round. I think I've also been starting to get a bit complacent, now that I've been gigging lots of these songs for over a year, and I maybe don't practice at home as much as I should. S.P.

We played in a small pub last night. The size of the crowd fluctuated a little throughout the evening but by the end of the night it was decently full. The audience were enthusiastic throughout, with lots of dancing and cheering in evidence. At the end of the night the landlady did speak to us and express that she hadn't been expecting us to be a four-piece (there were only 3 of us last time, as we were still looking for a new keyboard player) and that if we return, she'd prefer it to just be 3 of us. There's going to be a hefty internal debate about this - while the keyboard player doesn't mind us doing gigs without him, the guitarist feels quite strongly that the presence of the keyboard is inherent to his enjoyment of the gig, and while he'd do a 3-piece gig in a pinch, he doesn't want to actively seek out bookings for just the 3 of us. So we may or may not be returning to this venue. I think we're going to go back to the landlady and see if she can be flexible - after all, we honestly didn't take up significantly more floorspace with the extra musician. S.P.

I use a rechargeable too - a Warwick Rockboard LT XL. What's nice is that it also has a USB out, so I can power a little fan from it at the same time! S.P.

Nice photo! Looks absolutely fine when not zoomed in. S.P.

I don't have a huge amount of studio experience, but from what I do have, yes it's fairly normal nowadays to do a looooot of this kind of "nudging". The end result tends to be, in my personal opinion, technically superb from a production point of view, but utterly dull to listen to. Which has the result of making the studio look good, and the performers look bad. S.P.

I use a Sennheiser HD202 (should it be "a pair of"? Hmmm, tricky...) for everything from "silent" rehearsal to gaming. Never had an issue with them. I feel like one of the benefits of rehearsing through headphones is that it shows up any deficiencies in your technique in great detail. Practicing in "hard mode" means that gigs are, by comparison, "easy mode". S.P.

On Friday night we were back at a venue that we've played a couple of times before. It's a fairly nice-looking Greene King pub in a town with reputation for wealth, but the clientele can actually be a bit on the rough side. There was apparently a bit of a ruckus during our first set (around the corner, I couldn't see it), some people had to be evicted, and the room was a bit on the empty side thereafter. We dropped the ball a bit on timings. Our drummer (who booked the gig) misread the email and we were working around a 9:00-11:30, whereas the venue wanted us to do 8:30-11:00. So we were effectively half an hour late starting, and ran over by half an hour at the end. He's sent them an email to apologise. We were trying out a few new songs. Most worked very well, though one of them is relatively obscure and got no reaction whatsoever. We're going to give it a couple more chances, but if it's still falling flat after the third outing, then we'll probably have to kick it to the kerb. Oh, and also, I got a cheer for the bass solo in You Can Call Me Al for the first time ever! (whispers confidentially) I'm not even very good at it. S.P.

I'm currently in a pub covers band, so while I don't have to worry about multi-band nights and the associated trials and tribulations, I do have to lug and set up a bit more gear than I used to. A long load-in, especially if the only possible route is directly through the midst of a throng of tipsy punter with very little spatial awareness, can be a bit annoying and contributes to making a gig "bad". But the main factor is the audience - sometimes you have a crowd that likes music, and sometimes you have a crowd who would rather be watching the sport, or doing something that doesn't involve having a live band in the room. S.P.

I don't understand why you're talking about the continuation of the band being untenable? Sounds like all you need is a new drummer. One who knows how to control his volume, and his temper. S.P.

I'll be seeing Two Door Cinema Club at the Dome (yes, I know it's not technically called that, but the real name makes me cringe) on Friday night. I've actually never been to the venue before - I'm expecting the acoustics to be somewhere in the range between "unpleasantly boomy" and "inaudible mush". S.P.

Aw, that must have been really frustrating after all the effort you put into preparing. I hope you got paid well, at least. S.P.

Last night we were back at the same pub where I played my first gig with this band, just over a year ago. It was another great night, with a numerous and very vocal audience by the end of the night. Load-in wasn't quite as good as last time - there were no parking spaces on the road out front, so I had to park round the back which meant carrying all my equipment through the whole pub. Fortunately it wasn't too full at 7:30 and there weren't too many obstructions. Hollow wooden stage wasn't as punishing as last time, now that I have a little camping table to put my bass amp on. As always, I EQ'd for the room primarily. I suspect that my bandmates have a tendency to get louder during the course of the evening, as I had a guy come up to me at the end of the night saying that he thought my bass should have been a bit louder. What can I say, everything sounded nicely balanced when I was stood out front during soundcheck. I can also recommend this pub (the Maiden's Head, in Maidenhead) for those seeking alcohol free beer options. They stock Nanny State, Erdinger Alkoholfrei and Beck's Blue. S.P.