super al

Our 2nd gig of the year Sunday, 8 days after our 1st!

This was the 1st event for the month long Salisbury Live and as we were the 1st band on we've billed it as us kicking the whole thing off but in reality we knew it wouldn't be busy. The switch from an outside event to an inside gig probably did us a favour as there was about 40 people in the room with a few more punters in another room and outside.

The performance from our POV was great. Our drummer's 2nd gig and there was a nice pace to the songs, not rushed. Jon, our singer was hopping and strutting about, it was definitely what I would expect from a Felis Leo show.

A few positive comments which helps, I like the random stranger ones 👍🏻

I didn't stay too long but the two tribute bands who played later were Slady and the Smiths Ltd.

No gigs now until late July ☹️

Picture courtesy of the band after us, 3mo. I'm suitably obscured by Chris our lead guitarist.

A lil' half hour set for the launch of Salisbury Live '24 this Sunday 

Played my 1st gig of the year with Felis Leo, 1st gig in Salisbury since joining them 2 years ago. The gig was in a pub called the George & Dragon which is quite a long thin pub.

The back of the pub was closed off for the night and we played just in front of that area, unfortunately space was limited and I ended up stuck in a corner behind a wall, my two barefaced one10s on a bench facing in different directions! I could only see the entrance to the loos from my vantage point 😂

Before we started there was quite a few punters in and that was pleasing, after the first set I came out of my hiding place and the bar was heaving! 

If we're playing a standard pub gig we play half originals, half covers but not the obvious covers... Powerage era AC/DC, UFO, Whitesnake, JJ Cale, Rory McLeod, it seems to work and weave into our own material. 

The crowd seemed to enjoy it, the bar staff were very complimentary and the 'fans' said it was the best we'd played (this was only my 3rd gig with FL, it was Chris the drummer's 1st!).

Despite the postage stamp stage area the sound on stage was great, so much better than at rehearsals but then I don't use the 2 x one10s in rehearsal. 

Loading out was a ball ache, I won't bore you with that...rain, roads, busy pub full of drunks, etc.

Overall the night was a cracker, looking forward to next Sunday with a Smiths tribute and an all female Slade tribute!

Here's my strange setup for the evening 

On 28/04/2024 at 17:24, Chienmortbb said:

I always equate Salisbury with Salem. Sarum Salem?

Funny you should say that, we've just written a song about a local witch 😆

I'm looking forward to this tomorrow, we've waited ages to play a gig in our home town.

Should be a good little crowd too as we don't play very often.

7 hours ago, MacDaddy said:

 

Old, decrepit, damp, and possibly haunted?

I said 'temple' not Elland Road 😉

I used to hate some music with a passion but have found myself softening up in recent years.

I don't mind the Smiths, pre 80s Bowie, Abba... I can even listen to the Pet Shop Boys without kicking the radio at the wall!

Maybe I'm not as serious about music as I used to be 🤔 ... I think that started when I shifted to 5 string basses 😂

9 hours ago, LeftyJ said:

"What's up" by the 4 Non-Blondes

 

I was in a covers band for 2 years and we rehearsed weekly. Every rehearsal would start with that song, and every week the guitarist would mess up the intro lead. Now every time I hear that song I hear him playing along in my head. 

That's another thread right there "songs spoiled by listening to a guitarist or singer in your band making the same error every time".

I can't listen to Reptilia by the Strokes without a smirk when it's just the guitar playing by itself midway through...we always said it was the jazz version 😂

I used to be in a band that covered a few Wood Bros songs. I had a Stagg EUB and it was quite nice to learn and play those songs.

Chris has a great sound and style. I can't remember which songs as it was over 10yrs ago now...apart from Make Me Down A Pallet (?) which was a cover of a cover 😁 

11 minutes ago, Norris said:

If it's just for vanity and you're not looking to make a huge profit, maybe look at a site like redbubble.com. You upload a design, people can order it, other people print and dispatch it, you take a cut. I've bought a few t shirts from there and they are nice quality.

 

https://www.redbubble.com/about/selling

Thanks @Norris the hive mind of bass chat is working wonders!

I'm now thinking of having a little stock of Vistaprint or similar tees in the 'tourbus' but also have the tees available to order on redbubble.

I'll see how the prices and quality compare, I guess the tees we sell at gigs need to be near enough the same as the cost of the redbubble ones (Inc postage)

3 minutes ago, lidl e said:

Get a little card machine that works with iphone/android.

 

Hardest part about merch for us currently is finding someone to watch the table.

 

Every show we have to ask someone. And it's not like we're selling a bunch so depending in where the table is, it can br a big ask to sit there all night.

 

I went to see Chas n Dave years ago, they just had their merch in a suitcase and opened it up at the end of the gig. We play pubs at the moment so thought a similar thing would do.

5 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

The other problem with tee shirts is you need a range of sizes.

"Available in any size as long as it is large" 😄

I would probably take 'orders' for anything we didn't stock. Gets tricky this t shirt thing.

19 minutes ago, TimR said:

Where are you located?

 

My daughter's boyfriend does screen print. It's expensive but good. 

 

The problem is always stock levels and storing. Minimum order quantities, ink costs, etc.

 

How many are you planning on ordering? Lowest I've seen is 30. So you're looking at a few hundred quid. 

 

I'd ask the designer to fade the edges to black so it doesn't look like a print on a shirt.

Thanks @TimR 

If money was no object I'd love to screen print it but we're not in that league. That's why I asked about Vistaprint, direct to garment on fruit of the loom for about £11.50 and you don't have a minimum run limit thingy. 

We're in Salisbury btw

11 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

What we found is tee shirts don't really sell but badges and patches do. 

People don't carry much cash. They're much more likely to have a few quid than twenty quid in their pocket at the end of a night.

Sound advice, thanks @SteveXFR

I think that was why I wanted to do a small run of 10 or so to start with... I don't expect a lot of demand. 

Initially the idea was vanity (I'd like to have our artwork on one of my tees) and to help pay the distro kid fees. 

This is the image, I'd like to put it on a black tee our rhythm guitarist wants white 

Last year our band released an EP and a friend of the band who is an artist (and now tattoo artist) did the cover art.

I was blown away by it, to me it looks great and I think it'd look great on a tee shirt.

I spoke to a local firm and they would do it at about £18 per tee. I've looked at Vistaprint and theirs is about £11.50. 

Now we are a very small band with limited resources £££ so I would only do small runs of 10 at a time in L and XL as most of the punters who watch us are blokes around our size.

Do any of you guys have advice or experience of working with small batches of tees, anybody use Vistaprint or have an alternative? Any help would be great, thank you

22 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

Lucky Lion - cool imagery!

Thanks @Stub Mandrel

The guitar playing lion is our last EPs artwork created by a Bristol tattoo artist called Ady. He's a big fan of the band and I just love what he does.

Felis Leo's first gig of '24... at last, we get to play our hometown!

Tears of a clown was one of my favourites when I played in the Flotonics (local soul band), such a cool groove.

3 hours ago, EssentialTension said:

 

Motown basslines are great fun to play 👍🏻

On 18/11/2023 at 09:38, Nothingman said:

Big shout out to the independent retailers supporting our passion. 
 

After a long search looking for knobs for my jazz bass, I finally found some that fit via James’ Home Of Tone. 
 

Great selection of stuff, good quality, decent prices, better looking jazz bass. 
 

 

 

"And on the eighth day God created Stourbridge" 

From the gospel of The Wonderstuff 

On 17/07/2023 at 14:42, Newfoundfreedom said:

Don't know if it's already been mentioned. Can't be bothered to read 4 pages back. 

 

I was surprised to learn Jason Mamoa plays bass. 

 

Of course, on him it looks like a ukulele. 

I gotta feeling that when we watched Aquaman, Aquaman's dad (played by Boba Fett actor) had a bass guitar in his lighthouse... I said to the kids "I bet that's there cos the bloke playing Aquaman is one of us"

And of course not all superheroes wear capes, some play bass 😎...and can breathe underwater 😆

Here's us murdering one of our covers...JJ Cale's Bringing It Back

But wait!...Chris saves the day with a little solo near the end...the dep drummer forgot the ending so that was a bit ad-hoc 😀

5 hours ago, Franticsmurf said:

Keep going. If you think of it as a competition with other originals bands, the ones that will succeed are the ones that will go on longest. As Dave has said, try self promotion. Get in touch with other bands to organise (and share the costs of) a double header. Blag gigs, gatecrash open mic nights, offer student unions a discount. As an originals band it's like a start up business - investment for log term return, loss leaders, promotional freebies, charity nights for exposure. While it doesn't do to be taken advantage of, if you're in control and plan your strategy to achieve the goal of getting known, anything legal goes. 

 

Good luck. 😃

Thanks for the encouragement @Franticsmurf and @dmccombe7

I have taken it upon myself to rise to the challenge and have a back up plan once we get a drummer in place.

We have a small fanbase in the area that should almost fill a small pub if they all get together at the same time at the right pub 😆.

42 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Keep at it. Originals can be difficult in some areas but hopefully once it starts the pace will pick up for you guys.

Dave

Thanks Dave.

We live in a small city that has so so much going on for bands. There are two venues that have bands playing original music and the Salisbury Live thing has grown from a fringe event at Salisbury Arts Festival to events going on all year round with both covers bands and originals side by side. 

In a previous originals band we found it easy to get gigs anywhere but Salisbury was very difficult. A mate's band put us bottom of the bill at one of their gigs at the old ale house, then we got noticed and things really picked up.

This band will have to go down the same route I guess, we'll have to force our way into a gig and promote the hell out of it. We already have a fairly active social media so some Salisbury peeps and bands probably know our music already 😁

Still looking for a permanent drummer too...we have 3 deps until that day

We haven't even been asked to play let alone haven't been asked back!

That's a bit of a fib, we've had one gig in Andover but we can't seem to get any action in our home town. We've tried the promoters but there's no interest in us playing our original material. We'll keep plugging away, someone will have us play...maybe if we played our songs in a ska style 🤔

When we finally get that gig I'll let you know if we get asked back 😁