Tony p

I write the lyrics, contribute to the music, also play guitar and fix stuff. The band gets the bodhran player to do all the admin, merch and booking which suits me fine

Cracking night at the maze in Nottingham, multi band gig called farstock. Played a good tight set and saw some cracking bands and solo acts to boot. did learn one lesson tho, never stand behind the fiddle player, he nearly took my eye out with his bow during the intro and then had another two goes during the set, luckily my glasses saved me... Old age has it's bonuses

I can set my bass and amp up in 5mins, plug my semi acoustic into a di and give it a strum etc in same, but I find that's only half the picture.... Sound guy still has to check levels, overall mix, monitor mix etc etc that's what always seems to take time, also with a semi acoustic based sound like ours, sometimes there's massive feedback issues to sort. We played a festival this year where despite having an hour to set up we still started late due to problems with the ( supplied) PA system not working properly , the poor sound engineer was literally pulling his own hair out and still forgot to put a di into my bass amp! It was a case of if it's ok out front we'll live with the rest...

[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1509361807' post='3398260'] Saturday night at The Queens Hall in Nuneaton. We played the big room upstairs last time we were there, but this time it was on the tiny stage downstairs. It went really well but they cut our set from 45 minutes to 28 (we have a timer on stage). I wouldn't normally mind but some fans had travelled quite some distance, and spent a significant amount on their train tickets, for 28 minutes, and they seemed a bit annoyed. Oh well! [/quote] Getting your set time chopped always annoys me, I think multi act bills need to allow for a proper change over time between bands, most seem to go for 15mins which always leads to timing problems. I'm suprised they put you downstairs too, we've struggled to fit on that stage without a drumkit!

Got mine at weekend, tried it on my banjo, it works ok but verrrrrry slow to respond to a plucked note, not bad for home use for a couple of quid but not a patch on my snark ones. I won't by another one.

[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1508142512' post='3389947'] Saturday night was a "living wake" which is a new concept for me. Still, it was a very cheerful affair, rather boozy and [/quote] I saw the photos of that on fb, looked good. Our maty popped up again to bang his bin lid, I take it you managed to keep him off your stage this time....

"Quote" Hah, I've seen you guys play, and your bodhran player has been on stage with us! Your band is ace Thanks, I'm sure maty has sneaked on to every stage he's seen this summer, We seem to have been at lots of the same festies but on different days, the only time I've caught you was when we supported you and under a banner in Worcester, you lot rocked, didn't realise you were the drummer tho, I did say hi to your bass player and had a natter with mr tranter.

If I'm not driving it's turn up, drink a beer, set up, get another beer and play. I hate hanging about before a gig for too long, our bodhran player and general organiser starts having kittens if we're not there 2 hrs beforehand too....

"Something else in the dean" festival at elton mazes last night, 'twas tipping down, the site was getting swampy and I only remembered I was wearing trainers about halfway there. Solar powered stage so we dispensed with backline and di'd everything straight through. It sounded pretty good Fair crowd rammed under the shelter of the stage which was in the middle of the corn field. I did fluff the intro to the set tho which was a tad embarrassing, and somehow played wrong the guitar chords during one of our oldest songs. Our singer, bless him said to the crowd " did you like Tonys bit of jazz fusion on that one "

I think, as has already been said, if you want to play every night you need to join other bands, dep etc and basically become a working musician. For the majority of folk I know, we couldn't earn enough money from gigging to compare with a weekly wage from other work. I gig most weekends in an originals band and if I put that extra time (travel, fuel, hanging about, playing, drinking) into my regular job I'd be minted personally I'm concentrating on trying to write a Xmas number one, that'll set me up for life....

Equinox festival near Grimsby yesterday, took forever to get there, lovely site and they had an ampeg svt with 4x10 and 1x15 as supplied backline :)with sound engineers on stage and out front it was gonna be a fun one. Didn't drop any massive clangers and thought my yammy bb414 sounded awesome through it great chippy in some little town near Lincoln on way home too. Next stop "something else in the dean" Saturday week.

Just got back from Beautiful Days festival near Exeter. Wasn't expecting much as we were headlining a minor stage with stiff little fingers on the main and other bigger bands in the other music tents but we ended up playing a storming set to an ever increasing crowd of happy campers bopping about and a finale covering the levellers "what you know" with most of them on the stage too . Got paid, got passes for our families and got to see some cracking music too, so happy days all round. Apart from the living hell that the m5 has become over the years.... Next stop " Hobofest" down in the Forest of Dean

[quote name='NancyJohnson' timestamp='1499471317' post='3331814'] Cheers, I'll mention this to my band, we've been on about doing a video type thing for ages. Nothing. We just turned up and played. [/quote]

That's a pretty cool vid, looks very professional too. How much did it cost, if you don't mind me asking?

I often play through house backline at festivals due to the non existent band change over times, my "rig" is a tc bh250 with a tc 112 cab so imagine how impressed I was to find this concoction on stage at the weekend... Gk head , 2 x 10 cab mounted on what may have been another cab or maybe a cupboard... I'm 6'6" and it looked pretty impressive Anyone else come up against any weird and wonderfull set ups?

For what it's worth I think the most important thing is to be yourself, nothing looks worse than someone trying to do something that looks like they're trying too hard. If you naturally bounce around the stage, that's great, if you don't then it'll looks awfull if you try. Ultimately the crowd do the dancing, the band provide the music. As long as the singer/frontman has got confidence then that's the main thing in my opinion.

Roystonbury festival yesterday, scorchingly hot, my hands started cramping up on the first song, lovely even sound though from an engineer who's mixed us loads of times, played through a supplied gk amp and a 2x10 mounted up near my ears which sounded great, went down really well and had a most excellent time watching my little boy dancing about banging a bodhran in the crowd he was in time too!

[quote name='Muzz' timestamp='1498642216' post='3326017'] Without wanting to get into any sort of competition, this is just sublime...ff to about 1:10. It's worth it. https://youtu.be/3O72lItS4OA [/quote] that's excellent ! I might give it a go at the weekend....

Has anyone else here just played the set twice when they've used up all their material.... ?

Something else tent at bearded theory last night, typical festival chaos with the sound guys giving us the green light while I was still tuning up... Cracking gig though, a packed tent full of bouncing happy people makes me realise why I love making music Sold a shed load of merch straight after too and got to watch New model army so happy days

Here's me in classic " head down, flat out" pose at " ey up mi duck" festie recently

Supported leathera't at the O2 in oxford last night, after a summer of festivals it was lovely to have a proper soundcheck and a big stage to bounce around in Good tight set right up untill our last song where it all went a bit bit pete tong, some how recovered it and got everyone playing the same notes and chords again... Only the other musos in the crowd noticed, I think everyone else thought we'd gone f an impromptu folk/jazz vibe. Excellent night with much beer and smiles No gigs till march now it's time to write some new stuff

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10157734236690483&id=807255482&ref=bookmarks Folk the system at the crew Nuneaton a couple of weeks ago

[quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1477573177' post='3163076'] Jeez, how many of you guys have tour busses? [/quote] That would depend on your definition of " tour bus".... Does a ratty old mondeo count?

[quote name='fluffo' timestamp='1477142037' post='3160116'] What are peoples views on the bh range, tone prints aside. [/quote] I've been gigging a bh250 with a tc 112 cab for a year now and had no problems with it. It's easy to use, got a handy tuner and mute button. I think it puts out a pretty good sound bit that's entirely subjective. I played through someone else's bh550 with a 210 tc cab at my last gig and that was pretty cool, bit clankier than mine but I quite liked it