urbanx

Our preferred name was already taken, by a fairly small band, totally different genre, and across the pond... 

However, we were still so paranoid of people Googling / Spotifying and getting them; that we went with something totally unique. We had nightmare visions of telling people to "Google us, but not that one, or that one" 

It's getting harder by the day to create unique names. 

Bedford Esquires on Saturday with For The Hornets:

Venue:

We’ve played there about 6 years ago. I arrived early and started setting up on the exact spot as 6 years ago near-ish the bar.

Barman: “Whoa, what do you think you are you doing?”

Me (paraphrased): “I’m setting up. Now look here son, I’m not sure if this is your first day, but I’ve played here before, and this is where I set up”

Barman: “Mate, this is the bar. You’re playing here….”

He opens a door to a bustling live venue, already filling with punters.

Turns out we hadn’t played there before… we’d played the BAR of the venue!!!

Wow, that was embarrassing.

Sound:

Sound was incredible. As were the lights. Easy peasy sound check. 

Gear:

I borrowed a Mesa Boogie Subway 4x10 cab – 1000w 4ohm. About £2ks worth. I want one.

Promotor:

ADK.

Amazing promotor, they spam everywhere before the show. It was a great crowd. Additionally they have 4 GoPros set up around the stage and transfer you all of the footage, and the sound desk recording in the morning. Excellent touch.

Last pic is a screenshot from the GoPro on my side of the stage! 

I have a Meteora as my main bass. 

Excellent tone and the best sustain I've felt in a while. Totally suits me and my style (love offset waists). I've gone for the snazzy 'Tequila Sunrise' 

Not touched it from factory set up apart from new strings, and all still feels great. 

When I tried it in a shop the pick ups ran 'hot' and overdriven on full. But, I've never had that on my own rig.

No neck dive, although I have a grippy strap made from a firemans hose! 

I absolutely adore mine! 

2 hours ago, tauzero said:

 

https://www.fullcompass.com/prod/520983-line-6-30-27-2012-battery-door-for-g30

Thank you. Unfortunately the other parts of the assembly are out of stock. I'll certainly bookmark the page in case they come back in. Thanks again. 

For The Hornets debuting our new song "Delusions' in Cambridge last month. Simple but lovely bass bits. 

Never had any luck from them to get a battery hatch for my G30 wireless tho... a 20p part has turned my £200 into a brick. Sounds like it's v common too. 

I hope you have better luck. 

Ren. 

Not what I'd usually listen too, but I'm completely blown away. 

Genre defying, in a Bohemian Rhapsody kind of way. The video is all one continuous shot too. Incredible. 

For The Hornets debueting our new song 'Delusions' at The Six Six in Cambridge last month. Lot'sa bass bits! 

On 27/09/2024 at 12:16, Wilson_51_ said:

 

Nice action shots, we played this too (last band on Erronaut), we got there about halfway through your set and it was a great watch . luckily you didn't have the downpour that we has when we played. Ha! 

Ah awesome! Cheers! Sorry to hear about the weather, it was iffy all day. Will keep an eye out for ya, hopefully our paths will cross again  

3 hours ago, dclaassen said:

Is that a Meteor....

Yeah, the Meteora, had it about a year and absolutely love it! 
 

14 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Where did that hair come from in the 2nd pic. 

Cracking action pic. Nice one.

Dave

Thank you! Channelling my inner Donald Trump! 🤣 

One of our fave band 'inside stories' is when we were playing the Hawley Arms in Camden a couple of years back (great pub) 

This guy was off his face, dancing, falling on stage grabbing the mic stand. We weren't overly bothered as he was friendly, just out of it. 

But the landlord quickly intervened and threw him out the front door...

Only for him to appear seconds later from the gents where he'd climbed back in through the window 🤣

Metal stage at Baldock: 

Tent at the bottom of a beer garden - is what it is. 

Well received though, we're not that 'metal' and I think we were a welcome interlude. 

On 01/12/2023 at 20:30, tauzero said:

 

Any help?

 

 

Awesome, cheers matey!

I'll still need some back up added to that fix (elastic band or zip tie, lol) 

5 hours ago, MacDaddy said:

 

Down south and in that London, 'dinner' refers to the evening meal. 

Are you referring to dinner as being (correctly) the mid-day meal?

Yeah, its usually a lunch(eon) - Again tied in with the corporate crowd, but could easily be an evening event. 

It seems after-dinner speakers are always called that, regardless of what meal they're speaking after! (Don't get me started on wedding 'breakfasts'!) 

11 minutes ago, BillyBass said:

I'm guessing a known musician as a public speaker would appeal to other, perhaps amateur, musicians but if this is a networking event I imagine SME owners would be your target market?  If so, getting a public speaker who is guaranteed to tell a good story and get a few laughs would be important.  A stand up or someone like Phil Tufnell, who has lots of experience ad libbing on game shows, would be ideal.  Toyah!?  Dear me no!

 

Networking is about building trust.  If you see the same faces at these events and other people there are using their businesses, then they must be trustworthy, right?  The bottom line for the attendees is how much new business you get from these events. Consequently, getting numbers in is important and keeping them coming to the future events is too.   Well attended events attract even bigger numbers.

 

Good luck!

Cheers man! Exactly that. I'm an SME owner myself. We love the local business awards which are super expensive too (£180 per ticket for regional, £800+ per ticket national) We do the local ones as it's good networking, a nice meal, photo in the paper (not the crime section for once) and good all round publicity. 

With the sporting one, a lot of businesses use it to entertain clients too. An offer of nice lunch and "Oh, Phil Tuffnel is coming too" always wins people over (He was an absolute legend) There's always a raffle too, prizes donated by local businesses, everyone puts a £10 in an envelope, and £3k goes to charity. 

Its a good point about getting the right speakers, I think that'll be the hardest bit! 

32 minutes ago, BillyBass said:

This idea of yours, is it something you want to arrange instead of the sporting lunch at work or is this a separate thing you are thinking of, and are, perhaps looking at it as a business idea for yourself?

Deffo a separate thing, I've just seen the success of the sporting lunch, but have no interest in the sports aspect at all! 

1 hour ago, NancyJohnson said:

You haven't said how the audience would be made up.  Interested punters or business lunchers on a work jolly? 

 

With sportspeople (and by sportspeople, I mean the retired, well known, Question Of Sport contender type of sportspeople), these are well known to most people and have transcended the sport they once competed in and have become celebrity; they're known by pretty much everyone (unless they've lived under a rock for the last 40 years). 

 

The problem with musicians is that there's very little transcendence; few non-working/retired musicians become celebrity (Noddy Holder, maybe), they just disappear disgruntled or come out of retirement to appear on Buzzcocks once in a while.  Your paying audience may cover a broad age range and musical interest spectrum; from the interested punter perspective, I'm sure there's a lot of people that would pay for a lunch and Q&A chat with Debbie Harry/Toyah, but if you're being dragged along to the lunch and the speaker is Dizzy Rascal, you're not really going to appeal to the whole audience.

 

 

 

 

A mix, but I'd foresee mainly businesses - The sporting lunch is 100% businesses and is billed as a networking lunch. I was thinking a similar demographic: mid 50's / 60's. Small / Medium sized business owners. £120 out of expenses for a networking lunch, and a "photo of Bob trying to chat up Toyah" for the company LinkedIn, and an office story for years to come.... Although if someone was really into that artist and wanted to come as an independent, then that'd be fine. 

The speaker would be advertised in advance, and I'd expect the 'Successful in the 70's / 80's' musician / pop star' that is available on the speakers circuit would naturally appeal to them. 

Cheers, yeah it'd be a good £30k outlay to start with (especially marketing the first one). It'd run as it's own Ltd company. 

I reckon I'd be looking at a break even of 191 bums on seats in the 300 cap room. (All the sporting ones are sold out way in advance) 

Once a quarter I go to a ‘sporting lunch’ with work, to network. It’s a posh lunch at a 5* hotel, followed by an after dinner speech by a former sportsman. I’m not into any sport whatsoever, but have recently enjoyed speeches by Barry McGuigan, Phil Tuffnel, Damon Hill, etc.

Now, not knowing my hockey from my oche, I thought “Wouldn’t this be great for musicians” Looking at figures it would work, if well attended.

Speaker wise, we’d be looking along the lines of: Toyah, Debbie Harry, Martin Kemp level to talk about their time in the industry. (I doubt we’d stretch to the Brian Mays, Rick Wakemans etc.) but you never know…

So the question is: Would you pay £120 for a 3-course lunch (in a posh hotel) and an after dinner musical speaker? 300 guests. (30 tables x 10)

1 hour ago, BassAdder60 said:

My Shure GLXD16+ is in a neoprene pouch which goes in my back pocket 

 

Nice!

I'm just aggrieved to spend £500+ on a system when I have £180 of wireless already, even if it's useless   That's getting on for 'new bass' territory.  

4 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

That wouldn't dislodge the lightweight 5g ones i have, unless your jack socket had a problem. 

You didn't see the landing! 

Seriously tho, really?

Our guitarist who is pretty static has lost his plug in one a couple of times while playing live, it's put me off. I really chuck myself about while playing, but always look after my gear. 

Just now, Al Krow said:

Just strap the very light weight transmitter jack onto your strap and get a short lead to go into your bass barrel jack.

 

I've got a Line 6 G30, which has a separate transmitter, which I keep on my strap (1st pic) But I've had the dreaded battery door problem. So now it's a £175 paperweight. I've tried zip ties and elastic bands, but it just doesn't stay shut anymore. Hence I'm wired in the second pic! 

2 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

But there is a super easy hack you know...

Does it involve a lot of gaffa? 

6 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

 

Do you have an old / loose barrel jack? 

No, I'm just keen at jumping.... 

On 03/08/2023 at 15:04, Al Krow said:

Really good run through of wireless systems generally:

 

 

In terms of 5.8GHz systems - he gives a big thumbs up to the Nux (14.20) and also recommends the Lekato (14.44) as a more budget option.

 

My own experience is that the Nux works better with my active basses (apparently it's advertised as being designed for active bass compatibility) and doesn't have the distortion that the Lekato had when digging in.

 

With the Nux, I'm finding that if you max the treble EQ and with certain directions / positions of Nux transmitter you can get a high-pitched whine, but having the treble at normal settings and lining the transmitter bug either towards or away from the very bottom of the bass, depending on which bass and where the preamp is located, pretty much eliminates that whine.

 

PS - liked his point that we're never going to eliminate the risk of drop-outs with wireless, even Metallica with some of the highest end gear on the planet and large sound crews suffer from occasional wireless drop-outs!

NONE of them would work for me... 

Where the transmitter is directly attached to the jack, it would physically drop out after the first bit of jumping around (the whole reason for having a wireless). 

Yeah I've had this. I saw the Meteora by chance in a PMT store. Cant remember how much it was maybe £1,100? Anyway I walked straight by thinking "I'm not even going to bother trying it, it's out of my range" 

Went home, Googled it: £850 at PMT. So I trot back to the shop to find the store model has been damaged. 

I purchased it, elsewhere. If it was priced at the online price in store I would have bought it there and then.