Twigman

Some vids shot by a punter of our gig in the middle of nowhere in Italy 11/5/19

It's not really a waste of time at all. On the stages I play, i am stage right, the guitar is stage left, perhaps 5 or more metres away..we have a mic'd drum kit in between. the keyboard player is on my side of the stage and is DI'd into the desk, only monitoring on the stage wedges. Much of our music's tempo is dictated by the guitar delay so it's imperative that we can all hear it. Without wedges I wouldn't hear it at all. We all take cues from various instruments at various times throughout the set - it's very important to strike the right balance or you lose a lot of feel and stop working together as a band.....we're not a collection of individuals, doing our own thing, we're a band, we feed each other.

I'm not bothered at all about hearing myself - I'm stood in front of my amp, it's never a problem - it's hearing the others that's important - if you can't hear what the others are doing you're not going to sound any good, as a band, out front.

I order it online and it gets delivered in a plain brown wrapping. Nobody's any the wiser.

Have you ever found an unexpected reference to your band? In the movie '500 days of summer' there's this: - see record divider bottom left...

It's not meant to be, is it? If I (accidentally) kick off my compressor mid song I absolutely can hear the difference

I think many who are mystified by compressors believe they do nothing because what they hear is more like what they think they should be hearing.

Yes really - the compressor makes the notes more consistent. That's what they're for - squeezing the peaks and raising the troughs, squeezing the waveform - making the whole sound more consistent.

Compressors, set up well, make you sound like a far better player than you really are.

Get a waistcoat with velvet buttons.

Another slightly related story. As some of you may know one of my bandmates is in a global DJ act and is significantly more famous than I am ( 2xgrammy award nominee). When we were in US, touring with SL&G, we were walking down the shopping street in Santa Monica. People kept coming up to us and were asking me if they could have a selfie with him. I think they assumed I was his minder or something. My response was always "why don't you ask him?" after which I was elbowed out of the way so they could get their selfie. I'll wager none of them even knew our band exists.

No I hadn't

At a bureau de change in Athens airport - the teller knew exactly who I was and told me she was coming to the gig the next day.

I have some SKB and Peli cases that need some stencilling so that they can be identified as ours in what is likely to be a crowded backstage at the Wave Gotik Treffen this weekend. SKB and Peli cases are ABS aren't they? I have acrylic paints (airbrush) - will they need a plastic primer? - Is airbrushing the best way or is there an easier way? I have some plastic letter stencils but it seems I will have to paint one letter at a time as they are too wide to tape together and maintain the correct spacing. Any advice?

One more thing to consider: keep it short so that making up stencils to spray identity on flight cases is easier

If we came across a sound ‘engineer’ with that attitude we’d refuse to play. If we can’t hear what we want to hear, we can’t perform to our best. We have to be in charge of our stage.

The soundcheck is as much, if not more, about what you want as what the sound engineer wants. We treat it purely as an exercise in getting our monitor mixes right so we do 90% of the soundcheck with the PA off.

Isn't it always raining in Hebden Bridge?

It'll be back up before long. His scam was rumbled this time.....but I've seen his type before

I change the battery more often than I change the strings.

Whenever I've played it - not often, granted - I've always played it in C# - that way the lowest note is an open E... Surely it depends on in which key the vocalist is comfortable singing it?