StingRayBoy42

1 hour ago, lonestar said:

* unlike these lovely ladies photographed outside the venue about 7:30pm, who seemed to having a fine Saturday night out.

That skirt is so short, she could sit on a quid coin and tell you whether it was heads or tails.

19 hours ago, WalMan said:

Good night in Bognor despite the town being in virtual lockdown due to trouble there during the afternoon and early evening.

'Lockdown in Bognor' sounds like a Half Man Half Biscuit lyric.

Glad you had a good one!

Get a setlist and have a listen.
As people have said, it'll probably range from simple to tricky and everything inbetween.
I'd say go for it - learning stuff you don't normally play is a great way to get better, it's easy money (presuming the gigs are paid?), gigging is generally better than not gigging, being the first call dep in a gigging band is a good place to be, classic rock can be a lot of fun to play (especially if they're a nice bunch of guys) and you'll almost certainly find some stuff you'll end up liking.
Keep us posted!

TODAY!
Shirley Beer & Cider festival with the Cantina Band!
Firrst band on, a one hour set at 3PM, Backline provided, sound engineer and everything - unusual for us.
Backline was slightly less good than was mentioned in the contract, but it'd be a bit churlish to complain, right?
Halfway through the setlist, we realised we still had about 40 minutes left to play so we had to chuck a few old faithfuls in.
We played pretty well, Crowd seemed to enjoy it (from afar), it was all going great guns until the power went...  it came back on eventually, minus monitors, so we did what we could for the last few songs.
Played the Steling -> small board -> Hartke 410 (I was promised an Ampeg, dammit!)

Pay wasn't great so they made it up with beer tokens, enjoyed a pint of Mavis Bumblethorpes (?) Perry (5.4% ABV) on stage, then once we'd finshed, I had a pint of Giddy Goat cider (6.8%), followed by a pint of Merrithorpe's blackout stout (8.75% ABV), then it was back to the cider for a pint of the Spazwhistle (?) 'Guvnor' (10.7% ABV), then I think I had a couple of pints of the Arthur Baslingtons 'Deep, dark pit of depression' (15.8% ABV), followed by a pint of Fotheringay's Self-loathing IPA (21.8% ABV), then it was back to the Cider bar for a couple of pints of Fighty McBastards 'Punchdrunk' Perry (27.9% ABV) which was delicious, before trying the Scrambleton's 'Regret' chocolate stout (39.875% ABV), then I decided to play it safe with a nice, refreshing pint of Samuel Bobbington's 'What in the name of God?'' (19.8456% ABV) before I really went for it with four pints of Asquith's 'Kidney Killer' (57.7% ABV).

I was a teensy bit tipsy by this point, so decided to play it safe and stuck to  the easy drinking, super quafffable Hampton's  'This is a terrible idea' Porter (157.8% ABV) for the final six pints.

Apparently, I walked the 3.8 miles home.

Sorry, I'm an idiot - missed the 'Tapewounds' bit... Not for me I'm afraid.

Have a bump instead.

49 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

Guinness Zero is actually pretty potable IMO. Ditto Punk AF and Adnams Ghost Ship low alcohol. Nothing like the horrendous offerings of the past.

+1 for Guiness Zero and Punk AF (boooo Brewdog etc)

If you like AF stout, the Big Drop stuff is gorgeous.

For AF cider, Sheppey's is the bestest IMHO.

What gauge are they please?

Smoothhound have been out of stock for months and aren't answering emails about when it'll be back in stock; they've gone very quiet on twitter and FB too... anyone know what's happened to them?

The only other microsuction tape I can find online is in Europe and they want £20 for an A4 sized piece... I only need about 2 square cm!

Anyone know where I can find some?!

She's an absolute Honey. GLWTS!

23 minutes ago, ricksterphil said:

 

For bands who take the piss and use up the next bands time slot.......death

 

For punters who get on the stage in the interval and try and use the mics.....horse whipping followed by death

 

For punters who repeatedly ask for the same song even though it's been pointed out that we don't know that one.....pelting in the stocks followed by horse whipping and then death.

 

😊

You're going soft in your old age!

Finland, Croatia or Ireland, surely?

6 minutes ago, MrDinsdale said:

That’d be this bass I built when I was 16. 16 year old me had very different aesthetic preferences than 36 year old me. It’s also the heaviest bass I’ve ever played 😂

 

Amazing that you built that at 16.
Shame it's melted so badly.

I still technically own my Hohner Arbor P copy that I stole from my brother in the early 90s.
Some idiot* defretted it with a pair of pliers so the neck is like a banana and covered in splinters and plastic wood stuff.
Completely unplayable, unsellable and useful only as a cautionary tale.
No pictures as it lives at my Mum's in Manchester gathering (more) dust - she asks if I'm going to take it with me every time I visit.
I am not.


*Me

Lovely looking thing and it gets great reviews... I'm sorely tempted!

Pics for those who don't do HEIC files - to tempt someone else before I cave in.

Mike bought my Bass Uke, he was a scholar, a gentleman and a pleasure to deal with all the way.

11 minutes ago, msb said:

StingRayBoy42 

 

leopard print Converse … I have some sequinned ones!

I'm jealous!

TODAY!
My third outing of the weekend, depping on Sousaphone for a local wind band.
You wait ages for a wind band concert, then two come along at once.
They're like buses - big, noisy, unwieldy and no-one likes them.
Full on suited and booted (Midnight Blue DMs) affair, I even wore a dicky bow!
The band are really good, really high standard, I did OK considering I was sightreading.
Usual wind band stuff, including three pieces I played last week.
The highlight was fitting into my suit trousers and still being able to breathe.
 

LAST NIGHT!
Katie O'Brien's 'Irish' bar in Leicester with the 3 piece version of Azura.

We've played here before and had a cracking night *and* it was our first gig for a few weeks so we were looking forward to it.
We were anticipating a mad one as Leicester Rovers had just won the Big Soccerball Challenge or something, lots of football shirts in there when we arrived. Not massively full, but it was only half six.
Load in is a bit of a pain, down a dark, slippery, murder-y alleyway, there was a solo acoustic guy on so we had to unpack the stuff 'backstge' (in the corridor to the kitchen and the staff smoking area - glamorous!) and stand around nursing a lime & soda while he played.
Set up was pretty easy (using the house PA speakers) and the place was filling up nicely.
First set went down a treat, we played really well and enjoyed ourselves. Couple of flubs, nothing too heinous.
Second and third sets were even better, the crowd was out for a good night and got well into it, packed dancefloor all singing along.

We had a couple of new songs in the set which kept us on our toes and the DJ played a couple that we happened to know so we decided to chuck them in as well.

It wasn't as rammed as we were expecting, but nicely full and a decent crowd.
I sang lead on a couple which is always gratifying (for me, not for the audience).
Played the Jazz for a change -> small board -> amp board -> MB 802.
Wore the 'other' leopard print Converse, foot fans!
Lots of compliments afterwards including from the manager, so we're looking forward to a rebooking.
Home about 1 for a Thatcher's Vintage (8.3% ABV)

A good night out!


 

YESTERDAY!
Another gig that's not really a gig... played Sousaphone at Upton Folk Festival with Beorma Morris - a Border Morris side from Birmingham.
A beautiful day in a beautiful part of the world, dozens of Morris sides from all over the place - lots of different styles on display, Cotswold, Border, Clog, North West and even some wacky medieval/game of thrones style belly dancing (it's not really 'Morris', but each to their own).
We had a good turnout and danced really well (so I believe .. I can't really tell) and we were joined by my lovely Trombone playing friend - she's Japanese and had never seen anything like it.
Bumped into lots of people I know (the Morris world is quite small, so is Upton-on-Severn) including my old boss and the other Morris Sousaphone player, a lovely feller called Mark. He joined us for a couple of dances - stereo Sousaphone action!
Lots of people asking  about the Sousaphone (mainly "What is it?" and "What's wrong with you?") and lots of requests for pictures and selfies... Obviously I demurred as I'm a shy, shrinking wallflower 😀
The day ended with a massed dance - about a hundred dancers and forty musicians making an unholy scene and having a whale of a time.
Shoe update: I wore the New Rocks for that goth/steampunk vibe, the highlight of the day was taking them off when I got back to the car.
Back to the 'proper' gigging tonight!

3 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

...bunch of grumpusses ...

Shouldn't that be ' bunch of grumpii ' ?

Just had a lesson with James AKA @Jowston  Great teacher, thoroughly recommended.

19 minutes ago, Elfrasho said:

It's generally only guitarists that find that and I have a suspicion its because they now can hear clearly what they're actually playing so they now need to actually play properly rather than rely on the wall  raw volume to mask their playing!

 

 

If they can tell you're out of tune, you need more distortions

3 hours ago, stewblack said:

Who knows? I wasn't supposed to know but the venue owner paid me before we started. So now I know the total and how much we all got. 

I'll be looking for another job.

That really sucks. I think the deception would cheese me off as much as the money.

I wouldn't object to chucking someone an extra few notes if they'd stood in at short notice/driven a really long way to be there/loaded in and set up on their own or whatever, but I'd make sure everyone else knew and was alright with it.

Good luck in your new band hunt!

12 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

 

What does cat taste like?

Tears.

TONIGHT!
More of a concert than a gig... depped with Tamworth Wind Band in a church in Tamworth.
Lovely bunch of folks, really nice vibe, good players and appreciative of me standing in.
They'd commissioned the ex principal director of music at the RAF (!) to write a piece celebrating Tamworth (!) especially for the band, so we rehearsed/workshopped it with him in the day and performed the **World Premiere** at the concert.
He's a phenomenal musician, he picked up and pointed out loads of tiny little things that really elevated it. Lovely bloke as well.

It's not often you get to perform a world premiere in Tamworth... I certainly don't.

There was about fifty of us, so it was a fantastic sound.
The tuba player was playing an absolutely beautiful old horn- I don't know much about tubas but I'd guess it was a BBb Conn 20J with a recording bell made in the Elkhart factory some time in the mid-late 1920s?
He even let me play it. Cheers, Colin!
The rest of the repertoire was pretty standard wind band stuff - Vaughan Williams, a couple of film medleys, a slow one with a lovely Cor Anglais solo and some Andrew Lloyd Webber - not my favourite, but Jesus Christ Superstar has got some bangers in it.
The highlight (apart from the piece specially commissioned for the band 😳) was the music from 'The Incredibles' - spoof/cheesy superhero film music - a cracking Bass riff driving the whole thing along, bars of 5/4 mission impossible type stuff all over the place... loads of fun to play.
Played the 'Ray -> Thumpinator -> VTDI -> MB 802, Rainbow Converse foot fans.
Radio 4 on the way home - the evolution of instant messaging, from the invention of the emoticon on MSN messenger to a woman who married a chatbot. Weird.
Home just after 10 for a G&T, a slice of raspberry cheesecake and a very stupid cat.