Franticsmurf

I think, from my experience and from comments made on this site, that the standard UK bar/pub gig is moving towards 2hrs+. When I started playing live, we were using an agent and the contracts were mostly on the working men's club circuit. Usually there were two acts (most of the time I played it was a band and a solo singer) and they'd share the bill with the bingo. Each act would have 2x45 minutes and often it would be Act 1, Act 2, break, Act 1, Act 2. The mid set break was to allow several games of bingo to be played. I don't know what the equivalent venue in the US would be, but in South Wales these places were clubs for the coal miners and other industrial workers set up as mini theatres. A village might have grown up around a mine and the only entertainment to be had would be in the club. As a result, some of these places were really well equipped with a proper stage, decent dressing rooms and subsidised bars. In the early 90s when I started, there were even rules that banned women from the bar (!) and that no one could dance during the first half of the act.

Most of the gigs I play are booked as 2x45min but it's rare we play for less than 2hrs and I'm more than happy with that. With the Hulla band, the band leader is a Bruce Springsteen fan and when I first joined he had never considered a break (and the others in the band never challenged him) because 'The Man' plays long gigs. The first full gig I played with them was at the festival they organise every year. It's a multi act line up going on all day and we finish the event. I had an idea when I saw the set list of 35 songs it would be long, but with the some extended intros, chats with the audience, chorus repeats to let the crowd dance and sing along and a pause while the three memebers of the band who are RNLI volunteers had to ensure there was cover when the alarms went off (three RNLI volunteers in the audience were on call that night), it ended up just under 4 hrs. Last year's festival gig (my third with them) was 4.5hrs with a 15 minute break (one of the things I brought to the party). I remember flagging a bit during the 3rd hour before picking up again as the style of music changed to a more energetic style. I don't mind too much in that band as we have fun within the band (there are 13-14 on stage depending on the songs) but the reality is that having two acts to fill the same time would be better for the audience.

I find the same with auditions (not that I've had many) and depping. If you approach with that attitude it can also help take some of the stress and pressure away from the experience.

I did that for an audition a couple of years ago - I think I had five specific and the full setlist as an indicator of what the band did. Like you, I knew quite a few and I made sure I could busk through all of them (having nailed the specific 5 of course). Flew through the 5, then the second bassist due to audition didn't turn up and they had an hour left on the studio booking, so we played the rest of the set. I got the gig but even if I hadn't, being familiar with the other songs made it a fun evening rather than a quick in-and-out for all. Good luck with your audition.

The exchange rate fluctuates wildly depending on how hungry you are. 😃 In this case it was additional to the agreed fee so it was hard to tell what financial market they based their figures on. 😃

It's a lovely old building. Glad it was a good gig and gutted I couldn't make it. But... we got part payment for our gig in bacon. You can't beat that! 😃

Just the one broken ankle, Dave? Hardly worth mentioning. When I were a lad, I gigged with two broken ankles, a dislocated knee, a finger gaffa taped on after losing it to a lift door blah blah... 😂

It was a good night despite my last minute gear swapping. It was a well attended local version of the Caravan and Camper club, with about 50 people in a smallish rugby club lounge, which made the atmosphere good. We did a mix of oldies and rock n roll as the audience were largely of retirement age. I don't like playing to backing tracks but the ones we used last night were of good quality. The singer uses them for his solo act but I've only played to these once or twice, years ago so the endings were a bit hit or miss. But the atmosphere in the room was good and it didn't seem to spoil things. I had planned on using the Bass VI for some of the lively rock and roll but the backing tracks had a prominent bass to them so the VI sat largely unused. It did arouse the interest of one punter and we had a chat about it as he'd never heard of the model before. We did about a quarter of the set with just two guitars and no backing. I was pleased with my backing vocals - I could hear them through the PA without in-ears, which is a rarity, and I got complimented on them. I went with this pedal combo in the end which went into a BAM200 with the tone set as neutral as possible (thanks to info supplied from people of this parish). This drove my Basschat designed home made 12" cab. I took my Zoom B4 for the drum machine as an emergency back up (I've played with this singer when his laptop with all the backing tracks has just died) and we used it for one song. It was ok as a back up. By the end of the night we had picked up a garden party gig for the band, another duo gig for the Caravan club, a band gig for the Caravan club's Christmas bash and a booking (to be confirmed) at the rugby club. We were paid a little extra (which is always nice) and we had bacon! How many gigs pay in bacon? 😃 I tested it this morning:

That's very kind, thanks.

I'd try to get to that gig but I'm playing elsewhere tonight. It's windy but sunny here this morning. Have a good one. 😃

On Wednesday I had a call to ask if I was available for a duo gig on guitar tonight. Later that day it became a trio with me on bass (hoorah!) and my mate on drums in a line up that last played together two years ago (even bigger hoorah as it was a good line up). We met Wednesday evening to go through the set and it was clear the drummer wasn't well with some kind of bug. On Thursday, he told us he couldn't do the gig and it became a duo again. The singer said he had a dep drummer and it became a trio once more. This morning, after several phone calls it has finally been declared a duo gig. In the last three days I've been swapping guitars/bass/pedal boards and amp/cab combinations more often than a progressive rock musician. But I've decided to take my HB Bass VI along to give it an airing as well as the toy guitar. The gig is a semi regular event for the local Caravan and Camping club (I haven't played it for a couple of years but the singer does a couple a year for them) and we're hoping for band bookings. Rig for tonight: This or this and this or this or this etc 😂 And this: with this

It reminds me of emails I used to get when I worked in the civil service from people who thought that big words, official sounding phrases and jargon all wrapped up in a formal setting made them appear important. The really decent manager/leaders (there were a few) never wrote like that so it was easy to spot the pseuds. But in the context you're quoting, it may well be artificial. Intelligent - nope! 😃

This was our 'green room' for a wedding anniversary party the Hulla band played last year in the back garden of the happy couple. It was their games room. The floor space was bigger than my house.

That's great. Nothing to beat the feeling that all the hard work in rehearsals paid off.

I'm going to miss the mini histories of the places you play. I love reading them. I used to play miner's halls and various iterations of working men's clubs in the Welsh Valleys and I loved the old architecture and fixtures/fittings inside. They told a story and I could imagine the places as they used to be in the heyday of the mining industry in those parts.

Back in the early 90s I was playing geetar in a band doing primarily originals but going through that difficult period of realising that our original material wasn't going down well with the venues we played. We decided to add more appropriate covers (which meant the more accessible proggy stuff) and to find a dedicated singer, as out keyboard player was currently singing. The drummer and I were in a night club (a rare event but it played mainly the rock end of pop music) and I got talking to this young girl who, when she found out I was in a band looking for a singer, proclaimed that she could sing and wanted to be out new front person. Her first audition was outside the nightclub, where she performed 'Wuthering Heights', complete with rather enticing dance moves. She wasn't bad and both the drummer and I thought she deserved a decent audition with the rest of the band. A couple of weeks later we picked her up from the corner of her street in the band van and headed off to the rehearsal studio where we went through a few covers and while she could keep a tune, her voice wasn't versatile enough. Had we been a Kate Bush tribute act, she may just have scraped through with some work but as it was her voice was quite thin and she didn't seem to have the self confidence needed for a front person. We dropped her back off on the corner of her street with the intention of having a second go with some originals. Imagine my surprise when, on the way to work a couple of days later, I saw our potential singer in her school uniform looking every bit the 14 or 15 year old she actually was. Many things went through my head, mostly involving irate parents, irate policemen and relief that nothing ungentlemanly had happened. Needless to say, we didn't keep in contact.

Good luck.

The Hulla band organises and plays a festival for charity every year. Last year I put together a scratch band to play a support slot and it went down well. Unfortunately, that scratch band didn't make it through the year so this year I've grabbed a few unsuspecting Hulla band members to play a short support set. I've got the drummer, the guitarist and an extremely talented young girl who is my bass dep for the Hulla gigs I can't make. She sings and plays guitar, bass, keys, a bit of drum and ukelele but her main instrument is trombone. When we ask if there's anything she can't play her response is "I don't do reeds". Last night was our first rehearsal as a four piece and it went really well. There's a lot of potential there and, importantly, a lot of enthusiasm and motivation. We are fortunate in that the drummer has his own rehearsal/recording studio and while there's room for 4 people, I decided to take my Ibanez EHB 1000S to minimise the chances of clouting the other band members in the head with a bulky headstock. It's definitely a work in progress but we have 4 months to get things sorted. Our multi-instrumentalist has exams in May so the aim is to get things to the point that all we need to do in May and June is polish the final set and have a couple of full band rehearsals with the Hulla sound man present to do a sort of pre-gig sound check. As we use a Behringer X32 desk for the Hulla he will be able to set up a rough mix and save it into the desk as a base for minor tweaks on the day.

Several old and decrepit dogs, same old tricks. 😃 Ironically it seems that I may be getting back to play with the drummer again. Early days but we're talking about a kind of reunion/reboot/rehash. It'll be good to play with him again as we used to lock tight as the engine of the old band.

Technically, I'm the bassist in a band called 'New Dog Old Tricks' which formed in 2022 and played one gig. While we never formally disbanded, all four of us are in other bands and haven't got together as a quartet since August 22. I sense the opportunity for a reunion gig sometime in the future as we're all still on friendly terms.

And you could claim it as legitimate expenses. Winner, winner... er... bass guitarrerr.

The Insiderz are playing at a local venue on Friday. If it wasn't for the kit, I could stroll along to it.

The Hulla band rehearsed for a gig I can't make last night. The dep bassist (from within the band) took on the bass role so I stepped behind the mixing desk. We use an X32 and our regular sound man (on holiday at the moment) has set it up using the scene option so that all I had to do was press the correct button. And yes, I did successfully press the correct button! 😃 It was good to hear the band from a different perspective. I've taken to using IEM simply because in such a large band (13 assorted instruments) the monitor speakers are competing with the live instruments. From the front I could see how everything worked and how much work our sound man has done to get everything mixed nicely. Rather worryingly, the dep bassist (a gifted multi-instrumentalist at only 16 years old) was good. She may have to go.... 😂

I have small feet and still find hitting the right notes hard! It takes a lot of practice but the results are worth it.

I guess the ambient pedal is for those new age/chill-out cross over jams one often has while waiting for the water to pour. The cold pedal is for if the jam is strictly chill-out only.