scalpy

Last gig of 2023! A Thursday night wedding- in the Christmas/ new year ‘Gooch’ as described by our drummer. Really nice venue, large crowd, still had some party vibes left in them. The room can be a bit troublesome sound wise but the sound guy was on it and everything ran really smoothly. As ever, our singers found a new way to make even bigger plonkers out of themselves in our titular song, all in the name of entertainment. Shake It Twerk.mp4

Two gigs last weekend, first a birthday party in a local pub we haven’t played for years (we haven’t done a pub gig for years!) then a early start for an hour in the centre of town entertaining the local shoppers. First gig was for a fitness/ dance class- they knew how to party and had a fully choreographed routine to Proud Mary which certainly freshened up proceedings. Had a enquiry for a wedding at the end as well, if they can cancel their current band. Sound guy insisted one sub would be more than adequate for both gigs and he proved 100% correct, no amp required. Did find the drummer had modified my in-ear lubricant much to everyone’s amusement.

Sunday to Saturday am-dram run this week, a Christmas spectacular. All songs arranged by the MD and a very wide range of repertoire, so of the usual suspect Christmas numbers and lots of choral and traditional stuff as well. Long- start at 7:30 to 10:20. Used the absolute tiniest rig I could manage, iPad for chart, V7 into lmt500, db elbee 10 inch cab, no pedals just a clip on tuner. Will be out in 5 minutes tonight, will take a lot longer to get my wife (who’s in the cast) out of the bar, luvvie darhlingsss.

Where was the gig in Hereford please?

Yes- 98/99 ASAT, basically an l-2000 with the top horn missing. I’ve owned it from new.

Nice Christmas event last night, another only wanting the 6 piece, male singer not available so the client just asked for one vocalist (my wife) but she managed to navigate the set ok, including a multiple personality disorder version of Fairytale of New York, which went down an absolute storm. We only had the small HK elements PA so I beefed it up with an actual real amp, must admit it was fun having that at my back. Best bit was having our ‘winter’ drummer back, a really good musician who tour manages for a living so isn’t available all the time. A joyous experience, he can play.

Completely agree, although the quad isn’t exactly shabby (apart from to look at 😉🤣)

Standard line up is 8 piece function band. Guitar bass drums keys, male and female singer, trumpet and tenor sax. Saturday the horns were on track, but as the clients were a brass band celebrating their centenary the organisers asked to sit in for three numbers. We also scale up to a five piece horn section, can add percussion on that as well. Then we scale down to the two singers and me on acoustic. The guitarist sometimes joins us for the trio plus. The main trick we pull is putting a lot of the standard function material into medleys such as singalongs or dance alongs.

Plus one to this. Like Lozz, I’ve had a fair bit of studio experience and the etiquette is important, basically don’t touch anything unless you’ve had permission, regardless of its location. It still isn’t yours. Most of my studio experience has been working for a producer who was a head engineer at AIR. As a young buck starting sessions with him it was really obvious how much care he took over everything, washing his hands after meals before driving the desk, being super tidy with cables, pointing out trip hazards etc. He even has a little trick setting up vocal mics, he’ll start a conversation with the singer as he stands next them, gauge how tall they are and bingo, the vocal mic is exactly the right height, negating the need for them to faff with the stand with the neumann on top.

Much belated weekend update- Friday, trio gig, on acoustic guitar, playing for a mencap do at the local football ground function room, Radfords. Great fun. Saturday- a gig that almost never was. We had a dep guitarist booked and with 10 days notice he bailed, as he had ‘a better gig’. If we couldn’t replace him it would game over for us in the time available, and we’d have to let down the (repeat client) After much scrabbling and frantic rehearsing the 6 piece went out for the do, replacement guitarist much better than scheduled dep and two audience members joined us on horns- very nice. Sunday- band call for a week long am-dram run next week. Hadn’t really looked at the part, didn’t look too hard on initial viewing. Made it through, but one number I’d failed to spot it was minim equals 106 rather crotchet. Bit of a Sunday roast!

Got lucky on this one, realised I was becoming too used to listening to certain stuff so made a conscious decision to stop. My favourite artists do not feature in any of my playlists. I now get recommended lots of new and sometimes exciting music and when I hear a track I loved from my youth comes on I still love it and it hits me like a ton of bricks.

Stop it, I’m gassing for one of these so bad!

Another attempt at Thriller! Happy Halloween! https://fb.watch/o12qqXc22f/

More gigs from Hereford! Friday was a trio gig for the local hospice, so on acoustic guitar. Went well, we were on after a music quiz, before we played our first set we were thinking they really needed something like a full band but they danced and got into it. Saturday afternoon we had more acoustic work in the town centre this time joined by our regular guitarist. Didn’t play my best as I basically beat the hell out of my Taylor to fill the spaces and hadn’t really had chance to rehearse, so my hands were sore from the night before and couldn’t get my head in the game. Plus as we played out front there were fire jugglers performing, some of very dubious personal hygiene, making close proximity challenging- one flaming stick did make its way my way at one point, and at one point a lady in a rather skimpy outfit was angle grinding her crotch in front of the assembled crowd of children, which raised my singed eyebrows over it’s appropriateness. Then on to a bass gig at last, after show week party for the cast of 9-5 who I played for last week. So good to have the trusty ASAT back out, the work on the backing tracks for the Halloween numbers really payed off and the band were on it, (play Thriller to a theatre company and the dancing is spectacular) plus we all looked like complete idiots which was fun. I’m in the day of the dead outfit at the back.

More of a how was your gig this week- a run of 9-5 at the local 400 seat theatre. All the other shows I’ve done this year have been Rogers and Hammerstein so it’s great to get some decent lines and there’s loads of different genres in the show- plus THAT figure- a lot. First show I’ve done on click. As ever in-ears/ click are a blessing and a curse, when it works it’s brilliant, if it’s slightly wrong, and the tech crew have had difficulties on the company’s budget, it’s a proper ballache. Sound man had complimented the envelope filter however, as I remind myself each night to turn it on.

O2 Digbeth. I reckon 75% of the audience were Birmingham conservatoire students 🤣

Same story presented at Birmingham. Strikes me Vincen is the kind of professional player who’d have the habit of learning peoples material anyway for the study, and if he’s messaging Cory in the past he’s I doubt he’s just fired it off at random. Regardless of the schtick, he’s one helluva player and the evening was far from joyless, the band were savage from start to finish. (Support band woeful but that’s another story!)

We use click for the function band. We nearly always have a dep of some description, so if it’s keys or guitar the intros are always the correct tempo and it’s a plus one for everyone starting together instantly (if the song demands it) I was sick of videos of gigs having someone shout the count too. It also lays the law down- we’ve had drummers where you’d count the tune off and they’d be under tempo and some would be over, so you’d have to compensate and guess how much extra you’d have to add to or subtract from the tempo. With the click- it’s right, no argument, I love it. An added bonus is syncing videos for social media. We can take one song, cut from gig to gig and the tempo is exactly the same, meaning we have much more useable footage. Everyone has their own personal mix for their in-ears, they can dial however much or little click they want. Next up is programming lights to it, it’s an arms race out there and that’s another avenue that we need to catch up on.

Thursday night wedding done. Mad thrash getting set up and the organisers had some flash mob dance tracks as surprise for the happy couple we had to play over the PA, but all was good. Dep guitarist put in some work since Tuesdays rehearsal and was ok. No horns so the trimmings were on tracks but crowd didn’t seem to mind, in fact they were really up for it especially considering it was a mid week do. And we had to stop by 10:30 so home before midnight, result! Human mirror ball singer included in photo for some variation.

Busy weekend gigging of sorts. Saturday- surprise 60th in a neighbouring county, so nice to get off the usual turf and see how we do with the foreigners, early start and finish, sedate crowd compared to last week. I’ve been using my trusty ASAT for these gigs after a break and absolutely loving it. Got fed well by the client which is always appreciated, but the outside caterer had issues with his ice cream machine tripping his extension reel plugged in through an open window which he somehow firmly insinuated was our fault. After he’d finished to show his displeasure he unplugged it and started to tug it through all our kit as we played, each of us desperately trying in turn to make sure our light fixtures didn’t go all over the place. Home by 12:30, up at 6, preparing for three ‘gigs’. Job number 1, setup PA and lights at wedding fayre number 2, then onto Job 2, wedding fayre number 1, me attempting to arrange our set in my head on the fly on my acoustic as our female vocalist and band manager, Mrs Scalpy does her thing rather splendidly. Running low on kit I borrowed a HK nano from work and used my uad apollo as a pre for both of us, worked rather well. 2 hours of that then back to wedding fayre number 2, this time joined by our guitarist and tracks, easing my burden considerably. He’s a monster player too, and he had full permission to go over the top with the jazz chords and the like, much to our amusement. I’d be interested to hear how other people get on with wedding fayres, we struggle to reel in any customers at them. It’s almost like the public can’t talk to musicians unless they’ve had a skinful and you’re carrying two tonnes of kit at 1 in the morning- they have no problem then. Last job of the day- band call for a local theatre company doing 9-5. Back on the 5 string Shazza, a sire v5. Pro MD had programmed the whole thing on click. I’m well used to click in recording and band situations but this was my first time in the pit. A tough chart and I’m pleased we’ve got another run at it before the dress rehearsal, it was very difficult one ear in on an exceptionally harsh metronome and one ear on the room. Then it was back to band hq in the van by myself to unload. Next gig Thursday, dep guitarist of questionable preparation, wish us luck.

You have an ASAT, things will never be too bad.

25th birthday of our local theatre tonight, we were the after party in the bar. The main event overran which was great as a) gave us more time to set up and soundcheck and b) we didn’t have to play as long afterwards! Crowd arrived eventually so we launched into them and kept them on the dance floor. A good one tonight, enjoyed it.

Can’t wait to see them in Birmingham next month, just hoping Sonny is on bass.

Finally got around to putting all my pedals on one board. FX and tuner all used to be on my nano+ but going in-ears I got a Markbass pre. Then came the lekato page turner for my iPad. DI box is for tracks/ click. All fitting on a classic junior, way easier to set up now and proving reliable🤞

Odd one yesterday. Local food festival at the racecourse and we’d had a tricky time getting the organiser to sort a definitive playing time, which was still changing the day before. In the end it got called earlier, causing us a headache trying to scramble the troops (11 of us). Then access to the stage was limited, having to drive through the public area with security grumbling like it was our fault- the promoter was genuinely surprised the drummer had a kit to set up, go figure. Said drummer then had an issue with his iPad losing all the charts so I spent a frantic 15 minutes airdropping them to him before we had to get on stage. The act before us overran and the promoter was still changing how long he wanted us to play for as we got ready. In-ears, which last week were absolutely perfect, were shocking and it really affected my playing for the first seven or eight numbers. I eventually got it sorted and the crowd ( not the numbers anybody was expecting) got into it and we kept them entertained. Still, band on after us put their heart and souls into their set, only for the sound guy to turn the drums ON halfway through the song. The last song of the set. 🤦‍♂️