scalpy

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. 🤦‍♂️

1 hour ago, Musicman666 said:

so i guess you also aren't a fan of their version of eight miles high?

Sorry I don’t know it. Boycotted their catalogue in protest!

I have no clue, but am just jealous of the racks of my dream kit you own! Enjoy!

Jealous Guy- Roxy Music. Just rude, plain rude.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CwdcI6yInzO/?igshid=MWZjMTM2ODFkZg==
 

Mrs Scalpy has done a post about the gigs from yesterday I mentioned in my post!

After Friday’s turbo set up two completely different experiences. 
 

Early set up for the 11 piece, for a centenary celebration for a local company, big marquee for 200+ people. A luxurious 2 hours to make sure everything was ok, neat and tidy, plus the local music shop lent us a pair of chauvet dominator moving heads to play with. Lunch and a kip then onto…

Acoustic gig bashing the hell out of my old Taylor 214 with the two singers and the drummer on assorted percussion toys for an hour. We were pushed for time (the drummer was following the van- not used to our country back lanes 🤣) so had 10 minutes to get ready. Plugged in my one jack into the provided PA, 3 mics pointed in the correct general direction and that was that! Nice hour of mucking about then back to the tent for hanging around, then two hours of trying to get work colleagues to lose their inhibitions about partying in front of the boss! 
 

Local carnival last night. Big aspirations on a show string budget. PA provided and backline, but we have our own idiosyncratic rack in ears system so had 15 minutes to clear backline (to make room for a our 5 piece horn section) and get 11 of us on stage in 15 minutes. Our sound engineer and guitarist had another gig so it was my job to oversee all of it. Just about managed it with some delegation, then we managed to keep a crowd for an hour and half set.

Two more gigs today- set ups will be much more straightforward!

Absolutely don’t need, I have two DB Cabs, the extinct manufacturer for this mini-rig purpose and an Aguilar would have no perceptible gains in the applications I use them. But these are seriously cool, I’ve got two DB112s in tweed my wife won’t let me sell, a 110 would be the perfect accompanying cab. 

Nice wedding gig in Chichester this evening, furthest we’ve been off our usual patch in the three counties. Two deps in, keys and drums, but they really nailed it. Good crowd as well, took a little while to get them warmed up but they went for it in the second set- the only issue was a punter dropping a fart of chemical warfare proportions causing our singers to completely corpse during Angels until they could breathe safely again.

59 minutes ago, uk_lefty said:

I've got a festival gig tonight. Full PA but zero backline and playing early. Going to try and go straight from my MXR M80..... He who dares, etc. 

Got a similar situation in a few weeks- but my main motivation is the load in is horrendous so it’ll be bass and pedalboard for me!

3 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

You'll have to list all of your backline amps, and what LED projectors you have, to get a reasonable answer. Best guess from me would be 'less than 10kW', if you're not using valve amps and only LED PARs. The venue want to know if their power sockets and fuse boxes can support your equipment safely. In days of yore, with Genie tower lighting rigs and multi-head guitar and bass stacks, special power outlets were required. If you're below 10kW you should be OK using domestic power outlets. Hope this helps. 

Disclaimer : subject to completion, correction and/or contradiction from others.

Thank you all

No backline and no amps apart from the PA. 
 

We’ve run the whole kaboodle comfortably from 2 domestic sockets- just don’t know what figure to put on that. Will have to get to the lock up with pen, paper and calculator by the sounds of it! 
 

Harry

Hi all

Often my function band gets asked for its power requirements at a venue. Not being electrically minded at all, what is a reasonable response? Safe doesn’t seem to cut it!

We’re 8-12 piece, running a 3k Pa, medium size led lighting rig and an in ears rack.

Any help would be most appreciated.

Thank you

Harry

Just done two gigs on Saturday. In the afternoon the guitarist used a fender combo and pedalboard, in the evening he used his kemper. Kemper ate the amp for breakfast. We videoed both, it was fun having amps onstage for the afternoon, but the sound is clearly worse and everyone was struggling with monitoring. In the evening the FOH sound is much clearer, even we’d added 3 horn players and a percussionist. The guitar and bass (both ampless) sounded tighter and more focussed, the vocals sound way clearer and monitoring (in ears both gigs) was much easier.

7 hours ago, asingardenof said:

That sounds distracting to say the least

This is what we do with ours and it’s not that bad. I’ll put instrumentation on the guide for instance when there’s a tricky tempo change, particularly if it leaves a single player exposed, such as keys or drums intro. They fall right in and adds some security to tricky sections. As said above, with deps it’s really helpful. 

On 09/06/2023 at 13:28, tauzero said:

This could be very useful when playing to a click, to help you feel it as well as hear it:

 

Sent this to the band, who thought it was hiliarious, (2 wanted to order them…)

But(t) seriously, playing in a function band a click has proved essential. We’ve had two regular drummers, the first was paranoid about rushing so always underestimated tempos, then to his credit never shifted. I took over counting the band in, deliberately counting them in too quick- but it was guess work still. He retired eventually. The second got faster and faster- to the point our extremely competent horn section couldn’t play their parts- which was when we introduced the click. He still played on top of it, and I had to tear strings off the bass to keep him in check- so I sacked him. We now have 3 drummers we use depending on availability, all three have the ability to use the click as a tool for good, and it’s a joy having having the consistency, especially as live footage can be edited really easily to do compilations of gigs- tempos are spot on. 

17 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

 

I don't think he was a one hit winder was he? Didn't he have another big hit that no one remembers?

I saw him play at the Radio 1 roadshow at Longleat but remember nothing about his performance. 

from Wiki-

Follow-up single "I'm a Man Not a Boy" peaked at 27 in the UK, with subsequent singles including "What's Wrong with This Picture?", "Stay Away Baby Jane" (a collaboration with Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne) and "Another Fine Mess" also charting in the top 100.

I’d be happy with a no27 hit, especially at those times, but I think Chesney could be safely classed as a number 1 one hit wonder!

Not quite in the same league as closing the Commonwealth games and certainly not a one hit wonder myself…

We did a wedding where Chesney Hawkes was a guest, so we rehearsed up I Am The One And Only (a surprisingly tricky little beast with some clever key changes and timing tricks) in case he’d get asked to do it- which he did. So he walked up to me to me to check the key, knocked out a note perfect rendition (I think he’s had enough practise at it), crowd went bonkers, he shook us all by the hand and disappeared.

Takes about 15 minutes to properly get going. Looks like my Sire V7 mk1 will be for sale very shortly…

Following! Wife has complained my Sire (burnt orange) which I bought as bit of a beater looks cheap so have have had my eye on a metro express for a while. 

Another if you’re interested post…

Back in ‘99 the band I was in had somehow managed to blag a session at Studio 1 at AIR. Not bad for three boys from Hereford. Halfway through the day the other two had gone in search of a drink and I was left in the control room with the producer, when David Arnold walked in. After some introductions he said ‘We’ve just finished the new Bond theme, do you want to be the first to hear it?’ and promptly produces a CD for us. So we got to hear The World Is Not Enough before anyone else. Red letter day.  

Hats. Here we go….

14 minutes ago, Salt on your Bass? said:

Added the 410 today. I need do a test load in my car but I'm pretty sure it all fits for those times when you just want a little bit of edge in a venue. It provides me with a lot of flexibility in set up. Pretty excited to find a venue I can put it all at now....but I'll definitely be practicing with it all over the next few weeks. ✌️🧙‍♂️

 

Insane. Great, but insane.

First amp was my folks record player which required an unfeasibly complicated set of crocodile clips to play through it. Naturally I blew the speakers. Suitably chastened, my folks were good enough to buy me a BCRich 110 combo as I persuaded them ‘I really need it’. For capital, as I sold it almost immediately to buy something way bigger and therefore much better- a HH 215 cab and laney linebacker 100. Still have the head, the cab died being used on a gig in Nottingham by a support band. Sold the remaining functioning speaker and skipped it. Promoted myself to a 410XL Hartke, which proved magnificent, and has lived in my classroom for 20 years being thrashed by students and it still laps it up. Powered by a 1400 hartke head, that hasn’t survived so well. Got fed up with being told I was too loud before I’d even plugged in so went for a lmt500 head and two Aguilar DB112s in boss tweed (that makes them sound better) and even after being on BC for 10 plus years that’s my main rig. Also have two 110 cabs from DB as a modular pit rig. I have access to a tube Veyron as well which is fun. Main source of sound sculpting now is a MarkBass Vintage Pre as my main gig is in-ears.