scalpy

This particular gig it was bottles of champagne. The guitarist was constantly moving them away from his floor mounted Kemper and off the subs. We all made the move to in-ears not so long ago but the singers have been on them for over a year- we’ve definitely noticed that the stage invasions and littering have increased with the lack of psychological boundary. We thought that the lack of monitors posed less of a hazard for punters but actually the singers have had more people piling into them and their iPad, it’s daft how these things work out.

Punters on stage is recurring issue for us, as is using the stage edge as a bin.

Funnily enough this was a young farmers style gig- basically that community. So technically a private event booked by joe public so no venue insurance (in all likelihood I imagine) and no team dedicated to cleaning or security. We’ve done several for this set and every time something has wrong footed us, the only time we’ve had stuff nicked for example or been expected to play much louder than we have the capacity for. This is despite my wife being the former county administrator for the YFC and running their chairman’s events each year and the like. All the above advice has been very helpful though, thank you all, we shall look at how address these issues and navigate who has the responsibility etc. Looking at Dads picture of a stage above in the thread I’d be worried about the lack of rails around the three sides, but it may have been still in construction.

To be honest I've not thought of a function/party band like ours using a barrier. Another thing to negotiate!

The lights were on a tripod. Initially I thought it was the legs of those that tripped the guy up but several people who saw it more directly said he was just blind drunk and managed it all by himself. The PA arrangement is a one by ten sub that has two 8 by 3 columns plugged into it- an in-line array. They are light and compact so have a small footprint- hence a degree of instability.

You're absolutely right and we're going to have to discuss how to tackle this in the future. We already ask for adequate power supply for example. The underlying issue if you pardon the pun was the ground the marquee was put up on- a farm in rural Herefordshire is never going to be billiard table smooth. The tent itself and the flooring was from a decent company. I don't know where the culpability would lie, so maybe another excuse to purchase the big FBT rig with giant subs I'm after- you'd have to be The Rock to tip those over.

This topic often comes up on here so I thought I’d share an anecdote from one of this weekends gigs. Marquee gig, black tie event-so everyone thought they were better than everyone else, but the lining for the floor was not very level. Consequently the dance floor wasn’t either, which got wet with lots of spilt drinks and our PA columns, a HK elements in line set up, are a bit wobbly. We’ve had people swing from them like a strip club before so we looked at how to minimise the risk. Putting boards underneath them made them more wobbly if you stepped on them, and right out at the edges of the tent the ground was even more uneven. In a lose lose situation we decided to make them as obvious as possible by putting our lighting stands by them (on tripods), the same set up either side and hope for the best. We were on late and doing three sets, so by the time we got to our third set the crowd were plastered, trying to get onstage with us, drink was all over the dance floor and they were requesting any song they could think of, to be played at maximum volume whilst we grabbed a drink. My wife and I were just minding the stage when one gentlemen managed to lose his balance. The sequence of events was roughly- he falls into the edge of the stage of his own volition, keyboard with laptop goes over plus microphone, he puts his arm out and rolls off the stage into the PA column, toppling it and the lighting stand. Five minutes before the lighting stand would’ve sliced somebodies head open- it’s on of those bars with 4 LED digital par cans on. Somehow no one was hurt and nothing was broken but we would’ve had a very challenging situation on our hands if an accident had have happened. We will be be upping our cover, fastidiously updating our player list and checking renewal dates in the future- that was a seriously close call.

I had that on VHS as a teenager in the early 90s, but there’s something about that exact tempo, sound and performance on 99 that just gets me.

Not a live video sorry, never found one that has the same atmosphere but this is what Duck was talking about when he said he had a band powerful enough to turn goat’s pi55 into gasoline.

Lovely!

Not trombone but trumpet, so an extremely tenuous similarity to Macca’s early career. The ox was a French horn player, so there’s a long tradition of b(r)assists.

Sire V7 for me. I have two American G&Ls I have huge sentimental attachment to for various reasons and I prefer playing massively over the Marcus Miller. I don’t like the weight, the neck finish, the floppy B string, the colour (blood orange- seemed like a good idea at the time) the knobs and definitely not the tuners. But for some reason I’m happy playing it, it sounds brilliant, I’m not worried about it picking up dings etc and it’s good fun, somehow. Plus when the G&Ls get an outing it’s a luxury.

On your phone or tablet double tap the screen left or right depending on on whether you want to go backwards or forwards. Regarding the interview, it was really nice to see Bernard’s humility in his old age, his reputation for an ego the size of a small planet was legendary but he seems to have really dialled it back and the anecdote about taking drums on the bus was great, his face was a picture.

Aside from the overhang issues, enjoyed borrowing a hi watt to pair with my db112s. Near as dammit mint 1972/3 100w for guitar, but was excellent as a bass amp.

Had a little mark tube 500 for 12 years, a lmIII with a slightly different preamp. Been 100% fault free, aside from needing a internal hoover every now and again.

We heard…😉

Mostly functions. Plus 8 or 9 weeks of am dram pit work a year. One original artist on the books if he’s gigging at the time and I’m available, and once I a blue moon some session work.

The solution for this in my function band is rather extreme. I arrange all the keyboard parts- a lot of right hand only work. I then programme the Mainstage patches, all of which are high passed like crazy. If we use a dep, they have our keyboard rig. If any of them don’t like it, they don’t come back! Dealt with.

Sorry, very little signal out there. Went well, only triggered the meter once at the start of the second half- another reason not to play Let Me Entertain You in my book but the singers do insist and I’m married to one of them…. We worked really hard on this gig, rebuilt our in-ears rig, had training on how to use them effectively (no amount of internet expertise could help us luddites) and rehearsed with a db meter to make sure. Venue was really happy, most importantly the bride was happy and it was worth the effort.

Here we go then, almost all set up, meter appears to be right above the stage. No soundcheck yet, but the venue manager has been very friendly. So far……

As it happens 2! We played Saturday night. Working mens club type set up, landlord points out meter, gives let’s say a verbally inefficient description of its function and operation- then tells us not to worry, it hasn’t been turned on for years…..

Massive fan of TTB, got tickets for the palladium later in the year, looking forward to it already.

I’m a sucker for anything with Derek and Susan, plus it’s one of my favourite zep tracks so 👍 from me. Just wish someone in my band could play harp like that.

Just discovered the wonders of Ape Labs. Not the cheapest, but brilliant, brilliant kit. Battery powered, can be controlled by your phone with their incredibly simply app if you have the transceiver and there’s so many creative options. Check them out!

The gig is at the end of next month. I have a friend in another local function band who’s also playing there soon and they are getting the same treatment. They can’t do the daytime soundcheck either. I rang the venue last week and we played telephone tennis for a day, so I’ll try again Monday.