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Some VERY good news at last - live music back by the Spring?


Al Krow

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1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Seems to me we are in the home straight (yes, I know, famous last words!) and that gigs will be in full flow in three week's time:

'Prof Robert Dingwall, a member of the UK Government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, urged people to stop panicking about the current rising infection levels, which may only be reflecting a “last wave of mild infections” among unvaccinated youths.  “It is well past time to panic about infection rates and to publish them obsessively. Even hospitalisation rates are increasingly misleading as better therapy reduces length of stay. Covid is now a long way from being an important cause of mortality [in the UK],” the Nervtag scientist tweeted.'

Let’s hope they apply this same calm and measured approach to lifting lock downs and restrictions.  Also it’d be good to know if there’s any breakthrough cases in vaccinated individuals and what the numbers are like. I agree that as the virus mutates it’s likely to become less virulent but more transmissible so the new numbers should not be a cause for undue panic.

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Anyway, forget about playing a gig (that isn't going to happen until the end of the year at the earliest), but at least I've got a rehearsal with one band next week, with rehearsals for the covers band due to resume in the next couple of weeks or so! 

I've been charting out a few songs for next week today - just need to change strings that have been on for 18 months or so and change batteries in a couple of active basses, etc... 

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17 hours ago, peteb said:

Anyway, forget about playing a gig (that isn't going to happen until the end of the year at the earliest)

Great you're rehearsing, but why turn down gigs from your regular venues before year end if they came calling?

A couple of our BC mates are already hard at it (e.g. @bassfan , @walshy etc) - not in a Matt Hancock way, I hasten to add...

Edited by Al Krow
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3 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Great you're rehearsing, but why turn down gigs from your regular venues before year end if they came calling? ...

Some folk are more cautious, for whatever reason, concerning the risks of catching or spreading this virus. :|

Edited by Dad3353
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6 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

Some folk are more cautious, for whatever reason, concerning the risks of catching or spreading this virus. :|

Yup that's fair enough - we all have different attitudes to risk (as was very clear from the "spare amps" and "spare basses" threads; although to my shame I've since buckled and spent £200 on a spare amp now! But it still won't be making its way to gigs as a "spare" other than possibly distant weddings...)

Edited by Al Krow
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1 minute ago, Al Krow said:

Great you're rehearsing, but why turn down gigs from your regular venues before year end if they came calling?

A couple of our BC mates are already hard at it (e.g. @bassfan , @walshy etc) - not a Matt Hancock way, I hasten to add...

The pub covers band isn't ready and has to rehearse up a set / learn enough songs to play live. Most of the decent local venues are pretty booked up now, so the earliest we are realistically going to be ready is the back end of the year for any cancellations and start booking gigs for next year. 

The originals band will only play supports for better known bands of a similar genre, so we have to wait for those types of bands to start doing club tours again and hope that we can pick up some supports. Not sure what is happening with the Magnum tribute - we've been offered a couple of gigs but there has been a lineup change, which means quite a lot of work to rehearse it back up to the standard it was. The idea is that we are putting it on ice until next year to see if it is still viable to carry on. 

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1 minute ago, Al Krow said:

I guess that's kinda positive that venues haven't lost their appetite for hosting live music.

I don't think that they have at all. Hopefully there might even be a bit of a bounce with punters having missed seeing bands throughout the pandemic. Let's hope that it lasts... 

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5 minutes ago, peteb said:

I don't think that they have at all. Hopefully there might even be a bit of a bounce with punters having missed seeing bands throughout the pandemic. Let's hope that it lasts... 

I know I'm a glass half full guy...but I can't see people losing their love for live music, or a good Friday / Saturday night out with a paid (hehe) covers band. 

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3 hours ago, Al Krow said:

I know I'm a glass half full guy...but I can't see people losing their love for live music, or a good Friday / Saturday night out with a paid (hehe) covers band. 

Not worried about people losing their love for live music, just that where I live over half of the places to play have closed down over the last 5 years before the pandemic, not sure what the situation is going to be like when we get back

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I've played four gigs with two different bands over the last two or three weeks, have two more next week, another the week after, and all have been very well received. The audiences seemed pleased that live music was back on the menu.

Edited by FinnDave
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22 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Not worried about people losing their love for live music, just that where I live over half of the places to play have closed down over the last 5 years before the pandemic, not sure what the situation is going to be like when we get back

If there's a demand, I would suppose that venues would open to accommodate that demand. It might take a little time, though, and may well be a bit different to pre-covid days. B|

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13 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

If there's a demand, I would suppose that venues would open to accommodate that demand. It might take a little time, though, and may well be a bit different to pre-covid days. B|

Obviously there isn't much demand or all the venues wouldn't have been closing down.

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Yeah I don't think anyone has lost the love of live music it's just having access to venues who can actually put live music on! I know our main pub gig hasn't started to have bands yet and when they do we'll happily play all the slots we can reasonably accommodate. As we fit the 'niche' of the venue we are one of the main weekend bands (definitely a result of circumstance rather than talent) but are tentatively aiming for late in the year before we can consider gigs being a regular occurrence which is killing me as I have a new drive pedal which sounds great and I really want to play it live at volume with my drummer. It sounds so good in my front room and I know it's gonna work for me live *sigh*

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1 hour ago, dand666 said:

Already done a few weddings over the last couple of weeks, and I've got no Saturdays free now until October!

Thank god, it's been a rough 18 months. 

Fantastic! How long has your function band been going? (Any uploaded footage?)

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Just now, Al Krow said:

Fantastic! How long has your function band been going? (Any uploaded footage?)

Was on ships, then on the dep scene for a couple of years, then managed to get a permanent position in a band. The usual function band off of Alive. 

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I should say I’m based in Scotland and things are  moving differently in different parts of the country. It’s good to see folks getting back out. I know I miss gigs as a punter as much as I do as a player.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Had a practice in Thursday. Was actually a good practice,  it just because we actually played well, or because I was testing out my new mustang, but also because at the end of each song we got a round of applause from the people in the beer garden! We have had worse audiences at gigs!

anyway, we have a gig next week, unlockdown permitting but the guitarist didn't want to do it as it was inside and he hasn't had all his jabs. So no problem, tell us and we can get someone to cover. So after a bit of prodding he says he isn't happy to do it so we get another guitarist we will work with this week and come up with something to cover - we have cancelled the last two gigs at short notice, so don't want to do again.

so tell the guitarist we have it covered so he has decided to step down as he isn't ready to play gigs inside again. Our next 2 are outside, but there you go.

hope we can work another guitarist in somehow

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Restrictions being lifted in the UK will last max. 2 weeks.
Been there done that. Amounts of infections are now the worst since the start of the pandemic over here. Keep wearing face masks and don't go anywhere crowded.

There is no hope.

 

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We have to live with this. If the vaccine is effective and enough people get jabbed we will pull through. This is the only time I have agreed 100% with Boris. Take the precautions that make you happy but give others their lives back!

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39 minutes ago, DiMarco said:

Restrictions being lifted in the UK will last max. 2 weeks.
Been there done that. Amounts of infections are now the worst since the start of the pandemic over here. Keep wearing face masks and don't go anywhere crowded.

There is no hope.

Lol! How much are you willing to bet that we close down after 2 weeks? We can give the money to a charity supported by BC.

Edited by Al Krow
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21 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Lol! How much are you willing to bet that we close down after 2 weeks? We can give the money to a charity supported by BC.

I think @DiMarco is going on actual experience of what happened in the Netherlands. Of course the U.K. wont be in restrictions again in two weeks - even if all the science says we should be we know it will take our glorious leaders a month or so to make the decision. 

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