The Basschat Bands thread!

[Al Krow]

Thought it would be both really interesting and a great way to get to know each other a bit better, if we had a thread dedicated to the current main band we each play in?

 

So, if you're in a band, please share a bit about:

- your band, its history, whereabouts you're based and play, music genres?

- whether it's an originals band giving vent to a creative streak; or a 

- covers band - do you mainly play at pubs and clubs or do you regularly also play functions?

- or maybe it's a tribute or a church band?

 

Please feel free to share how many gigs you guys are typically doing each year, and how you go about getting bookings. 

 

A video clip / picture is often worth a thousand words 😊

 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by Al Krow

[Al Krow]

BC original bands

 

1.  @Lozz196        The Spacewasters garage punk/rock. Formed c. 2005 years. 10 gigs a year London and south plus a few overseas.

2. @Russ             Earthbound AD female-fronted original metal. Based in NY/NJ, USA. Currently not gigging much - but new EP release just out.

3. @woodyratm   The Julian Year difficult to classify “cyber nu-metal??” Formed 2010. Gigging maybe every few months.

4. @Cat Burrito    Deadlight Dance 2 piece boy-band 80s goth, formed 2020. Wiltshire based. Mixture of covers and original (signed). > 20 gigs pa.

5. @Wilson_51_     Erronaut four piece stoner/doom/grunge c 30 gigs pa - debut album released end 2024

6. @BigRedX       Hurtsfall post-punk/goth/synth-pop formed 2019 Nottingham based c. 20 gigs pa - have released 10 singles

7. @Stofferson     Syncolima stoner / grunge formed c. 2021 Notts / Derby based c. 30 gigs pa - 3rd album out this year & tour in Nov

8. @Twigman      Sad lovers and giants formed 1980 Watford based, gig a few times a year, mostly overseas, Currently working on their 10th album

9. @knirirr           Mingus Tree - jazz 5 piece based in Charlbury, Oxfordshire - been going a long time with a relaxed gig schedule (10 a year?)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 3 hours ago by Al Krow

[Al Krow]

BC cover bands

 

1. @Al Krow     LA Mixtrax Four piece female fronted, formed in 2022. London based. Mixture of pub and function work doing approx. c. 60 gigs pa.

2. @SumOne   Skavana 8 piece: Drum, Bass, Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Singer, Trombone, Sax x2 (alto and baritone) Also formed in 2022. Ska and reggae cover versions of Nirvana & other well known bands. Sussex based c. 25+ gigs per year mostly pubs and small festivals

 

 

 

BC tribute bands

 

 

 

BC church bands

 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by Al Krow

[Al Krow]

Happy to get the ball rolling...

 

My current band is LA Mixtrax. We formed as a four piece (female vox, guitar, bass and drums), at the start of 2022 to play pop / rock covers from 1960s to current and initially were doing mainly pub gigs, but seem to get a healthy dose of function gigs in the diary these days, which are both better paying but involve a significantly bigger time commitment. We're based in London and will be averaging around 60 gigs a year for this year and last. Our pub gigs are generally London but we will travel further afield for function gigs.

 

The current line-up has 3 different lead singers, each of whom we think are great and each bring something different to the party, with the 'backing band' being more permanent. I'm band leader for my sins. Probably the best place to hear us in on Insta- LA Mixtrax, which seems to be a main focus for our social media effort these days.

 

In terms of getting more gigs - the starting point was having some half decent gig footage from our early pub gigs to share with new pub venues, and then investing in getting a showreel done a couple of years back to help us get function gig work. I'd personally say this is a 'must have' for function work - there's a huge amount of very slick competition out there and a showreel is pretty much all a potential client booking you for their wedding or milestone birthday party has to go on.

 

I'd love to get us tighter and better sounding over the next couple of years and increase the proportion of function gigs from around a quarter of the total that we're currently doing. 

 

 

Edited 6 hours ago by Al Krow

[Lozz196]

Well as per my other thread I’m now winding down gigging, but:

 

The Spacewasters - original material, garage punk/rock I suppose. Been going for 20 years, I’ve been with them since 2021. 10 gigs a year approximately, obtained usually by people asking us to play. Used to be only London-ish gigs but now stretch to south coast, plus a few overseas. 
 

 

Knock Off - original material, street punk/Oi. Started 2013, I left 2019 but am back standing in for the rest of this year. They were doing 50 odd gigs a year, all over UK and Europe but have scaled back a bit to concentrate on less but better gigs, these usually obtained by being asked. 
 

 

Thunderkunt - instrumental classic rock covers, a non gigging band, a bunch of old mates we rehearse every few weeks and have a laugh, and play some ridiculously complicated riffs - 70s drugs must have been strong maa-an!

Edited 22 hours ago by Lozz196

[Russ]

Earthbound AD. Female-fronted original metal. Based in NY/NJ, USA. Been playing with them for 6-odd years at this point, we put out an album a couple of years back and have been recording tracks for a new EP. 

 

We're pretty much a band consisting of immigrants - I'm from the UK, Mark, our drummer, is Indian, and Joe, our guitarist, is Guatemalan! Only Jackie, our vocalist, was born in the US! 

 

Haven't done much gigging as of late due to one thing and another, but hopefully going to throw ourselves back into it on the back of this EP release. 

 

Here's a live vid from a gig we did at the end of last year. 

 

EDIT: New track, "Ashes Of Paradise", now out on Bandcamp - will be out on Spotify, Apple, Tidal, etc in the next day or two: 

https://earthboundad.bandcamp.com/track/ashes-of-paradise

Edited 3 hours ago by Russ

[woodyratm]

I play in an originals band called The Julian Year… we got told we were “cyber nu-metal”. Still do not know what that means! We’re difficult to classify. We’re not metal enough for metal, but too heavy for rock. Almost an Electric Callboy / Architects / Bring me the horizon / Enter Shikari vibe. Heavy guitars, bass, vocals but with EDM inspired synths. 
 

We have existed for about 15 years, and went through line up changes with new names and styles often. Myself and the guitarist have been constant. We then got a drummer who we moved to vocals and he’s been a staple. 
 

Currently, we gig rarely. Maybe every few months. Finding gigs is hard!

 

We got played on Alyx Holcombs introducing rock on Radio one. That was cool.

 

We also made a video for that song. Budget baby!

you can also find us on spotters, Apple, YouTube and the like! 
 

 

[woodyratm]

27 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

 

Thunderkunt - instrumental classic rock covers, a non gigging band, a bunch of old mates we rehearse every few weeks and have a laugh, and play some ridiculously complicated riffs - 70s drugs must have been strong maa-an!

Very much enjoy this name! 😂

[Cat Burrito]

I’m one half of Deadlight Dance, Wiltshire’s darkest boy band! I guess we’d be filed under 80s goth. Nick and I met in a Sixth Form goth band in 1989. We did our first gig together and have been friends for over 35yrs now. Here’s a one minute showreel of our greatest hits. 
 

 

Deadlight formed over lockdown as we thought we’d have a jam when restrictions eased, to see if we could play the old songs properly. It just grew. We decided to write together and wound up signed to Ray Records with an album out. Last count, we’d been streamed in 75 countries. I appreciate it’s not rivalling the big bands but it’s not bad for two old mates just having a jam when the restrictions ease! 
 

As to the question of originals or covers, we do both. We booked an old Saxon Church (is there such a thing as a new Saxon Church?) in 2023 and recorded a covers album of the songs that first inspired us. We made a short film about it. 
 

 
We can go out as the “full” band with our backing tracks we wrote or chuck some quirky folk instruments into the back of the car and go out acoustic style. I did the numbers on gigs and it really varies. It’s usually at least 20 a year but it has been much higher. We get gigs whenever the Batphone rings. 

[Wilson_51_]

I am in Erronaut. Four piece original stoner / doom / grunge. Released our debut album at the end of a last year called The Space Inbetween. available on all streaming platforms. 
 

we’re currently gigging a few times a month. We’ve played Desertfest and StoomFest this year which were two bucket list gigs. 

https://erronautuk.bandcamp.com/merch

 

 

[BigRedX]

Hurtsfall have been going in our present incarnation since October of 2021, although we had done a handful of gigs in 2019. The current sound and line-up is a result of the original drummer and guitarist leaving the band and us deciding not to replace them, instead with me switching from conventional bass to a Bass VI and alternating melody and bass parts with our synth player and using a drum machine to replace the drummer:

 

We play originals in a post-punk/goth/synth-pop style, and while we are based in Nottingham will travel anywhere for the right gig. Currently we are doing on average a gig every 2-3 weeks. We've released 10 singles, the most recent of which is "Robert Smith's Eyes":

 

We're currently working on our debut album for release later this year.

 

We'll play anywhere that will give us a gig and pay at least enough to cover our expenses. Most of the gigs we've done so far have been supports or festivals. These are the sorts of gigs that we like since it puts us in front of audiences whom may not have seen us play before. Our singer who is good with people and social media sorts all of this out.

 

Here's a short clip of us performing "Revelator" at a festival last year:

 

 

[Stofferson]

I play bass in Syncolima, we are a Notts / Derby based original stoner / grunge band.

 

Formed at the end of lockdown whenever that was, just trying to ramp things up a bit now!

 

Approx. 30 odd gigs a year,  Our 3rd album coming out in September, followed by a modest tour in November.

 

Played some cool stuff in the past few years, more to come! we're currently signed up with a booking agent / manager.

 

https://linktr.ee/syncolima

 

 

Edited 8 hours ago by Stofferson

[Twigman]

I play in Sad Lovers and Giants

We're based in Watford. None of us live there anymore but that's where we rehearse.

We've been going since about 1980 although I've only been in the band since 1985 and even then not for the whole of that time.

This is our discogs page where all our records are listed. 

Here's our Spotify page where you can hear them!

And here is our merch shop - it seems only 1 of our albums, an EP and a 7" are currently available but hey why not buy a tee shirt or a fridge magnet or even some old skool button badges?

We play almost all our gigs overseas but we don't play very often. Our next booking is at Gagarin205 in Athens Nov 15th.

Last summer we played a large outdoor festival in Murcia with The Mission and The Charlatans which sort of felt like we were going up in the world.

The Dutch film makers who made a documentary about Adrian Borland of The Sound [Walking In The Opposite Direction] are currently making a documentary about us! It's taken them over 2 years so far but they have sponsored 3 gigs in Rotterdam and den Haag (The Hague) in that time so they can secure live footage of us for the documentary. I have no idea when that might get released.

We are inundated with requests to play gigs through our Facebook page but many don't make financial sense.

We have regular booking agents in Spain, Greece, Italy and The Netherlands.

We have toured USA once in 2016 and there's a thread here where I told the story.

We are currently working on a new album - it's nearing completion but currenly doesn't have a name or a firm release date.

Our guitarist is 1/3 of Above & Beyond who have a new album out next week. This is the main reason our output is sporadic and we take up so few offers to gig. He just doesn't have the time.

 

I have posted many vids of us live over the years.

 

The first 30 minutes or so of this shows clips from our early evening set at Visorfest in Murcia Spain last September:

 

and this was the video for our last single (made in lockdown) - It's about time we made another one!

 

 

Edited 4 hours ago by Twigman

[SumOne]

 

 

Skavana....... you guessed it: Ska covers of Nirvana (it's the law that ska covers bands need to have 'ska' in the title isn't it?!)

 

Quite a lot of the set are our ska and reggae versions of Nirvana songs, also some straightforward 2 tone covers, and our ska/reggae versions of the sort of stuff most pub punters know and can sing and dance along to  (Billy Idol, Green Day, Radiohead, The Cure  etc.).  

 

We're an 8 piece: Drum, Bass, Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Singer, Trombone, Sax x2 (alto and baritone). 

 

We gig about once a fortnight, mostly around Sussex - usually pubs and small festivals. 21 gigs booked in for 2025 and a few more will get added. 

 

https://www.facebook.com/skavanaband

Edited 6 hours ago by SumOne

[Al Krow]

8 minutes ago, SumOne said:

 

 

Skavana....... you guessed it: Ska covers of Nirvana (it's the law that if you're in a ska covers band you need to have 'ska' in your title isn't it?!)

 

Quite a lot of the set are our ska and reggae versions of Nirvana songs, also some straightforward 2 tone covers, and our ska/reggae versions of the sort of stuff most pub punters know and can sing and dance along to  (Billy Idol, Green Day, Radiohead, The Cure  etc.).  

 

We're an 8 piece: Drum, Bass, Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Singer, Trombone, Sax x2 (alto and baritone). 

 

We gig about once a fortnight, mostly around Sussex. 21 gigs booked in for 2025 and a few more will get added. 

 

https://www.facebook.com/skavanaband

 

Oooh that does sound like a LOT of fun! How long has the band been going?

 

Edited 6 hours ago by Al Krow

[SumOne]

8 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

 

Oooh that does sound like a LOT of fun! How long has the band been going?

 

 

Yeah, it is fun and I like having a bit of creativity in making new ska/reggae versions of songs that are still familiar enough songs for pub crowds to get into and sing/dance along. 

 

The band started gigging in 2022, I joined in 2023.

[Lozz196]

That’s a great idea, especially the Nirvana aspect, must be bucketloads of fun playing those songs as ska versions.

[Al Krow]

17 minutes ago, SumOne said:

 

Yeah, it is fun and I like having a bit of creativity in making new ska/reggae versions of songs that are still familiar enough songs for pub crowds to get into and sing/dance along. 

 

The band started gigging in 2022, I joined in 2023.

 

Kinda glad our guitarist hasn't discovered you guys, his two favourite genres are...ska and reggae and we currently have none in our sets! 😅

 

Edited 6 hours ago by Al Krow

[knirirr]

As a main band I'd have to say Mingus Tree, which I joined probably 4-5 years ago. Most of the members are based in Charlbury and we mostly play around that area, e.g. at the beer festival or other Cricket Club events such as the Oktoberfest. Also fetes, pubs, and sometimes private parties. The gig schedule is pretty relaxed, which suits me nicely. 

The material is jazz, though the tunes are quite accessible with fairly simple arrangements, catchy grooves (sometimes Ska or Reggae-like) and lyrics to some of the pieces; listeners who "hate jazz" have often told me that they enjoyed our sets. It's almost all original material written by the trumpet and guitar players (who founded the band long ago). 

There's not much I've managed to get on record but there is a video of us struggling through some bad weather at Ramsden fete and a song from a Charlbury gig where I was recovering from an inner ear infection and struggling to stay upright. I'd like to get a proper recording done but never managed it. 

Edited 5 hours ago by knirirr

[Jackroadkill]

19 hours ago, Wilson_51_ said:

I am in Erronaut. Four piece original stoner / doom / grunge.

 

7 hours ago, Stofferson said:

I play bass in Syncolima

 

 

Woah, lads - I'm really enjoying these clips!

[Stofferson]

16 minutes ago, Jackroadkill said:

 

 

 

Woah, lads - I'm really enjoying these clips!

Thanks dude, and Erronaut are sublime live

[Leonard Smalls]

I'm in two "main" bands...

Weeds, formerly Dredd and the Badass Weeds were formed in Leeds in 1985 with members going off in 1986 to do stuff like Utah Saints, Cassandra Complex, New Fast Automatic Daffodils etc, mainly doing funk and reggae extended jams for parties. But we got back together for occasional giggage and recording and finally - last year - produced our masterwork (actually, it's our only work). This got seized on by a Chester radio station who've convinced us to do an actual gig. So we're rapidly writing 5 more songs from our various corners of Europe (West Ireland, Shropshire, Manchester, Sheffield, South of France) ready for our one and only rehearsal just before the gig in October. 

 

Other band is funkpunk with female singer and 2 basses, we're called Choked and have been going for around 5 years. We get together far more than Weeds! In fact we've got 4 gigs coming up including Rebellion Festival. We've got an album and a single with our old drummer...

 

 

[colleya]

My current band is Tea Time Funk Club, based between Manchester & Liverpool.

 

We're a covers band playing chilled out, funky versions of 90s RnB, classic soul and pop - a similar vein to Scary Pockets and Couch.  It's completely different from anything I've done before, a real workout as I have to be much more precise and considered in stripped back arrangements.

 

Four piece - Bass, drums, keys & vocals with hopefully a sax player on the way

 

We've been together about a year - started gigging last March but getting the ball rolling has been slow going.  We've done two gigs with another in August but we're still trying to find the right venues for the stuff we do and then get our foot in the door.

 

Videos: