How was your gig last night?

[Leonard Smalls]

We had a bit of a schlepp over to Nottingham yesterday supporting South Africa's finest, The Soap Girls...

It was the first outing for our new guitarist, who rather than humping around some enormously heavy Marshall amp, uses one of those Blackstar Amped pedals as part of his effects board. Sounded great!

And as a whole we were mostly OK - I managed to mess up The Birdy Song (*), but much worse, our drummer managed to play completely the wrong rhythm for our final song which made it impossible to play to. And for some reason we decided to muddle through rather than put our hands up, point at the drummer and say "you've not only let yourself down, you've let the band down and you've let the whole audience down" then restart. Lesson learned! Still, rest of the songs were great - tight, funky and punky - I could hear myself (Parker into Helix/BBE/DBX compressor/Crown Power/Markbass 4x10 and we had folks jumping about in a groovy fashion rather than brandishing  sharpened sticks  and pitchforks! 

The Soap Girls were also excellent - great show despite the gratuitous nudity that was mainly to satisfy a number of slightly seedy-looking middle-aged gentlemen who were far more interested in getting a quick flash than in the music. And their bass player displayed impressive core strength by bending over backwards, unsupported to within an inch of the floor, then standing straight back up! They also expressed jealousy over our 2 bass line-up...

Getting home took 4 hours, exacerbated by the obligatory 2am stop at motorway services to complain about the prices and quality while I smugly reminded them how I'd urged them to come and have one of the fine burgers (vegan and not!) at the adjoining brewery. I'd partaken alone, along with a fine pint of on-site brewed Castle Rock Mild while they'd complained of being full, having spoiled their tea by gorging on junk food on the way. Kids!!!

Anyway, duff Soap Girls pic, none of us available:

[Leonard Smalls]

12 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

I managed to mess up The Birdy Song (*)

Btw, this isn't the Tweets classic (!) but our own "Two Can Play" renamed by me to confuse the band.

[Franticsmurf]

1 hour ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Btw, this isn't the Tweets classic (!) but our own "Two Can Play" renamed by me to confuse the band.

Of course it is. 😉

[ricksterphil]

Birthday party gig in the High Peak, Derbyshire, near Monsal Head. My car packed to the gunnels with all the PA and my gear etc. Went really well as the party guests were all Country music fans and knew most of the words to most of the songs. Cowboy hats n boots were the norm and there was a hog roast which was yum and a bucking bronco which was good fun to watch (none of the band took part).

 

Used my EV subs, recently acquired to match the tops, for the first time and the sound FOH was excellent. Used my go to gig rig of Mike Lull P4 and Handbox R400 with matching HB 1x12 cab which sounded really good and I'm really gelling with now I've gigged it a few times

 

......and the cows enjoyed it. There were two large bovines in the pens next to the stage who were oblivious to the racket we were making and I'm sure they were nodding gently in time to the music 😊

 

[Woodinblack]

4 hours ago, Boodang said:

Don’t touch a microphone and your guitar at the same time! Btw this is how every venue or event is put together here. This is what you walk past everyday….

 

How are you still alive?

[taunton-hobbit]

And in the UK you have to go on a safety course to hang flowers on lamposts ...

 

😎

 

 

[stewblack]

Played a small festival in Wiltshire yesterday evening. Not much money but lovely to play out of doors in the sun. 

We bass players don't get much attention as a rule, but yesterday I had a couple of folk with kind words. The second guy was a keyboard player in awe of the sound of my bass. 

A Harley Benton jazz. He was quite right, it does sound awesome.

[asingardenof]

I the words of the prophets, I had a doozy of a day. This is a long one so tl;dr version is my car broke down on the way to the gig so I got towed there, the gig went great and then I spent all night waiting for the RAC.

 

First gig of the year and we were playing at the East and West Ardsley Social Club near Dewsbury. I was very excited, and even bought myself a new shirt for the occasion.

 

Well, things did not go to plan for me. Half a mile away from the venue all of the warning lights on my dashboard came on, along with a warning of an engine malfunction and I believe the full beam headlights as someone coming the other way flashed me. I managed to pull into a bus layby and turned the engine off, after which the dashboard and lights stayed on but the engine wouldn't start and I couldn't close the windows or open the boot.

 

After resisting calls from the band to have someone pick me and my gear up and abandon my car at the roadside, I suggested if I got towed I'd be able to get my gear out through the backseat and would call the RAC at halftime. Our drummist Mick and a bloke from the club came out with the shortest tow rope ever and a towing eye, and we very gingerly made our way to the venue with me trying very hard not to crash into the back of Mick's Range Rover. Mick took the turn into the venue too tight though, which snapped the tow rope and meant I had to be pushed to a parking space.

 

We were only about half an hour to kick off at this point so I hastily assembled my rig (ABM atop Two10S, with the P-bass used for the first time in a while with my Sire still to receive it's new Sadowsky preamp), and with no opportunity for soundcheck (or "tonight's office" photo) we began. Someone in our following very helpful told us we were a bit loud so we all dropped the volume slightly and all was well.

 

The crowd, other than the twentysomethings in our following, were very subdued and at halftime we debated cutting new tune Club Foot from the second set as it might not go down very well, but we figured if nothing else it would be a paid rehearsal so opted to include it and it went down pretty well. Our second set is a lot more energetic than our first and we were having a great one.

 

We even got three encore calls which was surprising as we usually only manage one, maybe two. I was caught on the hop by Mick launching straight into Chelsea Dagger for our second and just managed to grab a pick in time to start where I should. Then we were demanded to play A Town Called Malice again, so I was a bit broken by the end.

 

Afterwards I resisted further invitations by the band to crash on various sofas as my car was still unlocked, and with north of £1500 worth of gear in it I didn't want to leave it unattended, albeit in a well-lit and CCTV-monitored car park. So from 11pm I sat and waited for the RAC. And waited. Then waited some more, with a final burst of waiting after dawn.

 

Finally the recovery patrol arrived at 7.30 and managed to get my now completely dead car to start off a jump. After dumping all my gear at home I left the car outside a local garage ready to call them tomorrow to get a confirmatory diagnostic of a possible ECU failure. Then it was home for some sleep.

 

Hoping for a quick and inexpensive resolution to the car woes before the next gig in a fortnight. I had such a good day on Friday, but yesterday was a day full of finding out the bonus I'll be getting for getting chartered will now be ringfenced for car repairs.

Edited May 12 by asingardenof
Typos

[Lozz196]

5 hours ago, Boodang said:

Side note from the Islamabad spring festival…. As usual the electrics were a feat of improvisation. Don’t bother bringing your mains tester because as normal there was no earth. The electricians tapped into the floodlighting, the outside insulation of the cable stopped about a foot short of a wooden box with the two inner cables going to block terminals for distribution with no cover. The whole system had no fuses or rcd’s! And extending cables were done the traditional way of twisting bare cable together and adding insulation tape. Don’t touch a microphone and your guitar at the same time! Btw this is how every venue or event is put together here. This is what you walk past everyday….

 

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

 

How are you still alive?

Time to take up acoustic bass methinks 

[Obrienp]

Just finished second of two gigs with Bandwidth (not my idea) at Cromer Folk on the Peer fringe. Both at a small pub with no parking and trickyish access, although load in is through back door right where the band area is.

 

Day one we only had a one hour slot that the previous act (shanty men of some description) kindly ate into and then stood around while we loaded in, left their gear in our space and generally impeded progress. We didn’t even bother with a PA, the area being so small but fortunately both guitarists had brought acoustic amps with second XLR channels, so they sang through their amps.
 

We eventually got going half an hour late, which meant we set up in about 10 minutes, once the previous act had been shepherded out of the way. They promptly left, taking half the crowd with them who were their friends and relatives, leaving behind a completely unresponsive audience, except for some late entrant drunk. We did our hour, not seeing anybody from the next band around but when I opened the back door, I was greeted by their drummer, looking quite annoyed with us and wanting to load in asap. I explained what had happened to us but he didn’t either look at me, or respond during my explanation. I cleared out asap, loaded my gear onto a hand cart and dragged it about a mile up hill to the car park, which cost £5.10 for 4 hours parking. Also Cromer was around 10C colder than the rest of Norfolk, so I shivered through the whole experience having not bothered with a coat..
 

Now, I know this is pretty standard pub gigging stuff but we had to pay for our drinks and we did the gig for free.  One of our guitarists is involved with the committee running the festival. I said I didn’t fancy returning today for our two hour slot but got pressured into it. 
 

Return bout today went a bit better. I still had to park miles away and drag my gear on a sack cart but the previous act had cleared out. This time drinks were on the house and the audience much more appreciative. Fortunately, they switched off the TV behind where we’re standing after the Norwich match finished. We got the obligatory drunk lads who lingered after  the match had finished and took umbrage at our lead guitarist turning down a request for a song none of us had heard of. They then started football chants and taking the piss, so we turned up as loud as we could and rocked our way through the rest of the gig. I then had to sprint back to the car park before the traffic gestapo gave me a ticket. 
 

I don’t think I will do this again next year unless we are paid. All in all, I’m about £80 out of pocket from the experience and it was pretty thankless. 

Edited May 12 by Obrienp

[ricksterphil]

8 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

Just finished second of two gigs with Bandwidth (not my idea) at Cromer Folk on the Peer fringe. Both at a small pub with no parking and trickyish access, although load in is through back door right where the band area is.

 

Day one we only had a one hour slot that the previous act (shanty men of some description) kindly ate into and then stood around while we loaded in, left their gear in our space and generally impeded progress. We didn’t even bother with a PA, the area being so small but fortunately both guitarists had brought acoustic amps with second XLR channels, so they sang through their amps.
 

We eventually got going half an hour late, which meant we set up in about 10 minutes, once the previous act had been shepherded out of the way. They promptly left, taking half the crowd with them who were their friends and relatives, leaving behind a completely unresponsive audience, except for some late entrant drunk. We did our hour, not seeing anybody from the next band around but when I opened the back door, I was greeted by their drummer, looking quite annoyed with us and wanting to load in asap. I explained what had happened to us but he didn’t either look at me, or respond during my explanation. I cleared out asap, loaded my gear onto a hand cart and dragged it about a mile up hill to the car park, which cost £5.10 for 4 hours parking. Also Cromer was around 10C colder than the rest of Norfolk, so I shivered through the whole experience having not bothered with a coat..
 

Now, I know this is pretty standard pub gigging stuff but we had to pay for our drinks and we did the gig for free.  One of our guitarists is involved with the committee running the festival. I said I didn’t fancy returning today for our two hour slot but got pressured into it. 
 

Return bout today went a bit better. I still had to park miles away and drag my gear on a sack cart but the previous act had cleared out. This time drinks were on the house and the audience much more appreciative. Fortunately, they switched off the TV behind where we’re standing after the Norwich match finished. We got the obligatory drunk lads who lingered after  the match had finished and took umbrage at our lead guitarist turning down a request for a song none of us had heard of. They then started football chants and taking the piss, so we turned up as loud as we could and rocked our way through the rest of the gig. I then had to sprint back to the car park before the traffic gestapo gave me a ticket. 
 

I don’t think I will do this again next year unless we are paid. All in all, I’m about £80 out of pocket from the experience and it was pretty thankless. 

 

For bands who take the piss and use up the next bands time slot.......death

 

For punters who get on the stage in the interval and try and use the mics.....horse whipping followed by death

 

For punters who repeatedly ask for the same song even though it's been pointed out that we don't know that one.....pelting in the stocks followed by horse whipping and then death.

 

😊

[StingRayBoy42]

23 minutes ago, ricksterphil said:

 

For bands who take the piss and use up the next bands time slot.......death

 

For punters who get on the stage in the interval and try and use the mics.....horse whipping followed by death

 

For punters who repeatedly ask for the same song even though it's been pointed out that we don't know that one.....pelting in the stocks followed by horse whipping and then death.

 

😊

You're going soft in your old age!

[Greg Edwards69]

We played at a charity football match at Concord Rangers, Canvey Island. We were kindly asked back after playing at the inaugural event last summer. As usual with these type of event, load in and setup was a bit chaotic with lots of people, and the schedule was rather loose, so we finished playing a lot later than expected.

 

Started playing at 6.30 with 2x 1 hour sets, but we didn’t finish until gone 10pm as they held the charity auction during our break (by what I overheard, signed football memorabilia was changing hands for a lot of money which was great for the charity!) Luckily, a lot of people stayed on after the raffle and auction so we still had a good sized (rather drunk) audience till the end of the night.

 

It also marked the temporary return of one of our regular singers, Jenny, as it was local for her and she's heavily involved with the family running the event. She was on great form and was like she hadn't been away.

 

Shoebury Con Club next week.

[Greg Edwards69]

Forgot to add. I laughed like I haven’t laughed for ages over some puerile, schoolboy “band humour”.

 

Whilst we were setting up, the DJ started playing “come on Eileen”. I innocently said, “Am I the only one who doesn’t dislike this song as think we could play it?” One of the guitarists, replied, “maybe, but I wouldn’t trust Liam (singer) not to change the words to make it filthy”. 

 

Long story short, we started putting the word “spaff” into song titles and lyrics (obvs not whilst actually playing them).

 

Childish. Yes. But we found it hilarious. 

[Piers_Williamson]

22 minutes ago, Greg Edwards69 said:

We played at a charity football match at Concord Rangers, Canvey Island. We were kindly asked back after playing at the inaugural event last summer. As usual with these type of event, load in and setup was a bit chaotic with lots of people, and the schedule was rather loose, so we finished playing a lot later than expected.

 

Started playing at 6.30 with 2x 1 hour sets, but we didn’t finish until gone 10pm as they held the charity auction during our break (by what I overheard, signed football memorabilia was changing hands for a lot of money which was great for the charity!) Luckily, a lot of people stayed on after the raffle and auction so we still had a good sized (rather drunk) audience till the end of the night.

 

It also marked the temporary return of one of our regular singers, Jenny, as it was local for her and she's heavily involved with the family running the event. She was on great form and was like she hadn't been away.

 

Shoebury Con Club next week.

Do you play any Dr Feelgood numbers?

[dmccombe7]

5 hours ago, asingardenof said:

I the words of the prophets, I had a doozy of a day. This is a long one so tl;dr version is my car broke down on the way to the gig so I got towed there, the gig went great and then I spent all night waiting for the RAC.

 

First gig of the year and we were playing at the East and West Ardsley Social Club near Dewsbury. I was very excited, and even bought myself a new shirt for the occasion.

 

Well, things did not go to plan for me. Half a mile away from the venue all of the warning lights on my dashboard came on, along with a warning of an engine malfunction and I believe the full beam headlights as someone coming the other way flashed me. I managed to pull into a bus layby and turned the engine off, after which the dashboard and lights stayed on but the engine wouldn't start and I couldn't close the windows or open the boot.

 

After resisting calls from the band to have someone pick me and my gear up and abandon my car at the roadside, I suggested if I got towed I'd be able to get my gear out through the backseat and would call the RAC at halftime. Our drummist Mick and a bloke from the club came out with the shortest tow rope ever and a towing eye, and we very gingerly made our way to the venue with me trying very hard not to crash into the back of Mick's Range Rover. Mick took the turn into the venue too tight though, which snapped the tow rope and meant I had to be pushed to a parking space.

 

We were only about half an hour to kick off at this point so I hastily assembled my rig (ABM atop Two10S, with the P-bass used for the first time in a while with my Sire still to receive it's new Sadowsky preamp), and with no opportunity for soundcheck (or "tonight's office" photo) we began. Someone in our following very helpful told us we were a bit loud so we all dropped the volume slightly and all was well.

 

The crowd, other than the twentysomethings in our following, were very subdued and at halftime we debated cutting new tune Club Foot from the second set as it might not go down very well, but we figured if nothing else it would be a paid rehearsal so opted to include it and it went down pretty well. Our second set is a lot more energetic than our first and we were having a great one.

 

We even got three encore calls which was surprising as we usually only manage one, maybe two. I was caught on the hop by Mick launching straight into Chelsea Dagger for our second and just managed to grab a pick in time to start where I should. Then we were demanded to play A Town Called Malice again, so I was a bit broken by the end.

 

Afterwards I resisted further invitations by the band to crash on various sofas as my car was still unlocked, and with north of £1500 worth of gear in it I didn't want to leave it unattended, albeit in a well-lit and CCTV-monitored car park. So from 11pm I sat and waited for the RAC. And waited. Then waited some more, with a final burst of waiting after dawn.

 

Finally the recovery patrol arrived at 7.30 and managed to get my now completely dead car to start off a jump. After dumping all my gear at home I left the car outside a local garage ready to call them tomorrow to get a confirmatory diagnostic of a possible ECU failure. Then it was home for some sleep.

 

Hoping for a quick and inexpensive resolution to the car woes before the next gig in a fortnight. I had such a good day on Friday, but yesterday was a day full of finding out the bonus I'll be getting for getting chartered will now be ringfenced for car repairs.

What kind of car was it ? That sounds like an absolute nightmare of a day. My sympathy goes out to you but at least the gig turned out good.

What's the point of having RAC if you need to wait until following morning for assistance. Think i might be changing to AA if that's how they treat you.

Dave

[dmccombe7]

1 hour ago, Obrienp said:

Just finished second of two gigs with Bandwidth (not my idea) at Cromer Folk on the Peer fringe. Both at a small pub with no parking and trickyish access, although load in is through back door right where the band area is.

 

Day one we only had a one hour slot that the previous act (shanty men of some description) kindly ate into and then stood around while we loaded in, left their gear in our space and generally impeded progress. We didn’t even bother with a PA, the area being so small but fortunately both guitarists had brought acoustic amps with second XLR channels, so they sang through their amps.
 

We eventually got going half an hour late, which meant we set up in about 10 minutes, once the previous act had been shepherded out of the way. They promptly left, taking half the crowd with them who were their friends and relatives, leaving behind a completely unresponsive audience, except for some late entrant drunk. We did our hour, not seeing anybody from the next band around but when I opened the back door, I was greeted by their drummer, looking quite annoyed with us and wanting to load in asap. I explained what had happened to us but he didn’t either look at me, or respond during my explanation. I cleared out asap, loaded my gear onto a hand cart and dragged it about a mile up hill to the car park, which cost £5.10 for 4 hours parking. Also Cromer was around 10C colder than the rest of Norfolk, so I shivered through the whole experience having not bothered with a coat..
 

Now, I know this is pretty standard pub gigging stuff but we had to pay for our drinks and we did the gig for free.  One of our guitarists is involved with the committee running the festival. I said I didn’t fancy returning today for our two hour slot but got pressured into it. 
 

Return bout today went a bit better. I still had to park miles away and drag my gear on a sack cart but the previous act had cleared out. This time drinks were on the house and the audience much more appreciative. Fortunately, they switched off the TV behind where we’re standing after the Norwich match finished. We got the obligatory drunk lads who lingered after  the match had finished and took umbrage at our lead guitarist turning down a request for a song none of us had heard of. They then started football chants and taking the piss, so we turned up as loud as we could and rocked our way through the rest of the gig. I then had to sprint back to the car park before the traffic gestapo gave me a ticket. 
 

I don’t think I will do this again next year unless we are paid. All in all, I’m about £80 out of pocket from the experience and it was pretty thankless. 

Sod that. Give those kind of freebies a miss next time around. If someone in the band wants to do an event for his mates or somewhere he is involved then he forfeits his own fee but the rest still get paid otherwise its a no go. We have an agreement that no freebies except for band members, not even spouses etc only the band.

Dave

[asingardenof]

2 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

What kind of car was it ? That sounds like an absolute nightmare of a day. My sympathy goes out to you but at least the gig turned out good.

What's the point of having RAC if you need to wait until following morning for assistance. Think i might be changing to AA if that's how they treat you.

Dave

Ford Mondeo.

 

I was very pissed off that they were talking about having a local contractor come out until nobody wanted to and I had to wait for the morning patrol to start. I've been with the AA and they weren't any better from memory, so I might investigate Green Flag or another alternative when renewal time comes around.

 

To be fair I've never had a bad experience with an RAC patrol, it's always the arranging of them to come out that's the major headache.

[Stub Mandrel]

On 11/05/2024 at 21:20, Bluewine said:

 

We do some Susan Tedeschi, John Prine, Buddy Miles and some Tom Petty. Not traditional covers. And our band is very heavy on guitar solos. Traditional covers in my area are the bands that play "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey 

 

Daryl

 

Tom Petty is popular in the UK, but others are less well known.

[Stub Mandrel]

12 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Btw, this isn't the Tweets classic (!) but our own "Two Can Play" renamed by me to confuse the band.

 

Damn, love the idea of a punk birdy song.

[Leonard Smalls]

12 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

punk birdy song

Me too... But it's Toucan Play!

[Stub Mandrel]

Drove back from seeing Phil Campbell then watching pub gig in Narberth over the weekend. Utterly knackered.

 

Bluesfire played Cubanas in Barry, always good for us, as crowd into blues rock and guitar pyrotechnics.

 

As I was getting ready to load (gig less than a mile away) had non-stop thunder for 5 minutes out over the channel. Managed to load as first rain came scattered big drops,  but got in car and then it went biblical.

 

Sat outside venue for 15 minutes until it stopped. Got in, to find guitarist's dad stuck in rain with pa , lights and puncture. Used venue pa and lights (as good as ours, better monitors, but vocals only). Meant a speedy knock down later.

 

Numbers a bit low due to weather, so started 15 minutes late. Numbers picked up to be ok for venue but not as many as we expect. Familiar faces and some new ones.

 

Alex got the crazies and did some mad solos, I played my '76 mij Maya fretless (really overdoing the slides and posing with frantic arpeggios) and Flea Jazz. Alex dropped me into a solo so I got the crazies too.

 

 

On one song Alex called The Hunter. Paul started drumming Walk In My Shadow, and I started the Hunter as Alex came in with Sultans of Swing 🤣 somehow we all settled on Walk In My Shadow by the first change. Another song my high d started feeding  back, in the playout solo so I had some fun with that. Felt like were were jyst having fun while people watched.

 

Despite this, went down really well and we were bombarded with great feedback,  especially for Alex. Several people promised to come and see my other, new, band on Saturday our first gig in  Barry.

 

Walked out on a high, promoter said he'll come to my gig on Saturday too.

 

Nothing for us until July now, but got a good bucket on top of fee, so we were able to stash enough for rehearsal studion end of june and get extra each.

 

Now radox bath...

[Stub Mandrel]

The gear 

 

[Bluewine]

On 11/05/2024 at 16:17, Boodang said:

Islamabad spring music festival finally went ahead. Stayed dry with a 
Modest turn out but everyone stayed until the end and the food stalls were serving up great food. 

 

We have several multi band festivals and fairs booked for summer 2024.

 

Unfortunately modest "turn outs" are apart of the business and something most of us have to deal with. I really struggle with low attendance  

 

Daryl

[Bluewine]

5 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Sod that. Give those kind of freebies a miss next time around. If someone in the band wants to do an event for his mates or somewhere he is involved then he forfeits his own fee but the rest still get paid otherwise its a no go. We have an agreement that no freebies except for band members, not even spouses etc only the band.

Dave

 

Hi Dave,

 

Hope you had a good week.

 

No gigs for me until 5/25 at The Harley Motor Restaurant.  Nice contracts. They do direct deposit. Everything is detailed in the contract, hours, breaks, fee,food and drinks comped and close load in parking. One of the few that do it right.

 

I know there are exceptions.  However I'm also in the "give those freebies a rest" camp. Especially when they get

*" chincy" with food and drink.

 

Daryl

 

* Not sure if that's a word. I stole it from George Harrison when commenting on the $1,000.00 SNL offered to pay for a Beatles Reunion. Lol