How was your gig last night?

[Bluewine]

8 hours ago, bassintheface said:

So I've spent the last week rehearsing & playing bass for the excellent (and lovely) Whitney Lyman - a singer songwriter from the USA.

 

I got booked a few weeks back and she arrived from LA last Monday.

we rehearsed Tuesday, then played in London on weds, then a few gigs up North at the brilliant Focus Wales festival.

 

Some recording  got done yesterday and a little more later in the week, then she's back to sunny California.

 

Had  great time, band was sh1t hot and enjoyed it.

 

Used my Jazz basses, Peavey MiniMax500 and my Barefaced 2x10 - good compliments on the sound from the sound engineer too (and the EQ was flat as  a pancake).

 

Plans being made for another visit and some festival dates all being well.....

just need to get asked to do some USA dates now 🤣

 

Now that sounds cool. I wish I had some UK gigs.

 

Daryl

[Bluewine]

13 hours ago, BigRedX said:

Played The Lending Room in Leeds on Saturday supporting The Faces Of Sarah.

 

It's a decent-sized venue with a great PA and lighting system, but is upstairs from a student pub. Every time, no matter what time of year, I have been here, the pub downstairs has been rammed full of students all in fancy dress getting very drunk. It's a complete contrast to the audience upstairs. A slightly smaller crowd than usual, but still very appreciative. Plenty of people down the front dancing. Fewer problems than two weeks ago. The footswitch problem appears to have been solved by a different choice of footwear and the wireless bug stayed firmly attached to my bass. However our singer managed to forget the words to the second verse of a different song to last time. Still sold a decent amount of T-shirts and CDs afterwards. We're close to selling out of copies of "Lost Souls", we have two gigs coming up in a fortnight's time and after those they may well all be gone.

 

As usual gig photos courtesy of Oh My Goth:

 

 

Next gigs are in two week's time first on Saturday 24th May in Bradford at the 1-12 Club as part of the ReVamped event and then on Sunday 25th in Nottingham at The Chapel as part of the Dot-To-Dot Festival.

 

Nice pics. You guys look great !

 

Daryl

[StingRayBoy42]

Remember a cople of weeks ago when I said "For every decent gig I do, there's fifty rubbish pub gigs that make me think "Why do I bother...?""?
Well, I did TWO of them this weekend with the Cantina Band.
Friday was the Meathead's Arms in Sutton Coldfield, hardly anyone there, we played well, my current squeeze came to see us for the first time and loved it, which was nice.

Saturday was a Rugby Club do - we assumed it would be a great gig and it was for the first five songs, then everyone started drifting away and by the end there were about ten people there.
The highlight was going for a wireless wander (out of boredom) and discovering the cheese table at the back - I played half the last song one handed while eating celery and Red Leicester.

Ho hum, paid rehearsals!

Edited Monday at 20:43 by StingRayBoy42

[Mickeyboro]

4 minutes ago, StingRayBoy42 said:
The highlight was going for a wireless wander (out of boredom) and discovering the cheese table at the back - I played half the last song one handed while eating celery and Red Leicester.

Ho hum, paid rehearsals!

Sounds like a brie-ze!

[StingRayBoy42]

15 minutes ago, Mickeyboro said:

Sounds like a brie-ze!

 

It was a Feta-ccompli!

[Norris]

1 hour ago, StingRayBoy42 said:

Ho hum, paid rehearsals!

Sounds like you didn't give e-dam about it!

[Mickeyboro]

6 minutes ago, Norris said:

Sounds like you didn't give e-dam about it!

As in cheese bored?🥱 

[Stub Mandrel]

2 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Now that sounds cool. I wish I had some UK gigs.

 

Daryl

 

If you ever come to the UK I'm sure I could get you a gig or two. Not big money though

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, StingRayBoy42 said:

 

It was a Feta-ccompli!

 

Take it Caerphilly...

[dmccombe7]

8 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

If you ever come to the UK I'm sure I could get you a gig or two. Not big money though

And it would be full if BCers wanting to meet the famous bass player.

If not the other side of the country I'd make the effort to be there with my autograph book in hand Daryl. 🤣

Dave

[BigRedX]

11 hours ago, Bluewine said:

Nice pics. You guys look great !

 

Daryl

 

19 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Always great classy pics you have.

Dave

 

Thanks both of you.

 

However as I always say great gig photos are just as much down to having a good photographer, good lighting and not too much clutter in the "stage" area as they are to the band looking and acting interesting when they perform.

[Bluewine]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

 

 

Thanks both of you.

 

However as I always say great gig photos are just as much down to having a good photographer, good lighting and not too much clutter in the "stage" area as they are to the band looking and acting interesting when they perform.

 

Our manager/sound guy is a fanatic about keeping the stage area clean. So much that nobody goes near him or touches or moves anything until he's done setting up.

 

We can't look at anything either.  

 

Daryl

Edited yesterday at 08:52 by Bluewine

[Bluewine]

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

And it would be full if BCers wanting to meet the famous bass player.

If not the other side of the country I'd make the effort to be there with my autograph book in hand Daryl. 🤣

Dave

 

Something for you Dave when your band comes to the States.

 

Daryl

[Bluewine]

10 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

If you ever come to the UK I'm sure I could get you a gig or two. Not big money though

 

Playing any kind of UK gig would be surreal for me.

 

Daryl

[Len_derby]

1 hour ago, Bluewine said:

 

Playing any kind of UK gig would be surreal for me.

 

Daryl

 

It often is for those of us who live here Daryl! 🤪

[dmccombe7]

9 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Playing any kind of UK gig would be surreal for me.

 

Daryl

I know guys (bands) that arrange gigs in foreign countries as part of their holiday. They hire any gear they might require or they know people there that let them use their gear. You need to have good mates in foreign countries to let you use their gear. I think their mates actually arrange the gigs. Its usually Spain to be fair.

Dave 

[super al]

On 12/05/2025 at 12:13, casapete said:

 😆

 

 

 

Nice looking PA, I inherited a 90s Peavey (I think)...scares the beejeebers out of me when I switch it on.

I reckon when humanity gets wiped from the planet only cockroaches and Peavey PAs will remain...I wonder if cockroaches make good sound engineers 🤔

[Bluewine]

37 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

I know guys (bands) that arrange gigs in foreign countries as part of their holiday. They hire any gear they might require or they know people there that let them use their gear. You need to have good mates in foreign countries to let you use their gear. I think their mates actually arrange the gigs. Its usually Spain to be fair.

Dave 

 

I lived in Southern Spain from 1962-1966. Maybe some of my friends are still there. Lol

 

Daryl

[peteb]

Just now, Bluewine said:

 

I lived in Southern Spain from 1962-1966. Maybe some of my friends are still there. Lol

 

Daryl

 

The plan is that I will be living there in three or four years time! 

 

[Bluewine]

On 12/05/2025 at 15:42, StingRayBoy42 said:

Remember a cople of weeks ago when I said "For every decent gig I do, there's fifty rubbish pub gigs that make me think "Why do I bother...?""?
Well, I did TWO of them this weekend with the Cantina Band.
Friday was the Meathead's Arms in Sutton Coldfield, hardly anyone there, we played well, my current squeeze came to see us for the first time and loved it, which was nice.

Saturday was a Rugby Club do - we assumed it would be a great gig and it was for the first five songs, then everyone started drifting away and by the end there were about ten people there.
The highlight was going for a wireless wander (out of boredom) and discovering the cheese table at the back - I played half the last song one handed while eating celery and Red Leicester.

Ho hum, paid rehearsals!

 

 

This is what I love about BC. The commonalities. Pub/bar gigs are always hit or miss. In my neck of the woods mostly miss.

 

We hadn't played a bar in years but we played one last Saturday night and it was disappointing for a myriad of reasons. I do contend that bands can and probably should out grow pubs and bars.

 

I would call our bar gig last Saturday more of a " money grab" than a paid rehearsal.  Or maybe a little of both.

 

I'm better suited for upscale show case gigs. Lol

 

Daryl

[Franticsmurf]

I had another recording 'gig' last night (I was the engineer). This time a 'band' - actually two 13 year olds with an original metal song but they wanted a full band sound. At that age, I was expecting it to be hard work but they were very mature about the whole thing with the only distraction being the obsession with capturing everything on their phones for later TikTok release. I had to remind them several times that they were paying for the time! Drums went down with a rhythm guitar guide track with only a couple of false starts. The guitar took a little longer and there were a couple of drop-ins necessary as they were losing track of time (the guitarist wanted to re-do the whole track but most of it was fine).

 

The vocals started out being a bit lacklustre (think 'Disney sings metal') given they were about revolution and rebellion, but once I'd got the singer to tell me why he'd written them, and how he felt, the anger came across in the third take. The guitarist also played bass through the house amp which I recorded DI and with the room vocal mic. It was a nice old Ampeg 15" combo - not sure of the model but great sound DI and with mic. We overran the session by about 30 minutes - mostly TikTok video - and we had to stop for a few minutes while the thunder storm raged overhead. All in all a good session and it restored my faith in the younger musicians who are coming to take over from me. 😀

[dmccombe7]

2 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

 

This is what I love about BC. The commonalities. Pub/bar gigs are always hit or miss. In my neck of the woods mostly miss.

 

We hadn't played a bar in years but we played one last Saturday night and it was disappointing for a myriad of reasons. I do contend that bands can and probably should out grow pubs and bars.

 

I would call our bar gig last Saturday more of a " money grab" than a paid rehearsal.  Or maybe a little of both.

 

I'm better suited for upscale show case gigs. Lol

 

Daryl

A proper dressing room. Far better than a cupboard at the side of the stage for 5 to share. 😂

Dave

[neepheid]

Pfft, you guys and your "green" rooms.  Next you'll be telling me you get to play on stages.

[StingRayBoy42]

41 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

A proper dressing room. Far better than a cupboard at the side of the stage for 5 to share. 😂

Dave

You get a cupboard?!

Luxury!

[dmccombe7]

2 hours ago, StingRayBoy42 said:

You get a cupboard?!

Luxury!

Sometimes its a choice between cupboard or disabled toilet. That's when we clarify our contract that states changing room. 

Most venues provide decent changing areas that we can lock and have enough space for 4 guys and a lady. 

Because we all wear outfits for the show we need somewhere secure to leave our normal clothes when on stage.

Some would add that my stage clothes are my normal clothes but that's only at weekends and what i wear at home is my business. (see my avatar) 🤣

Dave