How was your gig last night?

[dmccombe7]

7 hours ago, Staggering on said:

Played a set at a bluegrass festival last night as a trio of guitar, mandolin and DB and we all sing. We have done this before and it went well but the leader and main vocalist was not feeling well and it showed with sloppy intros and endings and some other slip ups that are not normal for us. On Saturday and Sunday we play two more sets but with the full 5 piece band and by that time we are hoping the leader has recovered. Not our finest set but that's just the way it goes sometimes.🙄

Sometimes its hard when someone isnt well but at least you still did the gig rather than cancel.

We played a very busy venue once where our female singer was so unwell she had to leave stage to vomit in the band toilet next to stage area. She carried on until the end and we sent her home right away. We could have played the gig with just the one singer but she insisted she wanted to play it as its her local rock venue.

Fortunately the audience were aware she wasn't well and were very appreciative that the band continued as normal.

Its not an easy decision to cancel a gig so for me i think maybe a little praise for your singer that they didn't cancel and take it as a positive rather than a negative.

Dave

[ezbass]

18 hours ago, DGBass said:

Must admit I prefer the Sunday afternoon shows at this venue rather than late week nights.

If it was anything like the time my band played The Corn Exchange, I know where you’re coming from.

[Staggering on]

3 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Sometimes its hard when someone isnt well but at least you still did the gig rather than cancel.

We played a very busy venue once where our female singer was so unwell she had to leave stage to vomit in the band toilet next to stage area. She carried on until the end and we sent her home right away. We could have played the gig with just the one singer but she insisted she wanted to play it as its her local rock venue.

Fortunately the audience were aware she wasn't well and were very appreciative that the band continued as normal.

Its not an easy decision to cancel a gig so for me i think maybe a little praise for your singer that they didn't cancel and take it as a positive rather than a negative.

Dave

Good point, I hope he is feeling better for tomorrow and Sunday. I tried to text him this morning but over here in the colonies there are places in the northern areas where there is no cell service and that is where he is, camping in his RV at the festival site. 🙄🤞

[WalMan]

Yesterday I was a Punk Pirate, having been to the Brighton Guitar Show with #2 son during the day and managed to avoid an impulse buy of a 72 P bass. It was very nice as was the 73 and the canary yellow 75 , but I just resisted.

 

Having left there around 3:30 and dropped son off I headed over to Emsworth for a little light pirating at Kingsfest.

 

Almost didn’t bother with IEM’s because it was quick turnarounds, but guitar from my usual main band said the onstage sound was a bit muddled, so in the end I set it up and just took a mono aux with bass, guitar and vox and put one plug in and it worked well.

 

Timings for the day got out of sync due to weather and the Fest starting indoors then moving out. Would have helped if the acoustic duo had used the second stage rather than main, so when the compère said “the Pirates will be on in 15 minutes” there were cries of “I don’t think so!” but we were on pretty quick. Still somewhat curtailed of set time, not helped by my right leg going through the stage just before we started so so quick patching required…”I be capsizin’ cap’n” … “‘‘tis but a scratch ya scurvy scum” 🤣

 

Pretty solid set generally. Some flubs, but we’re Punk Pirates, nobody died, and it was generally good. Good crowd up for it and a lot of money made for a dementia charity, so all good.

 

 

Edited yesterday at 01:00 by WalMan

[Norris]

Just back from a sports and social club over in Nuneaton about 12 miles away. There were quite a few in, which made for a good evening, and a bit of dancing in the last set. We've played there before but I think there were a few more in this time.

 

The guitarist had a bit of an off night, making some silly mistakes in songs we've played loads of times. However we were pleasantly surprised at how well Sir Duke came together after just learning our bits at home and then playing it together for the first time in the gig. I love playing with such talented guys.

 

I love the painted back wall.

 

The usual Stingish bass into GT-6B (operated by burgundy suede Converse one-stars) into Fender Rumble v3 500 combo.

 

Passable cheese and onion batch (we ventured from our native cob-eating Leicester into batch-eating Nuneaton) from the bar - only £1.50 - bargain

 

[dmccombe7]

Blockbustarz Glam covers at The Dreadnought in Bathgate. One of my fav gigs to be honest.

Sound check went well and everything sounded great.

Then for some weird reason i started to struggle to hear the bass out front. I had deliberately kept my on stage volume low and assumed the SE was on top of FOH. 

Unfortunately i spoke with my wife at the end and she said she struggled to hear the bass at times. I'll have a word with SE next time we play. He was experienced a deep feedback ring that we couldn't identify and maybe he's dropped the bass FOH to help and possibly forgot to turn it back up. My wee fingers are aching tonight as i automatically play harder when i'm struggling to hear myself. In future i'll be setting my stage volume to suit me if FOH are just gonna turn me down. I always set my stage level to balance drum levels.

Other than that we had dancers from the get go. Only sold 40 tickets but a lot of walk-ins which the owner said was pretty normal these days.

Ended up reasonably busy when we started and the audience remained. We had folks up from Galashiels and some came over from Livingston to see us so we have a fan base out there 😂

2x1hr sets or thereabouts. 2 encores which was nice. 

Odd thing was we had a crowd of Goths in and they were loving it and dancing virtually every song. At the end while loading car I overheard one of them say he's not danced that much in ages and loved it. So that was nice.

It was an 80-20% ticket deal tonight and we did OK with that as we usually do. Back again Sat before Xmas which is always a fun party night and very busy.

Usual gear :-

Sandberg VM4

Shure GLXD+ wireless

Keeley Bassist Comp.

Handbox WB100

Barefaced 212 cab

 

Loving this bass cab. Its lightweight and easy to lift but retains so much depth and the wide angle dispersion means i can clearly hear it if standing right next to it. Only downside is i always find 12's lack the mid punch of a 10" speaker but its still a superb cab and i just need to tweak my EQ  abit more. I am loving the tone i'm getting with this rig.

No more distortion when i play slightly harder now since i dropped the P pick up a touch on the VM4. I can still trigger it if i dig in really hard but i'm trying to play a bit lighter these days to save damaging my wee fingertips on plucking hand.

 

All in all a great wee night and the Pizza from next door was pretty good too.

50min drive home on quiet roads and a nice wee toasted pancake and coffee and now time for bed.

Night night guys.

Dave 

Edited yesterday at 08:49 by dmccombe7

[WalMan]

IEM’s save me from digging in too hard, though that does require whoever is handling FOH to be on it else you’re fine but the crowd is thinking “what’s that bloke doing on stage?” 🤦🏼‍♂️

[dmccombe7]

4 hours ago, WalMan said:

IEM’s save me from digging in too hard, though that does require whoever is handling FOH to be on it else you’re fine but the crowd is thinking “what’s that bloke doing on stage?” 🤦🏼‍♂️

Audience probably think that about me anyways 😂

Our singers and drummer use IEM's but they seem to have some sort of issues at every gig. Probably cheap IEM systems but its kind of put me off a wee bit but i like the idea of no bass cabs to humph around at gigs.

Dave

[Cat Burrito]

We played the fabulous Richard Jefferies Museum in Swindon. A beautiful setting with what I thought was a respectable crowd. I flew back from Spain yesterday so we hadn’t really rehearsed. I think we have it in the bank though. A varied crowd from 3-87yrs old and the under 10s all helped us pack up. Luckily, the other half of my duo is a teacher so he was able to coordinate them so we had no breakages! 
 

Everyone was super friendly and it was certainly one of the more memorable gigs. 
 

[jezzaboy]

17 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Blockbustarz Glam covers at The Dreadnought in Bathgate. One of my fav gigs to be honest.

Sound check went well and everything sounded great.

Then for some weird reason i started to struggle to hear the bass out front. I had deliberately kept my on stage volume low and assumed the SE was on top of FOH. 

Unfortunately i spoke with my wife at the end and she said she struggled to hear the bass at times. I'll have a word with SE next time we play. He was experienced a deep feedback ring that we couldn't identify and maybe he's dropped the bass FOH to help and possibly forgot to turn it back up. My wee fingers are aching tonight as i automatically play harder when i'm struggling to hear myself. In future i'll be setting my stage volume to suit me if FOH are just gonna turn me down. I always set my stage level to balance drum levels.

Other than that we had dancers from the get go. Only sold 40 tickets but a lot of walk-ins which the owner said was pretty normal these days.

Ended up reasonably busy when we started and the audience remained. We had folks up from Galashiels and some came over from Livingston to see us so we have a fan base out there 😂

2x1hr sets or thereabouts. 2 encores which was nice. 

Odd thing was we had a crowd of Goths in and they were loving it and dancing virtually every song. At the end while loading car I overheard one of them say he's not danced that much in ages and loved it. So that was nice.

It was an 80-20% ticket deal tonight and we did OK with that as we usually do. Back again Sat before Xmas which is always a fun party night and very busy.

Usual gear :-

Sandberg VM4

Shure GLXD+ wireless

Keeley Bassist Comp.

Handbox WB100

Barefaced 212 cab

 

Loving this bass cab. Its lightweight and easy to lift but retains so much depth and the wide angle dispersion means i can clearly hear it if standing right next to it. Only downside is i always find 12's lack the mid punch of a 10" speaker but its still a superb cab and i just need to tweak my EQ  abit more. I am loving the tone i'm getting with this rig.

No more distortion when i play slightly harder now since i dropped the P pick up a touch on the VM4. I can still trigger it if i dig in really hard but i'm trying to play a bit lighter these days to save damaging my wee fingertips on plucking hand.

 

All in all a great wee night and the Pizza from next door was pretty good too.

50min drive home on quiet roads and a nice wee toasted pancake and coffee and now time for bed.

Night night guys.

Dave 

My mob is in there next week Dave and as we were only booked a week ago we haven`t had much time to push the gig. Hope folk turn up! 

[Merton]

Had an absolutely banging gig today down in Poole at Country In The Park with Katy Hurt. We opened proceedings and had an absolute blast.

 

Interesting moments..:

I didn’t read the set list so was almost caught out by the first song

My (Dunlop) strap lock popped out during the first song so I ended up having to improvise til

I could sort myself out (embarrassing photo below)

Cris, playing lap steel/acoustic guitar/mandolin kept stepping on my lead so I couldn’t wander the stage as freely as I’d been trying to do. Ironically I drove home via  @franzbassist to pick up his Rockboard Tree 3.0 so I can have a bigger board to fit my wireless receiver… needed more forward planning on my part!

 

But on the whole, an absolute blast of a gig. Very hot, very fun, and I hope we made some new friends. Shoes were the lo top Soul Cals again.

 

Me pretending to play djent when the strap popped out:

The whole band just having fun:

 

[bassbiscuits]

Cool weekend of gigs. Friday night playing bass with Superbad at the Sapcote Social Club in Leicestershire. 
Really good turnout, lots of dancing and good sound.

 

Saturday night playing bass with my own band (the Andy Wales Band) at Bar Dos Hermanos in Leicester. We were all knackered and it was a bit ragged and “seat of pants” at times but still plenty of good bits, a decent crowd and some righteous noises were made by all. Gear for both gigs was a Yamaha BB604 and little Markbass traveller rig. 

Then Sunday, helping our local village guitar teacher with his twice yearly gig for his students (including my eldest lad who’s just discovered Nirvana). It’s quite inspiring to see the youngsters grow as musicians over the few years we’ve been involved. The biblical rain from the morning thankfully stayed away all  afternoon and it was a lovely outdoor shindig in his back garden, with me providing the PA and bass gear, being a general helper and being roped in on bass for one song. 
 

Gig below from Saturday night and Sunday afternoon’s gigs. 

Edited 18 hours ago by bassbiscuits

[dmccombe7]

1 hour ago, jezzaboy said:

My mob is in there next week Dave and as we were only booked a week ago we haven`t had much time to push the gig. Hope folk turn up! 

Can't remember what the band is @jezzaboy ? Is yours the ac/dc tribute band ? 

I think it gets a steady crowd every week but a lot are waiting to the last minute and just paying at the door.

If i've got your band right i reckon it should be pretty busy. Just keep in mind schools finish this week in Edinburgh area so might be a few on hols.

Dave

 

[dmccombe7]

46 minutes ago, bassbiscuits said:

Cool weekend of gigs. Friday night playing bass with Superbad at the Sapcote Social Club in Leicestershire. 
Really good turnout, lots of dancing and good sound.

 

Saturday night playing bass with my own band (the Andy Wales Band) at Bar Dos Hermanos in Leicester. We were all knackered and it was a bit ragged and “seat of pants” at times but still plenty of good bits, a decent crowd and some righteous noises were made by all. Gear for both gigs was a Yamaha BB604 and little Markbass traveller rig. 

Then Sunday, helping our local village guitar teacher with his twice yearly gig for his students (including my eldest lad who’s just discovered Nirvana). It’s quite inspiring to see the youngsters grow as musicians over the few years we’ve been involved. The biblical rain from the morning thankfully stayed away all  afternoon and it was a lovely outdoor shindig in his back garden, with me providing the PA and bass gear, being a general helper and being roped in on bass for one song. 
 

Gig below from Saturday night and Sunday afternoon’s gigs. 

All credit to you for a busy weekend @bassbiscuits

Dave

[Burns-bass]

Did a really lovely gig by the seaside near Swanage and, as well as a large fee, was allowed to order anything form the menu, which included this £70 lobster.

 

Would have been rude not to!

 

 

[Woodinblack]

Busy weekend, after a while of not doing anything. Had an hour slot at a local festival, Party by the Parrett, and got the 6pm slot which was nice. We had played a wedding and a party at the venue, and the guy that run the club liked us. Very well organised (stocked fridge back stage and everything) and handily the two main sound guys were the guitarists friend and one of the guitarists in my other band. We had argued a bit trying to get the set list down, we had been asked to do mainly rock (there was a more poppy band and a ska band on after us, so we stuck to the rock mostly) seemed to go down well and we managed to get it down to 1hr and 3 minutes, so went over a bit, which messed stuff up a bit but not too bad. We had quite a few dancers .

My guitarist / sound guy did a video from the side  

 

 

Today we played a pub, outside, on shingle which is a bit of a pain for getting dust everywhere and trying to stand your drink up. Also not good for wasps (or well, good depending on if you are a wasp or not!), back to the normal 2.5 hour set. To be honest I wasn't really feeling it as my hand hurt for some reason but it went well with only a few notable mistakes, like going to do the organ backing section of Brick in the wall, and not realising I didn't change my patch from the backing track of Baker street (which is like a bell), which was quite amusing. 

We had a request for timber which we hadn't done for a year or so but the singer couldn't remember how to play it!

 

Glad to get back to work tomorrow for a rest!

 

 

 

 

 

[Staggering on]

Finished up at the bluegrass festival this afternoon in very heavy rain. Full 5 piece band and we had a good rehearsal before our set and then found out it was shortened to 30 minutes instead of the normal 45-55 minutes. Not much playing and a two hour drive each way. Yesterday we played at noon and the band was in good form and we were very tight and did a beautiful version of Seven Bridges Road, the acapella part was wonderful four part harmony, a good set and the crowd enjoyed it and our leader and lead vocal was back in good health. 

Usual festival set up, Czech DB with Nux wireless into Traynor amp and DI to PA, excellent sound guys and we sounded good.

Edited 15 hours ago by Staggering on

[dmccombe7]

9 hours ago, Burns-bass said:

Did a really lovely gig by the seaside near Swanage and, as well as a large fee, was allowed to order anything form the menu, which included this £70 lobster.

 

Would have been rude not to!

 

 

Jings i was just talking to my wife about celebrating our 30th Anniversary with a lobster dinner somewhere if i can find a restaurant that sells them.

I do like lobster you lucky sod. 

Dave

[mikebass456]

Our gig Saturday night was expected to be a bit of a muted affair, due to a range of other events happening in the area the same night.

While we did lose a few of our usual following to these, it turned out to be a busy night after all, with plenty of new faces (and future followers).

These included one bloke who I know from our village who never knew I was in a band, but had us recommended to him by the postman who regularly attends our gigs.

Also there was someone I'd not seen since leaving school!

Gig wise, the usual two 45 minutes sets of the British 76-82 punk classics - first outing for Stay Free by The Clash was a bit wobbly but well received!

Played my shortscale LP Junior DC custom bass through the Orange Terror 500 and twin Isobaric cabs (lurking in the darkness with it's one glowing orange eye!). The Samsamp Geddy Lee YYZ pedal put a touch of damaged/overdriven speaker cone effect into the sound for authenticity, while the usual Dr Martens black safety boots (health and safety at all times!!) kept me the right way up all night!

Next one is in a marquee at a scooter rally in a couple of weeks.....

Edited 6 hours ago by mikebass456

[Len_derby]

Saturday, at the annual Folk in the Woods. It’s the inaugural event of the week-long Ripley Music Festival. It takes place at the Waingroves Community Woodland, a lovely area reclaimed from a coal mining site and managed by local volunteers. My covers band, Top Deck, finished off the day playing 7pm - 8pm. Back line supplied, so I was able to travel by bus with just my Mustang and a few bits. Any money raised goes to the upkeep of the woodlands, so no fees for anyone. However, it was free drinks and food for performers. I got a little bit confused by the paths walking back through the woods to the main road and bus stop. 🤪🍺

 

 

[Obrienp]

Sunday afternoon gig with the covers/original band at the Red Hart in Bodham. We were meant to be playing outside in the beer garden under the newly completed covered area (nice job) but the governor was worried by the forecast of thunderstorms and the likelihood of the rain being driven under the shelter (guess there are insurance implications). It was decided we should play indoors in the dining room but needed to wait until the end of the main service before setting up.
 

I have been to jams and open mics in the dining room and wasn’t too impressed with the acoustics, so I was a bit apprehensive, especially as we had come equipped for playing outside. Fortunately, our drummer plays an electronic kit, so we can turn him down 😀. I had my two LFSys Monzas driven by a Blackstar U700, with a MB LMIII as standby. Basses: Guild Starfire 1 and a custom made P/J shorty. In the end I only connected the top cabinet and the guitarists just used their amps, with only vocals, drums and keys going into the PA. Somehow we managed to get a good sound, according to friends who had come to watch. I had the master on the U700 so low it was almost off but apparently could be heard throughout the pub: testament to the amazing projection of the LFSys cab.

 

Unfortunately, waiting until the main service was over meant that we lost 50% of our audience and instead of a full beer garden, we ended playing to about a dozen people, with some leaving and new arrivals taking their place. The governor said he would normally have a full beer garden but the weather forecast had obviously kept the punters away. We were supposed to do a three hour stint but ended up doing an hour and 10 minutes for the first set and almost an hour for the next two sets. This was largely because the audience was appreciative and we decided to see if we could get through every song on the set list (bit of a paid rehearsal). Despite the temperature dropping it was very humid and with 5 of us crammed into the end of the room, it felt like a sauna.

 

Anyway, we got good feedback from the punters and the governor has invited us back, so not a disaster. No pics: I must remember to take some next gig. Footwear: trainers to cope with being on my feet that long.

Edited 5 hours ago by Obrienp

[Burns-bass]

2 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Jings i was just talking to my wife about celebrating our 30th Anniversary with a lobster dinner somewhere if i can find a restaurant that sells them.

I do like lobster you lucky sod. 

Dave

It was here:

 

https://www.thepighotel.com/on-the-beach/

 

It’s a chain and they’ve booked us for a series of gigs. Lovely people and a great restaurant



 

[Rodders]

Saturday Night party gig in New Wellington Newmarket. 

 

Rock Covers Trio - apart from drunks knocking the boom of the mic stand into the singer/guitarist mouth and teeth several times, overall a very good night, 50+ people, great crowd couldn't ask for better. 

 

I'd decided to go back to a P bass (reverse, no tone pot) after stints using my Dingwall ABZ and G&L Trib M2000, turns out simple is best for me, also went back to the Keeley Bassist compressor after using a UAFX 1176 and struggling with all the extra knobs and choices!
Raised the crossover (Sine Effects X24)  point for my drive from 680hz to 800hz ish and I was very pleased sound wise, my P has the D'addario EXL160BT 120-50 strings tuned to Eb, still plenty of tension and plenty of "heft" through the Tecamp Puma 900 + BF Super Twin set up.

 

Still getting used to filling out the mix since going down to a trio line up. 

[Norris]

I must be really boring using the same kit every gig 😂

 

Sunday afternoon/evening at the White Hart in Melton Mowbray. It was a little bit quiet, possibly due to the Grand Prix, possibly due to being very close to Leicestershire schools breaking up for the summer. Still, we had a decent crowd, plenty of dancing and pointing phone cameras - although not by me because I forgot.

 

Sir Duke was much better for its 2nd (and 3rd!) outing. We also had some great feedback - "How on earth do you make that sound with just 3 of you?" made me smile. Then this morning from a chap that comes to see us a lot, talking about our Mackie SRM450s which only have the vocals going through them, the rest just backline...

 

"Morning Danny,  great gig yesterday.    Just again realised how perfect your PA setup is.  When you first started,  I thought it could do with being a bit louder, Ian said what a perfect sound.   
Later on I went to the toilet,  I listened right from the back of the room for one song. I could hear every note and vocals were absolutely crystal clear.   And it was still loud enough.  
Have to say it now, but even in the barn at Barkby, with all Micks expensive gear it wasn't such a nice sound.   The harmonies just somehow didn't seem as good.  
A fantastic job of entertaining us last night as always,  let the boys know!   
Take care."

 

Always nice to hear that kind of thing, especially as we only ever do a line check. The landlord was telling us about a recent band that took 4 hours to do a sound check - sod that!!! 😄

[dmccombe7]

15 minutes ago, Norris said:

I must be really boring using the same kit every gig 😂

 

Sunday afternoon/evening at the White Hart in Melton Mowbray. It was a little bit quiet, possibly due to the Grand Prix, possibly due to being very close to Leicestershire schools breaking up for the summer. Still, we had a decent crowd, plenty of dancing and pointing phone cameras - although not by me because I forgot.

 

Sir Duke was much better for its 2nd (and 3rd!) outing. We also had some great feedback - "How on earth do you make that sound with just 3 of you?" made me smile. Then this morning from a chap that comes to see us a lot, talking about our Mackie SRM450s which only have the vocals going through them, the rest just backline...

 

"Morning Danny,  great gig yesterday.    Just again realised how perfect your PA setup is.  When you first started,  I thought it could do with being a bit louder, Ian said what a perfect sound.   
Later on I went to the toilet,  I listened right from the back of the room for one song. I could hear every note and vocals were absolutely crystal clear.   And it was still loud enough.  
Have to say it now, but even in the barn at Barkby, with all Micks expensive gear it wasn't such a nice sound.   The harmonies just somehow didn't seem as good.  
A fantastic job of entertaining us last night as always,  let the boys know!   
Take care."

 

Always nice to hear that kind of thing, especially as we only ever do a line check. The landlord was telling us about a recent band that took 4 hours to do a sound check - sod that!!! 😄

I know it might seem boring to post your kit every time but there are so many posts from so many different people that i often can't remember who uses what so i enjoy that little reminder from those that add their gear list in their post. Just adds a little bit extra to a post IMO.

Dave

Edited 4 hours ago by dmccombe7