How was your gig last night?

[Chienmortbb]

Had the third of 5 Saturdays in a row for us. Another British Legion ( put your preconceived ideas away). Long narrow room next to a lounge bar that was pumping out Sabbath and Ozzy tracks in a belated tribute. 
 

As usual setup was tight and so I had no time to take photos and the better half will not put down her drink to take photos in case it is spiked 

Again the reduction to a four piece means.we are are much tighter and  really enjoying ourselves It is holiday time so the crowd was a little sparse but they seemed to enjoy themselves. 

Edited yesterday at 09:45 by Chienmortbb

[dmccombe7]

5 minutes ago, Chienmortbb said:

Had the third of 5 Saturdays in a row for us. Another British Legion ( put your preconceived ideas away). Long narrow room next to a lounge bar that was pumping out Sabbath and Ozzy tracks in a belated tribute. 
 

As usual setup was tight and so I had no time to take photos and the better half will not put down her drink to take photos in case it is spiked 

Again the reduction to a four piece means.we are are much tighter and  really enjoying ourselves It is holiday time so the crowd was a little sparse but they seemed to enjoy themselves. 

Bingo at half time ? 

Always do that at our gigs in BL clubs.

Dave

[HeadlessBassist]

1 minute ago, dmccombe7 said:

Bingo at half time ? 

Always do that at our gigs in BL clubs.

Dave

 

Just don't wear a hat in the servicemen's clubs - I played for the McCoys some years ago in one and the drummer dared wear his pork pie hat. The patrons were most offended and he was told so. Apparently it's seen as a mark of respect to the dearly departed servicemen to take your hat off.

[Stub Mandrel]

6 minutes ago, HeadlessBassist said:

 

Just don't wear a hat in the servicemen's clubs - I played for the McCoys some years ago in one and the drummer dared wear his pork pie hat. The patrons were most offended and he was told so. Apparently it's seen as a mark of respect to the dearly departed servicemen to take your hat off.

 

Never come across that. I'm a member of two and used to rehearse regularly in a third. Perhsps it's a regional thing.

Edited yesterday at 09:59 by Stub Mandrel

[HeadlessBassist]

4 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

Never come across that. I'm a member of two and used to rehearse regularly in a third. Perhsps it's a regional thing.

 

Yes, I only encountered it once - it almost became an International Incident!

[Stub Mandrel]

I searched the British Newspaper Archive last night and found a tiny ad for a gig by my old band Two Moon Junction (named after a spicy movie) at the 'Newt and Cucumber', in 1993.

 

The extraordinary thing is a pub putting on three live bands for a Monday Night. Things were different then.

 

[dmccombe7]

26 minutes ago, HeadlessBassist said:

 

Just don't wear a hat in the servicemen's clubs - I played for the McCoys some years ago in one and the drummer dared wear his pork pie hat. The patrons were most offended and he was told so. Apparently it's seen as a mark of respect to the dearly departed servicemen to take your hat off.

Our drummer wears a hat most gigs but never had any issues. ?

Might be better mentioning it to him next time. 👍

Dave 

[dmccombe7]

7 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I searched the British Newspaper Archive last night and found a tiny ad for a gig by my old band Two Moon Junction (named after a spicy movie) at the 'Newt and Cucumber', in 1993.

 

The extraordinary thing is a pub putting on three live bands for a Monday Night. Things were different then.

 

Yep i remember the days when you could go see a band every night of the week and they were free access too.

Dave

[WalMan]

28 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Yep i remember the days when you could go see a band every night of the week and they were free access too.

Dave

 

36 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I searched the British Newspaper Archive last night and found a tiny ad for a gig by my old band Two Moon Junction (named after a spicy movie) at the 'Newt and Cucumber', in 1993.

 

The extraordinary thing is a pub putting on three live bands for a Monday Night. Things were different then.

 

Indeed. Happy days when we did loads of gigs and played two sets, 99% originals 🙂

[YellowLedBetterBass]

3 hours ago, HeadlessBassist said:

A lovely crowd, but got a very interesting comment from an 'audient' - he said that he was really pleased to be able to hear all the individual bass notes, as usually with bands the bass is an undefined mess and too boomy - Must be the wooden stage and how people EQ. I blame the flat wound or long dead strings, personally.  🫣

You mean to say the audiences are evolving and they're going to start being able to notice what notes I'm playing, so every mistake I make will be clearly audible? Oh god no.

[Staggering on]

1 hour ago, HeadlessBassist said:

 

Just don't wear a hat in the servicemen's clubs - I played for the McCoys some years ago in one and the drummer dared wear his pork pie hat. The patrons were most offended and he was told so. Apparently it's seen as a mark of respect to the dearly departed servicemen to take your hat off.

 

Same rule here at any Royal Canadian Legion club, you will be asked to remove your hat.

[nilorius]

29 minutes ago, Staggering on said:

 

Same rule here at any Royal Canadian Legion club, you will be asked to remove your hat.

If You want to be still weared with Your hat - please give me Your instrument instead (Your bass).

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, WalMan said:

 

Indeed. Happy days when we did loads of gigs and played two sets, 99% originals 🙂

 

Yep, we were originals and the other bands probably were too.

[neepheid]

Last night, played at Wilsons in Aberdeen with Nine Lives.  Gig went well, pretty busy, decent crowd interaction.  Nice to see a few of my mates came down to support - much appreciated, lads!  Including two guys I met for the first time at a mate's house the night before.  For once, the casual dropping into conversation about me playing a gig the following night paid off!  Playingwise, I played pretty well, no major oopsies, and new song in the set went without a hitch (apart from me forgetting to engage my OD like I said I would, oops).  Really emptied out about five songs before the end though - I guess people had other places to go!  Ahh well, from the start until then it was decently busy.  Good night, really enjoyed it.

 

Gear was the Greco LGB-700 followed by the Epiphone Em-bassy into the ISO standard modular bass rig.

 

[HeadlessBassist]

26 minutes ago, neepheid said:

Last night, played at Wilsons in Aberdeen with Nine Lives.  Gig went well, pretty busy, decent crowd interaction.  Nice to see a few of my mates came down to support - much appreciated, lads!  Including two guys I met for the first time at a mate's house the night before.  For once, the casual dropping into conversation about me playing a gig the following night paid off!  Playingwise, I played pretty well, no major oopsies, and new song in the set went without a hitch (apart from me forgetting to engage my OD like I said I would, oops).  Really emptied out about five songs before the end though - I guess people had other places to go!  Ahh well, from the start until then it was decently busy.  Good night, really enjoyed it.

 

Gear was the Greco LGB-700 followed by the Epiphone Em-bassy into the ISO standard modular bass rig.

 

 

I love your Em-bassy more every time I see it, Neepheid.

[Bluewine]

On 07/08/2025 at 03:17, dmccombe7 said:

yep same as yours Daryl, Blue Burst. It needs a bit more work to get it just right tho. Bridge pick up needs to come up a bit and possibly lower the string height at the nut a little more.

I've had it for approx 10 yrs but just used it at home. Recently decided to set it up properly and try gigging it.

Dave

 

Cool, .my blue burst G&L ASAT is my primary gigging bass. It's a 1994 and I've had it since 2009.

 

Daryl

[Chienmortbb]

4 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Bingo at half time ? 

Always do that at our gigs in BL clubs.

Dave

No Bingo just a 30 minute break. I. Fact my Legion (we played there last week) also fired not have bingo just a cash raffle. 

[Leonard Smalls]

We've just done the first of two gigs today...

We had the 1350-1420 slot at Rebellion Festival Arena. We played there two years ago and the sound was awful, boomy, feedback and generally horrible.

So now they've put the stage facing across the room, and it's now the best sounding room at the Festival!

For the first time in many years I went directly into the PA from my Helix. Our other bass player used the supplied AmpegSvt and Fridge. As a result, he was happy with trousers flapping indistinct mush, and I was very happy with a slightly slappier JJ Burnell-esque tone which suited my far too many notes style.

We played ok, a number of mistakes due to nerves from our two new members and also a serious lack of rehearsal, but I shall eventually beat the songs into them good'n'hard. 

However, audience of 2-300 seemed happy (we were up against 4 other bands in the other Winter Gardens venues, plus the Typhoon and Red arrows flypast at Blackpool airshow.

Afterwards we didn't get a kicking, and even sold some merch...

Gear- Sandberg Basic, Helix, PA.

Shoes - TUK zebra creepers.

T-shirt - original UKSubs Another Kind of Blues from about 1978-9.

[Lozz196]

Excellent, glad it went well @Leonard Smalls

[dmccombe7]

2 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Cool, .my blue burst G&L ASAT is my primary gigging bass. It's a 1994 and I've had it since 2009.

 

Daryl

Been looking at the G&L L2000 models (US models rather than the tribute) They get fantastic reviews.

Dave

[dmccombe7]

1 hour ago, Chienmortbb said:

No Bingo just a 30 minute break. I. Fact my Legion (we played there last week) also fired not have bingo just a cash raffle. 

Yep raffles another one that bugs me and they always run over causing us to start late and either cut the set short or just go for it and the staff can work late 😂

We usually ask if we can play on a bit longer and its usually ok with the staff.

Dave

[dmccombe7]

3 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

Yep, we were originals and the other bands probably were too.

We were 50/50 but working towards all originals.

Every few gigs we'd drop a cover and replace with our own.

Dave

Edited 20 hours ago by dmccombe7

[Marvin]

We had a gig in a tiny tiny pub. I'd gigged there before. It's a pain unloading as the pub is in a really narrow street, not much wider than a car itself and the set up area is compact 🙂.

 

Despite me warning the rest of the pub's quirky location and size, or lack of, they were still a little gobsmacked when they saw the reality 🤣🤣

 

We had a fun gig, lovely pub, lovely crowd (I say crowd in its loosest term considering aforementioned size), we played well and will get asked back. 

 

Result.

[Leonard Smalls]

After our Rebellion afternoon gig went and watched @cheddatom 's band Headsticks - they were, as usual properly excellent...

So following some refuelling with pizza, tiramisu and double espressos we carted our gear 200m to the Washington pub which was surrounded by punks watching Year Zero (decent band!). We schlepped everything (actually, twas only Raph's bass amp, our instruments and cymbals) through the throng, set up and proceeded to play. 

And we made far fewer mistakes - slight speed errors here and there but starts, stops and changes were perfect. Good thing we'd had a rehearsal at Rebellion earlier 😁.

All seemed to go down well, folks jigging about and no complaints when I did unnecessary slap'n'widdle solos. Which was nice!

Gear and clothes exactly the same as earlier, apart from provided big Ashdown combo that sounded pretty awesome once I'd tamed the feedback.

And the rest of the band went to watch Bad Manners in the Strictly Ballroom while I had a Glenfiddich 15yo in the hotel bar...

[cheddatom]

9AM start for me yesterday to pick up the guitarist and a bunch of gear, then a long drive through constant traffic to Blackpool. A bunch of jobsworth's checking the gear at the load in bay which is unusual for Rebellion. One lad stopped me

 

"I need to put a tag on your hardware case"

What's the point of that?

"It's a security measure, it shows that it's been searched"

Do you want to search it then?

"No, I trust you, you don't have any drugs in there do you?"

No mate, the drugs are in my other bag 🤷‍♂️

 

Then the stairs. So many stairs. All the way up to the Opera House to play our first set. It's such a massive stage and they barely even line checked us. The sound on stage was abysmal. They had the guitarists' amp modeller clipping so it was just a horrible fizzy mush. We struggled through but seemed to go down really well. I've seen some footage since and the sound was fine FOH so they must have had separate feeds on the guitar. Very reassuring! 

 

After that were more stairs up to the Almost Acoustic stage. So many stairs. For this "acoustic" stage, the only hard and fast rule is "no bass drums". I'm sure I've posted on here about this before but my work around is to put a mic in a tupperware tub and hit it with a standard kick pedal. It's so weird that they're prefer to plug in this contraption than mic up an acoustic bass drum, but it is what it is, and we've done it loads of times before, so we cracked on. This room is a nightmare for sound. A very distinct slap back echo on everything. It's OK when I'm in charge of the groove but when the guitarist is on his own it can put him off. Anyway, once again, we seemed to go down really well

 

Lots of new fans, sold loads of merch, and had a good laugh. 

 

So many stairs on the way out. Then the lift was broken at the carpark. I was on the top floor. My legs would like a rest now

 

 

Ace to see @Leonard Smalls sounding tight AF, trousers in full effect!