How was your gig last night?

[dmccombe7]

2 hours ago, ezbass said:

Seconded. I mixed a FoH sound once, in a decent sized venue (not a pub/club). All I did was listen to the stage sound, then brought up the individual instruments so that it just enhanced/reinforced that original sound, no thumping/booming bass drum, etc. There were no complaints about the sound not being loud/visceral enough.

Yep that's exactly my thoughts on it. 

Dave

[dmccombe7]

2 hours ago, Steve Browning said:

My gig last night was horrible.

 

I play is a Stax-orientated soul band. The singer (a good fried of ours) has Huntingtons, and the band has existed to keep him gigging. There are gigs when things go ok (never more than that) but last night may have been gig that we all knew was on the horizon. I won't go into detail, but it was horribly below par.

 

Desperately sad though it is, I think we've reached the stage where he is unable to deliver a gig that can be classed as acceptable. In truth, we're probably past that point already, but we've kept going through the bond of friendship. The guitarist is a particularly long-standing mate of his.

 

To complicate matters, the rest of us are a band in our own right that is, dare I say it myself, awesome. We are well known locally (where this band gigs) and we cannot allow the one to affect the other. Tough decision (in some ways) but it is simply a case of the negatives have now exceeded the positives - and there was only one positive really.

That's so sad Steve but understandable. 

All credit to you guys for keeping it going as long as is possible for him, but sometimes difficult decisions need to be made.

As hard as it might be i think you've made the right decision for everyone.

Dave

 

[martthebass]

5 hours ago, Steve Browning said:

My gig last night was horrible.

 

I play is a Stax-orientated soul band. The singer (a good fried of ours) has Huntingtons, and the band has existed to keep him gigging. There are gigs when things go ok (never more than that) but last night may have been gig that we all knew was on the horizon. I won't go into detail, but it was horribly below par.

 

Desperately sad though it is, I think we've reached the stage where he is unable to deliver a gig that can be classed as acceptable. In truth, we're probably past that point already, but we've kept going through the bond of friendship. The guitarist is a particularly long-standing mate of his.

 

To complicate matters, the rest of us are a band in our own right that is, dare I say it myself, awesome. We are well known locally (where this band gigs) and we cannot allow the one to affect the other. Tough decision (in some ways) but it is simply a case of the negatives have now exceeded the positives - and there was only one positive really.

I'm sure he appreciates all that you have done for him Steve.

My current band has stood by me while I've undergone cancer treatment over the last 4 years, I have to admit that it kept me going through the dark times.  I looked to quit but they wouldn't hear of it.  I have always stated they should use a dep though to avoid missing a good gig or venue but so far I've generally soldiered on.  

Maybe one option would be to look at a more part time/smaller scale situation for him to participate in?

As said, whatever you decide I'm sure he'll appreciate your friendship and efforts over the years; good luck going forward.

[Stub Mandrel]

10 hours ago, Boodang said:

Behringer XR18; 16 input stagebox with six monitor and two main outputs. You can control the mix of the monitor outs with an app, so each person using one is in control of their own mix. Each musician has a DI which goes to FoH, the 'thru' goes to the XR18 and the monitors to the IEMs, the mix of which each member of the band controls via the app (doesn't work so well if you have more than 6 members!). Once you've set it up it pretty much stays the same and it's not so bad to cable up.

In the old days, or when we're not using IEMs, we have an amp for each member of the band each side of the drums so at least we have a good mix of every instrument across the whole stage and vocal monitoring is this only major issue.

 

I think one of my bands has this.  Keys uses an app, the rest of us get a videocassette-sized mixer with about 12 physical sliders. A tiny lcd lights up to say which channel you are adjusting. Feels a bit ott for a pub gig but works well.

 

One gotcha - the stand clips on the mixers are too small for Hercules mike stands!

[Stub Mandrel]

9 hours ago, Steve Browning said:

My gig last night was horrible.

 

I play is a Stax-orientated soul band. The singer (a good fried of ours) has Huntingtons, and the band has existed to keep him gigging. There are gigs when things go ok (never more than that) but last night may have been gig that we all knew was on the horizon. I won't go into detail, but it was horribly below par.

 

Desperately sad though it is, I think we've reached the stage where he is unable to deliver a gig that can be classed as acceptable. In truth, we're probably past that point already, but we've kept going through the bond of friendship. The guitarist is a particularly long-standing mate of his.

 

To complicate matters, the rest of us are a band in our own right that is, dare I say it myself, awesome. We are well known locally (where this band gigs) and we cannot allow the one to affect the other. Tough decision (in some ways) but it is simply a case of the negatives have now exceeded the positives - and there was only one positive really.

 

That sounds really tough on all parties. 

[Steve Browning]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

That sounds really tough on all parties. 

He has sent out two emails saying how good the gig was and how so many people congratulated him at the end. Difficult. 

[Jackroadkill]

On 12/08/2025 at 00:02, Stub Mandrel said:

 

That's what we call a shower in Wales 😁

 

On 12/08/2025 at 07:16, Geek99 said:

Wales is famous for its rain frequency, Daryl

 

We could blooming well do with some now; the farm is really struggling for water at the moment.

[Jackroadkill]

12 hours ago, Steve Browning said:

My gig last night was horrible.

 

I play is a Stax-orientated soul band. The singer (a good fried of ours) has Huntingtons, and the band has existed to keep him gigging. There are gigs when things go ok (never more than that) but last night may have been gig that we all knew was on the horizon. I won't go into detail, but it was horribly below par.

 

Desperately sad though it is, I think we've reached the stage where he is unable to deliver a gig that can be classed as acceptable. In truth, we're probably past that point already, but we've kept going through the bond of friendship. The guitarist is a particularly long-standing mate of his.

 

To complicate matters, the rest of us are a band in our own right that is, dare I say it myself, awesome. We are well known locally (where this band gigs) and we cannot allow the one to affect the other. Tough decision (in some ways) but it is simply a case of the negatives have now exceeded the positives - and there was only one positive really.

 

 

That's really tough; I hope you can bring it to an amicable end.

[Norris]

12 hours ago, Steve Browning said:

My gig last night was horrible.

 

I play is a Stax-orientated soul band. The singer (a good fried of ours) has Huntingtons, and the band has existed to keep him gigging. There are gigs when things go ok (never more than that) but last night may have been gig that we all knew was on the horizon. I won't go into detail, but it was horribly below par.

 

Desperately sad though it is, I think we've reached the stage where he is unable to deliver a gig that can be classed as acceptable. In truth, we're probably past that point already, but we've kept going through the bond of friendship. The guitarist is a particularly long-standing mate of his.

 

To complicate matters, the rest of us are a band in our own right that is, dare I say it myself, awesome. We are well known locally (where this band gigs) and we cannot allow the one to affect the other. Tough decision (in some ways) but it is simply a case of the negatives have now exceeded the positives - and there was only one positive really.

All credit to you for keeping it going for him. It's tough to call it a day. Maybe you could move him to more of a cameo/feature?

 

You're good people. It doesn't make you bad people to know when it's time to wind it down or even quit completely. Let him bow out with dignity and head held high.

 

We have a guy that gets up and sings with us occasionally. He's not a great singer by any stretch of the imagination, but the adrenaline of the performance gives him some brief respite from his Parkinsons symptoms. It's difficult to say no when he wants to sing but the situation isn't really suitable.

[WalMan]

On 13/08/2025 at 20:04, Stub Mandrel said:

 

I think one of my bands has this.  Keys uses an app, the rest of us get a videocassette-sized mixer with about 12 physical sliders. A tiny lcd lights up to say which channel you are adjusting. Feels a bit ott for a pub gig but works well.

 

One gotcha - the stand clips on the mixers are too small for Hercules mike stands!

Last gig I connected to our A&H CQ mixer with the CQ4U app on my phone. Pretty much set it and left it with just a few tweaks. Great for me as we were using an electronic kit. Maybe OTT for small pub gigs but I wouldn’t be without it now. Takes a lot less space than having floor monitors and I can hear what I need. 🤷‍♂️

[BigRedX]

Last night was probably the biggest and best gig of the year so far.

 

We played "Twisted Firestarter" which is the InFest Festival warm-up party at Rebellion in Manchester. Six bands all in a post-punk/Goth/Electronica style from various parts of Europe. I did this last year with the other band I was at the time and with drums and noisy guitars we were very much at odds with the rest of the line-up. This time we were the only band that wasn't all synthesisers, although my Bass VI is pretty heavily processed, and musically we were definitely in the right genre.

 

We played second and I was a little worried that the event wasn't going to be as popular as last year when it was noticeably busy from when the doors opened; but this time the venue looked a bit sparse during the first act. However by the time we were ready to come on the bar area was heaving, and there was a noticeable rush of people to the front of the stage as we launched into our opening song. Excellent sound from the foldback and the large stage allowed our singer to really get into the performance. Even though our set was heavily biased towards new songs that have yet to be released, the reception was excellent with plenty of people down the front dancing and singing along, and even managed most of them to light up the room with phones and glow-sticks during "Calling Out".

 

Surprisingly we didn't sell a lot a merch afterwards, which  suspect was partly down to the fact that most of the people who liked us already have CDs and T-shirts and the strange decision for the merch table to be cash-only; this year the vast majority of our merch sales have been paid for by card.

 

The promotor seemed to be impressed so hopefully we'll get some more gigs from him. There were a couple of professional-looking photographers in the audience so hopefully some shots will surface soon on Facebook.

 

Next is a bit more down-to-earth as we'll be playing a small-scale multi-venue "festival" in Newark in just over a week's time.

[asingardenof]

On 13/08/2025 at 01:13, Bluewine said:

 

Seems like that's the way it is most of the time for me. Of course I can hear my bass and vocals when nobody else is playing. Why don't these sound guys come on stage when your actually into the set with their tablets and chrome books and and check the stage sound then ?

 

Daryl

Our sound guy is our keyboardist, but our "soundcheck" usually consists of our singer wandering about the venue with his wireless mic checking if he can hear us OK. Keyboardist and drummer have monitors which apparently all sounded OK, but some sequenced bits need remixing to make them more prominent. I'm thinking I might need to invest in one to give myself a fighting chance.

[casapete]

Two gigs this week.

Wednesday at the rock and roll club was a good one - old friend of ours on drums who

is really easy for me to lock on with, so it made for an enjoyable evening. Some people

in from South Africa who danced most of the night, and were most complementary.

Usual mix of stuff, with me doing what’s now appearing to be a weekly Chuck Berry

medley. As some of them are so similar it’s easy to mix them up, although I seem to

remember Chuck did this too sometimes so let’s just put it down to authenticity.

P-bass Lyte into Hartke 3500 head / Loud 4x10 cab. 
 

Then last night I was depping with some friends in their pub rock band. Bit of a strange

one as they were booked to replace another band who dropped out, and they were an

Irish style kind of singalong bunch! Event was a birthday party at a nice local country pub,

and when we got there I didn’t think it was going to be very good for us. First set only

had a couple of dancers, but after a break the audience loosened up and we had most

of them up at some point. We got a bit loud as a result, but nothing to scare the horses

really. My old mate John Cambridge on drums ( ex- Bowie etc) meant a good gig for 

me. I love his playing and we gel really well, and he’s also great company, very funny ( although

that might not be evident in the pic below where he looks rather serious). Songs included 

‘Missing You’ ( by John Waite ), some Small Faces stuff and ‘Somewhere in my heart’  by Aztec

Camera, as well as some other stuff you’d expect from geezers our age.

P- Lyte into Rumble 500 combo, my go to these days.
Finished around 10.45 pm, home by 11.30. 
 

 

 

 

Edited yesterday at 12:55 by casapete
Photo

[WalMan]

Not a bad night at this evening’s gig. Reasonable crowd. Sound was good. IEM’s set nicely and the ambient mic I put under the kit between hi hat and bass drum worked well for all the cues I needed.

 

Bass was sounding great and everything seemed to be going smoothly until midway through the second set one of our guitarists felt unwell and left the stage to sit outside for fresh air, though he was still not 100% when we finished so vocalist who had travelled with him drove him home.

 

 I used the DAddario mic mute  I picked up last week and it seemed to work well,  though I do go a little boss eyed watching the infrared light go on and off.  I had the proximity set quickly and as well as moving back out of range it was easy to move just off axis and for it to cut the mic. Sound guy said it worked well and was watching how it muted my mic when not in use. May have to invest in a couple more for the other two BV mics 🙂

 

 

[Bluewine]

We played Capones last night. 7-11.

 

A little long and late for me. BL called out songs we haven't performed in years. 

 

I'd say it was an okay gig. I'm ok if we never go back.

 

Daryl

 

Edited 7 hours ago by Bluewine

[Len_derby]

The covers band, Top Deck, played The General Havelock pub in Ilkeston, Derbyshire. A good gig;  ‘ilson’ people can be a bit wary of outsiders, but if they take to you they love you. We never had to buy our own drinks all night.

We played in an outdoor, roofed, area. Showtime was 7.30 until 9.30 as it’s in a residential area. The pub seems to be managing its relationship with the locals well. Home by 10.30 to some cans in the fridge.

 

 

[Leonard Smalls]

Here's a little blast of us being all punky at Rebellion recently...

 

 

[Bluewine]

2 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Here's a little blast of us being all punky at Rebellion recently...

 

 

 

Sounds very good.

 

Daryl

[Leonard Smalls]

1 minute ago, Bluewine said:

Sounds very good.

Ta! It's only mobile phone footage but worked ok...

[BigRedX]

Some photos from Thursday's "Twister Firestarter" gig:

 

 

[dmccombe7]

BLOCKBUSTARZ at Lilliardsedge Caravan Park for the Hot Rods in the Borders weekend. Another great night was had. 3 yrs in a row we've been asked back by the Hot Rods guys which is nice.

2 x 45min sets that ended up a bit longer 9 - 10pm and then 10:15 - 11:30pm.

Very warm on stage, sound wasn't quite perfect but sounded ok out front. We had problems with the drum channels on the desk and decided to just leave them out and play raw along with bass and guitar backline only. Only vocals thru our desk and the venues PA which is always a risky business but it works.

Very busy night, all seats taken with every  table full and standing at the back of the hall. Its actually a permanent marquee tent they have. Nice set up but stage is hollow and does create a boom so used my Gramma board last night.

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

There is some doubt about whether the Hot Rods will run the event next year but organiser for the Park who books us said she would be happy to have us back next year same time provided the event goes ahead. 

Decided to give the Godin bass a run out and it has a wonderfully deep warm P type tone that i have to admit was very nice IMO. It was in PJ mode all night, both pick ups selected.

Godin bass, Shure wireless, Keeley Bassist comp, Mesa TT800 Boogie channel, Mesa SW210/115 cabs. Sandberg VM4 as back up.

Really quite liked that Godin tone tho and its a really nice bass to play with a narrow neck very similar to the VM4 but having that typical old Fender-ish tone it kinda suits the music more than the VM4 which has a modern tone in comparison. I believe Godin had Seymour Duncan produce the pick ups for them.

1.5hrs drive home along quiet country roads made for an easy drive home but my eyes were starting to get tired. Home for 2:30am by the time i unloaded the car, quick coffee and a bit of TV before bed at 3am, back up at 6am with a cat bumping heads with me to get fed.

Today will be a quiet sleepy day.

Dave

 

 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

My dep last night went well. Hardest thing was many songs in different keys. Busy, noisy pub with dancing from the start. Plenty of room.

 

A lot of songs I haven't done live before, a couple of older Beatles numbers for example, and Mama Mia. Cold as Ice by Foreigner and No Matter What by Badfinger are great songs I hadn't heard for ages I really enjoyed.

 

Apparently I was a bit loud in the first half but corrected that in the second. Managed a few backing vocals. Had a message from the band saying I was 'brill' so that's nice.

 

[Stub Mandrel]

2 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

quick coffee and a bit of TV before bed at 3am,

 

That would hae me awake until dawn! 🤣

[WalMan]

3 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Here's a little blast of us being all punky at Rebellion recently...

 

 

Only slightly shorter than ‘Thunderbirds are go’ our opener years ago. A song that had a longer walk on tape intro and generally left pub crowds confused 🤣

[Leonard Smalls]

33 minutes ago, WalMan said:

Only slightly shorter

It's actually a final chorus, after 3 verse and chorus combos before. It's a semi-respectable 1'54", so not really Napalm Death length!