How was your gig last night?

[HeadlessBassist]

Mad weekend with the live tribute show, but on Friday I met up with my webcast friends Mike Brooks and Jaymi (the Pink Bassman) who was over from the USA, and had a nice curry evening with Toby from JayDee in Birmingham.

 

Saturday was a looong four hour trip to Gorleston Pavillion Theatre near Gt.Yarmouth for an Everlys & Friends Live Tribute Show gig. Absolutely packed house and a fantastic evening, followed by getting home at 2.30am.

 

 

 

Crawled out of bed on Sunday morning after far too few hours of sleep and drove to Leeds to play an afternoon matinee show at Yeadon Town Hall Theatre. I was planning to meet up with Mike and Jaymi again this evening after the Nick Smith Memorial in Peterborough, but unfortunately didn't get out of Yeadon until nearly 5.30 and Mike got a short notice gig.

 

I will sleep well tonight! 

 

Gig art: American Performer Mustang under the stage lights behind the side tab curtains.

[Leonard Smalls]

My gig tonight didn't involve me playing at all...

However, I brought my PA and did sound and lights for a charity gig for our local LegClub (don't laugh, you might need 'em one day) by ex Jethro Tull keys Dee Palmer and Labour peer Stewart Wood, with support by a local Dobro and Beefheart Enthusiast...

And due to rain and tiny gazebo (twas outside), didn't even get gear out of car till 1730, punters due to arrive at 1800.

So no chance to set any levels, and all key sounds being completely different volumes meant lots of speculative fader-riding (had to put mixer behind the stage!).

However, all sounded excellent, loads of Tull songs done and crowd happy, plus nearly £1000 raised.

[peteb]

Just had a run of three pretty decent gigs with the Zep tribute. First up was a trip to the excellent Cluny in Newcastle week last Friday. The evening started off with a bit of unwanted drama, as the police had cordoned off the surrounding streets due to some guy threatening to throw himself a bridge overhead (fortunately they managed to talk him down a bit later). The place was packed (243 tickets sold) and the band played as well as we ever have, inspired by a great crowd (we even got a big cheer walking from the dressing room to the stage). This isn’t the first time we’ve packed this place out and the management have agreed to increase our fee for next year! 

 

Fast forward to Thursday night, and a long drive down to southwest London to play an Arts Centre in Carshalton. Another good crowd, although not nearly a boisterous as Newcastle, and another good performance. We were staying a few miles away in Reigate, in a rather dodgy hotel that wasn’t as salubrious as you might hope, but it had the advantage of being pretty cheap! Me, the singer and the guitarist were sharing a room and stayed up chatting until 2:00am with a third of a bottle of whisky and a few cans between us! 

 

A drive across to Essex and a gig in Chelmsford on Friday. When we got to the venue, I checked my phone to see a text from a couple of hours ago, offering me a dep for a blues festival next Saturday. Unfortunately, by the time I replied, they had got someone else! I always like the Chelmsford gig, but to be honest, I felt a bit flat by the time we went onstage. Perhaps not as good a performance as the previous two gigs, but still more than OK to keep a decent crowd happy. Me and the singer (who were in the same car) stayed in a much nicer hotel a thirty minutes’ drive away, while the others made the long drive home, something that I didn’t fancy at all. 

 

PS. The night before we set off, I noticed that the underside of the rear wing of my car was hanging loose. I couldn’t get it fixed in time, so I popped into Lidl just before it closed to get a big roll of gaffa tape that they had on offer in the ‘middle of Lidl’. I fixed it up as best I could in the car park, before setting off the next morning (we did a better job when we got down to London). I did find it amusing that I’m in my sixties, driving hundreds of miles to do a gig in a car held together by gaffa tape, just like I used to do in my twenties! 

 

[MacDaddy]

Yesterday Electrik Soup played at The Hare & Hounds in Claygate, in a marquee in front of the pub (is it still a marquee if all the sides are open, or is it then a gazebo?).

Gig was 4pm to 7pm on a lovely late summer day. It was the first gig that we've used all our own equipment (backline and PA). We had so much gear 😆 all used though. Great sound both on stage and FOH. All was going well until 4 songs before the break "something" happened to the guitarist's amp. Regular readers may remember my previous post in which his valve amp died. This time he had a SS back up so we took the break for him to sort things out.

The first part of the second set was just acoustic guitar and vocals, then we did the remaining songs from the first set, and the remainder of the second set. The guitarist used his original amp and it was fine. He's still going to buy a new one.

We had a few people come to see us, but the pub was busy all day so there was always an audience, albeit somewhat transitory. Lots of nice comments afterwards, someone even wanted to book us for a birthday party. Couldn't do the date though, unfortunately the drummer will be away. 

 

 

Shuker 3 -> Getaria wireless -> Hardwire polyphonic tuner -> Fender Rumble 500 combo.

To the right of the bass combo is the offending guitar amp.

[uk_lefty]

Venue:

Played at the George III in Hoddesdon for their annual music festival on Saturday night. Heard some really good bands over on their second stage, then took to the main stage ourselves before the headline act. 

 

Gear:

Played my Stingray through my Boss ME-80B and there was a Fender Rumble 500 provided. I put the Rumble on the "bright" setting with the EQ all centred hoping that would give me the most transparent sound, then used the amp Sims on my Boss unit. I occasionally used some fuzz or distortion but the rig absolutely sang. I was really pleased with the sound considering it was plug n play and I haven't used a Rumble before, also amp SIMs on pedals can often clash with Amps... 

 

Set:

We jumped straight in with "I bet you look good on the dancefloor" and kept the feel of each song being a 'finisher' throughout. It's a great place to play because you've got a clientele who love their live music and will sing and dance along to everything. No gig photos available yet but I did manage this snap...

[Cat Burrito]

Back with an enhanced version of Deadlight Dance yesterday, and once again we were joined by our drummer from our Sixth Form band, Mike. This was for a street party in the road my band mate lives in.  
 

 

I had my trusty long scale Hofner Verythin bass but was mixing it up with several on the Gold Tone (AKA Goth Tone) Mandocello and even a couple on guitar and a couple on mandolin. I was going through my Boss BCB60 with the Boss IR2 at the end of the chain. 
 

 

I was telling the story of how we filmed our zombie apocalypse video in this very road, in a very light hearted way - see Infectious for details - when that Government text alert went off! You couldn’t make it up and it was a genuine comedy moment. 
 

 

We played well. We picked up some travelling fans from the last gig and even sold a few CDs. It was also an absolute pleasure to hang out with two of my oldest friends.