How was your gig last night?

[Franticsmurf]

3 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Do the speaker stands actually light up? Or is it an illusion?

As has already been said, yes they do. There are LEDs in each leg that can be programmed (with a small remote) for a variety of patterns. I think they look great and, of course, there's the added high visibility which hopefully keeps punter clear. The singer also has a light-up mic stand - it resembles a perforated steel tube about 30mm in diameter with the light coming through the perforations. IN addition last night we had two small LED lights pointing at the bottles. 

[dmccombe7]

3 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

 

You get those AJD lit up speaker stands, looks like that:

https://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Lighting/ADJ-Colour-Stand-LED-Speaker-Stand-With-LED-Legs/27VU

 

That's a great idea. Might stop people tripping over them. 👍

Dave

[dmccombe7]

15 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

£100 tip jar is exceptional here, but the uk is reticent about tipping.

I've never actually seen a band use a tip jar here.

Dave

[colleya]

First gig for 6 months, first gig as a 5 piece and only our 3rd in total for TTFC - a 30th birthday party at The Lescar in Sheffield.

 

Cool place, great acoustics and staff. Went ampless with my Fender jazz 5 into a HX stomp - easy peasy.

 

The birthday girl was the bass player in a previous band with our keys, sax and singer. So the crowd was made up of lots of their mates, a proper home fixture.

 

We played well, I was happy with my end, my improved discipline in practising and staying focused onstage is starting to pay off.  Recorded the whole thing, I'll post some stuff once it's all edited down.

 

Birthday girl got up on bass for a couple of times, so I got the chance to listen to my own band and take a few pics. A great room for photography too.

 

We've already got more gigs coming in, very gratifying after an extended period spinning the project up and getting the set sorted. 

 

Edited Sunday at 21:49 by colleya

[basexperience]

3 hours ago, Rosie C said:

 

Oh, I so need those! Our speaker stands get yellow/black hazard tape stuck on the front-most leg for some gigs. 

 

 

I literally had a first dip gig with Full Flavour last night and they have these. I was wondering where they were from!

 

BTW - if anyone gigs in the Camberley / Blackwater area, Mr Bumble is a nice venue to play - audience skews slightly older, so the classics go down well - and for a 5-piece we got £75 each, so for a pub gig, that's pretty good.

 

Appreciative audience, good beer, and they have 3 pool tables out back, where apparently if the band stops everybody asks why the music stopped, so there's that!

 

Here's the setlist (ignore the key sigs, we sorted that out later :-D) - indication of what works.

 

The Weekend track (blinding lights) was amazing (no rehearsal, first go!) - the keyboard player I know from the Alanis covers band, and he'd spent some time on the synth sounds for it. I'd found a great Moog patch for the C4 synth pedal which swelled beautifully and brought in the texture with harder playing, and it all sounded amazing. Lovely when that happens.

 

Has anyone dug out the tools and adjusted their bass action halfway through a gig? First set (I didn't get the chance to warm up properly) I realised the action was a little high, and after a quick quarter-turn down on the bottom 3 strings, things were a lot less difficult (I keep the neck really flat on my basses). Always take tools 🙂

 

 

Set 1

Let me entertain you 125 E 💯

You should be dancing 125 Gm 💯

Don’t stop me now  151 A 💯       

I’m still standing 89 Bb 💯

Video killed the radio star 131 C#/Db 💯

Cosmic Girl 120 B 💯

Angels  150 E 💯

I feel good 142 D 💯

Dancing in the dark 149 C#/Db - write out the structure

Superstition 100 E 💯

Baby when you’re gone 125 C 💯

Hard to Handle  104 E 💯

Simply the best 120 F 💯

Blinding lights 171 D#/Bb - write out a structure (not a complex song)

Uptown Funk  115 C 💯

Summer of 69 139 D 💯

Set 2

Final Countdown  118 F#/Gb 💯

All right now  120 D 💯

Mama Mia  138 D 💯

Pinball Wizard  123 C - write out the structure and watch for the modulated last verse

Don’t stop Believing (Journey)  119 E 💯

Sweet Home Alabama  98 G 💯

Remember us this way 130 C - write out the structure, not too complex

Rebel yell  166 E 💯

Man I feel Like a Woman  125 Bb 💯

Don’t stop (FMac) 119 A 💯

Proud Mary  171 D 💯

It’s my life  120 C - write out the structure

Highway to Hell  116 F#/Gb 💯

We will rock you  81 D 💯

I love rock and roll  94 E 💯

Bat out of Hell  (Introduce band??)  172 F - DEFINITELY write out the structure - LONG SONG

Sweet Child of mine  125 F#/Gb 💯

Sweet Caroline (Last tune)  63 B 💯

Extras:-, 500 miles  132 E 💯

[basexperience]

1 minute ago, colleya said:

First gig for 6 months, first gig as a 5 piece and only our 3rd in total for TTFC - a 30th birthday party at The Lescar in Sheffield.

 

Cool place, great acoustics and staff. Went ampless with my Fender jazz 5 into a HX stomp - easy peasy.

 

The birthday girl was the bass player in a previous band with our keys, sax and singer. So the crowd was made up of lots of their mates, a proper home fixture.

 

We played well, I was happy with my end, my improved discipline in practising and staying focused onstage is starting to pay off.  Recorded the whole thing, I'll post some stuff once it's all edited down.

 

Birthday girl got up on bass for a couple of times, so I got the chance to listen to my own band and take a few pics. A great room for photography too.

 

We've already got more gigs coming in, very gratifying after an extended period spinning the project up and getting the set sorted. 

 

 

@colleya - interested to know your ampless setup on the HX stomp - did you use an XLR adaptor, or do you have a DI box you use?

[colleya]

 

43 minutes ago, basexperience said:

@colleya - interested to know your ampless setup on the HX stomp - did you use an XLR adaptor, or do you have a DI box you use?

Our resident keys player/tech wizard has a cool solution.

 

He's customised one of these stage boxes for each of us.

 

I take a balanced jack to XLR from stomp to stage box on my pedalboard. Also plug my mic XLR in there. A single cat 6 cable then runs to the desk.  One of the stage box ports has been reworked to act as a return signal, which then goes to my wired IEM adapter (a little Behringer power play). 

 

My pedalboard looks like this (the MXR pre/DI isn't used, it's purely a backup). TBH, I've stripped my use of mid song octave/chorus back now, so I could probably ditch the TC tuner and use the onboard stomp one. Which would mean I don't need the additional FS4/5 pedal either.  Hang on........

 

 

Edited Sunday at 16:37 by colleya

[colleya]

39 minutes ago, colleya said:

 TBH, I've stripped my use of mid song octave/chorus back now, so I could probably ditch the TC tuner and use the onboard stomp one. Which would mean I don't need the additional FS4/5 pedal either.  Hang on........

 

 

 

And after 30 mins of fettling - simplicity.

 

[dmccombe7]

1 hour ago, basexperience said:

 

I literally had a first dip gig with Full Flavour last night and they have these. I was wondering where they were from!

 

BTW - if anyone gigs in the Camberley / Blackwater area, Mr Bumble is a nice venue to play - audience skews slightly older, so the classics go down well - and for a 5-piece we got £75 each, so for a pub gig, that's pretty good.

 

Appreciative audience, good beer, and they have 3 pool tables out back, where apparently if the band stops everybody asks why the music stopped, so there's that!

 

Here's the setlist (ignore the key sigs, we sorted that out later :-D) - indication of what works.

 

The Weekend track (blinding lights) was amazing (no rehearsal, first go!) - the keyboard player I know from the Alanis covers band, and he'd spent some time on the synth sounds for it. I'd found a great Moog patch for the C4 synth pedal which swelled beautifully and brought in the texture with harder playing, and it all sounded amazing. Lovely when that happens.

 

Has anyone dug out the tools and adjusted their bass action halfway through a gig? First set (I didn't get the chance to warm up properly) I realised the action was a little high, and after a quick quarter-turn down on the bottom 3 strings, things were a lot less difficult (I keep the neck really flat on my basses). Always take tools 🙂

 

 

Set 1

Let me entertain you 125 E 💯

You should be dancing 125 Gm 💯

Don’t stop me now  151 A 💯       

I’m still standing 89 Bb 💯

Video killed the radio star 131 C#/Db 💯

Cosmic Girl 120 B 💯

Angels  150 E 💯

I feel good 142 D 💯

Dancing in the dark 149 C#/Db - write out the structure

Superstition 100 E 💯

Baby when you’re gone 125 C 💯

Hard to Handle  104 E 💯

Simply the best 120 F 💯

Blinding lights 171 D#/Bb - write out a structure (not a complex song)

Uptown Funk  115 C 💯

Summer of 69 139 D 💯

Set 2

Final Countdown  118 F#/Gb 💯

All right now  120 D 💯

Mama Mia  138 D 💯

Pinball Wizard  123 C - write out the structure and watch for the modulated last verse

Don’t stop Believing (Journey)  119 E 💯

Sweet Home Alabama  98 G 💯

Remember us this way 130 C - write out the structure, not too complex

Rebel yell  166 E 💯

Man I feel Like a Woman  125 Bb 💯

Don’t stop (FMac) 119 A 💯

Proud Mary  171 D 💯

It’s my life  120 C - write out the structure

Highway to Hell  116 F#/Gb 💯

We will rock you  81 D 💯

I love rock and roll  94 E 💯

Bat out of Hell  (Introduce band??)  172 F - DEFINITELY write out the structure - LONG SONG

Sweet Child of mine  125 F#/Gb 💯

Sweet Caroline (Last tune)  63 B 💯

Extras:-, 500 miles  132 E 💯

I take basic tools with me and my bass soft cases have the respective allan keys in the pockets but i always take a spare bass if one fails.

I've had to adjust the E string saddle on my MIM P bass once but it was because the saddle screws were very loose and dropping the saddle. I replaced the full bridge on it. 

Dave

[Cat Burrito]

First show of 2026 and we played a micro brewery in Calne, Wiltshire. Super friendly staff and great little space. No real walk up (it was on an industrial estate) but we had 4 or 5 groups of people come especially to see us, which filled up the audience. 
 

 

The only low point was when I made a flippant joke about Red Hot Chilli Peppers (who, whilst not really being a fan, I certainly don’t have an issue with) and it transpired that everyone in the venue liked them! The bar man even put them on the stereo after our set! I never criticise other acts normally so I don’t know why I said it, but we soon clawed it back. No harm done. 
 

Afterwards, I was asked why I had six pedals when I only have two feet. A comment that I reflected heavily upon, whilst driving home in my manual car! 
 

We played well and I was pleased we pulled as many as we did. A good night. 

[Stub Mandrel]

Bloody good gig at the Exchange tonight. Left us all buzzing. It was short notice so unrehearsed for ages. We have a big gig at the Earl Haig in February and two rehearsals to sort new material.  After tonight happy we don't have to focus on the existing set. 

[tauzero]

9 hours ago, basexperience said:

Has anyone dug out the tools and adjusted their bass action halfway through a gig? First set (I didn't get the chance to warm up properly) I realised the action was a little high, and after a quick quarter-turn down on the bottom 3 strings, things were a lot less difficult (I keep the neck really flat on my basses). Always take tools 🙂

 

I've had to adjust my truss rod at gigs more than once, although only once halfway through when I realised that there was a slight backbow - however, it's easy with Sei headlesses.

[Franticsmurf]

20 hours ago, colleya said:

He's customised one of these stage boxes for each of us.

I use an unmodified pair of those with a Cat5 cable for longer cable runs to the desk. The DI from the bass and my Mic output goes through it and it tidies up the stage - also lighter and takes up less room in the gig bag.  

[Bluewine]

19 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Bloody good gig at the Exchange tonight. Left us all buzzing. It was short notice so unrehearsed for ages. We have a big gig at the Earl Haig in February and two rehearsals to sort new material.  After tonight happy we don't have to focus on the existing set. 

 

Nice!

 

Daryl

[asingardenof]

Off to the Hartshead Moor WMC on Saturday for a 60th birthday bash. We'd done one of those last year and it was essentially a paid rehearsal with nobody up and dancing really until we were near the end of our second set, and when we saw the size of the party we weren't confident, but this lot were a lot livelier, with dancers up in varying amounts from the middle of our first set, and we went down well.

 

It turned out the organiser, the birthday boy's niece, had seen us before, so knew what to expect, and we pretty much nailed everything right up to the drummist ending our last song Two Tribes two bars too early. Fortunately we were all well aware he can never remember when it ends every time so managed to style it out, although it sounded a touch anticlimactic. 

 

Went with the Siredowsky and trusty ABM into the Two10S, which was probably overkill given the volume dial didn't get above 9 o'clock, which was also good because apparently the club often gets complaints when bands are too loud so we played quieter than we thought we would, but with the bonus that said drummist comments that he could actually hear all of us for once! 😂

 

We politely rebuffed the birthday boy's husband's entreaties to let him buy us drinks, but I gratefully accepted the offer to snag a couple of muffins from the buffet on the way out. Home by 10 and actually got to hang out with the missus for a bit, which was nice. 

 

(We've played smaller stages but this was the first time our singist had experienced a bass guitar to the head so was grumbling a bit)

Edited 13 hours ago by asingardenof

[asingardenof]

On 17/01/2026 at 23:55, Stub Mandrel said:

 

£100 tip jar is exceptional here, but the uk is reticent about tipping.

Exactly, especially in a down-at-heel former mining town.

[tauzero]

Saturday we were at Wilnecote WMC, which is now the home (literally) of Sub Zero. I don't know why, but I seemed constantly mentally off balance when setting up the PA and my rig. Finally got it all together.

 

Took the Poseidon out again today, having restrung it with Elites 40-125. Also started using the Zoom MS-70CDR+ instead of the MS-60B+, as I've mentioned in the open mics thread, as there's more choruses and a better pitch shifter on the 70 than the 60 which means I can pitch shift Sweet Child O' Mine instead of playing it a fret down (I play it with the other band and on open mic nights in D, so playing it in C♯ is going to cause confusion at some point).

 

I think we played pretty well although there were a couple of minor fluffs, and the side dots on the Esh are very small and on a stage without much light from above it's easy to miss your positioning which meant my quota of bum notes was a little higher than normal. Audience was fairly sparse (January and February tends to be) and we didn't get any dancers. Our singer has got a pitch shifter for his guitar which means that the change into Sweet Child O' Mine, our last song, is a lot smoother as he used to have to change guitar for a downtuned one just for that song (the guitarist has a Variax so can pitch shift on the guitar).

 

Gear - Esh Poseidon V -> M-Vave wireless -> Zoom MS-70CDR+ -> Tecamp Puma 900 -> GR Bass AT212. Footwear remains Caravelle memory foam trainers.

 

[Bluewine]

Acoustic gig Friday night.

 

Guys, I'm not good with Legion Halls. I haven't played one in awhile.  In the past they've always reminded me of an Assistant Living Facility or what we use to call Old Folks Home.

 

OMG, and it's a 7-9 show.

 

Daryl

[Norris]

The guitarist just messaged with another gig for the book. He didn't really fancy it so slapped an extra 50% on what we normally charge, and they went for it without hesitation - sweet! A fat wedge always helps the night pass quicker 😂

[Stub Mandrel]

43 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

Acoustic gig Friday night.

 

Guys, I'm not good with Legion Halls. I haven't played one in awhile.  In the past they've always reminded me of an Assistant Living Facility or what we use to call Old Folks Home.

 

OMG, and it's a 7-9 show.

 

Daryl

 

British Legion/Ex-servicemens clubs are a mainstay of local music these days, many are open to all. 

[Bluewine]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

British Legion/Ex-servicemens clubs are a mainstay of local music these days, many are open to all. 

 

I plan on going into it super positive and staying there.

 

I just hope we're a match for the room.

 

Daryl

[Wombat]

Always a nice early finish! 😂

[cheddatom]

We played at Artisan Tap in Stoke on Saturday. It was absolutely rammed, "sold out" and then some! Ace night with everyone singing along. We played just the acoustic songs but that was still over 1hr45. Still, the quieter sound means it's an easier gig for me on drums. At one point I noticed the gate on the acoustic guitar fluttering and had to ask the sound engineer to turn it off. To be fair he's always fantastic, but I wonder why anyone would put a gate on an acoustic guitar in a live situation? They want to strum a chord and sustain it, and a gate will always kill that. 

 

[warwickhunt]

The Diamond - Sutton in Ashfield.  

 

A great live music venue with a lovely family feel to the whole thing.  It was an early Sunday afternoon gig but there were still 70+ Cheap Trick fans in attendance despite a £10-£12 entry fee.