How was your gig last night?

[Bluewine]

8 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I'd be looking but don't jump unless you are sure.

 

Maybe just go on Facebook and look for bands needing a regular dep.

 

 

I'm won't jump ship yet Stub. I do think it would be nice to investigate dep opportunities. 

 

Thanks Stub

 

Daryl

[dmccombe7]

4 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Thanks Pete,

 

The lack of a good drummer concerns me, but should I be worried about something out of my control at my age ?

 

Maybe I'll stick with it. Maybe I'm overreacting to the bad gig last night.

 

Daryl

Just how bad was the gig Daryl ?

Was it simply you picking up on some minor mistakes that an audience wouldn't notice or was it a major failing somewhere.

My apologies but i seem to have missed your gig post on this and just catching up on things now so i'll go back and have a search for it.

I know i hear mistakes on stage but just carry on and play the "jazz version" and no-one will notice as long as you look confident on stage or just laugh it off and the audience will go along with it.

This is live music and sometimes mistooks happen.

Most audiences will accept the occasional mistake IME.

Dave

[casapete]

5 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Thanks Pete,

 

The lack of a good drummer concerns me, but should I be worried about something out of my control at my age ?

 

Maybe I'll stick with it. Maybe I'm overreacting to the bad gig last night.

 

Daryl

I think you’ve probably already answered your own question Daryl - don’t worry about stuff you can’t do anything about. From some of your previous gig reports, you do sometimes seem hard on yourself and the band if things aren’t as perfect as you think, so maybe try to let the small stuff go and just enjoy it? You’re obviously an experienced player who understands your band’s way of gigging, and if the rest of them don’t think there are any serious issues then just go with it. 
Of course you can always keep an eye on anything else that may be presenting itself in the meantime……😉

[Stub Mandrel]

I missed a gig tonight as I was having a meal with a cousin I've only seen twice in a quarter century.

 

They ended up cancelling as our rhythm guitarist found one of his horses dead this evening (😨) and was understandably not up to the gig and it wouldn't have been fair on the deps.

[Bluewine]

2 hours ago, casapete said:

I think you’ve probably already answered your own question Daryl - don’t worry about stuff you can’t do anything about. From some of your previous gig reports, you do sometimes seem hard on yourself and the band if things aren’t as perfect as you think, so maybe try to let the small stuff go and just enjoy it? You’re obviously an experienced player who understands your band’s way of gigging, and if the rest of them don’t think there are any serious issues then just go with it. 
Of course you can always keep an eye on anything else that may be presenting itself in the meantime……😉

 Thanks again ,

 

I had a bad night. I'll be fine as soon we have a good gig under our belts again.

 

Daryl

[Bluewine]

On 20/02/2026 at 15:59, dmccombe7 said:

Just how bad was the gig Daryl ?

Was it simply you picking up on some minor mistakes that an audience wouldn't notice or was it a major failing somewhere.

My apologies but i seem to have missed your gig post on this and just catching up on things now so i'll go back and have a search for it.

I know i hear mistakes on stage but just carry on and play the "jazz version" and no-one will notice as long as you look confident on stage or just laugh it off and the audience will go along with it.

This is live music and sometimes mistooks happen.

Most audiences will accept the occasional mistake IME.

Dave

 

Hi Dave,

 

I hope it's just me being to picky. We hadn't played together for almost two months. I thought some of our endings were sloppy.  Our lead guitarist was have

Ing problems with her pedal board.  At times I thought the guitars were out of tune. And for this crowd we could have had more dance material. 

 

However, the song flow was good, no dead air between songs. There was always something happening on stage.

 

Daryl 

Edited 22 hours ago by Bluewine

[Bluewine]

On 16/02/2026 at 16:00, dmccombe7 said:

On another side note i've just joined a blues rock band from Edinburgh area. They've seen me play with the Glam band so no audition required they said. They were just happy to get me the BL said. 

Guitarist is a mad Gary Moore fan so that should be fun. They seem to be aiming for that Eric Clapton, Cream, Gary Moore style of Blues Rock which can make for some nice interesting basslines.

Dave

 

 

Sounds cool Dave. Please keep us up to date on this blues rock project. 

 

Daryl

[ossyrocks]

A new venue for us last night, Ruskins Bar in Kendal. A nice music bar in the heart of town, eerily quite at 9pm, but we waited until 9.30pm to start and the place filled up nicely, with lots of people dancing by the end. We used the house PA, which apparently isn't considered to be all that great, but we made it work pretty well for us. They want us back later in the year, and the fee will go up too! I really could have used the 3x10 last night, but I was travelling with the drummer and compromised because of space in the car.

It was nice to meet Ian ( @Pirellithecat ) who travelled an hour down from Ulpha to see us. Cheers!

Rob 

 

[Bluewine]

14 hours ago, ossyrocks said:

A new venue for us last night, Ruskins Bar in Kendal. A nice music bar in the heart of town, eerily quite at 9pm, but we waited until 9.30pm to start and the place filled up nicely, with lots of people dancing by the end. We used the house PA, which apparently isn't considered to be all that great, but we made it work pretty well for us. They want us back later in the year, and the fee will go up too! I really could have used the 3x10 last night, but I was travelling with the drummer and compromised because of space in the car.

It was nice to meet Ian ( @Pirellithecat ) who travelled an hour down from Ulpha to see us. Cheers!

Rob 

 

 

" The fee will go up "

 

That's the best place for fees to go. Lol

 

Daryl

[steantval]

On 15/02/2026 at 22:06, theplumber said:

Well....Back in to The Bungalow on Friday evening and first night of a Mod weekender. Great venue to play! Always a well stocked beer fridge in the green room! A couple of members down,one of the singers was on holiday and we recently lost our keyboard player and also his replacement! To lose one is careless...two is....something! We also have the drummer handing in his notice as he has changed jobs. Decent turnout for a Friday and we seemed to go over pretty well! Sound guy had issues with the bass amp,DI would not work,so he stuck a mike on the cab,then the thing cut out on a song in the second half. But we made it to the end!

Your female vocalist in black is the spitting image of Geri Halliwell.

Edited 22 hours ago by steantval

[Norris]

It was our first time at the 1912 in Sileby and what a great sounding room, with a nice vibe too. They had a low stage in the corner with plenty of room to fit a band on, and more importantly plenty of power sockets in good working order (which makes a change!).

 

The venue also put some effort into advertising the event. We had a room full, but probably 90% were our regular followers. I'd have hoped for a few more locals.

 

With the room sounding so good it probably lifted our performance a little more than normal too.

 

 

We started off with a bit of rock and prog, but for the last set got much more dancy and filled the floor. We had a great night and lots of compliments.

 

Oh, I nearly forgot to mention. The guitarist brought along his old 70s strat which was his sole guitar when we were all poor in the 80s and only had one guitar each. We played together for about 10 years, him on his strat and me on my Aria SB-1000. Well tonight, after much anticipation, he said it left him cold. He struggled to get it to sing and ended up playing the Vintage (brand) thinline tele he'd brought as a spare. He thinks maybe he's just no longer a strat guy, although I did mention he hadn't got the old Marshall combo he used to lug around. At least he still loves the guitar I built for him - a super-lightweight LP Junior double cut copy with twin P90s 😁

 

And look, the lights change colour 😂

 

[Stub Mandrel]

What a sequence of events, but to cut it all short played Three Compasses in Clydach with just one, dep, guitarist. He'd done a lot of prep so only two big cockups... used a capo on the wrong song (I eventually figured out my bass hadn't gone flat and played up a semitone), and left out the key changes in one song where we play a different version. 

 

Great pub venue with playable(apparently!) Instruments on the walls, nice stage area, lights and excellent house pa so ours stayed in the van. My rig boomed a lot (near a corner plus hollow wooden stage) until I cut bass and boosted top and middle. 

 

Appreciative audience with some dancing, all a bit chaotic but great fun.

 

[dmccombe7]

Great venue for us last night with BLOCKBUSTARZ at The Ferry in Glasgow.

Our first time there. The original band that was booked had to cancel and asked if we could fill in for them. Initially said no as they get paid half off what we normally charge. Venue got in touch and we settled on a compromise of a decent fee plus free food and first drink. 

Venue set aside a table for 6 just off the bar area which was the highlight for me. It was good sitting down for a meal and a blether with my bandmates. All very civilised. Food was excellent too.

Anyways back to the gig.

Load in 3pm sound check to be completed for 5pm to allow the support band time to do theirs.

We set up and finished sound check by 4:30pm. Have to say the SE Stewart from Greenroom Studios in Glasgow was exceptionally good and even told the drummer to retune his snare and how to set the snare for optimum effect as drums sit in an alcove type thing below the upper deck of what was the old Renfrew Ferry. He really was top notch and sound both on stage and off was probably the best i've ever had. I could hear everything clearly across the stage and thru monitors. A perfect balance.

Support band was GlasQuo who were all good guys too and easy to work with. Nice listening to a bit of Quo. Bass player was using my rig altho the bass was DI'd to desk and split to my amp as a stage monitor only. Normally i wouldn't do that but the guy replicated my on stage sound to FOH so all good. We don't normally play with support acts because of our costumes and getting ready for the show takes 30mins. Again SE sorted out the full stage when they finished. Two drum kits on stage so that meant dismantle one and pull our drummers kit forward to the front. Fair bit of work but he did a fantastic seemless change-over for us. This guy really knows what he's doing. He literally made our life so easy on the night. Huge respect where deserved.

Gig went exceptionally well only a few mistooks (not by me of course 😉) 

Originally asked to do 2x45min sets or extend it if we need to depending on how change-over went. We opted to play right thru rather than take a break for a costume change from 10:15pm to 11:45pm but we had to cut a few songs out to fit it all in.

SE told us we were first class and that the owners were very impressed by us and expect to ask us back. He said even the staff thought it was a great night and apparently they mentioned that the band were all very nice, pleasant and helpful with them.

Fun taking the gear out at night as tide was out a bit and ramp was quite steep.

Big downside was the parking in Glasgow. 

We could park on the esplanade area at The Ferry only to unload for approx 20-30 mins however on street parking only allows for max 2hrs stay then you need to move outside that zone so we stretched the venue parking to 4pm and then parked across from the venue on a side street. On street parking was £1:80 /15mins so we found a car park that was only £3/hr so £6 for 2hrs then free street parking after 6pm. Its only £10/day in the private car park so that's not too bad and that's what i'll do next time. 

Come April this year on street parking restriction will change from 6pm to 10pm so street parking won't be an option if we return as we would need to move the cars every 2 hrs until 10pm. Its a bit of a joke and not good for the staff that work there. The council are also planning to double the fee for parking. This could kill off the many city centre venues that host live music.

Nice we 1hr drive home with clear motorways and very little traffic.

Usual gear :- Sandberg VM4 with MarloweDK back up. Shure wireless, Keeley Bassist comp, Handbox WB-100, BF 212 cab, Platform boots being the footwear for the night.

SE sent me some pics he took.

Dave

 

 

Edited 4 hours ago by dmccombe7

[Mickeyboro]

Playing ten miles out of Bournemouth in Ringwood. We (Otis Jay BluesBand) are beginning to hit our stride now with our new girl, and the social media reviews have been kind.

 

Played my Sandberg VM4 through Galien Krueger MB200 and Barefaced One10. Perfectly adequate for the acoustics, though I did need active bass boost for a couple of numbers.
 

Notable milestone - played our first band original last night, which was happily video’d by an audience member.

 

Slight gripe - 34 paying punters is probably our lowest attendance at the venue (we split ticket money 50-50). Are people finding the new year hangover is now lasting through February? Three gigs in March, so here’s hoping things pick up a bit.

 

The band are now ignoring my request to wear dark colours (like proper blues people) so I’m retaliating with the b/w pic!

 

Edited 7 hours ago by Mickeyboro

[MacDaddy]

32 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Support band was GlasQuo

 

What a great name for a tribute band! 😆

[BassTool]

Full house at a relatively local club for us. Shotton Comrades last night, easy load in, great crowd too 👌🏼

Zoom B2 four is working well with my simple two settings - basically it's an uncoloured Vigier tone with compressor only, and identical compressor and chorus for any widdly bits 😆 my Cliff Bordwell fretless just goes straight into the desk.

[dmccombe7]

34 minutes ago, BassTool said:

Full house at a relatively local club for us. Shotton Comrades last night, easy load in, great crowd too 👌🏼

Zoom B2 four is working well with my simple two settings - basically it's an uncoloured Vigier tone with compressor only, and identical compressor and chorus for any widdly bits 😆 my Cliff Bordwell fretless just goes straight into the desk.

That's a nice bass @BassTool 😂

Dave

[neepheid]

Last night, played with Nine Lives at the Balaclava in Fraserburgh.  Quite an odd night of two halves.  First half was pretty busy and we had some dancers up.  Second half got a bit quieter, and everyone seemed more reserved, although I did note some head nodding and singing along.  So we got finished, and then, to my surprise given the relative tumbleweed which was the second half, got 4 different folk say to me how much they enjoyed the gig, we were amazing etc.  One fellow bass player too praising my performance - always nice to have one's ego fluffed a little!

 

Gear was Ibanez ATK200 then G&L L-1000 into the usual cubular black and yellow trouser flappers.

 

[martthebass]

Bit of a bitter sweet one for Glam Viva last night at a very nice local private club. We’d played this venue back last November and one of the audience requested we play the same venue for her birthday in February. This was booked, sadly she died over Christmas from a massive stroke. The family asked if we would go ahead with it as a tribute to her memory. We were unsure but it turned into a massive party with lots of happy revellers and even a nice fund raiser for a local animal shelter. The buffet was top notch too which pleased our drummer no end.

Thats it for a couple of weeks as next weeks gig has been cancelled through lack of ticket sales….we’ve all

agreed we won’t take anymore gigs where the organisers are relying on ticket sales to fund.

[dmccombe7]

1 minute ago, martthebass said:

Bit of a bitter sweet one for Glam Viva last night at a very nice local private club. We’d played this venue back last November and one of the audience requested we play the same venue for her birthday in February. This was booked, sadly she died over Christmas from a massive stroke. The family asked if we would go ahead with it as a tribute to her memory. We were unsure but it turned into a massive party with lots of happy revellers and even a nice fund raiser for a local animal shelter. The buffet was top notch too which pleased our drummer no end.

Thats it for a couple of weeks as next weeks gig has been cancelled through lack of ticket sales….we’ve all

agreed we won’t take anymore gigs where the organisers are relying on ticket sales to fund.

Glad you did the show @martthebass nice thing to do no matter how difficult it was to play there.

Huge respect guys.

Dave

[martthebass]

2 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Glad you did the show @martthebass nice thing to do no matter how difficult it was to play there.

Huge respect guys.

Dave

Cheers Dave, much appreciated 

[BassTool]

38 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

That's a nice bass @BassTool 😂

Dave

Yer still not getting it off me Dave 😆🤣🤣🤣👍🏼