How was your gig last night?

[Stub Mandrel]

6 minutes ago, Norris said:

it was great to have the whole place singing their heads off to War Pigs!

 

I am always amazed how everyone loves War Pigs!

 

Ten years ago it would have been a floor-emptier!

[Norris]

9 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

I am always amazed how everyone loves War Pigs!

 

Ten years ago it would have been a floor-emptier!

I'm always surprised that young people seem to know the words to Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) by Edison Lighthouse. It was fairly obscure back in 1970 (ok, 5 weeks at number one, but still...)

[Stub Mandrel]

7 hours ago, Norris said:

I'm always surprised that young people seem to know the words to Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) by Edison Lighthouse. It was fairly obscure back in 1970 (ok, 5 weeks at number one, but still...)

 

I'd struggle to get past the chorus...

[ossyrocks]

11 hours ago, Sean said:

I did my first gig with the covers band last night at The Whitmore Tap, Clifton/Redland, Bristol.  It was quite stressful overall especially being the first time with a very established band. The footprint was so small and the layout so weird, we didn't have space for monitors, lights or my mic stand. I had my pedalboard on my amp and had to stand still to not hit walls, drummer and 2nd guitarist with the headstock. The pub has waist-high wooden screens that form booths and the sound was muffled everywhere. The load in/out was horrible too. No parking, yellow lines everywhere. The radiator behind us was red hot and didn't seem to respond to the valve adjustments we made. I was sweating and my fingers were slipping, more than you'd expect for a February pub gig.

 

I told Guitarist 1 that he'd have EQ issues with his cab in a corner and guess what? 

 

No one seemed to know what time we were supposed to start, we had conflicting info from the agent/promoter and the pub and we went on in the end at 19:30. Finished up about 22:10 with a short break. 33 songs in total. That's as many as I've ever played I reckon. 

 

The punters were annoyingly all over us and wanted a go on the drums, guitar, they wanted selfies with the band, they thought it ridiculous that we don't do random requests. And of course they all stood in our way when we were packing up and unloading to the cars. It was like a greatest hits of pub gig niggles rolled into one! There were some tyre-kicking wedding enquiries that might or might not lead to decent function money but who knows?

 

One bloke told me that my bass was the nicest Warwick he'd ever seen. Second time that's happened in the last 6 months. If you know, you know 😉.  

 

I kept my cool, did my job and went home only to find the road for last 3 miles of it was closed and I had to make a 9 mile diversion up the M5 to get home.  

 

Considering everything, I think we did well. If you can deliver the goods under those conditions, you're doing alright. 

 

I'd call that a baptism of fire!

[JPJ]

Sunday afternoon gigs are the best aren’t they? And how about one that ends with a standing ovation - aye I’ll have some of that thank you. Here’s a little clip of the last two minutes of our encore yesterday at Shotton Comrades club. Makes the back pain on a Monday from humping gear worth it 😎

 

[thumperbob 2002]

Played the Sterling Castle in Bridlington on Saturday. A good gig overall with our new drummer- second gig and hes match fit!

 

the sound guy James was superb, great not to lug any pa in to the venue as RCF stuff already set up.

 

IEMs working great. Such a small stage but its amazing how much room you have with no bass amp taking up the space!

[Woodinblack]

26 minutes ago, JPJ said:

Sunday afternoon gigs are the best aren’t they? And how about one that ends with a standing ovation - aye I’ll have some of that thank you

 

Well, thats not surprising, the crowd spend 40 years yelling freebird to every band that plays and then someone actually plays it!

 

[mep]

12 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

I am always amazed how everyone loves War Pigs!

 

Ten years ago it would have been a floor-emptier!

War Pigs always gets our audience singing along too, especially at the end.

[Staggering on]

Quite a show on Saturday night, I played with a symphony orchestra! A local symphony had a "Swingin' With The Symphony" concert at a lovely theatre in North Bay and our band was part of it. The first half was just the symphony playing arrangements of some swing tunes and jazz medleys and then the stage was rearranged and set up for a big band in front of the symphony musicians. The seven members of our band formed the core of the big band and it was filled out by symphony players and some community musicians so we had 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, 5 saxes and a 3 piece rhythm section. We played 9 songs and what made it different was that the orchestra director actually took 7 of the big band charts and wrote complete orchestrations so on most of the songs we were a BIG band with the full orchestra backing us...fantastic sound but for us it was odd hearing bassoons and tympani parts in swing tunes. The audience of about 600 loved it and although I had one senior moment I managed to get most of it right, no room for mistakes when you are reading orchestra charts. The conductor occasionally sings with our band and that is how this whole thing started, he put in an enormous amount of work writing all those orchestra parts but they all worked well.

I used my Shen SB100, NuX wireless to a Schatten Design preamp with volume control and my Traynor SB112 amp and because of the excellent acoustic qualities of the hall I didn't need anything else, I had plenty of volume even at the loudest orchestra parts.

Good music, good players, good hall added up to a memorable night, I'll remember that one for a long time.👍😃

 

Edit: The first photo was just prior to actually playing and it looks like I play lefty but I was just standing in an odd position.

[dmccombe7]

2 hours ago, JPJ said:

Sunday afternoon gigs are the best aren’t they? And how about one that ends with a standing ovation - aye I’ll have some of that thank you. Here’s a little clip of the last two minutes of our encore yesterday at Shotton Comrades club. Makes the back pain on a Monday from humping gear worth it 😎

 

39c2fca7-3412-4b54-be44-3234f5ad7aac.mov

Now that was good. Impressive guitarist.

Dave

[dmccombe7]

1 hour ago, mep said:

War Pigs always gets our audience singing along too, especially at the end.

Funny but its become a popular song in our gym with several people of all age groups both male and female singing along.

Weird but also good to hear it played.

Dave 

[BassTool]

3 hours ago, JPJ said:

Sunday afternoon gigs are the best aren’t they? And how about one that ends with a standing ovation - aye I’ll have some of that thank you. Here’s a little clip of the last two minutes of our encore yesterday at Shotton Comrades club. Makes the back pain on a Monday from humping gear worth it 😎

 

39c2fca7-3412-4b54-be44-3234f5ad7aac.mov

Great that @JPJ! Love a bit of Freebird, always an appreciative crowd in Shotton too, nice one 👍🏼

[dclaassen]

3 hours ago, JPJ said:

Sunday afternoon gigs are the best aren’t they? And how about one that ends with a standing ovation - aye I’ll have some of that thank you. Here’s a little clip of the last two minutes of our encore yesterday at Shotton Comrades club. Makes the back pain on a Monday from humping gear worth it 😎

 

Gotta love Skynard for getting a crowd fired up!

[police squad]

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1974438380615399

 I don't know how to embed this video

 

a clip from St Albans on Saturday

Edited 12 hours ago by police squad

[Piers_Williamson]

2 minutes ago, police squad said:

https://www.facebook.com/martin.wisbey.9/posts/pfbid0eRAP94whQmc8SzpKTRmkDYiwrLMKTycx8XnoBht8Gic185S3ryQbMKHSDmGqQjEl?notif_id=1771913207447955&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic&ref=notif

a clip from St Albans on Saturday

Very good, and the audience sounded like they were really up for it

[police squad]

3 hours ago, Piers_Williamson said:

Very good, and the audience sounded like they were really up for it

Thank you

they were massively up for it from the start, I really enjoyed myself

[theplumber]

Back in Edinburgh again at Stramash with SHOUT!. Really busy this time as was the town. Fast becoming our favourite venue/gig. There are acts on all day through to 2.30 in the morning. Our slot is 10 to 12 midnight! Crowd all well oiled and up for fun! Our songs are as old as the hills but I bet most of the crowd have never heard them before...sometimes I think some of the band have never heard them before! Anyway back there in a couple of months. Bass used...Squier Classic Vibe Precision with Fender Flatwound strings through Mark Bass house rig..

Edited 7 hours ago by theplumber

[dmccombe7]

4 hours ago, theplumber said:

Back in Edinburgh again at Stramash with SHOUT!. Really busy this time as was the town. Fast becoming our favourite venue/gig. There are acts on all day through to 2.30 in the morning. Our slot is 10 to 12 midnight! Crowd all well oiled and up for fun! Our songs are as old as the hills but I bet most of the crowd have never heard them before...sometimes I think some of the band have never heard them before! Anyway back there in a couple of months. Bass used...Squier Classic Vibe Precision with Fender Flatwound strings through Mark Bass house rig..

 

You using an Orange rig there Stevie ?

Looks like a cracking night mate.

Dave

[markbunney]

On 22/02/2026 at 02:07, Norris said:

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 😂

 

Nice!

I used to live next door in Mountsorrel!

[BassTool]

5 hours ago, theplumber said:

Back in Edinburgh again at Stramash with SHOUT!. Really busy this time as was the town. Fast becoming our favourite venue/gig. There are acts on all day through to 2.30 in the morning. Our slot is 10 to 12 midnight! Crowd all well oiled and up for fun! Our songs are as old as the hills but I bet most of the crowd have never heard them before...sometimes I think some of the band have never heard them before! Anyway back there in a couple of months. Bass used...Squier Classic Vibe Precision with Fender Flatwound strings through Mark Bass house rig..

 

I was in Edinburgh last year with my wife and we asked our hotel for a live music venue recommendation and ended up here - what an absolutely brilliant venue that is!!

 

We got there as it was filling up quickly, went to the bar and the barman took one look at us and decided we were the oldest pair in the room - well yes we were 🤣

'Would you like two stools?'

That'd be great thanks 👍🏼

'Just wait up against the back area there and I'll bring them for you'

 

Best seats in the house with a bar in front of us!

 

Bands were brilliant, and @theplumber that looks like a great night you had! The rig and the lights were great as I recall, fantastic place Stramash 👌🏼

[theplumber]

2 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

You using an Orange rig there Stevie ?

Looks like a cracking night mate.

Dave

I think there was an Orange speaker and I am sure it was a Markbass Amp...Sounded good onstage!

[theplumber]

Another wee song from Edinburgh!