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How was your gig last night?


bassninja

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Last night I played at a Working Men's Club near Rochdale. Nice crowd.

The band had an end date of December 24th and I have made plans for next year to go out playing with two guys I already host a weekly jam night with. We have a full set together and it's great fun, so why not do that?

I gave one of the bar staff a flyer for the new band and my two bandmates went absolutely ape at me afterwards for doing so. I have never said that the current band would be affected in any way. I think they are going to re-think their decision and get a new bassist nearer the time and said that the band is unaffected. I did nothing to harm any future business.

They said that I was 'trading off being in this band' and that it was not on for me to do this. The current band isn't even mentioned on the flyer. It's a photo, the setlist and contact details for two of us. They did not want me to approach our current venues or to give them the flyer.

I don't know about you, but I thought that was pretty unreasonable. I would never do anything to make them cease trading, or to restrict where they work. It descended into a bit of an argument and the upshot was the end date of the band appears to have come forward a few months. A weight off my shoulders, as I was definitely the spare wheel in a band consisting of father and son and 'other'.

Here's a shot of my huge stage area last night. I was so blessed.

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[quote name='Woodinblack' timestamp='1472946474' post='3125577']
Tonights gig was quite good - short for us at 2.5 hours. This group plays long, not Blue long, but long for a UK band.

And it seemed to go down well, because they offered us another gig and gave us another £50 on top of the normal fee because "we were worth it", without us asking. So I guess they must mean it!
[/quote]

4 hours is a piece of cake, it's all US cover and bar bands know.

Blue

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[quote name='blue' timestamp='1473009062' post='3126008']
4 hours is a piece of cake, it's all US cover and bar bands know.
[/quote]

This band is the band with the longest set I have played in, we regularly do over 3 hours, which I think is a bit long, not for the effort, but for the audience.

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I just in after a 150 mile round trip to play at Shelsey Walsh bikefest. Had a good time, we were there as the 'friends' of the billed Josie & the Outlaw and friends. We alternated sets with Josie & the Outlaw (hard working rockabilly band from Swindon) and the mix worked well. Hope to do some more gigs with them.

And just when I thought having our last gig interrupted by a travelling bagpipe player could be topped, this time we had the world's fastest shopping trolley starting its jet engine just behind us as we played!

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Two gigs last night... at a festival near Newcastle in a very pretty location (shame about the rain)... Fortunately there were big tents, so if anything the rain made people get into seeing the bands more ;)

First gig with my usual band... it started a bit slow, you know, when people watch but you're not sure if they like it or not, except for a couple of nutters at the front who were really enjoying it. :lol: previous two bands had played a lot of classic ska and we play originals so they could not immediately sing along or anything... but by the third song they were ours. Good feeling. It's always good when you unplug as they roar "one more tune" and you leave them wanting, rather than them being relieved you're going away at last :P

Then another band went in. Pretty good... I have to find what their name was, I liked them a lot. Their bass player was playing very very simple lines on his Precision, but it sounded mighty and just what the songs needed... I enjoyed that.

Then, the band I'm currently being a 'guest bassist' with went on... This is a 5 piece as opposed to my usual 7 piece and I had room in front of me! Luxury! So I could move about and I had a blast. A woman at the front was making gestures at me and indicated she liked the bass... I smiled and mouthed a 'thank you'... :) That was one of the most fun gigs I played in a while. A few of my bandmates were in the audience, who hadn't seen me with this band, and they were dancing and smiling and having a good time. That was awesome.
The sound guy was a bit confused because he had seen me before but in his mind that was impossible... :lol:

And then, backstage... Bombskare were getting ready. I've known them for years... they're awesome onstage and off it too... we laughed, hugged, their sax player told me my T-shirt was sh*t (it was a Bombskare one ;)) and they went on... they sounded amazing! I was tired and ready to drive home with our sax player and my girlfriend who was feeling a bit ill... but we said ' let's wait a bit and see just one song'... a couple of songs in we were all dancing and even my girlfriend was no longer feeling ill :lol:
If you haven't seen Bombskare but get a chance to... do it! They're all a bunch of silly idiots making great fun music... I can't get enough of them. :)

So... I got to play two short gigs with two different bands, and got to spend some time jumping around to Bombskare. Best Saturday in ages!!! :)

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Played a wedding gig last night. They'd hired out a whole pub/restaurant and 75% of the guests had flown over to France from Australia.

Absolutely brilliant crowd, up from first number and still all up at the last. Only fly in ointment was the venue owner trying to persuade us to carry on playing for another 30 mins despite that we'd finished at the time we were specifically asked to finish by the groom. Apparently the owner had kept an area open for the public and was trying to keep them there with entertainment that he obviously wasn't intending paying for.

Had a couple of serious tambourine scares as our singer had forgotten to keep her foot firmly clamped on it and then the bride's father asking to sing Mustang Sally (no, it's not in our set list) however, turns out he'd been in a couple of bands back in Oz and could seriously sing. Makes a nice change. All in all, a great night.

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[quote name='Woodinblack' timestamp='1473010929' post='3126033']


This band is the band with the longest set I have played in, we regularly do over 3 hours, which I think is a bit long, not for the effort, but for the audience.
[/quote]

In the States nobody except our hard core fans stay for the whole night.

Material, we have so much material that even some of our " big numbers" or "show stoppers " don't get played.

Blue

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Great gig at The Maze in Nottingham on Friday night. It was an ace crowd, nothing to do with us. I think they were there to see "Days 'n' Daze" who are an american acoustic punk type act, pretty good. Then on Saturday I played with two different bands at the same festival but I was below par. I've managed to trigger off the problem I used to get in my right hand and it's starting to cramp up like it used to. I've learned to cope with this on bass but I'm just not used to it on drums so I dropped a few :(

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[quote name='Chaos Daveo' timestamp='1473146860' post='3127261']
Great gig at a new venue in Stafford, The Cellar Bar a cracking venue and much needed in the area. It was pretty packed out and the crowd were fantastic, possibly the best gig I've every done in performance and atmosphere. This was on Saturday and I'm only just recovering...
[/quote]

Looks like my kind of venue...

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[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1473154066' post='3127364']
Looks good, I'll have to check it out.

I'd not heard of your band Daveo but I'm following them on Facebook now as you're local, hope to catch a gig soon
[/quote]

Thanks man, I think we we will be back at the Rigger soon, so hopefully can catch you then ;)

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Had a great wedding gig in a marquee in a field near St Albans. For the first dance the couple wanted us to play Stand By Me for a few bars and then go into that shining example of 80s cheese, Never Gonna Give You Up. We sent them a recording of us playing it at a rehearsal so they could work out some dance moves and it all went really, really well, great fun.

Our drummer decided to leave the band two weeks ago without any notice so we had to find a dep for the gig. We found an excellent guy on Facebook who in all honesty pulled us out of the sh*t and made me realise I won't be missing our old drummer at all. Some shaky starts and finishes but only to be expected with very little rehearsal and otherwise as solid as a rock.

All in all a fun evening, the guests were all up for a dance, the bride and groom loved us and we got fed.

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My first gig on Friday. Early evening, short set, 'works' venue. Indescribably good fun - if a little nerve-wracking - and really satisfying. Audience of forty or so, colleagues, friends of friends etc, so a 'sympathetic' crowd who danced, sang along some and gave a big cheer at the end. 'Made plenty of mistakes but the other band members just smiled and were pretty sanguine, kept it going and the audience didn't seem to mind (or even notice). During one song I even managed a laugh (well all of us did) as it sounded as if the drum kit was being violently destroyed - but the drummer was just 'in the zone' I think (he's stunningly talented so it was all good).

I really should have picked up an instrument thirty or forty years ago, not last year!

I've taken quite a few leaves out of the 'book of basschat' - learned lots from contributions to this forum so much appreciated.

And hats off to those who this sort of thing regularly and do it well!

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[quote name='Lardy' timestamp='1473595384' post='3131447']
My first gig on Friday. Early evening, short set, 'works' venue. Indescribably good fun - if a little nerve-wracking - and really satisfying. Audience of forty or so, colleagues, friends of friends etc, so a 'sympathetic' crowd who danced, sang along some and gave a big cheer at the end. 'Made plenty of mistakes but the other band members just smiled and were pretty sanguine, kept it going and the audience didn't seem to mind (or even notice). During one song I even managed a laugh (well all of us did) as it sounded as if the drum kit was being violently destroyed - but the drummer was just 'in the zone' I think (he's stunningly talented so it was all good).

I really should have picked up an instrument thirty or forty years ago, not last year!

I've taken quite a few leaves out of the 'book of basschat' - learned lots from contributions to this forum so much appreciated.

And hats off to those who this sort of thing regularly and do it well!
[/quote]

congrats on a successful first gig - talented drummer you are indeed very lucky - just keep throwing chew toys at him (or her)

as for the audience noticing wrong notes, worry not, because they never notice, they only actually notice something is up when you stop playing

hope this helps :D

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I played on bass on Friday, very enjoyable, although I'm not happy with my sound at the moment. I don't think I've changed anything, but maybe I just need a change? I'll take another bass next time

On drums on Saturday at Wigan Diggers' festival - great atmosphere and crowd. However, just as I'd set my kit up, before I'd had chance to put any ear plugs in, one of the engineers turned up the drum monitor with a vocal mic right next to it, which was live and fed through the monitor. The resulting blast of feedback left me feeling nauseous and my hearing is still duller today. I'm so pissed off about this - I mix/produce a lot of music, and need my hearing intact! Obviously mistakes happen, everyone's human and all that but FFS!!! I'll now be wearing earplugs whenever I'm within 10ft of a PA

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Played a fun, if boozy, gig at The Frog in Worksop on Friday.

The day got off to a kind of annoying start as the band we were supposed to be playing with pulled-out leaving us playing on our own but we drove up there anyway & actually had a good day drinking with friends – the crowd in the venue wasn’t quite what I was expecting; it’s a very rock/metal looking venue but the vast majority of the crowd looked like they were ready for a nightclub (women in skimpy playsuits & high-heels, men in shirts & shoes) but there was at least quite a lot of them! We finally went on stage at 10.30 & the sound was great (thumbs up to the venue for that) with maybe half the crowd watching/listening to us. All in all it was a pretty good gig, would have been nice to have a band or two extra playing with us but still fun.

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Great fun wedding in Oxfordshire. Little audio medley recorded from the night below. For those who look down upon covers bands, don't even bother listening lol - stereotypical covers band content - 1st two songs alone will make you sick!!

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eqryETRxcg[/media]

Edited by mrtcat
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[quote name='mrtcat' timestamp='1473761526' post='3132802']
Great fun wedding in Oxfordshire. Little audio medley recorded from the night below. For those who look down upon covers bands, don't even bother listening lol - stereotypical covers band content - 1st two songs alone will make you sick!!

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eqryETRxcg[/media]
[/quote]




Nothing wrong with them, they're popular for a reason. Crowds love them. Especially if they're done well.
Nice one

Edited by FuNkShUi
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Pretty boring, but of a rubbish pub with a horrible sound. Some very, very strange punters. But, i did get to use my latest amp at volume. It really came into its element at volume and I'm very pleased with the way it sounded even though the venue is always a struggle sound wise.

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