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How was your gig last night?


bassninja

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Did a trumpet-player friend's wedding at Morley Hayes in Derbyshire. Not at all unusual for the OTPJ crew, but we had my favourite male vocalist, Arch Bishop Mike Watson who croons with the best of them & Matt Dabbs on drums. Matt is ex of signed chart band, Long View. But as a jazzer he's just supreme with so much light and shade, style and sophistication. Possibly the most musical drummer I've ever worked with & that counts quite a few.

Did an interesting dinnertime at the Sands Venue in Gainsborough today.(Regular gig.) My usual pianist was away doing something else & I booked a young lad of 19 who I'd briefly encountered on a Wider Opportunities sharing day in NE Lincs. John is studying (going into his second year) at the Leeds College & you can certainly tell the difference between a classically trained player turned jazzer to a REAL jazzer! Most of my players are classical-based as I am, but young John is completely out there with the jazz faries! Certainly took me all my time to keep up with his inversions, etc! Fab weekend playing-wise.

Oh, and teaching-wise I had a massive compliment from the parents of a young violinist who's recently come to me at about AB Grade 5-6. They said that after one full hour with me they could hear a massive difference in Jen's playing. Makes you go all fuzzy and warm, doesn't it? :) And I received the results from a couple of recent grade 1 violin pupils as well. 130 & 137 respectively. Distinctions for everyone!

Now that's what I call a weekend.

Anyway, I'm going to shut up before this becomes some kind of Me Me Me, Self Self Self type of blog. Oops.........

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Great gig to about 300 people at The Gate in Sutton (that's what the gaffa said). Band tradition meant that my bollocks (post vasectomy) were photographed for posterity behind the bass amp ( good job I kept the 4x10 Cab ) and didnt do the markbass combo :) It has become a bit of a tradition! Now having 2 months of as my 3rd child is due in days (hope to f*** it's another boy). Homework is to do A day in the life by the Beatles but Neil Young style from his last tour. (Google it ... it's a treat) Looking at individual effects, possibly starting with a Dave Hall tube job. Lots of practice, lots of piano and lots of Spock's Beard.

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Played an afternoon gig yesterday.

Apart from a mate coming for the first set, there was no one in.

No-one.... not one person (except for the two girls behind the bar)... so it turned into a rehearsal. We tried out some new stuff and some stuff that we haven't done in a while.

The owner of the place appeared at the end of the gig and seemed happy to hand over the agreef fee.

The funniest thing is that it was the best paying gig we've done for a month or two!

How does that work?

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Urgh... too many late nights this week.... ok.... Friday was a corporate do with '5CATFish'... all good and well... good food, good crowd, good money and managed to get another few gigs from it.

Saturday was playing with my Disco/Funk outfit 'Hot Sauce' at the Funkfest in Ipswich.... great fun.... great mix of bands.

Sunday was playing with my original's out fit 'Adorno Stone' at the Corn Exchange in Hertford.... Room was very kool although the acoustics were shocking... well stocked bar though.. ^_^

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My gig on Saturday night was cancelled. Turned up at the venue to be told they've had the environmental health people round on Friday, and they can't put on any live music 'til their monitor system has been set up. Apparently, they'd been trying to contact me all day (not very hard, obviously, considering they had 2 phone numbers [i]and[/i] my email address)

Worst part of it was that we had a dep drummer for the night - ours quit on Friday morning :)

Andy

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Last nights gig was alright good crowd good laugh but it was a battle of the bands and I hate those things we came second out of 4 which isn't bad I guess but all the other bands do is scream, I'm sure people like this but it's a little unfair putting us on with bands that sound nothing like us, how can you make a comparison?

Apparently the we would have won according to the sound man but we got marked down on originality because we worked "a message to you Rudy" into the last song.

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[quote name='stingrayfan' post='254122' date='Aug 4 2008, 09:21 AM']Bit soul destroying![/quote]

Well I have to say that in the 35+ years of regular gigging I don't remember that ever happering before.

There's been one or two 'one man and his dog' type of gugs - but never no one!

Odd.

The 'professional' attitude did have to kicked in... as in 'gotta play the gig so we keep up our end of the bargain, to ensure we got our fee.

And as I say, with the Great British R&B festival coming up over the bank holiday it was usedul to knock the dust off some stuff we haven't done in a while.

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Saturday night was a gig with my new 'other' band at Redefest, up in the Cheviots near the Scottish Border. It's only in it's second year but it's fab.. a proper small festival. I brought the Walkabout Scout and it coped wonderfully. A flatbed truck for a stage, lots of beer, lots of nice food, great punters, a PA cobbled together from every set of speakers within 20 miles of the gig, and a SPECTACULAR location in the middle of nowhere:



Oh, aye... MILLIONS of midgies, too. I var nigh got nibbled to death.

Last night was a country music festival at Hinckley in Leicestershire. It was odd, but fun. Home at a reasonable hour, too. That was a Schroeder & MPulse job and it ROCKED!

Next up... Earl's Court on Thursday(!), Tavistock in Devon on Friday and back to good 'ol North Shields on Sunday. And then... a day off!

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[quote name='Funkmaster' post='254376' date='Aug 4 2008, 01:41 PM']Well I have to say that in the 35+ years of regular gigging I don't remember that ever happering before.

There's been one or two 'one man and his dog' type of gugs - but never no one!

Odd.[/quote]

Many years ago I depped on sax at a regular gig - to less and less people 'til eventually the last one I did there was literally no one at all - even the bar staff went off.... but it [i]was[/i] jazz :)

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Played the Hope and Anchor last night in Islington.

You know when you play a venue that everyone has heard of and famous bands have played there?

Everyone expects it to be great but it doesn't matter how many people have played there or how famous it if you are on a cramped stage playing to 20 people on a Monday night.

Anyway it wasn't a bad gig we played well and had fun plus we saw a really good band RATM meets RHCP check them out [url="http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=214494226"]HERE[/url]

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Arundel folk club.

Not the kind of gig I do much anymore, but I seem to have had a couple of late. Always nice to have a receptive, listening audience. Isn't it annoying when you leave the expensive, bells-and-whistles gear at home and get a fantastic sound with your ropey old practice amp? If only I could get about 300w of it...

Joined by a mate to play nice Jerry Douglas type dobro on a couple of numbers. Superb light show, courtesy of a very welcome thunder storm outside.

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Well, I'm back after a few days away.

Thursday was a biggie... Earl's Court One!

We were the entertainment for the evening at The Great British Beer Festival. It was the first time I've played in London, and it couldn't have gone better.

The stage was huge, incredible crew & PA, great backstage facilities and the festival itself was fantastic (even to non-ale buff like myself). We got a good crowd for both sets, and a great reception. What freaked me out a bit was the lack of applause... because everyone was holding a glass (or two, or three, or four...) it wasn't possible to clap. Instead, we got a roar of 'YAAAAAAAAY!!!!!''s after each tune.

To top it all off, BC's very own CrazyKiwi (Steve) and Paul tapped me on the shoulder afterwards. We had a jolly good chat.

I wish the bugger had told me he was coming. I would have played less wrong notes.

Thanks for showing up, Steve... It was fab to meet you.





The next morning, we made our way across to Devon for a gig at The New Hall in Tiverton. A bit of a contrast to the night before, but great fun nontheless. It was a very musical crowd... it's nice when that happens.

I'm sitting at home typing this after spending most of today travelling back. Off to bed in a mo... I have a local gig tomorrow with my other band... can't wait.

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I've just got in from a great gig with my regular covers band...

It was 5mins from my front door, during our set they had the end of Donnie Brasco, the Italian Job, and The Crow (three of my favorite films) on the screens, the crowd loved it, we had a load of local musos join in for a 4guitarist, 2drummer, 2 singer (and me) jam, the ladies were all gorgeous, the drinks were free and I got £50 for the trouble!

I know it's not much compared to some of your fully-pro cats, but defo a great way to spend a saturday night!

:)



now, I'm off to bed...

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Just got back from the first gig with my new rig, Mark Bass LM2 and Bergantino AE112. They only arrived yesterday so I was in two minds whether to gig them but even in a tiny pub it just sounded awesome. Crystal clear, cut through the mix like a dream - I'm as pleased as punch.

It was the first time that the band has played for a month because of holidays and I think the break has done us good. Sounded tight and I think we all had quite a lot of fun.

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[quote name='Platypus' post='259086' date='Aug 10 2008, 12:00 AM']WoT was good to meet you at the beer festival. Was a great performance - you should have seen the look on your face when you realised it was CK after the show.....

Cheers,

P[/quote]

Ah.. I've just clicked who you were, Paul!

Great to see you, too.

(Apologies... I was knackered at that point.)

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A nice relaxed one for us at The Stag in Orrel near Wigan. Started off a bit quietly -audience were a bit detached but soon won 'em over and it was cooking by the end of the first set.

My good friend, fellow BCer and Black Cherry Spector Euro LX5 owner bassbunny came to see us with his missus, twas a good night in spite of the sh*tty weather.

Used my new Euro LX and boy am I happy.

Edited by niceguyhomer
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[quote name='wateroftyne' post='259230' date='Aug 10 2008, 12:25 PM']Ah.. I've just clicked who you were, Paul!

Great to see you, too.

(Apologies... I was knackered at that point.)[/quote]
It was good to meet you Michael :) next time I'll give you more warning but I was half expecting to be working overseas last week. Sorry about that! I didn't notice any wrong notes from my side of the FOH BTW. If your photographer in that first shot had moved about 2 feet to the right, he could have caught Paul and I behind Rachel, in the middle of the audience. :huh:

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[quote name='niceguyhomer' post='259330' date='Aug 10 2008, 03:06 PM']A nice relaxed one for us at The Stag in Orrel near Wigan. Started off a bit quietly -audience were a bit detached but soon won 'em over and it was cooking by the end of the first set.

My good friend, fellow BCer and Black Cherry Spector Euro LX5 owner bassbunny came to see us with his missus, twas a good night in spite of the sh*tty weather.

Used my new Euro LX and boy am I happy.[/quote]
Great to see you last night Alan. I know what you mean about a P Bass not working for you. The Spector sounded awesome. Can't wait to let loose on mine. Cracking Band and really great material. It's nice to see a bunch of guys working together and with so much energy. Your vocalist really knows how to work a crowd. :)
.

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