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How was your gig last night?


bassninja

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Played a gig last night at my local squash club with a band that I haven't played with since before lockdown.

 

It was arranged fairly last minute as fundraiser for Ukrainian families who've ended up here in the north east.

 

It didn't look like it was going to be well attended due to the early tickets sales numbers but we were pleasantly surprised that the place was almost full on the night with a great friendly/family atmosphere.

 

We played 2 sets of Brit Pop covers with me also singing lead vocals all night. I normally play in a classic rock covers band sharing a quarter of the lead vocals so I woke up this morning feeling a little bit hoarse.

 

The drummer's son has been learning the guitar so we got him up for a few songs which made his parents and grandparent's very proud!

 

The drummer played an electric kit which, although I'm not a massive fan of electric kits, made for a much more manageable backline sound. 

 

The only negative thing about the night was that the room was really warm as we couldn't open the windows while we were playing due to the nearby houses, one of which was the guitarist's parent's house which was literally across the street!

 

I'm not normally a sweater but it was running down my forehead in buckets last night! That could also have been due to the fact that I was flying by the seat of my pants on a few of the newer songs that we threw in at the last minute as I was reading the lyrics from my phone, whilst also controlling the mixing desk from a tablet(not normally my job in my regular band).

 

We made it through the night without too many mistakes, the audience went home happy and we raised some money for a worthy cause.

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11 minutes ago, Merton said:

Two gigs this weekend.

Gig 1 - Lingfield Park for a school for epileptic kids. I was depping in the band and always enjoy their gigs because the singer messes around with the songs and structures so it keeps us on our toes 🤓


95AA4C0A-15F3-46D6-AA75-485FE7191956.thumb.jpeg.21670688add534f9389e901f7d123faf.jpeg

 

Gig 2 - tiny function room in a pub for a mate’s wife’s 60th. Completely makeshift band who’d never actually played together as a 5 piece before that evening. Drummer didn’t seem to have done a huge amount of homework (“What’s that song?”) but we had a giggle and on the whole scraped through without anything horrendous happening.

 

19F1A67C-F276-46FC-86D1-58B0FCC9EDB0.thumb.jpeg.a782f4a70a7230c99ad36acdb1724012.jpeg
 

Nice to be back to a level of normality with these things. A quiet august will be followed by a pretty busy September I think so that’s nice. :)

Oh, you were depping for me on Friday night :)

 

it's less that Matt changes the song structures around, and more he's not always sure what they should be 😁

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4 minutes ago, Graham said:

Oh, you were depping for me on Friday night :)

 

it's less that Matt changes the song structures around, and more he's not always sure what they should be 😁

Haha! I think you’re probably right 😁 Good fun gig though, thanks for letting me step in your shoes 😎

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30 minutes ago, Merton said:

Haha! I think you’re probably right 😁 Good fun gig though, thanks for letting me step in your shoes 😎

It is a very fun band, thanks for covering, I'm having to play fewer at the moment due to family commitments, so good to know there's good players filling in 😀

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Friday, not last night.  Another gig at a tiny little music /Irish pub called The Shamrock in the heart of Ipswich.  Copy and paste of the last time we played there - small but really enthusiastic crowd many of whom came especially to see us.  Lovely place.  We played well, went down well, got paid more than we asked and had free drinks all night.  And I found a free parking spot close by :)  

 

A12 south was shut was on the return leg, so the diversion was a long a dark country lane which added 35 mins to the trip.  Still, I smiled all the way home :) 

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Great gig on Friday with the Led Zep tribute at the Cluny in Newcastle.

 

Great venue, great sound and went down a storm to more than 180 paying punters who packed the place out. Newcastle is one of the towns that is keeping the gigging circuit that I frequent alive. Let’s hope that places like the Cluny can keep going and survive the current mess that the country has got itself into.

 

All in all a great night, right up until after the gig when I found that I had a flat tyre and a striped wheel nut and didn’t get the 100 miles or so back home until 4:30 in the morning…

 

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Edited by peteb
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Oh man what a nightmare!! Bless yers. On the plus side, LOVE a Zep tribute more than pretty much anything. Good work - my hat is off to anyone who can take on one of JPJ’s lines, let alone a whole set!

 

And yeah - if you don’t like the Toon then cities really aren’t for you! Used to spend a lot of time there for work. Loved every second of the place and the people. And the ale!! It’s off the bracket good up there!

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Another wedding gig last night. We set up in record time after the usual late-running wedding breakfast, only for the guitarist to encounter a terrible buzzing which we narrowed down to his Kemper. Fortunately I carry a Digitech Bad Monkey for guitar-amp-related emergencies, so he played through that straight into the PA for the whole gig.

Afterwards several wedding guests came up to complain about the guitar sound. Oh wait, no they didn’t!

The Kemper worked fine when it was tested at home later that night.

 

QMWG41c.jpg

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12 minutes ago, moley6knipe said:

That’s a proper tidy setup there. Very nicely presented. And some hot barefaced action!!!

Was just about to say the same thing. I use a wireless in-ear set up but this has got me thinking about a wireless mic set up...

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Wee pub gig with the punk band last night 6-9pm slot. Great time to play as i get to kebab shop before i get home. 

Only downside is that i need to leave the house at 3pm to get to the gig for set up.

Audience size varied thru the night from half full to busy and back to half again towards the end. Everyone seemed to be enjoying it.

Standing very close to amp meant i couldn't hear my tone properly but it sounded ok on Vids that have appeared.

 

Has anyone else noticed that with many mobile phone vids the bass drops out a bit when the vocals start. I'm guessing the phones have some sort of built in limiter/compression of some kind.  

  image.thumb.png.f36ab8f29847208ddad273a6bbbc67e6.png

Edited by dmccombe7
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23 hours ago, Japhet said:

 

Surgical spirit works for me. Soak your finger tips in it regularly and they get a lot harder and able to cope with the rigours of playing.

Thought my fingers were getting better but punk gig last night proved me wrong. No blisters but tips are a bit tender.

Got some in my garage and gonna try this tip to see how it goes. How long do you steep them. ?

Dave

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4 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

...How long do you steep them. ?...

 

A few minutes, once or twice a day, in the week before a gig should help. No smoking whilst doing it. If you put the stuff in an old medicine bottle, you can pour it back from the dish your finger tips are in, and re-use the same, until it evaporates too much and you refill the little bottle. :friends:

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Had a strange one on Friday night at a private Do just outside of Cheltenham. It was a 7pm start and we were finished by 10. I still have no idea what the occasion actually was but we seemed to go down well. 
 

Throughout the first set I had a bloke in the crowd staring at me intently and taking photos. Believe me, I'm really not someone you'd want to have a photo of, so I was a bit confused. 
 

During the break he came up to me and said "I really like your Kingbass. How much do you want for it? They're not making them anymore so I'll pay you whatever you're looking for right now". I asked if he was a bass player and did he want a go but he told me he was just a big Level 42 fan. 
 

I thanked him and politely declined his offer but I get the impression he usually gets his own way as he was very persistent. In the end he got the message and made sure I took his contact details but it was all a bit weird.  

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38 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Thought my fingers were getting better but punk gig last night proved me wrong. No blisters but tips are a bit tender.

Got some in my garage and gonna try this tip to see how it goes. How long do you steep them. ?

Dave

 

Answered by Dad 3353. Alternatively you can put a few drops on your finger tips and let it soak in. Repeat a few times. It's a bit of a faff though compared to using an egg cup or similar to dip in. 

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23 hours ago, Japhet said:

 

Surgical spirit works for me. Soak your finger tips in it regularly and they get a lot harder and able to cope with the rigours of playing.

+1 for surgical spirit. I also find that if you soak a pad of cotton wool or lint or whatever with the spirit and actually rub your fingertips with it rather than just soaking them, the hardening effect is even quicker. 

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11 minutes ago, Rich said:

+1 for surgical spirit. I also find that if you soak a pad of cotton wool or lint or whatever with the spirit and actually rub your fingertips with it rather than just soaking them, the hardening effect is even quicker. 

 

For 'boot-camp', I poured meths onto a pair of socks, and wore them for a day or so before a trek. 9_9

No funny looks, as most of my comrades did the same. :lol:

Edited by Dad3353
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10 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

For 'boot-camp', I poured meths onto a pair of socks, and wore them for a day or so before a trek. 9_9

No funny looks, as most of my comrades did the same. :lol:

No camp fires on trek, presumably, or we'd have to come up with a witty reply that included 'hot footed' somewhere. 😀

 

Seriously, though, as a trekker who has experienced tender feet that's a useful tip, thanks.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Old Horse Murphy said:

Had a strange one on Friday night at a private Do just outside of Cheltenham. It was a 7pm start and we were finished by 10. I still have no idea what the occasion actually was but we seemed to go down well. 
 

Throughout the first set I had a bloke in the crowd staring at me intently and taking photos. Believe me, I'm really not someone you'd want to have a photo of, so I was a bit confused. 
 

During the break he came up to me and said "I really like your Kingbass. How much do you want for it? They're not making them anymore so I'll pay you whatever you're looking for right now". I asked if he was a bass player and did he want a go but he told me he was just a big Level 42 fan. 
 

I thanked him and politely declined his offer but I get the impression he usually gets his own way as he was very persistent. In the end he got the message and made sure I took his contact details but it was all a bit weird.  

I'd have taken the opportunity to test his obsession/wallet combination with a 'Ohhhh, it has sentimental value, nothing short of ten grand could persuade me to part with it...'  Then you're onto a win-win; either he buggers off, or you're looking at a payday... 🙂

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13 hours ago, Davy said:

Was just about to say the same thing. I use a wireless in-ear set up but this has got me thinking about a wireless mic set up...

In my big soul-ish band, the vocalists all use wireless mics and in-ears, and the guitarist and I are both wireless. One of the sax guys occasionally plays a bit of electric violin on one song, and he's got a wireless for that. So that's 8 or 9 lots of wireless on stage already -- god help us if the horns ever decide to go wireless... 

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5 hours ago, Old Horse Murphy said:

Had a strange one on Friday night at a private Do just outside of Cheltenham. It was a 7pm start and we were finished by 10. I still have no idea what the occasion actually was but we seemed to go down well. 
 

Throughout the first set I had a bloke in the crowd staring at me intently and taking photos. Believe me, I'm really not someone you'd want to have a photo of, so I was a bit confused. 
 

During the break he came up to me and said "I really like your Kingbass. How much do you want for it? They're not making them anymore so I'll pay you whatever you're looking for right now". I asked if he was a bass player and did he want a go but he told me he was just a big Level 42 fan. 
 

I thanked him and politely declined his offer but I get the impression he usually gets his own way as he was very persistent. In the end he got the message and made sure I took his contact details but it was all a bit weird.  

Pics of the Kingbass would be nice if you dont mind sharing just to give me an idea of what it looks like.

Dave

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