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How was your gig last night?


bassninja

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[quote name='tonybassplayer' post='788439' date='Mar 28 2010, 12:17 PM']Brilliant gig at Montey's in Harrogate last night

Wild audience with at least two 21st birthdays being celebrated

Can't wait to play again ( see pics ) :)

[attachment=45877:IMG_3311.JPG][/quote]


I'll bet...................

Best rig of the year so far :rolleyes:

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[quote name='OldGit' post='788418' date='Mar 28 2010, 11:58 AM']Never act (or play BOTBs) with animals or children...

Did they tell you the criteria for doing well, what the judges were looking for?[/quote]

They didn't tell us what they were looking for, but I'm wondering if audience reaction was something to do with it...I've seen other BOTBs with similar occurences (i.e. pop bands and children did 'better' than metal/rock bands), and to me it seems like a somewhat unfair way of doing it...naturally, the pop songs will get a better reaction, since more people will recognize and become enthused by them, giving pop bands an advantage.

This is speculation, of course, since they didn't tell us what they were looking for, and so audience reaction may not have been a part of it...ah well. The prize was some time in the school's (apparently quite good) recording studio, but to be honest we haven't got enough original material for this to really be of any use (plus I told the guitarists that I'm leaving the band, so I probably wouldn't have been able to play on any recordings even if we'd won :) ).

And agreed with the 'not playing with children' school of thought, we played two rock nights at the local arts centre (thankfully not a competition, so no prizes) and the younger children tended to get preferential treatment, being higher up in the bill, getting time to sounddcheck, etc, even those who weren't very good.

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Did a world tour of the Lake District with my blues band at the weekend - John Paul Jones in Whitehaven Friday followed by The Cental in Egremont on Saturday. Friday's gig was a typical town centre affair - younger audience, more interested in getting laid than listening to music but hey, we got paid. Saturday was much better - we spent most of the day on the beach at St Bees to while the hours away and it was glorious, almost warm sunshine so we turned up at the gig relaxed and raring to go.

The Central is a small live music venue with a slightly more mature audience and they loved us - it was a great night.

Last night was a gruelling two and a half hour drive to Scarborough Blues Club - I'd been in work since 7.30am and was absolutely knackered by the time we arrived. I really wasn't looking forward to it but it turned out to be a worthwhile trip. We played to a small but highly appreaciative audience - they wouldn't let us off stage. The organiser was waiting at the side of the stage with his diary and pounced as soon as we struck the last note.

We're going back in September but we'll definitely stay over for that one. I didn't get to bed until gone 3am this morning and feel like sh*t this morning but it was a great night.

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Well, four years and three months after I last played a live show, finally got back onto a stage not once but twice this weekend!

First one was a cheap n cheerful pub gig on Friday at the Sporting View in Southampton. Great crowd, the set went down really well, and not too many mistakes.

Second one was a last-minute cancellation of a friend's band as their drummer quit! Our guy calls us up and asks if we can sub in.
Turns out it's the Annual Hockey Club Tournament & Fancy Dress Pissup! Played to a chock-a-block marquee full of completely sozzled hockey players in ludicrous outfits, including some extremely pretty and athletic young ladies :rolleyes: Working the crowd with my guitard on our wirelesses (thanks to Steverickwood for the fast postage!) and we literally couldn't do a thing wrong all night. Stayed for the DJ's set after packing up as well, and my money was no good at the bar all night 8)

A triumphant return to gigging! Can't wait for the next one, at least as soon as my feet, thighs, back, and fingers have stopped hurting. Turns out I'm not 20 any more, dammit :) When did that happen?

[url="http://picasaweb.google.com/thejackster2004/SportingView?authkey=Gv1sRgCJmG95qO1_nLhAE&feat=email#5456194053294427714"]http://picasaweb.google.com/thejackster200...194053294427714[/url]

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Two gigs over the Easter period and chalk and cheese as far as type and how they went. Played Bar Soko in Maidenhead on Thursday night. Modern bar with disco type of venue. Night started slow but really got going and turned into a really good gig. We played the Blue Boar in Wantage and it was a rough barn type of environment around the back of the pub. A nice place to play but just didn't really get going - seemed to be quite a flat evening where at times it felt like it was going to liven up a lot more, but really sporadic. I had to laugh because one of the punters came up afterwards and apologised for the 'locals' - which is a first!

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Friday night was a stormer and new regular band is really finding its feet.

Carried that into sat with a dep blues gig with some old faces which was also great.
Found old drum mate on these sorts of dates had also taken time out and he is back refreshed and enthused which is great because he is a player that makes these gigs a breeze.
No one rehearses blues dates, FFS, if you know what you are doing and this guy deffo does. Great to have him back and we all agreed we should do more with this unit..

So, lots of catch-up time and a really nice groovy date. You know when gigs are good when you don't get away from them until hours after the music stopped so 2 out of 2 ain't bad at all.

Fine easter weekend so far.

I think I'll ask my gf to marry me whilst I am on this roll; :) :rolleyes: :lol:

Edited by JTUK
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Played a 3pm slot in an all day charity do this afternoon at our singers' local. He'd been drinking in there all day, and started jumping about, as is his way, but fell into the drum kit in the third song.

Still feeling extremely stabby, but at the time was quite prepared to wrap something around his head, like our guitard's 4 x 12 :)

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A first for me, we played to.. nobody. it was a weird place to play,a pub out in the countryside, the bar was at the other end of the pub and had about six people in it. so they might have heard us if the door was open, but between the bar and the room we were in in was a long narrow room which was empty then through an archway into the room we were in. after the first set the owner came in and apologised saying he had put the wrong date in the paper. he let us carry on until the end and and payed us the full amount. he even offered us another gig.

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So a long but fruitful day all in all.

Started at 10 with a 4 hour r/h with the new part time prog covers band. A bit difficult as the keyboard player texted around 9 to say he had work to do on the house so would not make it :rolleyes: Still fought our way through the set for the gig planned for June. It'd be nice to manage a full r/h before that, but I am causing trouble by being out of action for 4+ weeks from 29 April which doesn't help things.

Got home & found that I had won a bit on the National - well one of MrsW's selections had come it so we were in net profit. Not sure how but I ended up out of pocket as she expected me to hand over the winnings, despite having kindly allowed me to put up the original stake.

Then on to this evenings gig @ The Fountain in Chichester. Always one of our favourites and it didn't let us down tonight. Got noisy crowd & lots of adj after with the possibility of some new dates elsewhere, which in a rather thin year will be nice. Pretty tight through most of the sets, even the three new old ones resurrected with two guitars instead of guitar & keys.The Aerosmith ones worked well in particular. The Whitesnake one marginally less so, but good for having been knocked up in a quiet sound check.

Having felt the sound was only OK at r/h (through the EBS Microbass II into an old TE combo and possibly affected by the ear plugs I was using) the L2500 was sounding particularly fine at the gig. This is what they want!!

Swan Woolston next Friday then another gap (for me at least) until June. The Alibi have two May gigs that are to be covered by a dep, I fear I may be about to be dicked around by one of those who left a message for me to call on last Thursday, and hasn't been available to talk since :)

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We played with three other bands last night, we were supposed to be on second but they asked us to play third so we said OK.

Turned out the act on before us was one guy with an acoustic guitar and some pedals and he was about as far from being a "warm-up" act as you could possibly imagine. He sat there mumbling his lyrics and droning his guitar while the audience looked at eachother and shrugged. The highlight was when he looped his guitar part and put the guitar down. What was he going to do next? The tension was unbearable. All of a sudden he was playing a penny whistle solo! That finished me and our drummer, we were collapsed in a corner laughing ourselves to death.

Can't remember what our set was like. Probably alright. But this guy made the night for me. :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

We were told that the Pleasance cabaret bar had a 95 dB limiter in the venue, but given that the organizers secured the services of the resident sound engineer, we thought we were going to be OK.
We weren't.
Got cut off late into the first set.
Spent much of the second set with my eyes firmly set on the green and red bar, playing chicken witht limiter.
Otherwise great gig, for a great charity.

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I played a new venue (for us) with my blues band last night and it was bloody frustrating. The pub was one of those places where you just can't seem to get a good sound. My bass was muddy with no definition and I just couldn't hear myself in the mix, no matter how much I fiddled with my EQ, moved my cabs around or cranked the volume. The rst of the band were having similar problems which just led to everyone turning up their amps as the set progressed, which really didn't improve things for me.
I found myself digging in really hard, just to get some tone, which on a 3 hour set on double bass left me with very sore fingertips and completely mentally drained.

The punters loved it though - just a shame the crappy acoustics meant I didn't have anywhere near as much fun as they did.

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Good gig last night at The Woodman in Wimbledon Park. Started at 6pm for the after work drinkers and was due to finish at 9 but ended up playing until 10ish as the Pub didn't empty out as early as the Guvnor thought it would (it's a proper after work pub).

Highlight of the night was at about 8pm the floor in front of us filled with toddlers dancing while the parents watched on! This was closely followed by the whole pub emptying shortly afterwards when a fight broke out at one of the Pool Tables. We of course carried on playing a la The Commitments.

I gigged my new Sandberg PM4 for the first time and took the P Bass as a back up in case I didn't get on with it. Needless to say the P bass didn't get a look in- wow!! What a bass!

Got fed and paid extra by the Landlord for playing longer than planned. A true Gent and a proper Guvnor.

The Song that went down best on St George's Day? Whiskey In The Jar of course :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

A great gig yesterday at the Red Lion in Gravesend in aid of Herofest. Thirty something bands across four stages over 12 hours. We were on pretty early in the day, but still had a good gig. A few hours later we got to enjoy a very energetic set from The Plan (Waynepunkdude's band). Saw plenty of other bands too (some of which I really enjoyed).

And the day raised nearly £4k for herofest!

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Played a Wedding Reception at the St Georges Hotel just off Regent Street. Traffic and logistics were a nightmare and so was the service lift we had to use to get our gear up to the 15th floor!!

We were told to set up by the kitchen/service doors which wasn't a problem as we were on after the food and speeches.

Eventually we were asked to go on an hour early (due to go on at 8.30) as the DJ hadn't turned up yet.

First set went well until a waiter decided he had to get through the service door half way through one of our songs. I politely told him to f*cking wait until the end of the song as both me and the gutarist would need to move. Some people are such jobsworths :)

The second set was a stormer and as the Groom's family were all from Tipperary our song choice was heavily Irish. Nonetheless it was a great crowd and we had a good time. I played my Sandberg again and am more impressed each time I plug it in.

The only downer was we had agreed to let the DJ use our PA so had to hang around until 1am to pack it all up, transport it back down the lift and then the long journey home. I wouldn't have minded if he'd said thanks for the loan!!

Hmmm, not sure Central London gigs are my thing anymore.......

Edited by Old Horse Murphy
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Friday night was with my covers band at a pub in Braintree - The Essex Cricketers. I've seen more people in a phone box. Still, it was only our second gig with our new PA so we used it as a paid practice to get the sound right. And it sounded very nice by the end. Played a couple of the bar staff's favourites and they've asked us back!

Now looking forward to playing the Bull & Gate in Kentish Town on Tuesday with my originals band.

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[quote name='clauster' post='826226' date='May 3 2010, 09:48 AM']A great gig yesterday at the Red Lion in Gravesend in aid of Herofest. Thirty something bands across four stages over 12 hours. We were on pretty early in the day, but still had a good gig. A few hours later we got to enjoy a very energetic set from The Plan (Waynepunkdude's band). Saw plenty of other bands too (some of which I really enjoyed).

And the day raised nearly £4k for herofest![/quote]

Was a great gig, you guys were awesome, I've never seen a man so drunk at 2PM.

I am being had a go at by a local promoter for raising money for H4H apparently it makes a nazi, who knew?

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[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='826486' date='May 3 2010, 02:24 PM']I am being had a go at by a local promoter for raising money for H4H apparently it makes a nazi, who knew?[/quote]

Ha ha! I know who you mean. We did a few gigs for H4H and he's tried to get a few of our gigs in Kent pulled too because apparently we're Nazis too. The bloke is a f***ing melt. He's pissed off a lot of people by doing this.

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Another cracking gig at the Woolpack at Almondbury near Huddersfield

Late Sunday afternoon and the place was rammed with locals and a quite a few local band members

Buzzing gig with our new songs now starting to feel comfortable ( Poker Face segued with Sweet Dreams with a bit of the riff from Layla in as well :) )

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Played a wedding reception in Daventry at Fawsley Hall (what a great venue. The carry from van to stage is less than 10 yards!).

Superb! Really enjoyed it, and a first in 10 years doing weddings, we got paid a bonus at the end for being "so good!". Free beer, free food, a full dance floor, good wages and a bonus, pretty close to the ideal gig really. Our singer gave a pretty young thing one of our band business cards, but I found out later that she really wanted his phone number, but the card has [b]my[/b] number on it! I'm looking forward to the call...................

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Missing the buzz from live playing as we've been working on new stuff so the singer & I jumped on a train to Reading and did a couple of tunes at a local Open Mic night. I took the Resonator bass restrung with flats and it sounded good.

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Fantastic!

First gig for my new originals band "Dick Venom and the Terrortones" last night. The venue (Jam Cafe in Nottingham) was tiny and packed. Not quite enough room to move about and the drum kit slowly slid forward during the set leaving me with even less space. However the audience response was great and despite one or two cock ups it went really well. Not bad for a band that's gone from just being an idea to first gig in just under 2 months.

Saw some photos taken by one of the friends of the guitarist afterwards and it looks like complete mayhem, but in an good full of energy way. Loads of compliments afterwards and offers of more gigs. Just what was needed!

Edit: Just been sent this photo of the gig and I thought I'd share it.

Edited by BigRedX
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MB1. :)
...A Local Gig For Local People!
Played The Night and Day Cafe Oldham Street Manchester on Friday Night!
Wasn't looking forward to it to be honest..but it turned out to be a most Enjoyable Experience!(if a bit a Sweaty)
Very Understanding chap on the desk for the Sound check (our Guitarist thought so! :rolleyes: )
Our Guitarist also had a Derek Smalls moment opening the cleaning cupboard door (i kid you not!) trying to get onstage!... :lol:
Enjoyable Gig! and Well Recieved! :lol:

Edited by MB1
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