How did last night's gig go?

Fez · August 2025

victorludorum said:

Fez said:

The Brewery Shades was interesting from the sound point of view, it's lots of little connected spaces on different levels so we had to do some tweaking to get the vocals right. I went ampless as we thought the pace was a bit tight but they cordoned off the level we were on so we had more room than anticipated. We were able to park right outside as well. Plenty of friendly faces which is always good to see. The venue doesn't really lend itself to dancing but plenty of people were singing along and responding. Got some nice comments from some of the younger punters. All in all a good gig.

In Crawley?

Yes.

Fez · August 2025

Bit late with this. 2 gigs last weekend. Private party last Friday at the Hassocks hotel, big room proper stage could have done with more time to sound check but we managed. We had lot of fun though quite a lot of the crowd were outside as it was a really hot night.

Saturday night at the Dr Samuel Johnson not a huge crowd in part because of the gay pride event in one of the parks but they were quite enthusiastic and have asked us back.

Musicwolf · August 2025

Here's last night's venue half an hour past the time that we should have gone on. The one person in the shot is actually our singer.

There are four bars adjacent to one another, they were all empty save for a few drinkers sitting outside. Probably a combination of Leeds, Creamfields and Pride weekend on the other side of town, plus we didn't bring our usual loyal followers.

Played half a set to the bar staff just to see if the noise would attract people - it didn't. A few punters in later but still very poor.

Ironically, we were near faultless and the sound was excellent.

ElectricXII · August 2025

Musicwolf said:

Here's last night's venue half an hour past the time that we should have gone on. The one person in the shot is actually our singer.

There are four bars adjacent to one another, they were all empty save for a few drinkers sitting outside. Probably a combination of Leeds, Creamfields and Pride weekend on the other side of town, plus we didn't bring our usual loyal followers.

Played half a set to the bar staff just to see if the noise would attract people - it didn't. A few punters in later but still very poor.

Ironically, we were near faultless and the sound was excellent.

I hope you still got paid!

victorludorum · August 2025

Fez said:

victorludorum said:

Fez said:

The Brewery Shades was interesting from the sound point of view, it's lots of little connected spaces on different levels so we had to do some tweaking to get the vocals right. I went ampless as we thought the pace was a bit tight but they cordoned off the level we were on so we had more room than anticipated. We were able to park right outside as well. Plenty of friendly faces which is always good to see. The venue doesn't really lend itself to dancing but plenty of people were singing along and responding. Got some nice comments from some of the younger punters. All in all a good gig.

In Crawley?

Yes.

Is The Swan still doing gigs?

firepaulmusic · August 2025

Had the pleasure of meeting up again with Doug from Maltings Audio on Saturday night. We (Roadstars) were last on at a local charity festival and he was providing the sound system. Great to work with as ever and we had a blast because the people were really up for it. We needed to let what's left of our hair down as we had played with our other band, a Bowie tribute, earlier in the day at Exmouth Pavilion to the rain soaked holidaymakers. Our party band is a much more fun thing after the more rigid tribute act but it's a great contrast to be able to do both.

maltingsaudio · August 2025

Great to meet up with you again @firepaulmusic Paul really enjoyed what you did and you lot were having fun and bloody loud ( turned the bass off in the pa didn't make any difference

firepaulmusic · August 2025

maltingsaudio said:

Great to meet up with you again @firepaulmusic Paul really enjoyed what you did and you lot were having fun and bloody loud ( turned the bass off in the pa didn't make any difference

Oops...soz but we did have a fun gig, cheers Doug!

firepaulmusic · September 2025

https://ibb.co/r28TndhV

Fez · September 2025

victorludorum said:

Fez said:

victorludorum said:

Fez said:

The Brewery Shades was interesting from the sound point of view, it's lots of little connected spaces on different levels so we had to do some tweaking to get the vocals right. I went ampless as we thought the pace was a bit tight but they cordoned off the level we were on so we had more room than anticipated. We were able to park right outside as well. Plenty of friendly faces which is always good to see. The venue doesn't really lend itself to dancing but plenty of people were singing along and responding. Got some nice comments from some of the younger punters. All in all a good gig.

In Crawley?

Yes.

Is The Swan still doing gigs?

Yes we are there 4th October

Keefy · September 2025

The gig itself - great. One-off charity do playing jazz and soul numbers with a keyboard player and a female vocalist.

Getting our kit in - complete freakin' nightmare. The venue was Daltons, a sea-front bar in Brighton, on the day of the London-to-Brighton Cycle Ride. The journey was fine until we got into Brighton itself and were caught in the atrocious traffic and found that our access to the venue was coned off, with (according to the stewards) no chance of getting close to it. I jumped out and walked down to the venue, and came back with a staff member to help with the kit. We eventually managed to negotiate temporary access within the coned area just to unload, and carried the kit (guitar, amp, stage piano, stands, bags etc) 200 yards to the venue. Someone produced a council parking permit, which we displayed in the car, although no-one seemed to know what it actually permitted. The car stayed there the rest of the day without issue!

Although Daltons had PA and a full set of backline, I'm not keen on either Blackstar amps or 4x12s, and I would have needed a bigger pedalboard, so I took my Princeton Reverb. The venue's sound tech mic'd it up and my Gibson CS336 sounded absolutely lovely through it.

By the time we left there was a gale blowing in off the sea so our load-out was done as quickly as possible!

Here's one of the charity's riders blocking your view of the singer and yours truly!

Image: https://scontent-lhr8-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/547188152_122152264826792623_8460321856567384211_n.jpg?stp=cp6_dst-jpg_tt6&_nc_cat=107&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=833d8c&_nc_ohc=MQWqRxEsGZAQ7kNvwGkruD7&_nc_oc=AdkhnOrOeMiILkNlTQUR7PuzSsZXkO29RloQTG-CJDbAswdzFSWTUuYsbfDujjziqzU&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-lhr8-1.xx&_nc_gid=ZtHo6JVcvVyiYdDuHTUpbQ&oh=00_AfbhipSZZHz67Ez4-GDoIDHS4qgeriiN_qsIqG9FbucSfQ&oe=68CE0EE8

xOilCityPickups · September 2025

Well ... Last night saw the return of the Cobras. At the Drinker Moth in Harlow. As our guitarist put it ... a year in rehearsal (three months of that without our brilliant drummer Dell) and wow, that exceeded all our expectations.

Me pulling 'bass face' while slapping like a lunatic on one of our own songs 'Luna Leanne'.

The venue was a real surprise. The Drinker Moth is a modern built 'estate pub' but I don't think I've ever played to a warmer or friendlier crowd. The staff were lovely and we really felt welcomed.
This was to be our 'grand return' to the stage: The band formed in 1986 and was successful in the rockabilly circuit with a good following, but drifted apart with the pandemic. Dave on vocals and Cliff on guitar are the founding members - with myself and Dell the drummer the 'new boys'.
The gig was to raise money for Alzheimer's research - and we had a support act, a soul covers outfit, who were so new they hadn't even decided on a name yet! They were excellent, but my lordy were they loud, and I had distinct jitters about the dreaded feedback - bane of all doghouse players - when it came time for us to take stage - well not so much stage as whole end of pub - but it was great to have room to breathe - and room for our singer to leap about like a madman.

The dance floor filled up immediately and stayed that way .-our set list is pretty turbocharged ... and time absolutely flew. The crowd were well up for dancing and by the time we reached our final number 'Tear it Up' by Johnny Burnette - the staff had swept the dancefloor of glass and spilt beer a couple of times!

Yes we were very loud .and I'd had to fight the demon Feedback. I had to hang on to my G string for dear life every time I ventured up the fingerboard - or the whole bass shook like a bastard! My rig was the 10 inch Ibanez Promethean combo sat atop a TC Electronics 2x12 ... the whole lot nominally about 500w (and turned pretty much flat out). The Promethean has a graphic EQ but the set was so fast, furious and I'm happy to say 'tight', that I didn't really have time to go back to the amp and dial it out!
A hugely enjoyable gig and just the first of many to come. I was chuffed that the singer and bass player of my other band Marie and the Meltdownz came along to lend their support ... cheers guys!

Snags · September 2025

We gig a lot in Harlow. It's generally a lot better than you'd expect

maltingsaudio · September 2025

Dry hire tonight, can you have it set up ready to go by 7pm? Yes, client didn’t turn up until 830!

ESBlonde · October 2025

Saturday was a social club in Hockley. No rhythm guitarist, he was ill. that was a bitch because he’s the younger healthy one we lean on for lugging gear in!

Anyway I was depping and fronted a three piece doing old folks music (60s and 70s mainly) to an appreciative crowd of grey haired punters. Had to read all the lyrics of course, not my usual fayre.

One issue caught me, upon turning on the PA, XR18 into powered cabs. I got the sequence wrong and had feedback for an embarrassing few seconds while the laptop connected to give me control of the faders. Doh! Not done that in a while, lesson re-learned, perhaps.

Fez · October 2025

Crowd a little thin thanks to storm Amy. Some of our regulars turned up and our old singer with her new boyfriend.
First half was quite good but second a bit fraught for me as I was having technical issues with the pedal board.
Some diagnostics required before tonight's gig.

Keefy · October 2025

Another dep gig on rhythm guitar with Dire Streets, at the Core in Corby. Terrible Friday afternoon journey to get there, but an excellent gig. A good mix in the IEMs makes such a difference. Tone King Imperial Preamp did a brilliant job.

EDIT: I often reference 'he knows all the chords, he doesn't want to make it cry or sing', but I do get to play the Stratty stuff in Wild West End while our 'Mark Knopfler' plays dobro.

Supportact · October 2025

Keefy said:

Another dep gig on rhythm guitar with Dire Streets, at the Core in Corby. Terrible Friday afternoon journey to get there, but an excellent gig. A good mix in the IEMs makes such a difference. Tone King Imperial Preamp did a brilliant job.

EDIT: I often reference 'he knows all the chords, he doesn't want to make it cry or sing', but I do get to play the Stratty stuff in Wild West End while our 'Mark Knopfler' plays dobro.

Love the name Dire Streets! Just makes me think of all the potholes around here. I do like a good tribute band pun name in general though.

firepaulmusic · October 2025

Played with my rock/pop covers three-piece at a cider orchard gig in a converted barn on Friday night during the stormy weather. Not a packed crowd but decent given the conditions. Tried a new rig out consisting of Laney IRT15 Studio head into Marshall 1x12 with my new Boss Waza Tube Amp Expander. It sounded great through the FOH so the TAE worked out well. I struggled slightly with tap dancing as I'm so used to my Fractal patches but got through.

Fez · October 2025

The Swan was a bit quiet but some regulars turned out so not too bad. No technical issues but each one of had a jazz moment we got through though.

I used my B rig Laney Loud pedal which worked fine.

Previous nights pedal board issue seems to have been a loose iec connector on the Trex Fuel tank and a dodgy lead in my FX loop TBC though.

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