I was looking forward to this gig 'cos we had a good time last year and were able to take the time to get set up properly in a good sized village hall.
We would be using my PA. Mainly because Steve was departing on a cruise the next day and needed to be away early, but also so I knew everything was working for our ReTrio re-incarnation the following week at Bramford. So on the Thursday I ran the PA up to make sure all was OK. It did need quite a few tweaks to accommodate my new VoiceLive FX unit so I left the old settings as ReTrio in case I ever need to go back to them and saved the new settings as Band for the preferred set up going forward. I had been trying to fix the piezo under the 'g' string on my Koa Godin XTSA. The volume from it had dropped dramatically following a recent restring where the cap containing the piezo element had worked loose. When I re-fitted it the piezo was hardly working? I took it apart and its very fiddly but it seems the piezo element may need fixing in place with glue? Looking on the net it seems this is not uncommon and I had a go a re-fixing it with mixed success. I decided to use my 'spare' red XTSA for gigs for the time being and will see if I can find a guitar repairer to have a go at this fiddly job.
I had hoped that I would be finished with the sniffy cold by now but 'no' I would still need plenty of meds to keep the coughing and sneezing at bay on the night. I left home at 4:40 to get through Friday traffic in Bury to arrive at the gig at the target of 5pm. Chris arrived a few minutes after me, so I had prime position at the doors! I was pleased to see the hall was open and the chap doing the janitoring turned out to be fellow guitarist. We swapped stories as I loaded in - he plays in a Killers tribute band and another band doing original material. Chris took the opportunity to ask him if he fancied taking on the guitar role in Coast and he said he'd have a think!
Set up went well on the big stage and I took some time to get my stuff all optimised before looking at the band mics. They went smoothly apart from Ian's vocal which didn't work? I proved the mic was ok and then delved deep into the settings on his channel. It turned out I had set a gate on the drum vocal mic so it closed when he wasn't singing and the threshold was much too low which resulted in switching off the mic completely. For a quick fix I switched the gate out of the set up and all was well! Steve was using a Shure PG58 which was quite a middley tone compared to the rest of the mics but he said he liked the sound so I didn't faff. The feedback suppressors took some high end out anyway! We put in Steve's spare radio mic into the spare drum overhead channel on the mixer to give the compere a roving mic. It worked and delivered a good sound first time!
Chris and I had been discussing how we might improve what he hears from the bass when stood in front on the stack. I hear it fine on my side and we know it sounds great out in the hall. Ian said: 'Slade used to have a bass speaker cab each side in the 70's why not try that!' So we did. Chris brought a cab over to my side and I sited it on the far side of the Bose. Well, this simple change had a radical effect on Chris's hearing of the bass. For me it was slightly louder and clearer, but for him it was a huge improvement. And there is room at most gigs to do this if you put the guitar amp on top of the remote bass cab. And raising the guitar amp would also aid guitarist's to hear their own sound. Be interesting to see how we get on at next weeks small stage at Bramford. Finally, we put Chris's phone on a back ground music playlist and I took his minijack into the mixer and we were set to go.
Probably about 120 in the hall. About 80% of the attendees were 6th form students; with teachers, parents and band wives (Jacqui, Bridget and Sharon) making up the senior element! There was no buffet as such, but the tables were populated with pots of nuts and crisps so we filled our boots with them and beer. We had got changed into our Dinner Jackets so the ladies could inspect us - for tidiness not dry rot! Bridget's teacher son Nathan was the organiser and he had got a few colleagues to run the gambling casino attractions and compere the night. The compere was very good explaining the flow of the evening and he had a good line and relaxed manner with banter I thought.
But there was some confusion between the compere and the band. He started announcing the band before we were even on the stage so that left a gap of a few minutes whilst we got sorted. Once up and running we opened with "FBI". I was happy with the sound of the band but just needed to roll back the guitar volume a little. I'd asked Steve to stay on the dance floor to listen for any balance issues. He remained impassive out there but when he came on to sing "Heartbeat" he said the band sounded good. We brought him on by playing a few bars from the "James Bond Theme". I was really very pleased with the on stage band sound over the first few numbers. The problems I faced were operational - i.e. me getting used to the new approach to changing sounds with the VoiceLive 3. In the light of this performance I'm going to move the tremolo sound next to my standard pop sound so I can select it without passing through any other sounds. We weren't doing any bantering, just following the set list with 'as quick as we could manage' changes into the next number. I was able to cue Steve through some of the arrangements; some we had to follow him though. Folsom went a bit awry - here's the strange ending but I guess this one was mainly down to me!?!
But, on the whole, performance and continuity was a lot better than previous gigs. I brought the harmoniser in on the "Searchers" medley and that subtly and successfully filled out the vocal sixties sound. We were getting some good audience response from the seniors in the crowd who you could see were impressed with the sound and applauding well. I think some might have been fearful of a loud unbalanced noise (like it really was in the sixties). Jacqui later reported the band sound as excellent - loud and clear enough to command attention but not so loud it precluded conversation, just perfect for this gig.
We sat out the gambling. The youngsters looked like they were enjoying it and the compere was doing a good job of holding the event to time. Thinking Chris would have learned from out late arrival on stage for set 1, I was surprised that he hadn't rounded us up by the time we heard the announcement " And now back to our excellent band - a big hand for Coast". We scrambled back to the stage and opened a few minutes late again with "Apache". Steve and I went out front and started the walk. A few girls also joined in which was pleasing to see. Another nice touch was that as we approached the end I was able to walk up the stairs (still playing) and get to my stage position for the next number. We got a great response anyway and then got going 'fairly' smoothly into "Do You Wanna Dance" - I had to remind Ian of the starting drum fill! Once underway the dance floor got quite busy so I made Steve go round another verse and chorus to finish. We carried on with some sing-a-long in the shape of "Daydream Believer and Sweet Caroline" but the dancers drifted away. Ian called for a slowey. Catching the band mood, I started "Nights in White Satin". This went unbelievably well as I added big dollops of strings and harmoniser and the band started to feel and play the dynamics of the piece. Steve did a creditable flute sole substituting some focussed vocal 'oohs' for the flute. I kept the song short pushing Steve into a big finish after the solo. Actually I thought he sang this song quite well as well. But the response the band got was fantastic (even from the youngsters) - it must have sounded really good out there. Jacqui later confirmed that even though she didn't care for the song she thought the band sound, vocals and light and shade were excellent. Chris called for "Albatross" to follow - which we did well.
Then we got back on with some dancier stuff culminating in "Proud Mary" which went down very well and filled the floor. I was just about to start into Bad Moon when Chris called for "Johnny B Goode" as the last number for this set. It turned out to be an inspired choice. The youngsters and oldsters all knew the song. As we came to the solo's Steve had organised the youngsters into a conga line of duckwalkers. So there I was centre stage playing the iconic solos as about 25 6th formers duck-walked across the dancefloor in front of me. It was like a scene from Back to the Future - it was just brilliant!
Then there was another spell of gambling and then the raffle was drawn. Jacqui won a bottle of Prosecco and I won a few numbers later but asked for the prize to be awarded to the next number.
The band went on to play the third set opening with "Honk Tonk Women" but the hall started to empty so we didn't stay long just playing a couple more numbers.
As we packed up Sharon introduced me to Ian's bass playing son (from Reading). Apparently he is quite accomplished and plays esoteric jazz fusion in weird time signatures - he plays a Sandberg bass. He made my night by saying what a great guitar sound I had and how he liked my style which fitted so well within the confines of the line up and repertoire. I showed him the gear as we were packing up and I think he was quite impressed an old codger like me would dabble in such modern techniques.
Pack up was tortuous as my cold symptoms returned. Jacqui and I were pleased to make the short journey home and I took a shot of Lemsip as soon as I got in.
We would be using my PA. Mainly because Steve was departing on a cruise the next day and needed to be away early, but also so I knew everything was working for our ReTrio re-incarnation the following week at Bramford. So on the Thursday I ran the PA up to make sure all was OK. It did need quite a few tweaks to accommodate my new VoiceLive FX unit so I left the old settings as ReTrio in case I ever need to go back to them and saved the new settings as Band for the preferred set up going forward. I had been trying to fix the piezo under the 'g' string on my Koa Godin XTSA. The volume from it had dropped dramatically following a recent restring where the cap containing the piezo element had worked loose. When I re-fitted it the piezo was hardly working? I took it apart and its very fiddly but it seems the piezo element may need fixing in place with glue? Looking on the net it seems this is not uncommon and I had a go a re-fixing it with mixed success. I decided to use my 'spare' red XTSA for gigs for the time being and will see if I can find a guitar repairer to have a go at this fiddly job.
I had hoped that I would be finished with the sniffy cold by now but 'no' I would still need plenty of meds to keep the coughing and sneezing at bay on the night. I left home at 4:40 to get through Friday traffic in Bury to arrive at the gig at the target of 5pm. Chris arrived a few minutes after me, so I had prime position at the doors! I was pleased to see the hall was open and the chap doing the janitoring turned out to be fellow guitarist. We swapped stories as I loaded in - he plays in a Killers tribute band and another band doing original material. Chris took the opportunity to ask him if he fancied taking on the guitar role in Coast and he said he'd have a think!
Set up went well on the big stage and I took some time to get my stuff all optimised before looking at the band mics. They went smoothly apart from Ian's vocal which didn't work? I proved the mic was ok and then delved deep into the settings on his channel. It turned out I had set a gate on the drum vocal mic so it closed when he wasn't singing and the threshold was much too low which resulted in switching off the mic completely. For a quick fix I switched the gate out of the set up and all was well! Steve was using a Shure PG58 which was quite a middley tone compared to the rest of the mics but he said he liked the sound so I didn't faff. The feedback suppressors took some high end out anyway! We put in Steve's spare radio mic into the spare drum overhead channel on the mixer to give the compere a roving mic. It worked and delivered a good sound first time!
Chris and I had been discussing how we might improve what he hears from the bass when stood in front on the stack. I hear it fine on my side and we know it sounds great out in the hall. Ian said: 'Slade used to have a bass speaker cab each side in the 70's why not try that!' So we did. Chris brought a cab over to my side and I sited it on the far side of the Bose. Well, this simple change had a radical effect on Chris's hearing of the bass. For me it was slightly louder and clearer, but for him it was a huge improvement. And there is room at most gigs to do this if you put the guitar amp on top of the remote bass cab. And raising the guitar amp would also aid guitarist's to hear their own sound. Be interesting to see how we get on at next weeks small stage at Bramford. Finally, we put Chris's phone on a back ground music playlist and I took his minijack into the mixer and we were set to go.
Probably about 120 in the hall. About 80% of the attendees were 6th form students; with teachers, parents and band wives (Jacqui, Bridget and Sharon) making up the senior element! There was no buffet as such, but the tables were populated with pots of nuts and crisps so we filled our boots with them and beer. We had got changed into our Dinner Jackets so the ladies could inspect us - for tidiness not dry rot! Bridget's teacher son Nathan was the organiser and he had got a few colleagues to run the gambling casino attractions and compere the night. The compere was very good explaining the flow of the evening and he had a good line and relaxed manner with banter I thought.
We sat out the gambling. The youngsters looked like they were enjoying it and the compere was doing a good job of holding the event to time. Thinking Chris would have learned from out late arrival on stage for set 1, I was surprised that he hadn't rounded us up by the time we heard the announcement " And now back to our excellent band - a big hand for Coast". We scrambled back to the stage and opened a few minutes late again with "Apache". Steve and I went out front and started the walk. A few girls also joined in which was pleasing to see. Another nice touch was that as we approached the end I was able to walk up the stairs (still playing) and get to my stage position for the next number. We got a great response anyway and then got going 'fairly' smoothly into "Do You Wanna Dance" - I had to remind Ian of the starting drum fill! Once underway the dance floor got quite busy so I made Steve go round another verse and chorus to finish. We carried on with some sing-a-long in the shape of "Daydream Believer and Sweet Caroline" but the dancers drifted away. Ian called for a slowey. Catching the band mood, I started "Nights in White Satin". This went unbelievably well as I added big dollops of strings and harmoniser and the band started to feel and play the dynamics of the piece. Steve did a creditable flute sole substituting some focussed vocal 'oohs' for the flute. I kept the song short pushing Steve into a big finish after the solo. Actually I thought he sang this song quite well as well. But the response the band got was fantastic (even from the youngsters) - it must have sounded really good out there. Jacqui later confirmed that even though she didn't care for the song she thought the band sound, vocals and light and shade were excellent. Chris called for "Albatross" to follow - which we did well.
Then there was another spell of gambling and then the raffle was drawn. Jacqui won a bottle of Prosecco and I won a few numbers later but asked for the prize to be awarded to the next number.
The band went on to play the third set opening with "Honk Tonk Women" but the hall started to empty so we didn't stay long just playing a couple more numbers.
As we packed up Sharon introduced me to Ian's bass playing son (from Reading). Apparently he is quite accomplished and plays esoteric jazz fusion in weird time signatures - he plays a Sandberg bass. He made my night by saying what a great guitar sound I had and how he liked my style which fitted so well within the confines of the line up and repertoire. I showed him the gear as we were packing up and I think he was quite impressed an old codger like me would dabble in such modern techniques.
Pack up was tortuous as my cold symptoms returned. Jacqui and I were pleased to make the short journey home and I took a shot of Lemsip as soon as I got in.
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