Pan and the Poets at The Yardbird, 17/4/2011

I've really got to hurry up with this or I'll have done another gig by the time I've written up all my ones for April...

So as I mentioned earlier, I'm depping on bass for Pan and the Poets now. Or at least I was, more on that later. I had my debut with them at The Yardbird a couple of Sundays ago, I was very impressed with the place and was back there the following Tuesday. After setting up, we had what I can only describe as 'The usual problems with the microphones.' Bearing in mind that I've known Luke since school, and later 6th form, rare are the times when he's happy with how the vocals sound first time. In this case we couldn't hear Andy singing and it took a few minutes to put it right, during which all I could really do was keep quiet until we'd got it sorted, though I did reach for my earplugs when the microphones started to pop...

After this, we began with The Quail and The Cat, because Luke reckons this is a good one to begin with to get the levels sorted out because it's all about the vocals. I don't know about that, but I enjoyed playing it; in the absence of any specific bassline in the verse I twiddled around with the Gm pentatonic over the relevant chords and I think it sounded really good. Highlight for me - and Luke, he told me later - was when he brought the bass in for the second chorus. It's a simple line, but you don't half feel like a pro when you play it!

Next was Girl Like You, which is Pan and the Poet's staple track having done it at every single gig they've played. I played this as well as I needed to, I think; once you know the bass lines to it it's almost impossible to play wrong. I don't know whether it's the band's most inspiring song, but they play it well and we held it together that night.

Victory Cafe came after that, I love this song! If ever a party's going flat, get the Ska out. I don't know what bassline Jack originally played for this track so I considered the style of music and went for something inspired by The Specials. It was working well until the instrumental bridge parts bit, where I forgot what notes I was supposed to be playing and started paying A sharp when I should have been playing A, which threw me on the next note as well. Nobody seemed to notice, but that shouldn't have happened. Concentrate!

Queen of Hearts was a mission, because for some technical reason I can't fathom, I only learned it that day. This was a lot of following Luke's chords and keeping it simple; any attempt to go off on one would be followed very shortly by me falling flat on my face. In spite of this, I think we held it together very well indeed; I made it to the end of the song without any glaring errors and the crowed seemed to like it.

Liberty a Paris (There's supposed to be French punctuation in the title to that song, but by nature of not being French, I don't know where they go) is a really good song to play live because if the gig is going well and it's the right atmosphere, it may well turn into a barn dance. For the most part it's a relatively simple 'Hoe Down' bassline, and I was really pleased when I saw some guys at the front clapping with the band in the a'capello chorus. Tripped up on the final rundown to the root chord at the end, which shouldn't have happened, but hey, the crowd liked the song and that's what counts!

Rat Dog was supposed to end the set. This song is very rhythmic and the bassline is easy enough to follow, right until the fast punky bit at the end. Luke had told me that this part is very busy, so rather than work out anything specific (bearing in mind I had all the other songs to learn as well,) I decided to just go off on one and noodle around E minor for a bit. It would have worked if Ste on guitar hadn't been doing the same thing; I've never been in to the sound of both guitar and bass doing solos at the same time. Granted we had the keyboards and nylon guitar to hold it all together, but in hindsight, I reckon I should have stuck to a riff for this part. Should it come up again, need to have a word with the guitar player before the gig to find out who's doing what!

We ended with Jukebox, which is a nice one to finish a gig with and always takes me back to the first gig I did on bass in the school production of Grease. Not much to say about this one; we played it well and I enjoyed it.

So, my first gig with Pan and the Poets wasn't too bad at all! Unfortunately it's also my last gig with Pan and the Poets, as for his own reasons Luke has decided to leave the band and I can't see the others carrying on without him, not least because Andy will be in Spain from next September. Not a long tenure then, though Luke and I have been friends for a long time now and I do like his songwriting, so I'm sure our paths will cross again.

So what happened at the Yardbird the following Tuesday?

I'll tell you tomorrow...