January 2015: Break-ups, cancellations, and we've got to find a new singer from somewhere.

It’s funny how the worst situations can bring out the best in people. Although, I guess, it pays to look at it positively.

On New Years Eve, my girlfriend and I broke up after being together for four and a half years. I’m going to keep the reasons for this to myself, as it’s not for me to post the inner workings of our relationship online, but the breakup did affect me quite profoundly. There was a lot of sadness, a lot of tears, and a lot of wondering whether or not we’d done the right thing.

The Fakes. We're alright, really.

I tried to keep it quiet from most people who didn’t have a lot of investment in the situation, since I didn’t want them to feel awkward when talking to me. But there was one group of people for whom this would never have remained a secret, and that is The Fakes. On our first band practise after the Christmas break, we were talking about our holidays, and the story came out. After the obligatory “Sorry to hear that,” the band decided to cheer me up by running though our version of She Hates Me (not actually the case, I hasten to add!) by Puddle of Mudd. And it worked! It was quite nice, having my most consistent group of friends for the last eleven years around me and just getting on with what we do, which is playing indie songs not very well and taking the piss out of each other. That sort of thing can’t be bought or looked for, and the fact that I have it makes me feel a lot better.

It’s also given me a lot of material to write songs about, so you might be hearing some new songs from me later!

I was hoping to be able to tell you about some gigs I’ve been doing. I’d had two of them booked and they were both cancelled. One was a solo gig, and one was with No Questions Asked. Where I was given the reasons, it seems that a lot of the pubs were looking at their January budget and deciding that they can’t afford to pay for the shows, so they cancel them.

Now here’s where I feel inclined to go off on one about how live music often gets the roughest part of the deal. It’s true that I felt let down by the cancellations. I’m blaming nobody I’m in contact with for this; they were invariably the middle-men having to deliver the bad news and had nothing to do with the decision, but I actually quite like playing live and was disappointed not to be able to do it.

Still, it’s not a significant problem for me. All it means is that I didn’t get to do a gig. I haven’t lost much. I rarely got paid for gigs up until NQA, and have not touched any of the money that they’ve paid me so far. Relying on a pub band for income is a dangerous game indeed – NQA is a walking case in point for this – so I’ve saved all the money they’ve paid me for a rainy day. It’s there if I need it.

But I wonder what might happen to those people who are counting on their live work for income. If live acts can be cancelled as easily as that, it’s hard to see how one is supposed to make a living from playing music. It makes me glad I have a reasonably steady day job, since at least I’m sorted for the year.

That being said, I try to understand the pubs that have to cancel us. *My opinion* is that live music isn’t a great draw anymore. It might have been at one point but entertainment is not hard to find now, in fact rarely involves moving. I’ve said it before but not for nothing: The only way I can usually get anybody to come to a gig is if I drive them there myself. So it won’t necessarily help the pubs to have a live band that they have to pay because there’s no guarantee of extra footfall. When the budget comes through for the last quarter and some things have to go, why shouldn’t they choose the live bands that aren’t making a difference anyway?

Finally, I’ve been told that Mike is leaving No Questions Asked, and we’re currently looking for a new singer. We’re doing our next gig with Rich Sadler, and Mike will do the one after that. We’re looking into some people and I’m going to try to learn as much of the set as I can so I can help out on vocals if need be.

At least I’ll have one gig to talk about next month…

*edit*

What's the Story at the Blue Brick? 2/7/2013

As promised, I played the Jam Nite at the Blue Brick on Tuesday Night...

My set list was much the same as ever it is these days, however there were a couple of things worth talking up. First, right before I went on I went on with the band to play Summer of '69 on bass, something I don't think I've done since the Jack's Legacy days. It has been a while since I've picked up a bass guitar, my own having been in its case basically since Aki Maera called it a day, but I have a kind of affinity with it and I remembered the song pretty well. Thanks for letting me play with you guys!

Then when I went on, my set list was:

The Boys of Summer
Zephyr Song
Bitterness
Never Forget You
Morning Glory.

I think with Boys of Summer the first few minutes may not have come across all that well because of some sound balancing issues that it took a change of microphone to sort out. I really should try putting that later on in the set, or last, as that has a bigger impact I think and I don't want it to be blunted by sound issues.

Bitterness was unplanned; I made a joke about forgetting my capo and somebody lent me one! That was very kind of them, I'd have done Storm from the North otherwise, but I was hardly going to say no once they'd lent it to me. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was this song I enjoyed playing most tonight.

Morning Glory was something of an encore, and my old friend Rich Sadler got up and sang the chorus with me and played tambourine. Rich has developed quite a powerful voice over the years and it was cutting right over my gravelly tones; a bit of light and shade never hurt anyone! I enjoyed playing the song and it was great to get a guest musician up with me.

A very good night in all, and it had a lot of support from a local following that Dave and Rich have obviously worked very hard to nurture. They're doing it on the first Tuesday of every month so it would be worth popping down, especially if you like playing blues-rock, they love it!

Tomorrow I'm playing St Mary's school in Brierley Hill for the Insight group, I'll be on at roughly 12:30 if anyone wants to come and have a look. It will be mostly, if not all, covers; as it's a summer fayre it would probably be better to mind my Ps and Qs, so don't be expecting Bitterness, and I certainly won't be playing A Lonely Night, otherwise it will be a lonely car journey home.

See what I did there...

6/10/2011: Jam Night at the Samson and Lion

Some of you may recall that I came to this jam night ages ago back in April and had a go playing some covers in front of a modest but very appreciative (and by appreciative, I largely mean drunk) audience. I didn’t return, not because I didn’t want to, but because it was on a Thursday and I joined the Roleplaying club not too long after that. Since then, the night has changed hands from Kev on the keyboards who apparently quit, to my old friend Richard Sadler who’s taken it upon himself to set up a jam night in the pub, and for the opening night he needed a drummer. Enter yours truly…

I’ve said it before but not for nothing: I don’t claim to be a drummer. I do, however, have a pair of sticks and some idea of what to do with them. My kit will need something like £600 spending on it before it will be even close to playable, and since I only paid £250 for it in the first place (actually my Dad did,) I can’t see that happening too soon. Rich said he had an electric drum kit I could use, and I thought that wouldn’t be too bad; I’ve used them before and got on reasonably well. I got to the pub to find what I can only describe as ‘Rock Band Drums.’ There were 4 pads I could hit with a stick; a kick, a snare, a hi-hat, and a crash. So I had all the ground covered, and away we went.

The classic rock stuff that Rich likes to play is rarely all that complicated on the drums, which is probably as well, as I needed to keep it simple. Obviously there were the limitations of the drum kit, but there was also the fact that the top range (cymbal sounds) wasn’t cutting through the mix very well so all anyone could hear were the kick and the snare. Nonetheless I think I did a solid job of keeping it going for about half of the night, and the band appreciated it. It wasn’t ideal, but it was far better than nothing and everybody knew it. I think we did quite well.

Rich was also kind enough to let me have a go playing a small acoustic set…

Purely because I sound checked with a C chord and could think of nothing better, I had a go at playing Laid by James. Not a song I play very often because I don’t honestly think I’m that good at the necessary falsetto, but considering how long it had been since I’d last played it acoustically (we do it in The Fakes, where I use my pedals and the volume control on my Strat to make an approximation of string sounds) I played it quite well. Not sure how well it went down, or how many people recognised it, but not a bad start.

Despite the nature of the night, I would have felt it was lost opportunity if I didn’t play at least one of my original songs, so I had a go at We Will Survive. I’m getting more familiar with the sound of my own voice now, and at this point of the show I noticed that either the microphone or the PA we were putting it through wasn’t brilliant and there was some distortion on my voice. I doubt, therefore, that anyone would understand what I was singing, and with that on my mind it was trickier to put the usual kind of energy in to the performance. But I got through it all the way without making any mistakes, and that’s not nothing.

I then did Always Remember Me again, and I think there were some people in the room who recognised the song because I could see them singing, or at least mouthing, along. I must remember to ask anybody I see doing that whether that song works or not, considering the song was as far as I know originally sung by a black woman in a contemporary soul band, a far cry from my voice which sounds like a very large nail being rubbed against a very small plank of wood… maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t, but I play it live a lot now so it would be good to find out which.

At a request from the crowd for some Oasis, I went in to the only one of their songs I both know how to play and know all the words to: Stop Crying Your Heart Out. Again, I don’t sound anything like Liam Gallagher, but Oasis are the ultimate pub band and you can never go wrong with playing some of their songs in one. Rich was kind enough to join me on backing vocals; I was genuinely pleased to see this happen as that I think is what it’s all about. So guys, if you ever see me paying this and you know the guitar part to it, by all means join in! And especially if you know the harmonic bit at the end, which I do but forgot when it was time for me to play it..,

I finished off with Storm From The North. I think this was testing the water as much as anything else, because it was vastly different from my other song, and I probably wanted to see how well it went down. Whether by the style of the music or whether because, 5 songs in to a set, people were starting to get used to me I don’t know, but it seemed to go down better than my other original song tonight. Without being sure of the reasons there’s only so much I can take from it, but it’s an interesting observation if nothing else.

I’m back with the Role players now so it’s unlikely that I’ll come back to the jam night in the near future. But if it’s still going when I get a night off then maybe… Cheers Rich, and well done for putting it on. I can’t think of a single musician who wouldn’t thank you for giving them somewhere else to play.