I'm in a band again! 2023 UPDATE: We're doing the BOTB again... Ongoing bloggy updates in progress…

stickyfiddle · February 2023

Chris.B said:

It looks like somewhere warm and sunny - not Stockport then?

Abu Dhabi! I've been out here a good few years now. Bit of a different vibe to a rainy midweek at the Hope & Anchor

Chris.B · February 2023

Looks like a great set-up for a gig. I hope your guitar wasn't troubled by the travelling.

stickyfiddle · February 2023

Chris.B said:

Looks like a great set-up for a gig. I hope your guitar wasn't troubled by the travelling.

Yeah, all good - I'm here permanently so no adjustments needed (9 years and counting). Everything is air-conditioned and usually a fairly stable 50-60% humidity, so indoors it's all fine. and just needs the occasional truss tweak. This gig being outdoors in 25mph gusts I was most worried about it falling off the stand!

The gig was a corporate shindig for my company (all band members are in the same firm, for now - 3 of us are on the way out) so we a got great bit of budget for lighting - 4 massive trusses with a shitload of static & moving heads. That also meant I got a photographer in - hoping for some great shots with a nice looking venue that's well-lit.

I got one sent through so far - this was admittedly more experimental at the end of the set once he'd got plenty of "trad" concert style pics.

Now we just need to find some more gigs and learn another 10+ songs...

Chris.B · February 2023

Lighting funded by the employer - excellent.

Good luck in growing your band profile and enjoy the gigs.

stickyfiddle · February 2023

Some more pics. Starting to feel like a real band and stuff!

and one from a very chilly soundcheck which is the first time I've really properly felt like a bass player

stickyfiddle · September 2023

1 year on, Sept 2023: Time for an update on this one!

I quit the company (not the band!) back in Feb, and 2 of the singers also resigned a month or so later. Since the main event we did last year is primarily for legal professionals, that means we need to switch some people around to be eligible. So we're rotating musos (their new boss plays drums!) so I have a new guitarist, drumist and pianoist to play with. Singers are staying the same and there's a small chance we might add a sax for a song or two, depending on availability and ability.

I'm sticking in a 50/50 guitar & bass role and we're trying to work out the kind of setlist that busy corporate folks can learn in a few weeks while also being comprised of danceable crowd favourites and not just boggo pub rock.

Fun times ahead!

stickyfiddle · September 2023

Also.. we may need a new name. I'm open to suggestions, as ever. My current favourite is Barely Legal...

hollywoodrox · September 2023

Wow ,well done, can’t wait to watch the videos a bit later, getting ready to catch the bud in a minute . That looks a great venue you have a cool band

Flanging_Fred · September 2023

stickyfiddle said:

Also.. we may need a new name. I'm open to suggestions, as ever. My current favourite is Barely Legal...

Searching for your band with that name on Google might create… issues.

Sporky · September 2023

If you were an all-women band from near Wigan, you could be the Leigh Gals.

stickyfiddle · September 2023

Flanging_Fred said:

stickyfiddle said:

Also.. we may need a new name. I'm open to suggestions, as ever. My current favourite is Barely Legal...

Searching for your band with that name on Google might create… issues.

Lolz. Yeah and for that reason, despite it being a 1-night-only affair, I suspect we'll find something else.

hollywoodrox · September 2023

stickyfiddle said:

Bumping for the Monday afternoon/evening crowd and because not one of you bastards has wowed the videos!

Say something - you're killing me!!

I’ve wowed the videos , brilliant job

stickyfiddle · September 2023

hollywoodrox said:

stickyfiddle said:

Bumping for the Monday afternoon/evening crowd and because not one of you bastards has wowed the videos!

Say something - you're killing me!!

I’ve wowed the videos , brilliant job

Haha cheers dude.

I'm looking forward to getting the new lot up to speed. And hoping for Beat It in the set this time round - it's about time I set myself a challenge

Sporky · September 2023

How about The League Of Owls?

stickyfiddle · October 2023

Right, so after a bit of personnel shuffling, and subject to the new bass player showing up tomorrow and not being utterly shit I'm now 100% guitar, which is awesome but also a bit of a shame as I've enjoyed playing bass as well.

It also means I really need to step up my practice because we're planning on plenty of songs with pretty exposed guitars and it's my job to go sell that to 800+ people. WOO!

6 or 7 songs in 6 weeks - should be fine, right?

roundthebend · October 2023

Depends on the songs but I'm terrible at remembering songs and I sometimes manage a handful in a week.

Have you encountered a chap who goes by the name Zakk Zoot Gray? He's just moved over to Dubai and does some music stuff. Just wondered how tight the scene was, or how big the place is.

Danny1969 · October 2023

Here's a trick I'm using to help isolate parts these days.

Drag the song into here

https://fadr.com/

Then you can split it into drums, vocals, bass, keyboard and guitar combined stems

This not only helps you hear the parts easier but also lets you make a nice BT you can practice to. You can send your band members their parts isolated and the singer a BT with no vocal .. you can move key and BPM

To get an mp3 of the song you want on a Mac install the soundflower ap .. it's free.
Then find the song you want on YT
Set you Mac to soundflower on the speaker icon.
Start Quicktime, New audio recording hit record and then play the song on YT .... just like you would taping off the radio. Save the file and drag it into the site

For Windows use Audacity and set audio stream to WASAPI ... Then hit record and start song on YT

In my experience sometimes you can pick 6 bangers but for whatever reason some of them don't work well with the band. There can be many reasons but because of this it's sometimes better to pick more songs then you need and then play the basic arrangement as a band first and see of it works BEFORE you go down the rabbit hole of tweaking all the little parts.

I call this first fix .. a reference to chippies fitting the basic frames in a new build house before all the arcitrave goes on and it gets filled etc.

Musicwolf · October 2023

Danny1969 said:

Here's a trick I'm using to help isolate parts these days.

Drag the song into here

https://fadr.com/

Then you can split it into drums, vocals, bass, keyboard and guitar combined stems

I use this one https://studio.moises.ai/ which does the same thing

stickyfiddle · October 2023

Yeah I have Moises which is fantastic. I'll often chuck the stems into Logic so I can even automate as needed. The one thing Moises isnt great at is splitting keys and guitars up. Is Fadr good at that?

stickyfiddle · October 2023

Danny1969 said:

In my experience sometimes you can pick 6 bangers but for whatever reason some of them don't work well with the band. There can be many reasons but because of this it's sometimes better to pick more songs then you need and then play the basic arrangement as a band first and see of it works BEFORE you go down the rabbit hole of tweaking all the little parts.

I call this first fix .. a reference to chippies fitting the basic frames in a new build house before all the arcitrave goes on and it gets filled etc.

This is bang on. I've got a list of about 10. 4 are already nailed on based on first playthroughs and will get there. The rest are more flexible so we'll see where we end up. I'm generally a fan of hitting all the key hooks of a cover as much as you can, but only if the vibe is right - if you play it technically great but it feels flat that will translate to crowd reaction and you'll suck.

stickyfiddle · October 2023

roundthebend said:

Depends on the songs but I'm terrible at remembering songs and I sometimes manage a handful in a week.

Have you encountered a chap who goes by the name Zakk Zoot Gray? He's just moved over to Dubai and does some music stuff. Just wondered how tight the scene was, or how big the place is.

I don’t know of him but based on his Instagram we visit the same guitars shops and venues.

The “scene” here is virtually non-existent tbh. Basically no counter culture because there’s no history of one. And most venues that have live music have 1-3 people just playing/singing to backing tracks. This is partly because of frustratingly-strict licensing laws.

So I'm working on a looping-duo thing with one of the singers from this band, and trying to work out how to break into corporate gigs where you can actually get treated decently and play on some big stages without losing money!

stickyfiddle · October 2023

New bassist came last night. He's ace - he's barely prepped but still sounded plenty good enough, including jamming once through EWF's September having apparently never played it before.

We have 5 more weekends before the gig but if we keep up this progress we'll be in great shape by then.

Mucho reliefo!

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I'm in a band again! 2023 UPDATE: We're doing the BOTB again... Ongoing bloggy updates in progress…

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