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To infinity and beyond....

mark555

Entry posted by mark555

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This entry tells of the week leading up to our first live gig and the gig itself.

 

Did you ever have one of those weeks where after you have practised, practised and practised till you got your parts right, had some great rehearsals, then for some reason, you seem to just not be able to get things right. Well, that is what exactly happened the final week before our first gig. The catalyst was that we started to practise as a band line up would be on stage, with some borrowed monitors which weren't too much more above useless. It had been one of those weeks I could just have done without. I just could not get it together musically at rehearsal, and I put that down to too many external factors. Friday morning I had a 220 mile round trip down to Birmingham for a second interview with a guy who along with the company HR manager just picked holes in everything I said. In fact, after the weekend, on monday this week I just called the recruiter who got me the interview, and having met this guy at interview twice, I told her that I just felt the whole thing was not good for me. It turned out they felt the same - ha ha, I just wish I had made the decision on the friday and not stressed about it all weekend.

 

We met for an afternoon set up at the venue and a run through of the songs we just weren't tight on, in fairness, it was me who needed it. But the other guys were very supportive and could see I was having a rough time of it. Shaun, our bass player, is like a brother. We have known each other since we were thirteen or so and Pete, our other guitarist says it's plain that Shaun and I are "an item" - but thankfully only in a musical sense - get one of us in a band, you get the other. But he is my true brother and is always the calm one, he spent some time with me and helped me get my head right for the gig.

 

Showtime came and I just went for it, we opened with one of our best numbers "down at the doctors" by Britsh band Doctor Feelgood, followed by Bad Company's "I can't get enough". We just went for it. The audience loved it and we even got a standing ovation when we played Thin Lizzy's hit Whiskey in the Jar. What made that nice was that it was led by some guys in their early twenties who are guitar players. Other songs we played included This flight tonight, I hear you knocking, Alright now, and stuff of that Genre, and it went down well. Yes, I his a fair few bum notes, but I played some really good guitar as well. In the end, every one who came had a really great time and we will be getting another booking as a result. One of our strong points was our ability to build a rapport with our audience, and they enjoyed that very much.

 

For myself, one of the best things of the night was the pleasure the gig gave to one particular individual, Sheldon. Sheldon is 35, the son of two dear friends of mine, he was born with a mental handicap. Despite being 35, he is always going to be a kid. But he loves the guitar, and when I let him hold the strat he was just in his element, he thought it was the greatest thing he has ever seen in his life, and he had a great time. He loves music but because of his handicap, unlike the rest of us he can't go out and find a band to watch. I am not one to push my beliefs on any one, but I believe whole heartedly that one day, in the next life, I shall meet Sheldon without his handicap and he will be a great guy.

 

So all in all, I needn't have stressed so much. But it's somewhere in my nature to get wound up at times, I try really hard to fight it and most of the time I win. The gig was my first full gig on stage in several years and it was a great learning curve. It showed what went down well and where we should go with some of the songs and to go down certain paths and back off from others. I'm glad we did it. So, for now, it's a case of choosing ten more songs to learn and really getting sharp, we have another gig coming up in mid April, I'd like that to be really sharp.

 

Thanks for reading, Mark.

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fxdx99

fxdx99 171

Posted

Nice report, Mark! Thought your gig was last weekend and wondered how it went. Fantastic that it went well, even more so to help you get about the distractions. Music is really good for that. Powerful stuff.

 

Good set list and you're right that 'reaching' the audience is most of the entertainment factor. Aside from the strat, what other guitars and what amp/pedals did you use?

 

My 2nd gig w/new band is this weekend. Maybe I'll use it to start a blog of sorts - sure enjoy reading yours.

mark555

mark555 150

Posted

Thanks Randy, Because of the nature of the gig, I was able to use four guitars. The main one for the night was my Tokai Les Paul, also the 555 and two strats. One of the strats was tuned to open G as was the 555, and I used the 555 for playing Brown Suger and the strat in open G for slide on Little Red Rooster. I used my Fender Hot Rod DeVille, only needed to set it low as it is quite a loud amp.

 

Go for it with the Blog, I will be the first to sign up for it, I would love to know how others are doing things, and thank you for your kind words.

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