Author Topic: Big gig - plug and advice wanted... (Read 6184 times)

dooogz · « **on:** March 11, 2006, 04:28:26 PM »

Ok, so on the 22nd April, my band, Silver Electric, after great success at small local gigs decided to arrange our own gig... for 700 people (max we are allowed)...

The night consists of a experienced Jazz band (our singer's older bro and mates - all music graduates from uni)
a band named Four Functions, who go to the local private school, and are our good mates... after the plug fell on their last gig just as they were walking on stage (and we were walking off) we are repaying them a favour and letting them play our gig! They play funk rock, its amazing stuff!
Then we plan on playing about an hour set, obviously padded out with quite a few covers, because we only have a month to prepare...

The night will be finished off with an experienced DJ 11-1 am :)

This is set to be quite an event for us, and a crowd of 700 is something id never even considered dealing with before... how will i? i mean, im not a fantastic guitarist and only recently have we, as a band, got over the shock of playing for 300 people :S!

Obviously the gig is for charity, cus thats the kinda guys we are... though it would be nice to shift sum cd's!

Its in Tunbridge Wells (High Rocks - for those of you who know it), and its a "family event", though i worry it will be far too kid dominated... Food buffet provided, licensed bar (tho its £3 a pint and the beer sux - dont buy the guiness it tastes of water, even tho i lough guiness)(u can get a pint of bass for only £2.50 tho, and thats quite nice).

So yeah, if any1 is interested in coming along, let me know, and beyond that if people could offer big gig advice for nerves/ managing to play for so long.. please do!?!

Cheers,
Your faithful guitar bro,
Doogz

Dakine · « **Reply #1 on:** March 11, 2006, 04:35:04 PM »

No advice really.
My biggest gig (way way back in the Day) was Cardiff Uni supporting a comeback of The Damned (Rat Scabies, Captian Sensible et all.)
I was playing Bass at the time and the drummer (my best mate) decided we needed some booze before we went on.
There lies a mistake, alcohol (excessive before a gig) and mainly, following a drummer's idea LOL
Well, short on cash and with braincells not fully functioning we bought "Thunderbird" (feel sick just remembering it).
Suffice to say we got very wasted, I don't remember a whole lot. The band had to look for me late at night upon leaving time (we had driven up from Wiltshire) and found me precariously drooped over a 3rd story balcony!

Maybe not advice but a cautionary tale :)

Dakine · « **Reply #2 on:** March 11, 2006, 04:35:53 PM »

OOPS,
BTW, good luck!
I would come and support you but the airline ticket's abit steep for a gig right now :)

Have a BLAST though :)

Ratrod · « **Reply #3 on:** March 11, 2006, 04:59:52 PM »

One or two beers will help you get over the nerves. Drink too much and you'll f@#k up big time.

Remember, you will make a few mistakes. It doesn't matter, noone will hear it as long as you keep playing.

3 quid for a beer? That's steep!

dooogz · « **Reply #4 on:** March 11, 2006, 05:40:57 PM »

oh this place is a joke on beer prices... its where all the 14-18 year olds go to parties and think "wow, they serve me here"...
They are soo proud of getting served that they are willing to pay anything... i bought a round of 2 guinesses, 3 malibu and cokes and one shot of vodka last time i was there £17... had me almost in tears!

38thBeatle · « **Reply #5 on:** March 11, 2006, 05:58:02 PM »

Hi Dooogz, well as you know I am hoping to be there ( as long as a gig doesn't come up) and I will see if I can get a few mates along. Hopefully Ron ( R/2E) will see the post and he will think about coming. Advice, well same as ever really- know your stuff, work out a set list and make sure everyone knows what is coming up next. Make sure your amps are ok and take some spare mains leads, fuses and strings. Take plenty of cables. Don't let the size of the audience worry you- I actually think the bigger the audience the easier it is but that is my view ( and I have played in front of 10000- which becomes meaningless cause you can't see them all!). A drink or two might make you relax but there is no subsitiute for knowing what you are doing. The hour will rush past I can assure you. These days I often find myself playing 2.5 hours and it flashes past. With your set list, allow for tune ups and setting f/x ( plan the latter- nothing worse than waiting for a guitaristy to sort out f/x between songs- apart from loud laborious tuning of course). Also allow for adrenaline kicking in- you may find you play each song a bit faster than you normally do at rehearsal. Try and get the singer to think about how he introduces songs. Tell him to avoid "in-jokes"- no-one other than the band ever laughs. If I think of more I will let you know and I am sure that others will chime in.I really hope I can be there too.

willo · « **Reply #6 on:** March 11, 2006, 08:32:01 PM »

I've been thumbing through this book called 'Zen Guitar'; it's quite interesting. Anyway, it has a little advice on nerves, and it says that you're never really going to be able to fully get rid of them so you've just got to expect it, and learn to use it (i.e. adrenaline) in a positive way. Don't fight it, feel it! :D

Hope it goes great, 700 people - I'm very jealous!

Searcher · « **Reply #7 on:** March 11, 2006, 09:51:00 PM »

Yeah, what Beatle said. ;) Make sure you have two of everything, basically.

I think that audiences that size are less nervewracking than smaller crowds where you can actually look people in the eyes as you play--now that's freaky!

Here are my gig guidelines ;) :

Your worst practice can very well be your performance level, so make sure you can play this stuff well. Don't count on being able to improvise through things. Sure, allow for it, but have something to play as a fallback.
I like to do creative visualisation. Seriously. Sit in your room, relax, and picture everything going perfectly. Imagine all the details--how it sounds, how you look, what you're wearing, and so on.
The day of the gig, make sure you eat and drink properly. Healthily, that is. Don't load up on Coke or coffee and make yourself extra jittery. Drink plenty of water and eat enough that you don't run out of energy, but not so much that you feel sluggish.
Warm up your playing! Make sure you've played for an hour or so before the gig. It sucks to finally get into the swing of things on the last song.
If you're freaked out, do some pushups 15 minutes before you go on. It will wake you up and focus your energy. It will also take the edge off your adrenaline.

jt · « **Reply #8 on:** March 12, 2006, 02:28:23 AM »

:D Hi Dooogz

Make sure you rehearse the set at least 5 times before the gig. I don`t mean turn up to 1 rehearsal & then play through the set 5 times i mean you need at least 5 seperate rehearsals before you do the gig. This`ll help you & the band now the material. Get who`ever talks between the songs to practice & think about what there gonna say, there`s nothing more ametuerish than hearing people going "erm yer errr right yer erm" between songs. Select one member to do the talking. If there are going to be kids present & it`s a charity event don`t swear !!!!

You can allways look at your fret board if you get to nervouse but it`ll be a good memory for you if you look up once in a while. :D

Remember to breath whilst playing & soloing. Personnaly i don`t like to jam my solos live i like to have`em all worked out, but that`s my personal choice.

make sure you choose sensible covers that suit the style of music the band plays & make sure there in keys that the singer can cope with. but most of all have fun !!!!

:D 8)

dooogz · « **Reply #9 on:** March 12, 2006, 06:37:20 PM »

Cheers for all the replies guys...

As far as talking to the audience is concerned, we need to get olly (our singer) to do it more... He is a great choice... he's athletic on stage and every girl that comes to our gigs fancies him... he was pounced upon by 5 girls upon leaving our last gig! Means the crowd love him, so if he spoke to them more, i agree it would leave us in a good position.

Practices... one every thursday night and then we will chuck a few sunday's in aswell, and should be on track...

As far as kit is concerned, i have one reliable guitar (my ibanez), and ill blag another one off a mate im sure... need to put some effort into getting my pedal board working! Will use my laney stack, and one would hope it will do the job nicely! Problem's lie... we need a P.A, the venue wont let us use theirs, so we are going to play a guilt trip on the school that pulled the plug on their gig half way through...

Another problem... we think the venue is only going to give us an hour or 2 to set up and soundcheck all 3 bands... which causes many problems and much unessesary stress!!

Btw, also , they are charging us £6 a head for tickets, ie we call them and tell them how many people are going and they charge us that many times £6... so we decided to sell tickets at £10 for a single, £18 for 2, or £35 for 5!!! but that would leave us £1 prof per tick if every1 buys in 5's... and the venue really wont shift... (id heard from friends that they werent good to deal with)

38th, would be great if you could come along, im sure you would enjoy the night, we are really psych'd about it! but uve played 10,000 dude?!! that must have beeen wicked!

Peace out,
Im going to play squash,
Doogz

donovan.x · « **Reply #10 on:** March 12, 2006, 08:07:29 PM »

Good luck mate..and just enjoy it!
My old band supported One minute silence at a Total Rock gig in London many years ago and that was a big crowd,I was frontman and I went to shake hands with a really enthusiastic young crowd member as we were coming off stage and forgot the gap :oops: ...quick cool recovery but it was all good!!! Seriously mate just enjoy the moment.

HTH AMPS · « **Reply #11 on:** March 12, 2006, 10:07:56 PM »

I don't know how much help this advice will be but it used to work for me... around 30 minutes before 'showtime' I'd start getting anxious/nervous - we'd all get in the dressing room/toilets/corridoor and pogo round like idiots to get the adrenyline pumping while doing a primal scream type of thing.

Like I said, it worked for us and got us pumped up for the first song whereas it usually took a few songs to get into it.

Our singer would always vomit no matter what then have a few hits of Rum - different strokes for different folks eh.

One constructive piece of advise - always make sure you take a piss/dump beforehand, theres nothing worse than getting a turtle's head halfway through a set. A glass of water is also good to have too since you loose alot through sweat under the stage lights, especially if you jump round like an idiot

:twisted:

38thBeatle · « **Reply #12 on:** March 12, 2006, 10:22:14 PM »

Dooogz, I mentioned your gig to Jon- the other guitarist in my band and he said he'd come if we are both free. When I know if I can make it, I will sort out paying for tickest etc and also buy one of your CD's.

jt · « **Reply #13 on:** March 13, 2006, 02:21:15 AM »

Quote from: HEAVIER THAN HELL

One constructive piece of advise - always make sure you take a piss/dump beforehand, theres nothing worse than getting a turtle's head halfway through a set.
:twisted:

:D

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

That`s the funniest thing i`ve heard all weekend !!!

:D 8)

dooogz · « **Reply #14 on:** March 13, 2006, 06:36:00 PM »

haha.... yeah my band always discuss the "pre gig cr@p", and how its the best one you'll ever have...

We also make a habit of "crewing it in the ablutions" pre gig... to make sure every1 is suitably refreshed :)

Anyway, on a slightly more intellectual note, thanks 38th, well keep me informed, dont think tickets will sell that fast, given the price and the age of our fans on the whole, so your in the clear if u want them. Lots of families/ relatives/ friends of the bands are going, and our singers mum is also advertising it as her birthday party, lol, we are trying every trick to sell tickets. People dont seem to accept that u get a chicken and chips buffet with it :P! Saying that we are only starting selling tomorrow, so i have no idea how the response will be.

Also a few bands from skool are thinking of doing a gig on the same day, lukily none of them are any good, but itll be cheaper and so many will go to theirs (lukily this should be the younger people who we dont really want at ours :) )

Cheers,
Doogz