Up early to prep for today's session with the band...
I looked at the starting and ending chords of each song and rejigged the setlists slightly to allow for "transitions" to make us "slicker" - 30 minutes of the recording of the last gig was dead air...
I created mock ups of the 3 sets for the 24 May gig, using, in the main, the recordings available on Bandcamp...
I sent out the link and advised of the setlist changes and put my songsheets in order...
Of course, Keith never looked at his WhatsApp...
As I left for Johnny W's place, Anne was readying the living room for the next stage in her project...
Stopped by mum's house on the way to Roslin, opening all the windows...
Arrived at JW's at 10:30 and we set up and had a soundcheck jam - followed by 75 minutes of frank discussions re the band...
ACTION POINTS
GETTING GIGS
Keith to enquire about booking venues he plays with other bands
JW to keep up negotiations with Brewery - Unfortunately DR can't play 7 June
All to seek out venues with an existing regular audience which might appreciate what we do
Try to play places where people go to the venue to see a band but not necessarily us
Look to secure 2 types of gigs - 1. Covers 2. Own material/Leftfield Covers
SOCIAL MEDIA
Decide what we need re Social Media presence - most people won't go to Bandcamp so do we need Facebook and Instagram, band photo, video - how do we do that?
REPERTOIRE
Suggest new songs as often as we like - if we have a song sheet, we should be able to play "anything"
Keep crowd-pleasing stand-by songs not in the current set, in our folders
For discussion:
Do we "only play hits"
Do we "only play songs we all like"?
Do we concentrate solely on "numbers that might get a response"?
Are there genres or time periods we're missing out on?
WHATSAPP
Keep up to date and participate/instigate
WhatsApp is how we communicate re the band - including session dates, availability, ideas, song suggestions etc etc - if we don't read it or participate, we can have no complaints about what the band is doing. Take part!
REHEARSING
Work on our parts at home with recordings to get to the best we can be - any changes to arrangements or ideas should be put to the band on WhatsApp - if agreed, rehearse at home and be ready for when we meet for a session
Download and listen back to each session recording to analyse where we may have gone wrong and work with the Bandcamp versions to sort it and be ready for the next session
Rehearse at home - play in Roslin
Ha ha - let's see how that all goes...
After the discussion, to playing...
"Gold Luger" given its first outing following my re-write of the Stones classic...
The songs added to the set also gone through...
And, finally, transitions during the first set practised...
In all, 20 songs played...
Post session portraits...
Back to mum's to shut the windows and chuck some stuff out...
Mum herself and a few religious books, presented to various family members over the years, are all that's left now...
This was sister Pam's breakfast plate as a small child...
...and this was mine...
Unlikely Anne will let any of these into the house...
Back home, a new portrait - fuck me I look so old...
Half way through the weekend...
This evening, a Chinese Takeaway to celebrate Anne's work on the living room - but not the fact that Hearts' inability to score at Motherwell cost them a place in the Top six of the league...
Meanwhile, Queens won again 2-1 v Montrose in Dumfries but remain just one point ahead of Alloa in the scramble for a play off place, with 3 games to go - every one a cup final!
Today's session edited and sent out - and the mock up of the 2nd set redone to include today's "Maggie May" instead of the artificially amended key version done first thing this morning...
"Rizzoli & Isles" rounded off the day...
Highlight of the Day : Playing with the band...
Today's New Music
Played Today
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