Hey all,
Yeh, my first solo gig! Was at my bands local pub over the other side from Milton Keynes from me. I had a 30 min slot before the headline act (I declined the headline slot because I didn't think I was ready, and as well as the gig went I still stand by that decision!).
I took my Yamaha TRB1006, my Ashdown ABM300, a Yamaha 1x12" foldback monitor and my Boss RC-20. The pub had a PA setup, so I was hoping to DI my amp into the PA and use the monitor so I could hear my bass and vocals... but the PA didn't have monitor outs :S... So after a little thought, I plugged the mono out of the PA into my head, head into the monitor, and then went bass -> pedal -> PA and then mic -> PA. Bit of a strange setup but worked a treat.
I started with a track called Sky High (instrumental), which was 2 pre-recorded phrases that I switch between and play a lead/melody part over the top. The melody is the only bit of the tune that isn't reversed, and I chose this tune to open because it was so different from the other acts. Bit of a gamble I thought, but paid off, the reaction was huge!! All was good.
Second track was a track I wrote ages ago called Going Up which was original a full band track (instrumental) with a lead bass part but the night before I arranged it for loop pedal just using my bass. Was going REALLY well and everyone was loving it, but my first fear was to come at the end of the track. I forgot to set up the pedal to fade out so when I hit stop, it just stopped!! Two seconds of confused silence, before I put a full stop on the end of the track with a quick "oops" at the mic which got everyone laughing. It didn't seem to put them off, got a really good response
Next track was one of my first instrumentals, called Dreamweaver. Went ok, no loop pedal, no surprises...
This is where I thought everything would really fall down... my cover track. Heartbeats, Jose Gonzalez. Actually, went really well and went down a STORM. I was quite satisfied with my singing as well as my bass playing, considering I'd only been working on it for a week. Relief...until my next fear came to life: I tune B D A D F# B for hearbeats and forgot to retune. Started to play Love Thing [sounds like evil]...tries again [sounds like evil]..."uh, sorry guys appear to have forgotten it! Next track... [sounds like evil] and then it clicked!!
My name is Kevin, and I'm not too bright.
So, played Love Thing...scuffed up towards the end but nothing serious.
Played, my next track "I See, I Stare, I Contemplate", which is a new instrumental of mine using my loop pedal, went well.
My last track was one of my bands tunes, called Lullaby. Arranged all the band parts (drums, bass, 2 guitars) for just my bass using the loop pedal. I chose to do this because pretty much everyone there had seen my band before...it's upbeat, they knew it. Played it good, sung it alright. Somehow though I accidently rolled up the input to max, and didn't realise why it didn't sound too hot till I was nearing the end of the song
Nevermind...
And that was that. Some guy wants to hire me for a recording session, hopefully people will want to see it again... I'm happy with how it went really considering it was my first. Was so nervous.
http://www.purevolume.com/kev http://www.myspace.com/kevcooke
You can listen to some of the tunes I did on those links... actually they both have 3 of the same tracks, but on the myspace link it also has an extra. So yeh, you get some idea of what it was all about!!
Probably done waaaay too much talking but I just had to share, I'm so psyched about it still lol.
