Live Music and Bass Playing

Well my previous post Playing the Blues, opened the way with the beginnings of the new blues three piece outfit that ran nicely through the summer. Things change all the time here on the Costa del Sol and bar owners are often changing the plan.

This has happened here at JC's where Tinshack Blues Band were resident on Sunday evenings. Well, week before last the bar got itself onto national news because a rival bar owner decided to go in there vasy late on night - I'm talking 5am - with a can of what was probably CS gas and started spraying it at people. Well a fight broke out and the guy was killed.

That got the bar closed down for 10 days while all concerned were questioned by police.

Well that meant no gig on the Sunday following those events, but we played again last Sunday and everything seemed back to normal. In fact we had a better than average turnout.

Then in the week we got the news that the owner wants to change the rules and put the band on a Saturday night but make it a jam session - one where musicians can come up and play on stage.

Well, screw that! I hate jam sessions because it means bloody amateurs coming up and wanting to play crap that I've usually never heard of... "Yeah, you know it goes like this..." with my instruments and my gear. In that area, the majority of the "musicians" are going to be pissed up karaoke singers who will break my mic and mic stand and sound terrible.

Like I said, screw that!

So it's goodbye JC's.

What about the band? Well, we're having a meeting next week to see where we can go next, so we're not calling it a day, the bar owner just made us look for another venue.

On a lighter note, there is a lot to be said for budding musicians and singers to get some exposure as well as the chance to perform in front of a live audience. Just don't involve me or my gear. I also heard you can now get some pretty good online guitar and singing lessons these days. Check out http://webmusicstar.com as one particularly good source of great music tutorials, courses and educational material in general online. That's all for now!