Most  weekends for me go like this. Gig on Friday Gig on Saturday and Gig on Sunday. Some times there is one in the week as well. So its a bit like a rotating shift pattern.

It’s quite interesting to find out what people think it takes to do a gig. So here is an average description of a typical gig day. For this example we will say the gigs in Brighton.

Anatomy of an a average gig

1. Load the car, some gear might already be in the boot, but not aways. So about 25 minutes.
2. Drive to gig say about 90 minutes depending on traffic.
3. Park on quite often double yellow lines dump the gear at the venue and zoom off to find somewhere legal to park.  If your lucky its t down the street If not it might be a 10 minute walk.
4. If  its a pub get some tables and chairs cleared
5. Set up PA. We use a 1K system with 2 300w monitors. That can cope with anything from the very small to quite large places. It takes around 40 minutes to rig it all. Slightly longer if we have the 5 piece with Bass and percussion.
6. Very quick line test & Soundcheck 5 mins
7. Get beer (very important as it must be real Ale) 😉
8. Start first set which is usually about 70 minutes.
9. take short break, attempt to flog CD’s chat to punters and go for a Pee 15 minutes ish,(the break not the pee as that would be epic! )
10. Start second set, audience may be slightly pissed by this point which may or may not be a good thing LOL play about 50 minutes and if it goes well do an  encore or two.
11. Go for a pee,  sometimes chat to punters in the ladies. Example conversation.
    “I enjoyed the set, my husband’s going to buy a CD”. Then suddenly a strangled cry from the other cubicle, “Shit there is no toilet roll, can you pass some under the door “.
12. Chat to punters and break down the gear and repack it. 30 mins, including muttering and swearing when stuff won’t got back in the boxes and bags you took it out of like a recalcitrant ventriloquists dummy! Resort to shouting get back in your box. and I could swear that the mixing desk talks back to me and says “No, won’t get back in the box”. Perhaps take it a bit easier on the drugs…
13. Try and remember where you have parked the car and walk for 5 minutes in the wrong direction….
14.  Finally load stuff in car.
15. Get money. Hurrah! My children will not starve this week…
16. Finally drive home usually about 00.00 to 00.30 by now.
17. 02.00 Arrive home shift more gear out.
18. Cup of tea quick snack take makeup off and fall in to bed about 00.03.  Discover that you can’t sleep so get smart phone out and go on facebook check news or maybe even watch TV.

So on average out for about 9 to 10 hrs, of which only 2 hrs is actually performing.

Festivals and different as its someone else’s problem re PA and so forth, but often there is a lot of hanging about.

Monday is my usual Sunday as it were. Thats the day that the aches and pains catch up with me. Also the day for updating websites and stuff like that. Check oil level on car and tyres. Thats fairly important as I do a lot of motorway miles.  Maybe work on one of my personal musical projects. If I am really cream crackered the Tele goes on….

Our percussionist Danny is going in for a cancer op and will be out of action for a month or so. He should be OK, though its unlikely he will be able to to go over to France in October with use. He played with  us on our gig in Dorking on Friday which was really a great vibe.  It’s a very small world though as a women who knew about us because of a Bistro local to where she lived in France came in just by chance.  Also in another coincidence a guy who photographed us in France earlier in the year also turned up. Spooky. Perhaps Dorking is on a ley line or something? Or perhaps there is a multi-dimensional portal linking to south western France.   Also spoke to a very  nice chap who had retired to Lanzarote but was back over for a family occasion and he said he had really enjoyed the show. As you might imagine we quite a bit different from a lot of the acts that play on the pub circuit which is a good and bad thing. We are a sort of musical marmite which you may or may not dig particularly as we have moved a fair way from what we used to do. We now use a double keyboard set up and looping along side the fiddles and banjos so its a very different sound. It seems to go well though.

Curiously the music I play in the Delta ladies has almost no crossover with my solo stuff which you can find here >  Diana Stone and also here > https://soundcloud.com/glasscage and here > http://www.soundclick.com/dianastonemusic among other places.   I used to get college radio play in the US way back when and a few years back got some play on BBC Radio 6 on the Tom Robinson show which was nice and rather a feather in my cap at the time.  I have had always had very eclectic tastes in what I listen too and the music I write and/or play.  I used to have CD’s for sale in the US in a store in Salt Lake City. God knows how that happened? Life’s always taking unexpected twists and turns and we are along for the ride, but like  riding a  wayward nagg we can steer with a light touch on the reins but pulling harshly may get us thrown into a brambly ditch.

But I digress which is I find always the best bit.

Here is my  thought for the day
Whatever you think they are  thinking you’re probably wrong and even if you asked them they wouldn’t tell you anyway so just suck it up and get on with your life.

A bit of a new experience this month gig wise. We did an 90 minute show live video broadcast. I am not sure how far far and wide it went but I do know that it went to the USA and Quite a bit of Europe, so hey that was pretty cool.  The recording goes in a library, and eventually its hoped that  the service will expand too something akin to a proper TV channel. I have never seen so much state of the art gear either, hopefully it was OK. We also played to a small live audience seated in front of us. A very different experience as we did a live trailer on the soundcheck and waiting for the count to go live was a bit weird. The Convent is an 18th century listed building set in 22 acres of gardens, woodlands and orchards (including a great firepit for evening drinks) and its stunning. I had a really good quality vegetarian dinner(they also cater for vegans) and the hospitality was superb all round.  The Place is a very classy hotel plus a the live concert venue and also a recording studio.  the show went well I am still trying to shake off an upper respiratory tract infection and the minute the broadcast stopped almost to the second a massive coughing fit ensued. Afterwards we went for a post gig drink and were presented with a lovely selection of tapas in the bar and a met a few of the audience. Immediately after the performance they play back the gig on screens in all the bars and restaurants. This means you’re confronted with yourself leaping about everywhere you look in HD and 5 channel sound which is a bit unnerving for shy folks like me. Also you analyze every note you play and because it was live there is nothing you can do about it !

You can find out about the place here http://theconvent.net/

On Saturday we played a new Folk festival at Harpenden Hall, that was also quite an experience. We were the first act on a very varied bill with Lindisfarne and July Felix headlining. It was nice to meet the only surviving original member Rod Clements who was a very nice chap. I brought “Fog on the Tyne” when it was first released so that was a cool moment for me. Our set went OK for an opening slot and some people came up to get albums and have them signed, which is always a nice affirming experience. One of the other acts “Said the Maiden ” who sing trad folk were also afflicted with some lurgy as towards the end of their set one of the girls fell ill and had to miss the last couple of numbers. Fortunately she was OK a little later. They were quite complimentary about our set too.
I would have liked to stay for the whole show, but was still feeling a bit rough.

Then finally Sunday down to Arundel to play at a pub called the Red Lion, which we do about 3 to 4 times a year. Its a nice place but gets very, very crowded. Its in the high st with Arundel castle towering above it. The gig was good but quite frantic, due to council noise restrictions whilst music is playing the windows must be shut, so by the time we had got to the end of the first set I was about ready to pass out. Fortunately as it was an 11.30 finish we get about 25 minutes between sets. But a few minutes outside and I gradually got back to the land of the living. I chatted to a very nice couple who had seen us before a couple of times about the music we play and the instruments and so forth.  The chap ihe turned out was a neophyte bass player who had started on electric but was now starting to develop his chops on double bass. Double bass in folk jazz and popular music is a very physical instrument to play  you can literally make your fingers bleed until you have the required strength so maximum respect to him. Also to his partner  who asked me how long I had been playing and when I said 45 years and that I had started around the age of 15 was genuinely surprised that I am just nudging 60. I said its all illusion and I look very scary in the morning.

One marvelous things about live music is that a bit like a hooker your mission is that you get paid to bring pleasure to people LOL

One of my musical adventures.