Author Topic: Big Tuna in 2011 - musical adventures in Scotland (Read 466 times)

jacko · « **on:** February 02, 2011, 02:40:44 AM »

Well, we've played a couple of wedding gigs in January and my right hand fingers are working perfectly. There's still a little stiffness across the base of my palm but that only affects lifting so there's now no problems playing.
With that in mind, Big Tuna are back on the pub circuit this month, kicking off this Saturday 5th Feb at the Brightons inn, Polmont.
next Friday - 11th feb we'll be at Malone's irish Bar in Edinburgh followed by another wedding gig on sunday 11th Feb.

More pub gigs to come next month :-) Now that the carpal tunnel syndrome has gone I'm really enjoying playing again.

Graeme

artswork99 · « **Reply #1 on:** February 02, 2011, 05:30:51 AM »

Glad to hear that it's all healed up and you're back to the gigs! Art

jacko · « **Reply #2 on:** February 04, 2011, 08:12:19 AM »

Thanks Art!.
As if by magic we've just been asked to play at Malone's tonight as the booked band has cancelled. 10pm onwards if you're in the vicinity ;-)

Graeme

jacko · « **Reply #3 on:** February 09, 2011, 04:34:27 AM »

Well,the malone's gig last friday was certainly 'interesting'. for a start we had to load in through the main pub entrance and negotiate around 50 yards of very drunk rugby fans - the pub was showing the wales/England 6 nations match. It doesn't seem to matter how loud you shout 'excuse me', sometimes only a 2x12 in the back will shift them.
Sound check was an event - we'd unplugged their mixing desk and plugged ours into the house PA but it wouldn't work. Their sound guy went off on a rant about how we'd blown all their fuses and so on - turns out they had a switch on the wall to turn the PA on! After that the gig went really well although the vocal monitors weren't set up properly (because of the earlier probs with the sound guy he wouldn't turn the house muzak off for long enough to soundcheck ). By the second set the place was jumping which surprised the management as they usually put on traditional 'irish' fiddle music.

We're back there this friday - there's no rugby so maybe it'll be a little less tense :-).

graeme

dadabass2001 · « **Reply #4 on:** February 09, 2011, 07:18:20 AM »

Ahh... local sound guys. Some are great, some are fertilizer. I hope things are stellar from the first song this week!
Mike

jacko · « **Reply #5 on:** February 12, 2011, 03:31:25 AM »

well, this week we didn't unplug their desk - instead we ran our main-outs into channels 1 and 2 of their desk. I don't think they were happy but they didn't have any grounds for complaint;-) a couple of pics....

We play for a wedding party on Sunday. Apparently the room has a partition and there's another wedding party on at the same time. We've told them we're a pretty loud rock band........ Graeme

jacko · « **Reply #6 on:** March 01, 2011, 04:17:10 AM »

This saturday, March 5th, we'll be playing at the Waverley hotel in Callander. Known as the gateway to the Trossachs (a range of hills) and home of Rob Roy McGregor. One of the few places we play that could see an influx of our transatlantic cousins as it's a popular stopping off point for coach tours of Scotland. So if any of you are passing, get the coach driver to stop for the night ;-)

Graeme

jacko · « **Reply #7 on:** March 18, 2011, 05:27:49 AM »

A couple of private functions coming up.
Tomorrow (sat) we're playing for an 18th birthday party in Lundin Links on the coast in Fife. (I feel like we're selling out! However, one of the guests is a friend of paul simenon and has insisted we play some clash)

Next friday we'll be playing for a marketing company bash in the centre of Edinburgh. Not my favourite type of gig but at least it'll pay for new strings ;-)

Graeme

jacko · « **Reply #8 on:** March 25, 2011, 05:28:22 AM »

Well tonight's gig just got interesting. Apparently it's a french marketing company and around half the gig will be Karaoke with us providing the backing music. Tomorrow, to carry on their rock'n'roll theme they're in a studio in Edinburgh recording 'Don't you forget about me' with one of the original members of Simple Minds.

Graeme

David Houck · « **Reply #9 on:** March 26, 2011, 02:54:48 PM »

... around half the gig will be Karaoke with us providing the backing music ...

Hope you are getting well compensated.

jacko · « **Reply #10 on:** March 28, 2011, 01:12:29 AM »

We were Dave. at least enough to restring three Alembics :-)
It was probably the most bizarre evening of my life. The venue was little more than a glorified cellar, complete with water dripping from the ceiling. Edinburgh's old town has a maze of passageways under the 'old town' which are regularly used by Ghost tours and we were told off by one such group whilst soundchecking as we'd left the fire escape door open and were disrupting his ambience. During the gig, we were expecting the guests to come up one or two at a time to sing to their colleagues. As it happens, they all crowded into the room and all tried to sing at once (mostly songs few of them knew and were trying to read from lyric sheets in a dark room). Their 'corporate' song was the aforementioned Simple minds 'don't you forget about me' which we were to play from an Ipod for them to sing along to. However, they insisted that I play the bassline to 'augment' the backing track - I'd not played the song since the 80's but it's not hard - they got us to play it twice.
To cap the night off, we were contracted to play until 12.30 but bang on 11.20 they told us to stop as they were due to be in a night club by 11.30. We'd barely blinked and the place was empty. Their whole visit to Scotland was organised with military precision - we were due on at 9.30 and that's when we were told to start even though they were still eating! All in all a very strange night that i hope not to be repeating any time soon.

Graeme

jacko · « **Reply #11 on:** April 04, 2011, 04:57:52 AM »

We've been sent some photos from the gig by the photographer they had following them around scotland. They give a very good idea how cramped we were. I spent the whol night facing sideways, terrified that I'd hit the wall with a headstock...

You'll see I didn't have enough space for my usual rig and had to use my spare 4x10 and marshall head instead. Surprisingly the room had a really good sound. Graeme

rustyg61 · « **Reply #12 on:** April 04, 2011, 11:32:37 AM »

Cool pictures! Hope you didn't smack your bass on the brick wall when you turned! Love the Deadhead shirt!

jacko · « **Reply #13 on:** April 18, 2011, 10:57:58 AM »

This Friday, 22nd, we'll be at Finnegan's Wake, one of Edinburgh's top Irish Bars, from 10pm. Break out the fiddles.

Graeme

David Houck · « **Reply #14 on:** April 27, 2011, 09:06:07 AM »

Hah; now that was a rough gig! Great pics!