Hmm, looks like our Tuesday night acoustic jam is going to have to find a change of venue....although the Landlord and Landlady, Steve and Trish, are pretty cool, every other tuesday from now till Xmas there's going to be football on TV....finishes about 10 pm, the pub shuts (officially!) at 11.30....last orders at 11.00....
Doesn't give us an awful lot of time to play....
Hopefully, we'll be sorting out a new venue in the next couple of weeks.... somewhere where we can just play, and there's no TV.....
It'll be a shame to leave the Victoria, but hell, we can always play in the beer garden when summer comes around again....
But we need somewhere we can play for about 2-3 hours, someone suggests a song, "It's in D" and we all join in....
I've had a lot of fun playing in there...even got to play a few of my own songs....but looks like it's time to move on and maybe introduce electric guitars and maybe bass....
Going to be fun dragging an acoustic, an electric and a bass, a 15W cube amp and a heavy shoulder bag with about 6 songbooks, cables, tuners, slides etc.....not to mention a mic and another amp for that....
Ah well....I'll let you know all know how it goes...
I'm now at that stage of development where, instead of just playing chords and singing, I want to throw in a few fills and riffs and lead lines.... confidence is pretty high at the moment, that's what playing in a pub for 20 weeks or so will do....I'm no longer a sheep, just following the resy of the flock, I actually take song suggestions in....even tabbed my own songs out....and I can pick up most songs fairly easily, just by watching other people's chord changes.....
I need to grow, I need to stretch, and i really want to do MY songs...instead of just playing oldies....does that sound selfish or self-centered? I think I've got a lot of good songs tucked away, really need to record more of them....
'Scuse the rant, I just feel very frustrated at the moment....think I'm going to have to go out, get some beer, and thrash the hell out of some guitars....
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
Where (as in "miles from.....") is Newton le Willows?
Best,
A :-)
"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk
Vic, I bet you can find you a place right here in Norman, Oklahoma.
Sorry, not trying to make light of your situation. I am sure it is very frustrating. I hope you find somewhere soon.
Ya know they say that every ending brings new beginnings (opportunities)
Good Luck
Geoo
“The hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn” - David Russell (Scottish classical Guitarist. b.1942)
Vic,
And think there's only one thing left..start a band on your own. Find another guitarist that wants to swith off between rhythm and lead and go for.
And if your in charge you can probably get to play your songs more often.
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
CNev, one of the guys who goes in there is really good on lead and slide....and likes my songs....we've done a couple already in the pub, we've worked on at my house and his flat.....
We have a lot in common, musically speaking, he wants to form a band - I'm not sure I'm ready for it yet, but what the hell, if you don't try you'll never get anywhere....all we need is a bass player and drummer....
I'm quite happy to play rhythm, fingerpick, maybe throw in a few little fills here and there, but I'm even happier playing chords while someone else does the fills and leads....
Alan, Newton-le-Willows is on the main railway line between Liverpool and Manchester....exactly half way in-between, so about 15 miles or so...roughly 25 mins on the train....
If you go to http://www.multimap.com and type in "WA12 8HN" you'll see we're 5 mins away from the station....that's Earlestown, NOT Newton-le-Willows...it's all the same town, but Earlestown is actually part of N-le-W...
Earlestown is the bit above the Railway line and to the left of Victoria Road ....
The town grew up in the 1800's, when the "Rocket" trials were taking place at Rainhill, a couple of stops down the line....Stephenson designed and built the "Nine Arches," a huge bridge over a canal and a river....
Earlestown was THE railway town till about the 1960's, all kinds of trains were built here at the Viaduct works....
Since then, all we've had to show for it is a couple of Lancashire cricketers...David Hughes has more winner's medals than anyone else in the whole recorded history of cricket - one Oscar winning writer (Colin Welland for "Chariots of Fire") and one ....oh god, do I have to go there?
One eighties pop star.....rick astley....and his mentor, pete waterman, used to live here as well....(er, they weren't typo's...they don't merit capital letters....)
Oh and one Newtonian...Gerry Kenny...had a top 30 single in 1963, he was the bass player in a band called "The Rats"....they had a hit with a cover of "Parchman Farm" and since then he's played and gigged with hundreds of bands, and comes in the Victoria on a Tuesday and sometimes shows us up with his technique...funny though, nobody thinks "Flash Bugger," probably because everybody likes him and he's taught a lot of people a lot of stuff over the years...one of those really cool guys who just wants to help fellow musicians.....
So....it's not much of a place, all the industry has gone....the railway works, the pit....but what the hell, we like it....and we have a music festival here every year, 3 days of solid rock on the local park....my ambition is to play there next July.....and I WILL be there, one way or another, if it's as part of a band, or solo acoustic.....watch this space!!!!!
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
