On Saturday we had our first gig that was not just an open mic. This was a proper 45 minute set with 12 songs. Swing 47 is myself on vocals, guitar and ukulele with Danielle on clarinet. We do not have much of an on-line presence yet apart from on Soundcloud. We may have to do something more if we are performing more. I have set up a Steem account and will see what is worth posting there.
We were performing as part of Balstock, which is a free festival that takes place in various venues around the small Hertfordshire town of Baldock. We were in The Heorge Hotel on the jazz stage. The performance area was not huge, but people would be able to hear us in the adjacent restaurant area and bar where there were a lot of people. We had a few friends and family along. We did a souting mission the night before to check out the venue.
This was the view next to the very fancy mixing desk of the first band The Gabriel Taylor Band. These guys are barely out of their teens, but can really play.
Each band had 45 minutes with 15 minutes to change over. I was a little anxious when their fans demanded an encore that ate into our set-up time. When we got up there it took the sound guy a while to sort out levels. He was using the tablet to do it remotely. He had put on some loud music that was a little distracting. Eventually we were ready and launched into the first song which was Django Reinhardt's Minor Swing. We had a few songs on guitar before I switched to ukulele. At that point the sound guy had disappeared, but I did not want to swap the cable over without him turning things down as it can make a loud noise. He was not too long. I do not have much video yet, but this is from that middle section. You can hear the audience singing along to this well-known song. We alternate vocals with instrumental sections on several songs.
It is a bit short, but I should have more video to post soon.
I swapped back to guitar for the last few songs. We save a couple of high energy tunes for the end with a climax of the Cantina Band tune from Star Wars. I was concentrating on trying to play the right chords, but I could feel some good vibes from the audience and we got good cheers for each tune. At the end some people came up to say they had enjoyed it. It is a real buzz and the time flew by.
I posted recently about finding guitar picks that work for me with my hand issues. I used a Snake Pick this time with some others in reserve. I just use my fingers to play the uke. I made myself a lanyard for that as I felt I was in danger of it dropping at times.
It was a great experience and we are grateful to the festival organisers for allowing us to perform. We actually have another possible gig this month at a cider festival. That may be outside, so I hope the weather stays good.
It was great that could make it to the gig from Cambridge. He was a little late as he had problems parking. The town was packed. We gave up on finding a space on the street and paid to part at the station. We did get to see a few other bands, but next year I will try to stay longer.
Rock on!
The geeky guitarist and facilitator of the 10K Minnows Project.
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