My Rant about Big Brother on Blogger

To see what I think about Big Brother on Blogger, click here.

December briefing

We had another practice session today, albeit without Nancy as she wasn't too well. We've been having 40'C plus for the last couple days, so at 33'C and humid was a day to get your health back.

Anyway, it was good fun. Jammed away for a few new songs, Zeppelin, Floyd, Beatles and John Foggerty covers = did pretty good. Should fit a few in the repertoire by next time we play. The foggerty song was resonant with some Ramones I've been listening to recently, an interesting correlation and proof to my mind of the musical significance of the Ramones - pop and punk and rocknroll all in one.

Anyway - we are yet to confirm a pre christmas gig, possibly at Rosewater FC. Will do all we can to let you know if we confirm it. And there's a hint of a mid-north 'ashes' tour sometime next year. We'll let you know about that also.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch ...

Getting (it) back together

At rehersal on Sunday we all played together again as a band for the first time in three months. Really, more of a structured jam than a rehersal, it was nice to actually be doing it again. Even at our worst, we weren't that bad. There's a lot of derusting required, but that won't take longer than another session (or, at the most, two). And what we pulled off was more than sufficient for entertainment value.

Which is the baseline in this game.

Back on the Road (some of us are...)

Nancy and Steve played their duo number last Friday night at Rosewater FC, where The Negotiators played a cool gig earlier in the year. It was a fundraiser for one of the locals (who was there when the band played) who had a nasty accident. The raised a fair bit of cash and Nancy's vocal chords held up. And it sounds like all enjoyed the evening for what it was.

The Negotiators have a full band rehersal this Sunday, the first time in how many months? I think we have a gig booked at Rosewater FC somtime before xmas. When I know more, I'll post it up here.

After a full on break from the music game, it sure will be a bit of a change of gear to get ready for summer!

Good News!

Great News! Nancy has got the provisional all clear from the doc, she can sing again! This is fantastic news, as we can soon get the show on the road again. This will be like a 'reborn' experience I think, hopefully totally refreshed and artistically recharged, The Negotiators will be able to hit the stage with a bang through summer.

Hope we didn't lose too many of you in the meantime...

Thoughts on the Break

Readers, fans and band members will all know that The Negotiators have had a bit of break recently. This has been necessary as our singer, Nancy, has had a bit of a sore throat. Which means that we've cancelled quite a few gigs (pissing off a few publicans no doubt) and had almost a total break from rehersing.

In my case this has gone one step further, and I've hardly even picked up a guitar for a couple of months. I have an excuse though, as whenever I play something Nancy tends to sing along to herself, and she had to have a total break from it. Anyway, having a few weeks off has meant that I've had more than a couple of weeks without band stuff happening in it for the first time in years. The break's been lovely.

Having my weekends returned has been great. It's pretty stressful if you work all week and then don't get to have a couple of days off. I know that many people work longer and possibly harder than I do, but that's just the way I am. There's so much more to life than working for the man, and if it takes a day to get over the working week then I like having a day to actually do things for their own sake. Thus, the value of weekends.

When you're in the band, you lose this regular weekend guarantee of sanity, in exchange for late nights, long afternoons, heavy lifting duty, exhaustion. And when you're not doing it on stage, you're practicing to do so. It's a long road indeed...

But Rock'n'roll is more than just playing on weekends. That would truly make one a 'weekend warrior'. There's an extension of this into 'real life', it happens whenever we are living as though always capable of those exquisite feelings within that rock music draws out on a good night. And when you start walking around with the music in you then, if that music is rock, you can be a little ocean of sanity in the day to day days that eat up the years.

And when you realise you got the music in you, you realise that the work and the weekends were worth the while!

Waiting Times

We're still waiting for a final opinion from Nancy's doctor as to whether she's fit to sing again. Should know in about three more weeks. Until then, there's not a lot to say.

Steve and Nancy went up and played in Burra pub with a friend of Steves doing a lot of the vocals. Although not under the Blondie and Dagwood label they've used before, it's another of those lite MIDI based shows with a guy, his keyboard and computer, plus vocal and guitar to do the leads plus a PA in a pub with no room for the real thing. Sounds like they had fun and were, apparently, asked back for new years eve.

Speaking of which, I've previously stated that we were likely to be playing new years eve at the Cumberland Hotel, but it seems the pub lady forgot about this and wasn't too pleased when several of the punters reminded her. So I should state here as semi-officially as our band ever get - WE DON'T KNOW IF OR WHERE WE'RE PLAYING ON NEW YEAR's EVE.

I'll let you know when we know.

Promise.

Site update

I have just moved this blog over to the new 'beta' blogger. Hopefully that will allow me to organise the site a bit easier for your convenience, as well as contain a few more features in the interface. So, expect things to change a bit in near future. For now, I'm just glad that nothing crashed.

I guess it will give me something to do while we await our return to the stage...

Bad News and Good News

The Bad News: we can't play at the Cumberland on October 1 as previously advertised. Again, due to Nancy's malady.

The Good News: In a month or so it looks like she'll be upto singing again - provided that she doesn't sing until then. So we should have a summer of fun and give this band a real workout.

For interest sake: we had a singerless rehersal on Sunday, just nutting out a few issues with some songs and picking up a few new ones. When us four blokes sang, it generally sounded something like caterwauling cats (not that bad, actually, just a figure of speech). But a couple of songs, it would have sounded quite bearable if we'd known the words. Was fun to just make music.

Statistics for bloggers, bloggees and mathematicians.

For several months now I have used the web-based (free) sitemeter to count and measure visits to this blog. Don't worry, it doesn't identify individual computers or people, nor does it give me addresses. It counts site visits and page visits, country and domain, time and date. From all of this I know the following:

Nearly 500 visits so far, with an average visit length of just over two and a half minutes, averaging 2.2 page views per visit. These figures are a bit skewed because they include all of my own visits, for when I blog and create. My best deduction from data from site metre shows that I account for about half the visits originating from the domain which I do (try saying that in english!).

If I subtract half the visits from my domain (= 9% and shrinking as I become more efficient at blogging) from the total, I find that 52% of my visits come from Australia, with the USA as my second most common source of visitor (14%). Canada, Ireland and the UK, regularly show up. I have had runs of visitors from the Philipines. The rest of the visits are from a fairly even distribution across the continents of Asia (including the subcontinent and archipeligos), South America and Europe, with occasional visitors from Africa (and not just South Africa).

English is by far the major language the site is viewed in.

From my observations, google is the most common referring site (with my Yamaha G228 posting the most common question posed to google of which this site is deemed part of the answer). Other frequent referers, of which I am proud, are Adelaide Index and Adelaide Bands. The majority of visits are either from people hitting the 'next blog' button on a blogspot blog, or people who are bringing up the URL directly on their computer (hopefully from their 'favorites').

See you at the Cumberland (Glanville) after 3pm on Sunday, 1 October!

"Where were we on Friday night?"

Is a question some of our friends and fans might be asking, and with due reason. You see, The Negotiators didn't play Friday night, and with only a few hours notice of this there was no way to let you all know. Our most sincere apologies to The Sqluatters Arms also, for leaving them in a bit of a tight spot no doubt.

Why did we cancel the gig? Nancy has laryngitis, she is our singer and she and her voice are our greatest assets as a unit. She's also a trooper, so when she says she can't do something, you'd better believe that she's damn sure. She ain't a quitter. So when she said she couldn't, we didn't.

This is only the second gig in over seven years that we have cancelled. We have filled in for other cancelled bands about a dozen times. So we are ahead of the count. The only other time we cancelled it was due to fact that venue wanted to change the ground rules at the last moment in a manner and to a position that was unacceptable to us. This time, at least, there wasn't bad karma attached.

The best thing (besides preserving Nancy's potential) is that The Squatters Arms will have us back when we're ready. And that's real cool.

We next play again at the Cumberland on Sunday, 1 October. There's a social club gathering, and at least one footy club getting together there. Should be a great gig, as was our last one there...

Gig this Friday Night at The Squatters' Arms, Thebarton

Click here for details.

Cumberland Gig - 20 August 2006

The Negotiators played the Cumberland Hotel (Glanville) on Sunday, August 20th. It was a good gig, albeit of a different character to most of our recent shows (with the possible exception of that at the Hackney Hotel). Audience was appreciative, publican was happy, we had fun. What more could you ask for?

For me, the whole thing was a bit different from normal. Perhaps a narrative of the evening from my point of view (rather than the pseudo-objectivity of my usual ‘report format’) might convey some of the flavour.

As those of you who read my other blogs avidly may know, Nancy and I are in the throes of moving house. From Thursday night on it had been one slow motion conveyor belt from old house to new, with lots of lifting heavy shit upstairs. By Sunday morning I was digging and doing heavy lifting. Nancy was coming down with what has turned out to be laryngitis. By three o’clock I was finished what needed doing. By three thirty we got to the venue. By four o’clock we were playing.

All the gear was set up when we got there. Made it seem easy. I had to chuckle at what some of the audience must be thinking, as all the fellows do all this hard work setting up and then along comes a bearded guitarist in time to plug in for the sound check at ten minutes to go.

If they thought I was going to be the guitar hero, they must have realised that that was not the way it was to be in the first song when I broke a string. Let us hope this is not a return to the bad old days of my old Fernandez guitar. We’ll see…

Anyway, I changed to the Les Paul copy of Steve’s and got straight into the next song, ‘Stuck in the Middle’. Nancy was already into gear, and the guys were fast catching onto the spirit. We played through the set, ending with a cut down version of ‘Ring of Fire’ (due the incipient laryngitis).

The audience was classic cumberland (see various previous posts for what this means). We had a few regular fans, a few friends, and the usual sceptical but openeared regulars. We won over a few more of the locals by the end of the first set.

Sharon ran the sound again. She enjoyed herself amongst the punters, and quite looked the part of rock techie. The sound was good from stage, and I believe was a nice mix from out front, which is pretty important to how we come across to the audience. As she grows more confident, I think she’ll enjoy it even more.

The weird alien lighting rig set up a nice mood, not too distracting and fairly well balanced across the stage. It was a lot closer to us than it was in the bigger venue last week at Rosewater, Steve thought it made it noticeably hotter on stage. It’s a pretty decent light show, a couple floor lights and we’ll be laughing.

We had a few dancers more often than not, and played a fairly on-the-edge sort of gig. Highlights to me included; my first string change on my Cort guitar, making it through the third ‘Beatles’ set on the wing (having not had much chance to revisit these new songs in the last week and having misplaced my ‘memory sheets’ during the move), Barry’s crunching bass in ‘Get Back’, Nancy rocking it out to several of our instrumental sections, improvising a new backing vocal in ‘Jumping Jack Flash’, getting ‘Long Way to the Top’ just right, Chris’s pulsing cymbal rhythms, and sorting and packing all the gear in just over half an hour after we’d done.

But the greatest thing about the show was that, despite the ‘technical deficiencies’, it was still a gutsy gig, an adventure that we all enjoyed. I’m pretty sure that we all felt invigorated after four hours of playing hard rock, despite the fatigue creeping in. It was a workman like devil take the hindmost type of show to play. The newer linup, the technical help, the equipment evolution, all pulled together to make a good show out of what might once have been seen as difficult circumstances. It’s a very cool thing to be part of the evolving collective artistic entity that is a rock band. Everyone should try it some day.

Before going I should mention that Steve didn’t have his keyboard with him. This cut out a few songs from the repertoire, but I think it allowed him to just keep playing rather than think too much about coming instrument changes. It’s absence saved Sharon the hassle of having to factor in the ‘voice’ of the instrument amongst the PA mix. It also further opened up the stage, allowing us that valuable performance commodity – space. Especially combined with the fact that the mixing desk has migrated from side stage to the front since Sharon’s been along with us, it seems we have room to move on stage again – which leads to a more active ensemble.

We’ll see how we go this Friday night at The Squatters Arms Hotel in Thebarton.

Upcoming Cumberland Gig - Sunday, August 20

We will be playing this Sunday at the Cumberland Hotel, Glaville (near the Port, opposite Glanville railway station). We always play a good gig here (click here, here and here for some recent Cumberland gigs).

Playing next at The Squatter's Arms Hotel, Corner Port Road and George St Thebarton, on Friday August 25.

To read of our most recent gigs, click here and here.

Upcoming Squatters Arms Gig - Friday, Aug 25

This will be our first gig at the Squatters Arms. It would be nice to see a few familiar faces. We usually do pretty good when we first play a venue (for example, Rosewater F.C. and the Hackney Hotel gigs of this year). Would be great to see you there!

Corner of George St and Port Road, Thebarton. Near the Coke factory.

Rosewater Technical Notes

For a full report of our great evening at Rosewater Footy Club, click here.

Having Sharon be responsible for the sound, and act as a bit of a shepherd of eagre punters at the front of the dance floor was a great bonus. It allows the band confidence to keep focused even when all around is getting pretty chaotically crazy.

Only issues of sound (all corrected) were that the drums sounded muffled (notch up the treble on the desk for the kick mike), the audience to immediate stage couldn't hear much of what was coming from the opposite side of stage (angle Steve's amp, which also helped me hear him better), and a low loud system wide feedback hum in the third set (had to turn down the master volume a notch). We'll get there.

Having audience members up on stage and singing is pretty on the edge. You really have to exercise judgement and negotiate a fairly complex social task in granting their wish (or refusing it). Then you gotta hope they know what they're doing. Tends to work only in gigs where there's a vibe which will allow it, and which will ensure it only adds to the show, rather than hinders the night's momentum. At the Rosewater, we needn't have worried. The guys who got up with us were cool, and they didn't outstay their welcome.

My last observation - the amount some of our audience drank was amazing. Lots of young fit males, out for a fun night at the local footy club, some with girlfriends, and then the local audience that goes with a local venue like this, with good music and a bit to drink and lots of their friends was a recipe for a good night. Hope we get to play there again.

This Sunday, 20 August,we play at the Cumberland Hotel (Glanville) from 4:30 pm, and then we play Friday Night (August 25) at the Squatters Arms Hotel.

Rosewater F.C. - 12 August 2006

The Negotiators played the Rosewater Footy Club last night. It was a great gig. We debuted about 10 songs and the new lighting set up, playing four strong sets to a loud and woolly crowd. There were numerous highlights, of which I'll try and record a few here. Of course, you had to be there.

The day started with Steve and I moving the bulk of the gear in during the final quarter of the footy game, with a little help from a big bloke called 'Brains' who's known Steve over the years. There was a moment of almost horror when the mixing desk fell with a crash to the (carpeted floor). Luck it landed flat, it survived. All credit to Steve for not freaking out.

We were all ready to rock at 7:30. Might have been 3 dozen people there, the bulk of whom were vocally watching Port Power on the big TV. And they were very vocal Port supporters - is there any other kind? I could see maybe a dozen people at the bar, and they seemed to have a neutral/sceptical air about them. I knew High Voltage had played here last, and thought that maybe they were wondering if we were up to it. My thought was that we had to win them over. The cool thing, I saw it as a challenge rather than a chore. Thus, the importance of mindset (found out later that High Voltage had been too loud and brash and had driven a lot of the audience away).

First set was good. The crowd grew, we lost none, and more and more were giving us some of their attention for more of the time (despite their beloved Port hanging on in a close game). We played 'Money' as a soundcheck 10 min before we started, and then again for the fifth song. No problems, great song. The set was a lot more rock oriented than our first set usually is, starting with 'Stuck in the Middle' and ending with 'Ring of Fire'. Had a couple waltzing to this last, and a guy at the bar creeping around and lighting up peoples' shoelaces and trousers. Pretty funny really - especially when at least one of his targets couldn't realise why all his mates were pissing themselves laughing.

Second and third sets were rippers. Second set started with 'House of the Rising Sun'. Co-incidentally, the recorded music we'd played between sets had included this song just before we started (Animals' version - the most famous).Some nights, this would be a reason for a last minute song change. Not at Rosewater!

We proceeded to play the song probably as well as we ever have. It's a powerful song in any event, and we love it. I didn't look at the audience (unusual for me), I was so carried away with what I was doing. It wasn't long and there was that 'magic' when you know you've got the mojo happening, and it didn't go away.

Other highlights of second set included a 'boppy' version of our song, 'Internet Blues', which grabbed the attention of the young ones at the back who came just to check out the band. A mighty version of 'Paint it Black' - very solid sound. This set ended with 'Le Grange' (ZZ Top), which somehow worked its way out in a massive improvisatory lead in a manner true to the original. Steve has come a long way.

Third set was pretty groovy, starting with classic rock'n'roll (Credence, Beatles, Kiss), travelling through some old and simple songs ('Shout' and '500 Miles'), ending with Living End, Greenday and, finally, 'Hey Jude'. Wow. We had them rocking, and probably 60 people in the room. Port won their footy game when we had maybe a dozen people dancing, the next song was the Kiss classic 'Rock n Roll all Nite'. People were boogying and singing along everywhere. Couldn't have timed it better if we'd tried! Had a big footballer called Barry sing 'Prisoner of society' with Nancy. He did good. Hey Jude was a crashing crescendo. Intensely satisfying.

Final Set started with some Dylan, followed by 'The Wall' (we join Parts I, II and III, which appeals to Pink Floyd fans). The dancers stayed up right until the second last song ('Bobby McGee' - where Nancy shows she really can sing like Janis Joplin). The official 'end of the night' song was our own 'Fucked Decisions'. We lost the dancers, but had the listening attention of our working class audience (for a final song, pretty good).

For encores we played Little Aeroplane (when again we had a wanna be punk rock footy player up and singing full on - did good) and Smoke on the Water. We were already getting looks from the manager, having gone over time by nearly 20 minutes - so we couldn't keep playing (which is what the audience were after in a big way). Still around forty there. Management were pretty chuffed about that!

We were all packed up and out of there about three quarters of an hour later, with smiles on our faces and happy memories in our hearts. Well done, all!

A very special thankyou to our friend Sharon who's started doing the mixing for us. It's a bit of work to do it well, and she seems to be getting something out of it. As her ear and technical facility develops, this will add a bit of sweetness to the show. Looking forward to it. And thanks, Sharon. For some further commentary about the 'inner' side of the night, click here or check the post above.

We're next playing at the Cumberland (always have good gigs there) on the Sunday, August 20th, and then at the Squatter's Arms on Friday 25th August.

Awsome Beatles plus Weird Alien Lands

The Negotiators play at Rosewater Footy Club this Saturday, August 12, from 7.30 (click here for more details)

Awsome Beatles

Just a wee note to say that I think the Beatles were pretty awesome. When you look at the volume of music they produced, how well much of it is produced, how good so much of it is, and how they held it together for so long, it's just boggling.

Why do I say this?

At rehersal on Sunday we covered eight Beatles songs for the first time, and have them at the point where we're willing to give them a go live. That's pretty amazing, especially when you realise that they are all pretty distinct from each other. Somehow, most of them just seem to roll along once they get going, which isn't just familiarity with them, but inherent within the artform itself.

Weird Alien Lands

When I walked into rehersal room on Sunday I noticed a huge alien had landed. It was about ten feet tall and had four arms and three feet. It had lots of chords and wires, and looked metallically menacing. What was it?

It was a lighting set up Steve has acquired, complete with sequencing device, four major coloured spots and a psychedelic swirling backdrop projector. All on the one unit. Which looks like an alien. Very cool, will grab a photo of it sometime soon...

Upcoming Rosewater FC Gig

It's been four years since we played at a football club, so we are looking forward to this. After bludgeoning our way through what could have been a hard gig at the Gaslight in July, we will be hoping to do our bit towards making this one of those magic gigs which make playing in a band addictive.

Dates after that include (at this stage):

Aug 20 Cumberland Hotel
Aug 25 Squatter's Arms Hotel
Oct 1 Cumberland Hotel
Dec 31 Cumberland Hotel

Gaslight Gig - 15 July 2006

The Negotiators played at the Gaslight Tavern last night. It was a cold wet winter night and audience numbers reflected this. I don't think the show was a 'bad' one, but we have certainly done better.

Numbers were way down from the last time we played a full gig at the Gaslight. There were 13 people in the audience when we started. This peaked at around 20, and there were 8 still there when we finished after 1 am. I've seen bands play to less at the Gaslight, including ourselves, they have usually been fairly open with their disapointment and in some way made the audience feel guilty for the fact that no-one else turned up. Not very wise, when you think of it.

The Negotiators, however, didn't fall down that particular hole last night. In fact, we got better as the evening went on and the numbers declined. When, finally, some non-regulars came in after midnight, we were rocking and they stayed and loved it. So, we have definitely come forward in this aspect of professionalism over the past year and a half. At least we don't take it personally.

For what it's worth, my view is that we should always be playing as well as we can for ourselves, and then for those that are there. It takes one audience member to make an audience, and you have a duty to do your best and give them what you would give a hundred. Fair enough, you won't get the vibe you get with a hundred, but that's not your loyal fan's fault. So don't alientate him or her...

We played a handful of originals across the evening and they were well received. Our friend Mark suggested that I keep the opening riff in 'Killer in a Frock' going for the whole song rather than 'intensify' it, go for the hypnotic effect. Good idea. Will try it out and see if we can juggle the levels to create what I think he was hearing in nascent form.

The opening two sets were too quiet. This wasn't necessarily my opinion at the time, but I was told this opinion by various audience members later. They were not all from the same peer group, so it seems to me that there was something to this. I also know that when we turned up a bit the show seemed to be more coherent. Until then, we seemed to be searching for the flow although remaining tight.

We fell down quite a few times, always recovering. When we'd turned up, we hardly lost it at all. Perhaps this proves my theory that rock music must be loud, and the follow up thought that, if in doubt, turn it up. The trick is to do this as a co-ordinated band, not as individuals who enter a volume competition and distort the relative balances.

Terry was there running the sound desk and lights. He had purchased a couple of radio mikes, so there was less cabling than is usual. Nancy used one in the last set to wonder out into the audience while singing. I think she enjoyed this, in the right gig this will become a real crowd highlight I suspect!

My favorite moments were all in the last set, which really kicked along. Those still in the audience (or newly arrived) certainly got a good 50 min of music then! Closed out with Fucked Decisions, American Idiot and Little Aeroplane - genuine kickarse songs with attitude. The thing that made me most proud to be part of this band is that, after 4 hours of fairly hard work, we still had the go in us to play and enjoy these songs as they should be. Plenty of bands wouldn't have, on a cold, quiet, wet night in July.

Major down of the evening was some stupid fool losing his temper at one of our friend's early in the second set. Could have got nasty if our friend hadn't left at that moment - he came back later and things were civil again. I'm not a fan of violence, especially at our gigs. Mark, you are a dude!

Our next show is at Rosewater Football Club on August 12. It's a public show, so hope to see you there.

Gaslight Jam, July 13 2006

The Negotiators play the Gaslight Tavern this Saturday from 9.00 pm. Click here for details

As we often do not long before a gig, The Negotiators rocked up as a band at the Gaslight Tavern last night for the regular Thursday Jam. We were first band of jammers onto stage after the 'house band', Overdrive, had played an opening set. I think there were around forty people there, and a vox pop conducted by Keith of Overdrive revealed only one person there who hadn't been there before. In other words, it was an old and loyal crew who we played to. The numbers had maybe touched 50 by the time we started, and we didn't frighten any away.

Played six songs, including one classic, two originals and three 'modern' songs. It was the first time we played two of the songs at the Gaslight, first time ever to have played one of them publicly. Response seemed good, despite what we as a band knew to be the faults of what we did. Cameraderie grows within the new outfit.

It's nice to play on other people's gear (like you do at a jam) because it's not yours to worry about. It's better to play on your own gear 'cause it's set up to produce your own sound and you are comfortable with it. So it was (as always when playing on someone else's rig without any soundcheck) a hit and miss affair in terms of mix, levels, clarity, awareness. Despite this, sounds like we came over well from front of stage.

I enjoyed getting down close to my amp and foldback and chopping some valved sounds into a fairly simple piece to provide its 'rythmic' background (freeing up the drums somewhat - which Chris enjoyed). The piece I did this with was simple to start with, harmonically I simplified it even further for my own part. There's a lesson in there somewhere.

Second last song was a cover of Living End's 'Prisoner of Society', which we enjoy playing (nothing wrong with adding a bit of punk to a set list generally dominated by classics). I looked up at one stage to see some thin chick in a Ramones Tshirt cutting loose on the dancefloor. Looked again and recognised her as Deb, someone who we've been trying to get along to see us for years. Maybe the fact she has been right into the bandscene for decades made her sceptical of a couple of friend's making up a band, maybe she's always busy, but this was the first time I've seen her at a gig. She was having a ball. Was great.

Apparently she'd been playing the pokies, and rushed out when some band had started playing one of her favorite songs. She'd got right into it, looked up, and recognised as friends several of the band members. Double whammy surprise. Nice story.

Terry was there in the audience, will be there on Saturday night when we play for real. His band is going along fine at moment with a few shows lined up. I think Terry likes the fact that he only has to rock up with his axe and amp, equipment dramas are someone else's problem. Sounds like he's got some radio contolled lights, which will reduce the electrical cabling.

Biggest surprise of the evening was seeing Loretta and her husband Peter there. I think it's great that they came out, and enjoyed themselves in one of Adelaides coolest little music hangouts (about 3/4 of the audience play or sing and get up on stage at some point of their Gaslight days), despite the fact that many people are a bit put off at first acquaintance with this basically working class pub.

That's enough rambling for the present, except to say that we've got a few dates lined up over the next few months, beyond playing this Saturday at the Gaslight...

Aug 12 Rosewater Football Club

Aug 20 Cumberland Hotel

Aug 25 Squatter's Arms Hotel

Oct 1 Cumberland Hotel

Dec 31 Cumberland Hotel

I expect there'll be more dates set as we go. I will, of course, post up posters, reviews and odd observations as we go. Hope to see you sometime!

Blondie and Dagwood - 2 July 06

The Negotiators are playing the Gaslight Tavern, Brompton, on 15 July.
Click here for details.

Blondie and Dagwood (aka Nancy and Steve) debuted at The Port Admiral Hotel, Port Adelaide, today - Sunday 1 July 2006. It was a gig Steve had previously booked as part of his 'Brothers in Arms' duo project with Barry (not our bass player, but another Barry), which was thrown into jeapordy by the departure of Barry. So Nancy has helped him complete is gig commitments, which seems to have been fun for them and a good experience.

They were both pretty nervous before they started, much more so than when the band gigs. It was a midi gig, with the midi providing drums and bass leaving Nancy and Steve to perform guitar and vocal. I twiddled the mixing desk a bit through the first set, and then went back home only to return 2 1/2 hours later at the end of the fourth set.

There were around two dozen in this neat cosy friendlish Port Adelaide landmark bar when I left, and a bit over a dozen on my return. Sounds like they held the crowd until into the fourth set, I expect the publican was happy.

It was interesting to hear them, and watch them have a bit of fun on stage. I think they did pretty well, making something quite difficult look pretty easy to do.

See you at The Gaslight Tavern on July 15.

Upcoming Gaslight Gig

July 15, Gaslight Hotel, Brompton.

For a report on our most recent gig, click here.

To read about the last time we played at the Gaslight, click here.

We start playing at 9:00 pm.

Jam Photos!

As promised ...

See you at the Gaslight Tavern, Chief Street, Brompton from 9pm on July 15!

Hackney Hotel - 9 June '06

The Negotiators played a short sharp kick arse gig at the Hackney Hotel last night. Asked along by the Mature Students Association of Adelaide University to play for their fundraiser, we leapt at the opportunity to play at this classic Adelaide pub. Three sets in three hours, in front of around forty appreciative audience members.

The 'new' lineup made its official debut and rocked right through the sets. Perhaps a bit more rock oriented than usual, we managed to draw in a few punters from outside, as well as hold the captive audience. Terry wasn't there, but we were able to use the pub's own lighting show to illuminate us. I think Terry is hoping to be able to bring his box of tricks to our next gig at the Gaslight Tavern on July 15. Would be good.

Chris slotted straight back in to the unit, his drumming keeping constant tempo and beat, with sufficient variation in both dynamic and effect to leave the ear satisfied. It's really good to be playing with him again, one always can pick out where he is at and he is quite interactive with the other instruments. Also, him and Nancy seem to be able to follow each other very well.

Barry has thrown away his written memory aids and played the whole gig through on memory and feel. This freed him up to concentrate on his performance and sound. The results were evident to the ear, and he appeared to be obvulessly having a good time. He is able to drive the music, and as time passes he will no doubt build up the ornamentation layers which seem to keep bass players happy on their instrument.

Steve confirmed that he has reached the next level on his evolution as lead guitarist, the transition was almost seamless between lead and rhythm, pace was controlled, enjoyment was plain. Some nice sounds. Keyboard playing seemed precise also.

I had a ball. I think I grinned most of the gig, and was bopping away at stage front. Barry and me played to each other a couple of times, making a solid platform. The Cort guitar continues to keep me exploring into its sound pallette, with various combinations of foot pedal, pick up selection and strum technique providing a wide range of sounds and feels to what I do.

Nancy rocked.

Audience was typical Adelaide Uni crowd, very little dancing, not much applause. If you didn't know how they operated, you'd think they didn't enjoy it. But you only had to catch their eyes, or watch for the smiles, to realise that most of them were quite drawn into the musical journey of the evening. Would have been nice to give them another set. The look of wonderment in several of them was inspirational to me as a musician. Most of the various barstaff made a point at some stage of the evening to express their appreciation - always a good sign.

Room was wooden panelled, in an 'L' shape with us in the angle. This allowed us to set up so that we could all basically hear each other at the low(ish) volumes necessitated by the small size of the venue. We only used three foldbacks, out of the main mixer rather than the separate amp we have used in past, and no kick drum mike - Chris can thump more than loud enough for a room this size.

That's sufficient rave on what was a great little gig. The lineup is going onwards and upwards. Our next public gig at this stage is July 15 from 9 pm at the Gaslight Tavern in Brompton. I'll put up a poster on this site soon.

Till then, enjoy Adelaide's winter and Go Aussie in the World Cup!

Welcome Aboard Chris!

The Negotiators play the Hackney this Friday. It's in a show being put on by a friend of ours. Should be fun. What will make it extra special is that it will be the debut of Chris as a permanent member of the band, after Sox's forced retirement. I am really looking forward to the coming period, starting this Friday. Both Chris and Barry have proved their worth in the busy first half of this year, and we know that we can make great music together. Now that (hopefully) the lineup really has finally settled down, we will be able to work on making this band into what it can become.

If you want tickets for the show on Friday, contact us and we'll contact the organiser. And don't forget, we're playing The Gaslight Tavern on July 15.

So long Sox, and thanks for all the fish!

Life takes strange twists. Sox has now had to leave the band permanently. Good on him for giving it a go after his injury, good on him for not flogging a dead horse. Sad for him that he has to make the choice, good on him for doing it in a civilised fashion.

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

New Photo blog of mine!

I've started another blog which has a photos I've taken around the place (not band related).

To check it out, click here.

Next Gigs

This Friday night we are playing at the Hackney Hotel. It's on Hackney Road. We've not played there before. A friend of ours has organised the hire of a room and gear and food for a night out for her and our uni friends, amongst others. We were asked if we wanted to play to them. It's been years since we played for a uni club. So we said yes. Should be fun. If you want to know how to get through the door, contact me.

After that, our next gig is more standard fare - The Gaslight Hotel on Saturday July 15. If you've been following this blog awhile (here and here) you will know that we enjoy The Gaslight, frequent it on Thursday nights as individuals and occasionally as a band (here and here), and the gigs are usually rocking. As soon as I get a poster made up, I'll post it here somewhere.

See you at the Hackney!

Cumberland Gig - 28 May 2006

The Negotiators played the Cumby (Glanville) on Sunday evening. The show kicked off at 3:30 pm, and we were finished at around 7:40. Played 4 sets, no encores as we had already gone over time. Audience was pretty good, in terms of both numbers and appreciation. This was the second show with the new lineup (Sox on drums, Barry on Bass), and again Terry provided his technical wizardry to the sound and light. Band was satisfied, publican was happy, audience were rapt.

Nancy and I got to the pub just after 1:30. Sox and Steve had already brought in all the gear from Steve's van and set up the drums. We all got busy, and everything was hooked up in time for a sound check at around 3 pm. Terry and I then continued on for another 10 minutes to sort out the rear series of foldback speakers, as there were a few problems. These problems continued into the first set, but it wasn't terminal and the audience wouldn't have known if we hadn't let them know. The sound out the front, apparently, was good.

Lighting was pretty flash. Terry set up his full kit, ground and ceiling mirror balls, 2 sets of floor spots (one of three sets of three lights, the other of four individual lights) and two high mounted flood lights. In the compressed space at the Cumby, it was a pretty special light show. With the sophistication allowed by his sequencer and light desk, he was able to construct a 'plot line' for the lights that complemented the flow of the music. From my position on stage, it certainly added to the sensory experience of the music.

The audience was a classic Port Adelaide crowd, keen on good music and beer, and if they like you they will stay. At around 2:30 there were three people in the bar area that we could see. Sox was a bit stressed. He needn't have been. We had over two dozen by the time we started, and three dozen by the end of the first set. These numbers stayed roughly the same then until part way through the final set, when the number had dropped back to around 30. A fair few of them had seen our name in the Messenger Press gig guide (local paper) and came specifically because it was we who were playing. We picked up a few new fans on the day, and I expect we'll see them in the next month or two. Out of interest, we probably have two females for every three males in our audience, not bad for a pub band.

For a report of the previous Negotiators gig at the Cumby, click here.

Musically speaking, we weren't as good as we had been at the Glynde (For a report of our most recent Glynde gig, click here). This was partly expainable by the fact that it was an afternoon/evening gig (you just don't get the same 'vibe' as you do on a Saturday night).

There were other factors though. For example, I was dog tired and Sox's arm was fairly fatigued, leading to the occasional lapse of concentration on my part, and the dropping of the beat a couple times on his. To both of our credit, however, we recognised the failings as they happened and rapidly corrected.Another problem was that we weren't able to hear each other as we had at the Glynde. That was partly because we didn't have the luxury of setting up on the walls to each side of a corner, with all our amps and speakers pointing at each other. Also, I had to have my amp set up in front of Barry which means he only heard a little 'splash' of sound out the rear, and Sox and Steve couldn't hear me at all (rhthym guitar doesn't project out the sides of an amp at all, which is the part of the amp that was 'pointing' towards them). I can set up a small 'monitor' amp for Sox to hear if that would assist, but it still doesn't address the underlying issue. I will have to think about it a bit. It is important because, while I was trying to play to their instuments, they couldn't reciprocate. This leads to issues affecting the sponteneity and improvisatory potential of the combo.

Steve (lead) reckoned he couldn't hear me (rhythm), and only partly hear Barry (Bass). Same with Sox (drums). Barry could hardly hear myself or Steve. I could hear everyone (although sometimes its more of 'sensing' rather than 'hearing' - stage sound can sometimes bear little example to that at front of house). Everyone could hear Nancy (lead vocal) and Sox. You can imagine the potential for disaster that loomed through the gig in the background.

More than once we fell off the cart as a band. That isn't too surprising considering the limitations described in the previous paragraph. What was very good was the way we always covered the glitch, and several times used it as a starting point of an improvisatory coming back to the music that expressed wholly new sounds (being improvisatory). This was great fun, and entranced several in the audience who are familiar with our standard fare as they joined us on the adventure. A few (they know who they are) have heard us enough to experience the evolution as it occurs. Must find out what they think ...

The other issue which we need to deal with is tempo. I felt we were going too fast, although audience didn't seem to mind. If there's one thing we can work on that will bring results, it will be this. Also, need to work on interaction of vocal and backing singing - one of us sounded too loud (at least, through the foldback) for us to record it.Barry seemed a bit nervous musically, not as 'out there' as he seemed to have been heading at the Glynde. Again, something that will only be resolved with regular band rehersal and individual work (listening to music and hearing what others do, as well as personal practice). He's keen enough, however, that the workload won't be beyond him. Flying hours.

Okay. I've got all that off my chest.

I enjoyed the gig. My Cort guitar continues to show new layers of sound to me as learn more of it in action. I seem to rarely use the bottom two pick up selection positions, mainly the middle one, and to play about half of what I do on the upper pickups with the overdrive peddle on. I like the thick, but distinct, sounds I get can out of my axe, and the fact that between strong chords it can still produce sweet individual passing notes.

Here's what we did right. First set was excellent, disciplined and tight (because we knew we had to be). We also all played at relatively lower levels than we have recently, and it led to a sound in which all of the instruments were filling separate spaces. Thus, there was a new 'level' available with which to communicate musical expressions. The diversity of music was great. Nancy rocked. It got pretty intense at times. The audience was noisily appreciative. Not a lot of dancing - but pretty wild rock n roll when it was. Our breaks were disciplined and shorter than almost all bands I know. The lighting show was harmonising with the sound show. The set lists fitted together well. There was good moments of chaotic flow on stage, and I knew we had taken the audience with us on our reverie.

What more can I say?

We get a cameo in the near future at The Hackney Hotel, and our next public gig is at The Gaslight on July 15 (Saturday). For a report on our most recent Gaslight gig, click here.

More details when they come to hand.

Glynde Gig - 13 May '06

The Negotiators rocked the Glynde last night before a relatively small but appreciative audience. Started at 9.00 pm, finished the encore around 1.15 am. Over fifty songs spread over four sets with three 15 minute breaks. The new line up finally got it together, and it worked well!

As foreshadowed in my last post, the new Negotiators line up debuted publicly last night. Sox made it through without any noticeable slackening due to injury, Barry held it together well, his bass finding its own rock idiom to work with. Terry also came along, and ran the mixing desk and light show.

Stage set up was the new improved version, with Mark and Barry on stage left, Steve on stage right. Continuing the evolution of our Glynde setup, we had less of a footprint on floorspace with the new lineup, fitting comfortable into what had once seemed a very tight space, with more gear! We had Terry projecting out further along the wall at stage right, with a light desk and mixing desk surrounding him. Tech heaven!

Sound quality on stage was excellent, with full clarity of all parts from all points on stage. This was achieved as a result of a combination of careful balancing of sound (amps and foldback) and stage set up (with all amps pointing across front stage centre due the fact we had set up on both walls of a corner with Sox at the apex). Apparently the sound in the audience was “as good if not better” than it’s ever been according to a long term follower or two. I think having Terry advise on and tweaking the sound through the evening helped with clarity also.

Probably the most we had in the audience at one time was between two dozen and thirty people (in the second set). Around sixteen people whom we knew came in three distinct groups, the earliest any of these left was at the end of the third set. For the second set we were graced with the presence of around eight young women dressed to the max for a night out after their Glynde sojourn. They loved to boogie, if they weren’t off elsewhere I reckon they would have stayed. In the third set had a group of two couples of well dressed uni student types, initially hesitant but had them all toe tapping within a song of settling down. Again, I don’t think they would have stayed (they had in fact popped in and out of the pub earlier) if they hadn’t been drawn in by the music (‘Satisfaction’, if I remember right).

There were perhaps a half dozen locals left at stumps, two sheilas that ate up each song from when they arrived during the third, several men who were individually seated and a quiet addition, and a couple who had been there since the second set and having a great time. ‘Tup’, the male half, was effusive in his compliments at the end of the night, and had partied to the music throughout. He even drew out ‘the rhthym guitarist’ (me) for particular comment later – a rare thing.

The Cort guitar continued to reveal its worth. I played maybe two thirds of the show with the pick up selection in middle position, the remainder split evenly with the selector in either top two or second bottom setting. It tended to cut through the other guitar/keyboard without overwhelming or covering them. This was good, as it allowed me to monitor and adjust what I was doing with the rhythm scape between different parts of various songs. As I am quite familiar with all that we played, I was able to concentrate a fair bit on tying up the other instruments with my guitar, as well as interacting musically with them. I’ve been bored before by other rhythm guitarists who seem to only know one way of strumming and one pattern of beats, so it was nice to add a layer of steady variation underneath the more prominent instruments and vocals. I think Tup’s comment reflected this.

Sox reminded us that he’s a good drummer with a solid performance. Although he says he ‘lost it’ a couple of times, he obvulessly hasn’t forgotten how to get back on the horse quickly because the band never lost the beat or slid into a mess of searching for sounds. He’s a very solid drummer, puts a lot of thought and concentration into what he does. Too much sometimes, as his eyes are closed and he’s off with the muse and there’s no way of getting his attention short of shouting at him (and who’d want to break that reverie?). He runs quite a rack of cymbals, which allow him a large dynamic range and numerous effects (a percussive equivalent, perhaps, of what I search for in the beat of the guitar part). It was great to play with Chris on drums, but it's very cool to have Sox back!

Steve’s leads were crisper than they’ve been before, and he seemed to have pushed his technical limits out sufficient so that nothing sounded forced. Again, this impacted upon what I do as I could concentrate more on backing him and emphasising elements of his playing, rather than providing a support for him to navigate around if all got too much. Thus, progress on many fronts.

It took us about two hours to have everything set up (of which around 15 min was spent trying to locate and sort a problem with foldback). Still too long, but getting there. And it’s a hell of a lot of equipment! Take down was down to 40 min before packed and gone, which is getting better and close to optimum.

We had A3 posters placed around the pub, but you had to look to find them. They had been placed under the TVs, and not on the walls in prominent blanks spots. Thus, they were lost in the visual clutter that often surrounds tellies. I reckon we missed a few of the Glynde’s regular punters (I know of at least one) because of this. Maybe we need to take more control of in house promotion in future?

While on the subject of promotion, we have let ourselves down during the last two shows by not having our 'Negotiators' name board up on stage. It might not seem much, but we are exposing ourselves to new punters everytime we play these days, and we need to know we've done all we can to help them remember the band's name. It's a long haul to build a following, we need to keep our name up there.

The saddest thing of the evening happened after the show, when we learnt that the pub is now under new management and that they will likely be doing bookings through an agent in future. Which tends to cut us out of the equation – agent equals someone making money out of you by telling you what to do and they tend to react badly to the fact that we don’t have the classic profile of a rock band (we’re not naïve, twenty and easily exploitable). Equally sadly, it seems that we may not have much choice about this in future, as that seems to be the way that most corporatised venues in the post pokie era tend to run.

Finally, during one of the breaks between sets Terry slipped in a few old Requiem songs amongst the other 'background music'. Gotta say, sounded good! Not only did I immediately think we should be playing our originals, but, viewing the audience, I could see that they quite liked the songs they were hearing (and some of them didn't know it was us until they worked it out). Some of the audience also told me that we should be playing our own music as well as covers. Something for our marketeers to consider. And, just to prove you learn new things all the time, we might want to put harmonica into the song "Butterflies and Fairytales" as I heard checking his harmonica out while the song was coming through during the break and it sounded just right...

Gig this Saturday Night

We are playing at The Glynde Hotel this Saturday, 13 May.
Click here for details.

It's been an interesting five months. Sox put himself out of action in January, Terry left the band in March. Chris has been playing drums with us while Sox recovered, Barry has been playing bass since Terry departed. Terry helped out with sound and lights at our most recent gig.

This weekend we finally get it together. The Negotiators look forward to seeing you see all of us have a good time. And just to shed a bit of light on the subject, Terry will be there with his lightshow. You'd be a mug to miss it!

Click here for details...

Loretta's 60th at the Lockleys Hotel - April 29 06

For details on our next gig, at the Glynde Hotel, click here.

The Negotiators just played a 60th at The Lockleys Hotel for a long time follower of the band, Loretta. She had a ball through the evening, was nice to be able to give her back something for the loyalty she has given us. She had something like 120 people there, aged from (say) five to somewhere in the seventies - the bulk being in the later middle age bracket. Didn't lose many til after the third set, and still had around thirty left at the end, so we held the crowd fairly well. Apparently the exodus occurred shortly after a fight, which none of us in the band had been aware of until well after the gig.

Generally we did pretty good. Tempos were a bit quick in the first set, but that can be expected and it wasn't so fast that it sounded forced. After that it settled down well. Had around 15 min per break, with a last set that went for an hour and twenty.

The Cort guitar played well, was able to distinguish its various sounds quite well. Strangely for me, I played with the pick up selection in either the centre or the setting next closest to the bridge. Thus I was playing somewhere between a acoustic and a humbucker fuzz sound for most of the evening. I even managed to pull a couple of 'effects' out of the guitar, can't remember which song but I noticed that Chris heard and appreciated whatever it was I had done (I think it was in the Kinks 'you really got me', making the key chords 'warp'). Apparently we sounded good out the front in terms of mix, which is pretty fortunate as the rhythm section only heard Steve on the other side of the stage in patches.

Chris and Barry did really well, keeping up with what was for us other three a fairly well worn series of songs. At least half of them were open to experimentation on my part, so it was a fairly fun time that went quickly.

We had the privelege of Terry being there on the mixing desk through the evening. He pulled a bit of the bass out of Nancy's voice, which created some 'space' between it and Steve's guitar. This led to greater clarity of sound. He also pumped the keyboard when it took a lead role, and joined in the backing vocals as appropriate. What the audience would have most noticed was the lighting. Terry has continued to expand his lighting desk and capabilities, with a couple of mirror balls and set of floods on top of the two series of coloured lights he already had. My favorite light was the fire red flooklight on a mirror ball near the wall at ground level by the drums. Out of the corner of the eye it looked like the room was on fire, it was a very rich ruby coloured light.

We had Loretta's son, Peter, get up and sing six songs with us. These songs were his choice, and we have had three rehersal sessions with him over the past month. They were distinctly punk sounding - couple Green Day songs, Blink 182, Johnny Eat World, Living End and Oasis. During 'Holiday' we had someone come flying into the the stage and knock over stands, lights etc - she even managed to break a microphone stand when she landed on it. Quite a bit of chaos which we managed to keep performing though without missing a beat. Pretty cool for a punk song!

Probably the weakest side of the night's performance was the vocals. Nancy did great, as always, and many came up and complimented her at various stages in the evening. In the last set, however, her voice broke a couple of times which is unusual. My voice went in and out of being vocal and in tune. I think that's because I hadn't been too well the previous week. Steve seemed to be out of key several times, which was magnified by his putting his voice right up to his mike as though he were a lead singer.

Barry pulled it off. Nervous as hell to start with, I think his country origins show in the way he uses the bass to basically accompany the rest of the music. This is a different approach to the driving bass associated with modern rock. The songs where he did this, he did it well. Will be interesting to watch as his confidence develops.

The bar staff seemed to be impressed, by what I overheard of them talking as we were packing up (which task we will need to get more proficient at), and I believe we left several cards with them.

That's enough for now. See you at the Glynde on May 13.

Next Gig

Our next gig is at The Glynde hotel on May 13.

Click here for details.

For a report on our most recent gig, click here.

Guitar - Blue Cort G210

Today, I went back to Guitarworks and purchased my newest musical companion. She is a blue Gort G210 electric guitar and cost $379 (set up by Brian in store, 3 year warranty). I went to six other music stores and looked at all of their guitars. I tried several to get the feel of them.

I did a crash course (internet) last night, after looking around a few music stores in town, on guitar makes, manufacturers, styles, electrics, pickups, materials, etc. I then did the rounds again this morning with my newfound knowledge.

I ended up back at Guitarworks, looking at what had been the cheapest guitar ($200) I had looked at the day before. I finally sat down with a guitar and amp, and then played several others which were within my capacity to pay. The Chinese guitar I played first DID hold up pretty well - but I liked one other better.

She is deep ocean blue stratocaster shape with three pickups, the closest to the bridge being a humbucker. Her machine heads are diecast. Her neck is maple, with a rosewood fretboard, and has 22 frets. Her body is alder (same wood combination as many Fenders). She has five pick up selections, and two control knobs (volume and tone). The jack is at the bottom of the guitar, and her upper strap 'button' is placed on the rear of the body in the upper corner, rather than the more usual side. She is strung through the body, and has a white 'tap' plate.

Her action is relatively low, and quite comfortable on the neck. The humbucker give a more meaty sound at the 'lead' end of pickup selection (so I probably won't use it much), the single coils middle and neck pickups give a fairly bright sound. Even sparkly - which could certainly never be said of the Squire and Fernandez!

She is made in Indonesia. Initially, this gave me the shudders. After I bought it I thought of the cheap wages which probably keep the labour force at subsistence level and shudder again (too late). I can't help the later now.

As for the quality issue of instruments built in Asia, it seems that a lot of the world's guitars are built here now. Even five years ago, quality was dicey (the infamous 'Monday and Friday guitars' which were an inevitable consequence of then production methods being a source of angst).

Now, by all acounts, there has been a massive improvement in quality as the industry tooled up with computer and robotic gear, to more closely replicate the manufacturing of the 'traditional' sources. Many 'name brand' guitars are being built there now. Ibanez guitars are built at the same plant my Cort came from. Be that as it may, too me she felt better than comparably priced american, chinese, mexican or japanese guitars.

I am looking forward to working with this instrument, it will be exciting to develop my relationship with this guitar.

Guitar - Classical Yamaha

My Yamaha G228 classical (nylon string acoustic) is my oldest musical companion. I got it in around December 1, 1994. I woke up one morning and thought, 'I'll get a guitar today and start learning to play'. I was a student at the time, and it is therefore some kind of a miracle that I had around $120 to my name. So I went into town to the smallest guitarshop I could find (Guitarworks, then on Flinders St) and had a yarn with the young bloke behind the counter.

I said I wanted a secondhand guitar. He said they didn't have any. I looked disappointed. He relented, told me they had just received one on a trade in but it still needed to be fixed up and this would take a couple of days. I had a look at it. He played it a little (scales). I thought it sounded beautiful. We made a deal, I went back in a couple of days and it was waiting for me, all set up (adjusted) cleaned and polished (I bought a book on classical guitar and borrowed a friend's old Yamaha classical in the interim).

She's my favorite instrument. It's now had a flamenco tappa plate added, and is a wee bit battered (having been around of most of south eastern Australia and accompanied many campfire singalongs), but it plays as sweet straight and true as when first purchased. Truly, my oldest musical companion.

To visit the rest of my band blog, click here.

Guitar - Black Squire

My backup guitar is a black Squire Strat Affinity (with white tap plate), made in China. I bought it second hand for $120, I've seen new versions for price between $300 - $500, with mine in the lower third of range.

I've never really had much of a go on it. In it's younger days it tended to saw through strings a lot and have very high action which was quite difficult after the low action Fernandez. Rob, who was with Requiem from mid 02 to 04, adjusted the action down, which made it more comfortable.

It has a harsher sound to it, good for long hard sustain power chord type stuff. It's main disadvantages are that it is a bit heavier, I don't trust it not to break strings, it's electrics occasionally have a bit of crackle and, most significantly, it goes through periods when it doesn't hold tune at all.

I've never really developed a relationship with it, but it's been good as a backup in gigs.

Guitar - Black Fernandez

As regular readers of this blog will know, I have had lots of problems with my guitars over the past year and a half. For the record, I have a black Fernandez (borrowed from someone called Allan six years ago, haven't seen him for years, am still waiting to return his instrument) and a backup Squire Strat ('Affinity series). Both of these instruments have done me fairly well, particularly the Fernandez.

The biggest problems with the Fernandez have been its stringbreaking history, the lack of sparkle in its sound, a certain flatness in the harmonics between the first and thirteenth frets and the output jack's connecting screws constantly loosening themselves, creating on at least one occasion a bird's nest of wires as the whole assembly left the guitar body when I tried to pull out the lead!

If you're wandering why I have persisted with Fernandez despite the above problems, I can only see because it feels good, is good to play and it has withstood a lot of use over the years. However, every guitar has its day, and its day has come.

Next Gig

To see some previous Glynde photos, click here and here.

To see a report of our most recent gig, click here.

To see a report of our most recent gig at The Glynde, click here.

The Glynde Hotel is on the corner of Payneham and Glynburne Roads.

Cumberland Hotel Gig - 26 Mar 2006

The Negotiators played the Cumberland, at Glanville, earlier today. We played from 3.30 to 7.30 pm. We had four days notice for the show. We had little opportunity for publicity. The audience was pretty good never-the-less. It was Barry's first show with us as bass player. Chris is still playing drums with us. Stage layout was the new improved version. We used the 'new' PA and all the equipment for the first time and, also for the first time, it was up to Steve and me to hook up and operate the PA. Surprisingly, it all worked. It was a good fun gig.

We got called up on Wednesday to see if we could play Sunday. We had hoped to have the weekend off, after a busy month. But, when someone wants you to play, what can you say? A couple phone calls, and we were all on board. That night, get the add up on this blog and take a copy of the poster down to Steve so he could photocopy it and get copies of it down the pub itself. That night, enter us onto a couple of gig guides on the web. And that was the limit of our publicity.

We had around one and half dozen people when we started, up to 3 dozen at peak in third set, and around thirty at the end. Publican was happy. Around half a dozen were loyal fans - lovely to see them again. The rest were locals. Of these, I recognised around half of them from previous shows, the remainder were of a younger group and stayed right through. We didn't lose very many through the day, quite a few seemed to have initially 'planned' to stay for a beer, and ended up staying for three sets. Cool.

Barry had only played with us for one rehersal. Steve had jammed with him for about five hours this week. He was game to get up though, and thus this was the gig Barry was blooded on bass with The Negotiators. It worked well, in the songs where he was confident, his bass certainly provided a heartbeat and harmonic skeleton to the piece. In the songs where he wasn't so sure of himself, he didn't crash them and the audience didn't seem to mind. So, all is good on this front. And best of all, he was having a great time and enjoyed it immensely. That is a key requirement for playing with The Negotiators.

Chris seems to have grown into his role behind the drum kit, there's quite a lot of binding of the music together. And he did it without fold back tonight. Considering how helpful fold back is to hearing, it will be interesting to see how it flows when so provided.

Barry was stage left rear, Chris centre rear, Mark left front, Nancy centre front, Steve stage right. The keyboard was nearly ninety degrees to stage right, at the front. The mixer was on table along the wall between keyboard and his amps at stage right rear.

We had the amp and gear set up within an hour, and even a sound check left us 15 min to play. No feed back through the night, and the mix was relatively even. I know that we were performing well within the mixer's limits, and should be able to get a fair bit more 'sparkle' out of it with practice. Terry, who was there around the last hour, reckoned we should put up the midrange for Nancy a bit. I think we should unmuddy Steve's guitar just a shade on several songs, it has to play a bit more open or risk muddying our basically clear style. One can use distortion in a 'clean' manner. I busted a shitload of strings, can't wait to get a new guitar in a few weeks...

She was a good gig though. Brought the audience along with us musically from the poppy first set though the rocky third, and into the anthemic final set. Sound was a bit thin at times, that will pick up with more flying hours in current lineup. That means, rehersals. But, that's fun. And I think we need to get the originals happening again, there are actually people who have stopped coming to see us because we never seem to play many or any of them at present.

There's some food for thought.

Gig Poster for the Cumby

For a report of our previous Cumby gig, click here.

The Adventure Continues

To read a report of The Negotiators' most recent gig, click here.

The Negotiators met up with their new bass guitarist, Barry, earlier this evening. We met for a rehersal at Steve's music room. Steve, Mark and Nancy also met up with Terry prior to rehersal to formalise his departure and sort out a few logisitical loose ends. Although there was sadness throughout, there was also the pleasure and pride at the integrity with which the difficult situation was transacted. The Negotiators proved ourselves capable of working through what could have been a (needlessly) nasty situation. I know that none of us regret our association, we all came out ahead.

It wasn't long after Terry had departed that Barry turned up in his white cab ute, amp and bass in the back. Then Chris rocks up, car almost overflowing with drum. Inside, Steve and I are reorganising the spaghetti patch of cabling which is the PA.

For gear we have mixing desk (inbuilt EQ and amp), vocal mics and stands for everyone, kick drum mike and stand, two foldback speakers, two front of house speaker boxes plus stands, sufficient cabling for the lot, and a little CD player to provide music between sets (thanks Terry). In other words, we have more gear than a lot of bands. And none of it is shoddy equipment. I think we need a few coloured lights soon (they really set a band apart as a rock band, set an atmosphere). Anything extra on top of all this is becoming luxury.

I think it worked well with Chris on drums and Barry on bass. Whatever hierarchies had previously grown into existence have well and truly been blown away and we have a whole new beast on our hands. The present lineup is as follows: Nancy (vocals), Steve (lead guitar, keyboard, harmonica), Mark (rhythm), Barry (bass) and Chris (drums). All of the blokes also sing backing vocals at some stage.

We'll try and play with rythym section (Mark and Barry) to stage left (front and rear respectively), Steve plus keyboard plus PA to stage right. We'll see if we have developed (or, can develop) to be able to do this. The degree of musical cohesion we will be able to achieve will now reside jointly with Steve's sensitivities, and the solidity of the rythym section. We are all having to develop again in new directions.

We'll be meeting up several times over the coming six weeks, prior to playing at a birthday at the end of April. Our next public gig will be at the Glynde Hotel on a Saturday night in mid May.

I'll be blogging the band's get togethers over the intervening period. Firstly, it will provide subject material about which I haven't often had the opportunity to blog in the past. Secondly, it may prove an interesting record of an interesting period of any band's life - the transit of new people.

First E-zine article?

For a report on The Negotiators' most recent gig, click here.

The following blurb was recently published in the E-zine put out at the place I work. I've tried to respect their anonymity. Even though ...

...they all recognised me!

"Throughout this [time with this employer], Mark has continued to progress his musical interests. He is the rhythm guitarist and occasional songwriter for his band of six years, The Negotiators.

"I got into rock and roll as a way of keeping out of trouble at Uni", says Mark. "After winning a few band competitions and getting some airplay with our own music, the band realised that the way to get gigs is to play lots of covers. So, that's what we do. It's great fun, and it's a good way of getting rid of some of the tensions that go with being a lawyer."
"I started by teaching myself classical guitar, learnt a bit about flamenco and then borrowed an electric guitar. Nowadays we play lots of rock music, with a span from the fifties to the present. There is a bit of an emphasis on 'Aussie music', and we love playing the classic rock numbers. The best way to know what I'm talking about is to come to one of our shows."

The Negotiators are usually in the 'Gig Guide' (Advertiser) and the relevant local rag. You can always check out the band's blogsite for the most up to date information."

Band Member Goes Bush

LATE NEWS FOLLOWS.

If you’d prefer to read the review of our most recent gig, click here.

Last night Terry gave notice. One of the reasons for this is because he wants to play more country music. Artistic integrity. As he said, the music we have is right for the gigs we are playing (and they’re good shows), but it’s not right for him. The deluge of ‘new’ songs we’ve been picking up recently, with more to come, wouldn’t have helped. When he called to announce his intention he was feeling pretty crap about it. As the other members of the band learnt the news, they went through various degrees of shock. Although none of us expected this, a few things do make more retrospective sense now. One day, once I’ve got a bit more objectivity about it, I’ll possibly write more on it. At present, I can only wish him the best, and look forward to what The Negotiators going through another “obstacle is opportunity” phase brings forth.

Our dilemma has two primary aspects. First, obtaining services of another bass player. Second, reaccumulating sufficient equipment for gigging.

A bass player is pretty fundamental to a band. Besides technical competence, to be a band member the bassist must also have compatable personality (being in a band can be pretty stressful at times), commitment (it’s a lot of work) and be able to get on top of the repertoire (we have a growing play list, rotating over a hundred songs at present).

As to meeting up with a likely prospect, that’s already organised. One of us knows a fellow through past musical association who, after the proposal was put, sounded keen to give it a go. We’ll all meet within the week and decide then whether to run with him (and he with us). If it works out, I’ll post details.

Equipment is also under review. We maintain our own instruments and amplification, and have a PA and Front of House Speakers – which will get you a messy garage gig. We lack a lot of the gear that is needed for proper performance, however, and so now the hunt is on.

Terry indicated that he’s still willing to assist until we find our feet. I have no doubt we will come through this just like we’ve come through past line up changes. The question is – how long will it take?

If you can help out on the equipment front, please drop us a line…

Gaslight Gig - 11 March 2006

The Negotiators played the Gaslight Tavern in Brompton last night. It was a pretty good gig. We played well, and the audience was both of a good number and disposition. Publican was happy, punters were happy, band was happy. All was well. We didn't make a hundred, but did bloody well to make half that considering what else was on!

The show kicked off at 9pm sharp. First set went 50 min, even though it had more songs in it (fifteen) than any other. Tempo was generally a bit quick, but within tolerance levels. Stage setup was a variation on what we had last time we played here on a Saturday, with keyboard at edge of stage on far left, drums a bit off set to the right in centre rear, Terry at stage right, me at stage, mid centre left (sounds like the ALP!).

The sound was good, loud but not overwhelming. In fact, at times on stage there almost seemed to be the muffled boom box effect (when you know what's going out is mixed and loud, but what you here is the discrete componentry of it and not the final effect). Sox was there in the audience in the first set, and was able to give some direction to mix levels. Surprisingly, only I had to alter my level (up a notch). At the end of the night, several people told me of their impressions of the mix, no complaints. While we're on 'technical' stuff, I should record that I broke no guitar strings. As regular viewers would know, it's been awhile since that's been the case!

Second Set was a bit more in your face, with very tight versions of Eagle Rock and High Voltage, and very involving versions of The Wall and Roadhouse Blues, being my highlights. Nancy's kick ass version of River Deep Mountain High was a great way to wind the set off on a high.

Third set was the most ecstatic, with a fair bit of audience dance and song, a lot of applause, and a steadily building momentum from song to song over the middle ten of the set (fourteen in total). My highlights, the vocal music psychelic mix in Satisfaction and Jumpin' Jack, the guitar momentum in Good Golly Miss Molly and Travellin' Band, and the punchy choruses of a couple of Divinyls songs. Ended the set with Sox drumming a couple of songs. Sure knew we had our old drummer behind us for them...much heavier thumper than Chris (who is still playing with us while Sox recuperates, he's still enjoying every moment of it - thankyou so much Chris).

Fourth and final set kept up the momentum. We tended to move from one song to the next within seconds, vocal introduction coming over the musical. As stage technique, worked well. Pity it wasn't planned that way! Paint it Black entranced many in the audience, who haven't heard the way we concentrate on the aspect of looming catastrophe in the song's soundscape (which the Stones' most heard version very much downplays). Blew away the younger members with American Idiot (fun!), and the older with Bobby McGee (best and most coherent version we've played for ages - very climactic as the last song before goodbyes and encore). Caroline pumped like Status Quo should, Kiss rocked along all nite and we even got The Romantic's "What I like about you" in there with a nice bit of improvisation through the middle passage. Concluded with Casey Chambers as encore.

A very successful night of fun, thanks to everyone who shared it with us and who's continued support makes it possible for us to keep on doing what we love.

Our next public shows are around a month away. We need to pick up some more material, and have several weekends back to our 'other lives'.

Make sure you visit this site by late March when I'll have confirmed dates posted.

Gaslight Gig Poster - March 2006