The band played on

Despite your usual scribe being slightly hors de combat (insert your own joke about femmes de guerre here), Desperate Measures have continued with their busy schedule through October 2013.

Sunday 6th October saw the band appear again at the Bedford Hotel in Tavistock for the regular jazz lunch, held on the first Sunday of each month.  A couple of weeks later, the band made the long trip to the wild regions of north Devon for a gig in Lymouth.

While all this was going on, the eternal quest for variety added two new tunes to the repertoire - ‘Sermonette’ and ‘You and the Night and the Music’.

Playing in a bigger venue in Lynmouth - a town hall - highlighted some PA problems for the band which, although not a problem for the audience (who were very happy with the music), created some difficulties for the band. 

There are well-known irritations for musicians in a band, such as the inebriated audience member asking a jazz band if they “know any Oasis”, or a guest vocalist handing out parts written in faint pencil, just as the lights are dimmed so that they can be in the spotlight.  Another, perhaps more common, is being unable to hear what other band members are playing - a particular problem with larger venues.  And it was the latter problem that led to some discomfort at Lynmouth.

We only have a simple PA, with limited monitoring facilities, even if the complexity of cables might give another impression....so, some experimentation may be required to improve things.  On the bright side, the experience has only served to increase the determination of the band to provide a polished performance.

Coming up this weekend (2nd/3rd November), a hard weekend for the band with an evening gig in Fowey on Saturday night, followed by the November lunchtime gig at the Bedford.

Meanwhile, your scribe continues with an enforced low-fat diet.  The other day, a girl stopped me in the street and said she’d seen me at a vegetarian party.  I thought, that’s funny, I never met herbivore.