Honest Opinion?

[madfiddler]

LOVED your fiddle playing dude! Had a real improv vibe to it, was fab! Really made me miss playing with an electric fiddle player, not done that in yonkies. As with all 'lead' type animals as your good self though, the dude on the desk needs to make sure your max volume you can twiddle to is equal to poor little old Ben's, as you drowned him out some there hot rod.

Improv vib in the wrong notes jazz kinda way, haha... So what stuff did you used to play then? As for the desk thing... that's an issue I'm hoping will be sorted at whatever happens wherever so of thing... I just maxed out... Engineers never turn up fiddles, so assumed he's turn me down *grin*.. Ah well..

I agree with everything you said, pretty much, save for 'I'm not particularly interested in someone coming up on stage, sitting in front of a keyboard and playing to a backing tape'. Obviously not to a backing tape, but I think people would love to see it, think Chemical Brothers etc, picture that but in C64 remix mode.

Mmm, like their music, still think they're rather boring to watch live though... just a bit of gay knob twiddling really Now incorporate that with live musos so the set has a chance of sounding a little different.. and I'm with ya there...

Not a musician full time & professionally anymore unfortunately, it simply just doesn't pay me enough, not unless I whore myself out in ways I just don't ever want to again. I've done a lot of tv advert music and alike, and it pays well but I hate it.

Well that doesn't explain the 2-3000 audience

re 'we only had two days to reherse' etcs
Musicians will always make excuses, even when they don't need to.

Well, listening to the recording... I think an explaination at least, needs to be drummed into people's heads before we're all called "poor quality bands" oh, shite... too late there..

I was thinking just now, what about as well as having a site for money donations, could there also not be a section for gear donations? I know that when you throw a gig everything that can go wrong will, and BIT Live has been lucky that nothing big time major has gone belly up, but it would be cool if people could donate the 'back up' instruments, guitars, amps, keyboards, lighting, whatever. I know there's a lot of music people on this forum, and obviously it would all need to be at their own risk, and they'd need their own insurance for their gear, but, it's an idea to throw onto the pile anyways.

Well BITLive was lucky THIS time, but last time the hard disk recorded went tits up big style. Benn's effects also died, but as it was in Brighton we used my spare set from home.... As long as everyone brings their instrument there will will be a backup of some sorts... there were at least 2 guitars, 2 basses, 2 keys... er... 3 violins, and the one drum kit. All of the hired gear is expected to work... is now checked, and if there is a problem, is replaced before the gig..

When you start added too many people into the equation, it has a very big chance of turning into a huge mess. Forum members bringing their own bits of lighting for example, scares the sheer hell out of me... It just wouldn't work... but we'd then have 10-20 so called "experts" all trying to do things their right way... I really think the logistics of PA's, lights, instruments should be left to the pros (the PA guys by all accounts did a stirling job this time round... considering the budget, time etc. etc.). Not only that, but you think... oh pants, my keyboards gone up.. there's a spare which I don't know how to use, don't know where the patches are.. etc. etc...

[zerozillion]

so I can comment on what it sounds like to non-scene-fans

Uhm... my girlfriend's a non-scene-fan, and she really enjoyed it. [/code]

my gf also really liked it i showed her the games and some tunes before we went there, she's fascinated by the 64 and the scene around it

[Slaygon]

she's fascinated by the 64 and the scene around it

That's what my former gf thought (she went with me to Gossips/London). She was really amazed by the scene around it.

[Hacky]

Well that doesn't explain the 2-3000 audience

LOL oh we're playing that game so loved of musicians now are we, the my dicks's bigger than your dick game?<G>

Well gig wise where I've played myself, err, the biggest ever was prob at a music festival in Spain called 'The One' or 'One', we went on after Massive Attack, which was err, SCARY! And I was playing with a band called ATR. Must have been 100k to 200k in the crowd, god knows, and I played at Glastonbury also way back, on the jazz (acoustic tent) stage. Other than that I've played in oh so many pubs and clubs in London, but lately, as in, the last few years, mainly gigging in Europe, playing at various venues, my favourate of which has to be the Kinski in Berlin. Playing with bands like TFQR, Nebula 9, Karma Jukebox, ATR (Atari Teenage Riot, they do a lot of C64 stuff synchronistically enough), NDriver, err, and others. Worked with wise, I've had dealings with Nine Inch Nails, Beasie Boys, Bjork, at mo I'm working on something won't say name now, but it's on the Warp lable if you know them? Working with DJ Shadow, watch this space. But MAINLY I just do solo stuff for my own enjoyment and sometimes it makes its way onto a CD, but I'm not about 'making money' when it comes to music, I gave up that game a while back, now I feel so freeeeeeeeeeeeee. MIGHT be doing the soundtrack, or part of it, for Chris Cunningham's next movie, but u never know with these things, I could count the 'mights' in their hundreds! You know how it goes I'm sure. I'm jelous of you guys though, I'd love to do computer game music, always wanted to try that game, but never really had the chance to.

[Sidman 64]

I think if there is to be another B.I.T event we all need to help chris organise future shows.

No wonder he feels like not doing anymore events it must be hard arranging all the various organising that needs to be arranged.
it seems there is only a few main people like boz,kenz,benn etc who help out with the arrangements of the events.

i think we should all get our thinking caps on to find ways of raising money to cover all costings for future events.

one idea is to setup a monthly subscription for B.I.T Live gigs membership where members pay a monthly fee of say £5-10 which would generate money to go towards the costings.

for the members we could give a free cd of our choosing every 3 months and a free c64 ringtone and newsletter.
also we could hold a quarterly remix competition where members get the chance to submit or vote on the best remix and the winner could be presented with a remixer of the year trophy at the live gigs.

this will keep the interest and togetherness in the scene and as i said before it will generate money to go towards the live gigs we all want to hear and see.

anyway enough from me for now pls post any comments you have.

cheers
Danceaway

[Hacky]

I defo want them ring tones! I even downloaded them off the 'samples' Chris put up and used a couple of those as my actual ring tones! Can't wait for the real ones to go up, gonna buy'em ALL!
dribble

[Matrix]

Heres one ....

We all setup a weekly direct debit of say £1 (how many active willing forum members here ? EXACTLY) ... Saurdays is a draw for a CD, t-shirt, poster, whatever.. theres plenty of bits (parden the pun), to go at....

1 winner weekly wins whatever, like an online raffle, so as an example, £200 goes in, maybe £15 is used and you have £185 a week dropping into the kitty.... NOBODY WILL MISS £1 A WEEK - I KNOW !! Plus, the chance of gettin sumthin for a quid in an online raffle is tempting to say the least.

So: £185 a week x 52 = £9620

Add the monthly members fee of £5 (which is £1.15 a week at £60 a year) which is £12k

Monthly members fee plus monthly raffle gives you £21,620

Now tell me - what kind of bitlive event can we get for TWENTY GRAND !!!

Its NOT HARD FOLKS !!! .... It's NOT !!

Think about it.... fiver a month for members benefits like access to limited maybe unreleased or rare stuff, and the monthly change to bag some goodies !! PLUS you have the 100% CAST IRON PROMISE of enough funds for a "NEXT YEARS BITLIVE" Event which doesnt leave you high n dry at the end - WITHOUT Sponsors and PLUS any donations that drop in randomly !!

THINK ABOUT IT !!

[Chris Abbott]

Just to cover one point:

> there;'s nothing else out there.
Indeed there isn't. Well, not exactly true. There are a few "one man and a Sidstation" bands who paint themselves bright pink, but you put them next to, say, oooh, madfiddler, and they look a bit underpowered, artistically speaking.

It's silly to say it's all the same bands every time: the only band that has appeared at all three BIT Lives is PPOT.

Bit Live 3:
Octave Sounds
Machinae Supremacy
PPOT
Seth Sternberger
and a nice woman on the keyboard doing Sensible Soccer Escape.

BIT Live 5 (i.e. after Germany)
PPOT
Rob Hubbard
Stuck in D'80s

BIT Live 6
PPOT
Stuck in D'80s
Visa Röster
C64 Mafia

... and of course now a BIT Live wouldn't be a BIT Live without SID80s, PPOT and Visa Röster. And whoever else gets inspired in the meantime. I'd like to see C64 mafia expand on their act.

This shows that whenever anyone has a good idea for a live act that stands a chance of entertaining people on stage, then it gets tried out. The assumption is that the audience is supportive enough to see through their shortcomings and encourage them. Look at PPOTs first recordings vs their St. Luke's performance. There's no comparison. It's just time and experience. And that means performing whenever possible.

Seth, for instance, suited Gossips. It was a club, the acoustics were clubby, and his beats were pretty clubby. Not my kind of thing, Seth knows that, but to some there he was the highlight of the night. And to some it was pointless knob twiddling.

If you think about it, the only thing we lot have in common is a love for music from a particular kind of computer. This says nothing about our musical tastes, and very little about our cultural expectations, demographics or whatever.

If someone wants to start organising "Back in Time Techno" gigs, with hordes of C64 DJs and Sidstation users and is willing to put the groundwork in, good luck to them: I'll support that because it caters for an audience I'm unwilling to, because I don't enjoy that sort of thing. It may very well develop into the kind of profitable paying 2-3000 gig that's being talked about.

Anyway, we know there are tens of thousands of SID fans. We also know the only reliable way to reach them is word of mouth and peer pressure. And sheer blind luck! All we need for a gig is 300. That's all. That would do nicely. In a pub, 150. In a toilet, 3 (the rest of the room would be taken up by Mark's strapon!).

So, if anyone wants to fork off BIT Live in a different artistic direction, feel free. As long as it's got C64 remixes in it, and a composer or two, I'm all for it.

As I said, I will be posting something about any possible next one once I've talked to Ben some more. I've already had some of the ideas here independently, but... well, you'll see. But as i've already said, if it happens, it will be up to the scene to power it. I've made my last grand, expensive gesture.

Chris

[madfiddler]

LOL oh we're playing that game so loved of musicians now are we, the my dicks's bigger than your dick game?

Ha, hardly, but I don't know who you are and it's a pretty big claim to make! At least you got to play after Minor Incursion.. erm.. Massive Attack, and not get sacked by them eh... but I'm not bitter there.. much.. Glasters is fun to play, I'll only go when I'm playing there.. Better security and cleaner toilets..

You STILL haven't said what you play... music and instrument...

got a website with some mp3s? you got me intrigued boy...

[madfiddler]

Three people plus me and my strapon... in a toilet???

Watch it Abbott!!! *grin*

[Chris Abbott]

> THINK ABOUT IT !!
Er, it's a breach of the gaming laws, pretty much, if it's a raffle. I'm no expert, but there's a whole lot of laws relating to this kind of thing. And a whole lot of admin.

The problem with the subscription idea is that (a) it requires a lot of organisation, and (b) it requires you to actually promise in advance to deliver unknown content, that may or may not be ready or available. And I won't go into the legal consequences of the small print! Plus I don't know how to use the direct debit system, but there's a whole layer of bureaucracy associated with that too.

Basically if I start taking regular money off people and promising something in return which I have to deliver on a regular basis, then it's putting a whole extra layer of pressure and responsibility on me that I need right now like a hole in the head.

I'd rather go the other route of controlling costs and using the scene network to set up the different parts of a BIT Live, but to professional standards (otherwise you might as well just paint a sign on the event saying "clusterfuck").

Thanks for continuing with the ideas though. There will be elements in "the plan", some quick readers may already have seen this, since I posted it once and then deleted it again. They're probably wondering if they imagined it!

Chris

[Chris Abbott]

> Watch it Abbott!!! *grin*
You're going to sell tickets? I thought that was my job!

[Matrix]

Three people plus me and my strapon... in a toilet???

Watch it Abbott!!! *grin*

Id pay to see that LMFAO !!!

[Hacky]

madfiddler

re the vol thing, I was sitting at the back so I can't remeber now if I noticed, but how were u monitoring? ie, did u have ear-pieces or u were using the wedge mons? I know this adds a whole new layer of potential gear f**k-ups, but if you don't use an ear-piece, it's something to look into, they can be a wee costly, coz u need to get them moulded to your ear, but as u like to prance about like a mad Irishman while playing, it gives u real freedom and much more control over your mon level, and Sennheiser do like a radio one which is awesom. I don't use them myself, but I've used earphones a fair bit, when druming or keyboarding.

[madfiddler]

madfiddler

re the vol thing, I was sitting at the back so I can't remeber now if I noticed, but how were u monitoring? ie, did u have ear-pieces or u were using the wedge mons? I know this adds a whole new layer of potential gear f**k-ups, but if you don't use an ear-piece, it's something to look into, they can be a wee costly, coz u need to get them moulded to your ear, but as u like to prance about like a mad Irishman while playing, it gives u real freedom and much more control over your mon level, and Sennheiser do like a radio one which is awesom. I don't use them myself, but I've used earphones a fair bit, when druming or keyboarding.

Yeah, I used in ears with Massive Attack. To be honest, I hated them. They were extremely expensive Sure ones, very high quality sound, moulded etc. etc. but I found they just caused a problem for me with the violin. In the end I had one in my right ear, and left my left ear to listen to the violin..... Massive Attack use no stage monitoring at all so I could actually hear my fiddle.....

I normally take my own wedge around as well as using stage monitoring as that's nearly always where the problems are. Prancing around FOH like an idiot isn't normally a problem as I can rely on the FOH sound... that is until I go so far away that you then get the delay effect of you hearing sound, playing it - going back to the receiver, back along the cable to the mixing desk etc. etc. had that once in an open air gig in Slovenia, but never had it since...