Gig time!!!

excellent man that's me just been able to watch the video.

the energy of the music is excellent i know it was a small stage but the guitars could have been a bit more active but that'll come with the more gigs you get.

the drums were excellent, the mix sounded great especially for a small venue and you've totally nailed richie's 80s tone gav.

playing wise everyone was spot on but the vocals went a bit flat at the start and on one of the shouts at the end but apart from that they were astounding. i know you play in the original key but you should maybe have one practice session down half a step to see how it goes. it'll fatten out the sound and the vocals won't be as demanding especially if you start doing longer headlining gigs.

definetely shoot us a pm if you're playing anywhere closer to glasgow or edinburgh and ill make it out. i could e-mail you some venue details for possible places to play over here.

again guys excellent stuff. kinda pisses me off that you're getting to do jovi stuff and ill be spending saturday night playing neil diamond and eagles tunes for the blue rinse brigade

All stuff taken on board mate!

To be honest, I was quite surprised at how relaxed I was before we got on stage considering I haven't been near one in over six years! As you say, the stage was small but more gigs should loosen us up a little more. I tend to go for it a lot more on songs like 'Always' and 'Faith' with the extended outro solos probably because I'm a little more comfortable with my playing than with my singing - hence, I'm always thinking about the next vocal I need to (try and) hit rather than focus on showmanship and stagecraft. It'll come though!

Completely agree with the drums mate. I was happy with the overall performance but, for me, John had a stunning evening and was the stand out man for sure!

Also, it must just have been the energy of the performance that made you think it was 'at pitch' mate cos it's actually a half step down already.

Oh, and there's nothing wrong with a little bit of 'Hotel California' or 'Desperado'....


but you're right, I'd sooner be playing 'Prayer' and 'Wanted' too!

Oh yeah, the reason we were struggling with lead vocals on several songs was because we had no monitors whatsoever - not that there was even space for them! Nobody could really hear anybody else that clearly (especially Wayne) so we had to do everything 'semi-blind' and rely on nods etc. for communication. I can't use the monitor excuse for my vox as I am not a singer so they would probably have made little difference on that front for me.

hotel california sucks balls man

playing without monitors sucks especially when you're used to them and singing vocals.

saying that, we're not even bothering taking monitors to this gig tomorrow night that's how enthusiastic we are about it

What kind of guitar equipment are you using Gav? Is that a PODXT live?

No - it's the BOSS GT-8 mate. I've tried individual stomps in the past but never got on with them as well as multi-fx units. The GT-8 can be slightly hit and miss (like the XTLive) and needs a LOT of tweaking to get decent tone out of it, particularly with a valve amp, but the hours spent slaving away are worth it in the long run.

The guitar is a Sambora signature black paisley with the middle and neck pups ripped out and replaced with Duncan Hot Rails.

The amp is a JCM2000 DSL50 head and standard 1960A 4x12 cab. The talk-box runs in it's own circuit between an AVT2000 50W head and cab and I switch between them with a BOSS AB box (soon to be replaced by something a little more reliable).

Next gig confirmed:

THE ARK, Waterloo Place (Edinburgh) - Thursday 12th July

We're playing on opening night!!! Woohoo!

250 capacity club with tickets (£5) sold in advance or on the door (if still available).

For more info on tickets, just head over to www.bad-name.com and shoot us an email.

i might be away then and my bro definetely will but if i'm not i'll try and bring some guys over.

is waterloo place somewhere the far end of princes street or is my geographical know how of edinburgh letting me down again?

Yeah, it's the East End by the Waverley Station/Bridge mate. Hope you manage to make it along this time.

Good luck with this, Gav - sounds really good!!

Give us a shout if you're ever down this way - I'd love to come and see you guys!

Thanks, will do - we'll be videoing it all this time so there'll be lots of stuff up on youtube shortly no doubt!