Spriggan Mist and The Crossley Club present
An Evening of Progressive Folk Music
Launch night - 7:30pm Friday 8th October 2010
The Crossley Club, Lightwater, Surrey
Admission £2
What is this event?
This is the launch of a new evening, which, if successful, will be run monthly or more often even.
How was it conceived?
The idea came about when the Lightwater/Bracknell-based folk-rock band Spriggan Mist were looking for a venue to play in full-electric mode on a regular basis, to keep in good gig-practice ready for events and the summer festivals. It occurred to them that other bands/combos in similar genres might also like to play at these events, so conceived these evenings.
As someone thinking about coming to watch, what will be happening?
It will be a varied evening of plugged-in folk-rock, folk and loosely related music (at our discretion, which we have loosely and ambiguously described as ‘Progressive Folk’), consisting of a number of acts playing short sets. Performers will generally be from the locality, and playing for free. It is not an ‘OpenMike’ though, and we will be trying to keep above a certain level of quality. We think it will be an entertaining evening – and if you don’t like one particular act, you don’t have to wait long for the next!
What format will the evening take?
The evening will kick off at 7:30, with hosts Spriggan Mist playing a short set – to get things going, check out the kit and try a few new songs in the ‘graveyard’ slot. After that there will be a series of acts performing in 15 or 25-minute slots, including a slot by Spriggan Mist, until the finish at 11pm.
As a band/combo – how does it benefit me to play there?
Bands will benefit from:
• a FOH soundperson, to make them sound as good as possible to the audience
• Full stage monitors, with a monitor soundperson so you can hear yourselves properly on stage
• Full-colour multi-unit LED stage lighting – to create that special ambience – under control of a lighting-person.
• The opportunity to get a multi-camera video of your live performance, including high-quality sound– more of that later.
All in front of a supportive audience.
Do we get paid?
No, not currently. Maybe in future events we may consider having paid acts, but that depends on the paying audience we can attract.
How long can we play for?
Generally, for acts who we have pre-arranged to play, we will offer slots of 15minutes, and a limited number of 25minutes.
Can I just turn-up and play?
We will generally reserve some time for floor-spots, though we cannot guarantee you will get a chance to play, and we will need to know you personally. If you let us know you are coming you will have more chance of playing. If you turn-up and don’t get a chance to play, then we will give you more priority at subsequent events.
Do we have to pay to get in?
There is a standard admission charge of £2 per person. Acts who have pre-arranged to play don’t pay that, and we will allow a certain number of band guests to also enter free, provide they are vouched-for. Also, if you are not booked to play and are chancing on playing a floor-spot, then if we know you personally, and you let us know in advance, you can get in free. As it is a members club, all non-members must sign-in at the door.
Can we bring our own instruments/kit?
Here are the rules:
• You bring your own instruments, we don’t provide any.
• We provide PA, DI-boxes, guitar and bass amps, mikes and stands, and a small house drum-kit.
We only allow 5minutes for set-up, so we are placing restrictions on what you can bring:
• The basic rule is, you must be set-up and ready to play in 5 minutes from the time the previous act finishes playing
• No drum kits-you must use the house kit. You can bring your own snare if you want.
• Generally, no guitar, bass or other amps – you must use ours unless specifically pre-arranged.
Any electrical kit that we do agree you can bring must be PAT tested, with a current valid sticker. If you need to get this done, then contact Spriggan Mist in advance, as Dave can perform the testing for a small charge.
What about the venue?
The Crossley Club is a social club in Lightwater, aimed at family membership. Club members get free admission to the event. They have agreed to stage this event on a trial-basis at no cost to us. They hope to make their money from the bar. Speaking of which, bar prices are subsidised, including a nice pint of London Pride and a guest ale.
More details on the ‘video’ facility?
Dave and Gill have been working on producing a multi-cam system which uses 4 video cameras with remote-controlled pan/tilt/zoom facility. This allows the video-producer to sit at a screen and choose shots/cuts/fades/pans/zooms etc, just like on a live broadcast of a concert. In addition, multi-track sound is taken from the PA feeds, and mixed into the video. This sound comes from an SSL-Soundscape system, and is of a very-high quality.
The idea is that we can produce a video ‘on the fly’ mixed at performance time, with no expensive camera operators, nor post-production man-hours. The system is used to produce an MP4 file, of high quality suitable for producing a DVD, or via conversion for lower bit-rate web videos (for YouTube etc).
The cameras used are DV consumer-camcorder-type, so are not the ‘ultimate’ in quality, and subject to some foibles, but a pretty good result is possible and, with the ‘professional’ look of multi-camera shots, stable pan and zooming, this should give a video of a level of quality which cannot be exceeded without major expense. Include with this the use of suitable stage lighting, and we hope to achieve something unique and special here.
Performers will be able to purchase the ‘total rights’ of the mixed MP4 videos of their performances (so that they can convert/upload to YouTube, create a DVD, sell or distribute for free).
Please note: you have a week from performance to let us know if you would like to buy the videos, after which we may delete them, to save disk-space.
Because these are mixed ‘on the fly’, they may well be subject to the odd ‘mistake’, as is true even of the BBC for live videos! As we can’t ‘remix’, as of yet, there is nothing we can do about this. As we get more practice at producing these videos, the quality will no-doubt improve.
Alternatively, the system is capable of also producing separate video files (as avi files) from each camera, and separate audio multi-track ‘stems’ for each instrument. This will allow performers to do their own mixing and post-production, if they have the time and facilities (something like Adobe Premiere, which sometimes comes packaged with laptops etc. or there are probably freeware software packages available). If you would like to pursue this option, then let us know in advance.
If you don’t wish to purchase any videos, then we reserve the right to use the videos in full or part ourselves for promotion etc UNLESS YOU LET US KNOW WITHIN 5 DAYS OF PERFORMANCE THAT YOU DON’T WISH FOR US TO USE THEM.
Can I help?
We would be delighted for volunteers to help in the following areas:
• FOH sound mixing
• On-stage Monitor sound and band set-up
• Running a raffle/jug collection
• Manning the doors
• Video production (though this will involve some learning time!)
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