Danny McCormack

Venue – St. Matthew’s Social Club, Belfast
Band – Sunshine

First time in this venue in the Short Strand area of Belfast. I’d heard quite bad reports of the area in the past, as it’s quite an extremist Republican part of Belfast, and this was of course confirmed by the street signs which was written solely in Gaelic! However, everyone there was very friendly and helpful, even offering us a parking space inside the venue gates itself which would normally be reserved for beer deliveries etc. Due to a mix up with the times given by our agent, we arrived an hour early, so managed to enjoy a pint or two to pass the time before performing our setlist.

We did the gig as a 2-piece, with just myself and David, which meant that we could bring a stripped-down PA system as we didn’t have to handle drums, keys and the usual. No one was expecting a large crowd, as it was a Sunday night, and indeed the final turnout was quite low in comparison to the previous night, but we performed our usual setlist with our normal vigour, along with a couple of added Irish tunes to keep the locals happy! I also welcomed the chance to work on my backing vocals, as the 2-piece allows me a bit more space to work on harmonies and hopefully bring them up to a high standard.

We don’t have any gigs booked for next weekend so I might catch a bit of live music around the Omagh area, which I haven’t been able to do a lot recently. I also have an audition coming up for a country band based in Co. Londonderry, and as usual I’ll report all on this blog as soon as I can!

Yours harmoniously,

Danny

Venue – The Wild Duck, Portglenone
Band – Sunshine

Another new venture for myself and Sunshine – the pub has only opened recently and is consequently very chic and modern. We groaned when greeted with the news that we’d be playing upstairs, meaning a potential reduction in spinal functionality after lifting our monstrous PA up, but luckily they had a PA installed in-house, and a damn fine one it was too (Martin 15″s and a 2×18″ per side!)

Gear wise, I used the Ashdown MAG 4×10 I’d been using previously, courtesy of our friend Wayne Rodgers. However, the sheer size of the PA system meant that the amp didn’t have to go past 1 on the volume dial as the sound was so loud anyway. Great tone as always though – proof that a £300 amplifier can perform equally as well as any other to my ears.

The gig went very well, with a number of appreciative punters drunkenly queueing to shake our hands after we’d finished, fresh off the dancefloor where a large crowd had remained all night. It’s always great to play to a packed dancefloor as the energy really makes it worthwhile for the band, who feed off the crowd and vice-versa. A few slight technical problems with the PA, largely due to our unfamiliarity with the system, didn’t spoil what proved to be a very successful first outing to this venue.

Danny

Venue - Carrickfergus Castle
Band – Sunshine

The day had finally arrived! The anticipation had been killing me for the past couple of weeks, not helped by the quick visit we made to the festival site on Friday night to admire the stage and sound system being set up. We made our way to the festival site on the Saturday afternoon for 1.30pm. As is usually the way at festivals with more than one band playing, the headline act soundcheck first, and then the other bands work in reverse order – so as we were opening the festival, our soundcheck was last in line. As I walked through the Artist Entrance to collect my VIP Pass, it struck me how huge the stage actually was. After setting up our gear, each of the band members must have been 20ft from each other, which was certainly a change from some gigs where I worry about knocking out Dave with my headstock (by accident of course!). The soundcheck was very efficient and professional, and we got it finished in under 5 minutes for the full band. I managed to catch Carl’s soundcheck of his kit from out front in the crowd area, where it sounded absolutely immense through the full line array system.

We were due to start at 3.15pm, with gates opening 15 minutes before that. Right on time, we started into our setlist, which went as follows (if I can recall correctly):

- Dakota (Stereophonics)
- Sweet Home Alabama (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
- Tie Your Mother Down (Queen)
- Chelsea Dagger (Fratellis)
- Purple Rain (Prince)
- Sex On Fire (Kings Of Leon)
- All Right Now (Free)
- Walking By Myself (Gary Moore)

It was great to see the crowd enjoy it, especially because it felt a bit isolated on stage when we were quite a bit away from the front barrier! We played our set in what felt like 5 minutes, the roadies (!) packed up our gear, and we spent the rest of the day hanging out with Hayseed Dixie, the Saw Doctors, Simon McBride and Tinn Lizzy backstage, drifting in to watch the bands from the side of the stage every few minutes.  The day as a whole was undoubtedly one of the best gigging experiences I’ve ever had – I could certainly get used to this lifestyle!

Some media from the day itself can be viewed here – Belfast Telegraph Website, and I’m in the process of uploading some photos to my own Media page here on my site for your ocular enjoyment!

Yours splendidly

Danny

Venue – Cloisters, Ballynahinch
Band – Sunshine

My second time in this great venue in Ballynahinch with Sunshine. The first time round, we seemed to get a lot of requests for rock songs, which was great of course, so we came prepared this time with a few more numbers by Queen, AC/DC and the like – all of which went down a treat with the crowd! As mentioned previously, I had the lend of an amplifier from our friend Wayne Rodgers – an Ashdown MAG300 4×10 combo, which sounded excellent! For the first time since I started playing with Sunshine, I got away with not going through the PA system, and just using the amplifier itself to fill the place with low end.  I noticed a big difference in my playing, as beforehand I didn’t have much confidence when I couldn’t hear a note I was playing, but this time I was able to execute every note with intent – exactly the way it always should be!

We also managed to get a run-through of our entire setlist for the next night’s gig – supporting the Quo at Carrickfergus Castle!  An update on that to follow.

Danny

Venue – Strangford Arms Hotel (Le Winters), Newtownards
Band – Sunshine

Another new experience for me in the town of Newtownards, which, to my surprise, is actually much closer than I’d imagined! The venue was a lovely bar/restaurant called Le Winters, part of the larger Strangford Arms Hotel complex in the town centre. The interior of the bar immediately struck me as being quite upmarket. There was a dedicated stage in the venue, but due to it’s rectangular shape, it was necessary for the band to set up four-abreast, instead of the usual drums-behind-guitar/keys/bass. Again, I went direct to the desk, and luckily I managed to persuade David to include more of my sound in the monitors which meant that I could hear myself quite clearly!

The crowd were a bunch of lunatics, jiving along even to Robbie Williams’ ‘Angels’, which was a surprise. Apparently the venue hasn’t been attracting big crowds as of late, but we saw absolutely no evidence of this as I’m pretty sure it was near capacity, and the dancefloor was never quiet! It was a good chance for us to throw a couple more rock covers into the set, a particular highlight being ‘Chelsea Dagger’ by the Fratellis.

We managed to bump into a few members of the Camerata Orchestra during the half-time break, who deserve a mention for their hectic playing schedule that week at the Clandeboye Festival!  I thought rock music was tough – I don’t think I could manage 3 shows a day!  Fair play.

Next step on the tour – QUO!

Danny