When you look at other bands' sites, you start to realise that this one was put together by a musician as opposed to IT professional. Strange then, that I've actually been an IT professional for a quarter of a century and still hesitate to call myself a musician. Anyway, I thought it would add a bit of interest to put down a few personal thoughts on the whole 3 Legged Cat thing.

Who knows, I might even be able to get one of the others to contribute something to this site.

Killing me Softly

I don't know that I really want to get into this, but I feel the need to add something to the site and this (apart from trigger thumb) is the bane of my guitar-playing life. Recently, the BMA recommended that smoking should be banned from all public places. No exceptions. The reason being that passive smoking is killing people. I don't remember the figures and there's no point stating them anyway because a) nobody can possibly know how many are dying annually from passive smoking and b) whatever figure is mentioned will be disputed. In fact some people will swear on their life that others are in no danger whatever from their smoking.

The venues we play all allow smoking. Some sport signs stating that smoking is allowed anywhere in the building. Now that's an interesting one. Why bother? I know one pub in Chesterfield (there may be others) where there is a no smoking room. That's the Derby Tup in Whittington Moor. Interestingly enough, this is also well known for serving probably the best selection of real ales in the area - so that's 2 things in its favour then. Even here, the no-smoking room is a small room able to hold about 20 people at most and it doesn't have a bar.

So what happened to smoke rooms? I mean, you still see some pubs with "smoke room" engraved on the glass in the door. Why not let people who want to smoke with their drinks use the smoke room, or if the pub is big enough, more than one smoke room? Is it too much to ask people not to smoke while they fetch their drinks from the bar? Is it so hard to refrain from smoking for the duration of a set of live music (45 minutes to an hour)? As a performer, I am forced to breathe in other people's smoke in every venue we play. As a singer, you can't get away with breathing lightly through your nose, you have to take gigantic lungfuls. It's bloody unpleasant, it takes me longer and longer to get rid of coughs, and it stinks! Bloody Hell how do smokers stand it? All my clothes stink. Even my guitars stink when I open the cases again.

Now, I don't expect anything to change, certainly not soon. I saw on the news recently, following the BMA announcement, a pub where the landlord decided to go with a no smoking policy, presumably for his and barstaff's health, but also in the hope that it might encourage non smokers to use his pub. All that happened was that his locals stopped going, so he had to change his policy back to get his customers back. But here's the thing. As I understand it, in light of the acceptance that smoking kills people, fewer people smoke than don't.

If you go to the cinema now, it's no smoking; the same at the theatre. People can last for the duration of a film or play without a fag in consideration of the larger number of non smokers, so why not live music in a pub or club? Look, I know it's rock 'n' roll to die young, but I prfer to last a little longer, and hang on to my health for as long as possible. So come on pubs, try a smoke room. And smokers please use them. If not, if you like us, would you mind standing at the back of the room. We could be performing for longer if you do.

Why?

It didn’t take long to empty my head of thoughts. Having posted 3 documents on this page I’m struggling to find something else to talk about. However, since I want to keep adding things to this web site, I’m going to further squeeze my brain in the hope that something falls out onto the written page.

I suppose one thing that Paul and I have discussed at some length is the phenomenon of the intrepid supporter who makes a point of seeing the band at every reasonable opportunity. We have a fairly comprehensive number of songs in our repertoire, but we do have our favourites, which we play often (in some cases almost always). When we go back to a venue, I always try to remember what we played before so that we can vary the set from the previous occasion – it’s one of the reasons why I’ve started to include the set list on the reviews I’ve done.

What we’re trying to avoid is the situation where people get bored of hearing the same songs over and over again.

Take Old Skool for example. Whenever you see them, you can guarantee they’ll play Freebird. In fact, I’ve seen them advertised at the Bold Forester in Mansfield as “Old Skool (Freebird)”. I suppose that the very fact that the venue decided to advertise them that way was because many people like to hear it, but if it were me in the audience, on the third or fourth occasion I’d be thinking, “here we go again”.

Now we will nearly always play Black Magic Woman, All Along the WatchTower, The King Will Come and our Pink Floyd medley. We enjoy playing them, and it has to be said that they are usually very well received but when I see familiar faces in the audience I worry that they’re thinking, “here we go again”.

When Jethro Tull are on tour, our mate Tim will go and see them several times on the same tour, and often they’ll play the same set, but he doesn’t seem to mind. I realise it’s different seeing a big (and very accomplished) band playing in a great venue with professional sound technicians supporting them etc. compared to watching us perform in a pub, but even so, how many of us would do that? Even with no family attachments and an unlimited supply of money I wouldn’t see anyone more than twice on the same tour.

Yet people on our mailing list come to see us regularly. I suppose I’m going to have to talk to them about it to find out why. I say “them” but it’s more likely to be “you” since I’m sure it’s mainly people on our list who look at this site. I don’t want to give the wrong impression here, we’re thrilled to bits (and pathetically grateful) that you come along and enjoy it and I’ve no intention of putting you off but it’d be interesting to know what it is that brings you along to see us repeatedly.

Having said all that, would I be completely happy to see LZ if they didn’t play Stairway to Heaven, or Magnum if they didn’t play How Far Jerusalem or Free if they didn’t play Mr Big and Be my Friend, etc.? I suppose the difference is that they are their songs while we’re just playing other bands’ material (albeit sometimes in a slightly different way). Maybe there’s the topic for my next page. Meanwhile, we’ve got a gig coming up where all the songs have been selected by someone on our mailing list (Mr T). Maybe this is good idea to ensure that we keep dragging you kicking and screaming to see us. If you’re happy, so are we!

The holy grail.

I suppose it happens to all musicians, but being a guitarist myself, I notice more guitarists suffering from this malady than others. Most of us are still striving for tone by which I mean not my old mate in Walton, but that sound that distinguishes a guitarist from all the others.

Those that have it include: Carlos Santana, Eric Johnson,Brian May, Paul Kossoff, Chris Rea, Dave Gilmour and Mark Knopfler.

There are undoubtedly many others that could be named by fans (how could you miss out Clapton for instance) but those I've mentioned above are distinguished by a combination of equipment and style - the way they actally play the instrument - that means you can hear a piece of music and identify the guitarist immediately. Now I like to think I could identify Steve Vai as well but that's more to do with the fact that there's no-one able to play like him (though Satriani is close) but the sound of his guitar played "normally", though great, isn't particularly distinctive.

Doubtless there are stacks of guitarists who are perfectly happy with their sound without needing to be unique and I'd be happy to fit into that category. Take Thin Lizzy for instance. I can't tell from thesound of the guitars whether it's Scott Gorham or Brian Robertson playing any particular lead break. Maybe that's not surprising. They're both excellent guitarists, both playing Les Pauls through Marshall amps. I wonder if they liked sounding so similar or if they would have liked more contrast between them. I wonder if they're still playingthrough the same equipment or if they've changed their gear many times since Jailbreak.

There is an important point to note. The guitarist makes a massive difference. Not just in the selection of the gear used or the voice selected in the multi effects pedal or pre amp, but in the way his left and right hands play the instrument. It doesn't seem to make any difference how many guitars I try, which voices I use in my pedal or which amplifier I use, my "sound" seems incredibly feeble. That isn't to say that I can't make it much, much better by playing around with voices and equipment (which I intend to do this week by the way) but the common factor is me and I obviously need to work just as hard on my technique.

It really came home to me when Andy taped us playing live at The Racecourse Tavern in December. His guitar sounded great - full of balls with stacks of tones and harmonics coming out of his speakers. He really is bloody good. I've heard lots of bands playing the circuits, some with excellent guitarists, but I've heard none better than Andy when he's in full flow. My sound, however, was pitiful in comparison - loud but thin and with no natural sustain. I can't recall a time when I've been taped playing guitar and it's been anything other than thin lacking in sustain.

Of course, Andy's not satisfied with his tone either though I think he's getting there. Whilst I've been playing with him he's had at least 12 electric guitars (he's currently got 5) used 5 different amplifiers and innumerable pedals. Even when it sounded great (to me) it wasn't what he was looking for. As for me, over the same period, I've had 4 different guitars (currently own 2) used 3 different amps and stuck with my Boss GT5 multi effects pedal. Maybe I should get Andy to set them up for me. Then he can teach me how to play the bloody things.

Tribute or not tribute

Someone once said to me that the more you enjoy the music you play the less you are able to earn from it. In fact, now I come to think of it, I heard this both from a guitar tutor (who is very talented) and a guy who worked in a guitar shop and supplemented his income by playing live. I suppose it's just as well that I don't rely on making money from performing (since every penny goes on expenses or equipment) but it does raise an issue for people wanting to perform. I mean, wouldn't it be great to pack in your job and earn money by doing what you enjoy best i.e. playing in a band.

The problem is, what do people want to hear - that is those people who go to see bands and are willing to pay for the experience?

Of course, some people like to hear original music. In fact, some people will go to see only those bands who play original music. Now this is the ultimate. If you can get people to come and see you play original material you've done really well. But unless you're someone who has been in the charts at some time this is pretty tough to achieve. Having said that, there are precious few who can earn a living playing covers. I'm not talking about those bands who play at Butlins and on cruises here or those who dress up and fart about on stage. I'm not knocking them, some people obviously enjoy it or they wouldn't find work but I can't imagine getting any pleasure from it myself. The Hamsters are about the only band I can think of who make a living playing mainly covers of the material they want to play (or so I imagine). They have a phenomenal schedule playing on average every other night. They also have a truly outstanding guitarist.

Then there's the other lot. I am talking about tribute bands of course. What a weird phenomenon this is. When the Bootleg Beatles came along (this is the first tribute band I can remember) it was understandable. The Beatles were never going to get back together and there must have been hundreds of thousands of people who felt cheated that there was going to be no more Beatles music and they would never get to see their heroes. So, the next best thing then. I can understand that. But then along come all these other tribute bands some of whom are "paying tribute" to bands or even solo singers who are still performing.

What's all that about?

I can see that if you were a massive fan of Led Zeppelin and one of the many tribute bands turns up to play at a local venue that you might go along to hear your favourite songs played and mix with other fans. But it's not going to be the same is it? Don't get me wrong, some tribute bands are extremely good musicians, in some cases better than the originals, but they aren't the originals are they. The problem is that the originals had a charisma that was theirs alone and no amount of copying is going to emulate it. To try to put it into context, imagine going to see Free play with a substitute guitarist because Paul Kossoff is too ill to play.

The substitute might be a brilliant guitarist but he isn't Paul Kossoff and I for one would have felt really disappointed that I hadn't seen the real band. I was talking to a bloke who plays in a tribute band in Mansfield. He told me that until they started to play nothing but Pink Floyd songs, they were getting nowhere. Now, as a tribute band, they fill places out and get good money for it.

They obviously like Pink Floyd and enjoy playing the material. So now they've cracked the conundrum haven't they? They're playing material they enjoy and getting well paid for it. Well, I could be wrong, of course, but at best it's a compromise. What happens when you've exhausted the material? In some cases this must come pretty damn fast (Sex Pistols tribute springs to mind). What do you do then to improve as a musician or just to have fun? I'm pretty sure I couldn't stand it.

It's interesting that I first saw The Hamsters purely because they were playing Jimi Hendrix material. They were brilliant. And I do understand the draw. After all, I'm never going to see Jimi now. And Slim has obviously worked really hard to play just like Jimi which brings its own reward up to a point. Actually, their ZZ Top tribute sets are really good as well. But here's the thing. More often than not they will stick to a mixture of material - and I don't blame them.

No, when it comes down to it, you can keep your tribute bands. I'm happy playing a wide range of material because I like a wide range of material. Anyway, why go and see one "tribute" band when you can watch 3 Legged Cat and be at a rock festival.

A typical gig?

Let me take you through a typical 3 Legged Cat gig. Let's say it's in Rotherham - interesting choice since that's one of the few local places we've never played in and it's our first time at the venue. At some time during the day of the gig I'll get a phone call from Paul saying "Be at my house to load up at quarter past six. It'll take us an hour to get there at that time." The idea is to be set up and sound-checked by eight so nobody at the venue has to put up with a sound check since we generally start about 9.15.

So I pack up my gear from my "music room" shovel down my tea and miss all but the first 5 minutes of The Simpsons to drive over to Paul's. A few minutes later, Andy and Mick arrive in the van with the PA gear and whatever of Andy's gear isn't already at Paul's and we load up by the intermittent glow from the intruder light system. Then it's off to the venue in convoy (the van plus one car) using the pre-printed maps from the internet.

The problem with this type of map is that it isn't always clear when a road is an actual junction off a dual carriageway, or simply goes under or over it. We've been caught out like this before. The first time we played in Burton on Trent we nearly ended up in Birmingham looking for a junction that just wasn't there. Still, more often than not we arrive without too much trouble.

Once there, you hope that the venue is downstairs. Some of our gear, especially that bloody rack of amps and effects on castors, is really heavy, so the last thing you want to do is to lug it up a flight of stairs. Any band that's played at The Leopard will sympathise, though there, at least, a PA is supplied.

The next thing you look for are the posters you sent a month previously; firstly to double check that the venue know you're playing there tonight; secondly to indicate that the punters have some idea who's playing and what to expect. Then we all try to get the feel of the place. Is this a pub/club where they like good music (i.e. the stuff we do) or do they prefer pop crap or aren't they interested at all? A jukebox can often give a good idea. If there isn't one, we find ourselves considering the clientele (even though they may well leave before we start). Now I won't mention any names here, but some of us can make assumptions of the punters' likely taste in music based on their appearance. OK, to be fair, we all can, but it's more of a science for some than others.

Now the problem is that we can put together a set based on this feel of the (yet to arrive) audience. This can be a real dilemma: do we play the stuff we enjoy playing and that is generally outside the norm you hear from rock cover bands, or do we play what we think people are expecting to hear? It's tricky, because we're there to entertain after all , and to try to bring people into the venue or at least keep them there once they've arrived - and we definitely adjust our sets as necessary once we've started, but we do what we do and we hope that makes us different from other bands. Rightly or wrongly, I think that those people who come to see us agin and again (and there are some) do so because we play material they won't usually hear from a live band.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts (in the guestbook).

So we set up, sound check with Andy fiddling on the PA and going out the front (he's got a radio system for his guitar) to make sure all is OK, then sit around struggling with a set list ("whose turn is it tonight?") and waiting for the place to fill up.