I have a played gigs at a restaurant a number of times and they seem to have gone well. But lately the owner has been giving me the cold shoulder and getting other musicians for the summer season. Do I take offence or just suck it up and move on? If I get a call eventually in the dead of winter, do I take it anyways? Anyone else experience this?

Twenty-eight years and about 4,000 gigs boiled down into one list. These are the beginner-to-intermediate songs I still reach for, the ones that reliably win a room without needing years of stagecraft behind you yet. Grab it below. If you build even half your set around these, you'll cut out most of the trial and error I had to do the hard way.

Firstly, a quick heads up for everyone who's joined recently. This community is here for you to chat, ask questions and help each other at any time. I'm generally gigging Thursday through Sunday, so I'll naturally be a little less active in here over those days. Monday is when I emerge from the wreckage and catch up. 😂 Which brings me nicely to this weekend... Has anyone ever been playing a gig and had the venue turn the SPORT on through the actual PA while you were still performing? Not just TVs on around the room. I mean the commentary coming through the venue's sound system WHILE you're playing. That happened to me this weekend. I posted a Short about it and it got a lot of comments. Most people understood why I was pissed off, but a few suggested I should take it down because it wasn't my usual humorous take on gigging. I'm leaving it up. I love finding the funny side of this business, and most of the time I will. But I also want to keep things real. Sometimes something happens at a gig that's genuinely disrespectful to the performer, and humour isn't necessarily the right response. So I'm curious... Has anyone else had the venue PA competing with them WHILE they were actually playing? And what did you do?

Hey folks. Happy Saturday. Do any of you print out a set lists where patrons can pick songs that they want to hear? How has it been working for you? I thinking of trying it. I will let you know how it goes in future posts.

What is the furthest distance that you have driven for a solo gig? I live in an area of Ontario, Canada where there are limited venues. The greatest distance I have driven is 45 minutes to a gig (about 50k, 30 miles) one way. Is any distance worth it if the price is right?