Last night I was roped into doing the sound at the Phoenix, with an hours notice, it’s my own fault for being a jack of all trades, master of none, type of person, and living two minutes walk from the Phoenix. Anyway, first band on were a nightmare, feedback central, despite my many attempts to ask the band to turn their amps down, they turned it back up as soon as I turned my back, both guitar and bass amps were so loud that I turned the channels off. But because of the loudness, it was feeding back via the vocals mics, so every time I tried to boost the vocals it was feeding back like hell, the net result was that the vocals were barely audible, nothing I could do about it! Second band were better, I gave them an ultimatum, “either do as I say, and sound good out front, or ignore me and sound shit” they opted for the former option and sounded much better for it. The final band were the most professional act of the night, really worked with me to get the best sound, and they easily had the best sound of the night. So, for all young musicians out there, when you get a gig, work with the soundman and you’ll sound a million times better. But the whole night was a little fuzzy for me, as I couldn’t hear that well, as my hearing was only at 50% from a previous gig (really should invest in some earplugs), but if I didn’t do it, there wouldn’t have been a gig, so half decent sound is better than no sound at all!!!