Live Work - Gary Mullins - Professional Guitarist

Cliveden House Guitarist Wedding Party Band Big Mama Funk

A Busy Christmas

January 24, 2017PermalinkBig Mama Funk, Gigs, Jazz, Live WorkChristmas, Cliveden House, wedding Leave a comment

Okay, so it’s nearly the end of January and now we have got a little bit of time to look back at what the bands got up to at Christmas and New Year. It was an incredibly busy time and it quite nice to have a little bit of respite before the year gets really busy again.

So, Jazz Juice has been performing at Cliveden House for the last seven years, and it is always a privilege to do so. The venue is simply exquisite and there is always a sense of occasion when you drive up the wide and perfectly manicured driveway up to the Luxury Hotel. This year a duo of guitar and saxophone was required to play on Christmas Day and returned on Boxing Day which was then accompanied by a five-piece party band called, “Big Mama Funk” in the evening for dancing and celebration into the wee small hours.

The following day the Jazz Juice duo was booked last minute to save a wedding! The happy couple were certainly unimpressed when we heard from them because they had several bands let them down, however they were a lot happier after they got in touch with myself, as I was able to fix this Duo for their reception and evening party. It went down incredibly well and there were very, very happy with how everything panned out in the end.

Forty eight hours after that, Jazz Juice were back at Cliveden for another wedding. This included our pianist playing during the ceremony and an evening trio playing Jazz and Up-tempo party standards. So the guests could initially relax and then be encouraged to get their grove on. This was followed by our DJ who saw the night out and the early morning in with pop and dance hits that kept the guests asking and wanting more.

The next time we were back at Cliveden House was New Year’s Eve were a trio consisting of piano, saxophone and double bass performed and saw the New Year in up until another DJ took over after us. It was not long until we were back again New Year’s Day so the band performing for seven hours in total! We were the entertainment and atmosphere makers for brunch and dinner, and that concluded our Christmas period this year.

It was thoroughly exciting and very, very humbling to be a part of such an incredible organisation delivering unrivalled quality to discerning guests. It gives me great pride to work with such a partner and I relished the opportunity.

Back on the Rollacoaster and Bye Bye Baby

August 22, 2016PermalinkBye Bye Baby, Live Work, Rollacoaster, Theate Workbye bye baby, rollacoaster, theatre work, tour Leave a comment

Saturday night was an exciting evening back with Rollacoaster playing for a wedding near Devizes. The marquee was situated in the grounds of a beautiful home, and it was very much a classy affair! The nine-piece band performed for almost 3 hours, and the dance floor was packed from the moment we kicked off until the end. We rattled through tunes by Stevie Wonder, Queen, Bon Jovi, The Killers, Pharrell Williams and many more, and the band were incredible!

After getting home late I was able to have a bit of a lay-in before hitting the road in the opposite direction to Hunstanton for a Bye Bye Baby show at the Princess Theatre. There weren’t many seats left, that’s for sure!

If you haven’t checked out the band, Bye Bye Baby is a Frankie Valli tribute show, telling the story of music of the man and the Four Seasons. Go to byebyebabylive.co.uk for more information and see when we’ll be at a theatre near you. We’re all over the country and 2017 is getting very busy!

What a Weekend – Frankie Valli, Richard Shelton, Waddesdon Manor

October 12, 2015PermalinkBye Bye Baby, Denmark Street Big Band, Gigs, Jazz, Live Work, Solo Workaylesbury, baby, band, big, bye, club, dean, denmark, express, film, four, frankie, guitar, jazz, london, manor, pizza, seasons, solo, street, themes, valli, waddeson Leave a comment

This weekend has been a really varied, interesting and fun set of gigs, covering over 700 miles!

On Friday I was in Whitley Bay with Bye Bye Baby – a Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons tribute show. This took place at the Playhouse where we played to 500 people, and had many of them dancing in the aisles!

This is a great production – incredible music, faithfully recreated by myself and my colleagues. It’s loads of fun and I really look forward to these gigs, partly because I get to play my Gibson double neck!

I also take my Gibson Les Paul Gold Top as a back up, and I needed it this time as I snapped the high E on the six string on the double neck!

600 miles later, and I was in central London with the Denmark Street Big Band for the Richard Sheltpn album review show at the Pizza Express Jazz Club on Dean Street, London.

Amongst some original tunes arranged specifically for the big band, we also played a lot of Sinatra classics. My highlight of the gig was an instrumental performance of Under My Skin, where bass and tenor sax were largely playing together, and they were incredible!

Richard was great too – entertaining the crowd with great stories and anecdotes, and his voice is fantastic too. I particularly enjoyed his duos with pianist Ben who was loving it!

The weekend got wrapped up with a solo performance at Waddesdon Manor, playing during Afternoon Tea. This is a bit of a slog (4.5hrs!!) but it’s wonderful to share my arrangements and performances of tunes like Li’l Darlin’, Pure Imagination, Misty and more!

Like the big band gig the night before, I played my Gibson ES175, which was exquisite! I used the AER Compact 60, and have started using a little bit more gain on the first channel with the guitar which has been great – it gives the guitar more presence and sounds really full.

Needless to say, the food was great, and it was really busy! You should check it out – one more week to go – next Sunday is my last slot, 12:00-16:30.

The coming weekend is going to be just as hectic, with a workshop from Clive Carroll at the Aylesbury Music Centre to facilitate, a gig with Rollacoaster and the final Waddesdon Manor performance. Before then, prep and practice! Bring it on!

Playing Wicked with LMTO – The London Musical Theatre Orchestra

September 29, 2015PermalinkLive Work, Theate Workchoir, incredible, line6, LMTO, london, music, musical, of, orchestra, piece, play, show, Sound, theatre, through, wicked Leave a comment

The London musical theatre orchestra is a relatively new organisation designed to take famous works and extend them to orchestral playing. The integrity of the original works is kept, however where necessary additional parts are arranged to accommodate extra members of the orchestra not normally present in the show’s stage counterparts.

The most recent production, that I had the honour to perform, was the music of Wicked, as part of a 100 piece orchestra which included 40 voices!

The music was orchestrated for two guitars of which I was Guitar One. This particular part had the majority of the electric guitar parts and included passages requiring me to use an Ebow and Seek Wah sound amongst typical heavy distortions and shimmery cleans. There were a lot of interesting suspended chord voicings, searing lead lines and some delicate chord and arpeggio work. A real workout!

There are many ‘corners’ in the music of Wicked, involving lots of time signature changes and variations in feel. In order to navigate these we had a rehearsal in the afternoon and a full run-through with the choir in the evening. The sound was incredible, and it was a real buzz to play this music in such a setting.

It was a shame we couldn’t perform the music to an audience (due to rights issues), however I am hopeful that the opportunity will arise in the near future. The next show will be the Sound of Music, however I will be otherwise engaged elsewhere, so I will have two wait for the next one! Do check out the LMTO, as it’s a fantastic organisation!

A New Era with the New Jersey Jukebox

January 26, 2015PermalinkGigs, Live Work, New Jersey Jukeboxand, band, boys, four, frankie, gibson, henley, jersey, jukebox, kenton, les, new, on, paul, production, professional, seasons, show, thames, the, theatre, touring, tribute, valli Leave a comment

This Saturday marked the start of a new project that I’ve been asked to be involved with, namely the New Jersey Jukebox, which is a tribute to the music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

It goes without saying that the songs are fantastic, and it is a privilege to be involved to perform them.

The band has several guises – the four singers with either backing tracks, four piece or seven piece bands – and the outfit is incredibly professional with personal mixers and in-ear monitoring and bespoke arrangements and tracks.

Signed to a production company, we will be touring major venues throughout the UK (and possibly beyond!), so keep an eye out for us, as this promises to be a brilliant show with wonderful music at it’s core!

Live on Radio Blackfrog

November 18, 2014PermalinkLive Work, Solo Work175, acoustic, aylesbury, blackfrog, bucks, electric, gary, gibson, guitar, internet, jazz, london, martin, mullins, radio, solo, taylor, thame, theatre, work Leave a comment

On Sunday 15th November I had the privilege to be interviewed on Radio Blackfrog – Thame’s internet radio station. I also performed a few tunes and talk about a couple of my favourite songs and a few stories from my musical life so far!

If you missed it, you can catch up with the link here… http://www.radioblackfrog.co.uk/catch-up.html

Tenerife with Rollacoaster

October 11, 2014PermalinkGigs, Live Work, Rollacoasterband, disco, function, funk, gig, international, jazz, latin, party, rock, rollacoaster, soul, tenerife Leave a comment

Earlier this week I was privileged to be flown with the Rollacoaster guys to the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Tenerife for a gig with a Canadian insurance company.

This is the second time I’ve been lucky enough to be flown abroad for a booking, and as such I was very much looking forward to it, especially since I hadn’t been to Tenerife before.

The weather was fantastic – 27•C and wonderfully sunny – which made the time spent on the beach and by the pool before the gig all the more enjoyable!

Having said that, there are many trials and tribulations a guitarist needs to navigate while in one of these ventures, and the critical one is to do with gear.

Ordinarily, the amp would be hired from a local company, and in this case I turned up expecting a Marshall JCM2000 head and 4×12 cab, and actually got two Fender Twins…! Either amp would have been fine for me, but with uncertainty in what amp will actually be on site when you arrive, you need to be quite clever with your pedal selection so you don’t get caught short, particularly in the overdrive department.

The Fender Twin I used – only one in the end! – was beautiful, and the clean setting was lush as you would expect. The size and volume of the cabinet moved air really effectively, and made for an exciting amp to use.

I had to strip a few pedals from my board and cram them cleverly into my small luggage case, and for this reason I was extremely selective and methodical.

The Fulltone wah, Wampler Ecstasy, Zvex Distortron and Line6 Echo Park all made the grade, and since I wasn’t sure what the power situation would be like at the venue, I used trusty 9V batteries to fix this problem. Only the Line6 drained its initial battery and needing replacing halfway through.

While this got me through the gig, I also like to have a chorus, phaser and additional tuner/buffer/boost/compressor units at my feet. /9 this was a but if a challenge and encouraged me to be creative with the wah especially in moments that needed a bit more interest.

The final piece of the gear puzzle is the guitar (my red Fender Strat with Seymour Duncan Little ’59 in the bridge), and I managed to get this on as hand luggage in my Reunion Blues case. This is a great case. While it is a soft case, it is super sturdy and has a great set of pockets which are well thought-out for accessories and cables etc. I want to try and avoid having it hit the hold of a plane, but from what I’ve seen in promo videos it would probably be ok – it seems to protect guitars well enough when thrown off a two-storey building, so that’s a start!

The gig itself was great fun, but at 2.5hrs straight playing was tough at times, especially since it’s a reading gig. The whole band did great, and the quality of all the other guys really forces you to raise your game. On to the next one!

P.S. Contrary to all the 5* pictures, some work was done!!

Montcalm Hotel, Marble Arch

August 18, 2014PermalinkGigs, Rollacoasterarch, band, function, hotel, international, london, marble, montcalm, party, rollacoaster Leave a comment

I had a lovely gig at the Montcalm Hotel near Marble Arch with Rollacoaster last night. It was a bit cramped on stage, but we put on a good show and the Jewish numbers were fantastic fun! Plus I had a slightly different amp stand to normal… The Blues Junior was probably the comfiest member of the band last night!