Venue | JOHN GILLIAT

Tag Archive - venue

Playing Solo Guitar for the Vancouver Wine Festival – The 6 in 5 tour!

March 29, 2011 in Behind the scene at the Gigs with 0 Comments

Today is going to be super busy. Actually this whole week is going to be crazy. I’ll be performing 6 gigs in 5 days! Awesome!

I’m spending the morning getting ready for my BC weekend tour with performances in Kelowna, Penticton and Ashcroft. I’m also for the first time ever creating digital download cards to sell at my performances.

Then it’s time to pack up my guitar and sound system. My first performance is at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver for the Vancouver Wine Festival. The gig is from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm. Then I’ll quickly pack up and run over to the Vancouver Art Gallery to perform from 7:30 pm to 10 pm.

For my first performance I’ll leave my place at 3 pm and should arrive at the Hotel Vancouver no later than 4:30 pm to set up. My sound system today consists of my 2 small Yamaha speakers, a small Fender PA7500 power amp, my Bose T1 digital mixer and the Aura 16 with my guitar.

This time the agency has not advised me what room I’m playing in other than it’s on the conference level. Fortunately I always have an on site contact person and a cel number so I’m good to go!

Once I arrived at the first venue it was time to hang out until my on site contact arrived to direct me to my first performance location.

Hopefully I’m not kept waiting too long or it could be a real panic to set up in time.

Less than 40 minutes until the downbeat and I’m still waiting for my contact to arrive. Hopefully soon!

30 minutes until performance time and still waiting…

Sometimes I can just wing it and pick the perfect location however this event is tricky and setting up in the wrong place could prove to be a real bad idea.

Yes, my contact has arrived and I’m ready to go! I quickly set up and began my performance at 5:30 pm. I was playing for a reception in the foyer of the Pacific Ballroom.
At 6:30 pm it was time for me to quickly tear down my sound system while the guests moved into the ballroom for dinner. I quickly carted all my stuff from the Hotel Vancouver and crossed the street to the Vancouver Art Gallery were I was to play in the Roof Top Pavilion.

I arrived just before 7 pm and quickly set up for my next performance with 2 speakers to fill 2 rooms. (the room that I was playing in an the room through the doors directly behind me. Once I was set up I was relocated to the Art Gallery Foyer on the main floor to play solo flamenco guitar for the guests as they arrived from the dinner to the Gallery. This performance was from 7:30 pm to 7:55 pm.

After that I headed back to the Art Gallery Roof Top to play from 8 pm to 10 pm.

I played the whole time as there really wasn’t much to do during a break. At 10 pm I packed up and headed home.

Playing solo guitar for Cable TV

March 4, 2011 in Behind the scene at the Gigs with 0 Comments

Today I was invited to play on a local cable tv program. The timing for this was perfect as I can use the program to help promote our March 12th concert with myself and Flametal guitarist Benjamin Woods.

I arrived at the venue at 2pm and met with Kevin the shows producer and tech. Performing solo is nice as my setup time is really quick. Within a few minutes we were all set to go and ready to start taping.

I performed 2 songs then it was time for the interview. The shows host was really great. We spoke about what I’ve been up to lately. Then we talked a little about the upcoming performance.

One I was done I stuck around to listen to the other performers. The last performer was a young singer songwriter named Sheldon Witt. Sheldon was fantastic!

Sheldon currently has a 4 song cd available and is also working an a new disc to be released later this year. I’m really looking forward to listen to the cd he gave me at the studio today. Here’s Sheldon Witt’s web site address for anyone that wants to have a listen. www.sheldonwitt.com

Next I’m off to here a friend of mine performing at the Cascade Casino in Langley, should be a fun night out!

Solo guitar performance at the Wishing Tree in Richmond BC

March 2, 2011 in Behind the scene at the Gigs with 0 Comments

Today I performed solo rumba flamenco in Richmond BC at the Wishing Tree. I believe the event was for the new and potential tenants is this newly built town house complex.

This was an interesting location to find. The address was located on Tomicki Ave. which I couldn’t find on Google maps. (Or in my map book)

Fortunately I had a phone number for the client. (As I usually do) Unfortunately I was unable to reach anyone on the phone. Yet fortunately, there was a message that gave me great direction to the venue. So, finding the venue was easy.

This was one of those rare gigs where I didn’t get to meet my on site contact. It was up to me to pick the best performance location.

The event and venue was really nice. I began my performance at noon and performed without a break until 2pm. There is never that much to do on a break so a lot of the time it’s nice just to sit a continue playing the guitar.

Once I finished at 2pm I was invited to have a sandwich before I packed up my gear to head home.

Duo guitar performance at the Rocky Mountaineer Station

February 25, 2011 in Behind the scene at the Gigs with 0 Comments

Today I’m playing rumba flamenco guitar with guitarist Andre Stepanian at the Rocky Mountaineer Station in Vancouver. This is a private corporate event that we’ll be providing our wonderful ambient background music to all the conference guests.

Once again I had no idea what to expect walking into the gig. Today the venue was dressed up to be an indy race car track finish line. They even had a real indy car. The client took turns on stage with all the hot indy girls for a photo as though they just won the race. The event was really for an internet marketing firm and I think they wanted to make their clients feel like winners. It was all very cool.

For this gig I arrived at 3:45pm to set up. I was to enter very quietly as the event was on. I found my on site contact and was directed to the room were we would set up and play. We were to begin at 5:00pm and finish up at 6:30pm. As it was a very short gig we decided to play for the 1.5 hours without a break. The client was really nice and offered us food and beverages.