An enterprising approach to live performance

Stevie Gilmore Band is a core group of musicians who have one thing in common……we hate covers!

We might take a song or a tune which can be written by us, or not, as the case may be, then use it’s chord base to see `where things can go` that is, where can it go if we completely change the rhythm for instance.
Fair enough you say, but, we do this live, during the show, in front of an audience and we have no idea when we start the song where `it` is going to `go`.

Traditionally, to audition with this band, you must be able hold your own in front of a live audience. That’s it. That’s your audition!

Once, at a large festival, I asked the band who were on after us how they thought our show went? The drummer in the other band, a very young, but brilliantly talented guy for his age, asked if we had taken a long time to work out the tight middle eight in the last number? ( where our percussionist did an amazing three minute drum solo)
“No time at all” I replied. “He’s never played or rehearsed with us before.” I then further bemused him by adding “…and that’s not all, I only met the Saxophonist as we both walked on stage this afternoon!”
Often, when the audience have asked us for a recording of some number we have just performed, I have to say “I’m sorry, we have never done it before tonight, in fact everything we produced together for tonight’s show was completely improvised and entirely unrehearsed”
I know we have got it right because this is never believed.
This says a lot about the quality of the musicians themselves. For all of them it is both pretty tough and yet extremely rewarding.

You need a lot of pluck to play in the Stevie Gilmore Sound.

Stevie Gilmore 2008