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Can't Sit Still ～ Revolting Cöcks

Manchester Jazz Festival summary… Starting with the last one we saw: Courtney Pine. Closing gig of the festival so the brief was to deliver a good time, which he did. We mainly went because we'd not seen him live before (at least I don't remember doing - maybe I have at some outdoor festival in London back in the day) and it was good fun, but not exactly as subtle as the others I'm reporting on. Samuel Dubois on steel pans stole the show really, although the guitarists were both excellent too. Nikki Iles Jazz Orchestra: worth seeing just for the rarity of a live 19-piece contemporary big band, Iles's compositions are lush and all members of the band are fine players in their own right including one of my bass gurus Steve Watts on DB duties. Can't see if they have any other live dates lined up but worth looking out for. And Tim Garland's Lighthouse Trio: these guys were simply stunning (in spite of having no bass player in the band). Garland is superb but Gwilym Simcock on piano and Asaf Sirkis (also a member of current Soft Machine lineup!) on drums are both monsters. Some of their material referenced themes of migration and hope with accompanying artwork projected on a screen and this was really thought-provoking, taking (I thought) a courageous step outside the standard jazz format. Sample here and tour dates also on that website - including London this Thursday, and some upcoming dates with Yazz Ahmed who I know is an equally top-drawer talent - and if this is remotely the sort of thing you're into, I strongly encourage you to go along to one. We caught some of the free gigs at Home on the opening weekend too - a short-notice quartet led by Tom Thorp with Luke Flowers on drums were excellent, and a really intriguing Iranian trio with cello/vocals + guitar + santoor - and there was lots more I would have gone to had I been able to get there. It really is a great festival.

I think I complain too much. I just received this update. "Hey everyone, acoustic @Motor Sat 8/17, patio again if it's nice 👍🏻 " I'll take it. Daryl

My warwick WCA 211 Pros are front ported.

SWR Goliath JR. Eden. Trace Elliot 2x8, punches like a 210. Like they (mostly) said, doesn't matter sonically. Lows are non directional. Could be a proxy for extra width in a vertical cab to have stability and/or avoid muffin top.

That looks like my kind of event. Very nice photos. 30 minutes is really cool and easy to manage material. I've done a few 40 minute shows, I love them. I always get jealous when I see photos like this. Do you get to play a lot of these upscale type gigs? Daryl

To my ears, front porting sounds better. I have had the opportunity in the past to directly compare front ported with rear ported, and the front porting always wins. Also helps massively if a cab is in a 'live in' flightcase when touring, where rear ports would be blocked by the case itself. There might be data to suggest otherwise but there is nothing to my ears that sounds better than luscious bass spilling out of a port in the same direction as the speaker is projecting.

KLF set fire to £1m cash and deleted their entire back catalogue. So they still have a way to go to match that.

I used to have a front ported Ashdown 210.

The necks on these are fab; wide and flat. They make good defrets, too.

You are putting a lot of faith into numbers that can be totally made up, or perhaps mean nothing.

Jump around. House of pain

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When I joined basschat (probably was 15 years ago) I was initially attracted to the bargains that could be had in the classifieds. But I quickly realised that it was because the BC community were passing bargains on to others by selling on for what they paid. I didn’t see much obvious flipping for profit but once I saw it on a sale of mine I lost a bit of respect for that basschatter. Also, I think since the charges came in there isn’t the same basschat spirit that used to exist in the classifieds, all be it with a few exceptions. Apart from being legal, immediately flipping for a profit isn’t a million miles away from ticket touting.

Not fixed. Language is organic, and usage is the final arbiter.