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Have a few beers beforehand to steady your nerves 😀

Thanks mate, always a pleasure 👍

A typical band PA in a pub/club is usually set up to deal with loud rock music, not a guy trying to engage in witty banter, so his mumbling will be largely inaudible anyway. Given that one man's "witty banter" is another's "who the hell is this dickhead?" you're set up to fail if you do much of this stuff. It gets worse. Very few people are natural entertainers, still less spontaneous ones. A line gets a few laughs at a gig and instantly becomes part of a fixed script, to be repeated at each and every bloody gig at exactly the same point, until everyone is sick to death of it. Sometimes you reach the Seventh Level Of Hell, where there's only one singer but everyone in the band has a mic so that they can all take part in the stale, pre-prepared banter. A bit like a badly-read radio script. The audience is there for the booze and the women. Your music is pretty much incidental. No one gives a tinker's cuss that the drummer's name is Dave or that the band comes from Slough, no one is interested in being thanked for coming to their local. Just play the bloody songs.

Bit of a Spinal Tap Stonehenge moment there, from the look of it. On the original point, speaking to an audience is an art. Not everyone can do it. In my band, we leave it to the singer, who has good presence and can do it. The worst thing in the world is when everyone chimes in (especially with in-jokes, as mentioned above). So the rest of us keep quiet. Keep it simple, short and amusing and move on to the next number is a good rule to follow.

Nine Inch Gails Attack of the ¾-foot women.

The John Peel archive on the creative flow channel on youtube. There's around 100 shows on there at the moment. That'll keep me occupied for a while.

Bloc Farty

True confession... at my last gig we had a semi-scripted narration by 'Dr Weiner Schnitzel' between songs. That said, he disappeared near the end to return dressed as a clown with a sledgehammer. But this did result in a sticky end...

I think it was the playing! I skipped a lot as well, but he is the guy they made the 4030 for in the first place, according to this: https://rickenbacker101.substack.com/p/overview-the-4030 which is also quite clear they just moved the bridge (although that original was a 4002 body)

I play in a duo with my partner, so there's never been controversy! We play renaissance & mediaeval music, with a generous chunk of folk-rock thrown in. I do the patter, usually playing two songs or tunes back-to-back then talking about the one we played and they one we'll play next. My partner (who also has a mic) tends to throw in 'amusing' quips and anecdotes, usually at my expense. I guess we're a bit different in that a lot of the tunes have a bit of history - e.g. Simon & Garfunkel's 'Scarborough Fair' can be traced way back to mediaeval Scandinavia and I talk mostly about the music. But I think without context our stuff wouldn't be as interesting for the audience.

Nine Inch Fails

Just do what the Ramones did. Finish song, 1,2,3,4 start song...

Nine Inch Tails (Band of miniature dachshunds)

Update on RRP prices for these basses, which should be available within the next 4-8 weeks: Icon 4 Black or White gloss £819 Icon 4 Black Stain or Black Cherry £849 Icon 5 Black or White Gloss £839 Icon 5 Black Stain or Black Cherry £869 So you can expect to see them in the shops in the high £700's...... fantastic value!

I got a warning that it might include offensive content and did I want to continue - I did and I’ve no idea what was offensive about it. Not the best demo (what little demo there was) as there was too much distortion and the rest was just stills to music. I skipped a fair bit, so I might have missed something, but this bass is not for me. It is, from what I could tell and as we had already worked out, a short scale bass on a full sized body and neck. Shame, it could’ve so much more (or do I mean less? ).

No. They are available now on US custom models, anything lower than a Euro model would make no financial sense. If you want one on a Euro then you'll have to look out for a limited run/dealer special order or organise your own order of minimum 20 basses. I believe Bass Direct are looking at doing a custom run at some point which will have Badass bridges, but the price will probably be £2k+. These Indonesian basses are sub £1k.

Thick from front to back. At least, compared to my own custom basses. I think those have a pretty normal profile, but it's been years since I made them, and they might be thinner than normal. The nut width is 38 mm, like a jazz bass. At least, it is on the one I have.

Two of us share lead vocal duties in my band, and the band leader sings backing. We have sort of settled on whichever of us is singing the next tune, then it's up to them to talk if they feel like it. We don't have a hard and fast rule, we keep it low key, brief, and appropriate to the audience. Some rooms are bouncing and they love the recognition that we, as a band, are loving their appreciation. I suppose it's like having a conversation with your audience. We now have the added problem of merchandise. So a couple of times last night, I did mention that "this next song is the title track of our album, etc", come and see us after the set and grab a copy etc. We did sell A LOT of merch last night! Rob

Are you saying I can order a Spector Euro Classic with B/A?

In line with the ABII range is the best I can say right now

I remember seeing Kenickie, fronted by Lauren Laverne, at a festival waay back in the '90s. It stuck in my memory purely because Lauren's between song banter was so brilliant, it was really disappointing every time they interrupted it with one of their awful songs.