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60th Birthday party in Camelon Labour Club in Falkirk area with BLOCKBUSTARZ glam band. Not a large audience but as it was a private party not much we could do about it. Played this club a few times and every time they have an issue with us. 1st - they double booked the adjacent hall for a funeral party and then complained to us about being too loud plus we had walk through the funeral party hall to the changing area in the pool room. 2nd - committee guy that complained 1st time there was complaining about the load in door being open and all the heat was escaping and we had to use the main entrance door that was wide open because of all the smokers outside so WTF ? Last night when we arrived girl behind the bar states in a rant that she wasn't told it was a live band ? what other kind of band is there ? There was no area to get changed as they had an all day wedding the following day and all the tables were stored in the pool room and we couldn't get access. We highlighted that we need a changing area same as we always had when playing there. She then suggested changing in the toilets and at that point i abruptly replied absolutely not. Its disgusting to be changing in a toilet. We have expensive outfits and nowhere to leave our personal belongings like clothes, spare outfits for 2nd set, wallets, watches and phones. If we cant get changed we'd be as well packing up cause this just wasn't happening. She started blubbering that its not her fault (bar manageress). As we pointed out its between her and the person that booked us. We had txt messages saying that all our requirements had been passed on to the club and when the woman that booked us arrived she was furious and said she came into the club and told them exactly what was required for the full night. Singer said only option was to play the gig without the costumes as we were sort of thing but that defeats the purpose of booking a Glam band. Anyways the buffet supplier arrived and i suggested we use the kitchen area if it was a cold buffet and that's where we went. When we started to sound check at what was a reasonably quiet volume staff complained again that it was too loud and when we said its because the hall is empty at moment. Few quests had arrived early at this point and staff said they couldn't hear the orders from customers which was ridiculous. My volume was lower than its ever been for any gig. She didn't understand that you cant turn the drums down. They aren't thru the PA. Amps were set to match drum volume. We are not a loud band. The bar staff were obviously being extremely childish and when not serving went thru to the other function room even tho there were at time 5 or 6 people waiting to be served. Anyways back to the gig itself. After a few songs we had the dancers up and that remained thru the night for virtually every song with some songs just a few dancers to others filling the dance floor. At one point there was absolutely no-one sitting down, they were all on floor dancing away. Audience were great bar staff on the other hand a different story. All in all we will never return to that venue. We've never seen such unwelcoming staff at a venue. From the word go they were being difficult and awkward as if we had caused the problem. The problem was a badly run club that has been cancelling their own booked gigs left right and centre for lack of ticket sales. Got paid before we even started and the woman that booked us was over the moon with us and feedback from the audience was all good at the end of the night. Band played really well with only a few very minor fluffs but audience never picked up on. Happy Days. Next week we are back at one of our fav venues The Dreadnought where we are always really well looked after and they are always happy to help the bands. Dave Dave

Can't offer direct advice, sorry, but: Whatever you do: do not jump on the chance of getting a second hand Yamaha U1 or similar without thorough investigation. There's a whole industry out there, sending rotten pianos to Poland for new veneer, and the buyer is the victim. Other than that, our own tiny upright came extremely cheap from the local Salvation Army's second-hand shop, and I can honestly say that it has given me more joy than the Steinway and Bösendorfer grands I used to play before. Maybe an idea. One has to keep in mind that good pianos can be had for peanuts, and not all of them are bad. Your choice whether you want to buy in a shop and get it delivered and placed, or wish to organise the move through a specialised piano moving company. BTW, apart from that upright, for the money we saved we bought a digital one, and would sometimes even play together on two instruments. Also handy for the divorce! One each! 😂 (My wife wanted the SA one; I got to keep the Roland.)

Don't Come Around Here No More - Tom Petty

It came up (if you’ll pardon the pun) in my law degree as an example of a patentable second use.

I'm On My Way - The Proclaimers

I Drove All Night - Roy Orbison

When i use my index finger as a pick i find the rhythmic feel with my wrist is definitely more of a groove than when using fingerstyle but i just can't translate that feel when using a pick. I also noted that i have a percussive thing going on when i use the index finger as a pick. No idea how that happened but i liked it and just went with it. It fills a song out a lot more altho not ideal or suitable in some situations. Maybe that's just down to practice as i started using my index finger more as a fun element when doodling in the house but i enjoyed it so much i found myself doing it a lot. Obviously the increasing use of a flexi-wrist can be helpful in other aspects of life. 😂 Dave

In the words of the great Richard Richard (Bottom) "British journalism, best in the world. You wouldn't see that in a French of Italian paper"

One of the hardest things about creating interesting walking bass lines, is if you have to do this on one chord. This does happens in Jazz and Blues progressions, and if you don't have a few concepts to fall back on, you're probably going to find that your walking lines sound boring and repetitive. In this week's video lesson, I analyse Chas Chandler's bass line from the Animals version of 'Bury My Body', as he walks over one chord for whole sections of the song. It's also a cool tune to look at, containing Chas' signature walking style. You’ll find a link under the video to my free note-for-note transcription of Chas’ bass line in standard notation and tab. Enjoy!

Hi, Do you still have It? Cheers

Highway Star - Deep Purple

I'm prioritising gigging my AVII Precision, my most expensive purchase, but it stubbornly refuses to do acquire wear or battle scars... I used to use my Performer for every gig in the 90s. For some reason I'm reluctant to use it of late. Must get it out there soon. Edit: I don't deliberately abuse my basses. My choice for gigs is always led by what playing experience I want and what sound I feel like having. On the original question, if you have great looking, easy playing and excellent sounding instrument, it seems churlish never to let a band and audience benefit from it. One could argue you should always use your best bass... but I'd say use the one(s) likely to bring out your best on the night.

My speedometer goes to 260 KPH, and as it's a BMW it can reach that. That doesn't mean I have to drive that fast. 130 KPH is quite sufficient. Just because you have a 500w amp doesn't mean you'll ever use that much power. If you were to measure it you'd find that you seldom go over 50w. That's a good thing, as the majority of speakers will only handle at best half their thermal rating before exceeding their mechanical limit. As for peak ratings those are marketing piffle only worthy of being ignored.