All Activity

Absolutely! You can't sum up XTC in one track because they are so musically diverse. At least listen to the sublime bass line on Mayor of Simpleton before writing them off 😉😂

Oddly this has now reappeared on YouTube. Popped up on the “continue watching” thingy. Awreety awrighty!

I shall do, following this enthusiastic recommendation. Much music is, I believe, of its time, by which I mean the time of the listener. Stuff heard and enjoyed in one's formative (y...)ears has a much more lasting effect; hearing the same music later has a quite different impact on the listener. Memories, souvenirs, experiences have been formed, of which the music played a part. There is music for the occasion, too; styles one may not usually choose to listen to could be very suitable in different circumstances. In general, I would say that I have quite wide tastes, but, still in general, I usually need to make some 'sense' of what I'm hearing (not to be confused nor conflated with 'understanding'...). I get auditively bored with much hyper-repetitive 'funk' (I'm not a dancer, so that aspect escapes me...), and, as a drummer, the Big Beat 'Disco' 'One-One-One-One' lasts barely a few seconds before the Off-switch is thrown. I'm not phased, either by novelty for novelty's sake; something 'new' has no particular advantage over past offerings per se (but are not excluded either, if I find merit...). Gimmicks, gadgets, hooks... have their place, but need to be pretty darned solid to gain a repeat audition. OK, enough... I'll dive into the Fossil Fuel (topical, being an old Fossil myself..!) and put it down to experience if I come to regret it. Back later... (But that Roads thing was quite far 'out there', musically, and reading through the badly-'sung' lyrics did nothing to endear it to me ...)

I think there is a distinction between the bass player being able to hear themselves, and the bass sitting well in the mix. When I play I like to hear a lot of bass so that I can hear what I am playing, and thus am often disappointed when I wander out to FOH to hear that the overall mix doesn't have as much of me in it as I like to hear. But that just reflects that the FOH mix is trying to achieve a different thing compared to my monitor/where I'm standing mix. Looking at some of the above there seems to be some people answering "how to get the bass sitting well in the overall mix" question and others the "how do I cut through enough to hear myself" question.

New Model Army at Cheese & Grain in Frome. Absolutely superb. After being delayed a year because their drummer needed back surgery they said the latest album didn't feel new anymore so they played a selection of songs from through their entire 45 year career. A brilliant performance. It was a lively crowd as well, I hadn't expected a big mosh pit but thats what we got! I finally understand where Ceri's distinctive tone comes from. Id assumed it was weird eq settings but he just picks right next to the bridge on a P bass. Opening act Autumn Saints were excellent as well and sounded like good American rock heavily influenced by NMA

Well the Cort's not MS, but here's a BTW video of the new M6. No comparison with the Cort, but it will give you an idea of the M6 anyway. I wanted one of these but have snaffled a headed MS bass so this one will have to wait for a while. Sounds good though.

Google (or another search engine of your choice) is your friend.

Strange Brew - Cream

Sarum’s Lot played at Qudos Bar in Salisbury last night, quiet-ish when we got there, but filled up to the gun holes as we set up, played okay, a few minor screw ups from all of us (which is unusual) but the crowd were very kind to us, partaking in lots of singing and dancing.😎 We must have done alright because the land lady booked us for NYE 2026, so that’s a right result, Qudos is our favourite venue to play in Salisbury. Next up we are at The Bull Hotel in Downton on the 31st for a Halloween party, fancy dress is the order of the day, our guitarist is taking things very seriously:

I'm in contact with Colin, been trying to get him in for the 2025 SE Bass Basheroonie. He's declined - which is a huge shame - and I get the distinct feeling he finds the adoration a bit uncomfortable and bothersome. XTC are a weird one for me. I loved the singles back in the day, but they were more a guilty pleasure as musically my head was elsewhere. Sadly it was only after they called time that I really got into them; I suppose it was great to just go through the entire catalogue over a short period of time and appreciate how they evolved. It kind of saddens to read a comment like @Dad3353 giving the four minutes. While people obviously cite The Beatles as being the quintessential British band, XTC should also be seen as a national treasure, there's so much depth in the writing and arrangements, from the quirky angular punk/pop of White Music and Go 2 through to the majesty of Apple Venus and Wasp Star. The band were lyrically and musically smart. Andy Partridge once remarked something along the lines of the band being 'clever and from Swindon' which aptly characterised the struggle they were always going to face for exposure. Had it been New York, another story. The whole backstory is fascinating (try an watch the This Is Pop documentary for a quick deep dive to the withdrawal from touring, which just adds to the enigma). @Dad3353The whole catalogue is on Spotify; get yourself a coffee and listen to the Fossil Fuel collection; it's a decent entry point. Identify the tracks that light your candle and do an album - I'm not going to say you won't be disappointed (even though I just did), because you possibly will. Each to their own. They really were (and still are) a fantastic, fantastic band.

Sounds like a good decision. You’ve got a lot going on there, and well done for realising the need to take care of yourself in the mix. You can’t help other people if you’re already burnt out yourself etc. I hope things improve and get back on track. We are all replaceable in bands/gigs etc but not replaceable in our own families and lives.

Wedding gig at the Mythe Barn near Atherstone on the Warwickshire/ Leicestershire border. After a few weeks of modding and gigging with my Squier P + flatwounds, I grabbed two active Yamahas + round wounds for tonight’s gig. No doubt it was a wider, more complex and detailed bass sound, but I missed hearing the way that the burpy, woody P + flats sat in the overall mix at previous gigs. Was glad of the Yamahas for the few songs that needed slap bass etc though. Cool venue, lovely catering courtesy of a pizza oven in the beautifully illuminated courtyard just outside, plenty of people up dancing and a very decent gig all in. Rig was a single Markbass STD102HF cab, Little Mark lll head and my usual pedal board (Boss chorus and octave, a Korg tuner, Vintage Microtubes overdrive and a Cali76 compressor).

Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday

I find that no matter how much time I spend on nailing a bassline, run fill etc at home, it takes two or three (or sometimes more) run throughs with the band before I can play it as well as I could in personal practice.

It is now working again AND I have 9 spares! Thanks again.

They probably mean it actually is Squier, not Squire.