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Birth — The Residents

The Quart Festival in Norway had two stages, a 15 minute walk away from each other. The one-hour gigs on stage 1 would start at say 13PM, 15PM etc, and on stage 2 they'd start inbetween. So you could play a bit with this and prioritise which minutes you were giving up for the sake of the other gig. Perfec', nearly. However: Not everything went smoothly all of the time, and that's how I missed Kristopher Schau & The Cumshots, whose gig was kinda disturbed by action group F*ck for Forest entering the stage ... and each other after stripping in front of a banner telling the audience about the importance of saving the rainforest. F*ck for Forest has a dedicated page on Wikipedia, I see today. I have to warn you though: the asterisk was never used: neither in the spelling nor on stage ...

One of my students is relocating from the US to Cambridge in September as his wife will be studying at the uni and he's keen to get involved in any sort of playing opportunities that are available. So, are there any open mics/jam nights or similar that he should go to (or avoid)? He's open to pretty much any genre, I think.

Not everyone had that level of natural talent. I certainly do not I respect your opinion, this isn’t talkbass. I just note that I, for one, needed and benefitted from guidance as to the “normal way” to play bass and not get into bad habits.

Listening to some scientist this morning, great bassline on this, I think it’s Robbie

Very very different soundwise. Soundwise in how it feels/sounds it's probably closer to a snappier Nobel preamp block in Helix world - with a EQ block attached. It doesn't add the crazy amount of fat middy saturation Retro Reel adds. When it overdrives it goes grainy splatty. Presuming you're not going for the drive sounds the Closest other pedals aiming for a similar thing for bass players would be the Caveman preamp or that Mantle thing. More EQ options than both, cheaper, with less iron in than Mantle. I still want a Warwick Hellborg preamp, that's the sound of the bit of gear I should never have sold I want to get back too

Geoffrey Hinton talks to Neil DeGrasse Tyson. You may have difficulty sleeping after listing to this discussion. https://open.spotify.com/episode/30xO8jBd3jynb7mOAE1v0O?si=0-buIMDXTBanSOYeEMCL_w&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A1mNsuXfG95Lf76YQeVMuo1

Nice one Leonard, good luck with your entry

If only that idiot Deacon hadn't ruined his sunburst Precisions. He's saved me a fortune.

Nice little look inside the V2 just popped up on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/DVEz6kfks2i/?igsh=MXFlaHBrc3VjYXZhag==

Much sage advice on this thread (as ever on BC ) that I can't really add to. Reading it though, kind of made me glad that when I started on bass, like a great many 16 year olds in 1977 it was forming a punk band in school. We could barely play a note between us, but it was such incredible fun making an unholy noise together, creating something original together and (unknowingly) rapidly developing musically, and also feeling that we were a part of some great tidal shift in music and culture that was currently happening. I did buy a paperback tutor for bass from the early '70's with a flexi-disc, which was the only tuition I've had then or since. It was some help - would have been more if I'd followed it properly. By the time I became a half-decent player I'd (a) learned a great deal about band-craft and gigging and (b) become far more confident as a person - I'd been painfully shy before - which for me personally was the right way around to do it. If starting now, I think my 16 year old self would be bewildered by the sheer amount of information available, and probably depressed by watching the "virtuoso" whizz-kids on YouTube (though my present self would tell him to ignore such cr@p) - not sure I'd have taken that first step to start.

Thats how it seems to me. There isn't too much in it, and my favourite album changes depending on when I am asked, but it never goes past Hold Your Fire