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It's happened again Another tribute band has been joined and it needs one of these They're called Total Jam and I've played with them in the past, they're the Andy and Stewart in my Police tribute

A very hot and sticky this last Saturday; a Bikers Rally at the Breighton Ferry. Absolutely cracking gig with lots of enthusiastic punters; sound was a bit of a problem as there was a wall in front of me a couple of metres out which gave me some horrible harsh sound spikes in the first spot.....the ears are still complaining despite me having moulded 21db Decibulz plugs.....

Saturday evening saw Rascallion return to our spiritual home of Anderby Village Hall. The atmosphere was a bit subdued, partly due to the heat which had kept a number of regulars away and reduced the size of the audience, but also in the knowledge that the RNLI and Coastguard were engaged in searching for a teenager who was missing in the sea just a couple of miles away (sad to report, his body was located in the early hours of Sunday morning). After being fed and watered (copiously!), we launched into our usual opener of CCR's "Green River" with all due respect to John Fogerty who'd played the same tune (as well as several others of his / ours) at Glastonbury earlier in the day. Apart from a) forgetting to un-mute the amp as we kicked off (fortunately I was in the PA too, so nobody noticed the lack of bass apart from me and Mr Drums, and I managed to sort it a couple of bars in!), b) the usual couple of curveballs courtesy of Mr Singer (including an almost complete trainwreck in Steve Miller's "Rock'n' Me" which we somehow managed to salvage), and c) a few more minor incidents caused by sweaty fingers, we got through the evening OK, and even the new stuff we were debuting went acceptably well. Gear was my 1997 CIJ Jazz, Trace AH200 head (acquired from @Deedee on here) and Trace BLX-110 cab, the usual Micro Thumpinator > NUX tuner > Ampeg OptoComp > Ampeg Scrambler > Ampeg Liquifier > Ashdown 12-band Graphic EQ/DI > Behringer DI600P DI, with charcoal Converse AllStars taking care of the footwear department. Now, let's see if I can get a phone video snippet to load... AnderbyVH MJLD.mp4

Played a gig at a classic car show yesterday afternoon with the covers/originals band. The venue was a farm/caravan site in Nelson’s birthplace. We were playing in the doorway of a barn which had been converted into the amenities block for the caravan site, so not as bad as it might originally sound: it even had coir carpeting in the band area. This faced across the main entry road to a courtyard/stable block which had been converted into a cafe, bar and shop. The classic car display was in a field to the right of this area. All a bit odd in terms of our audience but on the other hand, the owner was extremely welcoming, told us to get whatever we wanted from the catering for free and paid slightly more than the usual local pub rate👍. It turned out that kit messages were somewhat confused prior to the gig, such that I arrived with my EV active 12” PA speakers, as did the keyboard player with his Yamaha equivalents, the drummer also brought an active sub. Given the distance from our location to the punters, we opted to use all of it and DI everything. That made my two LFSys Monzas somewhat overkill for “onstage” and consequently I didn’t get my chance to open them up. The gig itself went OK but seemed a bit of a paid rehearsal as most of the punters were a long way away. It was like a sauna in the barn entrance but fortunately I had brought a towel and a change of shirt. I got somewhat irritated with the lead guitarist who was constantly turning round, urging us to speed up. I agree that we took a few numbers at a leisurely place but given the lack of A/C, or fans, I thought our drummer was heroic. Everything has to be taken at breakneck speed, or the lead is not happy. IMO some stuff just doesn’t work fast: I Can See Clearly now at almost 150 BPM; nah! It’s also pretty tiring over a 2 to 3 hour set. Anyway, we got a lot of compliments from punters; even some we couldn’t actually see during the set but evidently they had no issues hearing us given our double PA 😀. More importantly we have got a follow on booking from the venue.👍🤟

Yesterday morning got a phone call asking if I could dep that evening as their regular bassist had got sunstroke, so I said yes. Got there and found that the drummer was also a dep. Very hot day but we were all prepared with a fan apiece - ironically the drummer's fan was the smallest (the tiny little black thing tucked under his hi-hat). The stage (a real stage!) was next to open doors just by me, so it was bearable. The thugball was on on two large tellies but we carried on anyway to a smallish but appreciative crowd. A slight hiatus when after the break I plugged my wireless dongles back in and was rewarded with silence. I switched bass but that didn't help, I swapped the wireless out for my spare wireless dongles and continued. When I got home, I checked the wireless and it was fine. My conclusion was that I'd managed to swap them over and plug the receiver into the bass. Note to self - look at the big Dyno labels on the dongles saying "Tx" and "Rx". Basses used were Sei Flamboyant 5 fretted and Sei Original 5 fretless, through Lekato WS-90 and then WS-50 wireless dongles and Zoom MS-60B to a Tecamp Puma 900 and GR Bass AT212, and footwear was once more the Caravelle memory foam trainers.

Two brandnew Brooks bass guitars More infos soon...

Couple of coats rubbed on ... perhaps ten or more to go ... at least this heat dries the Tru-Oil quickly.

I saw a singer once stop the band and announce that they were going to stop for a minute as someone had something very important to say, and pointed the mic at the offending person. 😄

Two weekends in a row…air conditioning on stage. The gig seems unimportant if you’ve got sweat rolling down your butt crack. Rock’n’Roll

So our gig yesterday was er challenging. Firstly our singer arrived at the gig with a sore throat which got progressively worse over the two sets. Then, just one song from the end of the first set, the PA tripped. Looks like one of our extension reels took exception to the rather warm and humid conditions and tripped its thermal protection, even though the reel itself was stone cold and the cable was fully uncoiled (a lesson learned from the past). Then, during soundcheck all our in-ears were working fine, but as soon as we fired up in earnest, mine started suffering massive dropouts. So I quickly had our roadie/helper/harmonica player reel out another XLR to move my transmitter to my side of the ‘stage’ at which point I had perfect signal, but the singer/guitarist then suffered drop outs (we’re both using X-Vives and we’ve never had this before). So I finished the first set old school, no plugs or IEM’s and I had forgotten just how loud this is, and how difficult it is to pick your bass out in the mix when you are a) stood virtually on top of you cab, and b) right next to the drums. Second set I went wired with my Behringer P2M and no further problems. Oh and did I mention it was hotter than hell in the venue, a smallish pub with a great reputation for live music and fine ales.

Finally managed to salvage a video from our gig on June 22nd. There's a minor glitch in it, but not as many as there are in the other videos from the day!

About 6 months ago I was playing in the Vintage, Wellington which is a decent music pub with densely packed and usually inebriated audiences. Anyone who has played there will know there is little delineation between the stage and the audience. One young woman, tall, willowy attractive but very drunk came up behind me an wrapped her arms round mine whilst I was playing and started a conversation about which songs she wanted. It's remakably difficult to go on playing and singing with 6 feet of drunken young woman draped over you with your arms pinned to your side. In the end her boyfriend who clearly though it was hilarious came up and politely asked if I would like him to take her away. What is the etiquette in this situation?

Just don't watch or listen to the media, watch the acts and either enjoy them or don't, that's as deep as it goes for me. Maybe I'm becoming like our own member Douglas Dad3353 as the years go by, maybe I'll plant some radishes.

It is... As an ex BBC sound recordist and Post Production manager I can assure you that, especially with current budget constraints, only the bare minimum number of staff (or contractors) are sent there. I never went on a beeb junket! In contrast, I remember when I was training; I did 3 months on Keeping Up Appearances in Kenilworth... We got pay, plus overtime for while we were there, plus travel allowance, meal allowance (even though there was location catering) and overnight allowance for being away from home, and hotel... I bought a motorbike with just my overnights! But it's not been like that for 30 years or so. My old department doesn't even exist anymore!

Is it just me or has the media really gone all out on the Glastonbury bad thing this year? I've seen so much, mostly just straight up lies about how unhappy attendees are, thousands leaving early disappointed, £10 a pint for beer, bands not turning up. It seems like much more of an attack than usual. Possibly politically motivated because it's unpopular with their tory/reform followers?

I've just got back and I must say it was super enjoyable. It was my first Glastonbury but I was also playing 4 shows so slightly different being there as an artist rather than a member of the public. We did get ferried in and out, fed and in a quiet camping area with only about 20 tents. I will also say our facilities were ace with soap, running water, sinks, toilet paper and food and drinks. Highlights for me were Ash, The Script, Alanis Morissette, Cliffords and Badbadnotgood. Neil Young was also really good, just for his band and the guitar shredding. The best though was a band called The Coronas, they were absolutely incredible. Also watched Alessi Rose and despite not being my thing, she was very good. Her bassist was using a black Fodera. Also saw Tom Odell and again, not my thing but very good. Watched a bit of Kneecap which was interesting and then they sat near our tents today so had a chat with them. Our drummer went to see Biffy Clyro and said they were his highlight and Weezer was also really good according to our guitarist. The worst was 1975, absolutely dreadful and people were walking out. They were so bland and a cross between background music and Busted. Pulp were a bit boring but I've never been a fan so probably wasted on me. The ones I did know were good and Jarvis Cocker is an awesome frontman. Haim were also really disappointing. As for the flags, every other flag was a Palestinian one and it became a bit of a running joke as so many artists were making a statement at some point during their set.

the lead guitarist played at a reasonable volume ?

Did that at a gig once and some woman pulled my headphone out to tell me something related to some argument she was having with another woman.

A couple of the national papers have been churning out social media posts criticising some minor element of this act or that act with a seemingly standard strapline saying “one punter said it was shocking” etc. One punter whinging on twitter does not a news story make. Or at least it shouldn’t. Some of the more right-wing press also seem to have been digging deep to selectively pick out something to dislike. I suspect going along and having a good time is a lot more fun than sitting in an office whinging about it (probably bitter they didn’t get a freebie ticket).

According to the Grauniad, every artist was worthy of five stars. <checks> Tell a lie, Nile Rodgers and Chic got four stars and well-known Enoch Powell fan and Reform supporter Dino Rod only got three.

I watched quite a bit on BBC over the weekend and my only gear comment is that most bands I saw were using P-basses or P-style basses. 🤔

Gender identity starts with an individual's right to self identify as their gender of choice. Gender is a social construct, society is always changing and members of society have the freedom to build their own gender identity. Stonewall define gender as "A person’s innate sense of being a man, woman, non-binary or another gender". I think Raye is using her platform on national television to support our non-binary friends at a time when they are literally under attack for simply being who they are. More power to her. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gender_identities

Layout pretty much complete. I was going to stagger the 6L6 positions but I went back to Morgan Jones's 'Building Valve Amplifiers' and he says that (1) you can get away with mounting power valves closer together as long as they are not showing each other the wide faces of their plates, (2) mounting valves in the middle of a chassis limits convection cooling. Consequently I now have the 6L6s lined up just inside the rear chassis edge, oriented so that they each see the thin edge of their neighbours' plates. I plan to have a tag strip running parallel to the row to terminate the 1ohm 1% bias sense resistors, and possibly some other stuff. I've also marked up the hole positions on the bias board - each side of the output transformer will have its own bias pot. There's likely to be a couple of weeks' break now for holidays and stuff, so bear with me.

I have started playing short scales recently - starting with a little Gretsch expanding since then into a U5, JMJ Mustang and an Acinonyx. Shallow I know but I Googled short scale red bass because for showbiz reasons I needed a red bass to match some stage outfits! What came top of the list was a refurbished Vox Starstream Artist 2S on the Vox website. Including gig bag it was £350. Given they were well north of a grand when they came out - and some people had paid that - I went for it. I took it to a gig and our sound engineer raved about it compared with my other basses. Ironically I don't enjoy playing it as much as the Mustang and the Acinonyx basically because they have flats on them which feel better to me - so my next quest is to find flats that sound brighter than a normal flat. It's a weird looking thing and not everybody's cup of tea but it's nicely balanced and very light and with the right strings could be my go to bass - something I never would have predicted when I Googled red short scale.

I watch a bit then fast forward through the acts my Nana would have termed 'tripe' back when she was alive, and I would agree after some of the dross I've seen so far. Strikes me there's some truly dire stuff out there purporting to be music, but then again I must be getting old 😆 Chic however, and in particular that drummer.. Talented band and timeless tunes, witness the crowd involvement 👍🏼

Entirely depends upon the desired outcome - freedom from her clutches? A punch in the mouth? An STI?

Exactly, we did it this year without watching any of the presenters, just used iPlayer to watch the bands, as live as we could

The BBC is to blame for this. They're trying to establish Glastonbury as some sort of quasi religious experience when it's just lots of people enjoying music in a field. If we expect every performer to deliver a generation-defining set, we're all going to be disappointed. But it's still just people playing music in a field which is sometimes great, oftentimes good, and sometimes truly dire.

It's just the usual culture wars/outrage monetisation nonsense that's apparently replaced real news in the social media age.

Bass players: I'd never take my favourite bass out to a gig, it might get a tiny scratch on it and that would be really upsetting. Also bass players: just taking this one out the back to go at it with a rusty bike chain and an angle grinder for a lovely authentic-looking relic finish.

I don't recall getting your text...and I'm not a guitarist.... Oh, hold on...

It must be irony, I don’t think he’s the best songwriter in the portaloo when he’s the only one in it

Well there we have it! Thanks for the peek behind the curtain 😊

This! Even the dearest cable, whether speaker or instrument, will be the cheapest non-consumable item in your equipment. The truth is that if we started making Electric guitars and basses in the year 2000 instead of the late 1940s, we would never have chosen 1/4"jacks. For speakers, they have largely been replaced by Speakons , thank goodness. The reason? You can never tell the current rating of a 1/4" plug, and many are rated at 0.5 amp. That equate to 2 watts into 8 ohms or 1 watt into 4 ohms. If you read the Neutrik specs, they say "Current - depends on mating connector." Or, in plain English, depends on what cheapo crap you plug it into. As for the £15 speakON cable? Using an OEM 1.5mm cable and Neutrik or Rean connectors, I can do one for that price, but there will be a £3 postage charge. For £19 inc postage I can do neutrik/Rean speakON plus Sommer 2.5mm cable. Includes a lifetime warranty. You cannot get a decent set of strings for that. Would you trust your amp with anything else?

All those poor kids not realising they are being cunningly subverted into hearing proper music.

My thoughts on Rod Stewart’s Glastonbury set. For me, it started badly, it tailed off a little in the middle, and the less said about the end, the better. But, apart from that, excellent.

If there's one thing i've learnt in my 50 years on this earth it's to keep politics and religion out of online discourse. I can't fault Kneecap's performance. The video clips before the start of their set were perfect. Musically, Ezra Collective were the standout for me.

Electrician here. @Marky L's bodge isn't quite as unsafe as you would imagine. The top pin on a plug is used as a path for current to flow to earth, should this be necessary (when there is a fault). As a safety measure, British three pin plugs will not enter a socket without the top pin present. You may notice that the top pin is slightly longer than the bottom two pins; when the top pin enters the socket, the guards over the socket holes for the bottom two pins will open and allow the bottom two pins to enter. You can't access the bottom two socket holes without the top pin entering first. This is to stop kids, or anyone, sticking their fingers in a socket and getting a shock. Marky's pedal board power supply is a 'class 2' bit of kit. Class 2 kit doesn't use the earth pin for safety (it doubly insulates the live terminals inside the plug instead). Consequently, he only needs the top pin of the plug to be there to open the bottom two pins and connect the plug to the power source. The big lump of a pedal board PSU plug houses a transformer, which takes the 230 volt mains down to a pedal board friendly 9v (or something similar). 9 volts are quite safe.

After getting my Competition Burgundy Vintera II back from the workshop on Friday (it was suffering from a lot of hum and turned out to have an earth wire missing from factory), I suddenly found this morning that I have a 'Tale of Two Mustangs' on show.

I have relatives through marriage who were murdered by 'loyalist' paramilitaries thanks to the assistance afforded them by MI5. I don't like to see anybody killed as a result of war, religion or anything else. Kneecap haven't killed anyone. Long live Palestine 🇵🇸

I saw a bit of CMAT. Seriously, that must be the worst vocal performance ever on the pyramid stage.

I was just strolling down the high street off to see my next client when a yellow fronted shop that I was familiar with suggested I go in and have a look if there are any bargain phones to replace my old smashed one. I'm not sure if they had any phones, but they did have a Spector bass guitar, and it was making sad eyes at me and looked hungry, but healthy. The helpful and friendly assistant was decorated quite heavily in steel, nickel, and iron face studs and piercings. I sought prior permission to try the bass to show manners and reduce any risk of injury once the magnetic coils are activated. I have a Harley Benton TB-70 that ambushed me last time I got trapped in this same shop, and the first thing I noticed was the Spector felt small and light. Second thing I noticed was the action was high for my taste, then I notice the strings seemed slack, but it made a good sound and was playable. I'll sort the action soon. I don't know which one it is but it says it was made in China, so quite exotic. It has for variable controls that are entirely unintuitive and make unpredictable and quite drastic changes. Unfortunately the manual has been lost. All rolled fully clockwise is a good sound so sticking with that for now. It has EMG-SSD pickups. I'll go and look all this up soon and find out what I've bought. The tuners are good. The wood grain pattern on the body refracts and changes pattern changing viewing angle. Might be real, but the finish coating is that nasty warm plastic feeling polythene wrap. I have a rotary sander that could fix that. Day one today so we're still a bit nervous of touching each other but we seem to have found some common ground that might lead to a beautiful crescendo. It's all in the fingers.

This concert, from 1974, will only be on YouTube until this Tuesday. Frank Zappa channel. Awreety awrighty!

Pair of side cutters. That's the best mains detector. They make a flash, a bang and a cloud of smoke to let you know a cable is live. And develop a neat notch to provide a permanent record.

Surprisingly lot. Do not try it to Live. You will be hurt. I had pencil that I happened to hold from the end (graphite), and for a reason I do not recall I touched a E27 lamp base. The line was ON (shouldn't have), and Live hit my fingers very painfully. When I was youngster doing some electrical work, my master told me that every cable may be Live. If not today, maybe tomorrow. He fell from a ladder, because he didn't follow his own instructions to check every cable. Someone had turned lines active one day without telling others. Beware. And love Fluke voltage detectors.