Leaderboard

After a fallow couple of months for Dirty Roses, with just a few dep gigs for the Bonnevilles thrown in, we had gigs Friday and Saturday. Friday was in Polesworth, about five miles from my house - small pub, made a bit more crowded by the pool table pushed to one side. It was cool though, there are a load of 12" fans mounted to the walls. Mrs Zero decided she'd come out as well, just two weeks and a day after her hip replacement - recovery proceeding apace. Slightly rusty but no huge mistakes other than a totally false start to Paranoid, one of the songs that's been a permanent fixture in our set for ever. Oh, and someone accidentally pulled the mains lead out of the monitor on the guitarist's side at some point in the second set so he couldn't hear the vocals. And someone came up to me afterwards and said that my Sei was the most beautiful guitar he'd ever seen. Gear: Beautiful Sei Flamboyant 5 headless -> Lekato WS-90 -> Zoom MS-60B -> Tecamp Puma 900 -> GR Bass AT212. Footwear: Caravelle memory foam trainers. Second one was in Cheltenham, 70 miles away for me. Load in and out was from a car park right at the back of the long thin pub to the stage area right at the front, and as the singer was busy directing the guitarist and drummer (separately) to the hidden car park at the back of the pub, I had to unload all my gear (basses, rig, PA), which is probably a month's worth of cardio exercise for me. Large room, we were right by some opening French windows [1] although the downside to this was that there were a load of smokers outside. As I didn't know what the temperature was likely to be, I'd brought my massive fan, which proved a good idea. Initially it was a bit sparse attendance but a birthday party and a hen party showed up and the numbers swelled. There was one (relatively) young woman there who looked completely off her face (I had nearly two decades of marriage to an alcoholic so I know the look). She made rather close approaches to the guitarist and the singer (who both carefully avoided eye contact) and then when I decided to go walkabout a bit later on, she made a lunge for my bass, which I protected while beating a hasty repeat. At the end of the set, we did the standard pause while pretending we've finished and waiting for someone to say "more!". And, as always, some did. I noticed that one of them was the gaffer who was just outside the French widows, enthusiastically shouting "more, more!". Well, if the gaffer wants another song, we play another song. Of course, someone had accidentally pulled the mains lead out of the guitarist's monitor, but he coped. Had a moment of epicaricacy on the way home - driving along the 4 lane section of the M5 in lane 1, cruise control set to 70, and there was some dickhead bimbling along in lane 3 slower than me. So I stayed in lane 1 and went past him, and a short time later I saw in my mirrors two cars going past him, one either side, which then both went past me. Then the lane 3 hog suddenly came shooting past me just as we came up to a gantry showing 60 limit - I slowed, but lane 3 hog kept on at about 80 past the gantry and the HADECS cameras which flashed him. So he might not get done for lane hogging but he'll get a come-uppance of sorts. Gear: Sei Flamboyant 5 headless -> Lekato WS-90 -> Zoom MS-60B -> Tecamp Puma 900 -> GR Bass AT212. Footwear: still the faithful Caravelle memory foam trainers. [1] "French widows in every room!" - Gerard Hoffnung

Wildfires at The George, Chiswick. Third gig. First time using the Digitech BP355 in this band. Sounds great, and the pitch shifter is amazing, no lag even when I'm wireless. Wasn't as hot as we were expecting, and plenty of people were in the pub, many were still there for the final set when it was packed. Shuker 3 -> Swiff Audio wireless -> Digitech BP355 -> TecAmp Puma 500 -> customised Tech Sound System 2x12.

Sounds…. Just like a Stingray. For a lot lot lot lot lot less money. Aguilar pickup, OBP-2, 18volts. nice.

Two x 2 hour gigs at the Dereham Blues Festival on Sunday. These were the inaugural gigs for the Checkmate Kings new line up and the first the band has done since last year’s festival. The first was outdoors at the George Hotel to a packed beer garden and pub. Despite some significant cock ups it went well and we got plenty of positive feedback, including a possible return match later. It was pretty hot but we were under two gazebos, which gave us the space to spread out. Gear was 2 x LFSys Monzas, Blackstar U700, MB LMIII 500 back-up, Mooer Envelope filter pedal, Boss Tu3, Maruszczyk Elwood 4a 32” and Greco Atomic 32” as spare. Everything was DI’d, so the master didn’t go above 9 o’clock on the U700. One of these days I’ll get the chance to open up the rig! The second gig was early evening at the Red Lion and indoors. Hot, hot! We were squashed into a small space at the end of the bar. It’s a small pub, so pretty tight. However, our keyboard player wasn’t able to attend as he was playing at the Ely folk festival, so at least we were down to 5. Minimal equipment, just vocals, kick and sax into one PA column. I only used one cab and the guitarist used a small combo. Without the keyboard player we had to drop some material and rearrange on the fly, which had mixed success. I had some brain farts, which was embarrassing given some of the people who came to see us. Just as we were starting, I noticed that one side of the bridge saddle on the A string had dropped, which explained why I could hardly hear it (choking off). Fortunately I had my guitar multi-tool with me and I was able to fix it. Ah! I can’t post the pics, I seem to have a 43KB limit! That’s tiny these days!

I feel like that video does the MXR dirty a little... as a pedal it does need a little practice to 'show' it the information it needs to generate the synth lines. The more I experiment the happier I'm getting, and whilst i still love my Moog, I'd have the MXR over a Novation BS any day already, and will leave the Moog at home now more than I would have! Had a fun little dep at the weekend...

Just in from a very hot and sweaty early evening gig with our southern rock band. Played to 120 people packed into Hartlepool’s south Durham social club or as its known locally “Hartlepool Steelies”. Decided to take the Ashdown Head of Doom coupled with my Vanderkley 2 x 12 cab in tribute to one of my hero’s Geezer Butler who as I think we all know, played his last ever Black Sabbath gig just over a week ago. Got everything set up, plugged my pedal board into the HoD and nothing, not even a flicker of an input Vu meter. Checked everything including plugging directly into the amp but the same result, nothing nil nada. Running out of time before show time, I had no option but to raise my level in the FoH, and rely on my in-ears for personal monitoring. The result, no one noticed, and we had a great gig. Looks like I’ll be calling on Ashdown’s legendary customer service tomorrow.

To be honest, the price of the basses should only matter to someone who is SERIOUSLY considering buying one. It is their call whether to indulge. Otherwise, all the opinions of people who were never gonna buy one anyway, no matter what the price (over £2k knocks most people out) is just noise....

Always a huge treat to be playing at the London 10k and we couldn't believe our luck with the change of location we found ourselves moved to for this one! We'd had a late one at a function gig the night before, so an early morning start to arrive to set up at 8pm meant just 4 hours sleep, but it was one of those gigs that the adrenaline gets you through! In some ways our own mini marathon - playing for two hours solid with no break, but we all loved it. A sweet moment for me right at the close when a local London lady, who had an ice cream van set up behind us, thanked us all for providing the music and offered us each a free ice-cream! A little clip from the race: LA Mixtrax - London 10k

I'm definitely a fretless player, wanna proof? Check this... And a lot are missing...

Rays and skates can be hard to tell apart. Mine's not a StingRay - it's a CheapSkate! 😁 Squier Sonic Precision Warman MM4 pickup Retrovibe Stinger pre-amp Custom scratchplate by earlpilanz (because I hacked out the pickup cavity by hand and it's not pretty 🙈)

I was gifted an active six-string fretless by Our Eldest, several years ago now, but it has been 'confiscated' by Our Youngest. It has replaced his Cort five-string, and has been in regular use as his sole instrument ever since. He struggles, now, to use any of my four-string basses. I'm not sure that I agree that there are songs that 'don't suit' a fretless; he uses it exclusively for everything, and has quite a varied repertoire.

Morning all, she certainly is one of a kind... What an instrument, the finish is out of this world and we all felt very privileged to visit Grainger this weekend. Thank you Gav and Daz 🩵 Had there been a sofa, Led Zepp soundtrack and a ☕ machine I never would have left 😉 Fallen hard for one particular resin myself!

Don't tell anyone but my BC110T is my favourite speaker, it never sounds wrong and I've had a couple of sound engineers, when mixing the band at festivals, describe it as the best sounding bass cab they've ever heard. It's a little gem that just gets the balance right.

Here's a few pictures of my Fender Player ii Modified Active Precision in Metallic Forest Green. Despite it not really being the sort of bass I would gravitate towards, its actually a really fun bass to play and I'm super happy with it ...... for now (More on that later). I'm typically a fretless player, a Japanese Fender fanboy and a passive only snob. However, I was asked to play bass with a new artist and this included doing four shows at Glastonbury this year. I already had my gorgeous Fender Japan 60's Classic Precision which sounds and plays beautifully but because of the big occasion, I thought I better pick up a backup bass. I went back and forth from buying a Japanese Fender 62RI or 75RI Jazz, an American Vintage ii 54 Precision, a Japanese Stingray SR4 EX, a Fender Vintera ii Telecaster bass, a Squire 40th Anniversary Precision to sticking a fretted neck on one of my fretless basses. I had a week to go before heading to Glastonbury and the Fender Vintera ii Modified Active Precision in Metallic Forest Green was on my radar, not because I liked the look of the bass, I didn't because it wasn't a Japanese Fender but simply because I like the idea of a PJ configuration but more so that green is my favourite colour and a green bass would be my dream bass. I decided to head to Andertons to try a few basses out, probably with the intention of coming home with a Fender Vintera ii Telecaster bass as I liked the one I played when they first came out, I adore the look of them and it would make a fun and interesting back up. So I first tried one and mmm, yeah, I liked it again, but I didn't remember the neck to be this chunky or the bass to be this heavy so I had a slight doubt now. I then tried the American Vintage ii 54 Precision and what a bass. The tone, the playability, the build quality, it was simply on another level. I couldn't afford it but needed to make a decision so it was on the list and man maths was in full flow. I then tried the Fender Vintera ii Modified Active Precision, expecting it to be a bit nasty and I was massively surprised at how good it was. The neck was wonderful and the tone out of the box was really strong and punchy. I had no idea what half of the controls did and if I was in active or passive (I was in active) but it just sounded and played so good. My head was still doing man maths on convincing myself to buy the American Vintage ii 54 Precision and telling myself it's not a Japanese Fender but it was such a great bass that I couldn't fault it. As a reference, I tried a Fender Standard Jazz and it lasted less than a minute, it was horrible. Thankfully my wife was with me and she has amazing logic and reasoning and basically decided for me. If the artist I'm playing with at Glastonbury goes on and does a lot more afterwards then that's justification to trade up or buy the American Vintage ii 54 Precision but for now, it's not the time. Not the answer I wanted but I knew it was the smart decision. Don't buy a Stingray, you always sell them and never happy with them. Harsh but fair. The Telecaster bass is ugly (her opinion, not mine) but is heavy, chunky, I'll probably never play it when I have my Japanese Fender Precision which is fabulous and I'll get fed up lugging it about and never playing it. She's right .... again. That left the Fender Vintera ii Modified Active Precision which she said sounded really good but it would make a great bass for what I need right now, could be good enough as a fun alternative but could also easily be sold if things go no further or traded in for the American Vintage ii 54 Precision if they do. So that was that, a decision was made. So here it is and isn't she a beauty. The funny thing is, after all of this, it was decided not to take two basses to Glastonbury as space was premium and I just took my Japanese Fender Precision in the end which performed magnificently. Either way, I have no doubts and I'm super happy I still bought it. I did struggle a little to get a tone I was happy with but changing to a set of light gauge LaBella Deep Talkin flats pretty much fixed that. However, it looks like the artist I played Glastonbury with is going to go further so the American Vintage ii 54 Precision is still on the cards. However, I have plans for the Fender Vintera ii Modified Active Precision but we will save that for another post when the time comes. For now, here's some pictures along with my Japanese Fender 60's Classic Precision.

They connect to a shock coil. If you slap, you get zapped. 😁

I have two fretless basses in my vast instrument collection which I don't have occasion to play that often, and usually just for my own pleasure, but I love them when I do! I own a 1982 Wal Mk1 and a 1989 Pedulla Buzz. Probably two of the finest brands and models of fretless ever made. That'll do me!

i'm not that good a bassist to be allowed a solo. 😂 Dave

Chased the power in for the rack and the desk, used some extra sticky gel tape to secure the annoying PSU's to the underside of the top shelf, very useful stuff that. Re-ran all the signal for the main interface and the summing mixer, then re-did the patch-bay. A slight redesign needed a new patch-bay template, came from Printographic who do custom labels for a range of patch-bays, a very good service. Checked the power for the desk and rack, all good. I'll put the desk back in position tomorrow and run the interconnects, the UAD comms cabling and all the USB stuff, then testing.

Great private party gig last night celebrating a 40th and an 80th so wide age range watching. Outdoors in the garden of one of the local farmhouses and all up for a good time. Only the 5th gig of the new band but they liked us so much that they paid us more than the agreed going rate. Same happened last at last gig so we must be doing something right. First outing of my s-s Sandberg Cali since new Aguilar pickup set fitted. Much more heft that OE pups. Didn't realise just how much in fact. No need to engage the 'deep' button on my Mesa D800+ from now on methinks. So nice to see all the old folks having such a good time. That includes me btw 🙂

Second dep gig with 'The Gowertones' last night - a birthday bash for the pub landlord at the Plough and Harrow in Murton, Swansea. The weather made the potential for sweaty, melting horror a distinct possibility and when I turned up, I saw we were outside which added the risk of sunburn. But on closer inspection, we were under a pair of gazebos and sheltered by a wall. By some miracle, the only breeze in the area was funneled through a gap between wall and gazebos down onto the drummer and me. I had a small USB powered fan which directed some of that breeze onto my back overall it was a very pleasant environment. We were due to play 2hrs between 5pm and 8pm and the crowd, a respectable 50-60 or so, stayed all evening. Inevitably, we played on and the second hour slot lasted well over 90 minutes, fueled by chips and coke (from a bottle, not a mirror) gratis. A great set which included 'Paranoid' (I've never played it before but what a great 'live' song) and 'YMCA' (please don't judge). My second outing for the Sterling 34HH/Ampeg SCRDI/Peavey Minimax/twin TE1x10" line up and it's really giving me a sound that I'm pleased with. For years I've heard that sound in my head but never really managed to get it and while going DI into the sound desk with my main band is good (for that line up, it makes sense), having the bass banging out behind me is great. As mentioned, the kit list was my Sterling 34HH (mainly the bridge pick-up but for a couple of numbers both pick-ups selected) through an MS60B (for tuner/mute, noise gate and compressor) and the Ampeg SCRDI (with a shallow mix of distortion for the punk/rock numbers) and both bass and treble boosts selected. This went into the FX loop return of the Minimax and through two TE 1x10" speakers. The Minimax retains volume control when using the FX return so I used this to control the volume rather than the control on the SCRDI. There was plenty of volume without pushing either stage. Footwear was the now inevitable Skechers which proved both comfortable and cool (in the temperature sense) for the night. Although they only have one setting, I find that Skechers have nailed that setting and they work for me for all styles of music. Photos and video are slow to appear this morning but I will edit to add any that appear. This is one I took of the ground level kit. Edit: One came through this morning: Some images from video I shot on a GoPro.

Played my usual Everlys & Friends Live Tribute Show last night at Warners' Alvaston Hall near Crewe. First show for the full lineup in two months and was a belter, despite the ridiculous 30 deg heat. Luckily the powers that be at Warners actually had the air conditioning switched on, so playing was bearable! Two hour set straight through with no interval is always a challenge, but was very rewarding. Full six-piece setup, including fake Grand Piano housing for Pete's Digital Piano!

We closed the Home Grown Music Festival in Regner Park tonight. We started at 8:30 and played an hour set. If any vids appear I'll post them. Daryl

As a kid growing up in the 80's, fretless was right at the forefront for me, despite at the time not knowing it was a thing, I vividly remember listening to Sting and Paul Young thanks to my older sisters playing 80's music throughout the house day in day out. When I picked up the bass in the late 80's, one of my goals in life was to become a competent fretless bassist and these days, for the last 10 years, I've only played fretless. Only recently have I had to buy a fretted bass for a new project but it was super hard going back to a fretted bass with all those messy lines and dots all over the place, playing unlined fretless is so much easier. I've had 14 fretless basses in total and currently have 3 really good ones. Below are what I have or have had. Fender Japan 62RI Fretless Jazz x4 Fender Japan 60's Classic Fretless Jazz x1 Fender Japan 60RI Fretless Precision x1 Fender Japan Precision with Fretless Status Graphite Neck x1 Fender Mexican 70RI Precision with Custom Maple Fretless Neck x1 EBMM Stingray SR4 with Fretless Pau Ferro Neck x1 EBMM Stingray SR4 with Fretless Rosewood Neck x1 Warwick Streamer Jazzman Fretless x1 Limelight 60RI Fretless Jazz x1 Squire VM Jazz Fretless x1 Unknown Fretless Bass x1 I am super tempted to buy the cheaper Pino fretless as I think it would be fun to have in the collection. Here's a few pictures from what I can find quickly.

Some lovely basses there fella. I have 2 fretted and 2 fretless currently, my main fretless is a beautiful ACG Krell 5 string Alan built to my spec a few years ago, it's a work of art, seen here with it's fretted brethren.

The epoch you describe is exactly when I started playing the bass and yes, Rotosound was the default bass string. My first set of strings were Swing Bass in the plastic pack with a picture of John Entwistle on the back. I do also remember Superwound and occasionally Ernie Ball bass strings being available locally, but Rotos reigned supreme. Fresh out of the box still the best tone of any roundwounds strings in my opinion. It's a shame they die off so quick and then sound not so special. Flatwounds are for hipsters nowadays. Back on the early '80's they were for old men who liked arm wrestling. I still feel subversive playing a bass with flats nowadays because it was drilled into me by my bass teacher back then that they were to be avoided at all cost because you couldn't slap on them. And slapping was essential. Such a great era for playing bass. Someone please invent a time machine.

Zombie thread revival, I know, but I've recently bought a P-Retro from John - they don't have the silver knobs in stock, and the website looks like it's Out Of Stock completely, but they're not, they have the black ones. It's now a v2, I think the change is the battery. I shouldn't be surprised (because I've got U-Retros in everything else), but it's a stellar preamp; it takes the workhorse P and, somehow without changing it fundamentally, takes it into another league of usability. That two-way parametric EQ thing is genius (clockwise for mids boosted around the frequency point of the other dial, anti-clockwise for a bass/treble boost/scooopiness), and the selectable pull-bass (4 points of boost, I use the 100Hz one) is really useful. It sits post-tone control, and when switched out you have your original tone without any bells and whistles. As if you'd want that... 😀 Not exactly cheap, but for my money (which John now has 🙂) it's worth every penny.

Judging by social media and the radio station I was listening to the rerun on yesterday, the anniversary brought back a lot of very happy memories for a great many people. Which is fantastic, in my opinion.

It's the English equivalent of "schadenfreude", which, as a German word, is no longer permitted since Brexit.

They were widely available in the , in those days, 'catalogues' for home shopping, where you could by kettles, shirts, teas-maids, mirrors and all sorts of tat. Mine came from a Freeman's catalogue, cost around £40 and was paid-up at ten shillings a month or something like that (50p!) I added the worst 'bass amplifier' I have ever seen - a Hawk 15 - and immediately became a rock-god at school. Here it is in action almost 50 years ago.

I used to use my fretless for a few songs at every gig way back when. I rarely use it now, but once took it to a bluesfire gig and ended up playing a whole set using it. As Dad says, you can play most stuff perfectly well on fretless.

I got into playing fretless bass seriously about 20 years ago, and went through a lot of instruments before I settled on a custom-made Sei 5-string. Unfortunately the band that I was in that needed fretless bass parts folded about 6 months after I took delivery of the bass and it's not suited any of the bands I've been in since then. I think I used it one track on the Terrortones album, and as backing for the solo on the recorded version one Hurtsfall song. As a result I sold all my fretless basses including the custom Sei. It was a lovely instrument but it spent most of the pervious 10 years before I sold it in its case and I decided it would be better off with someone who was actually going to play it more often than once a year. At the moment given the sort of music I'm playing I can't see the need for a fretless bass any time soon. If things changed and I did, I would probably be looking for a Pedulla Pentabuzz.

"when drums stop,very bad....."

Gigged my Aguilar-equipped s-s Sandi Cali ll TM bass on Saturday. Relieved to report a big improvement on the OE pickups. Much enhanced presence in the mix thanks to extra heft compared to OE pups. So I'm well pleased with the mod but getting hold of the Aguilar AG 4M/J-HC set was a saga of marathon proportions. My starting point was the decision to get the Aguilars based on how good the J-J set is on my Vox Starstream. My online search proved fruitless as none of the UK or EU retailers were showing any stock. Next step was to call round to Taunton Audio Visual Services for a chat with Kevin, who would be doing the pup change-over. He found the set listed in his Barnes & Mullins catalogue at £285 and gave them a ring to place an order. All B&M could offer was that they had none in stock and delivery would be 'several months'. Plan B was to find a set in the USA, preferably before any UK government response to Trump's trade war doubled the price. Sweetwater were listing the set at USD259.99 but temporarily out of stock. With the weak Dollar that price converted to around £210 although I knew there'd be import taxes and charges to add on. Sweetwater assured me that Aguilar could ship to them 'within a week' so I placed my order after checking with my friend in California that she was happy to take delivery of my order and forward ship it to me. What could possibly go wrong? The first problem was the shipping quote she got from her local Post Office for a USPS delivery was a staggering USD150 for a fully insured 2 to 3-week delivery service. WTF?! So plan B was on pause. Thankfully I remembered someone on here (forgotten who) mentioned that lots of Talkbass members were recommending a service called Pirate Ship. Next stop the Pirate Ship website, where I discovered that they are effectively a shipping broker offering USPS deliveries at massively discounted rates. I won't extend my already lengthy post by going into too much detail. The bottom line is that I got the Aguilars in 3 weeks fully insured for a staggeringly low price of USD29.99. I did have to collect them from the Post Office sorting office in town and pay the £53 import charges though. The final all-in cost of the pups came to £280. Inly a fiver less than the UK RRP but I'm betting that, when/if they finally re-appear in the UK and Europe the price will have increased. Most important of all, I've got mine NOW 🙂 and this is how they sounded on a mobile phone recording at Saturday night's gig. Sandberg s-s Cali ll TM with AguilarAG 4M/J-HC set

They've been gigged, a few times actually! I wouldn't claim to have the most critical ear, but they certainly did the job on electric. On the double bass, with everything set flat, they do a good job, but it surprisingly isn't my favourite pair of speakers. That award would go to my 10" BassChats which for whatever reason manage to capture the warmth of the double bass and project without the piezo honk. You can get there with EQ. Saving £400 sounds wonderful if you put it like that. Not sure my wife sees it that way though 😄

Yes to all three questions Dave. Only compromise was I sacrificed the coil-split function. My tech guy phoned me to say that the Aguilar M pup wasn't wired for splitting. He said "I could modify it but that would probably invalidate your warranty." To be honest, it's not something I used much anyway so all it means is that the mini rocker switch doesn't do anything. Here's a link to one of last night's mobile phone videos to give you an idea of how it sounds. Aguilar AG 4M/J-HC upgrade

Two gigs for Hurtsfall this week. First on Thursday at Rough Trade in Nottingham Supporting the brilliant Miranda Sex Garden. Lovely air-conditioned venue which was a relief from the heat and also meant I could wear my normal stage gear rather than something that wasn't going to make me pass out due to heat stroke. Played to an audience who were largely unfamiliar with our music but it looks like we won them over, and consequently sold loads of CDs afterwards. As always here's some photos from the gig: Then on Saturday we were near Ellesmere on the Welsh border for Goths On A Field. The bands play inside a barn which could have meant it was like an oven, but luckily it turned out to be marginally cooler in barn than outside in the field. My sister (who last saw me play live in 1985) and her husband who live nearby came along and seemed to enjoy it almost as much as our usual Goth audience. Plenty of people up and dancing from the first song, and the new song we were playing for the very first time got a great response. Despite the fact that most of the audience must have seen us play before we still sold a decent amount of merch and we had a number of people saying that we were their favourite band of the weekend which given who else was playing was high praise indeed! No photos as yet, but I'm sure there will be some posted when everyone is back home later today or tomorrow. For both gigs I was using my Eastwood Hooky 6-strong bass going direct into the PA via a Line6 Helix. Footwear was a pair of black and silver Converse-style boots bought years ago from TK Maxx Next gig is back at Rough Trade on 26th July as part of the Nottingham Pride festival.

It was a memorable weekend back in 1985. During the morning of the Saturday I moved into my first purchased house, starting as early as I could so I could set the tele up and watch the show. I’d stretched myself to the limit to buy a new-build semi for £22k. Different times.

Are you thinking of Zero Mod? https://www.zero-mod.com

You have bass solos? I thought these were the stuff of legend .. a unicorn appeared, wearing a trilby hat, and then it was my turn to solo kind of thing 🦄

A very hot sweaty gig playing at the new Rodeos Birmingham. Bizarre stage with the back end of a pickup truck slap bang in the middle, a solitary monitor, no sound man, a drummist we’d never met before, several drunk hen parties… had the makings of a nightmare alongside the heat. On the whole though, it was great fun. We threw in a few covers alongside Katy’s originals, had a delightful interaction with someone in the break asking us to play all the artists we’d covered in the first set 🙄, and made a few new friends along the way I think. The dep drummist was fantastic, so he can come again 🤓 Bass as ever my sexy ACG RetroB, through Handbox WB100 and Barefaced Two10. Shoes were my Soul Cals again. No decent photos of us playing (yet) so have a photo of my side of the stage 😆

I'm out at last. Mri was clear but still unsteady and probably will take a weekor two to recover. Had to bow out of three gigs with three bands this weekend but they have all been great about it. Gutted as was really looking forward to it