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New experience for me last night. Depped for a Showaddywaddy tribute act, performing at one of those big retirement complex places. Not quite fully booked but a very decent crowd and we got them on the dance floor. I've always gravitate towards rock/pop/soul/funk so Showaddywaddy was a bit of a tangent. I enjoyed the challenge of learning 34 songs in a couple of weeks and the lads did a good show. Pleased they had a spare Teddy boy frock coat for me to wear so I looked the part 😎. Deceptively difficult, those Showaddywaddy tunes with all the stop-starts, stabs, false endings etc. I used my 2003 Japanese Fender Jazz, markbass LM4 head and energy 2x12 cab. No food or drink provided for the band other than water and coffee 😞

We supported the band Space last night at The Station in Cannock. The sound engineer was a great kid, didn't roll his eyes at volume levels or anything, he just worked around everything; the footage I heard sounded a good mix. Space are a nice bunch of people, not sure how many are from the '90s lineup as it's not my forte, good players though and people with music taste that was broad. They went down very well, their audience were pretty receptive to our set also. Still enjoying the 8x10 fridge and LaBella flats. Freezing cold load out last night! No gigs for a few months now. I may try and make a case for click track syncing up the samples and whatnot from seeing Space last night. Our drummer would be fine I'm sure. Will see what the others think.

Fantastic evening at the pasadero lounge in Redhill last night. Funk/soul covers, but we do have a 3 piece brass section that really adds some power! Not done many gigs together yet so there are certain bits that need tightening up a bit, but hey! the audience loved it and were up from the word go . Used my smithy 5 through my trusty puma 900 and a single LFsys Monza and it ate it! Very confidence inspiring little rig. Bar manager seemed well happy and wants us back . Job done! X😊 Also included, a nice picture of our drummers crouch ! 🤣

Birthday party function gig with my brother’s band - his first gig since finishing chemotherapy last week. None of us were quite match fit, having not played together since before Christmas, and the first half of the gig started very early (7.45pm) to a modest audience. After a very long interval and buffet, the second half started around 10.30pm but the audience were much more up for it - dancefloor was full and it all went well. I’d taken my big rig - Markbass STD102HF cab and Traveller 2x10 stacked, my old precision bass and a Yamaha. I’d really wanted to use my brother’s old red Squier P Bass project bass that I’m slowly working on, but there’s some earth buzz I didn’t have time to sort. Footwear was some sort of Ben Sherman Chelsea boot I bought 10 years ago. Beer by Peroni 0.0%. An hour’s drive home with light snowfall swirling about on the motorway. Bed o’ clock now tho.

First gig of 2026 with the Glam band tonight. Another 60th birthday for a guy that's seen us quite a few times in same venue. We seem to do a lot of private parties in that particular club. Birthdays, Retirements and charity events. Anyhow it was the usual birthday party audience. The birthday boy loved it and the audience who were mostly younger age group than we're used to just got pissed and then danced away most of the night. Don't think we filled the dance floor at all tonight but we had dancers up for most songs. 2 x 1hr sets. Had issues with PA sound tonight at one side of the stage. My side was relatively ok but we were getting a fair bit of feedback and then i realised the PA guy had put his bass bin and mid cab on the front of the stage and thereby causing a loud deep drone thru the first set. It was quite bad and enough to trigger feedback thru the mics. At the break i had to tell him to turn the bass bin on that side either off or down a fair bit to see if it helped. It worked a treat. Sound was excellent 2nd set with very little to zero feedback and no deep drone noise. Overall it was a good gig and a good rehearsal for next weeks gig at The Ferry in Glasgow. We've been trying to get in there for a few yrs but they wanted us to do a support first for £100 plus food supplied. We've always knocked it back. This time it was a mates band that had to cancel and they put us forward for it. We originally said no because we were offered same fee as mates band but i had no idea they worked for that little a fee. Guy from the venue called me and asked if we could come down a bit nearer to what they would pay other well known Glam acts. I agreed on a fee to get a foot in the door. Looking forward to that gig as its a good one to get on your gig list. Loading up at the end the snow came on so that was a bit scary at times over the higher ground. Strong winds meant i had to unload the car via the garage back door as front door comes down if wind catches it. No pics or vids as yet. Dave

Gig in a small East Yorkshire village at a smallish pub. A bit of a change for us as we’ve grown accustomed to larger venues, still it was a nice change. It was a nightmare on set up, plug points in the worst places and the unforgiving tiled floor….fortunately we displayed the Yorkshire ‘it’ll be reet’ philosophy. All went well apart from them turning the lights right down and we hadn’t put all our lights up. Cue a fair few fretting errors from me as the monitoring was pish and I was using the Sandberg Lionel that doesn’t have front dots….

I'm actually nervous about today's gig! Had a freaky lucid dream last night... woke up and remembered it in detail: Parked up in a shabby demolished building type car park off an unusual street I hadn't seen before. Walked to nearby venue. Wandered into my brother's gig (today) as they were settng up. Big empty bar, try were out on the floor instead of in a 'stage area'. Chris (bassist) was playing noodly guitar so I joined in on bass. Worked out they were playing Grapevine, but in C#. Oddly I remember in detail that I was fingering Eb... but I was convinced the key was C#. Then looked at my watch. The face was scrolling images and web pages about tanks - my internet history? Suddenly I remembered I should be at my own gig for 3pm (actually 4) for 6pm start and it was 5pm. Rushed to front bar. Found the bag I keep my swimming stuff in(?) Took a while to find my jacket, hidden under another coat on a hatstand (like my metal one, but wooden) positioned on or through the bench seat in the bay window. Got phone from my jacket pocket. Discovered the stuff on my watch was actually loads of phone notifications. Discovered continuous flow of messages from the band taking the piss out of me being late after telling them to be early. Headed out, rang band said 5pm I will be tere in twenty minutes and set up in ten... In street passed a traffic warden in hi-vis taking notes. In car park (I hadn't bought a ticket) noticed all signs were so old and faded there was no way thry were valid and nowhere to buy a ticket. Panicked and ran back to car, found only very old house keys in my hand (a memory of finding some in a drawer a few days ago?) Got in car but couldn't start it... handcrwaching in passenger window offering me keys. Turned out to be evil woman trying to steal car or the old keys or even kill me. Couldn't understand what she was on about. Fought her off by biting her finger then repeatedly pressing the up button for the electric window to trap her arm. Started reversing backwards, dragging her along as I tried to escape. Traumatised, I woke up and focused on committing everything to memory. I hope the actual gig is not quite as eventful.

Well....Back in to The Bungalow on Friday evening and first night of a Mod weekender. Great venue to play! Always a well stocked beer fridge in the green room! A couple of members down,one of the singers was on holiday and we recently lost our keyboard player and also his replacement! To lose one is careless...two is....something! We also have the drummer handing in his notice as he has changed jobs. Decent turnout for a Friday and we seemed to go over pretty well! Sound guy had issues with the bass amp,DI would not work,so he stuck a mike on the cab,then the thing cut out on a song in the second half. But we made it to the end! Jack Flash!.mp4

Oh but the inclusion of the No Parking sign in the shot, while a car is clearly parked there, aims to signify the rebellious attitude of The Real 1950s Rock 'n' Roll as embodied by the young artists of the time and ... [cont'd on p.97]

Well, it's either that photo (apologies for the quality, crappy cheap mobile photo) or The Zodiac Shot below, in which drummer Dave manages to rock both the leopard print and the classic car vibe.

Following on from Thursday night's open mic, Mein Host had asked me if I'd like to play bass for his duo at a local pub, the Market Vaults, on Friday (last night). I said yes, and a set list arrived on Friday lunchtime. A few of the songs I knew, most of them I'd at least heard a few times before, and one or two I wasn't at all familiar with, so spent a while copying chord sheets from Ultimate Guitar and having a quick play through some of the songs. Headed into town on the evening and all the car parks were rammed - managed to park a few minutes walk away. Fortunately I was only carrying the 6" cab, TC BAM200 amp, gigbag, and Sei headless fretless, so I coped. The Market Vaults is a long thin pub, and we were at the back. Immediately to the right of the stovepipe PA is the passageway to the toilets, so the photo shows the entire available performance area - I sit to play, so I was sitting on the bench on the left with my amp just by me and the monitor right behind me, and just enough space between tables to put my tablet stand in. The gig itself went well. A couple of fluffs (not all by me) and I hadn't got the chords written down right for Crazy, plus for some reason I hadn't got the final draft of my chordsheets on the tablet so I had to remember a couple of the songs. And afterwards I was asked if I'd like to do more gigs with them (I said yes). Edit: Using Sei Original 5 headless fretless -> Lekato WS-90 -> Zoom MS-70CDR+ -> TC BAM200 -> BC house jam micro cab. Footwear - the usual Caravelle memory foam trainers, which was a bit of a risk with snow forecast.

The black and white photo was 2011, I think. I hadn't touched a bass in over 15yrs and realised how awful I'd been. So that would have been the first time I played live. The colour photo is from last weekend. I've had a 7yr 'sabbatical' until last year. As my age increases so does the height of my bass.

Fast paced, fun video reviewing why the 80's were so special for bass players. The gear, the players, the innovations and SO MUCH more! This video provides a wide overview of the experience in the U.S. with LOTS of U.K. crossover - Mark King, Pino Palladino, Wal, Status, Trace Elliot, The Bass Centre, etc. Enjoy the memories!

We had no guitarist for today's rehearsal. However, I'd bought myself a cheap'n'cheerful Squier Toronnado having had to give back the borrowed Strat. So I played guitar, which I've never done with anyone else! I just played my over-complicated bass lines, while our other bass player did his thing and I got to do extra widdling which was nice. And it went surprisingly well - guitar playing is dead easy compared to bass... 😁

You could say it's rare, very few Mustangs have been used as a shovel on a building site. I can see why it may not have been played for 10-15 years, the site foreman still used it. Would love to see the routing under the second control panel.

Well, I've conducted two full rehearsals now and they're not throwing pencils or worse at me yet... I've decided to sign-up to a full-blown conducting summer school at Swansea University in late July.

The madness keeps on going! Vigier Arpege IV, 5-string Features of Series IV: bolt on neck, single bridges, 18V-electronic, separate 3-band-EQ per(!) pickup, super thin neck

Once a tiger, always a tiger.

That's a 'Farnham conversion' by Abbott's of Farnham, a famous coach-builders who spotted a gap in the market when Ford failed to offer an estate version of the Zephyr & Zodiac. AI Overview: Zodiac Farnham conversions were estate car, or station wagon, variants of the Ford Zephyr and Zodiac (MkII, MkIII, and MkIV) saloons, coachbuilt by E.D. Abbott Ltd in Farnham, Surrey, between the mid-1950s and early 1970s. These rare, high-quality conversions featured extended roofs, unique rear tailgates, and sometimes bespoke GRP (glass-reinforced plastic) components. Abbotts sourced brand-new cars direct from Dagenham, then did the conversion to Ford standard, re-using as many components as they could. That tailgate looks odd because it's actually built around the original rear windscreen. The completed vehicles were then sold through official Ford dealers. I had to buy a Farnham simply because it was the only classic car that would accept a 7/8 DB.

Hi Everyone - I'm certainly one of those bassists who kicked myself for not buying a Rickenbacker 4005 when they were initially available. I started in music retail in 1980 and worked for a Rickenbacker dealer, and had always had an interest in one of these wide-bodied basses. Little did I know at the time that Rickenbacker actually had some NOS models from the 60's still in inventory. The bass was discontinued in 1984. In hindsight, it's actually a good thing I didn't buy one at the time as I'm certain I would have ended up selling it - not because it wasn't a great bass, but because it would take me decades as a player to really appreciate this instrument. So truth be told, the first time I had a 4005 in my hands was about 20 years ago. It was a Mapleglo '66 that I played at the Guitar Center in Hollywood. Man, the shallow neck was fantastic! The bass played like butter, and was strung with flats (as it should have been.) The killer feel haunted me for years and it certainly became a quest for me to own one. As we're all aware, Rickenbacker reissued the 4005 as the 4005V ("V" for Vintage) in 2024 in 3 finishes - Fireglo, Mapleglo and Jetglo. However, I became aware very early on that Rickenbacker had made 2 in custom finishes - this was confirmed when Eddie's Guitars posted a Rickenbacker Factory Tour video early that year: The custom finishes were British Racing Green and Satin Autumnglo. Rickenbacker had done some special runs of models in BRG over the years (and made a few other custom instruments in this finish as well,) but to see a 4005V in that finish was amazing - I fell in love with it immediately! It would be several months before either of these basses would be available for purchase, but I was determined to continue the pursuit. In July 2024, the bass was eventually sold to a dealer and I purchased it immediately. The 4005V has the same wonderful shallow neck feel just like the original models built in the 60's. The basses come strung with round wound strings which (in my opinion) are a mismatch for these basses - their true character is revealed when strung with flats. I immediately removed the rounds and restrung with a set of TI flats which not only sound amazing, they have the low tension feel like the strings which originally came stock on new Rics. To me, this bass was screaming for gold plates: I'm happy to report I've been gigging with the bass ever since, and it fits wonderfully in the mix with my band. This is certainly not a bass for everyone or every type of music, but if you're interested I wholeheartedly recommend it.😀

Go for the Yamaha. Is a well known brand and a respectable product and you will be able to sell it later. Franconia appears to be quite obscure and you will likely struggle to ever shift it if you want to upgrade. That said, if you try the Franconia and it 'speaks' to you and inspires you to make beautiful music then it's probably worth every penny.

Exactly what part of "NO PARKING" was hard for you to edit out in MS Paint, @Silvia Bluejay? 😉 Oh, and great pic. Love the Zodiac estate - - a model I didn't even remember.

Did you forget to take your meds again Neil. ? 😂 Dave

When you're in a box being lowered into the ground. This is the most boring thing I've heard this year so far!

Another day of rehearsals at the arena, this time with links to the other parts of the show. Tomorrow we do it for real... twice. Here's the view from my house: Alan's lovely leslie cab... Posh camera... The gallery - the brain of the show.

I look at the guy in the middle and think 'anything'. 🙂

This week these two Master Effects pedals arrived from Canada - the Transmission, which mimics the EQ of Hooky's early Yamaha basses, and the Golden Ratio chorus, which is based on the original 70s EHX Clone Theory circuit. The latter is a little bit noisier than I would ideally wish but Tim (Mr Master Effects) said its inherent to the original circuit and it certainly sounds authentic.

To complete the nerd/fanboi collection I bought these two Master Effects pedals - Transmission (apes the EQ of Hooky's early Yamaha basses) and Golden Ratio (chorus based on original Clone Theory circuit; little bit noisier than I would ideally wish but sounds authentic)

Well that was bloody awesome. We got to the Earl Haig early, to find two big projector screens up for the rugby, but didn't affect us setting up. Used their (big) PA with our desk, spent a lot of time with everything miced up (me post-preamp DI'd). Sounded awesome but with the stage volume was comfortable with no earplugs. About 20- people stayed on from rugby and we had at least 120-, maybe 150 people in. It can feel a bit empty on a Sunday sometimes, even with a crowd, but not today. Lots of musicians and music lovers in, including my brother, some of my friends and members of two of my other bands. First half, mostly straight classic rock, so no dancing but rapturous reception. Brief beak, then second half, still rocky but some more danceable stuff, so dancing from about 1/3rd through. You'll get the gist if I say our encores were War Pigs and Alive, and the song that got the most comment was Devil Woman. Afterwards, people were queing up to shake hands and say how much they enjoyed it. We did get (very gently) told off for going 20 minutes past curfew 😁 Baz was taking photos, so I expect some awesome shots in due course. Devil Woman.mp4

That is because you are correct and I am slapdash. OK, I have been sucked in to this world. I bought an Epiphone NEWPORT with Roto Tru Bass strings on it. SUCH FUN!!!!!!! I need a 5 string though. I just want a NEWPORT with a wider neck. And I do not want to slide in to Wilcock territory. I am sure they are very fine indeed and I do not begrudge them their price tag. But the NEWPORT is doing it for me as it is. I like the aesthetic. I am on to a complete non starter here, no? I looked at the Ibanez Talman. I am not digging the visuals like the NEWPORT. As if to prove it, here is a Wilcock which would do all I wanted. https://thebassgallery.com/collections/all/products/wilcock-mullarkey-v. But.......................................

...I grabbed the C4 😁 Insane power and low end for something so diddy, and it works so well with the QC's amp models due to its frequency response. Marvelous thing.

Here I are, making a mess of JJ Burnel's finest works.

In with the guitar tech. Had a look at the preamp and I think Stevie Wonder fitted it under Ray Charles instructions. Sounds phenomenal right enough when it isn't playing the radio.

New Old Joy Division Bass Day. Just received this 1977 (?) Hondo Ricken-faker, the model made famous by Peter Hook in Joy Division days (before he switched to Shergold Marathon 6 string and Yamaha basses). A few screws missing and signs of age but plays/sounds great and, importantly for me, weighs just 8.2 pounds. Sits nicely next to my Shergold Marathon bass, the Joy Division nerd that I am.

Thank you all for the replies quick photo

very good. The decade I took up the bass. I remember lots of that gear coming out, it was an amazing time

BC house jam micro cab and TC BAM200. Used for open mic nights and some gigs (with PA support if needed). Slightly unsightly seam and cab feet are because the handle is on the top and the BAM200 is rather short in the foot department, so can't straddle it.

Dress rehearsal for next weeks gig, so all using our own gear. Shuker 3 -> Swiff Audio wireless -> TC Electronics BH800 -> Tech Sound Systems 2x12 (modified). I had trouble with my sound all evening. Couldn't get it right it was always too toppy or clanky, or not bassy enough. The only thing that has changed is that my strings are now DR Neons (Christmas gift). I finally got it right on the last song. Flat EQ but with the bass boosted to 4 o'clock. Spectracomp tone print on full.

This is a great video and a nostalgic jaunt into our collective past (for those of us who were teenagers in the 80s!) - I was chatting with Chris on the Brooksy's Bass Corner Live Chat a few weeks ago, and he's certainly a mind of information on bass world, having previously run the Bass Centre LA. Highly recommended viewing material!

I recently picked up this book in a charity shop for a few pounds and it’s really great. We’ll put together, insightful and funny. You can get in on eBay for a few quid. Would recommend.

OK.. we're into the Arena now. Tonight was a soundcheck, and a cursory run-through the set. Tomorrow we'll be going into more depth, checking cues etc. Here's some pics: