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This really isn't about "just letting people die" any more than it's about "no person left behind". The disease isn't a government policy that can be changed, or a dangerous behaviour that can be outlawed ... it's a thing that exists and that we now have to deal with, like cancer. We currently have no cure. We currently have no evidence that a cure will ever be available. We currently do not know whether herd immunity exists or whether you can get hit by this twice. We don't know how many different but related strains of Covid-19 exist or whether there can be cross-immunity between them. In fact, there's a staggeringly long list of things we don't know. What we DO know is that our entire approach to civilisation has had to be modified, and not everyone is entirely happy with that. We also know that our current approach to that modification involves spending unbelievably massive amounts of money that we don't have, which then impacts on every other aspect of life for decades to come. I've spent my entire life so far aware of the risk of dying from a very long list of potential causes. As far as I'm concerned, I've now added Covid-19 to that list and I want to get back to living my life. Many others feel the same way, but of course there are plenty who disagree. I'm not saying that I'm right at this precise moment, but I do know that eventually we WILL have to get back to living our lives. All we're doing is bickering about the timing. Will people die? Yes, of course they will, just as they always have.

It's a shame JJ Cale isn't still with us. He could have been the only gigging musician on the planet.

No gigs booked for me either, and some promising collaborations we were getting together are now on hold. That said I don't rely on gigs for a living, and my heart goes out to those that do and have lost bookings. Been jamming once a week with some friends on a driveway, keeping appropriate distance, and I have to say it's done wonders for me in these times. Ok the music isn't always the best, but it's brought a smile to those playing and people walking past on the street will stop and listen for a couple of mins, sometimes offering unexpected applause! Made new musical contacts too, a lot of players walking past and desperate to play any music at the moment coming to join in. Not the same as a gig, but great for my musical/mental wellbeing

I'm so glad the scientific situation has changed so substantially from a couple of months ago. They sorted the vaccine quick, didn't they? Oh, wait...

People are talking as if the only options are more of the same until a vaccination comes along or allowing a few more tens of thousands of deaths, mainly of the elderly, diabetics and BAME people. This just isn't true. Plenty of other countries with a short sharp lock down, sensible hygiene measures and aggressive test, track and trace have got infection rates down to well below other seasonal diseases and have had days, sometimes weeks with no Covid related deaths. If we did the things South Korea or New Zealand did then not only would more people be alive today but there would be nothing special to be frightened of, the economy could have restarted by now and we'd all be able to get out gigging. We didn't do those things, the governments own advisors are predicting a second wave of infection, no end is in sight and our excess deaths are amongst the worst in the world. Not a political point, we'll never know how a Corbyn government would have done but it didn't need to be like this. This is about competence. Apparently as rare as PPE.

I'm glad I don't drink, but i couldn't help scoffing at the pronouncement from the Government that going out drinking at the pub is the "patriotic thing to do" and part of a great British tradition. Wow.

Herd immunity without a vaccine is a myth. Ask any epidemiologist. As it happens one of my mates is working on this at Oxford. There is no indication that those who catch it keep sufficient antibody levels to help the next time round. No long term immunity at all. And the other thing - organ damage. Most won't die as you say, but a large amount of the survivors will end up on the transplant lists and some will be on oxygen for the rest of their shortened lives. So if a person survives it once a 2nd run will hit harder as the lungs are already damaged from the first time round. Kidney damage is also massively common. I haven't posted the actual picture from the first Covid related lung transplant as it is really nasty. But it's in this link. This is the type of damage even survivors can be left with. Obviously not as severe as the pic, but nevertheless life changing. No work. Benefits. Treatment costs etc etc. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/11/health/coronavirus-lung-transplant.html It really isn't as simple as the "let the weak die" approach some seem to be keen on.

I won’t be going to pubs or gigging under the current conditions I.e. thousands of people getting infected everyday. I know the government is concerned about the economy, but rather than all the lock down easing we’ve had over the last couple of months we should have taken the pain and stayed in hard lockdown and kept R low to reduce the numbers as fast as possible. Possibly by now we might have got the infections down to zero like New Zealand and be able to open up with confidence. I think the governments strategy will do more harm to the economy, especially if we get another peak.

Lets hope it's noone you care about eh?

Had one 14 years ago. Now again.

It seems someone has simply ploughed through YouTube and found all the Peel sessions they could and then, brilliantly, put together this superb resource! https://davestrickson.blogspot.com/2020/05/john-peel-sessions.html

Mike has made a start on my neck so thought I'd share some photos! Looking great @Cosmicrain

You know no one's going to admit they know what one of those is Oh....BLAST!!!! So all needs tidying up, but we have a soundhole And to the body mould. Trying to keep all of this upright and square, you have to admire those Stonehenge dudes! : Top on and inner uprights ready to fit:

YOU GOTTA TYPE FOR YOUR RIGHT TO PAAAAAAAAAAARTAAAAAAAYYY!

chatting the the landlord of my local yesterday, (it shows Sky sports) I said "opening up on July 4th then? he said "might wait till the 6th, Derby and Forest are playing on the 4th, not fair on the staff having to manage people while they're watching that"

Disagree. Excessive noise is a non-starter (good) but there's no actual law that actually requires so-called musicians to make excessive noise. Quiet music is very often good music.

Takes about an hour to two hours for most charts. The more complex charts can take three or four hours which I do over several days. The issue is how complex each bar is. Lots of time changes slow you down as well. That last Bruford charts was lunacy. It's a labour of love, though, so no real hardship. I decided I wanted to do 100 over 2020 (that's only two or three hours a week so, bearing in mind we are not gigging, it's no biggie) and have done 65 so far. What am I like?

I note that this 5% figure gets quoted endlessly at the moment as if it's a fact. In practice, the (almost) complete absence of effective testing - both now and especially when this thing was peaking - combined with the extensive evidence that very many people have had Covid-19 whilst displaying either very minimal symptoms or none at all means that the 5% stat is almost certainly wildly understated. 5% is one in twenty. I live in London, the most heavily-affected place in the UK. I can easily identify 20 people who I see very frequently, and pick out 10 of then (including me, of course) who have had Covid-19. Not only is that a 50% hit rate, but NONE of those ten have been captured in any sample. Can I prove that? Of course not, but I'd much rather rely on my own direct experience than the panic-stricken pap provided by the media over the last three months. When the Public Enquiry into all this finally happens, I suspect that it will make for some very interesting results.

I'm not holding my breath. Well not for a whole gig. I wish I could.

You’ll play a lot more if the basses are to hand I found.

Wonderful Land by the Shadows. Perfect, and simply beautiful.

Unless I misunderstood, live performances are definitely not permitted - in fact a pub operator which normally has live music was interviewed on the evening news and expressed concern that their pub will not be viable without it - theatres etc are permitted to open 😳 Presumably for socially distanced coffee etc? Presumably the level of Covid 19 will gradually increase and the next big spike will be a couple of months after the start of winter (it apparently thrives in colder conditions - a bit like the flu). Interesting to hear the 'herd immunity' phrase trotted out again - hands up anyone who's ever had flu? Do you reckon you've ever, in your lifetime developed herd immunity to it?? The highest modelled estimated deaths in the current pandemic for the UK, with no control measures was 1/2 million - I would imagine a new lockdown will start but there would be pressure for it not to occur before Christmas - to avoid too much negative economic effect. I too shall be being very careful about getting back to gigging, much as I would like to.

Some more Manu Dibango, one of my favourite tunes ever

Instead of a simple drum screen we'll need full band-screens! Or maybe now's the time to do a Spinal Tap tribute?

Well a pristine Ibanez SRH500 turned up on the doorstep this morning at 08:27. Double boxed with padding between boxes and the bass inside the original Ibanez box, well done PMT and DPD. Funny to think that Andertons wanted me to pay exactly the same for an ex-demo SRH500 with significant cosmetic damage, as a discount they offered me £30 off and a free lead, turns out all SRH500s come with a free lead anyway, that’s Andertons off the Xmas card list. The bass is very light and has that quality way beyond price point thing about it. It also has a slim fast neck that all my previous Ibanez SR models seem to have that makes it extremely easy to move around. With the absence of pickups, the dusty end of the neck Is shaped in such a way that it can be used as a comfortable thumb rest. The flatwound strings sound surprising bright acoustically, the only odd thing is how scratchy they feel against the fret when bending the strings, *shudder*. It came set up beautifully, probably a bit high for low action fanatics but about right for me. Looking forward to playing it through the QSC later and hearing how it sounds. Such bliss to have a just two controls, tone and volume.

After a tortuous 6 months of waiting, I finally received my new Sandberg yesterday! 😊 It's everything I hoped it would be, lightweight, has that incredible sandberg neck feel and effortless playability, and the passive electronics with more traditional style Alnico V pickups are giving me the pure, organic tone I was after. Couldn't be happier! The new Sandberg gigbags are a cast improvement in my opinion too, really nice. Happy chappy. 😊👌

And the mould is done! Or is it mold? Anyway, it's done: And what is this for? It will act as a bit of a multi-functional jig. The first thing I will use it for is to help in bending the sides. I will be using a bending iron to hand bend the sides and will use this initially as a guide for me to check where and how much to bend, and then once each is basically bent, I will clamp the side in this while it dries and cools and this will help it to retain its shape. But I will also use it to hold the sides when the tail block and heel block are being glued and also the kerfing around the two edges - again helping to keep the shape accurate while all sorts of things are being done to the woods within...

Nice!! that's the next few weeks for me sorted esp 23 Skidoo, ACR, Cabaret Voltaire, Culture, Curve, Dreadzone, FGTH, Half Man Half Biscuit.. Yikes, makes me realise how much influence JP has had on my music taste.

......and here we are. Inspired me to get it out of the garage. It needs some love!

Now that’s a great shout! I tried it on my keyboard just playing the chords with the left hand and doing the vocal melody with my right, now that you’ve said that I’m going to look at the “notes” of the vocals and see what that says.. cheers ok I used a piano app to write down what the notes for the vocals sound like to me and these are the notes used (not in order) B - C# - E - F# - G#

Okay so the challenge was how to record something high quality that does not take up all BC's space and gives an indication of the overall spectrum of tones of the bass. Unprocessed 20 sec clip with some slides, harmonics etc. Man I need to work on my intonation again.... Straightus Clip.wav

Got a rehearsal booked on Monday. i'll report back...

The Professionals are better, but not sure if nearly £1000 better. You can get better tuners/replacement pickups/bridge for £300 - at that point the only thing you can’t do is graphite rods in the neck. I’d buy a Professional used, but not new.

I'd also like to come as long as Leo's later works aren't barred!

If you ignore the repeated title and the acapella intro... and it's a proper chart hit too.

As an aside, the first thing my other half did when she heard about the 4th July re-openings was check her duty roster...no-one in A&E/AMU wants to be working that weekend; it's going to be carnage...thankfully, she's not on, but I suspect the 5-0 are bracing for a similar nightmare Saturday night...

Check the links I posted earlier for the actual Govt advice. I'm drawing my conclusions from them rather than the Daily Mail's interpretation!

As someone who was in a similar position, but making a total switch to bass guitar, the best advice I can offer is this; buy the bass you want, not the bass you think you need or the bass others tell you will be best for you. Bass players can be a conservative bunch. Think about how you want to sound as a player and let that guide your selection process. Edit to add, guitarists can be very conservative too, just for balance.

Post deleted (duplicated - almost!!)

Spoilsport!!

I suppose I understand the governments theory. As well as reopening everything they are also trying to work out the things that cause the spread too at the same time. So, let the pubs go back - seated and distanced. If that works well, let people stand. If that works well allow live music. Kind of keep just pushing the boundaries and see what works. If they all work then great. If one item causes a spike you know to isolate that. It's a much more sensible approach to letting everything go straight back to normal. If they did that and there was a spike, theyve no real way of knowing what caused the issue and how to deal with it. Small steps, but we'll get there.

I feel a Basschat competition coming on -- record The Birdie Song in as many different time signatures and genres as possible. Please can someone do a prog metal version?

If he's your son-in-law and he has a girlfriend, how does your daughter feel about this?

Gordon Giltrap - Heartsong

I'm allergic to nickel so am forced to use stainless steel strings. If I use nickel strings for any length of time my fingers break out in itchy little blisters which then burst and I get painful broken skin. Before I self diagnosed back in the 90's when we were playing a very lot, I used to have blood running down my hands and was always in extreme pain when gigging.I almost gave up. Thank feck for stainless!

I once ran my fretless Jazz into a fender deville -‘‘twas a joyous experience!

I love my mam & dad too much to chance it, but I appreciate other people have different opinions on it.

Gees.... well, looks like social distancing is over then. I can kind of get how they can manage the restaurant side, as the culture is to sit down, but pubs? I'll be giving it at least a month to let everyone bump into each other, grab each other, fight each other and generally give any virus to each other, before I even think of going back.