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I'm playing Glastonbury 2025, I have 4 gigs lined up, playing with Andrew Maxwell Morris. Wednesday 25th: Toad Hall - 17.10-17.50 (40mins) Thursday 26th: Mandala Stage - 14.00-14.45 (45 mins) Friday 27th: Open Arms - 12.00- 12.45 (45 mins) Small World Stage - 14.10-15.00 (50 mins) I so can't wait 😁

I found some video from last Saturday. Not our best. I post the good and the bad. Guitars seem out of tune, it was 100°, sound mix was not great and I played with a healing broken ankle. I'll stop because I can go on forever with making excuses. I can't hear any bass without earbuds. Daryl

Hurtsfall played the Nottingham Craft Beer Festival in Sneinton Market on Saturday. If you are not playing covers these events can be a bit hit-or-miss and on top of that we were the last band playing that day, so we didn't really know what to expect. Sneinton Market is currently the "happening" area in Nottingham where all the interesting independent shops are situated in units in the old market buildings. On arrival we discovered that the beer festival had taken up the whole of the Avenues area and was entry by ticket only. However to allow people to still use the shops you could get in but didn't get a wristband which was required in order to buy beer. As performers we all got wristbands but I don't recall being asked to show mine before being served. There were two stages - one outdoors where unfortunately the performers seemed to be mostly ignored and also had to compete with all the other music - there appeared to be at least one DJ set up on every avenue, and the other in The Grove where we were playing. Probably the most convoluted load-in so far this year. There was only one entrance and some of the avenues were blocked off half way along the length meaning that getting all the gear to the venue involved not only negotiating all the beer festival attendees but also doubling back on yourself to get around all the blockages. Certainly not as easy as the last time we played at The Grove when it was possible to park directly outside the venue. Thirty minute turnaround between performers, whilst someone played on the other stage. No time for a proper sound check, set up, just one verse to make sure we could hear everything in the monitors and a couple of minutes to get changed and then we were on. Luckily there was nothing "miss" about this event. The venue was packed (that's not that difficult as it is really tiny) and it appeared that quite a few people had come specifically to see us play. Cue dancing, singing along to the songs and cheering in between. We even got our first proper encore. I'm a firm believer in both bands and the audience have to deserve an encore. None of this coming back on stage just because a couple of your mates have shouted "more". We were technically past the live music curfew but the sound engineer said do one more and so we did. Even sold some merch afterwards although at this sort of event you don't really expect to. Load out was much easier as the festival was over by the time we had everything packed up and we were able to leave by a much more direct route. As usual here's a couple of photos: Next gigs are on 10th July Supporting Miranda Sex Garden at Rough Trade in Nottingham, followed by Goths On A Field festival on Saturday 12th.

I’ve had 4 gigs this week so been quite busy… Last Sunday afternoon I was playing with the blues band at a pub in N.Lincolnshire. It appeared that very little had been done by them to publicise it so we played to a small audience ( and a dog! ) Finished bang on 7pm, and was back home by 7.30 - one of those rare times for me when I just wanted to take the money and run. Tuesday was a gig with the acoustic duo for a birthday party. Played in a nice garden, and managed to set up in the shade thank goodness, it was a hot one. Took along my little Ibanez PNB14 very short scale, and it suited the gig perfectly. The low tension strings were a welcome rest for my fingers, and the gig went really well, with a couple of enquiries for similar events. Wednesday was my weekly gig at the rock n roll club. Took along my large stage fan which helped with the heat. A good crowd of dancers in as usual, and we did more slow stuff than usual as they were getting a bit sweaty. Used my recently acquired Hartke head into the 4x10, am getting used to this now. Friday saw the blues band playing an early evening slot at Farmyard 2025, a large bikers festival on a country estate in Helmsley , North Yorks. A very well attended and organised event, with great staff and tech crew. Days before the gig I realised I no longer have a ‘big’ bass rig, and so took my (nearly vintage!) Barefaced Compact cab to use along with my Rumble 500 combo. Although the combo would have been sufficient, when the Compact was added it gave it massive clout so I ended up using them both. We did an hour set, which went very quickly. Nice to play on a big stage again, and I really enjoyed it. Also got to meet @peteb who was playing with his band ‘The Gentlemen Rogues’ immediately after our set ( see pics). Was knackered yesterday, but just getting ready for another gig today with the duo - a party in a local village pub starting around 4pm. Definitely taking my fan for this one, so hot today.

Singist hits some loud shit in our Odelay gig, went great, could have been better, could have been worse, Beck has said the same about his own gigs

How was my gig last night? One word, sweaty! Played our local Billy Bootleggers with our acoustic trio, supplemented for this gig by good friend and multi-talented percussion, harmonica, and vocalist Mr Les Young. We were on straight after a local Dolly Parton impersonator who was entertaining a ‘bottomless brunch’ crowd who migrated off to other venues in and around the Ouseburn delta before we struck a chord. This gig is one with a mainly passing trade, but we did our usual trick of getting folk to stay so we had built up a medium sized appreciative crowd by the end of our second set. Lilly, my 1960’s Boosey Hawkes Excelsior coped really well with the heat and despite my fears, remained in tune for the whole gig, which is better than what I managed 😂 Picture may be used to keep small children away from open fires etc.

Nearly a year ago my brother, and our singer, suffered a stroke live on stage at a festival. For a while we wondered if we'd ever get to play a gig again. Luckily, that chance came last friday! A filmmaker friend brought his camera along, and I arranged to record the set. We put together someof the footage and mixed a brand new song that we played. It was the hottest day ever, but in my 20 years of being in this band, it's the gig I'm most glad to have been able to do, and I know this video will be something to look back at and cherish as long as I live. Hope you enjoy!

I frequently trawl various 'instrument for sale' sites when I've got nothing better to do of an evening once the boy is in bed and after the wife and I have had some dinner... 8pm to 9pm is my prime hour! I stumbled across a Conklin GTBD-7 on eBay yesterday, not too many of these were made, they were meant to be a cheaper, more accessible version of the USA Custom Shop Conklins, however they were very expensive to make and the quality was exceptionally good, not too far off that of the USA Custom Shop basses, so they stopped production after maybe a year or so. They did the GT-7 (the cheaper version) and this GTBD-7 versions with Bartolini pickups and preamp as well as a premium top and through neck. I've owned a couple of these over the years as well as two USA Custom Shop Conklins (one I still have and I will die with), so I'm very familiar with them vs the USA stock and they are really great basses. I made an offer on this one, we had a quick chat about logistics, and the offer was accepted! Should be with me Tuesday/Wednesday of next week. Comes with a spare set of strings and a hardcase too. 👍 Damn you eBay for FORCING me to buy this! 😆

So, played the Farmyard Party at the weekend - pics above on @casapete's post a couple of pages ago. The Friday was very hot and sticky. As we were staying over, I had to put up a large tent pretty much on my own (the missus is recovering from an operation on her hands) in rock hard ground - hence me managing to look sweaty, pasty and sunburnt all at the same time in the picture of me and Pete above. Great to meet Pete before the gig - I was obviously pretty busy trying to get everything ready for our show, so I only managed to see a couple of songs from his band, but he is obviously a very tidy bass player. There was a bit of a groan from backstage as they played a song on our setlist, but fortunately that seemed to be the only one, so we managed to avoid too many duplicate songs! The gig itself was a bit hit and miss. We had a (very good) dep guitarist and it had been sounding brilliant in the three rehearsals we managed to get in before. However, live there were a few adventures starting and (particularly) ending songs and a fair few missed cues. Endings became a bit of a negotiation between me, the guitarist and the drummer, with the poor keyboard player trying to work out what was happening from the other side of the stage! However, we got a pretty good audience reaction and had a lot of very positive feedback after the show (with a couple of gig offers thrown in), so it can't have been too bad - amazing what you can get away without the audience noticing when playing live sometimes! Gear wise, I was using the 78 P bass and the usual set-up of a Shure GLXD wireless, Thumpinator, Cali76 bass comp and Caveman pre into a Handbox R400 and Berg CN212 cab.

Acoustic duo gig yesterday evening at a local pub - birthday party for a friend’s wife. We played in a room at the back of the pub which used to be a brewery, with a flagstone floor but very uneven. We both spent all the gig balanced precariously on stools with one foot on the ground, not ideal but no alternative. I had to put wedges under our PA speakers on one side to prevent them from falling backwards! We did our usual request format and had some good ones. Because there was no room for dancing it meant we could play more slow tempo tunes, including ‘Sweet baby James’, ‘Rotterdam’ and ‘Let’s stay together’. Bad planning meant the buffet was served during the start of our second set, but we ploughed on regardless as we were due to finish by a certain time. Didn’t seem to matter, and we went down well so all good. Load out in the rain but meant it was quick! Got two more gigs this Tuesday and Wednesday, then a week off, phew.

Sunday afternoon saw our (Rascallion) first live performance since August last year (long story!). The event (outdoors at a local pub) had originally been billed as "Country Music Day", featuring a local female solo acoustic singer followed by us, so we'd worked up a set featuring a few of the more country-adjacent tunes we've not done for a while, and added the 6/8 at 49 BPM delights of "Tennessee Whiskey" to our usual CCR / Eagles / Petty / Stones country-rockesque fare. Sometime over the last month, the event then morphed into a combined Sausage & Cider Festival and SSAFA Fundraiser, but we decided to stick to what we'd already put together, and it mostly went OK despite rehearsals being sporadic due to various members being ill or otherwise unavailable. After Meg had entertained the crowd (and us) with two sets of country classics plus a few very good (and in one case very funny / raucous) originals, it was our turn to spoil everybody's afternoon. Apart from a number of on-the-hoof arrangement changes courtesy of Mr Singer (OK, maybe he was just testing out our recovery skills, but I suspect not... ), a couple of the carefully-crafted intros we'd worked up at rehearsal on Wednesday going to pot as various folks piled in before they should have done (think we need a few more counting lessons... ), and a few other minor moments by all of us, seems we got away with it judging by the amount of applause, outbreaks of (possibly cider-induced) dancing, and complimentary comments at the end! Used my 1997 CIJ Jazz, faithful old Ashdown MAG300-C210T combo (acquired from @karlfer of this parish about 15 years ago, and which doesn't get to see much action these days), plus the usual board of Micro Thumpinator > NUX tuner > Ampeg OptoComp > Ampeg Scrambler > Ampeg Liquifier > Ashdown 12-band Graphic EQ/DI > Behringer DI600P DI. I somehow contrived to play the whole of the first set and a chunk of the second with the sub-harmonic engaged on the amp having omitted to disengage it after our last rehearsal, but I don't think anybody noticed. 🤫 Anyway, that's hopefully got the rust knocked off prior to our next gig this coming Saturday at our spiritual home of Anderby Village Hall. Might have some videos to put up later, if I can manage to get them off Mr Rhythm Guitar's phone at rehearsal, but in the meantime here's the setup, and a combined "Post Your Pedalboard / Footwear" shot.

Last night, played with Nine Lives at the Harbour Lights in Peterhead. As intimated above, had a rather nasty summer cold which I had fought through the worst of, but still felt about 75% strength. Still, the show must go on, sponsored by Lemsip and Kleenex if necessary. Got an instant boost on arrival - the venue has hired a sound engineer again! The last few times we played there, we had to rather annoyingly set up our own PA in front of their much larger tops and subs and do it all ourselves. No PA lugging for us last night. Instantly that perked me up! We got greeted by a friendly lass who had been mentored through 7 shows but last night was her first gig doing the sound solo. She did a great job and it made for an unusually quiet and civilised stage - our PA is vocal only for the most part. Nice change. My amp was my own personal monitor and it was barely on. Got a great monitor feed, could hear everything, nice balanced FOH sound, fantastic - lass did great for her first gig by herself. As you can imagine, having the sound basically taken care of us made for a very relaxed gig, and the adrenaline pulled me through enough to still get out there on the wireless and get up to no good. New move unlocked - hitting a ball on the pool table with the head of my bass. Need to work on that one because I muted the strings while I was doing it, but as I always say "people listen with their eyes" and I got a cheer for the audacious move. The game of pool was over BTW, there were two random balls on the table and no white in sight - so I didn't eff up anyone's game. Anyway, had a great night - it wasn't super busy but we did have folk up dancing and that's all you need. While we were packing up, to say the heavens opened was an understatement - a monsoon of rain, massive lightning strikes and booming thunder. Which thankfully moved on by the time it came to loading the cars. But the storm had moved in the direction of Aberdeen, so I ended up driving into it like a storm chaser - rain so heavy I had to slow down to 40 or so on the dual carriageway - massive lightning strikes - even saw the shape of it one time and the thunder came almost immediately after so must have been close! And my jammy luck didn't end there - when I got home proper, the rain was off again! God bless Scotland and its nutty weather Gear was a long, shaggy dog story plugged into a snotty hankie. No, wait - it was the Yamaha BB1200 followed by the Burny LSB-80 into a barely awake Markbass rig.

I took part in my first gig in 18 months yesterday. It was a battle of the bands in a secondary school and our band was one of the 'parent's bands'. Anyway, we have our first gig under the belt. It was outdoors so I got to use my full rig and this ended up being the kids' bass rig too. Consequently, I ended up with bass tech duties too. This is my first gig playing with a drummer with an electronic kit. There were no monitors and as well as not hearing the vocals, I could barely hear the drums. We got through our short set ok though. My rig:

Last weekend my bluegrass band played two outdoor sets at the Tottenham (Ontario!) bluegrass festival, the largest one in Ontario in very hot humid weather. Our Friday early evening set was made more interesting when the PA suddenly cut out part way through the third song. Since we are all playing acoustic instruments and are seasoned players we kept right on playing and singing and the crowd of about 400 loved it and cheered and clapped and we didn't miss a beat. We moved to the very edge of the stage at the end of that song to more applause and started our next song and then amazingly the PA came back so we gracefully moved back to our mics and finished our set. The Saturday morning set had a smaller crowd but we were in fine form and it went well and my twin sister was there, first time she has seen me play since the early '60's when I played guitar in a folk group in high school, yeah, I'm that old. The next day we played a concert as a trio (guitar, mando, and me) in a lovely old church and changed our set to outline a brief history of bluegrass and it was the best we have ever played. Super sound and the audience who were not very familiar with bluegrass loved it. The reason we were a trio is because one guitar player had to go home for a family event and the banjo player was suffering severe stomach pain due to a reaction to a new medication and had to leave. We have done this trio thing before and it works really well and we play some non bluegrass songs like some Eagles, Gordon Lightfoot, and even Ralph McTell's Streets Of London which always goes over well. Sorry for the late report but the area where I live, almost six hours from the gig, was hit by a severe storm Saturday night and when I got home at 11PM Sunday there was no power and it didn't come back for another two days and I am still clearing downed trees from my yard. Bass was my "70's Czech ply through Nux wireless to my Traynor SB112 and DI to PA.

Saturday night was in a school hall playing bass for the local concert band and it's 25th anniversary concert. Was good fun but a total sweat box, especially when the band committee insisted we all walked on stage in full uniform - ie shirt, tie, trousers and heavy band blazers. Luckily the jackets came straight off when we got on stage.....

We played Summerfest yesterday. There were some pros and cons. It was one of the smaller stages. However it was an upgrade from the last two years after we lost our big stage contact. It was 99° so Summerfest attendance was low. We had an air conditioned trailer with a nice supply of cold drinks. We played a 45-minute set took an hour break then came back and played another 45 minute set. The best part of the gig was we went straight from the stage into the shuttle van. That was cool. Daryl

Phew! That was tough one at the South Benfleet Social club. Intensely hot, even massive fans and iced water could only do so much. The audience were appreciative but I think the heat was wearing on them too! Lots of applause but very little dancing. We’re back there on August 16th and a few people said they’re coming back to see us again, so that’s always nice to hear. We played well, some of my regular mistakes were ironed out, so pleased overall. Best part of the night was a cool shower when I got home!

We played a small pub where 3 of us started playing together at the open mic. We were a little concerned that we'd not get anyone there to be honest. The heat, the pub hasn't got an outdoor area or a way of throwing the doors open and getting some air flow, and several bigger events going on. Oh and it was a Friday. However, we had a decent turnout, the crowd were great and we've been asked back. Can't be bad.

School Prom gig last night. Mid week ones are always a bit of a challenge, what with having to leave work early etc, but at least I got home at a decent time! Second time we've played this one (our drummer works at the school and his wife is headmistress) and second time we've done it without any of our usual singers. Keen readers may recall that one of our singers dropped out of last week's gig because of his ME. He was supposed to be doing this one with a dep female singer, but he still wasn't feeling fit, so she ended up doing the whole 2 hours pretty much on her own. We had a rehearsal on Tuesday, when we found out he was still unwell, so we hastily put together a new setlist to get through the gig. I ended up singing 4 or 5 songs as well to give her a rest. Under the circumstances, it went much better than I expected it too. Typical "gymnasium sound", but it sounded decent out front. In-ears were another matter. I don't get how the in-ear mix keeps changing from gig to gig, but I was getting pummeled by bass and kick drum and hardly any guitars. We definitely need to do some work with that. Teresa, the dep singer did a fantastic job. She was in a previous band over 20 years ago with the two guitarists, and I depped with them on their last ever gig before forming this band. I quite forgot how good she is with a crowd. It helped for this one that she's also a school teacher herself. You could tell how comfortable she was interacting with the kids. The school itself is a special needs school. It was fantastic to see these children enjoying themselves in a safe, nurturing environment. I feel they wouldn't have had the same opportunity to express themselves the way they did last night in a regular school. It's humbling to see them being encouraged by the staff to be themselves without judgment. So, yes. A good night in the end. Any anxiety I had about not having our usual singers quickly disappeared once we got going. The evening finished at 9.30 and I was home a little after 10.30. More of those, please! Although I was still aching when I got up for work this morning. Next stop, The Cricketers and a wedding both in July, with yet another dep singer that we've yet to rehearse with! It seems like the years of deps!

Well, I'm not entirely sure what happened down at the pawn shop. I popped in to look for a passive footswitch but I now have a new (to me) Squier Active Jazz bass. I shouldn't have picked it up "just to see if it's any good". When I realised it was essentially unplayed and felt super comfortable I knew I was in trouble. After minor tweaks to intonation and action, and swapping the gleaming white pickguard for an old off-white one from the cupboard it is just the ticket. Looking forward to taking this along to a jam soon.

Saturday was a surprise 50th birthday party, in the upstairs function room at Starr Sports, Canvey Island. The birthday boy’s wife booked us months ago after seeing us severaral times, including another party in the same venue. Apparently he is a huge back to the future fan, so they had an “enchantment under the sea” theme, including decorations, and we offered to include a couple of songs from the film in out set, as well as a couple more when Liam, one of our co-lead singers was also going to man the DJ booth. I say ‘was’, because we got a message Saturday morning on our band group chat to say that his ME was playing up quite badly which took him out of action. This meant revising the set list for Jenny, the other lead singer to do the gig on her own - something she hasn’t done for a some time, particularly this sort of gig - as there are a few songs she simply can’t pull off. There was also a few in the set that she doesn’t usually sing or hasn’t sung lead on them before, but was confident she could. I realised this also meant I was going to need to up my backing vocals game, and sing some parts I don’t usually sing… which is fun! This also meant the DJ service was said we would provide before, between and after sets wasn’t going to happen either. Luckily, I have some party playlists already set up in the Music app on my iPad (aka iTunes) that would get us out of trouble. I just had to find a couple of extra songs from the BTTF soundtrack to play at certain predefined points during the evening. I needn’t have worried though. The evening went without a hitch. Jenny did an amazing job on her own. I feel she sometimes relies on Liam’s confidence to interacti with the audience, but it seems to have rubbed off on her. This venue also has a lovely big stage area and she made the most of it (as did I), confidently moving around and interacting with everyone. My curated playlists worked fine (thank goodness for Bluetooth on our mixer), although I realised that I can't switch to BandHelper whilst playing music. That's a mistake I won't make again! I also realised during our first set that I hadhn't synced BandHelper before I left home. So I connected it to my iPhone whilst it was playing music towards the end our break so that it would sync when I switched back to BandHelper, not realising that a FB messenger notification would pop up... loudly, through the PA system. Another mistake I won't make again! Ooh, one last thing, as this stage is so wide, last time we played there I noticed the speakers being so far apart, meant the drums didn't quite gel. So I asked one of the guitarists to being their DXR10 speaker to use as a centre fill. Sat it on top of the sub, plugged it into an aux out of the mixer, with the same mix as the main, and set to post fader. Dead easy, and sounded great. Definitely made a positive difference. So all in all, a good night after, despite the anxiety of being a man down.

Party in the Barn. This was a ticket do with hog roast included. I'll try to be cheery about, despite missing Iron Maiden (my wife and son said they were fantastic!) So we actually had a really good gig. Nice to be working with a sound guy we knew and it sounded great. It was darned hot and humid though so I'm glad I took my fan. There were about 300 people there, around 200 of them that dragged their tables out of the barn to where there was a very slight breeze. It wasn't exactly the freshest of air though being a working farm 😂 A long, hot night but plenty of dancing. The Rumble was only just ticking over as on stage monitor as everything was through the PA

Still on fire, and Doug Wimbish is a monster Setlist is Cult of Personality, Pride, Love Rears Its Ugly Head, Time's Up, Solace of You

Played a dep gig for my old soul band. The set had changed slightly since I last played with them, Boogie Nights, Never Too Much and Let's Groove had to be learned and polished and then rejigged again with all the mistakes/changes the band have added 😂 Boogie Nights intro and outro had become my Achilles Heel, the bridge I needed to cross to enjoy this gig fully. The gig was a wedding reception at the Stones Hotel near Amesbury (more than a stones throw from Stonehenge, which seems a blessing on Solstice). We did 3 x 40 mins sets with 40 min breaks which were filled by a DJ. I was a little apprehensive due to the heat that afternoon but the room was large with a high ceiling and a couple of stage fans plus the fire exit was open...cool as a cucumber! Gig went well, the long breaks between sets was welcome and I was pleased how the new stuff went even if they didn't go quite to plan, any bumps in the road were dealt with calmly 😁. Even Boogie Nights went well! The big plus playing in this band is that I get to sit in the engine room with Dave, probably the best drummer I've had the honour of sharing a stage with. He is my rhythm version of an old pair of comfortable slippers, it all clicks with him (lovely shirt too!). Overall a grand night and a good pay packet at the end of it 👍🏻

I had a depping gig last night at a local golf club. One short rehearsal where I met half the band (but not the singer). The set list was familiar with only four or five I hadn't played before and the rehearsal showed up another few that had different arrangements than what I was used to. A 20 minute drive to the gig was a bonus. I'd played this golf club about 20 years ago so although it was vaguely familiar, the decor had changed for the better and the band had a dedicated space (although not an actual stage). Following the recent trend the gig was sweaty as although there was a patio door open behind us, there was little movement of air. Every thrash of the cymbal that sent a waft of slightly cooler air my way was a gift. It was a good night and my playing was up to a standard I was pleased with given the circumstances; no major gaffes and only a couple of issues with the ends of songs. The crowd were certainly up and dancing from the first number and throughout. The band were pleased with my efforts and I'm now on their dep list. Kit was my trusty Sterling 34HH, swapping between bridge pick up for the rockier numbers and both pick ups for a more mellow sound for the quieter stuff. This went through a Zoom MS60B for noise gate, compressor and tuning/mute and an Ampeg SRC-DI into the FX return of my Peavey Minimax 600 and a pair of TE 1x10" cabs. It's the first time I've used backline for several years (I DI and use IEM with my main band) and it was great to be able to get the punch out of the TE cabs, which were more than a match for drums, three guitars and a singer. Footwear was Black Skechers.

Shit journey to Sheffield - 2 hours on the M25 and then 4 on the M1. Great gig though, lovely crowd again, probably the best we’ve played on this tour. The drummer and I were very much enjoying our groove on many of the tunes. As always we are getting well into the groove as a band and the tour is nearly over! Shoes were Soul Cal & Co Converse lo top rip offs. Cheap and comfy and not too hot in this heat 🤓

Well, technically it was NBD yesterday, but I drove to Inverness after work to get this bad boy and didn't get back home until late, so I couldn't be bothered filing the report until today. I have assembled a flock (?) of Thunderbirds - saw this guy up on FB marketplace for a most agreeable price and couldn't pass it up. It's even redder in person than these pics suggest - it's almost redburst rather than sunburst, and I really dig it. Here it is with its rather more outgoing sibling... Got a lot of extras with this one - Hipshot bridge (as you can see), the official hard case, strap locks (Schaller), a strap, a spare set of strings. And the bonus of all bonuses, the slightly longer Vintage Pro/60s/64 T-bird fits in the hard case - just! Happy, I am. Except that because the Hipshot bridge is chrome, I really want to replace the tuners with chrome ones to match... Jamais contente

And here I am at the church looking for a note....

Wasn’t in a great place when I arrived but Dr Gig helped to pull me out of the pit. Very hot last night with the windows and doors mainly shut, and a lot of people outside in the front garden of a small country pub, so it was a bit quiet but those that were inside were appreciative. All good with the IEM’s and the new better boundary mic I ordered after the old one wasn’t working last week w a marked improvement. Very tight on space and some of the videos look very static and somewhat disengaged from those in the crowd but I think that was to do with lack of space (at least I hope so)

I gig all my basses, regardless of how much they cost. Instruments which don't get gigged get sold. Edit: I'll expand upon my answer. While none of my basses are truly "irreplaceable" I do own several which would be a monumental PITA to replace in terms of sourcing, plus any mods I've made to make them play/operate the way I want them to. So while not strictly speaking "irreplaceable", I'd rather bloody not have to! I own basses which make me happy, and I'm happiest when I'm playing them. So they get played. I take simple precautions when out and about - not leaving them unattended (there is at least one band member in the "stage" area at all times), using an appropriate stand for the bass (like not trying to precariously balance a T-bird on a mini stand for instance) and just taking the time and care to handle them properly. Been gigging since 2009, and not once have I had a bass stolen, picked up and mucked about with, knocked over or damaged. Not saying it's impossible, but with some simple safeguards, chances can be minimised.

So I simply HAD to pick a 31 degree Centigrade day to strip the front and back of the bass ... doh! I used the shadiest corner of my workshop yard ... but it was still stifling and VERY acetony! It was so hot the acetone was evaporating and solidifying with the lacquer almost as soon as it was tipped on ... but I persevered. Compared to the woodworking part this is a hard, unpleasant and gruelling grind. Front and back done ... only the sides to do. And stripping the back revealed some past repaired damage down at the end pin block ... it's well enough done to be left alone. I gave the front and back a light hand sand - but I think I will have to get an electric sander onto them to take away the last of the sanding sealer and remove the blotchy look prior to staining. The issue is that I don't have a sander in the workshop (hand is usually good enough for what I do day to day) ... so more tool buying required. How much easier it is to work on a bolt on neck bass ... the way forward I think.

Last night I did a dep gig for a U3A jazz band as their usual chap has various health issues and had been advised by his physician to take a rest. He actually turned up to watch and, fortunately, appeared to like what he heard. Not many in the audience, but it was a fairly rural venue. Nice building, though: https://thehallevents.org.uk/ Gigging again tomorrow: https://www.charlburybeerfestival.org/live-music-and-entertainment/ ...then a jam on Sunday.

Played a birthday party in the middle of nowhere in a sweaty tent, no food or drinks with a client who made an ignorant/racist comment to out guitarist right of the bat. I also got to use my newly finished "Grandma's wallpaper" jazz bass. So 7/10 overall

We joined a new church in January this year - our local Anglican Church (or at least one of them) - and been feeling increasingly at home there. It’s not been since the before pandemic that I’ve played in a service but I’ll be playing bass at the the church for the first time tomorrow, so this should be fun. It’s at the more relaxed evening service. The tone and approach to the music is a bit more mellow than I’ve previously been used to at previous churches, though it’s all the same sort of range of writers… Bethel, Brooke Ligertwood, Elevation, Rend Collective etc. Will be keys/piano leading plus bass, acoustic guitar, drums and vocals. Will be interesting to see how it goes. Very much looking forward to it. I’ll try to report back afterwards!

I've always wanted an Ironbird bass but never really expected to own one. Then last week, after my after-dinner nap, I was browsing through Facebook Market place and saw one for £250, including the case. Even better, it was only 3 miles away. I immediately offered to buy it and collect it within half an hour and I did. Now that I own it, I'd like to know more about my new acquisition. I've done a bit of research but details are sparse. Also there are no real markings on the bass or in the 'bag of spaghetti' wiring compartment. How can I tell where the bass was made? Does the serial number suggest it was made in 1989? Is it right that the 'R' logo is a custom build? Anyone have any ideas on what the set of toggle switches do? The case is ridiculously heavy and well built. You could throw it off the Eiffel Tower and the guitar inside would remain intact! Any information will be gratefully received. ............. and by the way, do any of the music shops sell a prop to hold the neck up? Just wondering!

A couple of little changes thanks to @tayste_2000: Swapped out my 3Leaf Enabler for the Shiftline Olympic MkIIIs on the Nano, powered by a Cioks Sol, running the Olympic and OC2 at 12v: Swapped out my MXR Studio Compressor for the Diamond Bass Comp Jnr on the Nano+, powered by a Cioks DC5, running the Diamond at 18v: That is all for now 😀 Si

A bit late, but Thursday's Jam Night was good. We were on shortly after 9 followed by the band I depped for the previous Saturday (Matt Guntrip and the Roadsters). Matt and said Roadsters hadn't heard us play before. A few of my mates also came down, some of them for the 1st time The pub manager told the guitarist he'd had a few people asking about us and offered us a Friday slot if we want one. So I guess we either played well, or played songs people liked, or both. My 1st Granddaughter (and also the neice of the drummer), was born on 4th May. Hence I managed to get this one on the set list. Intro to the song was along the lines of "Can you guess her name. No. No. No. Well there's a clue in this song". violet

Lose the vanity and wear glasses, varifocal lenses allow you see up close and far away.

Monogamy is for relationships PolyBandry is fine, just be open about it.

I've had a hankering for one of these (in natural) for a while, but had decided to give up as I've probably got nearly enough basses now. However, I had a little search on FB Marketplace today and saw one that the owner just wanted to swap for a 4-string. Well, it so happens that I had a 4-string in the spare room wardrobe which had been there since 2011 - got it as a backup and then stuck with 5-strings so it was redundant. A little discussion with the seller and I threw in a bit of cash, a (adequate but not great) strap, and a (decent) lead, and headed 90 miles up to Stockport to collect it. Got a slight shock when he texted me and said he'd decided to keep it as I was in Stockport by then, but it turned out he was texting someone else who wanted it and was still doing the swap with me. So home it came with me. Very effective 3-band preamp. The neck is a little deeper than my preferred depth but narrow enough to compensate for that - I think it's a little deeper than the SBMM SUB Ray5 that's sitting patiently awaiting a preamp, certainly deeper than my Antoniotsai, but it feels OK. I think the pickup needs raising a bit. Setup is generally good. The strings seem a little odd, they certainly look like a matched set but they're approximately 40-60-85-100-120 (I think the 60 is actually more like 58). I think it will be getting a set of Elites, 40-125. There's a few very minor dings but nothing of any note. And this is the bass I swapped for it: An Aston, which I've never encountered apart from this one. Passive, VVTT, neck-through. The seller was happy with it, I was happy with the OLP and with the knowledge that the Aston was going to get used rather than sitting in a wardrobe for ever.

How do you reorientate videos? LOL WhatsApp Video 2025-06-22 at 12.50.37 PM.mp4

From my experience, the bigger the band then the bigger the problems. If you’re in say a 6 piece and everyone of them are in other bands, then the chances of everyone being able to make all your gigs are significantly reduced - and then you end up with one of more deps which is hardly ideal. With my recent situation with a touring theatre band it was made clear that depping gigs out was not going to happen, and I did every gig with them that they performed in 15 years. I was fine with that to be honest. I had to turn gigs down with my duo as a result, but as my duo mate was a lot busier than me it wasn’t an issue. Since leaving the band, I’m now in a position for the duo to be my first call, and we’re getting plenty of gigs - we can book them further into the future with confidence, knowing we’ll both be there! I’m reminded of that famous Duke Ellington quote - “ There is nothing to keeping a band together - you simply have to have a gimmick, and the gimmick I use is to pay them money! “ 😄