WalMan

Guitarist just made our Christmas songs on YouTube public again that being the time of year. Three that came out of Lockdowns (along with other covers and a short album), but here we are coming up 6 years on and the enthusiasm to record and do other stuff to keep from the insanity of sitting in the house all day at bay seems to have waned We got a load of videos put together remotely, three Christmas songs, one a cover, and a six song EP/album produced during and following lockdown. A second EP was planned, but somehow it never happened once restrictions stopped. Shame really but 🤷‍♂️ Anyway...having brought a downer to the thread...Happy Christmas (early) one and all

Martin Barre and friends. Acoustic show and last minute as a friend had to cry off last minute so I took it on. Very enjoyable evening.

I’m hoping the new premises will have mine with me soon 😁

Barock Project - Live Voyager. It says “recorded at Trading Boundaries” which means we were there and I’m currently listening out for wifeys distinctive shriek … she’s on every band recording of our gigs she was at so no reason to think she wouldn’t be on this as well 🤣 That said it sounds like a bigger crowd/room than TB so maybe it’s an amalgamation of gigs and audiences Also Jason Lindberg and The Other Side. Their most recent album showed up on Apple Music and liking their brand of Swedish prog.

Saw him with Headspace Saturday. A bit different to your gig and a little sparse on attendance, others loss as they missed an excellent night with a great band Silent stage, except for the kit, and the baby Kemper doing its thing well.

So far tonight: Born to Run - the whole album not just the track Blackest Eyes - Porcupine Tree some Sweet and currently Time Frames - Jonas Lindbergh & The Other Side

Headspace at Trading Boundaries on Saturday with Lee Pomeroy on bass

Home at last and a beer cracked 🍻 Fun as ever and good to catch up with everyone.

Final load and I’ll be on the road soon

Dreadful 🙁 Horrible sound. Mistakes. Punters down the road at a firework party, so a virtually empty pub. First set was mush and struggled with or without IEM’s. I needed to apologise for letting it get to me and being out of sorts. Second set a bit better, but all in all a night to forget. i feel a major debrief incoming at rehearsal tomorrow night.

I have one on order 😁 If it’s anything like the One10’s I’m sure it’ll be fine

I shall have a BB2 with me. Unfortunately the Three10 has not arrived yet

Had a debrief on Saturday night whilst waiting for drummer to arrive - he’d warned he’d be a bit late. Took the Tokai and Darkglass Anagram and plugged the latter into the effects return which worked well. Only the second time in anger, but it’s pretty intuitive so adding effects and tweaking foot-switch assignments was a couple of quick clicks. Once we got started a couple of new songs mapped out and a few songs for Saturday’s set run through .

Raffle item: I have the TC Electronic Octaver I won two years ago that I’ve never really used that I’ll put back in. Gearwise: I reckon Basses: Wal, FrankenJazz (I should probably replace the battery), Tokai Hard Puncher, and then one of Status S2, Zon Legacy Elite, or G&L L2500 fretless. Amp/cabs: Microtubes 500, Streamliner and BB2 will be in the car from the previous night. Effects: Darkglass Anagram and I could put in the bigger pedalboard with the SkarBassOne and Source Audio C4 synth (amongst others) if not covered elsewhere. if anyone is interested I’m currently selling a Helix Floor in a flight case and a Helix Effects also flight cased, but will only bring if someone expressed an interest in either, otherwise I’ll continue the rather halfhearted selling attempt 🙂

It was ok, but a quiet night 🙁 Those that were there seemed to be enjoying themselves but mostly superglued to their seats other than a few dancing girls. One guitarist down but we’ve done it before so no problem, just tailor the set to songs that didn’t need the second guitar. Sound was ok, and fine in my IEM’s. Towards the end on the second set I had a couple of really bad attack of cramp in my fretting hand. Possibly dehydration, and maybe the fact that I have missed a load of my immune suppressant drugs because of Covid a month or so back & two courses of antibiotics so my arthritis is starting to flare up. Picked up a Darkglass Anagram during the week and set up a quick stomp box preserve with Compressor always on and then Octaver, Chorus and Flanger controlled by the buttons. Went well but will need some experimenting. Apparently it was the pubs Halloween party so face paint and dress up Gear: FrankenJazz, Anagram, Microtubes 500 and Barefaced BB2.Status S2 in reserve Shoes: Barefoot (red and silver)

Moon Safari - Himelbacken 2 Bandcamp Another band I found on eMusic years ago and have built up a collection of albums and seen a couple of times: - 10+ years ago in Southampton with Lazuli; and - last year at Trading Boundaries

Not against the rules, but certainly against the spirit to immediately repost for sale at a profit. My problem…I buy stuff but rarely move stuff on. I have purchased a few things here, always to use not flip, and if it’s not quite my thing I will re advertise here after a bit of use but at no more than I bought it for…then again others might say I’m a fool to myself 🙂 If I have had and used something for a while and do decide to move it on, and the market has moved that’s a different matter, but not as a buy and flip. Certainly don’t expect me to resell the Wal I’ve had for 40+ years for what I paid for it 🤣

On parking prices for stadium gigs, when #2 son and I went to the O2 for Dream Theater I was still non weight bearing on my left ankle but I drove anyway as I have an EV, so automatic and don’t need my left foot. I used the valet parking and probably would again as it really wasn’t that expensive, particularly if spread across four in a car. Drove past the trucks and up to the door, handed over the keys and went in. Leaving the car was waiting at the door and the drive out was fairly easy. A bit of a queue once we met the carparks exiting, but I’d do it again. For Stray Kids at White Hart Lane with my granddaughter I found a primary school that makes a bit of extra money for school funds by letting parking spaces for events that’s right next to the ground. £40 IIRC but a couple of minutes walk in and out, though you have to arrive a little earlier to miss road closures and we picked the wrong way out and got stuck at a road closure, but again worth it particularly if you have a car-full, easy access and gives a small school some much needed extra funds. Granddaughter was happy at the wait on the way out confusing the heck out of my Spotify algorithm finding K-Pop on Apple CarPlay 🤦🤣 Gig wise we tend not to do stadium gigs - DT at the O2 could possibly be the first gig of that size I have been to. More normally we are at smaller theatre or club gigs. Prices can get up a bit on occasion and paying an extra £2 or so for the ‘privilege’ of printing a ticket at home, or receiving it electronically to my phone is always galling.

A quiet one minus drummer as he had to take his dog to the vet for its final trip today 😢 So a quiet one to run through couple of new songs for key, one tweaked slightly from that originally planned - it may have been due to not pushing so vox hard on the night but it felt better changed. Took the Hard Puncher I picked up from Dood recently into the studio Hartke/Ampeg rig and it was sounding great. Nice clank even with me rolling more bass and less and less top - whoever used the amp last had treble full up and bass rolled way back 😳 Now I like top end bite but that was crazy. Good session working through arrangements and bv’s with loads of too and fro to sort things out. Our drummer has said in the past he’s not been used to how we sometimes work on stuff that in early days of a new song can be a chunk of time concentrating on finding an ending that works running different ideas to refine rather than necessarily just go route one slow down and final splat. That works sure but sometimes it’s good to try other ways, or how to get to the final slow and splat 🙂

Went through my leads bag to get out the Bass Revolt, power supply for that and lead to sit on the sofa and noodle on the Thunderpuncher 😳 while the F1 was on. Guess what…there was the Palmer power supply 🤦🏼‍♂️

Not a bad night last night and local to me, though sadly a bit quiet with an Oasis tribute a couple of hundred yards one way and another band down the road the other. Landlady apologetic but happy as she said she still took plenty of money over the bar. “We love having you here, you’re so professional” So we were playing to a small select bunch, but they were all enjoying themselves and singing along. Band was tight and the sound really good. Loads of compliments from those that were there which was nice. Used the usual rig of: FrankenJazz, Helix Effects, Darkglass Microtubes, BF BigBaby2. Shoes comfortable barefoot. As there was potentially a bit more space than usual I took the bigger pedalboard but the Palmer wall wart that I had at rehearsal on Monday wasn’t in my leads bag so reverted to the Helix. 😡 Must have a search for that or order a spare.

Office conference and we had Supershakers. Apologies if it was you and you had to suffer a bunch of pished tax accountants 🤣🍾🥂🎉

Hope you're feeling better soon! I was testing positive for a fortnight but no gigs as our vocalist was away on hols, and I missed one rehearsal for new stuff. Bad at the beginning with a bad headache, cough, catarrh & blocked sinuses and general meh. Finally tested negative on Saturday morning, which was just as well as I had a call for a last minute dep in the evening