casapete

I haven’t used my 63 Precision regularly for a while, although it does get an airing every now and then on gigs where I know I won’t have to worry about it. When I was doing gigs in the theatre band, I was worried that once we’d soundchecked and then gone out for a couple of hours in search of food / drink, there was a window of opportunity for someone to steal it. This was further reinforced by our laptop getting nicked from the mixing booth in one venue, and nobody saw anything! Ironically the bass I chose to use on those gigs has now become very special to me too- it’s a P-Lyte and I use it for most of my electric gig / deps etc. I did around 800 gigs with it in the previous band, so would be a tough one to lose. Just started a rock and roll gig in a local club so will be getting the old Precision out for that I think. Big stage, nice audience and I’m around all the gig so happy days.

Fortunately not me either. When I’ve bought basses or amps then Mrs CP knows I either need them to earn a living or ( just occasionally…) because I just like ‘em! Of course it helps that I don’t splurge dosh on daft cars / watches / cameras and all the other stuff old geezers like me seem to love. In turn, she’s pretty good at not blowing our hard earned on anything silly, with just the odd bit of vintage stuff for herself / the house or some green things from the local garden centre. Works for us.

My take on the Rod Stewart set. Agree lots of vocal stuff wasn’t in tune, and he’s certainly showing his age now. He’s been a bit embarrassing in his performances for a few years, and I have no idea why ( with such a wide back catalogue ) he decided to do stuff like ‘Love Train’. Re the girl singers doing a song mid-set, that was probably to facilitate him changing and having a blast of oxygen or whatever he takes to do a 90 min set! Also I certainly don’t agree with his recent political comments in the press, or many of his other views TBH. Plus all the Celtic / Scottish stuff gets a bit tiresome from someone born in London, albeit with a Scottish father. BUT! I’ve seen worse Glastonbury ‘Legend’ sets over the years by other artists who proved to be as disappointing, including one or two who mimed / used backing tracks. Rod’s band were pretty good ( despite all the bass and guitar changes etc ), and more importantly were all playing live. Too many girl singers maybe, to help cover his now limited range, but this is how he works these days - if it seemed a bit Vegas it’s because that’s what he’s been doing recently. Past years have seen others doing this - Dolly, Barry Gibb, Shania etc etc. It’s meant to be cheesy and nostalgic, a gentle piss take maybe but most of all FUN. On that basis, it was okay!

Legends? Maybe in some people’s eyes….

One of them still touring I think?

Whilst I take your point, has your drummer’s dad sold 120 million albums worldwide?

Celeste - blimey, couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket. I’ve seen her perform a few times, and her pitching ( or rather lack of it ) has always seemed to be an issue. She has an ’interesting’ voice but for me the random pitching thing is just too much for me to tolerate.

Am I the only one who wondered what was going on with John Fogerty? It was like watching someone with hearing difficulties / a severe speech impediment - & often out of tune especially in the early part of his set. Really disappointing. His band were great though.

Watching NY, I am just so pleased that Spooner Oldham ( at 82) is still alive and kicking on keyboards. A wonderful musician / writer who’s been playing in Neil’s band on and off for decades. Saw him at an intimate gig in Manchester in the late 90’s where he was performing with Dan Penn, absolutely brilliant.

Yeh, me too. Was last October though, so will see how they fare this year.

Like you I’ve been a GK guy for years. However I love the newer Rumble stuff - have a 500 combo which is superb, and a 100 combo for small gigs which is nearly as good. Handy for us ‘older gentlemen’ too….😁

Sounds fine Daryl - have you joined the Rumble club or was it just a hired in rig? 😆

Actually Music Ground was a pretty good shop back in the day when it first opened just outside Doncaster in Stainforth. A old Co-Op shop, it was rammed with guitars and amps, new and s/h. It then moved to Doncaster town centre, then some of the staff left to establish Electro Music which was IMO the best music shop in Yorkshire / The North.

There’s a shop on Hallgate called ‘Fret - Don’t Fret’, Rockem music are in nearby Rotherham, and there are quite a few in Sheffield including Rich Tone ( recommended ) and Wizard guitars. Doncaster was where players from my area used to go to for great shops, such as the great Electro Music, sadly no more.

When mine was converted to passive, I opted for a master volume / master tone / pickup pan. Did this because I needed to mute quickly at time, and having two volumes made it a bit harder. It’s been a bit of a learning curve, but as I’ve got older it’s been beneficial to my hands. 😄

We normally try to strategically time our playing with food service so they don’t overlap, but sometimes its just impossible, especially if there’s stroppy kitchen / venue staff involved! Weddings are the worst for this, and it can often be best just to go with the flow. However, when our meter is running to finish by the agreed time / cost then it can be annoying. Goes with the territory I’m afraid!

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.

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.

I guess it really boils down to how you view yourself - a band member or perhaps a musician who happens to play with whoever gives them work? I’ve played music for a living for over 30 years, and wouldn’t have been able to do so if I’d not been loyal to the bands I was in. It’s different in London I know ( and maybe other big cities ) where there are plenty of great deps who allow lots of flexibility if the situation allows it. But commitment and reliability count for something outside of that sphere, and in my world I couldn’t have constantly been depping my gigs out whenever I’d had a previous / better offer. I’m not saying either option is wrong or right, just not the same for everyone. Similar problems can arise when band members have day jobs that define their availability - being in a band ( earning big money) with 3 teachers in it got to be very annoying for me. (Best bit was when we got some deps in to enable the band to carry on working, and they were better than the guys working in school!) Naturally it all inevitably came to a messy end.

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! “ 😄