casapete

A friend of mine conducts funerals as a civil celebrant. He's often asked for some 'wacky' tunes for the occasion, including - The Jam - Going Underground, The Traamps - Disco Inferno, Queen - Another one bites the dust, Norman Greenbaum - Spirit in the sky, Monty Python - Always look on the bright side of life, Crazy World of Arthur Brown - Fire, Morecambe & Wise - Bring me sunshine, Simple Minds - Don't you forget about me, and also the Match of the Day theme tune! Most popular songs are - Angels, My Way, Time to say goodbye, Wind beneath my wings, You raise me up, The Living years.

Good call, was causing me some OCD related issues.......😆

Her version of 'Spooky' gives me shivers. For some strange reason I can't seem to embed YouTube videos any more - SORTED!

Dusty was amazing. Without doubt one of the finest female vocalists of our time. I love pretty much everything she did ( with the exception of the Pet Shop Boys collaboration ), especially her wonderful cover of Carole King’s ‘Goin Back’ . Unfortunately never got to see her live though. Absolute legend.

We play theatres all over the UK, including smaller ones. Even with the larger venues we do, the idea of social distancing in a seated auditorium is pretty much impossible, both practically and economically. Say every other seat only could be sold ( and that probably still wouldn’t allow enough distance between punters ), we couldn’t make playing many venues worthwhile at 50% of their capacity. Likewise, how would long rows of seating work? We know from experience that only after a few songs into our first set some people need the loo ( or maybe a smoke?) and squeeze past people in their row. Same goes for cinemas too of course. Already we have lost a couple of our regular venues for good, and I especially have fears for the smaller theatres in the longer term who need well supported gigs to survive.

Me too! My main band plays (or should that be 'used to play'...) mainly theatres and arts centres etc. Nice gig, with great people and no hassle. But it's the other gigs I play that make me feel more connected with what I do. I'm in an acoustic duo and we have (maybe 'had') a weekly Tuesday night residency in the back room of a local pub. Lovely crowd and atmosphere and a gig which I genuinely love and look forward to. Sure, we get the odd nutter / drunk in but they don't give us any grief. Already this seems like eons ago, and I really long for a return to a pre-lockdown scenario although fear / accept that this won't be for a long time, if at all. 🙁

If you decide to go down the route of getting a separate DI box, you really can't go wrong with one of these - https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Behringer-BDI21-V-Tone-Bass-Preamp/6LV Based on the Sansamp Bass Driver, but over £200 cheaper! I bought one to back up my Sansamp and it's fantastic. For £22 it's a no brainer to stick in your gig bag.

Me too, and that’s coming from someone who’s not a big fan of ‘The Shads’. Probably due to backing too many guitar vocalists who always insisted on doing an instrumental to show their versatility and it usually ended up being ‘Apache’ ( or possibly ‘Albatross’). I thought Hank, Bruce and particularly Brian Bennett came across as being decent blokes, and was amazed how popular they were in the early sixties. Pete Townshend’s comments were amusing! Always thought ‘Wonderful Land’ was their best tune rather than Apache though.

Not music gigs, but had tickets to see Frank Skinner, and also The Sopranos! (3 of the leading cast in a behind the scenes and Q&A type presentation !) FS gig will be rescheduled but doubt whether The Sopranos will risk coming over any time soon.

Just heard this on Classic Soul, still sounding so fresh. Produced by the great Allen Toussaint and featuring The Meters. Such a slow groove with so much space too.

Also the average loft isn’t a great place to store guitars or basses. Extremes of temperature during the seasons can play havoc with them, as I know from experience. 😟

Doh, my mistake. Should have known Lozz preferred USA Fenders! 😄

8.5 lbs is probably just within my limit! I had one of these a while ago, black with a maple neck job, and it was way heavier than that which was a shame as otherwise was a great bass. Didn't have the passive option though, so probably pre 2012. IIRC the very first ones they introduced were passive only, sunburst with a gold guard too I think. Incidentally, I always thought these were MIM, yet your shot of the headstock says 'Made in USA' under the Fender logo?

Nice one Lozz. Been thinking about getting one of these for a while now, but was wondering how heavy they are? Also have they always had the passive / active option, am guessing yours is fairly recent model? Cheers, Pete.

He’s used Mesa stuff for years, amps and cabs I believe.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=global+citizen

Oh okay then -

Agreed - Sheryl Crow did some songs from her home studio, sounded great.

Agree that Lady Gaga sang brilliantly, although those chords in ‘Smile’ were very doubtful, even in a jazz style arrangement! I even liked the song with Celine Dion, Andrea Bocelli and John Legend, as nobody went OTT, at least not like they often do. Bits I wasn’t keen on - Elton (strewth...), Ellie Goulding , Billie Eilish and Eddie Vedder. Thought Billie Joe Armstrong was good, along with Taylor Swift and Shawn Mendes/Camila Cabello and Rag and Boneman. For me the highlights were Stevie Wonder and Tom Jones - I found his performance riveting. The Stones were good, despite the err...technical challenges. Charlie’s face whilst playing / miming was superb.

Apparently they are all on the Global Citizen YouTube channel, including many that weren’t aired over here.

I have a Fender Baja Tele which is ace. Had a few Teles over the years and this one is the best, and very light (under 7lbs). I love big necks on guitars, so the others I have all feature them too - 1959 Gibson Les Paul Junior, Fender Strat 57RI and a cherry Gibson 335. ( Also have a Sigma electro acoustic which I haven’t really bonded with yet due to it’s smaller neck! )

Our band is looking at August, although in my mind that is very optimistic. I feel it will be more like October if we’re lucky. Also the government’s rumoured approach to the lifting of restrictions in stages includes keeping those over 70 at home for longer, which could damage our sales figures a fair bit.

Our previous tech guy used to run my bass via the amp’s DI (GK1001RB) and also mic up my cab (GK Neo 410), using a mix of both I believe. When our current tech started , we did a few checks on the best way of doing it, and he settled on DI only, saying the difference was negligible. I ended up using a Sansamp BDDI for the FOH feed, with a Behringer BD121 as back up ( never needed yet). Sometimes we do gigs where I use other backline / quick changeovers and the Sansamp means one less thing for him to worry about.

My thoughts exactly Stew 😆

All 25 for me, honest! Has been over a period of 45 years of gigging though, and Red House was in one of my first bands (who had a Hendrix obsessed guitarist ) along with Black Night too .Most of the rest I still play now and then when doing request gigs in my acoustic duo. The shame.......