casapete

Surprised this hasn't had a mention yet! This is the original version, and the bass always got my interest even at an early age. Apparently the tune was originally called 'Lancashire Blues' and composed by Eric Spear, for which he was paid £6 according to Wiki !!

You're right Kev. The band was originally named 'Rockaria', and then morphed into The ELO Experience. Andy (our 'Jeff'!) was probably singing then too. Thank you! We're not as 'rock n roll' as a lot of bands, but then don't think the original ELO were either?!! ( Shameless plug - we're playing at Guildford G-Live on 24th July this year ) 🙂

I play in ‘The ELO Experience’, mainly in theatres and the occasional festival / outdoor event. Been doing it now for around 10 years. Wasn’t my first taste of tribute bands, having previously played for a Neil Diamond act. Prior to that I had no working knowledge of tribute bands, and at first found it more than a little strange. Still surprises me that people will buy cds and merchandise for a tribute act, but there you go. Downsides for me - playing mostly the same set everywhere, as the punters obviously want to hear most of the big songs. Also the theatre environment can be a bit lacking in gig vibe, which we do our best to overcome. However, the upsides far outweigh this - our audiences come to the gigs knowing and loving the songs, and their response to us doing them is genuinely heartwarming. We have quite a few who come to many of our gigs up and down the UK, and their dedication is much appreciated. Most of the theatres and venues usually have decent crew, dressing rooms and sometimes PA systems for us to utilise, and when I do gigs with other bands in venues without these it can be a bit of a reminder how nice theatres are. Also doing theatre gigs, we are usually done by 10pm! I haven’t seen many other tribute acts, the first being a Stones band (either The Counterfeit Stones or the Rolling Clones ?) many years ago who were excellent, and The Bootleg Beatles who were fantastic. To be honest, if it wasn’t for the emergence and acceptance of tribute bands, as a bassist in my 60’s now I’d probably be struggling to be still playing for a living so long may it continue! 🙂

From the BBC website - Lenny Kaye, Patti Smith’s guitarist, explains how the quest for new guitar sounds has driven the history of popular music, from Les Paul’s first guitar to Bo Diddley’s tremolo, Duane Eddy’s whammy bar, Keith Richards’s fuzz pedal, The Who’s feedback, The Byrds’ 12-string, Hendrix’s wah-wah pedal, Uli Roth and Van Halen’s shredding, The Edge’s digital delay, Ry Cooder’s slide, and KT Tunstall and Ed Sheeran’s looper pedals. With Duane Eddy, Roger McGuinn, The Edge, Bonnie Raitt, Seasick Steve, KT Tunstall, Joe Bonamassa, Uli Roth, Vernon Reid, Heart’s Nancy Wilson, The Runaways’ Lita Ford and producer Shel Talmy.

Just listening to this as I do my end of year tax return! Don't think there's much love for Bruce on here but for me he's still one of my all time great artists.

Afraid my days of heavy gear are over now. Consider myself fortunate to be able to take advantage of lighter stuff now (I'm 61), so better late than never for me! When I think of what I used to carry (mainly on my own) into all sorts of venues over the last 40 odd years, I'm amazed my back has held up as reasonably as it has really. Lots of my peers haven't been so lucky. The newer stuff has changed my working life - in particular Barefaced cabs - so I can carry on gigging regularly with no immediate health worries.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002700

Know what you mean, but it's just the modern way now. TV's, domestic appliances, Hi-Fi, phones - they all have become more disposable. Even if you can find someone to repair stuff, chances are it's borderline whether it is economically viable to do so, or whether the parts are available. I remember a few years ago a guy walking into my mate's car lot and buying a big Citroen without even driving it for around 2 grand. He was buying it for the on-board computer system to fit into his own model, and it was cheaper to buy a 'donor' car than get it repaired at the dealership. I knew then this was the start of a long and very slippery slope.....

TE build quality/construction is rarely questioned, one of the reasons for their success. My tech guy rarely compliments any amps, but did concede the AH500 was very well designed/made. Such a shame few other manufacturers couldn’t / can’t attain that level of quality and consistency. I’ve been using GK heads for nearly 20 years now, and have been impressed with their reliability and great sound. Weight was a big factor in changing from TE, and I found the GK 700/1000 RB amps to be the perfect compromise of portability and sound quality, with my amp head weighing less than 10kgs.

Of course it’s all relative. My AH500-11 is around 22kgs, around half the weight of my old SVT head which is why I sadly had to move it on. In today’s world however, am not so sure many gigging bassists would refer to a 22kg amp head as being feather light 😕

Just watched it, very enjoyable although I did prefer the drum episode to be honest. Looking forward to the guitar one now.

Really looking forward to watching this now...😄

Just been reunited with my old AH500. I had it in the 90’s and it just resurfaced so bought it back! Seen some active service, but still working okay, although I’d forgotten how heavy it is 😕 Used it for gigs in Morocco along with an equally weighty Peavey 4x10, and remembered it sounding sublime and didn’t miss a beat. Going to keep it for a while and wallow in some nostalgia, at least until my back gives out of course...

Played at an agricultural college event in the late 90’s , me and my guitarist mate backing a singer doing Simply Red stuff ( I know, but I needed the money, OK?!! ). Crowd was mainly aged16 to 20, all a bit pis*sed on cider so you can imagine how well we’re doing. Me and the guitarist not too bothered as we’d taken advantage of the cheap bar so a bit tired and emotional etc. This young lad steps up and asks the singer very politely if he can just use the mic to give a shout out to his mate as it’s his birthday. Singer duly obliges, so the young lad grabs the mic and shouts “ Feck off, you’re a stinky poo band” and runs back into the crowd! Me and guitarist collapse with laughter as the singer storms off, trying to identify the culprit to the college official. We got paid anyway.

If I have I can't remember. I've been a pro bassist for 25 years, and believe me when you're getting paid to play as your main source of income then you become less picky pretty quickly! Of course we've had band decisions on songs over the years that may have been based on personal likes/dislikes etc, but the overriding outcome has always been ' will it help us go down better / get work / please the booker' etc etc. My worst scenarios (thankfully rare) have been when recording - some songwriter wanting bass on his (not great) songs. Having to keep schtum / not laugh / try and polish a turd etc is always really difficult, especially when you know it's got your name on the finished article. Same as backing dodgy acts - it's my job to try and make them sound as good as possible, end of story. 🙂

And me too, although it's the guitarist who gives me the nod! Thought it was just me, phew.... Can you imagine if everyone in the band flatly refused to do certain songs / anything by particular artists? In my old 8 piece band, it would have made for a few pretty short sets! In cover bands we all have to bite the bullet sometimes and play stuff we consider crap / embarrassing / beneath us etc etc, but that's what its' all about - giving whoever is paying / supporting you what they want. The Mavericks tune mentioned above is a classic example, and when I went to see them it was that song that got their audience dancing in the aisles. Job done.

Getting laughed at by all the 'rock' fans in my case...….🤨

Absolutely. When the Bose line array type systems first came out, a DJ we used to work with let us use this system to save space on a gig. Sounded great when he used it for recorded stuff, but we couldn’t get it to work for our band at all so ended up using our PA alongside his. Am sure they’re okay for some applications, but for a loud 8 piece band they just didn’t suit.

Agreed! Not a big fan of S.C's drumming, but thought he presented the programme really well, very entertaining and informative. Looking forward to the next instalment of the series.

Love a Hammond. There’s just something about that sound as it fills each chord which makes it so exciting. Combine it with horns and it’s sonic heaven for me. Favourite players of mine include Billy Preston, Gary Brooker, Ian McLagan, Booker T, Danny Federici & Steve Winwood.

I play acoustic, at home only though. Always have it to hand for working out songs etc, and love to hear one played properly. Players I've always admired include James Taylor, Robert Johnson, Chet Atkins, Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler. As with electric guitar, I've never gone for the 100 notes a second approach. 😉 This was on Radio 2 recently. Was never a big fan of Dire Straits, but Mr Knopfler is something else.

Vibration causing a dry joint in the amp to disconnect the signal somewhere?

I saw Lizzy at Bridlington Spa, probably 77 or 78? I was working in the record business at the time and got some tickets via their record company rep I think, as TBH they weren't really my bag. They were great, tight as and really loud! Classic line up of Robertson / Gorham IIRC. I have to say though (contrary to nearly every other post on this thread) I never thought Phil was that cool, and looked to me like he was a trying too hard doing the classic 'rock pose' thing a lot of the time, ending up looking a bit daft. Great band with some ace songs though, and very sad Phil died the way he did so prematurely.