casapete

I was lucky enough to see Ry Cooder in the 80’s at a gig with Flaco, who was absolutely brilliant. In the right situation accordions can be fabulous instruments.

There seems to be a growing trend with car dealers to set ‘low’ fixed prices, presumably as some people don’t get on with discussions about how much it is going to cost them. This seems to be the case with car ‘supermarkets’ where I’m guessing it’s the same principle as Aldi etc - pile ‘em high and sell ‘em cheap. When I recently went with my daughter and her partner to buy from one of these places, one of the first questions we got asked was how much a month we were looking to pay - once they grasped we were cash buyers they did seem a bit disappointed as it meant no commission on the finance deal When I worked in the motor trade, there was a way of thinking that concentrated on ‘the price to swap’ - this meaning that the price of the vehicle for sale and the price offered for the customer’s part exchange were not key, it was whether the balance to change vehicle was satisfactory for all. (‘We buy any Car’ and others have changed this recently though). When we moved house 5 years ago this was also the case - we priced ours to allow for a small amount of discount, and negotiated the same on the one we bought which was within the parameters of what we had hoped to pay as a price to swap. Of course this only applies with a ‘selling and buying’ situation, but if I’m looking to upgrade a bass then I still consider it a main consideration.

Or Queen…

I did a dep last night with a friend’s blues band. The gig was for a 60th birthday at a village pub near the East Yorkshire coast. Long room, us at one end, buffet at the other! Only around 40 guests so quite a challenge for the band, but we seemed to go down okay. The birthday boy had seen the band a few times so he knew what he was getting, not sure about all the others though. Anyway, fed, watered and paid so no problems for me. I actually enjoyed playing something different, plenty of stuff to keep me on my toes including a couple of northern soul classics reworked. Used my Precision Lyte into GK800RB and a 4x10, sounded fine. I’ve been asked to do a festival with the band in July so looking forward to that too.

I watched it for about 10 mins last night, that was about as much as I could manage TBH. Turned the volume down and it was hilarious..😆 Good job we all have different tastes though innit? A friend of mine has crewed for The Darkness for a few years and always says what a set of top blokes they are.

It is - original version from ‘The Thom Bell Sessions’, recorded in 1977 and released ( I think ) maybe 79. Probably my favourite EJ track, even though it’s not one of his own. The (Detroit)Spinners on vocals with Elton, and I believe it may have been the wonderful Bob Babbit on bass too. Sublime. The later remix killed it a bit for me, just lost something but that’s maybe because I knew the original version. I was working in record retailing at the time it was released and the manager in our shop had already schooled me well in soul / funk / r&b music. I remember getting the 12” version of this and being blown away by it after playing it at full volume on the shop’s hi fi. Happy days.

Absolutely! I did play it once with a 4 piece band though (all better players than me!) and it worked fine - didn't do the full 8+ minute version though!

How about Elton John’s version of ‘Are you ready for love’? Although a minor hit in 1979, the ( inferior to my ears ) remixed version of the song went to number 1 in 2003, and is really well known. Maybe a tad repetitive but a great tune with a fine bassline. Like some other suggestions , not hard funk but groovy AF.

Seen the BBs a couple of times, and they are superb.

Marshall did a 4x15 cab in the early 70’s. Not many around now and go for big bucks.

This was featured in BBC Proms Northern Soul on Sunday night, still on iPlayer. Great bassline and song!

I’m pis*ed off that I missed the recent tour ‘Northern Soul Orchestrated’ which was this exact show. They came to Sheffield City Hall too, one of my favourite venues. Hopefully they will be doing some more dates at some point, as all of the dates were sell outs. Just great seeing so many talented singers and lots of musicians making such a big and happy sound - loved it. Bassist Steve Pearce commented that it was one of the best gigs ever, and he should know!

For anyone who missed this great show, it is currently on iPlayer after being shown on BBC4 last night. ( Much better than the footie…)

Sheryl Crow last night at The Piece Hall in Halifax. A wonderful 18th century building built in a square, designed for cloth weavers to sell their goods. Despite my aversion to large / outdoor gigs ( see post above), me and Mrs CP got some tickets for this gig as we both love Sheryl and she wasn't doing anything else on this brief UK tour that was near or indoor so we bit the bullet. Weather was awful as we got to the gig, but we found shelter under the arches on the perimeter whilst watching support band Dea Matrona, whose bassist sounded great on her Mustang bass. Fortunately the weather improved as SC and her band came on around 9pm. Great mix in a space that I would imagine can’t have been easy for her engineer. Band were wonderful, with Robert Kearns using Reverend, Fano, MM Stingray G&L basses. He also played guitar and Wurlitzer piano on a few songs, during which Sheryl played bass on her Guild M85, and sounded fine too. Audley Freed on guitar was his usual brilliant self, although missing fellow long standing SC guitarist Peter Stroud for this tour. Tim Smith did a good job standing in though. Sheryl was superb, in great voice and looking amazing! They did all the older stuff everyone loved, as well as a couple from Sheryl’s recent album ’Evolution’. Played for around 1 hr 40 mins. They have a few more UK dates, recommended. (pics below not mine, obvs!)

Mick Ronson co-produced the album ‘Transformer’ with Bowie, and also arranged strings on it as well as playing piano, recorder and guitar. Some people reckon Bowie played the acoustic on WOTWS rather than Mick though.

My days of doing big gigs are now over. I would happily pay the silly ticket price for a favourite band in a smaller venue, but not a stadium. Surely doing one large gig should mean the prices are reduced, not hiked up? As you say, poorer view ( who wants to watch a gig on a video screen?), worse sound, possibly getting drenched and rip off food/ drink prices all mean I’ll pass. I was tempted to see Springsteen recently, but at the crazy prices involved and all the above I bailed. Definitely sticking to small / medium sized venues now.

We played in Beverley yesterday at the wonderful Sun Inn, which is now a monthly gig for our acoustic duo ‘Milestone’. Arrived at 4.30 pm to set up, and it was already busy. The gig runs from 5.30 till 8pm, with us doing 3x40 minute sets of 100% audience requested songs. We had the most ever number of requests, and managed to play most of them, although we were pleased the lady who’d asked for Britney’s ‘Hit me baby one more time’ had to leave before we attempted it. Other songs requested included Springsteen’s ‘I’m on fire’, ‘Broken stones’ and James Taylor’s version of ‘How sweet it is’ which doubled as a request for some JT and Motown. This is one of those special gigs where everything is just spot on - a great audience, brilliant staff etc, and fantastic landlords Paul and Del who really care about music. ( Del even said we should get there a bit earlier next time and he’ll serve us one of his legendary Sunday lunches, or Yorkshire Tapas!) Looking forward to our July gig.

What is it with venues that put on live music and have television on at the same time? We won’t play with them on, period. One of our regular gigs has TV on when we arrive and we leave them on whilst setting up, but then turn them off just before we start playing. Sometimes not popular ( especially when a key match is on ) but we fill the pub with people who’ve come out to see us, not watch telly.

A Dano Longhorn was going to be my first recommendation, although price and their somewhat ‘Marmite’ appeal made me reconsider. That red one looks ace though!

Harley Benton do some short scale basses that are often praised on here - have a look at them on Thomann website. From my experience of SS basses, 32 inch scale doesn’t feel much different to 34 inch. Dropping down to 30 inch scale models does, so that would include Mustangs - you don’t mention a budget but they start at around £350 for the Squier CV60. A friend of mine wanted a shorty bass for his teenage daughter, and I found him an Ibanez TMB30 Talman which was an ace thing - she’s just done her first gig with it. As usual, secondhand is always worth considering to get more bang for your buck. Also if weight / body style is a consideration as well as scale length then best to see if your friend can try a few out to find something that feels right for her.

Reminds me of an incident in a big local working men’s club a few years ago. The resident band and compère/singer were doing their first set of the evening to warm the crowd up, before the bingo naturally. Singer tells the band to take a few solos in a song, and the band see him head towards the bar at the back of the concert room and presume he needed a beer rather urgently. After far too many solos they finish the song, singer-less. One of the band goes off to find him, check if he’s okay etc. As there’s no sign of him, he goes downstairs to check in the bar, and en route asks the doorman if he’s seen the singer, who replies ‘ Oh yeh, if you mean Dave I saw him getting into a taxi about ten minutes ago’. Great way to hand in your notice. 😆

You're right Dave. From my experience (unless you're a big name act with 40/50 years of material to work with and millions of adoring fans) audiences do have a limited attention span and it's best for everyone to acknowledge this when planning setlists. I think for a covers / tribute band 2x60 min sets are more than adequate. I honestly don't see the point in adding songs to the sets and making them so much longer, other than satisfying the ego of some band members who don't know when enough is enough! Also bear in mind that venues like plenty of time to sell more drinks which is probably when the band is having a break / interval. Older audiences like to stretch their legs / go to the loo / grab another beer etc without feeling they're being a nuisance or missing out on some of the band's set. Personally I've always preferred one longer set from a playing point of view - easier to maintain the audience's attention and choose the songs to make the whole thing more cohesive. When my old band played some festivals we found the one set thing a revelation after being used to doing 2x60 minute sets in theatres. ( Unfortunately if we tried to opt for one set, with no support act, in theatres then we would be charged more by the venue to offset their loss on bar takings. )