fretmeister

The songs Levin etc have played are legendary and are well known. That doesn't mean the fans of the songs can name the players. Certainly not for solo artists. More to the point, they don't care. They don't care if Peter Gabriel's backing band was Hendrix, Sting, Rich, and Mozart. Gabriel is the legend there, not the band members. If legendary status was about ability then someone like Vic Wooten would be more popular than Sting. And he isn't. Ed Sheeran -v- Andre Segovia. Or if we are honest - any professional backing singer on earth -v- Ian Brown. Edit. And I am talking about bass players. I think there’s a lot of under 45 bassists who won’t know who Levin is.

This is where you lose me. Ask the under 40s or maybe even the under 45s and far more of them will know who Joe Dart is than Tony Levin. To bass players aged 50+ Levin is one of those legendary old pros like Sklar, Flowers, Kaye, Jamerson, Dunn and so on. But do non-bassists know or care who they are? Not so much. Does the bloke in the street who loved the Sledgehammer video have a clue who was on it other than Peter Gabriel? No. Did Levin ever get a sold out crowd at the MSG actually singing along to a bass instrumental? No. He's just not visible enough. JD is very visible in Vulfpeck and Stratton regularly calls him forward, makes him the main point of interest for various tunes. That's how the muggles know him as much as the bassists do. Legendary status for musicians has always been about visibility more than ability.

Zender - Jamiroquai Myung - Dream Theater Levin - just about everybody! Most famous probably for Peter Gabriel or King Crimson Commerford - Rage Against the Machine

It's in a video where is't confirmed - Jack Stratton was effectively EBMM's guarantee to cover the overheads of the signature runs, at least for the first couple of models.

I wonder why Levin hasn't got one. Maybe after the OLP version he didn't want a full fat one.

There's quite a lot of attenuation on the active input. Either turn up the input gain or just use the passive input and maybe turn the input gain down a little.

I never knew Alan Carr could sing that well!

£8 per hour from leaving to getting back... not including rehearsal times, deductions for consumables etc etc. I'm beginning to wonder if it's worth quoting showing total time with reference to the minimum wage!

Sight reading and theory.

I'll give it a try.

Yeah, but then you have to go to California.

I've just googled the band. Listening to "Call me" Why have I never heard of them before? This is right up my street!

Are you guys running these di into the PA or as a posh pedal with an amp?

not a clue. It was a Facebook chat.

Even for fun bands I've done the learning is at home, rehearsal is for rehearsal approach. Ok, that's all a bit different with originals as until the song is finished every sessions is a bit of a re-write / re-arrangement but these days with free DAWS and smart phones riffs can be recorded and emailed round in minutes. When I started I had my dad's old dictaphone for riffs and then later a Yamaha MT50 4 track tape recorder! So I'm very much on the side of turning up prepared to rehearse, having already learned the song at home.

If the guitarist hasn't learnt the tunes maybe he could just sight read them. Oh. He's a guitarist. As you were.

This made me laugh https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/arts-entertainment/eurovision-to-be-hosted-in-homophobic-daily-mail-readers-living-room-20220726223738#Echobox=1658831707

I thought the sound he had from the passive Ray / Sterling model on the "Live at the MSG" vid was far better. Really thick and chewy tone. He had EB Group flatwounds on that bass too.

It's not him though. Jack Stratton put his own money up to cover the overhead of the original ones if it didn't sell enough for EBMM to cover it. JD has stated in interviews that he's just a sideman and he plays whatever Stratton writes for him. If you are correct about trolling, then it's Stratton doing it.

I remember that too - but I think that was before the telephone voting and it was just panels of professionals in each country making the choice. 161 million people watched the semi finals and the finals last time and it costs 15 pence to vote. 54 million watched the final alone - that suggests that for the countries knocked out at the semis, they don't watch the final as much. I can't find any figures on what percentage of viewers vote but from my friends they often vote in the semis and in the final and sometimes vote for more than 1 in the final.

The increasing membership / contestants and the increased viewing figures suggest otherwise.

Weird that it hasn't got wheels too. Even though it's really light, it's a big bulky thing that needs wheels.

@ezbass I updated my post as I had some conflicting info - but it seems for the modern competition the telephone voting income brings in enough money that the contributing countries actually get some money back from their donations. Presumably following the X-Factor approach where the telephone vote pays the entire production costs and makes profit on top.

And I forgot... The income from the telephone voting is massive. Sometimes to the point that the participating nations get some money back after it has all been paid for.