HengistPod

Sadly, blue, I think you're right (though I can't vouch for you being "old"). Having said that, my missus still has a jealous head that she puts on whenever I mention the word "gig". She seems to think that bass players are some kind of babe magnet and I'll end the evening draped in all sorts of loose womens' lingerie. Would that it were true.

All makes perfect sense to me. hairychris - you may want to note the following guide to musicians' love lives:

Last of the Mohicans, with Daniel Day Lewis. I like it so much that I regularly nick bits of it to put on home movies when I'm editing them up. Same goes for Blade Runner (and lots of other Vangelis stuff, for that matter).

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1420674790' post='2652174'] Now there seems to be a population of musicians that could gig but chose to only involve themselves in bed room playing or basement "for fun only" bands. It's a good example of how things change.[/quote] Very true. My son is a fantastic guitar player, but is simply not interested in gigging. He swaps files electronically with his muso mates, and they write stuff together that way, with Pro Tools and other things that confuse me. Their overall aim is well-recorded music which they share on the web. Although much of it is way too technical for me (by Dog, they love strange time signatures and changes), they could easily play it live if they wanted. They just don't want to. Strange thing, the youth of today - as it always has been.

Hurray! Let's hope it works out for you. [size=2](My own favourite piece to chuck in is the Roobarb theme tune).[/size]

Perhaps a bit drastic, spacey. There are plenty songs out there for your average covers band. Enough so that you don't have to do every one that a band member suggests. Unless, of course, you're an up-to-date pop covers band - in which case you'd expect to have to play the latest chart nonsense however much you dislike it. Which is part of the deal when you join the band, really.

Best of luck. Hopefully both will turn up! Getting some kind of recording of the session is a good idea, for reasons mentioned by Dave above. Just be sure to punt the first guy out in plenty time, because the second might be on the ball and turn up a bit early ... you don't want them scratching each others eyes out in the hall.

We'll generally give anything that any of us suggests a go - we're old enough to know what stands a chance of succeeding both for us and an audience. We're also polite enough to learn suggested stuff that may not be what we'd like to play - it quickly becomes obvious when one or more of us are just not interested in it. This usually happens when it doesn't ever get suggested for the next song that needs a run-through in rehearsal - or if someone does mention it, everyone else kind of goes deaf for a few seconds until something else gets suggested. A lot comes down to the singer, though. If there's not an enthusiastic vocal after a couple of run-throughs, we might as well bin it and try something else. No matter how much some of us want to do it and have studiously learned the Randy Rhoads solo or whatever ...

Obviously genuine because, as the seller says, it looks like some other guitar cases the Clash used. Same seller has Jim Morrison's Paris Journal original manuscript going for around $50K. Plus a whole bunch of other crap.

A lovely bass made out of what sounds like a well-used lavvy seat for only £695 ... [url="http://tinyurl.com/oaq5w9s"]http://tinyurl.com/oaq5w9s[/url] Oops, sorry, REPOST!

I'm surprised at the lack of broken strings on display in this topic. I tend to break an A or E string at least every dozen gigs or so. I do tend to dig in with a pick near the bridge, though. In my experience, guitarists are more than happy to noodle away for the couple of minutes it takes to get a new string on there. My advice is to keep your spares close at hand, and readily accessible. I've only ever had my amp go once, about 15 years ago during a soundcheck - a fuse blew in it, which it turns out wasn't unheard of in new Trace heads at the time. They sent me an envelope full of fuses when I called them about it - I only ever needed to replace the initial blown one, and it's been fine since. the rest are still in the envelope in my gig bag. What I did at the time was plug straight into the PA and muddle through. As usual, not one punter noticed.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1418096571' post='2626824']Everyone will be looking at you ... [/quote] ... and they'll be thinking "Who's that guy and what's he doing up there with the band?". Anything that gets the bass player noticed is a good thing. So don't take a spare bass to gigs, and make sure you only replace busted strings with new ones so that they keep going out of tune when you put a new one on. Got to keep peoples' attention!

I'm sure this isn't the first thread I've seen on here about the clothes that people wear. Personally, I think it's a little wierd. It does seem to me that the comparison pictures posted earlier really weren't that different. The band in the first were obviously part of a scene where baggy, shapeless T-shirts are acceptable. The band in the second looked more like they hadn't made an effort to me, whether their T-shirts fitted better or not. I remember my Dad watching the Sex Pistols briefly on TV and remarking what a bunch of scruffs they looked, and you'd think they'd at least put on some decent clothes to perform their "racket". He completely missed that they were conveying an image just as much as Sinatra or the Three Degrees. This thread brought that to mind.

Agreed. And I'm only talking about a band to play in pubs and stuff. You wonder why people sound so keen, "really looking forward to it" etc - then just don't turn up, and completely ignore you when you text to see if they're OK. Perhaps they all die in freak accidents on the way to that first rehearsal.

Seems to me that if people pay to see it, then it's fair game. Novel ways of parting people from their cash are coming along with ever greater frequency. Do people who object to this type of "performance" also object to videos of bands with deceased members being shown on television? Or the publication of "lost but now found" work by a famed - but dead - poet? It's only a matter of degree. Should Iain Banks' last novel have not been published because he died before it came out? Certainly it would freak me seeing e.g. Rainbow with Hologram Dio and Hologram Cozy Powell playing "live". But then I wouldn't go, for I have better things on which to spend my hard-earned. Like more Thunderbirds.

Something that annoys me no end is finding guys to join a band ... you find them, email them, text them, swap demos and arrange for them to turn up at a rehearsal. They're fine right up till the evening before. Then you never hear from them again.

Came across some Steve Harris isolated bass tracks from one of their live albums on Youtube a while ago. Suffice to say that they were pretty shocking - out of time, missed notes, vague approximations of bass runs all over the place. Canna blame the guy too much, like, because he's usually charging around at 100mph whilst playing. And I never noticed when listening to the original albums.

Try songster.com ... lots of tabs there, an online tab player, and the facility to print them out if you use PrintScrn and do them bit by bit by copying to a Word doc.

Sax player Raphael Ravenscroft hosted Channel 4's "Countdown" in the 1980s, not "Blockbusters" (as urban legend has it).

Famously, Chris Glen's onstage bass parts in MSG were actually played by Zal Cleminson hidden behind the backline.

Fender's well-known endorsement of Yes' bass player resulted in the Squier series of instruments, which are played exclusively by the band to this day.

Getting a vaguely classic rock covers band together in the Ellon area, but don't seem to be able to find a singer. The rest of us (1xgtr, bass, drums) have got about a gig's worth of tunes together already. Looking to get a voice on top and get out there for pub & club gigs. This means a few quid and usually free beer. Rehearsals are generally Sunday afternoons. Male or female, makes no difference. Should be able to pull off acceptable versions of Iron Maiden & Journey tunes. In other words, baritone or death metal vocals aren't what we're after. We're all in our 40s, not ageist, and quite relaxed about the whole thing. Fun first.

Little do people know, but UFO's bass player has been a devout Christian for many years. So much so that he was canonised at the climax of AC/DC's set at Donington in 1991, narrowly avoiding third degree burns, and is immortalised "out in the street" in Sandown, Isle of Wight:

I got a couple of Airfix kits for my 7-year old last Xmas. The Mosquito/Me262 "Dogfight Doubles" one, and a Spitfire. Needless to say, I ended up painting and making them whilst pretending to let him help. I wish they'd had Superglue when I was small - far easier than "polystyrene cement" with rubber bands holding fuselages together til it dried. Anyway, I'd like to note that the decals/transfers you get with them nowadays are RUBBISH. They all lasted about two days, dried up and fell off.

Good man, Bill. One day you'll be standing there listening to some great music, the groove pumping through your brain, and you'll suddenly come back down to earth and realise that it's you that's playing it ... without looking at or thinking about where your hands are going or anything ...