HengistPod

I made our one, thinking the printed ones were all too expensive for a bit of cloth with a bit of printing on. So I got a 4x2 metre bit of suitable black material, and big bits of red and white felt, off fleabay. Printed out the logo at the right size (on multiple bits of paper), traced onto the felt, cut out with scissors, stuck on the black background with glue, then the missus kindly volunteered to stitch it all on properly with her new-fangled sewing machine contraption. Added a line of that curtain-topping trim stuff at the top, too, to protect against drawing-pin rippage. It turned out damn good, and cost a total of about £40 (and a couple of days craftwork).

It's true. Live After Death sits up there with Strangers in the Night. Which must please 'Arry no end.

[quote name='dlloyd' timestamp='1472594122' post='3122531'] Golly... Roddy, the singer from Idlewild, was at the same school as me. I sort of knew his sister, but not him. [/quote] The bloke that played drums was from Banff ... was in my old guitarist's class at school.

I followed them religiously from the time they supported Priest at Aberdeen Capitol up to about Donington 1992. Saw them at Long Beach, two Doningtons, a pre-Dono gig at Queen Mary's College in London in 88, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Manchester, Nottingham ... seen them a couple of times since but, like AC/DC and the Scorpions, they're now an over-rehearsed, play-it-safe behemoth. I won't be going back, even to hear Aces High played live one more time. We have Running Free, Wasted Years and Hallowed in our set currently. Children of the Damned is a splendid workout ... particularly if you try to play it with only two right hand fingers as Mr Harris does. Truly he must have bionic implants. Go on, try it ... Having said that, aside from the power in Harris' fingers, his chord structures and lines are just a touch repetitive. How many songs can you possibly write that go E-C-D at a gallop, then a variation of a few notes up and down the scale for a fill, then E-C-D again? Quiet bits use pretty much the same patterns, but slowed down. But he seems a nice bloke, and undoubtedly loves what he does. Can't fault the guy.

My son is in what he calls a prog band in Aberdeen ... Orynthia, they're called. He surpassed me in technical ability some years ago and continues to make me look stupid with his knowledge of time signatures, strange picking techniques and something he calls "djent" ... There seems to be a large group of youngsters (up to about age 25, I mean) like this in Aberdeen ... although many of them seem to sit at home recording stuff on ProTools and don't actually get out much. Haken are his big faves, although Tesseract have certainly been mentioned on several occasions ... Seems to me that his branch of "prog" incorporates heaps of technique and seeing how fast you can race up and down every note on every string of an 8-string guitar in a different order each time. Preferably two of you at the same time. Attention to a memorable melody is very much a secondary consideration. But hey, best of luck to them. I'm delighted he's such a proficient musician.

1982 ... UFO / MSG / Scorpions ... ... with Marillion just appearing on the horizon.

I sold a bass 3 or 4 months ago (bought new at the start of the year for around £250) for £220 ... it came up for sale a few weeks later for £300. Someone must have bought it, because someone else is now selling it at £275. With the same strings it had on when I sold it, and an extra couple of scratches. (R*****fakers ... seem like a good idea at the time, few people seem to actually get on with them though ... )

Being a bit of a literalist ... I'm a professional musician. I play music, I get paid for it. QED. Having said that, I'd hesitate to announce myself as such to anybody, ever.

My Boss CS-3 compressor pedal failed on Saturday. Not sure what happened, but it stopped working after I changed the battery. I just had to play on without it ... took me a good few songs to get a sound that I could use! On taking it apart on Sunday, it became apparent that the little plastic switch-box that the pedal itself activates had come apart at the bottom, thus preventing the switch from doing anything. Superglue appears to have fixed that. Still not sure exactly how it happened. The pedal is around 20 years old, mind. So, following my unpleasant experience of suddenly having an unworkable sound, I will be looking out for a spare CS-3! Of course, despite me thinking I was making a total arse of myself, sounded horrible and was spoiling the gig ... nobody else noticed a thing.

Mine isn't too bad, until she counts my basses every so often and demands an explanation as to the necessity of them when they all look the same. For reasons of unidentifiable-as-a-new-one, I stick mostly to black and tend to rotate their public appearances. The agreement now is that any new bass must be balanced by the sale of one. Fair enough, really, and she seems to have forgotten about all the ones up in the attic so I can't complain too much. Basses and gear are tolerated in the upstairs bedroom, some under the bed, and as long as amps & cabs are neatly stacked in a corner and there are no more than two basses on display when we have visitors to stay she doesn't make too much fuss. But she does hate me gigging. Seems to think that some wild rocker chick is going to take a shine and steal me away. Me. A bass player.

Been regularly gigging for almost 20 years, and regularly breaking strings - every 3 or 4 gigs an E or A will go. I tend to get a bit enthusiastic at times, and almost always play with a pick close to the bridge. I always have two sets of spares with me, plus a few old (but not ancient) single strings. As a mid-gig replacement, generally one of the older ones will get whipped on in double-quick time. Then the whole set will get changed afterwards. I do wipe my bass and strings down conscientiously after a gig.

Sometimes I take a spare bass, sometimes not. Tonight, for example, has a PITA load-in that takes ages up and down stairs and lifts. So - one bass tonight. What I'll do is make sure I have my spare strings handy so that if I do break a string I can get it changed quickly while the rest of the band do a bit of between-song banter then go into something like When September Ends - by the time my part is due I'll easily be ready. Last time I broke a string was on the opening low E note of "Wasted Years" by Iron Maiden. Always entertaining playing a whole song on 3 strings whilst furtively searching for the string saddle (good ol' Thunderbird bridges, eh?) wherever it's ended up on the floor, then trying to prevent it being booted around or stood on by the singer, etc, until you get half a bar where you can retrieve it ...

+1 for Hall Of The Mountain King. Or the Roobarb theme tune. Also +1 for Dee on ornamental acoustic guitar. Aside from powerchord nonsense, it's about alI I can play on a guitar.

We also have the veto system in place. The world is full of music, so why play tunes you don't like playing? We're all too old for that. Having said that, I'll withhold my veto if there's something the other guys really want to do and it doesn't make me cringe too much.

Magnum at Aberdeen Garage last week. Surprisingly, their newer material was mostly better than the classics. Bob Catley is knocking on a bit, but has adapted his voice pretty well to cope.

A singer who ... 1. Won't learn other people's song suggestions because they're "too niche" (e.g. Aerosmith, Cheap Trick), then insists everyone else learns songs by Buckcherry and Lit. 2. After 6 months of gigging, still hasn't learned the words to any songs he didn't suggest. Uses a music stand for lyrics at gigs. 3. Blows out gigs when a more lucrative offer for his other (tribute) band comes in. Claims that booking was actually in first, but his iPhone and iPad hadn't synced properly ... Actually, you're right. That isn't reason to leave a band. It's reason to sack the singer..!

Motorhead on Another Perfect Tour, 1983 or 84 it was, at Aberdeen Capitol. I had to leave (above reference to being shot by a machine gun in the chest rings true - it was actually becoming hard to breathe properly). I remember the perspex screens along the aisle at the back of the auditorium vibrating in their holders. For excessive volume allied to utterly terrible sound, Extreme at Glasgow O2 Academy last year (or 2014?) was hard to beat. The PA was constantly distorting - you couldn't make out what tune they were playing at all. I later discovered that they were using the house PA rather than their own - the soundguy should have been sacked for incompetence. Sad because, judging by their performance, the onstage sound was fine.

+1 for just adjusting to the drummer's volume, particularly when the band isn't all going through the PA. Seems to have worked out pretty well for us so far in most pubs. Could be doing without singers who feel they have to be inordinately loud, though, especially as my left ear tends to end up beside the PA speaker. Having said that, you have to remember that most punters actually listen to (or hear) the singer more than anything else. There may be up to one punter who actively listens to the bass (and his mate will later inform you how he can play a given song better than you, but with scant explanation when faced with the polite query as to why he isn't in that case out gigging himself tonight).

The Skids - Into The Valley. What a sound. Iron Maiden - Killers UFO - Cherry. A bass intro that Steve Harris, having also listened to Lights Out, built a whole career on ... Rush - Distant Early Warning.

The Smiths at Aberdeen Capitol in 1984. Played for 45 minutes, looked totally disinterested (maybe that was deliberate?) and built a frame across the front of the stage to make it half the size. Acted as if everyone should be really glad they'd actually favoured us with their presence. Just sh!te. ... also, I've seen Megadeth half a dozen times, from the Marquee to Rock City to Long Beach Arena. They were unfailingly awful on every occasion.

I have every ticket stub from gigs I went to since 1980. A set of autographed Marillion tour programmes from the first 4 album tours. Autographed photo of Roger Waters dedicated to me by he. Various other autographed programmes, inc Dio Last In Line, Ozzy Speak Of The Devil and Gary Moore when Neil Carter was in the band. A Gene Simmons plectrum, and a couple of Frank Hannon from Tesla's. Posters I did for Fish and Girlschool gigs at my local venue, fully autographed by both bands. Also fully autographed Girlschool red vinyl Hit & Run LP, and Emergency single. Autographed Clash 7" (can't remember what it is, but the cover is the same as the first album). Several tour posters at A0 size, inc Scorpions Blackout, Marillion Childhood, Scorps Savage Amusement and a mid-80s Monsters of Rock, as well as various other A1 venue posters advertising who was playing that night. My main bass was built in the Gibson Custom Shop for Floyd London of The Almighty.

Personally, I treat Youtube as the "go-to" when learning a new cover. It's taken over from trying to find a tab of the tune (though Songsterr also gets regular visits). You can find versions of most songs you're likely to cover (excepting Pallas's Arrive Alive. ), and it can make things a lot quicker and easier. Especially for that one little run that you just can't twig. The one that turns out to be ridiculously easy. So I'm all for folks putting bass covers up there ... good, bad or whatever. You can take something from most of them, even if it's just noticing that it would be easier to play something in a different position to what the guy in the video is attempting! I think that only a small percentage of people do it for ego-based reasons, and amn't really sure why it bothers anyone!

High-profile deps include (off the top of my head): Bernie Torme, who filled Randy Rhoads' stage space following the latter's untimely death. Joe Satriani, who stood in when Ritchie Blackmore exited Deep Purple prior to a Japanese tour. Paul Chapman, in and out of UFO depping for Michael Schenker in the 70s, various bass players standing in for Pete Way when the latter couldn't get into America. Metallica's guitar roadie playing James Hetfield's parts following a pyro accident. Midge Ure standing in on guitar for Gary Moore on a Thin Lizzy US tour.