Mr H

Read about Royal Blood in [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/233871-budget-basses-not-doing-so-bad/page__p__2416056#entry2416056"]another thread in this forum[/url] last week, and now, having exhausted their youtube presence, I'm waiting for the postman to deliver a 7" single by them. Good noisy stuff.

Bloody hell, these are good. Thanks for the link.

Mrs H is at her choir right now. They practice once a week and perform a couple of concerts each year plus a Christmas gig. It's a local amateur thing, but for the concerts they hire professional soloists (nice folk: we've had some over for dinner between rehearsal and performance). Some of the things she is not so keen on: lots of elderly members, who can be very conservative and set in their ways; the repertoire is occasionally not to her liking (Rutter!); no auditions, so people can join if they are keen, whether they can sing or not. She does love her singing, though, and it has encouraged her to take lessons, move through the exam grades, and consider joining a more serious choir. Sorry to read that your band is no longer a going concern - it was clear from your posts just how much you loved being part of that music. EDIT: She just walked in and I showed her your O.P. - apparently there is a "national shortage" of tenors, and "in London there's a choir on every corner" so you ought to be OK!

b5, that interview was fantastic - I just sat and watched the whole thing, and loved every minute. Thanks for posting it. The book is great, by the way, so look out for it.

A colleague saw them in Liverpool. Jet was expected to do the last song then the encore, as far as he understood, but declined the encore and looked quite knackered.

I bought a couple of guitar pedals and a few cables - they arrived safely and very quickly, and the price was right! Thank you Sir!

"The Dirt" is a great read, and Nikki Six's "Heroin Diaries" is also very readable and eye-opening. Last bassist autobiog. I read was Jah Wobble's "Memoirs Of A Geezer", which I thought was excellent. You're bound to find some "33 1/3" books you'll enjoy, too.

I love notalwaysright, and thought about it straightaway when the penny dropped in Dawsons. I even told them that I'd have the story of my idiocy online before the shop was closed and they had the chance!

Erm, you mean there were dangers inherent in the act which I was not aware of? Oops.

I bought an Orange Micro Terror guitar amp in March from Dawsons in Liverpool. Lovely thing, sounds great (I had a real guitarist try it out a week or so ago!), very pleased to have it around. Except yesterday I couldn't get any sound from it. There was the faintest ember glowing low down in the valve, but no sound at all. Tried the guitar and cable in a different amp, all good; tried a bass head into the Orange cab, which was fine; swapped the head-to-cab cable with a known-to-be-working one, still no sound. Arse. Interrogated the family to find out if there had been any unreported impact, but they all claimed innocence, so decided I'd have to take it back to the shop. When I finally found the receipt (I'd put it somewhere safe ... ) I noticed that they don't accept returns on failed valves after ninety days, so I checked the calendar. 91 days old. Double arse. Anyway, I phoned Dawsons, explained the trouble and the 91 days thing, and they told me to bring it in. The guy had a look at it, took it to a giant Blackstar cab, pulled a guitar down from the wall, wired everything up, and - BA-WO-O-O-O-OW!!! I had a look. That headphone output does look remarkably similar to the guitar input, doesn't it? D'oh.

I hadn't touched my old bass for years. My mate Dave started collecting guitars and one weekend I accompanied him to Dawsons in Liverpool. That Stagg EUB on the wall really caught my eye! I searched the internet to find out more about it, and discovered TB and BC. After a couple of weeks I didn't visit TB any more, and I didn't really want a Stagg EUB anymore either. I did buy a new bass though. And another. And ... Mid-life crises, kids - they're great!

I have reached page 20, not even half way through the thread. What a fascinating, entertaining and moving piece of internet. I'll have to continue with it tomorrow, so this post is really just to remind me where I was up to. Thank you for the link.

Yes: these guys are in a surf guitar band!*: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POC2fUo8lFo[/media] *Was that a bit cheeky?

Agree with RhysP and Roland Rock - presenter was excellent, as was her song. I do try to watch it, largely because a few years ago on another internet forum we had about ten people from around Europe doing a live commentary thread, and it was hugely entertaining. It was repeated for a couple of years, but as folk dropped off the radar it became less fun. Also as the kids are getting older and going to bed later I can't guarantee to see it from the beginning with the necessary alcohol. France had a good song and performer last night. There weren't as many short dresses as I'm used to. I was looking forward to the Irish performance after Graham Norton mentioned baby oil and dancers, but they turned out to be male dancers. Ho hum.

Excellent Qs&As - I love it when smart people get funny.

I suspect basschat's own Steve Amadeo will be delivering the low-end goods at this gig before jetting off to Europe for the exotic leg of the tour.

As far as my kids are concerned, CD1, CD2, CD3, CD4, CD5 and CD6. Respectively: Victims Family - [i]Headache Remedy[/i] Daft Punk - [i]Homework[/i] The Ex - [i]Catch My Shoe[/i] Ford Pier - [i]Meconium[/i] The Clash - [i]London Calling[/i] The Clash - [i]Combat Rock[/i] Nobody likes CD2, but it's a bloody nuisance changing CDs in my car so we'll just ignore it for now. Oh, BRX? All copies! Totally agree with your second sentence.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/shortcuts/2013/mar/28/spamhaus-internet-attack-pr-stunt try not to get mad, but maybe they were just teasing!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/mar/27/cyber-attack-spamhaus-slows-down-internet Cloudfare mentioned herein.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1363518643' post='2013501']IIRC the non-aluminium ones were mostly cheap instruments sold as part of a starter set with a Hartke practice amp.[/quote] Encyclopaedic! Google: for those without access to Big Red X... Your XL-4 has four strings - I expect to find it in Cash Generators very soon. EDIT: just saw your post, rOB - spot on!

I didn't ask to get it down from the wall, damn it! Not that I would have known about that anyway. The front of the headstock was black (matching the body) with the Hartke logo, that's all I know. But lucky me that you happened to be around when I started this thread - cheers. EDIT: Looks like a Hartke SB15, from a quick web search, sold as part of a starter pack. Perhaps not such a great bargain after all.

I was in one of those new-fangled pawn shops in Liverpool yesterday and hanging on the wall was a Hartke-branded bass guitar. Anybody know anything about these? I know the amps are well-regarded, but what about the basses (if it's real)? For the record it was in the shop opposite the new Dawsons, and it was priced very enticingly.