KevB

I grew up in Yorkshire. I will never have more money than sense😉

That Papa Lazarou tank top is way ahead of its time

I can just about cope with the set up as there is the anticipation of having a job on and trying to do your best but the breakdown is a PITA. I'd love to earn enough from a gig to take someone and pay them to break my gear down and load the car.

I think I would enjoy the recording process if I was in a talented recording band creating new stuff but that's not my forte and I've never been in a proper originals band so it's the live work that keeps me going despite how much I might have a whinge about whichever act I'm in at the time. I don't think I'd last very long just staying at home and learning other people's stuff as an academic exercise, other interests would take over and I'd be selling my gear before too long. I'm not even sure how long I've got left as a gigging bassist as it is, it will probably tie in with how long I have left in full time work.

But the Henry Rollins quote is the exact opposite of what ironkerton experienced in getting bullied by an incompetent sound tech who was deflecting his own shortcomings and in front of the audience to boot. Cowardly and a bit of a c*nt's trick frankly.

Bit of an odd one Saturday. One of the guitards arranged with a local venue that we could turn up early and use it to fine tune a few new songs we havent really had time to rehearse up properly yet. It was also an opportunity to try doing some digital recordings from the desk by either micing up or DI-ing most of the instruments. So I turned up at 1pm as instructed to find the stage area full of tools (no, not band members, actual power tools) and a bloke putting up framing to take rock wool that would be sound absorbing as they have had complaints about the noise from the people on the other side of the road. My heart sank for various reasons. Firstly that wrote off us setting up for a rehearsal, secondly they didnt tell us in enough time so that i could have stayed at home another 3 hours and looking at the task in hand and th espeed he was working I didnt see how he would get the job done in the 4 hours he said it would take him. So we unloaded as much gear as we could into the venue and went to guitards place for a BBQ which had also been planned into the day. Got back to venue at 7pm, sure enough no finished sound suppression in place so we were being nagged over and over not to get too loud (we are a classic rock covers band). Venue is an ex conservative club now refitted in a shabby chic kind of way but is basically a big open space with lots of hard surfaces, bare brock walles, big windows, girder joists in view. We had to sound check with the girl from behind the bar going out into the road in front of venue and giving us a thumbs up when we had turned down enough so as not to incur the wrath of the local NIMBY. Then the singer, who I'd asked days in advance to prepare a new setlist to his vocal preference, said he 'couldnt get to a printer' so there were no setlists. Then he hand wrote (without using capitals) in green marker pen and using abbreviations for songs that needed code breaking skills to decipher. These appeared just as we were about to go onstage. Then he still managed to change th erunning order halfway through first set. I'm the new boy with this lot so I'm trying to guage how long I need to be part of the furniture before I can kicking some derrières into gear without signing my own P45. I'm just not ready to go through the motions of auditioning again so they will have to do for the present but the shambolic organisation is bewildering at times and pretty much all avoidable with some advance thinking by a few band members. However the gig went OK, (level wise apparently we peaked at 106db but it didnt sound loud to us particularly) venue not packed but enough to keep it ticking over, especially since 2 band memebers had invited friends or had other halves in tow to get a bit of atmosphere going. Considering how little rehearsal we've got in recently we werent that bad, tighter than the previous gig a few weeks back and got some very positive feedback from a few punters as i was clearing away at the end. There is potential there but it requires more effort and a more professional attitude from some of them to get it to a higher level.

Pub gig without enough ventillation and typically shoved into a corner next to the drum kit. Felt distinctly odd half way through second set, thought I was borderline fainting but muddled through. Cant remember much about the gig really except that I was a bit concerned that the singer had redone the set list to cram all the new songs we've barely worked up in rehearsal into the second set instead of splitting them over both sets. He then whatsapped everyone next day saying he didn't think it was good putting all the new stuff together as though he'd had no say in it, bizarre. As the band doesn't seem to be first priority non-day job for anyone else we can't even timetable in another rehearsal before next gig to fix things. Ah well.

I came to the same conclusion after going from East Mids down to Newquay for a wedding gig (with an awful load in/out down 130-odd steep steps to a beach). We were put up for the night but the money they gave us up front for van hire and fuel wasn't enough so after deducting the extra fuel money and other expenses I might as well have done a local pub gig in terms of final profit. I haven't been in a band that takes wedding bookings since actually.

Definitely a shaped Hiscox or SKB type if you arent taking many. The rectangular ones can be a PITA getting in and out of cars and small stage areas, feels like a decorators pasting table. I've had an SKB for my jazz for years and its taken some knocks but always did its job. My P came in tweed rectangular case which I used for about 6 months before being sent to the shed, use a soft case for the P now but I'm careful with it.

So if it follows some people's experience with the book he'll show up around December then?

Back to Foxton, think he started out in the Jam with a ric copy, then got a genuine one but then quickly moved on to P basses, it's actually mostly fairly early stuff that has a ric on it from what I recall. Saw From The Jam at Rock City quite a few years back, decent gig.

The other models presumably claimed they'd been robbed by a bandit...😉

I had to go find an online lesson to be sure, but the bloke's using a 5 string which has obviously scrambled my brain so I'm going for a lie down.😁

I really don't think finance is a factor at all. Not wanting to host something like this quite possibly, couldnt afford to? no way.

However much it gets tweaked and reimagined I can't help feeling that at it's core it belongs with beauty pageants and dressing chimps up for tea parties. The world has moved on.

As long as you realise that the voting doesn't really have anything to do with music then it's just another show and enjoy it or not for what it is. After being an occupying force in countries close politically to some taking part and now the Brexit vote being another nail in the coffin, it just means we don't get anything worthwhile from the public vote either. If we enter an average song we will come last. If we enter a good song we might scrape second from last and if we entered an outstanding song we might get 3rd-5th from last. Withdraw from it and the money that goes with it and invest that money in home grown talent getting a leg up in the business or maintaining more available venues for them to perform at. There must be a load more deserving music related projects here that could use extra investment than Eurovision.

Never got into it either, I suppose if I was really into the music that it was integral to and thus wanted to join bands playing that style I would have to have learned it but as it happens I've managed to completely avoid it in any gigging band I've been in.

Well the Nottingham date's not been rescheduled so I think that's me out. The only glimmer would be if I was up north when the Holmfirth gig happens but by the time I know if I am it will probably have sold out. ah well...

I'm on holiday during part of June, if the rescheduled date is when I'm out of the country I'll be a bit miffed.

I first saw Coverdale in 81 or 82 and at irregular intervals since then during the 90's and noughties but I was quite shocked how his voice had deteriorated when Whitesnak were on a double header with Def Leppard doing arenas a few years back. It seemed odd for someone struggling vocally to be deliberately pitching higher, presumably he just can't project enough at a lower range now. His backing band were doing as much singing as he was that night and much higher in the mix than other band members I'd seen him with in the past.

Deep Purple were considered 'progressive' in their early days (when they took their cue from bands like Vanilla Fudge) and even up to around the In Rock and Fireball releases, though that might be because they were released on EMI's Harvest label initially which was created to cater for their more 'left field' artists. They became 'heavy rock' and then 'classic rock' as the years rolled on. I don't think fans of DP, Whitesnake, Zep, UH etc would really describe them as 'metal' bands. Sabbath are usually lauded as the pioneers of metal but even they started out playing blues jams. Back to Glenn Hughes, he's had quite a career and done the whole rockstar lifestyle to the nth degree and has managed to survive and remained a good singer, his voice has aged far better than Gillan's or Coverdale's. I'm off to see him later this month at Rock City, could be an interesting night though I've heard him do a few DP songs in solo gigs before.

Virtually every band I've been in I get stuck stage right so playing right handed I'm always close to hitting a cymbal with my headstock. I suppose if I was stage left I'd probably be given so little space I'd just be hitting the headstock against the wall instead...Currently in a 5 piece so I'm directly behind the rhythm guitarist which now limits how far forward I can set up. Like playiung in a rabbit hutch for half the gigs so far but it's hard finding venues with suitable space these days.

Fatta Macca?

Been away for the weekend so first chance to catch up on this. Thanks again to the organisers. As usual spent most of my time nattering to folks rather than actually playing with gear (I think the beatle bass was the only one I played that belonged to someone else) and glad to hear some funds raised for a good cause via the raffle.

He can threaten all he likes, you simply can't take that kind of legal action against someone giving an honest opinion as long as it is accurate and the evidence is there. The issue with the potential for selling copyright - infringing copies is entirely different and in that case BC did the right thing in steering clear.