seashell

The only time my bass gets a wipe over is when I'm putting it into the bag before a gig.

I invariably have clean hands before playing, as I will no doubt have been to the loo just before!

I always intend to wipe the bass down after the gig. But I nearly always forget in all the excitement. 

(Ah those were the days, she adds ruefully)

Hi Dawn. No, my forum name is just a riff on my real name, which is Shelley. 🙂

My first love is rock and blues, but when I started learning bass my teacher helped me see the merits of many other genres. I'll never be a disco lover, but I do like a bit of soul, funk and Reggae now and again. And jazz (although I've never played that in public).

Love the Rolling Stones btw, and one of the bands I regularly dep with is a Rolling Stones covers band. Living the dream!!

You're right, age is no limit!! 

And I should add, I don't mean to imply it will take you nine years to get any good, haha! 

As Loz says, nice to see another female on here. No disrespect to the lovely gents here, but it's nice to have a better yin-yang balance so to speak!

I was a late starter too (aged 53!!). It was the best thing I ever did. Nine years on and I was in 2 bands, depping in another one and actually getting paid for it now and again. Lockdown has changed all that. But as others have said, if you use this time to develop your skills, you'll emerge ready to fly!!

Southern Cross by Crosby Stills and Nash.  

I'd rather look at people's favourite albums than people's favourite conspiracy theories. 

It's got to be In My Time of Dying by Led Zeppelin, and I have made sure that everyone I know is aware of this. If they don't play it I am coming back to haunt them forever. 👻👻

Oh, and the benefits of strap locks and half-wound strings.

I think mainly it was all the unwritten rules of gigging. All the non musical stuff that your bass lessons alone don't teach you. Such as: introduce yourself to the sound person, thank the sound person, never assume you can share gear without checking in person with the other bassist, always carry a billion spare guitar leads and extension leads.. I could go on!! 

Also advice on the advantages and pitfalls of depping. I like to think I was starting to build up a good reputation as a 'safe pair of hands' before the current situation put a spanner in the works. 

Today I have mostly been playing 'All Tomorrow's Parties'. I find it is one I can actually sing while playing, because the bass line is quite simple and the key is quite low (for a gurl).

I've been channelling Nico at the top of my voice - hope my neighbour appreciates it 🙂

First concert - Wishbone Ash, Fairfield Halls Croydon, 1974 (ish)

Last concert - SAS Band, Summer 2018

Best concert - Budgie, Winning Post Witton, 1975 (ish)

Worst concert - Nothings been really bad

Loudest concert -  Pardon?

Seen the most - Wishbone Ash

Most surprising - The Four Tops

Next concert - Jah Wobble and the Invaders of the Heart - this Friday!!

Wish I would have seen - Led Zeppelin

Probably the most exciting gig I ever went to was Budgie at the Winning Post, Witton in ( about) 1975. I was completely in awe of Burke Shelley. He had such an amazing stage presence.  

Healing thoughts to him indeed. 

On 16/01/2020 at 00:34, la bam said:

Pretty sure when I played this years ago I just played the B and E for the verse and it worked well for us.

Trick is the timing. Go one beat out and itll mess with your head and sound like you're playing it backwards.

This is what I do, and I've always got away with it! 🤞 So far 😊

Because it's New Year's Day I decided I would learn something for fun, and not because I need to play it in either of my bands 

So I picked out 'Past Present and Future' by the Shangri Las, which is based on Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. I'm experimenting with playing nearer the neck so as to sound more like a double bass. If I can master this technique it will come in handy for the more jazzy band, so it wasn't time wasted! 😎

Interesting! I might be up for this.

And I should have added, I like to run through all the songs without my glasses or contacts so as to be prepared for playing in a dingy venue where I can't see anything! 

Aw Lozz, I missed your original post back in November. So glad your last gig with that band was a good 'un. All the best for the future, whatever direction it takes you x 

Run through everything just once, standing up. 

Make a list of everything you need, under different headings (eg, amps etc, leads, personal effects, directions to venue).

Get it all out on the landing, while cat runs out under your feet. Then tempt cat back into flat with a pouch of Sheba. The cat wrangling episode has to be built into my timetable for getting out! 

I used to love Andy Stewart on NYE when I was a kid!!! And shortbread and Mum and Dad drinking whiskey. And then my Mum would always go first footing to the next door neighbours, with salt, mince pies and a piece of coal. NYE doesn't seem so special any more. 

But that said, Happy New Year everyone and enjoy whatever you're doing (even if just staying in and watching Jools, like me) x

5 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

You have our sympathy, but do they want the other guy - the one who left and came back - because he's a better player? Experiences such as this are unpleasant, but there is often a positive (even if it's hard to see at first) that we can take from them. Worth taking some lessons and/or working on the technique to improve your skill level and musical abilities?

Good advice about the lessons etc.

Don't know about the OP, but my case the player that left and then wanted back in was worse than me. There aren't many players worse than me, but he definitely was!!😂

Sometimes it's just a 'mates' thing.

What a nasty thing to do just before Christmas!! Similar thing happened to me. Old bass player clearly wanted to get back in the band and was hanging around like a spectre at the feast. I managed to see the writing in the wall and resigned before I was fired. I was still bloody annoyed though.

Happy ending, I was invited into a much better band by people who'd seen me play in the other one. I'm sure you'll go on to better things too!!

Aw, bless 😻

Yes, I've had something similar while rehearsing. It felt exactly as though a metal splinter was sticking into my middle finger (fretting hand). After reading this thread, I think it might have been a 'phantom splinter' experience. Luckily for me, it was fine the next day. 

13 hours ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

Hmm, I think there's at least one good reason to keep bass-playing women at the front, then. Think Suzi Quatro, Tina Weymouth, Divinity Roxx... all just marginally larger than their bass guitars! Carol Kaye probably not much bigger either. Ida Nielsen is slightly taller, and so are Yolanda Charles, Julie Slick, Esperanza Spalding and Tal Winkelfeld, but big women? Nah, none of them.

Our very own @seashell can hold her own with bass-playing gentlemen from the point of view of height*, but she's offset by yours truly, who's 5'2"...

* and that of bass-playing, natch.

Thanks for the mention, Silvia! 🙂 I'm 5 ft 6 and a half which is slightly above average for my age group, but I think younger women are a growing a bit taller these days! 🙂

3 hours ago, KevB said:

I didn't bother posting about our previous gig, frankly it was sloppy and under par and I made my feelings known to other band members. I think some of it sunk in as last night was much tighter. We all make mistakes and I had a poor second set by my own standards but nothing 95% of the audience would have spotted. It was mostly misjudging where the lead gtr was in his solos as he goes through the PA and his on stage vol can ber very low in the mix when we are in full swing. I usually ask him to put his gtr through my monitor but I don't think he did last night.

Sort of gig you turn up and wonder what you are doing it for. Sunday, a good hour's drive from home and for taff all money to speak of. However, the venue was quite nice even though in a run down corner of Brum. Some pillars in the room make for an odd set up and it makes the onstage sound very peculiar but we soldiered on. What really made it was the audience. Not heaving numbers but twice what I'd expect in a backwater pub on a rainy Sunday. And they enjoyed it, we had people of a certain age grooving down to Peal Jam's 'Alive' and a fella who seemed to be on his own singing the words to all the classics we play. To top it off our esteemed member seashell popped along with a friend to keep a straight face during my 'jazz notes'😁

Last gig with Adam on drums, last remaining original band member so (though I'm very much the new boy) the end of an era for the other guys in the band. We wish him well with whatever he does to fill the time in. Back issues and sciatica were making it too painful for him to keep drumming. We have taken no more bookings for this year and plan to audition drummers early next month with a view to having them up to speed with the set for early 2020.

Kev's being too modest as usual. He played with his usual aplomb, and I didn't notice any bum notes at all!  

My friend and I really enjoyed the evening.  We thought the pub was really nice - very friendly atmosphere and good local beer (according to my friend.. I don't drink beer).  Sadly I doubt if I'll be back regularly - I wouldn't really fancy going on my own to that area at night so it all depends if my friend fancies a repeat visit.  But I digress.

I thought the set was great - the usual Dad rock classics in the first half and some newer stuff in the second half (some songs even from the 21st Century!!).  Funny that Kev should mention not being able to hear the L/G too well. I also thought he was a bit low in the mix.  As well as our excellent KevB, the two guitarists and drummer were also very good. Such a shame about the drummer having to hang up his sticks. If I was being critical I would say the L/S could do with a little bit more oomph, so to speak. And tell him not to hum along to the guitar solo in All Right Now! 😝

Edited to add.. the friend I was with is also a musician and can be very critical, so if he enjoyed it-  it must have been good!😃