tonybassplayer

I would like to ask a question please

Have you seen the advert for the Chief Whips who are looking for a bass player on the Partysounds website ??

Tony

Things were not looking good at the beginning of the week when our drummer announced a health enforced two month break due to a hearing problem that turned in to a "best to look for someone full time".

Tuesday was spent in a delightful 8 hour non stop meeting at work and then Wednesday night had me down at the local hospital with my 6 year old daughter having an emergency operation on a broken arm after a climbing frame accident.

By the time Friday nights gig came along at the Barge at Brighouse ( sister pub to the Queen Vic ... see above ) I was well up for a chilled out gig and what a cracker it turned out to be. The dep drummer ( we met him for the first time at 7.30 that night ) was brilliant, loads of friends and family came to see us and loads of people up and dancing. To cap it all the dep says he is interested in joining the band !!!

Apologies to Keith ( yorks5stringer ... see above ) for not turning up on Saturday but during our gig my girlfriend got talking to the guitarist from another local band and said we would go and see his band on Sat night but I promise we will get to a gig soon and I will put the £5 for the auction on paypal.

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More of an audience shot with the band in the distance but shows that we got them up dancing !![attachment=10501:P7040058.JPG]

Yes, stick me down for a skydiver

Are we near 20 yet ??

Just like to say a big thank you for organising today's gathering and looking forward to the next.

I was only able to attend for an hour and a half or so but really enjoyed chatting with the people I met and I had the opportunity to hear the sound and feel the weight of Mark Bass cabs and it convinced me of my next purchase.

Only down side was later in the day I got a call from our sax player to tell me our drummer is unable to play for two months due to a problem with his ears so it looks like we are going to be chasing round for deps for the next few gigs !!

For identification purposes I was the guy that came late dressed in black jeans and black and white shirt.

Friday night and after the mad dash from work we played high above Holmfirth at the Huntsman Hotel at the Shepley School Summer Ball.

As the evening moved forward it looked like a late starter as the audience were having a full three courser followed by raffles etc so we re- arranged the set over free drinks and food ( a nice touch ) and hit the stage at 10.30

Two bars in to Valerie and the dancers hit the floor and stayed there for over an hour and forty minutes. Valerie has recently become our opening song and is going down brilliant. We play a version similar to the Amy Winehouse one and let the drums go round a few times then bass next and so on. It makes for an easy and stress free start to the gig as the intro can just keep playing until the singer starts.

A cracking gig with a brilliant audience. By the last song ( Do You Love Me from Dirty Dancing ) there wasn't a single person in the room not on the dance floor.

Love gigs like these.

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Will be a bit of an hour long flying visit for me as I am on "dad" duty on Sundays but looking forward to it and hoping someone will give me a few tips on how to play the slap bit in "carwash" somewhat better than I currently do !!

Also hope someone has some Mark Bass equipment as I want to feel just how must lighter than my current gear it is.

Another return to one of our regular venues last night, The Deer House in Rudding Park caravan site near Harrogate, and after a four week break there was always a chance we could have been a bit rusty but as it turned out we played superb ( with the exception of carwash which was pretty diabolical )

The place was packed out ( pouring it down so no one was sat outside round a bbq ) and the audience were really up for a fun night.

At the risk of getting banned from the basschat website the high point of the night was when our singer Lou split the audience in two during Mustang Sally with the chorus's getting louder and louder ( we even extended it by a few more minutes ) and if that isn't enough to blacklist me I use "Behringer" amplification !!!!

Tony

Anyone have any gigs to report on from last night ??

We are playing our first in 4 weeks tonight, I am never waiting this long again, it just seems such a waste of valuable gigging nights !!

Tony

I was recently introduced ( via this site ) to Guitar Pro that uses midi files to play back the songs on the software. All the instruments can be "soloed" so you can isolate the bassline and it gets my 100% recommendation ( it also shows the tab as well so you can watch as you listen/play along )

Hi Jez and welcome to the forum from a Cleckhuddersfax lad.

Do you play in a local band ??

Tony

Hi, trying to make a plan to get there on the day but as I have my children on the day ( 6, 8 and 11 ) it involves convincing my girlfriend to entertain them locally for an hour so I can call in ( particularly want to to meet Bren Travis again as he is the person who taught me years ago and gave me the confidence to join my first band. He is a top guy and superb bass player )

Can you suggest anywhere that I can drop the four of them off local to the venue so that I can at least call in for an hour or so ( thinking of something like a pub with Wacky Warehouse type play area or a nice park )

Thanks

Tony

I downloaded Guitar Pro ( free trial version ) the other day and so far been quite impressed with what I have found and how easier it is to learn from by soloing the bass line ( like a fellow basschatter I needed to learn Fool For Your Loving and it is hard to hear on the cd all the notes )

Just before I purchase what are your thoughts on it as a tool to learn bass lines from ??

What are the best sites etc ??

If I purchase do I get access to some form of official database etc ??

Anyone got a good library of songs etc ??

Thank you

Tony

Need to spend more time rattling around on my Roland TD3's and get myself a proper accoustic kit as there are so many bands looking for drummers and I think it would be fun playing in a band on a different instrument !!

( setting up your drums tends to get you out of setting up the PA, lights, backdrop etc as well !! )

Looking forward to see what responses you get as I have been thinking about an audio interface for a while now for my mac and keep looking at something that will do the full band but that would probably cost a few hundred pounds and I will then probably only use it occasionally so the best option for me would be a cheap, simple, one channel interface to use with garageband.

Tony

Great slogan, shame it would mean ordering from the states.

Anyone know of a good online supplier in the UK for bass related tee shirts ??

No gigs for me for a few weeks due to holidays with both bands but thought I would post this to bring it to the front page to remind the ones who have gigs to post the mini reviews.

I look forward to reading them every weekend.

Tony

[quote name='Adrenochrome' post='207098' date='May 27 2008, 10:27 AM']just a quick one, I'm going camping for a couple of days in a few minutes. Yesterday we played a big charity bash in Barnsley "Sheik Rattle 'n' Roll", organised by our singer Vikki and the Rock Of The North website. It was a WONDERFUL day and it was great to see TONY SOUL 7 in person for the first time. pics and reports will be available on [url="http://www.rockofthenorth.f2s.com"]Rock Of The North[/url] very soon I'm sure. [/quote]


Yes, it was a cracking evening of brilliant music and I got to meet Jon ( above ) and lots of other guys that play in bands that I had not met before.

Tony

Go for it !! what a great weekend that would be.

Tony

Apologies that this is a bit long winded but bear with it.

A few months ago I attended ( through work ) a strategic management training course. The idea being that we all take a longer term "strategic" vision about the companies we run. After a day and half of surprisingly interesting discussion we had to write our own personal 10 step 10 year plan as to where we see ourselves in ten years ( obviously ) and the journey we had taken. This had to be done in total silence as it was to be your very own personal vision ( albeit with a business influence ) When we had written our plan out we had to physically "walk" using ten pieces of paper though these 10 steps visualising what we want to happen.

We were asked if we wanted to disclose our thoughts and everyone agreed that they would. Without boring you too much most of the other attendees wanted to progress on to bigger and "better" things, perhaps ownership of companies etc and then it came to my turn.

I told them that in ten years time I wanted to play golf during the day and play in a band at night !! As expected this brought some laughter and a bit of light hearted banter but the lady running the course, a very well respected management consultant, came to me at lunch and told me that if that is what I wanted to do then I must "go for it".

That night I told my partner and she agreed. I placed an add to join another band and now play more gigs and practice more than ever ( I was a late starter )

Will I ever make playing music my job ?? Who knows and the answer may be no but I will have a bloody good time striving towards it.

Hope this helps

Tony

Wedding gig at Thorpe Park Hotel near Leeds last night with a very easy load in and set up. I videoed the gig and it sounds pretty damn good so will get some on the website, myspace and youtube later today.

Nice lively audience and really friendly DJ so it was a very enjoyable evening.

Chilling in the bar afterwards we were surrounded by a hen party who had given the bride many tasks, one of which was to get a man wearing brown shoes to buy her a drink. We have a self imposed "wear only black" policy for functions so no problems for me however our guitarist may stick to the policy more rigidly after the hen party spotted he was wearing brown shoes so he had to do the honourable thing and buy the "hen" a very expensive Tequilla Slammer from the hotel bar lol

A lovely and highly amusing end to the night for the rest of the band

When I auditioned for SOUL7 three years ago I had very little live experience and that was in a sixties band and a seventies classic rock one however I asked if I could say a few words before we started.

I told them that I was not the most accomplished player BUT I would play solid uncomplicated bass in time with the drums, I would always be first to arrive at gigs and rehearsal and that I would ensure that any songs we had agreed to do I would have ready for the next practice.

I got the gig and a few weeks later two of the band told me that they had made their decision that I was going to be a good band member on the strength of the speech before we had played a note !!

Tony

[quote name='lee4' post='201000' date='May 17 2008, 12:55 PM']40th Birthday party last night.Big hotel,suprise gig for birthday boy who clearly wanted to be at home with a pizza and a dvd.
Played 3/4 of our 2 set show and was asked to stop due to lack of audience interest.Most of them had left by 10:30 pm because they had young kids.
We played well,tried out our new lighting rig,got fed and still recieved our pay at the end.
We were the wrong band for the wrong party in the wrong venue.[/quote]


Had a similar thing happened to a band I played in a few years ago.

Mother booked us for daughter's 21st after seeing us in a pub and thought we were perfect for the party.

The daughter wanted Take That and Boyzone.

She got Free and Deep Purple !!!

Friday night we had a function but when we arrived at 7.00 we were unable to set up as the area we were playing in was full of prizes for the presentations etc that were following the meal so it was 10.30 before we played a note ( after a very hasty set up from 10.00 )

However, 4 bars in to Valerie and the dance floor was full of ladies from the Yorkshire Hockey Association who danced for an hour and a half solid so it turned out excellent.

Saturday night was the first gig with my other band and we had taken the gig to help the football club who let us use the club for rehearsal free of charge at their end of season presentation night ( bit of a theme developing )

We are still a month away from being fully ready but with a very enthusiastic audience following a game during the afternoon that secured promotion we had a cracking night. High point had to be Dakota with most of the male audience up dancing topless swinging their shirts around ( some sort of tradition !! ) shame that their partners were more reserved in the clothes shredding department but life's not perfect !! ( NOTE...must play Dakota at next year's Yorkshire Hockey presentation night.....worth a try !! )

Just sat chilling now before loading up again later on as we are out for an early evening pub gig in Huddersfield.

Playing music live....................don't you just love it !!!!!!

We have two gigs this weekend so I am sure this will form part of the "between sets" chat.

In the main the responses back from the band have been positive and have certainly been as I expected.

I will let you know how it goes and see if we have made any progress

Tony