Graham

I've heard a lot of new music this year thanks to the wonders of Spotify - I'll post a top 50 at the end of the year, but there has been one album for me that has been head and shoulders above all others and that is Cult Of Luna's collaboration with Julie Christmas - Mariner. An astonishing record of immense scope and ambition, Cult Of Luna's building, swelling post-metal is wonderfully juxtaposed by Julie Christmas's vocals which range from haunting melody to banshee like shriek. The climax of album closer Cygnus, has to be one of the musical highlights of the year, which is not to disregard the rest of the album, particularly centre piece The Wreck Of SS Needle and opener A Greater Call. I was lucky enough to catch one of the few live performances of Mariner at this year's Damnation Festival in Leeds; it was the best live performance I've ever seen by anyone.

[quote name='hrnn1234' timestamp='1481641446' post='3193943'] you don't need to piss on your band members with your volume knob. [/quote] An excellent phrase, which I intend to use in the future

That just looks brilliant

That Sterling sounds great, got a photo?

Putting them in order is painful Geezer Butler Bernie Edwards Martin Mendez Alex Webster Jeff Caxide Justin Chancellor Paul Turner Caleb Schofield James Leach Stuart Zender

"Young man, if four strings were enough for Jaco and Jamerson......"

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1481025796' post='3189026'] Used G&L ASAT Bass. Blue [/quote] Not for sub-£500 this side of the pond Also, being an L2500 player myself I wouldn't get one of these if it was a traditional jazz sound I was after

Jason Derulo - Want To Want Me and Coldplay - Adventure Of A Lifetime are both going down very well at the moment. We're also doing the Can't Stop The Feeling, but that's not as popular as I thought it would be.

[quote name='TrevorR' timestamp='1480885870' post='3187883'] From then on we always has cheap blow up guitars and saxophones available and ready to distribute to the punters. [/quote] Now that's a good idea, might invest in the same.

[quote name='radiophonic' timestamp='1480684405' post='3186391'] Triainwreck of a gig at the Shed in Leicester. Good venue, decent PA, amiable sound guy, what could go wrong? The two local headliners pulled out on the day, taking any likely midweek audience with them, leaving the three out of town acts to play to each other. As the highest billed of the original 5, we were forced to headline and yet again somebody needed a bass amp. No parking outside the venue so had to resort to NCP and the headline slot pushed me into the 4+ hours bracket leaving me stung for 15 quid at the end of the night. Icing on the cake. Why am I doing this to myself? I can now say I headlined The Shed, I suppose. [/quote] The one time I played Leicester, about a decade ago, was at The Shed, had a similar experience.

We did some sort of private function at Hickstead Show Jumping Ground last night. Few difficulties to start with, we'd got the gig from an agent who hadn't given the band leader all the information, so he was setting up later than he'd planned, and was rushing and ended up with a problem somewhere in the PA set-up, helped him get it sorted without too much issue, but it was making him a bit stressed. However, once we got started it was really good, dancefloor was packed from the third song and stayed that way for the rest of the night. The whole event was running late, so instead of taking a break we just played through for and hour and three quarter which I actually really liked, as it kept the momentum going.

[quote name='Freddy Le Cragg' timestamp='1480409899' post='3184050'] Frank Turner in Oxford. The New Theatre is a sh*te venue but they made it amazing. Well worth a night out. The guy is a consumatw pro. And being a long term fan of Dive Dive helped to. I live Tarrant's bass playing....and you could actually hear it! [/quote] Wish I could have made it to one of the shows on this tour, or even to one of the cinema shows, but with the wife heavily pregnant, it's too much of a risk. Tonight's gig is a bit dubious, but commited now.

I had to extract a punter from behind the kit on NYE last year, he couldn't see what the problem was. Lucky for him it was me that caught him and not the drummer....

Last night was cracking, I had low expectations of the venue, having done one there earlier in the year which died on it's arse, but couldn't have asked for much more from yesterday. The crowd were lukewarm to start with, but we brought them along and they were loving it by the end of the night. Afterwards the club asked us to play their NYE in 2017, looking forward to more dates there next year.

[quote name='pmjos' timestamp='1480271392' post='3182993'] As for the amp on the wedge, nice rubber feet on the amp hung over the edge. I did put my AER behind it because I was on the back of a riser and was worried it might fall off. No worries stayed put the whole night. [/quote] Cheers I rather like the idea of tilted back cabs, but always wondered about keeping the head attached.

I own two basses and they both come with me to every gig, so long as there's space on stage they're both there. If it's tight on space the four string stays in the car. I use the five string for 90% of the gig and the four for songs that have slap. Our guitarist always has three guitars on stage (unless we're really restricted on space) 1. A Les Paul 2. A strat 3. One of his home made PRS/bitsas for songs that need a tremelo [I]Unless, [/i] he wants to bring a Tele, in which case 1. A Les Paul 2. A Tele 3. An HSS strat

How were you stopping the head from falling off the cab? Is it leaning against the box behind it or ia there something else going on?

Last night turned into a really good gig, it was a last-minute booking for a pub, filling in for a cancellation. Didn't have high hopes for it when we arrived, particularly as we'd not played there before, but it turned out great. We were able to get the crowd going and dancing, so not a great payer, but great fun; may have picked up a wedding booking off the back of it too. Back to the same town tonight for a social club, will probably see some of the same people there again.

Justin Chancellor on Tool's 10,000 Days, specifically, Jambi Also, Joe Lally on Fugazi's Repeater album.

Friday was a corporate gig for a software company in Brighton who were celebrating moving into a new building. They had three floors of this new office block and we played on the top floor which was their recreation area - ping-pong tables, VR game consoles, musical instruments, food drink etc. These young, tech firms seem to take care of their staff, who are also young - not sure I saw anyone over the age of 35. We played a good set, had a brilliant dep drummer: I've never played with a drummer for the first time and had it feel so natural; can't wait to play with him again. Saturday was a local pub, turnout was lower than usual there, but the weather was terrible and it's the week before payday. Very much a gig of two halves, first half was rubbish, no-one apart from a drunk bloke in an Iron Maiden shirt dancing and real issues with feedback. Really picked up on the second half though, much more enjoyable and a lot more people up. With baby number three due in December, next weekend will be my last gig until NYE

[quote name='CrackerJackLee' timestamp='1479636711' post='3177929'] You may place me on Colin's "Ignore List" if your little hearts desire, or Ban Me From The Kingdom... But I think the trick here is to not accuse women of lying unless you have some proof. And British people should know better. Why does a Canadian have to come all this way to teach you some manners. Especially someone as accomplished as Carol Kaye. Laddies, if you do it again.. I'll be back...! [/quote] Any chance you could engage with the post quoting Jamerson's biographer, who offers up what appears to be an even handed exploration of the question and finds no evidence Kaye played on many of the big hits she claimed to?

[quote name='Trueno' timestamp='1479297060' post='3175386'] I sometimes have a look for Warwicks on ebay. Sometimes get a bass titled "not a Warwick" followed by an ad for some sort of Cheapo copy. Obviously the search engine just picks up the word. There's enough crap to wade through in ebay as it is. [/quote] I got told off by Ebay for doing that with a Mayones I was selling a few years ago, I'd advertised it as "like Warwick/Spector" in the title, in order to attract more people who'd not heard of Mayones. i had to watch a video pointing out this was in breach of their terms and conditions before I could list anything again, with the suggestion that if I did it again they could ban me from Ebay.

Sold a pedal to Si - prompt payer, good communication, let me know it arrived and worked well; great Basschatter.

I was playing along with Hairspray recently, some really fun parts in that.

I was pretty close to the front, I'm fairly confident I was hearing both amp and PA