Raymondo

I get the impression that Prowla quite likes Rics and their copies.😉

I'll tell you who I didn't see last ...Flippin' Del Amitri ! Somehow I had missed the fact that they were touring and they played Nottingham last night.😢

I Must be alone in liking Ric's aesthetically rather than for their "sound". I put plastic strings on my faker and loved the deep smooth sound that emanated. I don't really like the Clankey sound that so many people seem to crave.😨 What's happened to the "hiding because I am fearful of the response emoji that we used to have?

Send me a PM of where the court is and I'll do my damnedest to get there. I don't care where it is in the country, I enjoy a night out and hotels are cheap enough.😉

My first decent bass was an Arbiter ric copy ( purchased new in 1975, on finance, at £5.00 per week) prior to that I had gigged with a £29.00 Audition P bass copy purchased from the mighty F W Woolworth and co. I loved the shape and colour but couldn't even dream of owning a real one back then. I am rubbish at model numbers but I think it was a 4001 copy...it was stereo ,with a Y shaped lead supplied...I used to send one signal to my Laney 100 Klip amp clean side and the other to the distorted "Klip" side ..oh what fun! Red Sunburst type paint job ...I loved it but ...a certain lady came along, my band split up and someone offered me £125. for it ...I think I paid £165.00 a year and a half earlier) Oh how I wish I could travel back in time.🙄 For the past 27 years I have used a MIJ P Bass bought new, but I always drool over a Ric.

I have always loved " Blue is the Colour" but then I am old😜 I am not Irish but I love the Saw Doctors and this was adopted by the band as a footie song during the world cup in America where they have a big following...

Yep still going The guy who owned it sadly passed away a few years ago but his wife carried on in business. I don't know their names ,which is weird because I have been buying from there ( along with Jack Brentnall's, Clement Pianos, Carlsbro and Dave Mans!) since 1972 🙂 Whenever I go in She always recognises me, but doesn't know my name and we do that "hi how are you?" thing and go through the sales process in a very friendly manner without ever using each others names...very "British" 😂

Because it's amazingly brilliant and a must hear for any aspiring bass player? 😜

That makes me smile ….. it's a great feel good pop song....cool😎

On my way for lots of beer with my old school friends ( we left school in 1973, we meet up every six weeks or so!) I was a tad early so I called in to Music inn (in Nottingham) I ended up with a Fender electro acoustic bass that I had to leave there and come back into Nottingham the next day to pick up. Still my efforts weren't wasted ..I have lent it to Brook-fan of this here parish, in his hour of need ,which resulted in a great night on the beer in Bath...bonus! 🙂

Cool😎 Nothing else to add really!

A friend of a friend ( I have actually met him and spent time having a beer with him...it's not made up!) , Played drums with Jason mraz. Jason himself insisted that he wanted him to be his drummer, he made Warnerbrothers pay for him to get an "excellence in his field" visa so that he could move to America to be in the band. He toured the world, supported The Stones in Rio etc etc BUT The label insisted that a session drummer recorded the albums,even though he "wrote" the drum parts during the writing process of the songs. Eventually he quit the band because the management were inflexible on this point. Jason hasn't had a hit since over here ...coincidence??? 😉😁

It seems to me that the OP Arrowsmith...joined only to post his complaint...he/she has visited several times since posting but not added to the debate. I asked a question that has not been answered...I think we should ignore this thread until the OP engages in the debate.....Ask yourselves.."when Have I ever started a thread on Basschat and not joined in with the answers? "

Mmmmm you weren't playing in the Nottingham area on Saturday were you by any chance?

Bugger I completely forgot about that! A few years ago I went to the one headlined by Donovan. It was a lovely festival.

Surely that should be … irregularly?

He never said anything like that to me ...I think it was just his way of hinting at who he played with ...it's a bit confusing in places ...lot's of things being repeated but a worthy effort at documenting a great guys life.

Here is a look back on the life of a friend that many of you might have seen....especially people from Nottingham,Weymouth and the West Midlands. I hope you enjoy his story of life on the road in music.

I was in a Stereophonics "tribute" band ...we didn't look like them ..though weirdly I played in an originals band at the same time whos's singer was the spitting image of Kelly jones ( great singer but didn't sound anything like Mr Jones) We did mess with arrangements a bit and I didn't stick to the root note bass lines that Kelly jones insisted were played on "his" songs. I don't care if you like the idea of tribute bands or about anyone's idea of what constitutes a tribute band ...I had a fantastic time made decent money and played main stage rock city to 2000 (ish) people, all singing along to every song , three times....I'll die a happy man.

Bloody good too......Close your eyes and it's like Neil is in the room!

Yeah loads of times over the years. I get confused now because there is/was A Clifton Miners in the meadows that we played lots but I am sure that there was one in Clifton itself? They all blend into one though ....there were hundreds of Miners welfares all over Notts and Yorkshire in particular, that I have played over the years with different bands. It was a pain sometimes ,staying quiet for the bingo etc, but it was good money for part time warriors like me. I am glad you have good memories of playing there, sometimes that circuit get's ridiculed but many, many "Showbiz" stars came through from it.

Nottingham 1973 This is a band audition tale... At my first" day release " at college ( I was an apprentice plumber) I met two guys that wanted to form a band, we arranged to meet at the rhythm guitarist's garage on the following Sunday. It went well enough we just needed a drummer. I volunteered my mate who had driven me and my gear to the audition.....he had never played drums and didn't have a kit but as the rhythm guitarist's father was a resident drummer at a local working men's club, we could use his kit and rehearse in a the fabulous function room that wasn't used on a Sunday afternoons. Sounds like a recipe for disaster yes? ...not a bit of it ,Dave took to drumming like a duck to water, Six weeks after his first go he had bought a kit of his own and we did our first gig...Market Harborough Working men's club, 3x 20 mins sets, with our armoury of 12 covers...and we got paid £29.00, ok we did have a few requests to "play this song again" to get through, but no one complained. This was in the days when even a rubbish band like ours gigged at least twice if not three times a weekend; a half decent band could gig five times a weekend and pick up midweek gigs. We pottered along for six months but the (almost inept) lead guitarist/lead singer just didn't improve, in fact he got all "rock star "on us and kept missing practice without letting us know and turning up drunk for gigs. We decided to replace him, unfortunately everything came to a head at the Friday night gig of a three gig weekend and the Saturday night gig, at a pub in Chesterfield, was an audition for a new agent. Being young and brave we didn't cancel, we phoned around and got a friend, who was in a much better band than us ( they were having a weekend off), who was much more experienced than us, to come and fill in for the weekend. We ran through some songs on Saturday afternoon and everything sounded much better than before, although we needed to juggle the set list to suit his knowledge of songs and hurriedly learned a few of his favourites. When we did the gig things went very badly wrong (what a surprise :-) ) the new guy just point blank refused to turn his guitar up and wouldn't sing close enough to the mic to be heard...we missed all the cues fumbled through a few songs and after the first set decided that he was being a p*ll*ck and told him we would manage without him, we re- arranged the sets ,leaving our best stuff for the last set, and gamely went for it. During the break before the last set the landlord came up to us and paid us saying "here you are lads, don't bother going on again" We packed away in shame and drove home in silence. The new agent never spoke to us and we cancelled the Sunday gig. Rock and Roll chaps......Rock and Roll. Edited to add.... I now tell my kids and friends who complain about me "singing" along to the radio etc... "Hey I have been paid to sing and I have been paid not to sing....what have you done? "

Not so much a disaster but definitely mismatched ...... On millennium eve my 80's tribute duo were booked (at a very nice fee plus beer and accommodation I might add!) to play a pub in Milton Keynes. we set up to the sound of the (also booked) DJ playing dance music ...the sort that has strange names like house and techno and there are hardly any lyrics ( you might be able to tell that I know little of this genre ) We did hope that it was just some personal preference music before the gig started but ..no..... When we played we filled the dance floor with people enjoying Frankie goes to Hollywood, Culture club, Spandau Ballet type tunes ...as soon as we finished ...the DJ emptied the room, and I do mean emptied, with his "dance" stuff. The landlord asked us to let him finish the night and play through the "brining in the new year " ..... so we had a great time outside (with most of the punters watching the various fireworks displays in the night sky, and drinking free beer until closing time. It transpired that the Landlord and his staff wanted the techno stuff but booked us for his punters

I loan people stuff often. I currently have an Ibanez electro acoustic guitar "out on loan" I am a rubbish guitar player and the guy who is using it is brilliant but cannot afford a decent one ...seems a good fit to me. I am off today to loan my Fender electro acoustic bass to someone for a few months as they are in need....I don't know them but they are a member of this forum and I have never met a bad person from here, so I am happy to help. Maybe it's the fact that I am sixty and have enough gear to keep me going. I see you did loan them your gear...I hope everything goes as well for you as it always has for me.

Nice one! I love the pic of the sound engineer Standing with his arms folded and looking like he's falling asleep... All those fabulous musicians and he's " get on with it muppets, I have a home to go to"