BigRedX

Thanks for posting those two set lists. As I suspected they are quite heavily skewed towards the first half of the decade. @hiram.k.hackenbacker I hope you do "I Think We're Alone Now" in the High NRG style of Tiffany's version otherwise it's technically a 60s cover and "Video Killed The Radio Star" was originally released in 1979 [/pedant] ;-)

Maybe not. But I was just pointing out that by 1988/89 house music and pop songs that were heavily influenced by it were anything but niche. Personally I'd love to see an 80s band doing S'Express, Yazz or Soul II Soul. There appears to be an assumption that 80s music is mostly synth-based pop from the first half of the decade, whereas the reality is, as I hinted in my first post, that there's a lot more to the decade. As someone who plays in an unashamedly 80s influenced originals bands, I'd be interested to know what's in the typical 80s covers band's set list.

But if you go and See Duran Duran now they may be old, but they still know how to dress properly and don't look like a bunch of blokes who have gone to the pub for a pint or two on a Friday night.

Following house and house influenced records were all number 1 in the UK charts in the 80s. Jack Your Body by Steve "Silk" Hurley Pump Up The Volume by MARRS Theme From S'Express by S'Express Doctorin' The Tardis by The Timelords The Only Way Is Up by Yazz Back To Life by Soul II Soul And there were plenty more that made the top 20. Hardly niche.

"The 80s" is a very broad church ranging from "New Romantic" and synth-pop via jangly guitar bands all the way through to acid house. Of course most people tend to forget about anything post 1985 unless the band had already had hits before then. The problem I have with bands like the one in the clip above is that for me music in the 80s was as much about the image of the artists as it was about the songs. If the music is going to be performed by a bunch of beardy old blokes in crap shirts then it doesn't matter how well they have nailed the sound, the audience would be better off someone playing the records. I hope the OP is taking note...

Stage times for Friday's gig (19th September) at Liquid Light in Nottingham: 7:05 - 7:35 Joshua Todd 7:50 - 8:30 St Lucifer 8:45 - 9:35 Hurtsfall

Depends on the sound and feel you want. There is no right answer. Only the right answer for you.

Everything from your fingers and strings right through to the speakers and cabs has an influence over how the instrument sounds. My response is to eliminate the as many of them as possible, and to reduce the influence of as many of the others as possible to make it easier to control the sound I and the audience hears.

Unsurprisingly I like that a lot and if I had a spare €2000 and a use for a 4-string bass I might be making an offer. Made some time between 1963 and 1967 and originally costing 68,000 Lira. And in what looks like surprisingly good condition for a Wandré. All the ones I have seen in real life have been considerably worse for wear. More information on this Fetish Guitars web page.

Depends what you are buying. I just buy instruments I like the look of. If they don't work out from a playing and sound PoV then I sell them on. IME not amount of reviews will tell me what I'm going to think when the bass is actually in my hands.

IME Hohner are terrible at record keeping when it comes to all the various musical instruments they have made. I used to own an electric 12 string guitar that hasn't appeared in any of their catalogues or model lists. If I did an on-line search based on the model name and number on the headstock it came up with an entirely different looking instrument. However, there are various features that indicated that it had been built that way originally and hadn't been "Frankensteined" together from a couple of other guitars by a previous owner. Also I was aware that there was at least one other similar example owned by a well-known guitarist. So don't be put off if you can't find your exact model listed anywhere.

In the last 35 years I bought a total of 3 basses that I tried before parting with my cash. The fact that I don't own any of them now, but do own 3 basses that I bought on-line either direct from the manufacturer or off eBay without being able to play them first should say something. IME it is impossible to make a proper decision about the suitability of an instrument until you have put it to its intended use. If you play in a band that means at least one rehearsal and ideally one gig.

I've been able to be in bands for almost 50 years now without owning a car and for much of that time without being able to drive. Technically I can drive, but I didn't start leaning until I was in my 30s, there was no point before as I couldn't afford lessons let alone the cost of owning and running a car, and it took me 2 years of intensive lessons before I passed my test on the 3rd attempt. TBH I'm a terrible driver and the roads are safer for everyone without me behind the wheel of a motor vehicle, so I don't drive. As others have said, it very much depends on where you live and the sorts of bands you want to be in and the sorts of gigs you want to do. It may also depend on what other skills and resources you can bring to your musical ventures. I have chosen to live in a fairly large city with good public transport and taxi services which is more than adequate for getting to rehearsals and local gigs. In fact for local gigs getting a taxi to and from the venue is far more convenient and often cheaper than driving myself would be. Taxi drivers have zero problem stopping in the middle of the road directly outside the venue for me to load in and out. I don't have the hassle of trying to find somewhere to park that isn't going to cost the earth and if the gig goes on past midnight there is a very good chance that two taxi fares will be less than the cost of parking anywhere close to where we are playing. Any band I have been in that regularly does gigs in other parts of the country has had dedicated band transport, often with a driver/roadie, and IME it makes more sense if travelling any distance for the whole band to travel together. Remember that you can't finish setting up and doing your sound check until all the band are there and invariably if you are travelling in multiple vehicles, at least one will get caught in traffic or some other incident. Otherwise what else can you bring to the band or musical venture other than yourself and your bass? For about 20 years I lived somewhere where it was possible for any band I was in to rehearse for free. I also had what started as a simple 4-track recording setup that eventually grew to become a fully-fledged home recording studio where we could record everything except an acoustic drum kit. All available to whatever band I was in at no charge. Also in my day job I am involved with graphic design and can produce imagery for all the band's visual identity - posters, flyers, CD and record covers, T-shirts and on-line graphics - for free and able to get the print at discount prices or for free too. Do you have any other musical skills? Can you sing backing vocals? I currently play in a Goth/post-punk influenced band as well as playing bass I do all the drum programming and much of the sound design for our songs. I also provide all the hardware for the playback of the drums and second synth parts when we gig. All these things mean that the bands I played with since I first started gigging have been more than happy to help me with transport where I can't sort it out for myself.

I doubt that custom or boutique instruments will ever go away given that they have been in mainstream usage for over 50 years now. And you should be glad that they exist, because the alternative would be people like me hacking vintage instruments apart to get them to do what we want.

In theory a decent idea. However in practice, especially for live use, every additional connection adds another point of potential failure and a patch bay will add 2 for every device connected to it. Also connections that are made and broken on a regular basis tend to be the ones that fail first. If you find yourself changing the routings you use on your pedal board a lot, there are two things you may want to look at: 1. Have your patch bay normalised so that the most commonly used configuration is hard wired into it without needing any additional patch cables. 2. Look at one of the MIDI controlled routing systems where all your devices are attached to a master controller unit and the various routing are made from that.

Next gig for us is our first proper headlining one: Friday 19th September at Liquid Light in Nottingham. Supports from St Lucifer and Joshua Todd. Doors are at 7.00 with free entry.

For me the only significant advantage of the Stadium over the standard Helix is Showcase. I'll wait until it is included and I can see if it's actually going to be any use to me.

Are you going to stain the back of the neck to match the body?

Actually in a way it is Thomann's fault as they continue to use DHL for deliveries in the UK, and while they may be giving an excellent service on mainland Europe, here they are mostly a bunch of useless muppets.

IME playing along to the recorded version always gives you a false sense of ability as the original part is there in the background as an unconscious safety net. Also the songs are EXACTLY the same every time, and while that should be what the band as a whole is aiming for, the reality is often a quite a bit different. In the days when I was playing covers, no matter how well I thought I'd nailed the bass line when practicing at home, in the rehearsal room with the rest of the band it would become rapidly obvious that there was still some way to go.

Listen to drummers and write your own.

Practicing? That's boring. I'd rather be commissioning another boutique bass. While still at school, my history teacher wrote the following on my end of term report: "His design of guitars is stunning. I wish I could say the same for his attention during history".

I've been involved at every level from doing all the writing, recording and production (except the vocals) and organising every aspect of the other band members musical lives, to simply turning up and playing what I am told to play. However as I see myself first and foremost as a composer rather than a musician I have been the major creative force behind the vast majority of the bands I have been in over the last 50 years. When it comes to music I have the sort of personality that if there is no great creative or organisational force within any band that I am part of, I will gradually take over those roles. For my current band all the musical and non-musical duties are fairly evenly split between the three of us. The synth player and myself come up with the main musical ideas and our singer adds lyrics and vocal melodies. I do the drum programming and our synth player does the production. On the non-musical side it's pretty much evenly divided up: our singer does all the people stuff, I do the graphic design and our synth player provides the band transport. It seems to work very well.

From the other side of the fence from someone who has used deps for their band, I'll repeat this because IMO it is worth repeating: If there is a dress code then follow it! While we didn't except our deps to go all out with full leathers (we were a garage punk/psychobilly band) although it would be nice if they had, we did think that a simple instruction to wear black with no obtrusive band or brand logos and no trainers for anyone other than the drummer would be easy to follow. However you'd be surprised by how many couldn't or wouldn't do this. Remember that for the night you are on stage you are part of the band and you are in part responsible for maintaining their reputation both sonically and often visually.

Thank you @LowB_FTW