Silvia Bluejay

Right, the blog with the rest of the photos (as well as those already published here) is finally up! [url="http://wp.me/p2ZbyY-xd"]http://wp.me/p2ZbyY-xd[/url] Let me know of any errors and omissions. Thanks!

I've just tweeted this thread as Basschat. I'll also Facebook it now. Good luck, hope you recover it all.

Long-suffering Happy Jack came with me to one of Tragedy's gigs in London, despite hating heavy metal and not being a huge Bee Gees fan. He's definitely a keeper...

Yup! I was in my early teens in the late 70s, so I was into disco in a big way. Then I discovered the band's back catalogue. Then in the 80s I got into heavy metal (the kind that's now called trad metal), but never abandoned the Bee Gees.

Teeth aside, Maurice seemed to favour playing a R*ck*nb*ck*r, usually a white one, for most of the 60s and 70s...

I'm not surprised that Maurice mentioned having a drink first of all...

As someone who was taught to write with her right hand by mistake despite being left-handed, I can assure you that learning to do something in a way that you feel is 'unnatural' or 'reversed' is a lot harder and, judging by my near-illegible handwriting for instance, the results are poor. I am so glad for the era of computer keyboards (even if they are right-handed too!), and grateful to have started playing bass in times when left-handed instruments were already available and relatively common.

Alan was in the band behind Spirits Having Flown (album and tour). He's great. I'm FB friends with drummer Dennis Bryon, from that same band. All amazing musicians. Edit: speaking of You Should Be Dancing... [Warning: drums-related content! ] [url="http://www.moderndrummer.com/site/2015/09/on-the-beat-with-dennis-bryon-of-the-bee-gees-you-should-be-dancing/"]http://www.moderndrummer.com/site/2015/09/on-the-beat-with-dennis-bryon-of-the-bee-gees-you-should-be-dancing/[/url]

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1475833340' post='3149039'] Mo did all the high vocal lines on Bee Gee records as well. [/quote] No, he didn't, Chris. Barry did the falsetto, Robin did the high lines with his unmistakable vibrato, and Maurice, whose voice was admittedly not as good as his brothers', did the choruses and harmonies. He only sings lead in a total of 2 or 3 songs in the whole of their back catalogue, IIRC. He was at his strongest as a multi-instrumentalist, and he was also the connective tissue between the other two brothers' rampant egos.

IIRC he played all the basslines to most of their 60s and all of their 70s records, including Fever and Spirits. In the 80s he started programming synth bass, and the band also had star session musicians on some songs - Reb Beach on guitar for Overnight, a young Marcus Miller on bass for The Longest Night, etc. Maurice's basslines, and especially You Should Be Dancing, are the reason why I started playing bass, and possibly also the reason why I [i]still[/i] play bass.

The 2017 information on their website is currently at a very early stage, but IIRC a contact link for those who want to exhibit will eventually become available and show a telephone number and an email address. In the meantime, you could leave a message on their news page and ask for further details: [url="http://www.londonbassguitarshow.com/news-2/2015-dates-announced/"]http://www.londonbassguitarshow.com/news-2/2015-dates-announced/[/url]

Right, the blog is now up! Linky here: [url="http://wp.me/p2ZbyY-wu"]http://wp.me/p2ZbyY-wu[/url] As always, do let me know of any errors and omissions. Thanks!

And she was only a cellist! Think what it would be worth if she played double bass...

Possibly. That low B sounded amazing.

There will be more pics in the blog (scheduled after the SE bash blog). We want to see you at the next one, Sarah!

A few more pics! Bassace Geoffbassist showing us newbies how to do it properly in German Happy Jack tries a French bow for the first time - on Owen's 5-stringer.

I'm guessing it depends. I rarely make that mistake because I don't gig, and play in my room in a non-distracting environment and I can concentrate on what I'm playing. Perhaps when you're on stage, having to follow what happens with the rest of the band and around the stage, doing it right all the time may be more challenging.

[quote name='leschirons' timestamp='1475494155' post='3146307'] Do you need two lots of muscle memory? Surely it's just knowing that you have a B string on one bass and not the other. [/quote] That's the brain's job, not the muscle memory's, which usually simply remembers the 'second string from the bottom, fourth fret' and similar. The brain might be a tiny little bit slower than the hand, and oops, you play a G# rather than a C# (or vice versa)...

Soo much GAS!! I've come out of the bash determined to practice my bowing following the excellent advice we were given at the talks, and I am now hunting for a decent lefty EUB that's not an NS NXT5 (which I already have and like) and that's closer to a DB in shape and sound. It's not going to be an easy quest. Jack still has GAS for an aluminium DB which was just about the only type of DB not in attendance at the bash. When's the next one??!!? Are we there yet?

Usually, the only risk of confusion arises when you play the 5er and the 4 one after the other on two different songs; sometimes the brain doesn't adjust immediatedly, and muscle memory will simply do "Third fret on bottom string", causing The Dreaded Wrong Fourth Syndrome.

Previously on this topic: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/267735-completely-leftie/"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/267735-completely-leftie/[/url] [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/243174-how-left-handed-are-you/"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/243174-how-left-handed-are-you/[/url] [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/234679-the-bs-of-guitar-companies/"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/234679-the-bs-of-guitar-companies/[/url]

Back home to London! A few pics quickly selected from the 500+ I took today. More to follow asap. A big thanks to Bassace and Owen for organising a superb meetup.

By the way, where were you playing? We couldn't find any decent gigs advertised anywhere within 10 miles of Derby. If we'd known you were playing nearby we'd have come to see you instead!

I was! We went to see a one-man cover band at a pub nearby but we got back reasonably early - we were very tired. Hope your gig was good. See you in a short while.