rushbo

I'm "on" the Bill Nelson & The Gentlemen Rocketeers live DVD/CD from March 2011. A blistering gig. A brilliant combination of a tiny venue and an uber-partisan crowd. I seem to remember that the tickets were eye-wateringly expensive (for 2011), but you did get a glass or two of champagne and a meet-and-greet with the Great Man himself. Here's take 2 of "Maid in Heaven."

I’ve still got my blue vinyl copy of “Astral Projector”

Yeah, that was my gateway drug to the wonderful world of (slightly obscure) Canadian hard rock. Then came Triumph, Zon, Wireless, FM, Coney Hatch, Saga...

I love Canadian Rock bands of this vintage. "High Class in Borrowed Shoes" by Max Webster is a brilliant record, but I wonder if anyone bought it just on the strength of the cover?

A school friend brought this into class in December 1976, and the minute I saw it, I knew I had to have it. I thought it was the most beautiful looking album I had ever seen - even the label of the record had the Queen crest on! My thinking was that even if the album sounded terrible (apart from Bo Rap, which I liked) it was worth having, just for the cover. I begged for it as a Christmas present and when I heard the whole album, I was put on a path I'm still stumbling on as a 57 year old. Album covers are important.

Quite a few of the usual suspects here: BeBop Deluxe: Live in the Air Age Thin Lizzy: Live and Dangerous Who: Live at Leeds Cheap Trick: At Budokan Rush: All the World's a Stage Loud Family: From Ritual to Romance Led Zeppelin: Celebration Day

The Georgia Satellites at Rock City in Nottingham in '87. Flaming Lips at The Foundry, Birmingham in '96. My hearing never recovered from the Satellites gig, and just to mock me, Dan Baird released a solo album a few years later called "Love Songs for the Hearing Impaired."

...now THAT, I would love to hear.

Heavy Metal Kids

Kings of Leon on their first headlining UK tour. It was four blokes sleepwalking through their album. Dull as ditchwater. Black Crowes at the Phoenix Festival. Three minute songs stretched to beyond breaking point. Mr Tune went home a long time before we did. I was given a ticket to see them in Wolverhampton a few years later and I was expecting the worst. Instead they were brilliant - only a couple of noodly guitar twangathons and plenty of tight, focussed performances.

I went to a Motley Crue gig in Brum specifically to see the support act- Cheap Trick. I enjoyed Crue more than I thought I would.

They're viewed as demi-gods in the powerpop circles I sometimes frequent, but they're largely unknown or forgotten everywhere else. There weren't many better records released in the seventies that were better than "No Matter What."

Just taken delivery of a lovely, Ibanez bridge from Mike. It came promptly and packaged so well, I cried a little when I opened it. Buy and sell with confidence, natch.

Bass, drums and guitar for me. I've done the occasional thing on ukulele and mandolin, but I'm definitely more of an "owner" than a "player." I do appear on an album, playing the dulcimer on a tune. Weird things happened in the nineties...

Speaking as someone who lives just outside Stourbridge, there's not a new anything around these parts... There is a Bell End nearby, though: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/hands-bell-end-historic-road-14512296

I went with a subtle variation: "New Wobbum", which I imagine is a little village somewhere in East Sussex.

A brilliant band from Brum. They made one album - "First Investment" which was reissued on a CD a few years back and a fantastic, three track EP. My copy of that is way cracklier than this version! Try and track down the Friday Rock Show Session they did around this time, too. They were a permanent fixture in the rock clubs of the West Midlands around the time of NWOBHM, but they were a bit too pomp-rocky to fit in with that scene. They were a really good live band, and metalheads of a certain location and vintage may remember them being added to the bill at a Judas Priest gig at the Birmingham Odeon, as JP were going to be late due to them recording a Top of the Pops appearance in the afternoon. Fun fact: John Overton, their guitarist, produced and engineered my first ever demo tape. I was genuinely starstruck.

I think that might have been at the old Bingley Hall in Brum, headlined by Budgie. Also on the bill were a four piece Iron Maiden, Samson and local legends Jameson Raid.

Yup. First time I saw them.

I was a huge fan of the NWOBHM back in the day, and I saw most of the heavy hitters at the Odeon in Brum (generally supporting a more well established band) or at a few dinky club venues that I was just about old enough to frequent. It was a really great time to be a metalhead. A couple of years back, I got to review a pretty decent, three CD NWOBHM retrospective called "Winds of Time" for PopMatters. I liked it: https://www.popmatters.com/new-wave-british-heavy-metal-2580612788.html

Those are really helpful - thanks itu. I think I'm going to go for a bridge with 17mm string spacing which should give me a decent response over all the strings. Many thanks again to all the BassChat TechLords for their help.

Thanks to everyone for their input - the manuals were invaluable and I don't know why I didn't look there first! I'll go away and have a little think...

I played a festival in Penrith in 2019 - if I'd have known it was there, I would have swung by to have a look.

I do indeed - I was nine when Kong was in Brum and during one of our regular shopping trips into town, mom took me to see it. As a kid it looked huge! I remember that it was pretty unpopular with almost everybody over the age of 16, but I, and all my primary school mates loved it. I can't believe that it was only in Manzoni Gardens for a few months as it made such a massive impression on Birmingham.