musophilr

Midnight Hour played its first gig last night. Was at The Ten Bells (my local). Many of the regulars were there who may not have been normal Saturday night drinkers but they turned up to see what we were like. 3 households in my street were represented. Large numbers of family & friends of other band members were present. Everybody had a good time, I could see that from where I was standing (or perched on my tall stool which I do to save my back). Lots of huge grins, expressions of being hghly impressed, and offers of drinks followed afterwards. One regular wanted our contact details so he could recommend us to a venue he knows in a nearby small towm, and another who runs the local private car hire and spends a lot of his time ferrying corporate bigwigs between airports and their homes or business premises wanted a pile of business cards so he could recommend us for corporate functions. Not everything was played the way I thought it should, but we still enjoyed ourselves, and I would like to think we will soon be ready for the weddings & functions market that we're aiming at. Edit: I'm pleased that Shell had a good gig. She's been a bit doubtful about her own abilities but seems to be getting with it. Our cats wouldn't get on (Roobi doesn't get on with [i]anyone[/i]) but it's always nice to have the same colour scheme in common

I'm very pleased with the present band's versions of [i]Hot Stuff[/i] and [i]Someone like you[/i]. They're totally different to the originals.

Nice one! Getting to play Lindisfarne tracks must be highly enjoyable work

[quote name='Monckyman' timestamp='1345115422' post='1773662'] We just had this last night. Usually it`s not a problem, the guitard doesn`t mind transposing. Last night was Roxanne by the Police, which is in G,and it soon became obvious our singer couldn`t reach it and we settled upon E. Guitard was deeply upset after spending a week getting those chords to "sit just right". He played the opening chords in G, sounded great. Tried the same shape in E and it sounded like London Calling : ) However, sounding like London Calling is far preferable to sounding like a Bee Gee on acid. [/quote] Guitar chords have different voicings and some use open strings differently. Open G is voiced R3[b]5R3[/b]R and open E is [b]R[/b]5R3[b]5R[/b] where the bold ones are open. There's more to the sound of a chord than just the pitch.

[quote name='nottswarwick' timestamp='1349338277' post='1824779'] Custom ACS ER 15 filters. No contest. [/quote] ^ This ^ foam ones muffle the treble & midrange (slightly), and let all the bass through

I got accused of that recently (I play guitar & keys in this band). There were some unpleasant noise coming out front and it was alleged that this was the result of beat frequencies between the lower end of my keyboard part and what the bass player was doing. Turned out to be the other guitarist's amplifier farting in the bass register However I quite sympathise ... bass and keys are quite capable of contradicting each other and we have to be careful to leave each other some space. I took the view that in this song the lower end of my keys part was nowhere near as essential as the electric bass part, so I dropped it completely. It was then that the aforementioned nasty noise didn't go away and they "forgave" me.

I don't like slap regardless of the context in which people are doing it. [i][b]Play [/b][/i]the damn thing don't hit it! Mark King has a lot to answer for.

[quote name='SpanishBass' timestamp='1349041449' post='1821114'] It was very interesting to read your comment about Steve Upton, Musophilr! I think he's a great drummer too! I had the privilege of playing bass in Ted McKenna's band ,McKenna's Gold, for two years, so I know a good drummer when I hear one! I particularly love his drumming on 'So Many Things To Say' (Wishbone Four). Fabulous! [/quote] I'm not skilled enough to say what it is about Mr Upton's work that makes him so distinctive*, but I do believe he's seriously under-rated. * Sir Thomas Beecham once said: "The English know little about music, but they love the noise that it makes"

[quote name='martin8708' timestamp='1348868363' post='1819446'] If you can afford coffee from Cafe Nero with a barrister or a barista , you're still doing pretty well for yourself . I agree with the general sentiment , [b]I think even people with the money are too frightened to spend it due to the gloomy economic climate and fear of job loss , etc [/b]. On the flip side , I am now truly grateful for having a job and appreciate the regular pay checks , rather than begrudgingly going into work . [/quote] Too right about that. I lost customers because they lost their jobs, but I've also lost them because even though they have money they don't want to spend it. They will find, when it comes time for them to claim a benefit, that they'll be penalised for saving, and they'll wish they'd have spent it before.

[quote name='4 Strings' timestamp='1348779682' post='1818232'] Perhaps the best guitarists have beards [/quote] Not many guitarists have beards, but I do. And I play bass. There are some who don't think I'm intelligent, but I can definitely do the moody bit. And I hate mornings ...

[quote name='RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE' timestamp='1348857567' post='1819279'] All too depressing, to be honest. The only way I look at things is forward. Although my wages have been'average/below average , I have been employed most of my life and have been only less than 6months unemployed. These last few years have been terrible, but I'm not the only one,) Wages will be going down instead of up. I had to laugh today , the barrister at cafe Nero told me my coffee will cost more from Monday.I told him that of course I'm not surprised.) [/quote] If you can afford to drink coffee with barristers in Cafe Nero you can't be that skint. At least you're keeping well paid company. My mum knows a lawyer whose kitchen floor area is bigger than the footprint of my entire house. I obviously went into the wrong profession.

WA will not sound the same without Steve Upton irrespective of whoever else is present from the older lineups. I've seen various lineups including the first two. Years later, I saw what was cracked up to be the original, but Steve Upton wasn't there (Powell, Turner & Turner were) and It was good, but not the same

Used to ... but bass isn't my first instrument and I realised that each time I picked it up it took a long time to get back into playing it in tune. So when it was time for a new bass, I got a fretted one.

Jack Bruce, live with Cream. Someone mentioned Felix Pappalardi, so that would mean Mountain, and I could go along with that too. Got to say that most of the time I like it clean.

[quote name='sime17' timestamp='1347999867' post='1808018'] Reggae bass may be repetitive but surely bass is all about repetitive. I'll go further - most music is about repetitive! Dance is about repetitive! Repeating riffs are usually at the basis of a song's hook, appeal, danceability. Dammit, if you don't have a bit of repetitive then you have freeform jazz and THEN where would we be? (I might need to borrow that flame proof suit...) [/quote] It even goes further than that. For a sequence of notes to be recognisable as a tune there must be repeating patterns within its structure. For a sound to be recognised as a musical note, its waveform must have a repeating structure. Otherwise you get noise. Repetition is everything. Even for bum notes, then you can claim you meant it, when otherwise you might get done for deviation. Hesitation (holding back on the beat) also works sometimes

[quote name='vsmith1' timestamp='1347978409' post='1807543'] Off to see and hear Wishbone Ash next month in Kendal, but as I read stuff that is the band with Andy Powell but not Martin Turner. Now I have mixed feelings. [/quote] There's nothing wrong with Andy Powell. He's a fine musician!

[quote name='seashell' timestamp='1347975913' post='1807479'] Oh brill, what a cool thing to play! [/quote] fanx ... and you should see the size of the Wishbone Ash dept in my record collection it's [b][size=6]THIS BIG[/size][/b]

[quote name='Norris' timestamp='1347966070' post='1807189'] I have an Argus mug at work - and nobody gets the reference Martin Turner is still touring lots - see [url="http://www.wishboneash.co.uk/default.aspx"]http://www.wishbonea...uk/default.aspx[/url]. Bad news for me, 'cos my band doesn't get to gig when his does due to a shared guitarist [/quote] If that's the guy with the Gibson semi (339?) who made a very commendable job of the solo in Living Proof at the Ipswich Regent one or two autumns ago, I want his job - and his guitar!

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1347901732' post='1806416'] I was chatting to a friend recently who's also a Bass player but isn't registered on this site..got to talking about the type of basslines he likes to listen to - I was a bit shocked when he said he wasn't really into Reggae or the Funky stuff though he did occassionally have a listen to both... Since the "Funk and Groove" thread is one of the most contributed to and both are bass led, I thought that most bassists would be into Reggae and Funk..apparently not... Any thoughts?? [/quote] I like reggae in relatively small doses. I'm quite partial to anything with Sly & Robbie in it. I can't stand funk. Never listen to it, haven't a clue how to play it, or why anyone else would want to.

Argus is one of my favourite EllPees. In my first band, we covered Vas Dis

There's nothing wrong with the SM58, but it's not a sensitive mic, and having to speak directly into it from a close range might be inhibiting given your intended application. The SM57 is like the SM58 but it has a slight hump in its response curve at around 3.5 kHz, and the business end of it has a different shape. There are apparently other dynamic mics on the market which are more sensitive than these Shures. Other suggestions might include a condenser mic (much more sensitive - less requirement to look like you're kissing it all the time), or better still one of those headset things with a little boom that comes from your ear and keeps the mic right in front of your mouth.

Ref the size of the amplifiers: I see no need for big stacks, or the need (as some bands obviously do) to play at the kind of volume that would get you banned from most pub gigs. If I feel that it's time to get the ER15s out of their little purse thing, then we're getting too loud. Happy Jack's rehearsal room looks good

We use one that's got a toilet you wouldn't want to bare your bum at, but it has a bass rig and 2 guitar half stacks, plus a kick drum & toms - you bring your own snare & other hardware. There's also a 12 channel mixer, a PA, and some microphones. It costs £24 for an evening. Were it mine, I'd want the lav fixing, and I'd also want better lighting - dim lights may be atmospheric but it's hard to read a chord chart by them. The gear is the main reason we go there. We could get a village hall for the same price, but we'd have to take our own PA & backline.

The only problem with [i]Live at the Rainbow[/i] is the tempo at which they tried to play [i]Hocus Pocus[/i]. They were falling over themselves to keep up. Otherwise it was a fine set

I also have the Wakeman solo EllPees. Shame my two favourite prog rock bands (Camel, Focus) were not mentioned in the BBC spiel.