Skinnyman

Wow. Multiply by quite a few customers and that's a lot of unnecessary recycling. Do Argos still print millions of catalogues? And i see that Yellow Pages has finally stopped printing a real book. Looks like CPC are trying to take up the slack all on their own

I always loved the fact that when Alex left they became The Sensational Alex Harvey Band (Without Alex). I spent a lot of time in and around Glasgow in the Seventies and was introduced to the SAHB then. I guess I'm at an age where many of my childhood heroes are dying off. Time to dig out some old vinyl and reminisce with old friends and a wee dram tonight, I think

Cant help thinking there's a sitcom somewhere in these and the audition stories....

I learnt that the one thing you don’t have a spare of is the thing that will break so carry two of everything

I used to have a real block with the solo in that song. Could play it perfectly at home or in rehearsal, always made a complete Horlicks of it at a gig. I've finally got past that now but i still shudder at the memory of the car crashes

A great post and something I try to do myself - I'm maybe not quite as disciplined but that's my failing. The only thing I'd add is that once you've learnt the song, when you do go to play it with the band, listen to what the drummer's doing and be prepared to change what you're playing if needed....

I use Guitar Tapp which is a really cool aggregator that brings together all the online tabs. Browsing through them, it’s amazing how much variation there can be for a single song

What? Hit me with a handbag and shut down the pits?

I’ve had this before. Guitarist in a band I auditioned for insisted on everything being as per the original recording. No deviation allowed - now, I agree with Subaudio that you need to know the original and keep the key essence of the song before you start to make changes, but this was a flat refusal to brook any kind of deviation from the original recorded work. I didn’t get the gig because I wasn’t very good (which is fair enough) but I don’t think I’d have taken it anyway. i see the current audition as being professionally organised (as I say, out of my league but I’m of the camp that says you should play with people who are better than you are in order to learn) which is a Good Thing - but I will be on the lookout for the kind of control freakery that you encountered.

I'm currently learning a bunch of songs for an upcoming audition and have (so far) been impressed by the attention to detail. MP3 recordings of the band playing their arrangements, a breakdown of the structure they follow and, in a few cases, the previous bass player's own handwritten tab. Very professional and making me feel very concerned that I'll be way out of my league! As far as the original post is concerned, unless it's a tribute band, I don't mind too much if the band changes the arrangement - even the original artists will often change the way they play things - but there is a "minimum standard" that should be achieved if you're going to play it in public and hope that people will pay you to do so. Rather, my biggest bugbear is learning a particular version of a song to be told "oh, we play such-a-bodies version" or "we do the version from their live album with the extended bridge section".

The biggest disappointment? I still don't know which is best for metal

Ditto that - but did anyone else think that Stewart Copeland looked a lot like Doc from Back To The Future?

As I've had a few "fulfilled" dreams myself, I was expecting this to be a very different thread, given the title. But, to stay on topic, i also had a go with an SVT and 8x10 at our local rehearsal room and was also left a bit underwhelmed. I wonder if they sound better in a decent sized venue at gig volumes rather than in a rehearsal room where - even though they sound loud - they're not being stretched enough to sound their best. Whatever, it wasn't the earth-moving experience I was expecting....

Sorry, has to be done.... Was it a dance it a raffle? You set 'em up...

We used to get £250 the first time we played going up to £300 once they'd decided we weren't just "a bluddy noise" and booked us to come back. A couple of places offered £350 but £300 seemed to be the norm. Start at nine, break for't bingo and then curfew at twelve. Strike down and out by 12:30 cos Howard has to lock up and he's on shift again at six....

Precisely. There's a symbiotic relationship here - or should be. Pubs need bands to bring in the punters and bands need pubs to give them a venue at which to play. And let's be honest, we probably need the pubs more than they need us OK, if you're a band of sufficient stature that you can play bigger, music-specific venues then all power to your elbow and play what you want. But if you're in a band that plays on a Saturday night down the Pig and Whistle and you're being paid to do so by the landlord then, in my view, your job is to entertain the punters first and yourself second. And if that means playing bloody Wonderwall yet again then i will play it with a big cheesy smile on my face.

I'm a bit of a fan of remasters, personally. Most of the album's i bought in the seventies are pretty sh@gged by now and many weren't brilliant to start with given the quality of vinyl during the oil crisis. So i welcome the chance to get hold of an album I love on a format that is convenient and, often, with "extras" that add to my understanding. Yes, I know that some are cynical attempts by the record company to squeeze a few more dollars out of their fading asset base - but some are genuine attempts to make a "better" version using today's technology. YMMV of course - and we should bear in mind that the record companies have managed to sell me pretty much my entire album collection several times over on a succession of "improved" formats so i guess I'm just a gullible mug, ripe for exploitation. Hey ho 😀

As mentioned earlier, I think the bassline should serve the song. Sometimes root notes are all that is needed. One of the worst sins a bass player can commit ( in my opinion, of course, others are available and equally valid) is to overplay. So I'll happily play anything in the spirit of the arrangement we've come up with, even if it's simple and repetitive. I just relax and think of myself as playing tuned percussion

This. One of the things about being in a covers band is having a wide repertoire to suit the venue/audience/occasion. When i was gigging with my last band, having a setlist based on a single genre would have seriously cut down our bookability.

I use them and really like them. I don't like a bright or brash tone and these lose their "newness" very quickly. I don't gig the Dingwalls often but when i did, these were comfortable and - to me - sounded good. YMMV of course...

My two penn'orth? If you don't like the music then even if you put your own tastes aside and do it you'll very quickly get disenchanted and start to hate it. So why even go there? Tell them now that you're not going and then find something you do want to do....

I have one of them Rickentractor basses and, much as i love it, I've always been frustrated by the lack of anywhere to anchor a thumb while playing the E string (I use the floating thumb technique but do like a good solid place to rest the thumb while I'm on the E). On my Fender Jazz, there's a nice chunky pickup to rest on, ditto my Sandberg. But the accepted place to rest a thumb on a Ric is the top of the pickguard which, for me, is too far away. I saw the Zero Mod which is available from the US but it's £20-odd quid plus postage and it just runs along the top of the PG so doesn't, in my opinion, solve the problem. So I got some modelling putty and made my own as a prototype - once I'd got a shape and position that worked i passed it on to a mate who has a few 3D printers and the appropriate CAD software and received back this. I'm well chuffed with the result - OK, the shape could follow the PG slightly more closely and I'm a bit annoyed that I managed to scratch it when i was drilling it but i reckon it's pretty good for a first attempt, especially as I'm a cack-handed plonker who generally breaks anything I touch. Prototype And the printed article:

My mother used to run the village shop and i distinctly remember her getting a box of "pre-release" Aztec bars from the sales rep to try out as part of the market research. They were in proper wrappers but without the Cadburys logo and the usual ingredients and stuff. About six months later we got the first box of the "proper" bars. Mum had a sweet tooth so i suspect she conducted the market research single-handedly.

Page two and no one has mentioned Thijs Van Leer?

I shall continue with my solitary vice then. But welcome anyway.... 😀