3V17C

yeah i've read this. was kinda ok but not particularly 'in depth' and seems to skim over alot of details. could have been alot better in my opinion. peace c

Whatever could he have meant when he said "5 grown men looking so ridiculous" ?! peace c

[quote name='Buzz' post='73047' date='Oct 11 2007, 08:30 PM']No response then? Awwwwww.[/quote] not as yet no! in a way its good but i did have a few choice lines ready for retaliation - bah. peace c

i should also say in his defence that on the very day after his mum died he turned up for rehearsal as usual! erm..... on a lighter note.... What do you call a beautiful woman on the arm of a drummer? . . . . . . . . . . A tattoo! parp! c

to be fair, he has stopped the texting thing since i caught him doing it between songs and now apparently switches his phone off when its time to play. thinking about it though, it wasn't too long ago when our singer was constantly texting at rehearsals (due to woman trouble) and the drummer kept telling me how much it was annoying him!! its tricky - yeah i've known him for absolutely years but he is an odd bloke - he looks like a big scary tattooed biker or something but is really insecure so always have to tread carefully. he is also the most stubborn man on the planet not just with band stuff but with everything and will happily 'cut off his nose to spite his face' rather than try to work things out. he insists that, drum wise at least, all songs must be played 100% as per the original record but myself and the rest of the band always put a bit of our own spin on things. and anyway, even for instance with the maiden stuff we do, nicko plays alot of it differently to how clive burr used to do it on the originals. our drummer says 'oooh its got to be right though because any drummers in the audience will notice' but honestly, what percentage of the audience are drummers? and even the ones that are - how many of them would notice if one drum fill was slightly different to the original? alot of the songs we do are old and have been around so long that there isn't even really a definitive version anyway. i don't know how many of you read the 'hate mail' post i put up but when i told the drummer about it (abbreviated version by text obviously!) he said ' sod that we won't play there again then'. .........so 99% of the audience really enjoyed us and one bitter person didn't so thats reason not to go back? definitely, definitely a confidence thing. its not just been since his mum dying but has been getting worse of late. personally i find music to be the best form of escapism when going through tough times but i guess everyones different. if he was a lesser drummer then yes, he would be gone, but the trouble is good drummers are hard to find round here so we've got to take things easy. cheers c (still bored at work!)

our drummer is starting to bother me! Basically we choose a song to learn and then it comes to rehearsal and we play through it for the first time and its pretty much bang on perfect. But then he'll say - 'nah, can't play that'! ......We're all like - 'but you just did - perfectly!' and he says 'yeah but I wouldn't be comfortable doing it live' and thats the end of it. That song is now out. He will not budge. Thing is, fair enough, some songs may have tricky bits in BUT THEN YOU PRACTICE IT surely?! but he won't - if he can't do it first time, then thats it - it simply can't be done. End of. He has an electronic kit at home, plenty of spare time on his hands and easy access to rehearsal place for setting his kit up and running thru stuff but insists that practicing it won't make any difference. It might be something as little as just one particular fill in the song that causes the whole song to be scrapped. Theres also one or two songs where he's made a very slight mistake live and which he now refuses to play in case he repeats the mistake!...again....practice, surely? and we all make mistakes from time to time. Any new songs we learn have to be rehearsed and rehearsed about a 100 times before he'll even think about playing them live despite the fact they may be fine after just a few rehearsals. Every other band member now has spoken to me individually and said that they feel he is holding us back and it is kinda true. Its got to the point now where when its time to chose songs to learn it is purely just down to him to pick based on whether or not he thinks he can play them ok. Which he can! i can't re-iterate how good a drummer he is. its a confidence thing is all, i'm sure. He doesn't really help set up/pack down after gigs apart from his own stuff, he spends all his time texting his girlfriend which has become a running joke in the band but annoys me. We were all onstage waiting to start a gig once and before he'd count in he had to finish sending a text! and i also caught him texting between songs once! grrrrrr. Thing is, despite what he thinks, he's a very good drummer and would be hard to replace. The whole things made more tricky by the fact that his mum died fairly recently and he's now on anti-depressents and also the fact that I've been friends with him for years. aaaaaaaaargh!!!! sorry about long post...bored at work!! peace c

hmmm interesting post. i think generally the thing (for me at least) that slowed progress back in the day was just life! when you first start playing bass you do it all the time: take your guitar to school, friends house afterwards, sit and noodle while watching tv etc etc but as you get older things like work, girlfriends, kids etc come along meaning less time to spend practising and therefore improving. Its ok for players like Sheehan, Vai, Wooten etc to practice 8 hrs a day because they've not got day jobs to worry about, but I certainly couldn't (and probably wouldn't want to!). I think anything is physically possibly to play though and while we may struggle with certain Wooten licks/techniques or whatever, similarly he might struggle with some of ours. Ok these people are exceptional talents but I'm sure theres equally skilled people on here and elsewhere who just don't get the recognition because they're not signed/touring etc or perhaps are just happy to be bedroom players. Personally, these days I do try to practice much more, but the hard thing is not to just play same old routine chops all the time which i can already do so isn't really advancing anything. Always make a point of trying to come up with something new every time. peace c

haha.... that really is just ridiculous!! c

[quote name='Mrs Tinman' post='72305' date='Oct 10 2007, 06:31 PM']Dear 3V17C That's Sh!t Sincerely Yours Valhods[/quote] LOL! nice one! c

Heres ours (we don't play them [i]all[/i] every gig but mix them up a bit)- we got a bit of a quiet spell gig wise for a few weeks so gonna be working on some new stuff - which'll be nice! Iron Maiden - Losfer Words Iron Maiden - 2 minutes to midnight Iron Maiden - Phantom of the opera Iron Maiden - The trooper Iron Maiden - Wrathchild Iron Maiden - Murders in the Rue Morgue Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast Iron Maiden - Where Eagles Dare Thin Lizzy - Are You Ready Thin Lizzy - Boys are back in Town Thin Lizzy - Massacre Thin Lizzy - Cold Sweat Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak Thin Lizzy - Killer on the loose Whitesnake - Ready and Willing Whitesnake - Give me all your love tonight Whitesnake - Guilty of Love AC/DC - Sin City AC/DC - Shot down in flames AC/DC - Bad boy boogie Rainbow - Long live rock and roll UFO - Lights out in london UFO - Too hot to handle Saxon - 747 Strangers in the night Saxon - Power and the glory Saxon - Wheels of steel Ozzy Osbourne - Mr Crowley Ozzy Osbourne - Shot in the dark Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train Deep Purple - Highway Star Deep Purple - Perfect Strangers Deep Purple - Speed King Phil Lynott/Gary Moore - Out in the fields Motorhead - Bomber Judas Priest - Breaking the law MSG- Are you ready to rock peace c

we got one of these [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/millenium_backdrop_bundle.htm"]Thomann Backdrop[/url] with the stands and everything. Pretty good. The stands have quite a big footprint but can be used for sticking some extra lights on. For smaller places you can of course just hang the actual cloth bit up minus the stands. Its fire retardant too which some places will insist upon and want to see evidence of. Painted it myself (being the artistic type!) - our logo at the time was in a stencil font anyway so made some stencils up on PC, stuck em on some card, cut 'em out and used cheapo Halfords white spray paint. Took a few coats as it soaked in a bit but looks pretty good. Paint did bleed/feather slightly in places but because of our stencil typeface it looks fine - if you were doing a more precise/fancy logo you might want to do things differently. peace c

for starters... NV43345 by Billy Sheehan (Talas era) Something off Stu Hamm's first album - maybe 'flow my tears' (but NOT that country thing!!) something by Victor Wooten (and maybe something by Jaco although I have to confess to not being his greatest fan!) and to show something completely different and how a simple essentially one note bass line can make a song I would also add '20th Century' by Brad from the album Shame. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9GL7PE03pg"]Video Here[/url] [color="#708090"](in fact - just listening to it now for the first time in ages....what a damn fine song it really is!!)[/color] I'm sure I'll think of more! peace c

i [i]had[/i] to reply... [color="#4B0082"]hi again! Cage not rattled at all. You took the trouble to email - I took the trouble to respond is all. ('personal insults' as you call them were meant to be light hearted jibes to avoid anything getting nasty - believe me I [i]can[/i] do personal insults but choose not too as I don't even know you!) I would however question the merits of a person like yourself who sets out to antagonize somebody they don't even know ('cage well and truly rattled - job done then'. Regardless of what you may think and your apparent musical snobbery (a jazz man eh?!) I personally am quite content with my level of ability on my chosen instrument and with over 25 years of playing, recording and touring nationally and in Europe I do kind of think I know what I'm doing. Despite these days playing in a common or garden cheesy rock band (which is apparently some lower form of life) I have a background in, and listen to, many different styles of music and I have the techniques and the chops to back it up. You'd be surprised what some of the others in the band can do too. The songs we play may not be the most technical compositions in the world and for me as the bassist the simple root note basslines aren't particularly demanding but that is how the songs were originally written so that is how we play them. We're a covers band after all! Next time we play, come and say hello! Bring your guitar if you want and you are by all means welcome to show us what you can do. I really would be interested to hear a clearly superior musician like yourself first hand. Alternatively, point me to one of your gigs/recordings/website whatever. Either way we play instruments and gig regularly - in my book that makes us musicians. At the end of the day we enjoy what we do and (apart from the odd person like yourself!) most other people seem to enjoy it too which is why 9 times out of 10 whenever we play somewhere for the first time we're repeatedly booked back. It may not be your cup of tea, as I'm sure what you listen to isn't mine but to each his own Peace[/color]

does that [i]need[/i] to be tapped? c

and i've got a reply back from him! to whit: [color="#4B0082"] Whooooooooooo.........!!!! Cage well and truly rattled I see... Job done then. However, I see no reason for you to resort to "personal insults"... Now that really does show up your attitude. That is crass. However, do keep up the "we're musicians" pretence, I reluctantly sort of admire it....... you know, the "more volume = more talent" argument. It becomes you. Happy to be "in the minority" as you put it. Bye, over and out..... p.s. Spandex and flying V's. Now there's a thought for you...!!! p.p.s. Me...country...? Not likely. I have to confess that G13th #9 chords are where I'm at matey..!! [/color] seems he is the type who sets out to rattle peoples cages so obviously not a particularly nice person especially as he doesn't even know us. the 'personal insults' he refers to i would call humorous jibes to try to keep things civil WITHOUT getting personal (i guess the bit about his mum/sister). i AM going to reply to him but then that will be that - i'm not getting into a long winded thing with him because he's really not worth it - i do like to have my say however. stay tuned! peace c

[quote name='woodenshirt' post='71052' date='Oct 8 2007, 01:55 PM']3V17C, I think I know who sent it........ You're based in Lowestoft, so your hate mailer has to be Justin Hawkins! Just call me Poirot, Mart[/quote] haha..... i have actually been mistaken for Justin Hawkins before (although i hope my teeth are in better shape than his!!) and a few people at this gig on Friday kept calling me that too! the swines!!!! i found his email to be quite funny, trouble is theres people in the band who are, unbelievably, more insecure than me who might take it to heart! live and let live is what i say, and of course the guy is entitled to his opinion so thats up to him. he had the option to leave, which he did. his loss, we had a good night all told. cheers c

yeah I kinda read into it that he was a musician too....anyways heres my reply to him! (bear in mind it was a country pub) [color="#000080"]Hi there Ha ha! - Thanks for that - seeing as you've taken the time to write in then I'll take the time to reply. It certainly cheered me up on a Monday morning! To be honest yours is the first negative response we've got .......now, if you'll allow me to retort...... Firstly, it was a surprise to receive your email as I wasn't even sure that the internet had been discovered out in your neck of the woods. I suppose you're right though, it IS 2007, but even so it must be difficult typing with webbed fingers while perched on a bale of hay surrounded by sheep looking for a little bit of affection of the kind that only you country boys can give. Yes, in your view we may look ridiculous (I'm the one with long hair by the way so probably the most ridiculous looking of all? - oh no - hang on, that'll be our singer! :-)) and we may play dated, cheezy rock from the 80s - BUT - that is what we do! We are a Classic Rock/Metal covers band after all! Surprisingly for you perhaps, but there are alot of people who do like that music! We could hardly go out playing Artic Monkeys or Razorlight now could we? ...and at least none of us wear spandex or wield a flying vee! (By the way we have two guitars because most of the material we cover originally had two guitars on it - we wouldn't go to three guitars because only Iron Maiden do that and even we think thats a bit ridiculous!!!) We normally play at larger venues than xxxxxxx and we only played there because we were recommended by someone who, unlike yourself, rates us as a good band. In fact in rock circles we are considered to be pretty good which is why 200+ people come and see us on our home town gigs. I think also that you were perhaps in a minority because most of the comments we got after the gig Friday were along the lines of 'best band we've had in here all year' and 'far too good to be playing pubs'. Also by the end there were alot of young ladies dancing to us which is always nice to see - I won't say much more as being locals they may well be related to you - perhaps your sister or your mother ....or possibly both rolled into one? I've seen the big-eared boys on farms..... Also, reading into your comments about guitar sounds/'tired riffs'/Les Pauls etc I assume that you're maybe a musician yourself? If so, regardless of what type of music you're into (or not as the case may be!) you should appreciate (as we do) that everyone has different tastes and of course not everyone is going to like the same thing, but at least we're out there doing it. We go out, we rock out and if you don't like it you can get the hell out!....oh .... you did! Fine by us. Keep an eye on the gig listings for next year at xxxxxxx though because theres a good chance that we'll be back at some point and when we are I'm guessing you'll want to be as far away as possible! In the meantime take it easy and make sure you protect those eardrums of yours you delicate little flower! Peace[/color] ah....feel better now! c

if you want red haired female bassists look no further than [url="http://www.aufdermaur.com/photos.html"]Melissa Auf Der Maur[/url] peace c

[quote name='dood' post='70095' date='Oct 5 2007, 06:08 PM']and one for me personally - Also ask him who books his tours, as next time round he should come to Norwich. I'm happy to help arrange it.. we know the right people!![/quote] damn right - get him in the Brickmakers haha!!! i have very vague memories of seeing him with Mr Big at the Waterfront many, many moons ago....damn these brain cells!!! peace c

[quote name='dood' post='70093' date='Oct 5 2007, 06:06 PM']oh.. and what is his current signal path? (pictures are good!)[/quote] in his 'advanced bass' dvd one of the extras is Billy boy in his garage talking through his rack setup. he shows and talks about how it's all wired up, what goes where etc etc. Quite an interesting DVD all round actually. peace c

Had a pub ring us up last week because they'd had a cancellation and needed a band. (Apparently we'd been recommended to them by another of their regular bands). Was a small country pub which we'd never been to before. We were pretty wary of volume because of the size of the place and were all a bit dubious about it because of its quiet country pub vibe. (We are a Classic Rock/Metal covers band playing Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple, AC/DC, Whitesnake, Saxon, Maiden etc) The place soon got quite busy, people getting right into it and we got loads of positive comments and promises of rebookings etc. A pretty good night. So was very surprised to recieve the following email this morning!!! [color="#2F4F4F"]Dear All, I was unfortunate enough to catch your gig at the xxxxx at xxxxxxxx last night. I have never before in my life had the misfortune to witness 5 grown men looking so ridiculous and sounding so God damn awful. Can you all please note that it is now 2007, not 1980..!! Your performance was just one huge procession of crap music played badly and as loud as your equipment would allow. I managed to put up with your onslaught for 10 minutes and then had to leave the building. It was the musical equivalent of aural rape. I don't doubt that, were you to respond to my criticism and attempt to improve matters, your answer would be to recruit a third guitar player....... 'cos two guitars playing the same old tired riffs with exactly the same sound must?be better than one right...?? And so three must sound better than two...???? But then, why stop at three.... Finally, just one more observation, the tall geezer with the Les Paul slung just below his testicles...... Pleeeeeease...!!! Valhods.[/color] To each his own I guess but how annoying!!!! Grrrrrr.... I have of course sent a reply back!!! peace c

these days i suffer from nerves really badly - and its not good! never used to bother me in the old days - i think its an age thing, now i'm 38 i just feel more kinda exposed and less confident generally than i did in my youth. its definitely not about lack of confidence in my abilities or inexperience because i've done hundreds of gigs in my time. annoys me though as it spoils alot of gigs. the worst bit is all the waiting around between soundchaeck and actually playing....brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!! peace c

[quote name='Mickeyboro' post='70009' date='Oct 5 2007, 02:44 PM']I'm talking to Billy next week for a magazine article and wondered if anyone had any questions they'd like putting on their behalf...particularly gear-related stuff.[/quote] ask him why i can't get any decent level out of that SVP-BSP Preamp of his!!!!! seriously though, ask him about the new, updated Yamaha Attitude bass - if and when its coming out! i want one. cheers c

[b]Killswitch Engage [/b]doing [b]Dio[/b]'s Holy Diver is pretty damn fine I reckon - check it out on YouTube with the quality video for it! peace c