Norris

... and what a great bit of kit it is, the Ferrofish B4000+. Sounds great even through the line input of my PF-85. Thanks again @bass_dinger.

Another seamless transaction with @ash, this time buying a Ferrofish B4000+ organ module from him. It arrived well packaged and in perfect condition. Thanks again!

Good to hear!

They were just hellraisers, not beer drinkers too iirc

The ZZ Top song or the Motorhead EP? 😂

That sounds very positive! Nice - and very good of you to share it with the staff

Coke has a lot to answer for too. It turns people into arrogant a***holes. We've played a few times in places where there's a bit of a "culture" - only the once though. We don't need that kind of hassle.

"Have you improved?" - one of the stranger questions I've been asked. It turns out he thought we had since he last saw us. Anyway NYE proper (we played last night too) was a great night. The place was rammed, plenty of dancing. Mrs Norris even had a couple more glasses of prosecco than she would normally drink. The small stage extension I was on made for an interesting sound. (Photo taken during drum solo) The place had apparently not been as full since covid. Fabulous night, lots of nice comments and compliments. Have a great new year!

We've done this New Year's Eve Eve gig for a few years now and it's always a sell-out. It's in the small village of Twyford and seems that most of the villagers were there, probably for the excellent buffet! I'm glad I took the day off as we do it all again tonight...

I read that and didn't actually register what it was. I have a set of Roland PK-6 pedals sitting here too... ... I just checked my old PMs - I bought those pedals from @ash 😂

What would you recommend for budget home use? I'm thinking £300-400 second hand, decent sounding piano & organ with drawbars, reasonable weight to the keys. I'm thinking of moving on the old acoustic upright piano and an ancient Yamaha PF-85, so there will hopefully be a bit of space saving too

It's not always easy to know what is going down well sometimes. We play a variety of venues: some like to dance, some places It's nigh on impossible to get anyone on the floor. However we nearly always get positive comments, which sometimes comes as a bit of a surprise when you think you're not going down that well. I guess all you can do is enjoy this fleeting existence and hope some of the joy rubs off on other people 😁

I'm a bit late to this conversation but I'll add my experience. I bought cheap - they were so dreadful they went straight in the bin. I bought a set of Hosco double edged files - they are great. Beg, borrow, steal a decent set. Don't buy cheap.

Vinyl wrap?

Ash has a very pronounced, textured grain, so looks good as a single colour or with a grain filler and translucent top coat. Walnut has a much smoother grain and you might struggle to see it.

Our last gig before Christmas was at the Stockingford Allotment Association Pavilion - or the "Piv" for short. We love playing there because it's always a great atmosphere. The place was rammed for our Sunday afternoon 4-6 spot. Stingish bass into GT-6B multi-fx and thence into the trusty Rumble v3 500 combo. Black DMs. I managed to get home in time for an early Christmas dinner in honour of a couple of family members that were passing through - one of them has been working in Australia for ages.

If you follow Martin Turner's Menagerie - that photo was taken by Misha 😁

The basses I use for gigs are under £500. Not that I wouldn't gig an expensive bass, but the two 5-stringers that I own and play pretty much exclusively now were not expensive. In fact I'm starting to consider moving on some 4-stringers to make way for a new build (it's been a while and I'm itching!)

The Plough in Ashby is a tiny pub so we do it "acoustically" to have a smaller footprint. It's also rather fun playing songs a bit differently on the "Rocket Music by Stagg" EUB. A few random requests, a few Christmas songs and lots of happy people in the crowd drinking & dancing. In fact it was the busiest we've seen it. One more tomorrow, before Xmas Edit to add this photo - AI has turned us into elves 😂

We've done more than our fair share of clubs over the years. Now we only do them now when they virtually beg us to, and only on the proviso that they get what they just saw us do in the pub. At those clubs we go down well. We can't be doing with the old club "cheesiness".

This is generally known as "faux binding" and there are several techniques (do a search). Easiest may be to find some thin self-adhesive vinyl. If you want to paint, it will need to be compatible with the existing finish. Disclaimer: I've only ever done real binding.

Great: we had a fabulous time at the White Hart in Melton, rocked the place out, hot & sweaty. Sad: it's our last gig at the venue because the landlord and landlady are leaving. They can't make the place pay for itself. Sunday evenings always draw a crowd for the entertainment, but they have struggled to get people in on other nights of the week. Anyway we gave them a good send off. I took the smoke machine for a change, which made all the lights look even better. We didn't even keep track of how long we played. The only thing I forgot to do was to take a photo.

Any song is open to rearrangement.

The Old Inn in Littlethorpe is tiny. We're used to squeezing in there so have learnt to travel as light as possible. The Stingish bass was back out. I think I prefer the simplicity of a 2-band EQ. As you can see it was a bit cramped. The night started a little bit quiet but soon got much busier. In this place we nearly always have people encroaching or knocking the mic stands as they pass by. However I can heartily recommend the fluorescent pink duck tape! It kept everyone at bay. I don't think most people consciously noticed it but it was quite amusing to see the effect.

Slade was our opener for our final set and did the job of getting them on the floor. It was the only Xmas song we played though as we just gave them a segued onslaught of dancing tunes to keep them on the floor. Most of our Xmassy songs are done tongue in cheek and they were not really the sort of crowd for that. Tonight should be better suited.