Norris

You are learning muscle memory. That takes time and repetition. Don't beat yourself up if you are struggling to play along to a metronome - that can come later. You are at the stage that requires more conscious thought. Get the notes right first, then think about speed and timing. Btw I got to grade 6 in my youth, but haven't really played piano since. I also got to grade 8 bass trombone. It wasn't done in 5 minutes - there was a lot of repetitive practice involved. Have patience - it won't take too long to get past the beginner grades

My favourite guitar, the one I will pick up and noodle on, is one that I bought for my lad when he wanted to learn classical guitar. It really is lovely but unfortunately I think it hardly comes out of its case in the university digs where it currently lives. I miss it. Anyway it's a 2012 Martinez MCG-40C. Not that expensive and there seem to be a few around second hand (hmmm...)

I think someone might have finally got this. Or it just wasn't funny 😜

Oh, I forgot to say that the left-handed guitarist in the middle was playing a left-handed guitar, but strung right-handed! 🤯

We had a lovely day yesterday. It was a VE80 celebration organised by the local council and the Royal British Legion branch. It started off at 2:30 with the Leicester Big Band. The decorations were fantastic and the room was packed. After that was a ukelele band in the other room (I was, erm, too busy to go and watch them 😜) So the evening was then split between our guitarist's brother's Beatles tribute band and us. We shared kit - most of it ours. I didn't get any photos of us, but shot these 3 that I've chucked together in a collage... I was quite pleased with that set of shots Usual Sire into Rumble. More importantly footwear were my custom suede Converse

Goodness. I'm so happy to be a dinosaur 😀

No, there's a side door into the band area and we parked right outside. Couldn't have been much easier!

It's a long, thin pub. If someone is standing at the bar you would have difficulty getting past them. I quite like the band alcove because on most nights it's the only place you can stand without people trying to get past you while carrying drinks. You do have to back off the bottom end a bit though because it's quite enclosed

Our first time back at the Black Horse in Whitwick since just before Christmas. It was a quiet compared to normal - it's usually rammed. A good, enthusiastic crowd though and much dancing took place. It's a bit of a strange weekend, what with a public holiday last Monday and the VE80 stuff going on. Our little drummer boy is still riddled with bronchitis, so Rob was kind enough to step in again and did a great job. It's so nice to be able to lock in with a good drummer, even if we threw a couple of songs at him out of the blue. We had a great night. Footwear were purple suede Gazelles - they don't come out often. I took the Sire P, going into the usual GT-6B and Rumble 500 combo. My favourite patch at the moment is the Octa-Fuzz which got quite a feature in Born to be Wild amongst others. Only the one photo of the compact stage, dimly lit after we'd finished playing

2 metres tall? It must be a bronze record!

Last night was a joint 60th and 40th birthday, but in an open pub. This is about the smallest place we play, crammed into the corner. I always prefer to have my amp on the floor, but had to put it up on the seat for this one. Our regular drummer is still down with bronchitis, so the seat was filled by Rob Hewins, a musician I really admire - he did a great job drumming, filling in harmonies and taking the lead vox in a couple of songs. He's a pretty mean guitarist too! As usual the place was rammed, so I hovered in that thin line between having my teeth knocked out by the crowd knocking my mic stand and being stung in the back by a cymbal crash 😂 Sire P7-5, GT-6B, Rumble 500, burgundy suede Vans

This Always

Ah no. Being of youthful disposition her output consists solely of short video clips, all in portrait mode, none longer than a minute. Not even worth trying to grab a screen shot from 🤣😂 I need to put my reading glasses on next time!

So after 9 weeks off we had a gig at last - or at least 2/3 of us did. The drummer came down with a bout of bronchitis yesterday. Luckily we managed to find a last minute dep, a chap we've known for years and played with in various bands (including him and the guitarist playing in Martin Turner's band for a few years). That meant we had to scribble a list of reasonable songs we all knew. We actually had a lot spare at the end of the night. It was great to play with another good drummer and it can give familiar songs from the usual list a whole new vibe. We had a great time. The audience were ok and we went down well. I don't think the pub puts on enough bands to really establish it as a music venue really. I took my Sire P7-5, but actually played my stinger-equipped Sterling Sub5 all night because I was enjoying it so much. Usual GT-6B and Rumble 500 combo provided tone and heft. I forgot to take any photos, but a lovely young lady (barmaid on her night off) did get some great shots, so I'll post one or two of those when they are forwarded on. Instead you can have a shot of tonight's footwear - custom burgundy suede Converse One Stars I just know you're now going to want to play with the customisation tool, so here you go... https://www.converse.com/uk/en/products/customize/custom-collections/start-with-a-blank

If you're going to soundcheck then do it properly and quickly. We play in pubs. We've played together for years. We are very familiar with our equipment. A quick line check is plenty - does it make a noise? If so then stfu 😂. It's very rare that it doesn't sound good from the start. There again we only have the vocals going through the PA. There is absolutely no need to mike up the drum kit in the Dog and Duck and spend half an hour trying to get the kick drum to take out the back wall. Keep it simple, keep it under control.

We don't play Oasis We don't play Dakota We don't play Sex on Fire We don't play Mr Brightside I think that sets us apart 😂 What we do play is 60s and 70s stuff that you will have likely heard of but that other bands don't do. Rock, prog and pop. We like doing stuff that is technically challenging and stuff that you wouldn't think a trio could do. That, and the guitar/vocalist has a great line in banter and amuses & entertains the audience. It's a lovely combination and I feel so lucky to be a part of it. I've been in bands with him for 40 years now

I love a bit of Beck. Such a variety of styles and moods. My favourite album (this week) is The Information - some great grooves. I had the start of Minus as my ring tone for a while

At the very budget end of things my Stagg EUB has a headphone socket. It is very much a stick bass, but does have brackets that loosely approximate the shape of a DB. I love playing it when we do "acoustic" gigs. https://www.normans.co.uk/products/stagg-edb-3-4-bk-3-4-size-electric-double-bass-in-black?variant=40045424378056&srsltid=AfmBOopvovqKKRWHQtIFtmL9xwJj7Ez_ho5SirrqDcLe511xkGl6H5nN_rA

It certainly looks like my SB-1000. It's an early "batwing" one, probably 1980, before they added a battery LED and recessed the jack socket. Very nice 👍

Yes. We always do or you end up with random stuff

A couple of tribute bands over the last couple of nights First on Thursday night were The Musical Box at the De Montfort Hall Leicester recreating the 1973 Genesis Live album that was recorded there. As usual absolutely impeccable! A few extra tracks thrown in from Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot. The strange bit was the "warm up" act which was the MB bass player, and I think the keys and drummer playing some original "progish" "music" - good in places, but a bit "out there" for a fairly large audience, getting polite applause. The Musical Box though, wow! Supper's Ready was immense! Tonight was The Devout, a Depeche Mode tribute. All credit to them for the nearly 3 hour set, but tbh I could have happily lost the first hour and a half of album tracks and skipped straight to the stuff everyone knew. Very good band and a great tribute. It did take the sound man about 6 songs to get the vocals up to audible level though, and I strongly suspect the guitar parts were mimed and very low in the mix. I barely recognised My Own Personal Cheeses. I've had a good couple of nights out though. Very enjoyable

Normal printed paper, put through a hot laminator and cut out with scissors. From a metre away you wouldn't know And yes, it is a real Ric

The thread on mine seemed a bit loose and would drift out of tune with repeated use over the course of a gig. A tiny dab of clear nail varnish on the thread before tuning it sorted the issue. I always use the same brand and gauge strings, so I've never needed to adjust it since. You could probably use a dedicated thread lock fluid but they tend to be coloured (blue loctite if you ever want to move it again, red if you don't)

We've been playing together for about 20 years and mistakes are few and far between. However we wear our big boy pants and can take the big OOOH face from the others when we drop one, and hand it out too. It's all part of the fun. No egos. I love it. The audience are usually clued up musically too, so they notice and join in the friendly barracking. It's all taken in good humour

My first thought wasn't the volume, but the guys poor back humping that gear around 😂