Norris

It was a cold wet evening and Leicester City were playing an FA Cup tie on ITV (we woz robbed!) which probably all contributed to it being a little slower than normal in the Railway Countesthorpe tonight. However the people that were there were enthusiastic, and the fewer bodies allowed this rather good photo to be grabbed by one of the crowd (which I then stole from Faceache)... Friday gigs are always a bit tougher for a weekend warrior like me after a day's work. The guitarist had been rehearsing all day for an upcoming tour with Martin Turner, so we were both pretty done in by the end of the night. We have tomorrow night off though, so the whole band, WAGs and kids are going to see the new Led Zep film and grab a bite to eat afterwards The Sire again plus the usual GT-6B and Rumble 500. I also gave my black DMs an outing

I saw Sabbath in 2017 on the "last" tour. This looks to be a fabulous gig line-up of surviving members of great bands, but I'm not sure if I want to pay an enormous amount to watch from the back of a huge stadium. Most of the bands I love I saw "back in the day". I'm happy for them to stay there, forever at their peak, in my memories.

I played in a show band for most of 1985. It was a relatively short period of time, but so rich for incidents. The time that the band leader sacked 3 of us for being late back from a break - it was only a 5-piece band and we were the ones who could actually play. The Butlin's camp manager had kept us talking. There was a slight climb down the next, sober morning: "take as much notice as you need" The time I turned up for a posh do without my bow tie. My efforts to craft one from the vinyl cut out of the back of the driver's seat of the band Transit van and gaffer tape were not appreciated. I ended up wearing a horrendous giant vampire moth tie borrowed from one of the guests The time the band leader quaffed an amount of brandy and accidentally tipped his keyboard synth off the front of the stage. It laid there on the floor screaming away for several minutes until someone could cut the power

We did a gig in a WMC. We always did like curtains - just great for the occasional prank. On this occasion I set up my Traynor 400w head and 2x 15" cab behind the back curtain. In front of the curtain was a tiny 6" practice amp on a chair, with a lead connecting the two. I was chuckling all night 😁

There was the time I was playing in a cabaret band doing a season at Butlin's. We had just started a song when I sneezed. Next thing I notice the goop slowly running down the back of my plucking hand (ew!). A casual stroll to the back of the stage, a quick wipe on the back curtains and I didn't miss a beat!

I managed to do this around NYE last year. I'd taken loads of lights and my smoke machine. It looked great with a bit of misting in the air. The "whiteout" occurred because I didn't realise the footswitch had become gummed up and got stuck on, until I glanced behind me to see a wall of smoke and no sign of the rest of the band. The smoke machine was tucked behind my amp on a cramped stage too, so took some effort to switch off 😂

Winner!

We're a trio and we've managed to squeeze into some pretty tight places, but this... ... was a challenge... A new venue that has just started up and is still finding its feet. Funnily it's right next door to the Donkey, the great music venue that had an existential crisis back in November (if you remember). Our first time there, and we had been warned earlier in the day apparently, that they ran at a loss last weekend, and might try to reduce the fee or pay us off if it didn't pick up 😮. Well no need to fear - we pretty much filled the place and walked away with the full fee! It always adds a little bit of something when you have another band in the crowd. Well we had two! I'd like to think they came to see us perform and were not just reccying the place because they had bookings too. Well they stayed until the end anyway. The usual Sire etc. I did have to get a bit creative with the lighting though. I don't normally like my amp anywhere but on the floor, but it really wouldn't have fitted! Solovair boots again It actually turned out to be a good gig despite standing on a postage stamp to play. Apparently the curries they were serving were very nice too but I didn't indulge - I'd had my dinner and am trying to shed a few pounds 🤪

I tried speed a couple of times in my youth but can't say I really enjoyed the experience. I did smoke weed for many years and can't say it really had much effect on my playing either way. The most detrimental "drug" for playing was actually alcohol, which was imbibed frequently and copiously back when we had a band van (that I never drove) These days I live a pretty clean life. I gave up all forms of smoking a few years ago. I also drive most of the time now, so have 1 or 2 lager shandies at most or a lime and soda. I do miss the weed on rare occasions, but certainly not the smoking, or the coughing! Of course I've put 2 stone on... 😂

My Aria Pro-II SB-1000 was made in 1980 - the "batwing" headstock, before they had a battery indicator LED and before the jack socket was recessed. I bought it from Humbucker Music in Leicester in 1985 and played it as my only bass for the next 10 years

I'd just arrived at our gig on Sunday, loaded the kit into the pub in a wet gale, when my wife sent me this...

Yeah, I'd still sling my gear in the trunk (hey - get me with the Americanisation!) if I could

Wasn't Pat Badger a hand puppet on kids tv in the 90s? 😁

Cracking gig yesterday. It really rocked out for a Sunday 4pm-7pm slot. It is becoming one of my favourite gigs despite the dull trek to Melton Mowbray on a single carriageway stuck behind an old Landrover that couldn't handle the slightest hill at more than 35mph! Great to hear the words "awesome", "bass" and "player" in the same sentence plus loads of compliments on my sound - including from the landlord who is also a bass player. 😁 The usual Sire > GT-6B > Rumble Footwear were my Solovair boots Even the lager shandy tasted lovely

I've only ever had a toe nail come off, so... erm... not much use 🤷‍♂️😁

1. Buy a box of Maltesers 2. Eat Maltesers 3. Cut out the (black) bottom of the box 4. Dust off remaining chocolate 5. Run it through a paper laminator to make it shiny & sealed 6. Cut out rectangle to cover pickups plus an extra narrow flap all round to fold down 7. Score, fold flaps and stick corners 8. Use double sided tape to stick onto pickups You're welcome 😂

I was pleasantly surprised at how nice the Fender Rumble overdrive sounded, especially for a class D amp. There's a couple of heads in the for sale section too...

It looks like a multi-position tone switch, similar to that fitted into an Aria SB-1000

That's still pretty cheap, if you don't mind me saying 😀

Kudos for gingham Vans! 😂

New venue for us tonight, a sports and social club. We set up and with about 10 minutes until we were due to start it looked pretty bleak It did perk up a bit as more people arrived. We also started messing about musically (while keeping it tight) which made it a lot more fun for us. The audience also fed off the happy vibe and we ended up having a great night. Oh and the main musical silliness was putting quick "zips" up the fretboard into inappropriate places 😁 Drummer in the middle of his Moby Dick solo Slight downside were the cheese and onion cobs - not enough cheese, too much onion. Sire P7-5 > Boss GT-6B > Fender Rumble v3 500 combo Black bass, black shirt and jeans, so black DMs to match Nice bit at the end: the landlord told us we needed to charge more money. Apparently he pays some other bands a lot more than us and says we are much better. So a substantial pay rise for bookings next year 🤷‍♂️

I was thinking it's a bit quiet because we only have 3 in January. Hope your 5 are really good ones!

The term is used far too loosely and freely imo. A proper luthier should have had years of apprenticeship, training and experience. I've made guitars from scratch but wouldn't call myself anything but a hobbyist

Tonight's gig was brought to you by max-strength paracetamol and sudafed. I guess I must have picked up something from the great unwashed crowd at one of our gigs around NYE. I felt a bit dodgy last Thursday night and by Friday morning felt too bad for work! The cold/virus/manflu has waxed and wained over the last week, ending with an invasion of my sinuses this morning that woke me at 5am in pain. Any sane bass player would have pulled the gig. Not me! We only have a couple this month, so I dosed myself up with (legal) drugs and went for it. Not so much jigging about as normal, a bit "heady" bending down to set up and pack down, but otherwise quite an enjoyable gig. Nice pub, decent crowd, hot & sweaty. Hopefully it might have fried off a few of the unwelcome guests infesting me at the moment. I forgot to take any photos. Usual rig with just the Sire P7-5 this time for some P-bass loveliness. Solovair boots are getting to be quite comfortable now. Let's hope I wake up feeling a bit better after some of Dr Jim Beam's post-gig medicine...