martthebass

Glam Fever, we do erm...70s glam.

Comments that hinder a valid sales thread will be removed.

A trip across the Pennines yesterday to a small pub on the outskirts of Stockport. An enthusiastic but smaller than usual crowd - the weather had negative effects. Sadly they closed all the trans Pennine roads other than the M62 just after we arrived so the return trip was a real bugger.

2 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

I played one longhorn and the doubleneck, neither could be described that way

Must have been duffers 😜

3 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Honestly having played dano basses a couple of times, they are so thuddy I can't imagine you would really notice that the intonation is out.

 

I’m surprised at that, the Longhorn I had could be quite twangy when the bridge pup was dialled in even with flats

10 hours ago, Cat Burrito said:

Cheeky little Monday night appearance at The Lamb in Marlborough last night. I used to underage drink here but a few days shy of my 50th, I was quietly confident that'd I'd smash the Think 25 policy that they now have! Another outing for my Thunderbird and I loved the night. My boss came down from my regular job and loved it, plus I must have known about 50% of the people there. We played well and a few locals looked us up on Spotify, which was cool.

 

 

Doubly cool was that my stepson turned 16 and is a big fan of this band. We got him a band hoodie. Nick, the other half of the band, is also his teacher so I have the dubious honour of actually being his second favourite member of the band!

 

 

Awesome mate! Have a great 50th!

Stonking  gig last night at my local club. We usually get a few friends turn up when we play this place so we asked the proprietor to open 15 minutes early at 6:45 so we could load in and get a bit of a sound check. Alas the punters had other ideas and it was standing room only by 7:15. Amazingly we did manage to get a decent sound - suspect I was slightly on the loud side as I was using my Fallout bass which is a bit hotter than my Mustangs. 

A guy and his wife traveled from Dewsbury (about 40 miles) to see us and brought a big bag of party wigs which he dumped near the stage - wasn’t sure what this was about...then on the second number he got up and danced his heart out and got all the punters going, distributing wigs for them to wear. It was like having a 70’s glam Bez 😂😂😂

All in all another great night, next week we venture into the dark lands on the other side of the Pennines so we’ll see if our run of great gigs continues.

Fender, MIA, MIM

Squier, MII, MIM

Musicman EBMM

Danelectro

Status

G&L

Lakland

Sandberg

Epiphone

Westone

Avon.....the shame

RSD

Overwater

Warwick

Rickenbacker

Limelight

TBH there's so much signal processing going on I can't tell if it's any good.  A 70's Woolworth's bass would sound about the same.... 

Without any real effort on my part I’ve ended up with 50% of my pack being sig basses.

Status CW sig....it’s just a lovely bass and it was one that Rob Green was finishing up for stock not long before he ‘retired’. No regrets on that one.

Squier Mustang Mikey Way. It’s silver glitter and suits my glam rock band to a T. It’s also not a bad bass....

Fender JMJ Mustang. I had no idea who JMJ was but this is a great Mustang.

14 hours ago, Bluewine said:

I'd say very few bars and restaurants understand the business from our perspective.

 

The Harley Motor blocks off special parking for bands, they greet you and drinks and meals are comped for the band. They get it.

 

Blue

We once got a Mark's and Spencers sandwich and a bag of crisps (sorry - chips Daryl) at a gig in Accrington.  It was the least they could do as we were on the wrong side of the Pennines 😉

56 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Our male singer has been doing a solo Glam act for many years and our drummer was in The Glitter Band in 90's era and has played some huge stadiums. He was good friends with The Sweet back in the day and even had some lessons from the amazing Mick Tucker. I think he lived near Steve Priest altho he was a good bit younger than them.

Our guitarist had been doing the Glam thing for 13yrs until their singer left for NZ.

We started in 2018 but took a year faffing about trying different keys but gave up on them and settled for Lynn who was the singer in the punk covers band i'm now in too. We benefited far more with Lynn sharing vocals with Mickee than we ever got from keys. Keys players are an odd bunch.

We were just getting things all sorted and gigs coming in when BAM covid struck and it all stopped. Not enough time to get a following yet so started from scratch last year again.

I did play in Hot Love from Glasgow who have been doing the Glam covers thing for many years too. I was there 17th bass player LOL Great guys but they wanted to gig 2-3 times a week and i had just retired from work and found it all a bit too much. Learned their set in 3 weeks, no rehearsals as singers Dad passed away just after i joined. After 7-8 days i was told a lot of the songs were in different keys from originals and had to redo them, then after first 2 gigs that weekend they asked me to learn another 20 songs within 10 days. Just too much for me i'm afraid i needed a break from learning songs. I still keep in touch with them as they are all really nice guys in Hot Love.

And that is our band history in short 

Dave

Seems like Glam bands in the main are a nice social lot.

I joined my band as a dep in late 2016 to help them out as the replacement bass player (the original bassist had had a heart attack) needed an hernia op. My 80s band wasn’t doing much so I filled in for the a couple of months. Like you, knew the songs but most were re-keyed.

Ended up not leaving....

When the big C struck in 2021 I offered my resignation but the lads wouldn’t hear of it and we carry on at a flexible reduced rate of about 40 gigs a year. I aim to keep rocking until I’m in the ground!

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

We've not done a lot of them but the band is only now managing to get started with pandemic holding us back just as the gigs were coming in fast then we had a change of guitarist altho Colin is exceptional and knew 80% of our set from when he was in Lieutenant Stardust so that helped. Gigs starting to come in now for this year and next so all good. Love doing this Glam stuff. Great fun and everyone seems to enjoy themselves. Its funny how a lot of the younger generation recognise most of the songs too. 

Good to see you guys are well booked up. That's always a good sign for us going ahead. 👍

Dave 

Just noticed, for some reason it didn't post the text I'd added....

Was just saying, we love the Biker rallies - we were worried when we did our first one in 2018 but the crowd loved it.  We've even ended up doing Bay City Rollers stuff in the sets for them which we were sure they'd hate.  We'll be doing a couple of MAG/NABD rallies this year in Cheshire and North Yorkshire and we can't wait!

We're starting to see a few more Glam bands crop up around here, some seem to have 'adopted' the sets we had on our website.....but generally speaking there's plenty of work for the genre and we don't have to go looking for it.  The secret is a good front man who likes to act and dress up like a tart as well as sing!  

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

Couple of pics from our biker rally gig on Sat night. I've already described the gig further up the thread.

 

 

Gotta love them Biker gigs Dave!  Looking forward to 2 with MAG this year, first in Northwich (Cheshire) and second in Helmsley (North Yorks).  Always a great crowd and love their Glam Rock.

 

 

 

6 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

We played Revere's last night, 8:00-11:00.

 

 

It was an awful night. First of all we hadn't had a gig in 4 weeks. Load in was horrible. We drove around in the van for 45 minutes before we found a parking spot.

 

It gets worse. It's an upscale restaurant, however it's not a music crowd. As soon as they finished their meals they left. So, by 9:00 we were playing to about 6 people.

 

And to top it off, we sounded like crap.

 

How's that for transparency ?

 

Blue 

We all have em mate, even the best bands.  As the saying goes 'it's a paid practice'.  

Another great gig at a club in Huddersfield last night with the glam band. Wasn’t expecting miracles because Covid had hit this club pretty hard when we played it last year with a lot of the punters still AWOL. This seems to have reversed this year and the club was packed and we had a great night. Another booking to sort but this will be 2024 as we are now booked solid for 23. Going on 7 years with this band now and it’s still loads of fun!

15 hours ago, Bluewine said:

Stage presence. I'll look at a gig video and say ok don't move like that anymore or you're too close to the guitarist, don't wear tan pants, make sure you get back to the mic for your vocal part. It's all great value to me. Some guys will not watch their videos. I always learn something from them.

 

Blue

Yup.....I always think I don't smile enough

2 hours ago, NickA said:

A capacitor and a variable resistor = " electronics " .... Hmm.  Debatable.

 

Wikipedia says:

 

The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification and rectification, which distinguishes it from classical electrical engineering, which only uses passive effects such as resistance, capacitance and inductance to control electric current flow.

 

..and that dolphin is a thing of beauty to hold and to behold.  The sound is quite " distinctive " I agree 😁

Also according to Wiki....

An electronic component is any basic discrete device or physical entity in an electronic system used to affect electrons or their associated fields.

Maybe we are getting caught up on the difference between active and passive electronic components.

All that said, I guess it's not in any way important to the discussion on this bass so I'll shut up.

I quite like it, it's got a nice range of tones (not as flexible as a Fallout bass but more than a single pup Mustang) and it's not offensive on the eyes.  Haven't seen a price but guessing it's in JMJ, US Fallout territory?  Don't think I'll dip my toe this time as my 3 shorties cover my needs but maybe down the line?

17 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Is that a thing these days...........wearing hats on stage ? Come to think of it our drummer in the Glam band wears one now and again. Bay City Rollers Tartan of course. 

Dave 

Does this qualify....

Played a club on the outskirts of Chesterfield Saturday night, nice place, well run and their own light system which is always a bonus as it reduces our setup/strip down time.  Club liked things a bit on the quiet side (though thankfully no db meter cutoff system) which made it a bit polite for the first half of the first set.  Things warmed up however and when the dance floor filled we upped the volume a bit; by the second set we were at our normal level.

Concert sec came into the change room at end of play and expressed appreciation and took our last available date for 2023.  So all in all 'job's a good un'.  Was home and watching Mick Ronson doc on Sky Arts with a Glenmorangie nightcap by 1:00am. 

When I’m sound checking at a big gig with venue based sound guy I always go simple. Psychokiller always works for me!

Shuker?

3 hours ago, Phillip Simpkin said:

That looks great Mart. Where abouts can I find contact details for Shuker please.

https://shukerguitars.co.uk/

22 minutes ago, Grahambythesea said:

Final fling for a pension fund? 

Now that's an idea.

Think the wife would kill me though, I used that to get my Chris Wolstenholme sig just before Rob 'finished'.  I do love the look of the 'old style' Statii though, but not enough to sell the CW.