chriswareham

I remember when A-Ha broke through with the re-release of "Take On Me". Something about the quality of the song writing combined with Morten Harket's singing just elevated them above their peers, and what an iconic video. That vocal climax in "Take On Me", starting with "I'll be gone..." still raises the hairs on the back of my neck.

I've been playing bass in bands for 33 years. I didn't know I was autistic when I started playing, I just knew that I struggled in social situations and being in a band was a conscious effort to overcome my fears as I'd been reading a lot about confrontational therapy. Being in a band also meant I had a way of appearing somewhat outgoing, but I could distance myself from people if I needed to by disappearing backstage. That social anxiety and general confusion also meant I also gravitated to quite aggressive music, emulating bands like Joy Division, Amebix and New Model Army. Cut to the current day, and I still have the same motivation albeit informed by an eventual diagnosis of having Asperger's Syndrome. So every concert I play is still a mix of exhilaration and terror - amazing myself at being able to overcome my fears and get up on stage, but always at the edge of panic.

Bit of a coincidence, as I came across this thread while having Roxy Music on in the background. A bit indifferent to their early, glammy stuff but "Manifesto", "Flesh and Blood" and "Avalon" are fantastic. They laid the groundwork for bands like Japan, early Talk Talk and Duran Duran (stop sniggering, at their best they were brilliant purveyors of pop perfection). The bass playing on some of those tracks is sublime, often the melodic focus of the music along with atmospheric synths and the guitar adding an understated rhythmic acommpaniment.

MXR Flanger / Doubler. Very popular in higher end studios at the time, and a bit of kit I'd love to own as it's responsible for the incredible synth sound on Soft Cell's "Youth". I've tried reproducing that sound with several other flangers but without ever getting really close.

On Joy Division's track Isolation, there was a bit at the end Martin Hannett the producer wasn't happy with. He kept on trimming the tape, until at some point they were in danger of having to rerecord the whole song. The solution was to add a weird feedbacking echo effect to cover up the truncated ending. There was nothing in the rules for appearing on ToTP that said you couldn't play live, and some bands insisted on doing so. New Order and New Model Army spring to mind. The former did a pretty rough version of Blue Monday, and the next week it dropped down the charts. The latter were wearing T-shirts with the words "Only Stupid B*stards Use Heroin" on them, only to be told it was unacceptable. Their solution was some strategic gaffer tape over the offending words, but the tape fell off during their performance and they were banned from ever appearing on the show again.

Some of the early flangers had envelope followers, could be one of those.

London to Cornwall for a Hondo II Rickenbacker copy. Went by train, met the seller in the railway station car park and straight back on the next train to London. Then there was the sheer insanity of going by train to collect an absolutely huge and heavy organ from North West Wales. It was in a tiny town on a branch line, so involved numerous changes and a trolley jack to shift the beast, a very rare Logan T249.

Way ahead of you:

When I previously lost a band I found the following poster helped:

Just to be clear, I wasn't making any judgement on the use of backing tracks. I've played many, many shows with either a drum machine or sequencer as that was a distinct part of the music. I'd never want to mime though - if I'm not playing a particular part then I simply won't pretend to.

Lots of bands mime substantial parts of their performance at concerts, especially at the professional level. My wife is a former professional opera singer and was in denial when I told her that several of her favourite bands mime a lot. I knew this because friends have actually played in those bands and told me about it. Then through one of those friends she was offered a chance to perform with the side project of the lead singer from one of her favourite bands. It was to "perform" the operatic backing vocals and keyboard parts. They sent the backing tracks, which consisted of pre-recorded vocals and keyboard parts that the audience would hear plus an in ear track she would hear. That in ear part included a click and cues of the form like "chorus in 4, 3, 2, 1" simply to ensure the mimimg was convincing to the audience.

Easy to appear tight when you're just mimimg along to a heavily quantised backing track that you recorded at a far slower tempo and simply sped up with a DAW plugin.

The Artist Formerly Known As Prince (Charles)

Billy Humble Bragg The Educationally Challenged Minds The Psychedelic Faux Furs