cybertect

The new (out today) album from Peter Bruntnell, Houdini And The Sucker Punch

https://peterbruntnell.bandcamp.com/album/houdini-and-the-sucker-punch-3

Pete is a quality songwriter who I have shared a bill with on several occasions over the last thirty years and his bass player, Peter Noone (not that one) welds his Precision with very good taste 

Third time round today and none of the shine has worn off 👍

Fairground Attraction at the South Bank tomorrow night

Just booked to see Martin Newell and The Cleaners From Venus at Bush Hall next April 

Working fine for me right now, but I am already logged in.

24 minutes ago, The Attic Man said:

I saw Englebert Humperdink a few weeks ago at the London Palladium.  Was really good and his band were great to. Only downside total lack of leg room in the peasant seats up in the gods my wife who is only 5ft 2 struggled with the leg room to. Really enjoyed the bass players solo to . Really enjoyable night and a comedian as the opening act.

I had to go check and it was Hal Cruttenden, who is very good whenever I have seen him 👍

 I saw Stewart Lee with Josie Long supporting at the Clapham Grand on Friday they were both on top form (though Stewart had to lunge his mic stand at a member of the audience who was being a total knob)

3 hours ago, nekomatic said:

Saw Otway with Attila The Stockbroker a few times back in the ‘90s, good times. 
 

Does he still shamble up to the mic, peer at the audience and announce ‘I’m Otway’?

Must confess I don’t think he said that this time, but there was nevertheless a lot of shambling gong on 

This pair of nutters: John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett from a front row seat at my local venue, The Sound Lounge in Sutton.

I've seen John on his own countless times, but this was the first time I've caught the two of them together and I was not disappointed. 

9 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

well there you go, I definitely saw an interview with Feargal where he said "Teenage Kicks is basically about wanking" so I suppose that indicates that was his interpretation of the lyrics.

I have no problem playing Teenage Kicks at gigs, us old men are allowed to look back wistfully at times gone by when we lusted after a girl

Yes, this seems to a point of contention between Feargal and the rest of the band, with John himself contacting The Independent to get the story corrected when they reported it.

😄

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/matthew-bell-the-ios-diary-5498401.html

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Ding a ling. It's a phone call from The Undertones, ringing in to correct a story in last week's paper. They say that Feargal Sharkey's got it all wrong about "Teenage Kicks", after he told an audience at the Independent literary festival that the song was originally about masturbation. "I've no idea where Feargal got that idea," says John O'Neill, who in fact wrote the song. "That is not a subject I would write a song about." Feargal sticks to his story when I call, but the rest of the band are fuming, pointing out that Feargal didn't write any of the band's songs and that his claim damages the band's name. I think we'll tip-toe away from this one.

A band I was in in the early 90s had a deal nixed by Feargal Sharkey when he was at Polydor, so I will side with John on this 🤪

10 minutes ago, Munurmunuh said:

 

No, I'm thinking of Teenage Kicks. Change "you" to "it" and the song becomes a rather better recounting of the adolescent male experience

I live and learn, though apparently that is only Feargal’s story and it is denied by John O’Neill, who wrote the song

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Just received a comment on my blog as follows:

"Andy Ferguson here, manager of The Undertones. I just spotted your picture of Feargal Sharkey at:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FergalSharkey.jpg

In your comments you say that Feargal said the "teenage Kicks" was about masturbation. I don't know what he was on that day but that is total nonsense.Feargal Sharkey did not write "Teenage Kicks" or any of The Undertones songs. It was written 100% by John O'Neill. The lyrics were never changed from the day it was written to the day it was recorded and it was never and is not about masturbation. John O'Neill is adamant on this matter. It is defamatory to say that that is the subject matter.
I'm sure you'd rather have the truth printed in your name so I'm sure you will want to correct this.
Andy Ferguson
[email protected]"

I'm not lying when I state that Feargal did indeed say that, and therefore if anyone is guilty of defamatory comments, it's Feargal, not me. However I'm happy to repeat Andy's comments here so both sides of the story are represented.

1 hour ago, Munurmunuh said:

Isn't the song about wristwork?

I think you’re thinking of Turning Japanese by The Vapors 

3 hours ago, Beedster said:

Do you have a link to the correct version of the album? I can get the original by searching for the tracks by name individually (not within the album) and then selecting the version I want, but when I select the album I get some live and some studio and some not there at all

this should be it

https://music.apple.com/gb/album/blonde-on-blonde/178049863

3 hours ago, Beedster said:

I guess it varies with band/genre. I found it bloody annoying when I started having to listen very hard to Danko's basslines in both Dylan and The Band tracks to find that the versions Apple Music was giving me where not the same as the other guys were getting from Spotify and certainly not the versions that I remembered from the albums themselves. I've solved the issue in that I'm going to work from the CDs, but to my mind it doesn't change the fact that if Apple are charging people to download an 'album', they should allow you to download the actual album, and not what appears to amount to a pretty random collection of live versions/remixes albeit of the same songs. Perhaps part of this for me is that I'm of an era both in age and musical  preference in which the idea of the album still remains the overarching driver of the music, a statement of the band's thoughts and emotions at the moment in time. The first track on the original album Blonde on Blonde really sets an odd tone, and I've always loved it for that. The version on Apple Music however is live and to my ear has a very different feel, almost as if by the time it was recorded, Dylan had come to hate the song, and I think it sets the album off in a very different direction. I wonder if people who find Dylan through digital might be taken on a very different journey to that he intended when he recorded the album? 

I don't have my CD to hand, but The Hi Res Streaming version of Rainy Day Women I hear on Apple Music is, as far as I can tell, the same performance as the 'Finished Track' on Bob Dylan's YouTube channel, beginning at 1m 35 here (you need YouTube Premium access to get at the official Blonde on Blonde album).

and also as posted on Bob's official facebook account on the anniversary of its release as a US single in April

https://www.facebook.com/bobdylan/videos/april-1966-release-of-the-rainy-day-women-12-35pledging-my-time-single-in-the-us/3684932811763292/

7 hours ago, Beedster said:

For example on my Apple Music app The Band’s second album starts with a live version of Great Divide and doesn’t include Cripple Creek…

Same here, Cripple Creek is greyed out and ‘not available in your region’ when you click on it.

I believe it must be licensing issues, possibly UK specific from that message. That remastered version of Cripple Creek is also unavailable on The Capitol Albums 1968-1977, although oddly you can listen to what may be a different remaster on A Musical History. 
 

I have seen it elsewhere on Apple Music. Camera and Don’t Go Back To Rockville are greyed out on Reckoning by REM, for example.

I shall be seeing Charley Stone supporting The Baby Seals at the Cavendish Arms in Stockwell this evening 

…then Robyn Hitchcock (with a proper band!) at EarTH in Hackney on Saturday

22 minutes ago, PaulThePlug said:

Nice... and nice to be happy...

thanks

yes, after an hour or so playing at home this evening I’m very happy 😃 

First thing I should mention is that in 35-odd years at this game of playing bass, I've never owned a Fender before, or a P.

I popped into my local branch of Guitar Guitar in Epsom this afternoon and this recent arrival caught my eye hanging on the wall at a reasonable price... Rather pretty in Blizzard Pearl, nearly 20 years but barely a sign of it (the lightest of scuffs on the tip of the headstock).

Took it for a spin and it felt exactly right under the hand and sounded fine. Sometimes you just make a connection with an instrument, so I resolved to buy it.

Discovered at this point that it came with a fitted Fender hard case, which was a nice bonus, and that it had been sold to them by the bass player in a very well known band, but I won't say who here. I take these stories with a pinch of salt, but they are fun nevertheless 🙂

Rickie Lee Jones at the Union Chapel in Islington last night.

I've loved Rickie's music for over 40 years, but this was my first time seeing her live, and it was sublime.

No bass player, but ably supported by Ben Rosenblum (who picked up the low end on occasion) and Mike Dillon on percussion and vibes.

2 hours ago, Hotglove said:

Book arrived, good, easy read and very interesting so far. 👍

Do enjoy! 🙂

2 hours ago, itu said:

It has to be pricey to change string on a regular basis.

The solution to this is flatwounds 

I suspect you are talking about La Gioconda cafe, which was frequented by Elton/Reg, David Bowie and a plethora of other names.

A friend of mine, Peter Watts, recently published a book about the history of Denmark Street, and I provided all the modern photographs in the book. Obviously, I’m a little biased, but it’s an excellent read 😊

http://www.paradiseroad.co.uk/denmark-street-londons-street-of-sound

Edit: Might be worth plugging my own photoblog about Denmark Street in which I was trying to collect stories from the people working on Denmark Street before all the change happening along Charing Cross Road really took hold.

https://streetofsound.uk

I rather ran out of people who were willing to talk to me on the record, but it was fun while it lasted and was the reason I took many of the photos that Peter later used in his book.

On 15/07/2024 at 20:34, Barking Spiders said:

I have several guitars including an Epiphone Sheraton but if I had the money my #1 choice would be...

 

 

 

I have a Japan-made Sheraton of 1983 vintage, which has been in my ownership for about 35 years.

Occasionally, I have a hankering for a Telecaster, but the Sheraton does me well enough for the occasions I need a guitar 🙂

I'm a similar age and with similar experience - permanent low level tinnitus for the last seven or eight years, fortunately most of the time i can tune it out.

I did have some custom plugs which were excellent but I managed to lose them at a gig (grr!). Then the pandemic happened and I have not been performing very much since.

Knowing I needed some protection led me to try a few mid-range 'musician' plugs for use as an audience member and I have a couple of favourites.

Etymotic ER20XS plugs are about as transparent as they can be IMO. They deliver an 20dB cut in volume evenly across the entire frequency spectrum.  For me at least, they are very comfortable to the point that I sometimes have to check that I have them in my ears - then I discover how loud the music actually is! I use Etymotic IEMs as daily drivers for general music listening out and about, so I'm very used to deep insertion plugs and YMMV. They are about £30.

I recently purchased a set of Alpine MusicSafe Pro plugs, which have three different filters for 16, 19 and 22dB. The three-filter versions are under £25, which is pretty good value. A/B testing them against the Etymotics at the same gigs over the last couple of weeks, the reduction in volume with the 22dB filters is noticeably better than the Etys, but they are a little more mid focused, especially if you push them deep into your ears. Oddly, the different frequency response is less noticeable at higher volumes. The 16dB Alpine filters are more evenly tuned and useful for quieter environments (such as amplified acoustic instruments). Swapping filters while you are in a mosh is liable to result in one or more of them getting lost!

As a side note, the Etymotics have a small tab that makes getting them out of your ears again much easier. I have to dig in hard with my fingertips  to extract the Alpines. I think they supply a cord which may help, but I don't want anything dangling around my neck at a gig. For ease of use and sound quality, the Etymotics win hands down. if you are going to be playing for many hours in a loud band, they may be a little underpowered, though.

With any of these, though, they are like IEMs - your exact experience may vary depending on the shape and size of your ear canals. Custom moulds should be more consistent from one person to the next, but I would certainly recommend either as a backup to keep in your pocket or as a stop gap solution until you can get some made.

On 28/07/2024 at 08:19, bremen said:

I believe record companies initially resisted having their product played on the radio "if they can hear it for free on the wireless they're not going to buy the discs"

 

https://medium.com/@Vinylmint/history-of-the-record-industry-1920-1950s-6d491d7cb606

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When radio began growing in 1921, early stations found that live musicians sounded much clearer over the air than record players did, so few if any played records. The record industry and musicians’ unions were still nervous enough to encourage US President Herbert Hoover to outlaw the playing of records on air, which he did in 1922. Hoover’s reasoning was that the public airwaves should be used for the public good, which included creating jobs for musicians.

 

However, the record industry still had serious fears that people would just sit at home listening to music for free without ever buying a record again. Concert promoters had similar fears: in Boston in 1924, a famous violinist sold 3000 tickets for a huge concert which a radio station later announced would be aired live. When ticketholders heard this, more than half asked for their money back.

 

20 years before

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In the early 1900s, only the biggest stars received royalties from record or sheet music sales. Most artists got a flat fee for recording sessions and songwriters were paid per song by sheet music publishers. John Philip Sousa, one of the biggest names at the turn of the century, demanded royalties of 15% of sheet music sales, and was among the first to get royalties from records. Despite making tons of money from it, he disliked the record industry and was convinced it would threaten the livelihoods of musicians in the long term. In 1906 he remarked that “canned music is as incongruous around the campfire as canned salmon by a trout stream.”

That's the one

FWIW it was strung with flats as far as I could tell when I saw them in Blackheath last night

 and, yes, I am pleased as punch that I managed to bag a spot right at the front  🙂

Talking of Hofners, this is my '67 Verithin

We have been playing music together since we were both 21 years old

Per this discussion, it's played on a keyboard

https://gearspace.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-and-electronic-music-production/513627-thompson-twins-2.html?s=e56c4ec83002b0e43e038f04207af7d4

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The bass sound was an edited clavinet preset on an Oberheim OBXA