Happy Jack

This really isn't about "just letting people die" any more than it's about "no person left behind". The disease isn't a government policy that can be changed, or a dangerous behaviour that can be outlawed ... it's a thing that exists and that we now have to deal with, like cancer. We currently have no cure. We currently have no evidence that a cure will ever be available. We currently do not know whether herd immunity exists or whether you can get hit by this twice. We don't know how many different but related strains of Covid-19 exist or whether there can be cross-immunity between them. In fact, there's a staggeringly long list of things we don't know. What we DO know is that our entire approach to civilisation has had to be modified, and not everyone is entirely happy with that. We also know that our current approach to that modification involves spending unbelievably massive amounts of money that we don't have, which then impacts on every other aspect of life for decades to come. I've spent my entire life so far aware of the risk of dying from a very long list of potential causes. As far as I'm concerned, I've now added Covid-19 to that list and I want to get back to living my life. Many others feel the same way, but of course there are plenty who disagree. I'm not saying that I'm right at this precise moment, but I do know that eventually we WILL have to get back to living our lives. All we're doing is bickering about the timing. Will people die? Yes, of course they will, just as they always have.

I note that this 5% figure gets quoted endlessly at the moment as if it's a fact. In practice, the (almost) complete absence of effective testing - both now and especially when this thing was peaking - combined with the extensive evidence that very many people have had Covid-19 whilst displaying either very minimal symptoms or none at all means that the 5% stat is almost certainly wildly understated. 5% is one in twenty. I live in London, the most heavily-affected place in the UK. I can easily identify 20 people who I see very frequently, and pick out 10 of then (including me, of course) who have had Covid-19. Not only is that a 50% hit rate, but NONE of those ten have been captured in any sample. Can I prove that? Of course not, but I'd much rather rely on my own direct experience than the panic-stricken pap provided by the media over the last three months. When the Public Enquiry into all this finally happens, I suspect that it will make for some very interesting results.

If he's your son-in-law and he has a girlfriend, how does your daughter feel about this?

A two-minute trumpet solo ... who knew that was a thing? I actually prefer the vocalled-up soul cover ...

Seeing as we're not allowed to sing, we'll need to make a few changes to the set list. I'll start: Apache

Not a bit of it ... @MacDaddy has now named some songs, but it was a long wait!

Erm ... cos it hasn't yet happened?

I'm still waiting for someone - anyone - to name a single song from the 80s that I have ever covered, with any band, ever.

Are you anywhere near Harrow, Mike?

No, it's a single piece of moulded fibreglass. The neck does NOT come off.

Translation?

When I think about "the basses that matter" - Macca's Hofner, Jamerson's Precision, Squire's Rickenbacker, etc. - I would feel genuinely and utterly embarrassed to find that I owned any of them. Put in dreadfully predictable terms, I am not worthy. It's one thing for a top-notch world-famous bassist to end up owning a famous bass from the past, quite another for a mediocre semi-pro Weekend Warrior like me to have one. I'm much happier NOT owning a famous bass, with or without provenance. Additionally, you also need to factor in whether or not you actually like the music that the famous bass was used on. We're talking about Nick Beggs' old Wal here, so let me just point out that one of the main reasons I stopped listening to new music in the 80s was Godawful bands like Kajagoogoo ...

If the last time you did this was pre-Trump, then you're in for a nasty surprise. Trump has gone so far out of his way to spark off tariff disputes that anything going into or out of the States now comes under WAY tougher scrutiny than used to be the case.

And I (of course) ended up selling it to @Clarky. Not convinced that I knew about the provenance at that stage. Incidentally, "had some renovation work done on it" is one of the understatements of the year. It spent months with Paul Herman and came back, quite literally, as good as new. It took years, but I finally exorcised from my memory how much it all cost ...

If you drive in to a venue in your own car, just how exactly are they going to ensure that nobody brings in any food? Sniffer dogs? Deep probe ransackings?

I used to play, and I recently started again. I wouldn't be spending the sort of money you're talking about unless I was really a great deal better than I am. [Please note that this argument does not apply to bass guitars.] If you're a keyboard wizard then all well and good. If your skills are slightly more moderate than that, you may want to take a look at the piano I bought during Lockdown: https://www.thomann.de/gb/alesis_recital_pro.htm For just North of £300 this is a staggeringly good piano, and the weighted key action is absolutely fine.

Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries ... you mentioned that you are a Company Secretary?

Damned right. Incidentally, I'm FCIS myself.

Chalk? Nah mate, reckon that's Tippex.

So basically he's pre-plopping the Festival Site. I like a man who thinks ahead ...

I'm down 24 gigs so far, with at least another dozen guaranteed to be cancelled, possibly more like 50. I think it's safe to say that I've missed each and every one of them, and I'd start gigging again this Friday if it was an option. It's not that I'm desperately bored or short of other stuff to do ... Lockdown unexpectedly turned out to be one of the busiest periods I can remember. But I took early retirement largely so that I could play more gigs, and I'm feeling pretty frustrated.

Nobody else using Castrol 10/40W then? OK, it's just me.

Yup, things sure are different over there.

The two bands that Brett references there are actually mine! "The Bulldogs" is his attempt to remember The Junkyard Dogs (70s covers), and "Damon & The Dynamites" is a much better stab at Damo & The Dynamites (rockabilly).