Happy Jack

Can't imagine what might have given you that idea ... Good luck with your quest.

I'll see your Stevie Nicks and raise you an Ian Hunter ...

Anyone mentioned Steve Hillage yet?

Maybe, maybe not. Unsupportive and/or controlling husband lets wifey audition for the role because obviously she's useless and (i) will never get the gig, (ii) can't possibly manage without hubby there to tell her what to do. Anyway, it'll shut her up for a while. Then gets all hurt and precious when it turns out that little wifey actually does just fine when he's not there to screw things up for her. Perhaps.

For some reason, I'm imagining everyone calling everyone else "Da-a-a-ahling". Probably very unfair, but there you have it. Don't blow this out after one rehearsal. It could go somewhere interesting and I imagine that you can afford to sacrifice another couple of evenings just to see? If things start to develop rapidly (which is what I'd expect with properly-trained classical musos) then you may find this initial nonsense disappears faster than a very fast thing.

What a rip-off ... no way is that a genuine Fender!

They're probably rehearsing in their school's Music Room. At least they're not banned from coming within 100 yards of any primary school ...

What could possibly go wrong?

Why does it not surprise me that you've owned such an astonishing selection? And I'm loving the idea of a bass called Gom Jabbar ...

Were TC the people who cheated on the particulate emissions test?

Hah! That's The Eagles mate, good band an' all but I'll give that a miss. Now if it was Joe Walsh touring with his own band and his own music I'd be on it like a shot.

This one's unique.

I didn't think Steve imported from the Eurozone anyway.

No acoustic bass that I have ever played (and that's a reasonable number & selection) has ever been capable of being heard properly against even a single 6-string. Against two guitars rather than one you're wasting your time, unless both guitarists are prepared to strum very gently. If you need something to play acoustically in live situations and you'd prefer not to (i) amplify or (ii) buy a DB, then I suggest a Guitarrón mexicano. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitarrón_mexicano

Can't agree Mickey. I prefer both So What and But Seriously Folks. I bought So What on the day it came out, took it home along with my best friend and we started to play it. It took us nearly half an hour to get past Welcome To The Club ... we played it at least five times running before we let the album run on.

You were at school with a young Joe Walsh? Really? Respect, mate ...

If you've only just discovered Joe, then back-catalogue a bit further and check out The James Gang.

Anything that allows me to achieve great length without loss of signal ...

Absolutely this ^. It's ridiculously common for the auditioning band to be less familiar with the song they have chosen than the auditioner, who will have spent a lot of time actually getting it right. "I think you'll find it goes to the solo after that verse ..."

Happy to reassure you, mate. Yes, you're insecure. Next?

Very puzzled by the suggestions that you should only ask the singer to prepare two songs. Unless you're doing originals or very obscure covers, any decent singer should have no trouble at all prepping at least a dozen songs ... all he/she needs to learn is the melody, the rest is down to how they present the song. If you ask each singer to turn up at a 2-hour slot having prepped two songs, you'd better hope they're also a great conversationalist, since you're going to be spending three quarters of the 'audition' just chatting. You could start the weeding-out process by asking each applicant how many songs they would like to prep. I would discard anyone who only wanted to do two!