Happy Jack

I don't spend a lot of time watching YouTube bassists, but I've seen enough of Charles Berthoud to get the impression that he's a pretty good guy who certainly doesn't take himself too seriously. Incidentally, the same is true of Davey504, another deliberately over-flashy YouTube player, who I've had the pleasure of meeting. I'd be genuinely surprised if either of them were incapable of replacing me in either of my main bands at the drop of a hat.

Yes, and Ian couldn't remember his name either. 🙄

Most of the small-ish towns to the north/west of London seem to have just one or two 'proper' music venues - I'm talking about Slough & Maidenhead, Amersham & Chesham, Watford & Berkhamsted, Hatfield & Welwyn GC. Some do slightly better than that (High Wycombe springs to mind) but the absolute stand-out is St. Albans. That town seems to have as many music venues as the rest of Hertforshire put together, but every band for 50 miles wants to play there so the competition is unreal. On principle, I never waste my time seeking gigs in St. Albans. 🙄

... as you mean to continue.

Just for the benefit of those who'd like to confirm that the Shell Pink (but actually it's Peach) not-a-Lull has seen front-line action, here are some not very good videos from last night's gig in a very small pub. 🙄 The bass has now been officially renamed following Paul the Drums' immediate comment on seeing the bass, with @Andyjr1515's trademark swifts on the headstock, for the first time = "Ere, what's with the seagulls?". This is now The Seagull Bass. These videos aren't good enough to go on the band's YouTube for marketing purposes ... they're just here (Unlisted) so that interested parties can hear the Seagull Bass and compare it with the Mike Lull P5 on which it's closely based. I'll probably delete these videos in a month and replace with (hopefully) rather better ones from (hopefully) rather better gigs.

Ta very muchly. Mind you, it's not as if you'd have to walk 500 miles ...

I'll be on keys so I'm not available. We had a 5-piece of complete strangers lined up to play together next Sunday afternoon for the first time (Harrow HA1) but the bassist just dropped out. He lives in Lewisham, so I'm not sure what made him think this would be a good fit for him in the first place. 🙄 We plan to run through: Story In Your Eyes Nights In White Satin Question The Actor Have You Heard Ride My Seesaw Tuesday Afternoon Go Now There's some cracking tunes there ... any Basschatter fancy it?

Oh I don't know ... I can think of a few.

That's your prime function. 😉

It's supposed to stop raining for four hours, perfectly timed to fit in with the Bash. God loves a bass player.

As indeed are the many, many fake Neutriks. It's quite bizarre just how satisfying it is to take delivery of a new, really well-made cable.

Da doo ron ron ron, da doo ron ron. Alternatively, De do do do, de da da da. But if all else fails, then

Too late ... he just died.

In true Basschat style, please allow me to veer wildly off topic instantly. If you face months of being unable to use your left hand, why not buy a cheap-ish keyboard and learn to play. As a bassist, the one thing you want is a keyboard player who keeps his left hand in his pocket ... don't dream it, be it!