Nicko

There are a number of examples that completely disprove this, Iron Maiden AC/DC Black Sabbath Deep Purple Genesis Pink Floyd Maybe things are different now.

A distant echo, Of faraway voices boarding faraway trains?

Closing Time - Semisonic

I would say it depends on what they want to play. If they are reading dots and therefore playing parts that are composed in standard tuning the the original finger positions would not be available. There's a reason why pentatonic scales for example are popular in guitar based music - it's because the scale tones are naturally under the fingers with the tuning of the instrument.

When I saw that pic I thought it was the station I used on my daily commute. I can't tell for sure. but be afraid - the station in question was Baker St. In other news I accepted an offer on the house yesterday. That means the dining room can convert back into my temporary studio. Be afraid -I think I'm back.

Seems you don't need to be in Europe to be in the Eurovision Song contest given that Australia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Israel and Morocco have competed. Apparently Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon Libya and Tunisia are all eligible to participate. Eligibility is dependent on the broadcaster being a member of the European Broadcasting Union.

My nephew's band just released their first single (he's on guitar). I hope you like

Ozzy was in Van Halen???????? I agree though. The PA is the singers responsibility. I've been stung getting involved in buying a PA as a band when it really wasn't anything I wanted to be responsible for. When the band broke we had to sell it to the singer at a big loss.

I have never needed a monitor when playing pubs, but typically the singer has had one.

Bigger string gauge = more volume IMO. I increased the size of my higher strings and kept the lower strings as were to balance out the volume across the strings a bit. I didn't notice much difference other than that.

The best advice I can give is to give up on the idea of putting the bass pedal through the PA. It's almost never needed in a pub setting. I think you'd find the Stagepass limited in the long term.

Hmm. My first gig was two weeks after first picking up a bass* in a band playing popular covers. At the time I was working 60 hour weeks and the band practiced once a week. I put in some time learning the 2 hour set but was along way from knowing any, let alone most, of the material properly. I had chord charts and winged most of it. I can assure you that talent did not play any part in my ability to get through the set, but the alcohol content of the punters might have. * I'd played 6 string guitar for years in my bedroom but had never in a band.

Well, if you got 5 of the 6 notes right you'd be approaching 85%*. * the traditional fingering of course only uses 5 notes.

I always played note for note, not necessarily the right notes, or in the right order.

I suspect a part of the issue is that the guitarist is too weak/polite to say that he doesn't want to do certain songs, and then when he's at home he doesn't want to learn them. Having said that if you've got to 28 songs to gig standard, having learnt others that were dropped, with rhythm guitarist playing lead, in a little over a year with a few breaks looking for personnel then he can't be slacking that much. Maybe your expectation of his behaviour is a little unrealistic if you are going in there and treating it like a job and the others are treating it like a hobby.

I'm surprised you were "nearly there" given the attitude of the guitarist. Something that hasn't been discussed here is what workload you are giving the band. In 2 years a decent set of songs should be under your belt and there shouldn't necessarily be a need to learn a new song every week - unless you all want to or are bored with the stuff you already know.

Or is it that it just isn't fun? If you want to gig then walk away. If your objective is to have a hobby where you play once a week then it really doesn't matter unless you don't find it fun. Some bands seem to meet up as an excuse to have a few beers and stumble trough a couple of songs while they do so but it's not my idea of being in a band. Personally I don't really enjoy gigging that much - it's a necessary evil of being in a half decent band. Band's I've been in that don't gig seem to lack purpose and drift along not really doing much in the way of getting better.

Not all Olympics are the same. My cousin lives in the Olympic village in Athens in a social housing*. The Olympics provide an opportunity but it's up to the legacy quango to do it properly. * I'm not sure there was much about Athens that was done right. The stadia are unused and crumbling. At least West Ham have a half decent stadium.

Me too. I vaguely remember the Irish were desperate for their entry to fail to win because they hosted so many times and couldn't afford to keep doing it. I suspect it's like the Olympics though - it costs a lot to host but the money spent is meant to bring investment/tourism and the like in

I don't think they have an indoor venue large enough for Eurovision which needs around 10000 seats. Glasgow has a couple of 12500 seat venues.

10,000 hours of properly directed practice might be enough for me to be a lot better, but I'll never achieve virtuoso level with ten times that amount. I've been playing guitar for 40 years - I'm pretty sure I've averaged 5 hours a week during that time and I'm only an intermediate player.

Generally speaking of course.

How did you not get super excited by the metallic stinky poo brown Austin Allegro at 3.35?

There's a few songs we used to cover that featured this technique such as Are You Gonna Go My Way (right at the end). AFAIK he NEVER turned any volume knob down.

It's all very sinister. Keep up at the back!