MacDaddy

On 19/09/2023 at 17:38, TheGreek said:

Was this on display at one of SE Bashes?? Possibly 2021??

 

I think it belonged to @Frank Blank at the time.  

 

Amazing bass - beautiful tone, weighs nothing and has that ubiquitous link to a dairy product. 

 

GLWTS 

Possibly mine? Which I bought having played @Frank Blank's at a previous bash

On 08/12/2023 at 20:38, mr4stringz said:

If you’re there in time give the bassist of the support (Dawn After Dark) a wave for me, he’s a mate of mine. Suitably festive too as he’s got a grumpy Santa vibe about him.

This chap 😁

Nice bloke, we had a chat, and he was up for me posting his pic on Basschat.

29 minutes ago, chris_b said:

 

Of course.

 

As in many things there are performers and watchers.

Exhibitionists and voyeurs?

3 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

If it weren’t so politically incorrect The Proper Vicious Lesbians would be a great band name.

I wouldn't want that in my search history...

90% of being in a band is turning up when you say you will.

Not last night, the night before.

First rehearsal with the Americana band in a rehearsal studio, and first time meeting the drummer. He's been on at the other guys about needing a bassist so he was happy I was there 😆

The guitarist was using an early 70s Les Paul, he's a finger picker and sounded sublime. I used my Mouse which is fretless, and although it sounded great I felt my playing initially wasn't quite up to scratch for some reason. Also I came to the realisation that I'm far too reliant on the Mouse's fret markers. More practicing at home by ear needed. 

Anyhow, by the end we were sounding pretty good. Looks like this one is going to be a lot of fun 😎

Just out of interest, and I know this is not what it's made for, but what is the loudest useable volume?

If you put it through a 4x10 could it keep up with 2 guitars and drums?

Gene Loves Jezebel, next Sunday 

If anyone finds they don't get on with their SY-300 but still wants a synth pedal, I've got a Future Impact (one of the signed ones) if you fancy a trade.

Nah, keyboard player can do it with their left hand.

So how does the 'meet and greet' package work then? 🤔

Just seen this. What a deal!

Glad it's over as I would have been sorely tempted 😆

53 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

It’s an amp. Why would you want to stomp it? Do you turn your amp on and off while playing? 

My amp isn't on my pedal board.

I'm probably missing the point, but if something is going on my pedal board I'd be expecting something stompable. 

First rehearsal with the covers band last night. The guitarist has his own rehearsal room at the end of his exceedingly long garden, which is convenient.

At times we sounded great, other times not so much, but we're still looking for a  second guitarist, which is desperately needed for some of the songs we're doing. 

8 minutes ago, neepheid said:

I put in a little bit of effort to my participation and it worked!  Now I'm a winner too.  But what did I win?

You won the title of 'Bestest Basschatter in the whole wide world ever, at least until tomorrow ' 😁

18 hours ago, urbanx said:

Would you pay £120 for a 3-course lunch (in a posh hotel) and an after dinner musical speaker? 300 guests.

Down south and in that London, 'dinner' refers to the evening meal. 

Are you referring to dinner as being (correctly) the mid-day meal?

14 hours ago, bass_dinger said:

The organisers don't seem to understand the division of labour here.

 

1. They are doing it for charity.

2. The band are doing a gig.

 

Putting the words "charity" and "gig" in the same sentence does not automatically mean that all participants will want to give their services for free.

My first question is "will the bar staff be working for free?".

23 hours ago, Supernaut said:

Music evolves. 

'Popular music' does not. It's actually the opposite. If you look at the development of western music upto the first half of the last century then compare the harmonies; tonalities; and rhythmic devices of popular music it's quite the regression.

36 minutes ago, Paul S said:

intestinal rumblings

What music style would that subgenre be? 🤔

1 hour ago, ahpook said:

or experimental fusion reactors.

Interesting read from the Facebook about Paul McCartney and the Northern Songs music publishing saga. There are some salient details, which if true, conflict with the traditional McCartney narrative.

It's a bit of a long read, but what do our BC Beatles aficionados make of it?

Author

The Beach Boys And Beatles 101 : The Bands The Music The History

  · 

The Biggest Business Mistake Paul McCartney Ever Made Was Procrastinating To Buy The Beatles’ Music Publishing Back In The Early To Mid 1980s Which He Ended Up Losing To Michael Jackson : 

August 14, 1985. A day that both longtime Beatles fans and especially Paul McCartney will never forget. 

Over 38 years ago Michael Jackson purchased The Northern Songs publishing Catalogue, along with ATV music, basically giving him ownership of over two hundred Lennon/McCartney Beatles’ songs. 

Jackson paid over 47 million dollars for the songs which became a very good investment to say the least since now the value is somewhere around a billion dollars . 

In the picture below is Michael Jackson when he worked with both Paul and George Martin on the 1983 "Pipes Of Peace" sessions where Paul told Michael about the importance of music publishing. Obviously Michael listened. 

For years Jackson was thought of as "The Bad Guy" (no pun intended) with Paul giving many people the impression that he was screwed by his former friend. Well as the years have passed it's pretty obvious that wasn't the case. No one should feel sorry for Paul and here is why.

Beginning in the year of 2018 Paul has automatically started to get the songs back for nothing. The 1976 Copyright law (which went into effect in January of 1978,) allows for the original songwriter of a song to get their songs back after 56 years from the day they were released. No matter who owns them. 

Many people also don't know that Yoko was eligible to get John's half ownership of the songs starting in 1991. That part of the copyright law allows the heirs of a songwriter who died in the first 28 years of writing music to get their rights back the second 28 years. 

That's why Yoko Ono was never that interested in buying the songs in the early 1980s and left Paul hanging. But Paul is to blame too. He definitely didn’t do his due diligence when it came to this matter, nor did he hire a knowledgeable legal team which made him look like a fool especially with Yoko Ono. 

Paul had numerous chances to buy the catalogue back between 1981-1984. Problem is he only wanted his songs back not the whole ATV songs which included many different artists songs as well. 

The owner at the time, the impresario Lew Grade, had bought the songs from John and Paul’s original music publisher Richard James. After the sudden, and shocking death of Brian Epstein James sold his majority interest to Grade without even telling John or Paul. (What a jerk)!

Once Lew Grade acquired Northern Songs he made them part of his company ATV. John and Paul, along with their manager Allen Klein, would make attempts to buy the catalogue back but would end up falling though. 

Plus the fact that John and Paul would have a falling out after John found out Paul was buying shares in Northern Songs behind his back which gave Paul more shares. In the end once they realized they had no chance of buying back their songs they would sell their remaining interest back to Lew Grade basically relinquishing any ownership of the tunes they wrote. 

After years of wasting time waiting for Paul to make a reasonable offer, ATV was sold to new owner, Robert Holmes à Court in 1982. 

Unlike Lew Grade, however, Robert did not plan to keep ownership and wanted to sell again just two years after buying ATV/Northern Songs. 

Both Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono were once again contacted to make an offer for ATV. This time neither Paul nor Yoko even bothered to make a bid saying the asking price was too much money. 

That’s when Michael Jackson was contacted who Robert knew was coming off the “Thriller” album and had the liquid assets to buy the songs for 47.5 million dollars. Almost double what Paul and Yoko were willing to pay. 

The initial mistake Paul made when Lew Grade still owned the company was asking Yoko to come in and bid with him as a partner thinking fans would respect him for giving John’s widow a chance to own the songs equally with him. Then having Yoko handle the negotiations. Also talking Paul into offering a pathetically low price for the songs. This is where Paul didn’t do his homework and Yoko did. 

Paul would realize later that since Yoko knew she would get John's rights back long before he would with the 1976 Copyright law being that a widow would get control of the songs much sooner than a songwriter still living. Michael Jackson even said Yoko actually encouraged and was happy Michael bought them. She has been quoted many times saying "I feel like a friend of the family owns them now." 

The only person who got screwed was Paul.

Also before his death Michael Jackson commented numerous times that he contacted Paul beforehand to make him aware that he planned to purchase ATV, and actually even asked Paul to come in as a partner with him yet Paul declined. 

Jackson stated Paul was okay with it. And to be honest personally as much as I love and respect Paul I tend to believe Michael Jackson in this regard. It’s been proven that Paul had no interest in buying the songs at this time. 

The Lennon/McCartney songs not part of the ATV Catalogue are “Love Me Do”, “P.S. I Love You”, and “Penny Lane”. The first two, which Paul now owns, were released before Northern Songs was formed, and “Penny Lane” was kept by Holmes à Court as a souvenir and gift to his daughter because it was her favorite Beatles’ song which she still has. 

So yes, once again there are rumors that the whole Sony/ATV catalogue now valued at over a billion dollars will probably be sold but Paul is not interested in any part of the collection with the exception of his own songs. 

And once Paul gets the rights to those songs back Sony/ATV will easily lose over a quarter it's value, if not more. But even when Paul gets his 50% Of Northern Songs back Sony/ATV will still Own the other 50% not Yoko Ono. 

What many fans don’t know, and surprisingly got very little publicity, is Yoko sold John’s interest back to Sony/ATV once she acquired the rights to John’s songs sometime in the 1990s. 

Had John been alive he never would’ve allowed that to happen. Nothing was more important to him than owning his own songs. In reality though it Yoko was more interested in the windfall of cash she received for selling them back, plus still getting a top royalty rate while Paul received much less since he became estranged from Michael Jackson when he was alive. 

Paul is known as a great businessman but on the northern songs catalogue he has botched

and made terrible decisions throughout the years. 

Also, I know it’s not a popular topic but Michael Jackson deserves praise too for the way he took care of the songs when he owned them during his lifetime. 

Yes he made a few mistakes like the whole Nike commercial/Revolution fiasco (which Yoko signed off on btw) but for the most part he was very careful about who and what things the songs were issued for. 

Especially when it came to Rap/Hip-Hop Artists constantly hounding him for permission to sample the Beatles songs. He knew Paul McCartney especially didn’t approve of that, and never allowed it to happen. 

Jackson took the financial risk that Paul didn’t seem to have the confidence to take. In some ways I get that. As Paul has stated many times, “I wrote them for nothing. It just doesn’t seem right to pay these astronomical numbers of dollars for something I created for nothing.” Fair enough I guess. 

That being said, even had Paul paid what Michael Jackson did for the songs he eventually would’ve made his money back many times over and saved himself many headaches and legal issues throughout the years. 

All that matters now though from this long and complicated story is he will now FINALLY be getting his songs back as he rightfully deserves.

#beachboysbeatles101 

I'm guessing we all know the 'signature' Trace sound, or Ampeg sound, but what would y'all say the signature Ashdown sound is?

This is why I started playing bass. 

Nikki Sixx c1987.

Not because he was a handsome devil, but he was running around and throwing shapes and posing. It was very impressionable.

I don't play like or sound like him, but he's the original influence that made me want to do it.

Having come from classical guitar, when I started on bass, technique-wise it just felt right.

Bearing in mind that posters previous threads have told of being ignored or ghosted, it's a result that you actually got replies, and from all 3 auditions!