super al

I hate the word 'content' We used to create music, now it's just content...ones and zeroes to a funky beat! If content be the food of love then stream on and on and on...until we break even If we're lucky 😆

Love bands with keytars, I've been in two bands where the keyboard player pulls out a keytar... I think it must be connected to my love of 80s funk 😆 I had one band split up where the catalyst was one of the guitarists backing into my car and then speeding off! Basically a hit and run whilst I was bringing my gear upstairs from the venue (the Hobbit, Southampton). I had no idea but the drummer was looking closely at my bumper 😆. The whole scenario makes me laugh now but at the time it was a bit awkward and resulted in a couple of months weirdness and three of us buggering off to form another band that wrote a couple of EPs and had a great time supporting bands at places like the Joiners, Talking Heads and Hamptons round So'ton way. My car wasn't that badly damaged anyway 😁

When I joined my current band they had a Facebook page and all their music on Spotify, YouTube, etc (paying distrokid). None of them actually doing much to promote the band. The Spotify account had 1 monthly listener and I think that was me trying to learn the songs. I'm not great at being a 'content creator' or whatever it is but I started an Instagram account for them and then they let me loose on the Facebook page! Last month we were up to 61 monthly listeners, over 400 followers on Instagram and nearly 800 (750 other bands 😄) on Facebook...the aim is to break even with streaming... we're getting there but still a long way to go! Can we use this thread to exchange insta follows? Is that allowed? We are Felis Leo btw 🤘🦁

Here's my Marlin Slammer. Bought in '87 for possibly £99.99? I knew very little about basses or how to play them but soldiered on with this until I bought a Washburn B-15 2nd hand. The Slammer got dusty until my boss at the time borrowed it. He used to be in a local band called the Nite People in the 60s but only had an old Vox valve amp and speaker left. He played it more than I ever did so he lost the knobs and put loads of dings on it. It had chicken head knobs on for ages until I gave it a refurb about 15 years ago with new pups and similar knobs to the originals. I keep it out of nostalgia as it still sounds awful, currently hanging on the wall of shame 😄 The combo I bought to go with it was a pine affair with a wicker front...looked very country, it used to get funny looks and comments when I went to jams 🤣

Pic of me playing Salisbury Live a couple of weeks ago

Our 2nd gig of the year Sunday, 8 days after our 1st! This was the 1st event for the month long Salisbury Live and as we were the 1st band on we've billed it as us kicking the whole thing off but in reality we knew it wouldn't be busy. The switch from an outside event to an inside gig probably did us a favour as there was about 40 people in the room with a few more punters in another room and outside. The performance from our POV was great. Our drummer's 2nd gig and there was a nice pace to the songs, not rushed. Jon, our singer was hopping and strutting about, it was definitely what I would expect from a Felis Leo show. A few positive comments which helps, I like the random stranger ones 👍🏻 I didn't stay too long but the two tribute bands who played later were Slady and the Smiths Ltd. No gigs now until late July ☹️ Picture courtesy of the band after us, 3mo. I'm suitably obscured by Chris our lead guitarist.

A lil' half hour set for the launch of Salisbury Live '24 this Sunday

Played my 1st gig of the year with Felis Leo, 1st gig in Salisbury since joining them 2 years ago. The gig was in a pub called the George & Dragon which is quite a long thin pub. The back of the pub was closed off for the night and we played just in front of that area, unfortunately space was limited and I ended up stuck in a corner behind a wall, my two barefaced one10s on a bench facing in different directions! I could only see the entrance to the loos from my vantage point 😂 Before we started there was quite a few punters in and that was pleasing, after the first set I came out of my hiding place and the bar was heaving! If we're playing a standard pub gig we play half originals, half covers but not the obvious covers... Powerage era AC/DC, UFO, Whitesnake, JJ Cale, Rory McLeod, it seems to work and weave into our own material. The crowd seemed to enjoy it, the bar staff were very complimentary and the 'fans' said it was the best we'd played (this was only my 3rd gig with FL, it was Chris the drummer's 1st!). Despite the postage stamp stage area the sound on stage was great, so much better than at rehearsals but then I don't use the 2 x one10s in rehearsal. Loading out was a ball ache, I won't bore you with that...rain, roads, busy pub full of drunks, etc. Overall the night was a cracker, looking forward to next Sunday with a Smiths tribute and an all female Slade tribute! Here's my strange setup for the evening

Funny you should say that, we've just written a song about a local witch 😆

I'm looking forward to this tomorrow, we've waited ages to play a gig in our home town. Should be a good little crowd too as we don't play very often.

I said 'temple' not Elland Road 😉

I used to hate some music with a passion but have found myself softening up in recent years. I don't mind the Smiths, pre 80s Bowie, Abba... I can even listen to the Pet Shop Boys without kicking the radio at the wall! Maybe I'm not as serious about music as I used to be 🤔 ... I think that started when I shifted to 5 string basses 😂

That's another thread right there "songs spoiled by listening to a guitarist or singer in your band making the same error every time". I can't listen to Reptilia by the Strokes without a smirk when it's just the guitar playing by itself midway through...we always said it was the jazz version 😂

I used to be in a band that covered a few Wood Bros songs. I had a Stagg EUB and it was quite nice to learn and play those songs. Chris has a great sound and style. I can't remember which songs as it was over 10yrs ago now...apart from Make Me Down A Pallet (?) which was a cover of a cover 😁

Thanks @Norris the hive mind of bass chat is working wonders! I'm now thinking of having a little stock of Vistaprint or similar tees in the 'tourbus' but also have the tees available to order on redbubble. I'll see how the prices and quality compare, I guess the tees we sell at gigs need to be near enough the same as the cost of the redbubble ones (Inc postage)

I went to see Chas n Dave years ago, they just had their merch in a suitcase and opened it up at the end of the gig. We play pubs at the moment so thought a similar thing would do.

"Available in any size as long as it is large" 😄 I would probably take 'orders' for anything we didn't stock. Gets tricky this t shirt thing.

Thanks @TimR If money was no object I'd love to screen print it but we're not in that league. That's why I asked about Vistaprint, direct to garment on fruit of the loom for about £11.50 and you don't have a minimum run limit thingy. We're in Salisbury btw

Sound advice, thanks @SteveXFR I think that was why I wanted to do a small run of 10 or so to start with... I don't expect a lot of demand. Initially the idea was vanity (I'd like to have our artwork on one of my tees) and to help pay the distro kid fees.

This is the image, I'd like to put it on a black tee our rhythm guitarist wants white

Last year our band released an EP and a friend of the band who is an artist (and now tattoo artist) did the cover art. I was blown away by it, to me it looks great and I think it'd look great on a tee shirt. I spoke to a local firm and they would do it at about £18 per tee. I've looked at Vistaprint and theirs is about £11.50. Now we are a very small band with limited resources £££ so I would only do small runs of 10 at a time in L and XL as most of the punters who watch us are blokes around our size. Do any of you guys have advice or experience of working with small batches of tees, anybody use Vistaprint or have an alternative? Any help would be great, thank you

Thanks @Stub Mandrel The guitar playing lion is our last EPs artwork created by a Bristol tattoo artist called Ady. He's a big fan of the band and I just love what he does.

Felis Leo's first gig of '24... at last, we get to play our hometown!

Tears of a clown was one of my favourites when I played in the Flotonics (local soul band), such a cool groove. Motown basslines are great fun to play 👍🏻

"And on the eighth day God created Stourbridge" From the gospel of The Wonderstuff