TrevorR

I recall an interview at the time in Guitarist with Alex and Geddy where they were referring to ESL as their liveish album. As I recall they said that ASoH was 90+% the Birmingham show (and the other show on one track, can’t remember which) but they recorded a lot of shows on the tourand dropped in short samples of segments from other shows where there was a tech or other (presumably playing) glitch. So it was still all “live” in their eyes. They did spend a chunk of time extolling the virtues of the new Akai S1000 Series samplers they were using...

I recall at university being repeatedly asked by a couple of American students what it had been like growing up in oppression under martial law as a child... like I’d gone to school in a mixture of Colditz and 1950s Leningrad! I left it as “Life in Northern Ireland really isn’t quite like that!” and “The situation really isn’t as black and white as Noraid and co paint it.” I didn’t have the heart to mention that (despite coming from a thoroughly non-sectarian and apolitical family) I was “from the other side” and therefore “an enemy of freedom and justice” (their words), if you know what I mean!

Well... The way they hang against the body when on a strap The way they sit against the body when resting on the knee The profile of the neck The width of the neck The string spacing The feel of the varnished fingerboard (on rosewood... why?) The size and mass of the pickups and surrounds is uncomfortable and inconvenient for how I pluck... Reckon that covers it and apart from that they’re my perfect bass ergonomically! 👍🤣 All that said, I’ll never actually own one but I still love the way they sound and they still look absolutely gorgeous and are still one of my fave basses (just not for me)!

I sang in choirs a lot as a kid but when my voice broke I discovered that I really loved singing the bass lines. Fast forward a year or so and my brother, who was in his 20s, played drums in a local covers band. Somehow I managed to convince him to let me come along to one of their practices (so long as I just sat in a corner and didn’t say anything). The bass player had a black, checkerboard binding Ricky and it was the most amazing looking and sounding thing I had ever seen or heard. It looked like it had fallen out of an episode of Flash Gordon. I fell in love with it and knew from that moment on that bass was the instrument for me. It took 3 years of badgering my mum and dad until they bought me a bass and amp - my 18th birthday present (not a Ricky but an Aria SB which I still own). I still love the look and sound of Ricky basses. Sadly I soon found out that I hate pretty much everything about actually playing them!

Possibly my all time fave Rush track!

Indeed, perhaps I should have said "previously unreleased". My inner (and outer) Civil Servant language and grammar pedant hands his head in shame. And you should be envious, it a blooming great collection - esp the tracks of Rory backing Lonnie Donegan, Muddy Waters and Albert King!

Birthday presents... And got the 3 CD box set of unreleased blues tracks by Rory Gallagher...

Sitting in a guitar shop about to start trying out that nice bass and realising I have suddenly forgotten every single bassline I’ve learned in the last 30 years except for Money by Pink Floyd and The Chain by Fleetwood Mac. Every. Single. Time!

You need to hire some stooges at your next few gigs to keep on complaining that the guitar’s way, way too loud!

Probably the single most interchangeable item in all of a band’s gear!

👍

Who knows what counts as provenance on the inter web these days but this Rose Morris article suggests that it is Bobby Sands too... https://rosemorris.com/blogs/news/14900469-bobby-sands-and-his-nobbly-ned-callan-shaftesbury

“The previous owner of this Ned Callan Bass worked for a few touring bands in the 70's, which included The WHO. This Callan Bass had been given to him as a gift. Now, the only prominent musician I can find who ever played a Ned Callan Custom Bass was John Entwistle. So, was this one of John's personal Basses... "WHO" Knows.” Well, the Ox’s Ned Callan Bass was sold at the famous Sotheby’s (or was it Christie’s?) JE Collection so if the owner can’t remember bidding for it then it’s safe to say it wasn’t Mr Entwistle’s bass...

The Necromancer is absolute bottom of the list of my least fave Rush songs. Juvenile sub-Tolkien Hobbit bothering hogwash roughly thrown together and poorly presented... apart from that I love it! 🤣 Fountain Of Lamneth ranks down there next to it, with Bald ranking third from bottom. Didacts and Narpets is the runner up on my least fave pieces of recorded music ever (only beaten by Jewel’s gawd awful version of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer). But like I said, apart from those 36 minutes and 30 seconds of its 45 minute running time, Yup, its a classic! 😂

THAT. IS. JUST. SO. COOL! Props to Gibbo!

Easy, Caress of Steel. End of new thread

I would guess my top three top albums would be Moving Pictures, Grace Under Pressure and Signals. Although id actually be tempted to answer “Any that don’t contain The Necromancer and The Fountain Of Lamneth...” Lakeside Park I’ve always loved but Bastille Day’s the only other track on Caress of Steel that I don’t actively dislike!

It’s also worth finding the remixed versions on Retrospective III - Different from the remastered album and infinitely better than both that and the original. The opening riffing one OLV where Alex seems to be channelling Richard Dale is nothing short of stunning. Check it out...

Make that two of us!

Kudos for bigging up a fabulous band! Love love love Capercaillie! And don’t forget Pilot! Or Kate Bush’s and the Alan Parsons Project’s backing musos if you prefer...!

Ok to redress the grumpy old Bass-tard sound of the last post I’ll tell you about a 50th birthday party gig our cover band did once. Biggish back garden, marquee sort of affair. We arrived, set up and sound checked while dad, teenage son and chums watched us run through a few songs. Waiting for the guests to arrive we were chatting to the family and then after the first set remarked that the kids very interested and engaged in watching the band. She laughed and said, “Yes, they’re all just learning instruments with the intention of forming a band at school.” The were all really nice, polite, well mannered kids (the antithesis of the teenage yobbo stereotypes) so B/L threw me a nod... then said would they like to do a couple of numbers to start the second set. Son said lthat was really kind but all the other’s instruments were at home so it wouldn’t be possible. But thanks so much for the offer.” - in a totally genuine, non-angling way. B/L and I glanced at each other and said, “You could just use ours...” Kids nearly fell off their chairs! Of course their instruments were the typical teenage starter stuff... bottom of the range Squiers, Epiphones, Encores and the like. The looks on their faces when we slung a Les Paul, a Takamine and a Wal round their necks, plugged them into a valve Fender, an AER and a MarkBass rig and gave them the big “Hello Wemberley, welcome to the stage a brand new rock sensation...” intro over the mic. Seventh heaven, grinning from ear to ear as they hacked nervously through a couple of covers doesn’t come close. We certainly racked up a few positive karma points in our favour that night!

I’ve had my amp rig used as a multi band backline or as an ad hoc “lend” (there was one where we all lent our amps to a bunch of teenagers “support band” doing their first gig - they’d all come on the bus!) but I’d never leave it unattended either. It’s only been backline for shows organised by people I know so they were happy for me to lay down the law. Basically that came down to, “it’s loud enough as it’s set up, you really don’t need to touch any of those knobs. You want more level - just ask that sound guy over there” or at least discussing and approving any settings at sound check. Frankly, if one of the bands bassists had come up on stage, whacked all the knobs up to 11 and launched into the first number I’d have had no problem with walking right up onto stage and turning them back down then standing by the amp with my arms folded glaring at him all the way through his set! I’d have got no complaints from either the promoter or sound guy!

Same here!

You could always play bass and add one of these at your feet... gives you a kick drum sound. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Logjam-Logarhythm-MK4-Stomp-Box/dp/B01MU9PRWC/ref=asc_df_B01MU9PRWC/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310872962114&hvpos=1o5&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5495049981354183162&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007104&hvtargid=aud-544645955450:pla-581695227046&psc=1

Same here. That is my big gig rig. I like both the 2x10 and the 1x15. Light rugged, good sound. Solo I probably prefer the 2x10 but it’s pretty marginal.