Burns-bass

I found the FSR Fenders to be the best. The one I have is an absolutely amazing instrument. I was luck enough to try a few of them and picked the one I liked the best. I have two basses I will never sell and this is one of them. The rest I’m sort of ambivalent towards.

People will have different views, but I e gigged with Squiers, Mexican, Japanese and American jazz basses. While all are great instruments (and some can be awful) the American higher end models sound better, are built better and come with a nice case. Whether this is worth the premium, that’s a question of personal choice. But for me, my Professional series jazz basses is the best instrument I’ve used and we’ve done hundreds of gigs together.

I think it's impossible not to like him. My wife watched a documentary about him while I was (pretending) to read a book. He and his family seemed lovely people.

Big nostalgia marketing fest now. Simon Reynolds had this all nailed back in 2012.

The BBC is to blame for this. They're trying to establish Glastonbury as some sort of quasi religious experience when it's just lots of people enjoying music in a field. If we expect every performer to deliver a generation-defining set, we're all going to be disappointed. But it's still just people playing music in a field which is sometimes great, oftentimes good, and sometimes truly dire.

I've been learning classical double bass recently (because that's what you do at 44) and that – and these transcriptions – have helped hugely. Just picked up a gig in a blue note jazz band and I was able to sight read the heads which impressed my friends, which is always good to see. Just wanted to express my thanks, that's all.

If more people phoned experts the world would be a safer place! The wiring in our house (a former HMO) was declared incredibly dangerous by my friend (an electrician, obvs). We had the whole place redone just so we can sleep soundly at night. I’m not an expert in anything, but there are some things I’d never take a risk with. We now take a plug tester to all our gigs, too, after the lead singer got a shock once.

Having worked for the fire service for several years, strange things really do happen… (I didn’t work as a firefighter, so thankfully didn’t have to respond!)

I think the PAT test sticker suggests this is a joke.

It’s pretty harmless stuff. You know what you’re doing…

Plenty of things to get angry about in the world but all this seems pretty harmless to me. We’re an inclusive community etc.

Depends on your view of art to reinforce the status who or challenge it. &nbsp Someone earlier on described Glasto as a sunny and extended Jools Holland session. I reckon that’s not too far off the mark. Anyway, off into the beautiful sunshine myself!

It’s all performative stuff, it’s very punk and all that. And of course one man’s terrorist is another man’s revolutionary. If you’re upsetting Keir Starmer and Kemi you’re doing alright by me. (My tongue is very firmly in my cheek. Please do not consider this an endorsement for the IRA!)

Weren’t we all in our 20s? Joe Strummer et al all said stupid things in their time. Personally, I’m all for politics in music as a child of the 80s. It’s better than the apparent apathy that’s prevalent among so many of them now.

I think it was a lighthearted joke, don’t take it too seriously.

Agreed. Some of the world music acts (ie not indie or pop) are just incredible. Also saw a few folk acts whose voices were just amazing.

Looks like a great gig. No better feeling and everyone loves the bass player!

Fantastic! Looks like a great gig.

I try not to use Temu but worth a check (if you can’t get down to Essex!)

We found Google Calendar was the best thing for us as it worked across all platforms and was simple to set up

So, to be clear, we're not talking about playing for free at a street party. I do this all the time. We're talking about commercial music festivals that generate a profit (which Glastonbury undoubtedly does.) The system that exists effectively tells artists who play for free that they're worthless (by choosing not to pay them), while charging people for tickets to see them and making a profit. You may be happy to support this system or shrug it off as somehow being a natural order, but I don't think we should. As well as devaluing the contribution small artists make to festivals like Glastonbury, it also constructs barriers for those who lack the means to play for free. We'll end with music being the same as the rest of the arts, populated almost entirely by middle and upper class people who are subsidised to play. In my view, either nobody gets paid, or everyone does. Even if that means Coldplay, Rod Stewart or whoever else earns less money, then so be it. In my industry (writing and journalism), people are routinely asked (and some will offer) to work for free to gain experience and exposure. I've always refused to work for free and paid other people if they have done work that generates a profit for me (or the company I operate).

When it comes to the arts, we have such a stupid system that you need to beg for cash with the only money allocated based on the estimated economic impact of your work (which is, in most cases, entirely made up anyway). The entire classical music world – apart form a few exceptions – is funded through grants because to expose it to the market would see its demise. Societally, we need to find other ways to value the skills and to fund them. If we could break free from the moral objections to a UBI, we'd be much better off. Be a lot simpler than pretending that there are enough jobs to go around (when there clearly aren't and probably won't ever be again in the future...)