Barking Spiders

I've been selling off much of my collection of basses and guitars so have been very pleased to have been able to sell at much higher prices this year than say 2 years ago. Fr'instance I sold a 4-year old Sub Ray 4 for pretty much the same price I bought it for. The higher prices are pretty much entirely due to the hangover from Covid impacting on shipping costs and the much longer lead times UK retailers have been reporting. Guy at my local store told me he's been experiencing lead times up from 3-4 weeks to 6 months plus at least a quadrupling in container costs.

Yup, give me SAW any day over Morrissey and other miserable indie mopers. Think the UK generally had it better than the US in the 80s. We never had to really put up with hair metal, stadium AOR and all that anodyne c@ck.

There are several highly rated albums (by the NME etc anyway) that went over my head when I heard them around the time they were released. I'm giving them another chance to see if age has mellowed by opinion of them Loveless by My Bloody Valentine - nope it's no better, still sounds like an anaemic version of Psychocandy The Queen is Dead by The Smiths - the title track and Bigmouth are ok but the other tracks are pretty unremarkable. The Bends by Radiohead - Just is ok but the rest? erm...no Funeral by Arcade Fire - I tried, honest but I still don't get their appeal

The 80s were my formative years, music wise and things of a more personal nature. Back then, the bass was right in your face, from indie lefty ranters New Model Army via alt-funkers such as A Certain Ratio and Shriekback to Sade and Wham. Some good examples given so far esp The Pasadenas debut. Other 80s great bass albums I'd recommend... side 1 of Penthouse & Pavement by Heaven 17 Lexicon of Love by ABC esp tunes like 4 ever 2 gether, Valentine's Day and Many Happy Returns. Care by Shriekback Sister feelings call by Simple Minds Welcome to the pleasuredome -FGTH

Will be going up to Bluedot for a day just to see Leftfield pretty much. Then that'll almost definitely be the last gig I ever go to. I've now seen all my faves and most are now defunct or close to calling it a day.

Not heard this in a good while. Love the bassline

what's more punk than ageing baldies with beer bellies playing 'youth' music?

Recently came across this gem from Fluke that never appeared on any of their albums or EPs in CD format but did show up on LP. It's mildly bugging when albums track selections can vary a bit by format or country of release.

HMHB are the band the Beatles could only have dreamed of being. Neither Lennon, McCartney nor Harrison have come up with anything as great as Joy Division Oven Gloves, All I Want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit, I Left My Heart in Papworth General, Deep House Victims Minibus Appeal and 13 Eurogoths Floating in The Dead Sea. I rest my case m'lud.

Love's just for people who can't afford expensive hookers/gigolos

Blasting out the wax from my ears with...

As I work I'm going through excellent Underworld's Drift box , one of my fave tracks being pretty untypical of the duo and reminiscent of their Freur days

Between the age of 6 and 11 I mostly listened to my dad's eclectic collection of 45s and 78s. Fave platters were an EP by the Red Army Ensemble which had tunes The Brave Don Cossacks and Song of the Plains, Guantanamera by The Sandpipers and Going Home by Ken Colyer's Jazzmen. When around 12 I tried some of my oldest brother's metal/hard rock and prog albums from the late 70s/early 80s hated them from the off, much preferring my older sister's 70s collection of mostly 45s' which, included Sparks, Hello, Glitter Band ...A year or so later I half inched my other sister's collection of punk 45s and then that nailed it for me. Still listen to my own collection of first wave punk albums and singles and they still sound fresher than 99% of contemporary stuff today

I've had three fretlesses over the last 20 years - Dean, Vintage and Cort - and have sold all 3. I really only bought them because of the 'mwah' sounds of Mick Karn in Japan and Pino Palladino on No Parlez but you can't just play like that on every song. Other than the 'mwah' sound I don't see much point in them. Might as well stick with fretted. Unlined fretlesses look cool admittedly, while lined ones are a bit like trainer wheels on bicycles.

Pixies are arguably my fave rock band, based on their original four albums. I've had several chances to see them in the reformed line-up but haven't as I don't want to risk tarnishing my memory of seeing them live in their heyday

Recently got myself remasters of The Chameleons first two brilliant albums. By my reckoning they were the best of the 80s post punk bands, alongside House of Love. Here's a corking tune from What Does Anything Mean Basically...

Oh I dunno, makes sense to me if you were a newbie stringing for the first time. Kind of has a logic to it

You'd think so but the computer say no!. The metal community is most definitely missing a trick here

Not quite.... there is such a thing called imperforate anus where the hole is missing or blocked! So the number of opinions > number of ani.. Judging by the above vid of Tina Weymouth it looks like either she might have one herself or she's celebrating its treatment

Guitar/bass shredding's definitely a competition. I mean there's no musicality, nowt you can whistle, no song structure, no feeling, no soul, nothing that bears any resemblance to music as most peeps understand it etc so by default competitiveness is all that's left. I rest my case m'lud.

Go through your Motown collection and isolate the bass parts, not just the James Jamerson tracks but also those featuring Bob Babbitt and Nate Watts (specifically Stevie Wonder albums). Another great player used by SW was Scott Edwards, who also played on loads of classic disco/soul tunes by the likes of Tavares, Hall & Oates, Aretha Franklin, Bozz Scaggs and hundreds more. Two other players I 100% recommend are Bernard Edwards (obvious but essential) and Leon Sylvers III who produces and plays bass on Solar albums by e.g Shalamar, The Whispers etc. My personal #1 is Louis Johnson. Just check him out on any Brothers Johnson stuff but also Jacko's Off the Wall and Thriller.

No steps close to any bass players I quite like. I've been living in around the Costwolds region for a long time now. A decade plus ago me and my then missus got lost while out walking and nearing a house we approached a lady who looked vaguely familiar and asked for directions back to our starting point. Seems we'd inadvertently ended up trespassing on her land but she was very pleasant about it and didn't threaten us with a 12-bore either, which was nice. It were Sade no less. Also shared a urinal with Keith Allen in a pub...kinda, there were two vacant ones between us though!

Not heard this before but seeing MM is on bass sold it to me. Good stuff👍

More great lost tunes from the 80s... First up, this which features a cracking bassline from no less than Mark King And on the subject of bass players, here's a long lost funky dance number from 1984 by Brilliant which featured Youth from Killing Joke and a pre-KLF Jimmy Cauty Finishing off with the vastly underrated Fashion whose great album Fabrique has some tasty bass sounds..

Thanks but I've seen this too. Pre-sale means first dabs to members/subscribers etc rather than the general public. Nowhere mentions day tickets on sale to the general public