vantagepointrocks

Well I hope he gets better and is able to sing again. I had been hoping that they would release some new material this year, though my hopes weren’t high that it would be anywhere near as good as their mid-80s stuff.

Currently, as far as live gigs are concerned, I fall between hobbyist and weekend warrior, as the band has only played 8 gigs in the last three years. So not really enough to be calling myself a weekend warrior, particularly when a few of those gigs didn’t even take place at the weekend! The band still takes up a lot of time due to writing, recording and editing videos. The later being the most time consuming, as I take a lot of live and studio footage, and do Lego stop motion clips to promote our songs. Obviously the dream is to progress straight from part-time weekend warrior to Pro player, but in reality progressing to one gig every two months would be a success!

The Back to the Future soundtrack was a big thing for me as a teenager, pretty much got me addicted to music. In the main it was the two Huey Lewis tracks that turned music into my everyday passion. But the Alan Silvestri theme was good and I quite like the Lindsay Buckingham & Eric Clapton tracks that are on there. The soundtrack though that I can listen to from start to finish over and over is the original Star Wars, favourite piece from that is, The Battle of Yavin, find it exciting and moving even without the pictures, though I suppose I can pretty much see them in my head now.

Two I know of are, Bombskare and the Amorettes,

Played our first gig of the year to practically no-one on a cold snowy night in Glasgow in one of these battle of the band competitions. If nothing else I got some, I think, good footage out of it.

If I got a sudden windfall of £2k and was going to spend it on something good as opposed to house or car related, then as much as I'd like a new bass or guitar, I'd probably book some studio time and record a couple of EPs with my band.

Southern Steel is one of my favourite albums, absolutely love it, can listen to it over and over, all except for the last track Point Counterpoint, really don't like it, so never listen to it. I suppose I could say that I never skip it though, as it is the last track, I just press stop ...

Thanks. Hoping to get back the studio at the start of 2018 to do further work on the songs. Plan to video the recording of the bass, guitars and vocals in turn, thus having a record of the song being built up. Being in the studio is definitely something I enjoy, particularly hearing the song evolve as it is recorded. Cheers.

We were back in the studio a few weeks ago to record a few new songs. This is some footage of a pretty simple hard rock track called, On the Road. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_VyoPO7WiA

I bring all the camera equipment and get our gigs/recording sessions filmed for both our youtube page, and personal archive. Still waiting for that hilarious bit of footage to appear that I can send to Harry Hill and finally make some money out of being in the band.

I’m with the guy from Saxon, the more open strings played the more pointing I can do at people in the audience.

They seem to have overlooked Status Quo ... Assume they aren’t either cool or cutting edge enough ...

Did a quick search and here it is. [url="http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/joe-satriani-says-michael-anthony-was-underutilized-in-van-halen/"]http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/joe-satriani-says-michael-anthony-was-underutilized-in-van-halen/[/url]

I’m sure I remember Joe Satriani alluding to this about Michael Anthony after playing with him in Chickenfoot, that there had been no demonstration on the Van Halen records of his actual level of playing ability, and that he, Satriani, had been surprised at how good he was. I thought that watching the live Chickenfoot DVD that it contained some pretty cool bass runs from the man.

Huey Lewis & The News – The Power of Love (Jellybean Remix) – 80s 12” remix of the classic tune that comes on their recent 3CD set, Collected. Song extended out to over seven minutes with lots of parping keyboards ...

Just got the one 4 string Charvel bass that I bought back in 1994.

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1506590961' post='3379728'] Yep - the VT remix is a million times better. I don't get the adulation for Clockwork Angels. There's a few good tunes on it, but the arrangements are generic RAWK, and the production is lifeless. Where are the great performances? The real standout instrumental breaks? Maybe they're buried under the kitchen sink, but I don't hear any. IMO Rush's best tunes were written and refined when they were working as a band, not when they're - literally - being conducted by the producer. Rant over :-) [/quote] For me the last two albums have one memorable track each, Headlong Flight & Far Cry, the rest does suffer somewhat from, as has been said, very dense production, and a lack of real melodic moments. My favourite period of Rush though is the 80s, I do love the keyboard infused albums, Power Windows I find faultless. I'm ashamed to say that I've never got around to seeing the documentary on the R40 DVD, but, Beyond the Lighted stage is great, have watched it many times.

Some footage from our gig in Shetland at the end of August, again using a Zoom Q2 HD for the sound and video, along with a second for subsequent video plus 3 digital cameras and a go pro for the rest of the video. Edited together using Sony Movie Studio Platinum 12.0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sId4rRG7QY

For a local gig in Edinburgh I have used public transport on many occasion, at the most I am taking instrument and combo amp, though usually will just be instruments. Is no more than a 100 metre walk to the bus stop at either end of the journey. We have a night bus service as well, so not a problem getting home if a late gig on the weekend, though there is always the option of a taxi I suppose. Gig in another city requires a car, or in the case of our last gig in Shetland, a car and then a 14 hour ferry ride. As for dating, most likely just to meet at the pub/cinema/restaurant, that means we can both get public transport there. Or I have been in the situation where the female is the car owner and has come to pick me up – I didn’t judge them by the car they were driving though.

Vintage TV have a lot of live sessions along with music videos.

Here is a Lego Brick film I have put together for one of our recent recordings, Tutankhamun. The song was released as a two track digital single, and can thus be streamed on Spotify, Apple, Amazon and the likes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnPW4W2E7_0

There is definitely no definitive answer to stage presence, some people radiate cool just by the way they stand, others provide entertainment by being a lot more active. For me I think you need to at least look like you are enjoying yourself, as if you look bored and as if you don’t want to be there then this can transfer to the audience. Other than that I am quite active on stage, pulling many faces and like to play songs with lots of open strings so I can use my fretting hand to point at the audience.

The price of vinyl albums will have to come down considerably before I'll consider purchasing them ahead of CDs.

Will the original band be doing the whole gig, or just joining him on stage for a few numbers? I believe they have recorded a new EP together that comes bundled with the new album, which I assume doesn't feature the original players.

If you do enjoy the music, the gigs and like the people in the band, then I’d see the rather limited time it takes out of your schedule as a chance to join another band. Hopefully if you could find one that is up for regular rehearsals then you would be able to have the best of both worlds.