lozkerr

Started off in a school choir directed by an old-skool music teacher with wild hair and a fiery temper - even the head teacher hesitated to cross swords with this guy. If you were good, he had your back and you could get away with a lot. Then a change of school saw me in a marching band, where I ended up as leading bugler and side drum tutor. After that, a trad jazz band with me on trumpet, my best friend on clarinet and a steady stream of others who liked the idea but didn't want to put in the work. Inevitably, it fizzled out. Then a long hiatus, punctuated by annoying distractions like 'work', 'degree', 'career' and whatnot, until I picked up a bass and realised I should have done that as a teenager. I think I might have had a fairly successful career as a musician, but it's too late now. But: better late than never. When I walk into a rehearsal studio or step on stage, I know I'm in my happy place.

I'm in two bands and they both have different approaches. In the 80s covers band, we use a voting system. We're a six-piece band, so each of us suggest two songs. We then cast six votes. The most popular six are worked up and rehearsed a few times and we then decide yay/nay. Obviously, the singers' views carry most weight there. It's worked well so far. In the punk band, it depends on whether a suggestion is a cover or an original. If it's a cover, we'll try it out provided it fits our overall vibe of angry feminism, making changes as needed. If it's an original, we'll spend time trying out different ideas to see if something workable emerges. It helps that we have two songwriters who work well together, plus a band leader who openly admits that she's a control freak but is careful not to interfere with the creative process. For my part, I tend to listen to the rehearsal recordings and jot down ideas to try out at the next session. Both approaches have produced good results.

Mono M80 gig bag for me, unless my bass has to go in the back of a van. Then I drag the Fender hard case out of storage.

Saturday's gig could have been a tad melancholic, as it was a memorial to a guy who passed suddenly earlier this year. He was the singer in a band that we normally do a two-hander with called Rock for Remembrance as a fundraiser for a charity supporting disabled Forces veterans. But far from being downbeat, it went down a storm. It was held in Colinton bowling club - a genteel place in a leafy Edinburgh suburb. A kids' birthday party was finishing as we were loading in - I don't think I've ever seen so many Trinity tractors in one small car park before. We were on first, and I was expecting our whole set to be met with nothing more than polite applause, but we had people up and dancing well before we finished. It got livelier as the evening went on, so all good there. On the downside, one of the lighting stands slipped as I was setting it up and took a lump out of my left index finger, and the lighting desk was sulking. It took a bit of percussive persuasion to get it to behave. I think it's on the way out. But all in all, a great night!

80s band: wet-look leggings with Primani boots adorned with fake pearls, plain-colour top, black jacket, Satanic necklace. Punk band: bottom half as above, band T-shirt rotating between Girls Rock School, Countess of Fife, the Rezillos, London Underground logo and artwork from the Passions' Africa Mine. With a lurid pink jacket over it sporting badges up the lapels. Plus the Satanic necklace.

For me, it's this. Fender Jazz V Deluxe through an Eden Metro atop a 118 cab. This was taken a few days before lockdown - seems ages ago now!

Aye, you're not wrong there! It's seriously loud!

Punk Floyd.

Deep Burple.

Excluding a few small practice amps, I have four that get used for gigs: Eden WTX-264 - this one is also my practice amp. It's handy for smaller gigs where we're told that the acceptable volume is 'not Motorhead, please'. Eden Metro - bulky beast but it's monstrously loud. Eden E300T all-valve head - another plaster-loosener. Eden WTP600 - nice amp but I'm not 100% convinced it's quite up there with the Metro. Four cabs - a 118, two 210s and a 112. All Eden. I should probably thin out the collection a bit!

In all its emotional colours... this one shows a different aspect to the conventional story:

If you're on book 3 of Ed Friedland, you're already a long way down the reading road. The edition I have doesn't even mention the t-word until halfway through book 2 and even then it presents it as fingering suggestions rather than Thus Shalt Thou Play This. This guy sounds like a chancer. If you can't find someone else locally, you might want to think about one-to-one online lessons, if that means you're working with a bass teacher instead of a guitarist who thinks he can teach bass.

I'm kinda conflicted about this. On the one hand, I'm still beating myself up because I haven't mastered Paradise By The Dashboard Light after months of trying. Not because I have to, but because I want to. I should be able to do it, but the rhythm changes keep tripping me up. Every time I go through it, I end up convinced that I'm seriously sh!t as a bass player and I should take up binge-watching reality telly instead. But OTOH, when I finished our last gigs with my 80s covers band and my punk band, I felt as if I was walking on air. The atmosphere was great, people were dancing and I felt like I was where I always should have been. It might be that I'm pushing myself a bit too hard. But after finding the bass late in life, I feel like I have a lot of catching-up to do.

I usually start with mids up from 12 o'clock, treble up a little and cut the bass until the B string doesn't sound like mush. The HPF sounds like a good idea - I must try that.

Last night in Edinburgh's Wee Red Bar with the Girls Rock School showcase. This one featured some of the students from the spring term that I'd helped teach. Girls Rock School is primarily about helping women build confidence rather than become festival headliners, but they put on some pretty impressive performances. The punk band I'm in was supporting the main act - here's a song from our set. Includes profanity. I Like Fucking.mp4

Boss ME-50B multi-fx unit. Lots of nice sounds that were fun to play with in practice sessions but I just couldn't get on with it on stage. I replaced it with individual pedals to get the sounds I use the most and haven't looked back since.

Belt-fed MkII Bren gun with flash guard. You can't miss unless you're blind.

Exactly the same here. The five-string is much easier than the four, as I find for most songs there's very little jumping about needed. That helps a lot, especially when I'm singing at the same time. There are a few songs - some Smiths songs, Bowie songs and Back On The Chain Gang spring to mind - where the four-string fingering is simpler because the basslines involve playing open strings and then immediately fretting them, but being able to whizz across the fretboard rather then jumping about to find notes makes life so much easier, even with songs that use all five strings.

No! I'll give it a listen. Thanks!

I've thought about this from time to time, and I'd probably go for Arrival: Highway To Hell - AC/DC Reflections: Sanctuary, by the Passions. The album version. Departure: End Of The Line - the Traveling Wilburys.