musicbassman

Not normally my thing, but the arrangement and levels of musicianship are off the scale. Enjoy.

A gig with my regular 8-piece band (Bodacious) last night at Whiskey Blue, a bar in Southampton. It’s a cracking band, but not many venues can find enough surplus readies to afford an 8 piece, and everyone in the band has other projects on the go, so a gig with this line up is always a treat. Anyway, first time here, and a tiny stage for an 8 piece, but we managed it after the baby grand piano had been trundled out of the way. Place was pretty busy from the start, but as the venue was completely open to the street at the front, and we were also pretty loud, the place attracted a lot of customers who must have heard the music from far and wide and had relocated from other bars in the vicinity to see what was going on, so by the end of the night the place was absolutely packed solid. This pic was taken as we were about to start the second set. I know it looks like a 6 piece band, but there’s a drummer and a keyboard player lurking behind there also.

Yes, I'm a big crossword fan too, but even I was completely stuck on that clue..................

It's a Claudio Lugli - dead posh and everything....

A rather flattering pic of me taken at a festival a few weeks ago. More usually, I just see some old git staring back at me when I look in the mirror in the mornings 🙂 But the bass is my always handsome '96 Stingray 👍

A rather long time ago, I used to do pick-up gigs on the Irish pub scene in London, and getting people up to sing their favourite song was a very common thing. I always remember this little exchange - Irish lady: Do you know '57 Chevrolet? Me: Yes, what key do you usually sing it in? Irish lady: Oh, quite fast............

Oh, that's excellent - haven't seen that one before 😁 Here it is :

All epiiptment

I would definitely avoid a start-up band if I was you, @fiatcoupe432, because unless the others were already top notch players with plenty of experience and contacts the band won't be up to speed very quickly. If you're going for a job with an already well established band who have plenty of well paid work then there's going to be some pretty fierce competition for the job. Having excellent chops and loads of experience is a given, so maybe you can offer backing vocals as well? - always handy. If a functions band is a completely new scene for you, bear in mind that this sort of band is just part of the scenery at most functions and there's often a lot of hanging about well out of sight for many hours after setting up. Sometimes you're treated extremely well by the hosts, other times you're just regarded as 'staff' and have to remember your place. And, as @JoeEvans says, if you're able to play several hundred standards straight off in any given key that can also help..........

Hmmm - this could be a tricky one, Mick. Sounds like a great idea but some drummers don't take too kindly to other musicians suggesting ideas they might like to try, so lots of diplomatic skills required..... Also, some drummers (and other musicians also) really haven't listened to any new music since about 1995. I worked with a decent enough drummer a few weeks ago but I made the mistake of mentioning the Amen break - and he'd never heard of it. Maybe you could try listening to a new song the band are thinking of trying and work on it together, rather than picking holes in material you already play ?

That's excellent, @Mickeyboro, you look like you're one step closer to heaven ! 🙂 Hope to get to see your band sometime 👍

A very well written and thoughtful piece, even if a little depressing. I've been in bands at various levels since the early 70's, it was always a hard career path to choose but seems pretty well impossible now. I'm glad I stepped off the treadmill of trying to 'make it' after I'd been playing for about ten years and settled for being a reasonably successful weekend warrior ever since. It's had it's highs and lows, but I still get a huge buzz out of doing a successful gig and getting opportunities to work with really great musicians. 🙂👍

Spotted on Facebook.

I had to read that sentence several times before I was sure of what I was reading ! Is this a wind up ? 😲

I mean this very politely and respectfully, but isn't it interesting how one bass players idea of an 'awesome' sound is another bass players 'nightmare 'sound ? I would hate to have my bass sound like that on stage ! Obviously, many other opinions are available........... (ducks and runs for cover...........)

Yes, always, always, follow the singer when it comes to arrangements getting messed up. But if they start off in the wrong key, then a car crash is pretty inevitable, as there's no undo button. Best to bring things to a halt, make a joke about it, and start again, and thoughts and prayers they'll get it right second time round. 😬

Errrr - no. It's Paddy McAloon, his brother, the frontman and songwriter, who has the hearing issues, poor guy.

Oooh, I hope there's going to be a bass solo ! 😁👍

Always been a huge admirer of this band. I always felt they did themselves no favours by deciding on such a silly name - I mean, most band names are pretty silly, but Prefab Sprout is on another level ! Anyway, never mind 'out popped cookie' - what I want to know is - who was Paddy's 'Tuppentup friend' ???

Interesting topic. Did a dep gig last weekend and it was my first experience working with a band just as described by @stewblack - a click and full backing tracks, verbal cues, the works. I'm sure the end result was OK out front (they had a regular sound engineer who came to their gigs) but a most peculiar slightly other worldly experience on stage as relying entirely on IEM's and not a lot of eye contact for cues. This was a pro standard wedding/functions band and this set up was an absolute standard for them - they made it perfectly clear what I could expect when they offered me the gig, and I only got the gig because I took a deep breath and said I'd be happy to work like this 😬 Much to my relief, they seemed pleased enough with the end result

Any excuse for showing a bit of Rob Mullarkey. Here, he's playing his interpretation of Jeff Buckley's 'Grace' with the wonderful Natalie Williams on vocals.

Rob Mullarkey, my No 1 favourite player! 🙂 What an excellent, informative (and lengthy) video, well worth an hour of any BCers time.

Just take a listen to the first couple of minutes of this. Pure punk !