PaulWarning

52 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

 

 

One of the major reasons for discharge of less treated sewage at the moment is that brexit has interrupted the supplies of ferric sulphate which is critical for sludge removal processes.

not caused by Brexit, but a shortage of lorry drivers according to this anyway, which is affecting all EU countries last time I heard

https://www.water.org.uk/news-item/driver-shortage-statement/#:~:text=There is no shortage of,is solely one of distribution.”&text=What's the current situation%3F,small number of water companies

Northern Ireland water is still in public ownership, doesn't seem to work that well
https://www.niwater.com/news-detail/11859/going-down-the-drain-lack-of-investment-is-sinking-ni-water/#:~:text=Chronic underfunding of NI Water,damage to the natural environment.

I know anecdotal evidence should be treated with scepticism, but, our old guitarist worked for the NHS in middle management, he thought all the different trust were a big waste of resources, caused lots of problems because they all had their own way of doing things 

10 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

 

Because several of our current government MPs including the PM own a considerable value of shares in US health insurance companies. 

Ah, conspiracy theories, Labour have been banging on for years about the Tories privatising the NHS (remember Tony Blair's 7 days to save the NHS?) and because of this it's impossible to even discuss a different type of health cover without the 'US system' bogeyman being shouted from the rooftops, the NHS is just a bureaucratic money pit, it needs reform but everybody is too scared to do it because of the political fallout.

It needs taking out of the political arena so sensible decisions can be made

20 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

I'm convinced the government are trying to make the NHS so bad that they can force privatisation and a US style system because obviously if you're going to copy any system you go for the one rated as 34th best 

why does it have to be a US style system, why not a French or German style system? on most measure they've got better health care than us

it has been covered before, I'm not proud, got some luminous tape of ebay,
edit, and before someone tells me I've stuck them on the wrong side, yes, I am a lefty 😂

If the RM didn't deliver junk mail they'd be less profit and therefore less jobs, in fact it could mean the end of daily deliveries, Don't know about anybody else but I receive a lot less mail than I used too

Tutti Frutti with Robbie Coltrane is on the iplayer, episode 3 on BBC4 tonight, couple of new docs on sky arts tonight, Beach Boys and George Harrison

2 minutes ago, mario_buoninfante said:

 

Well, reading the thread it actually seems a no brainer more than a try before you buy

depends how much they are new, if they use parts that are available (i.e. ones they can get cheap) quality could be variable

13 minutes ago, mario_buoninfante said:

Brandoni P Bass in  London
Admittedly, I didn't know the brand until I saw this
Seems interesting

https://reverb.com/uk/item/64302611-brandoni-precision-bass

there's a thread on here, sounds like try before you buy

1 hour ago, Burns-bass said:

Add into this “historic brand that was sold off cheaply to shareholders who made a huge profit and are now running the institution into the ground”

I'm not sure what  that has to do with the current problems unless it was kept as a monopoly.

Opinions vary as to how it cheaply it was sold off by anyway.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/dec/18/royal-mail-sell-off-undervalued-firm-180-million

classic conundrum, Royal Mail under pressure from cheaper competitors (capitalism at work), understandable the workers want an pay rise, which the management thinks will make them uncompetitive.

Not all workers are feckless layabouts, not all management are incompetent idiots, but some are

being a lefty it's even more difficult to find a shop that stocks that instrument you want, as @Doctor J says , by second hand then sell on if it's not for you without losing your shirt, o f course this relies on people buying new in the first place, and patience. 

Royal Mail is in decline because the number of letters being delivered has fallen off a cliff and there is lots of competition in the parcels market, Post Offices were closed down because welfare payments are now made directly into banks accounts instead of being made in cash over the PO counter which was their main reason people used them.

we've done Slade a couple of times this year, first time went down a storm, second time, a bit more of a punky venue it didn't, so pick your venue I guess

yep, we do a punked up Shaky and a fairly straight Slade, just a bit faster, crowds just love singing along, well ours do anyway

Queen, Freddie was such a huge part of them, how they can carry on I don't know, but they do, charge huge money for tickets and the punters pay it, having said that I'm not a big fan

47 minutes ago, Beedster said:

Might be wrong but I always got the sense that even the most successful musicians throughout the vast majority of the last 2000 years lived in relative poverty, from minstrels to composers to virtuosos. Their art was used by people either with or seeking more money and more influence, the church, royalty, military, politicians and latterly the entertainment and recording industries, but that money and influence rarely dripped down to the musicians themselves, no matter how famous they were then or are today. The 1970's to 2000 era of musicians acquiring huge wealth was probably just a blip in historical terms.  

Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift etc seem to do ok, I think it's only ever been the ones at the top of the food chain make big money, most live on scraps

On 21/11/2022 at 15:01, Mykesbass said:

The most amazing thing is 1900+ feedback, 100% positive 🤨

that has had me perplexed before, the only thing I can think of is, that anybody who buys one of his creations hasn't a clue what they're doing, therefore doesn't realise they've been done, either that or he really is a master Luthier, make your own minds up 😃

Just now, asingardenof said:

Presumably because if you buy a physical track/album through BC you get access to the download as well?

I don't think so, what happens is when they pass on an album sale they debit your account with a % of the sale, then when they get a download they take the amount you owe them off before passing on any that's left 

17 minutes ago, asingardenof said:

I very rarely buy CDs but am happy to buy digital downloads if I would have bought it on CD in the olden days, either from Bandcamp for preference or from Amazon if BC isn't an option. It's sad that people either can't afford or aren't prepared to put their hands in their pockets any more beyond a monthly streaming subscription.

if it's a small band I do this, but we get very few of these and as I found out, Bandcamp take download payments against any physical sales that have gone through them

59 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

A couple of bands I’m in have a pile of great unrecorded songs. If we put them to tape properly, we could no doubt recoup our costs if we were still in CD world.

 

But we’re not, and we can’t afford to lose money, so they stay unrecorded. 
 

That. Is. A. Disgrace.

these are my thoughts as well, the difference is I can't motivate myself to write new material and send hours learning and honing them with the band if we're never going to record and release them

4 minutes ago, cheddatom said:

we can produce our own product cheaper than ever, and we can reach a wider audience than ever, we just have to convince people to buy direct rather than (or as well as) streaming

 

We gig loads, and sell loads of CDs and vinyl at gigs. All our albums are on streaming services but not many people listen at all. I can think of a few reasons:

• all the fans have the physical product and prefer that
• all the fans are old and scared of streaming/technology
• the fans just like the gigs, and buy the music to support the band, rather than listen to

Headsticks have done very well and are reasonable big on the gigging circuit, we're not in that league.

We easily covered costs on our first 3 albums, which is all we wanted, we recently remixed our first album, , added some live tracks, we were never happy with the original recording and it had long since sold out,  we have struggled to sell the 100 copies we needed to recoup the costs, which is what prompted the singer's wife's (too many apostrophes Dad?) comment.

We can still sell T shirts though 😃

22 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

We don't do it for the money, it's all about the posterity.

Not sure whether that's a jovial reply or not.

we've already got 3 albums out, that's enough posterity for me 😊, we don't expect to make money just recover costs

The Competition and Markets Authority have released their report into music streaming services, not good news for the pitiful rate that artists get, not surprising really, the public (like me) are getting a cracking deal at the expense of the recording artist.

As our singers wife pointed out the other week, when we were discussing poor album sales at gigs, hardly anybody buys CD's anymore.

It's unlikely, that we as a band, we will release any more albums,  we'd struggle to even recoup the cost of recording and production.

edit, forgot the link https://www.gov.uk/government/news/music-streaming-report-published