Stub Mandrel

Someone just posted a link that made me think 'which albums have given me the greatest pleasure?' Not the one that are the best, or my favourites, or that impress, or are the most technical. More like a 'Desert Island Discs' list but albums. This is my list of ten albums, in a rough chronological order of when I came across them. A New World Record, ELO - I started collecting ELO singles and I love(d) everything before Discovery (which was a huge disappointment). NWR probably just edges Out of the Blue, but I listened to these over and over again reconstructing each track listening to just the bass, the keyboards etc. I can recognise Jeff Lynne's production at 100 paces... Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd - was I the only angst-ridden teenager who found solace in this album's melancholy? Live Rust, Neil Young - this and Rust Never Sleeps introduced me to a new type of music, raw, passionate with a huge range of emotion and delivery. On Stage, Rainbow - already a Rainbow fan, this just captured such a huge sound and almost makes up for the fact that I never saw Rainbow live. Woodstock - I have this on two cassette tapes, recorded off a reel to reel version of the album in a cottage in the Welsh countryside where we used to go just to be. Liege and Lief, Fairport Convention - this is the album that opened my ears to British folk rock and made me realise you don't have to put your finger in your ear and sing through your nose. Ironically Ashley Hutchins' bass driving it along, as Dave Pegg is probably my greatest 'bass hero'. Watt, 10 Years After - this was one of the albums, with SHHH, that I played along to over and again during the years when I was in bands. 10, Pearl Jam - I heard this, and Nevermind, and decided that perhaps music hadn't died after all. 13, Black Sabbath - I am a massive fan of Black Sabbath's music, especially the earlier stuff where there was more light and shade. Then 13 a came along and the whole album is like a puzzle box full of every little Ozzy-era signature while still feeling fresh and new, managaing (just) to steer clear of being a pastiche of earlier albums. It starts with the words 'Is This the End of the Beginning, or the Beginning of the End', and ends with a reflection of the very start of 'Black Sabbath' which I still find emotional. The Machine Stops, Hawkwind - I 'found' this after hearing Synchronised Blue on Phil Alexander's programme. For me it just rekindled my passion for Hawkind's music and was on almost endless repeat for weeks.

Not enough like buttons, near the top of my top ten albums of all time.

They are very 'sticky out'. I like a 90-degree really. But I have some pretty leads for use at home, like a cheap but lovely looking fabric covered Stagg one to go with my pseudo vintage and much modded Ibanez '335'

Funnily enough I drove past a pub in Fazely who claim to have Ed Sheeran on at the weekend.

I precsribe taking in your ghetto blaster and treating them to Soft Machine's Third.

I have a lovely surf green one I use for my practice amp. I've just discovered it's impossible to unscrew it to check the quality of connections/strain relief without damaging the connector.

Hope it's OK, I suffered for years with sore throats before being diagnosed with gastric reflux. Messed around with gaviscon for more years until someone told me to demand a proton pump inhibitor from the doctor, now on lansprazole, which works well for me.

I always wind a cable just as I was told how to hank a rope, giving each loop a satisfying half-twist. Also, my speaker cables are just plain 13A twin flex - but BRIGHT ORANGE with heatshrink over the connector body and strain relief as a precaution against shorts if plugged into anything that isn't ring=earth.

Sorry....

My dad has more... and he's 84!

Definitely not the space! Upper part ahd two jack sockets and a power socket in it, one corner kept for the taller 10uF caps!

Not just the hair...

Fairport Convention - only Simon Nichol from the original lineup, but he hasn't been there the whole time. But it's a band that evolves with people coming and going, I don't see why a and like that shouldn't go on forever as longs as (a) there's some genuine continuity (Viz. some of the Iommi on his own 'Sabbath' albums) and (b) they keep producing new material that builds on the original corpus rather than becoming a 'tribute' to themselves.

I enjoyed it. I saw it as a movie based on Queen's story and a tribute to Freddy, not a documentary. I think it balanced a lot of potentially difficult content with making it a movie for a wide audience well without bowdlerising anything.

A very good point; for an electric instrument quality plywood should be better. Not for soundboards though!

I've got the bits and assembled a power plug and jacks into a tiny case. I need to make the board, it's designed, but I suspect I'm trying to fit it into too tiny a case (50x50).

Funnily enough 'Lights' is on Planet Rock right now. Makes me want to be a record producer - a song that desperately needs a dose of grit to stop it sounding like the Bee Gees with an excellent guitar over the top. Now 'Wheel in the Sky' is an excellent song - but every time I hear it I think it's Heart...

Because the whole thing is a 'show' from a punters point of view. A show that builds to a climax is a more memorable and rewarding experience. Ask anyone headliner who has been upstaged by the previous band. (e.g. UFO/Slade) If you go to see the fireworks, do you want the bangs and flashes to be the same right through or to save the best for last?

That's pretty much the rule isn't it? The headliners may have paid the price of a house to cover the cost of a top-notch lighting rig and it's part of their show. If you were supporting Motorhead, would you have expected to get the bomber for your act? Even if it's the venue's own rig, they probably see it as part of the whole show building to a climax and it's in their interests to make the headliners stand out.

I suspect @cheddatom can guess exactly why the sound improved for the headliners...

But if you use headphones of IEMs other people can't enjoy your playing and admire your prowess? And if you can't be heard over the din, why not just turn it up? Surely that's what everyone else is doing...

But tainted by much of their output being the epitome of MOR AOR.

I love the bassline on anyway you want it. I think Escape Frontiers showed what a good band they could have been if they had embraced a heavier sound.

The problem with sex on the TV, was that we always kept falling off.

Ozzy Osbourne being interviewed on Planet Rock. I need subtitles... and I'm married to a brummie.