chris_b

Email them and ask. You never know.

I agree, the name is important and you have to have a graphic that's simple and instantly recognisable from a distance for the posters.

My last cover band's name was so crap that I spent 8 years referring to it as Steve's band. And no, I'm not telling.

Well . . . . . I met up with Pete, the guy who ran the other band in our school, on a gig with a band that I joined in 1986, via an ad in Melody Maker. He asked me to join his band. He introduced me to Robin, Tim, Pete, Jamie, Nigel and others. Nigel had a band with Dave and they had their own bands. I played with all 3. Roger, the drummer in 1986 band, hooked my up with Polly, Greg and later Steve (mentioned earlier) and Bernie . Playing with Robin I met Ed, Rob, Dave and a dozen others. Debbie saw me on a gig with Dave and I started playing with her. When a different Dave left his band I took over and after a few years moved on to play with Steve. I met Andy through Jamie and after a chance meeting on Woking station, he introduced me to Martin and Keith. That led to joining with Chris, Tommy and a different Steve. Chris left and Steve, Tommy and me played in a cover band for the next 8 years. John occasionally fronted the cover band and I did gigs with his band. Also played with Tommy in about half a dozen side projects. Had an occasional band with Rob and Jools. Ed got me gigs with Andy, Pete got me gigs with Eddy and Dave got me gigs with Johnny. Still playing with some of those guys (especially Pete, from school) and also now depping with Paul, John and Jeff's bands. I think that brings me up to date.

Word of mouth.

I asked in Anderton's about the new lighter Sire basses. They said they hadn't noticed any being lighter than the old ones. The weight is the only thing that's stopped me getting one.

Ah, I see. . . old thread!

I am envious of anyone who is more successful than I am. The answer is to use that envy to push yourself to do better.

. . . . . . I guess he'd have got the DI out of the case? With your band I guess there would be a pretty hefty adjustment to the totally different stage sound. My gig was an old style Chicago blues band, so pretty easy to get to grips with the differences. I went cab-less because the gig was in Portobello Road (and on a Saturday afternoon!) and there was no chance of parking the car within a mile of the gig.

I'd play your normal bass and donate the price of this bass to charity.

I gigged yesterday afternoon with no amp. Just a DI and a monitor. A good sound guy and a couple of adjustments and we were fine all day.

I love playing bass. I can like or dislike the songs, the gig or the band but if me and the drummer are playing well together, I'm in a negative free zone.

Do you play hard? Dig in? If so change your right hand technique and play lighter. Then you can drop the action and give your fretting hand a break as well.

Many years ago I was in originals bands who were signed to labels and management. That was another world, but in the years since I've worked with songwriters where the writing was anywhere between great and woeful! Funnily enough, the worse the writer the less willing they were to listen to ideas. So I have a pretty jaundiced view of the semi-pro "originals" band as a genre. If you are going down the originals route, which is a valid decision, you have to develop a very strong quality filter. It's really not a good thing to be the William McGonigal of song writing. Just being an original song is not enough. It still has to be a good one. A good covers band will play what the audience wants. A better covers band will make better song choices. You have a larger, more varied pool of songs to chose from and you can pick songs that are fresh, audience friendly and excellent songs at the same time. Audiences usually just want what they know but you can broaden their horizons if you do it well enough.

Hey Jack, sounding good.

This. I don't buy many these days, but I always buy the CD. I like to hold my music.

The better bands I play with always have CD's for sale on the gig. Most of them have several and one guy also has a VHS video. He was planning a Vinyl album, but I think that idea has been shelved for the moment.

So did I, and Play That Funky Music, Freebird and several others, in the middle of our usual rock/blues set. We wanted to get the audience up dancing. Worked a treat, great night had by all.

Looks like the Stealth is the Vertigo without the "boot" and with reduced storage. So lighter than the Vertigo, less bulky and cheaper. Looks good if you are the only one who carries your bass. I use a Vertigo but if anyone else is moving my bass the hard case comes out.

A few years ago I weighed everything. The cabs were 21lbs each, the amp 6lbs and my accessories/stand case was 45lbs! The only thing I regularly used from that case was my extension lead. Everything else was there "just in case". It's been in the shed ever since.

This is why it's always better to play with guys who have a grown up and professional attitude and are in at least 2 bands.

It was. They recorded it at FAME studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

Put a big smile on my face.

I don't think we are seeing the death of big cabs, a decline definitely, but people are still buying and using them. What we are seeing is the rise of lightweight cabs. 12 years ago people needed a reason to buy a D class amps and Neo cabs, now they need a better reason not to. It's evolution, who buys those wardrobe sized TV's these days?

I have a pair of Goodmans Magnum SL's (bought from Laskeys in about 1974) upstairs. My son used them for his hi-fi system up until last year.