Pseudonym

They seem well-mannered compared to Senior Common Rooms, the Royal Courts of Justice, and games of bridge among genteel ladies in the vicarage. Is it possible that Basschat is where a bunch of raving psychopaths come to indulge their decent, respectful, witty and warm-hearted alter egos? Just want to make sure I'll get out alive if I ever meet any of you in person.

Beats talking to furniture and expecting it to talk back.

I'm so impressed by the conduct of Basschat members that I might actually learn to play the bass. Same here. I can only endorse what has been expressed on this thread. I have never come across a site that comes close to this one. It is a pleasure to come here and annoy tittilate mock intimidate sulk digress wildly support our troops on the DoI thread converse.

I'm almost certain that duo was a one-hit wonder in 1990 but I was out of it on chloral and Jaffa Cakes.

Yes, although possibly Nirvana and Tad were supporting each other in turns or something like that. I saw them at SOAS in October 1989, I think. In a stellar year for gigs, that one stood out. Most of the people I knew then with wide-ranging taste rated Bleach, and -- tellingly -- didn't think Nevermind was a sellout album from a band with a major-label deal. Nirvana had a terrific run while it lasted.

A vote here for Harvey's Dry. I liked it when it came out -- it was quite well-received, as I remember, so I wasn't exactly swimming against the tide -- but I think it is terrific when I listen to it now. Outside of personal antipathy and taste, I doubt there would be much of a consensus that Harvey or Nirvana started weak and became strong. The follow-ups, as you rightly indicate, are magnificent, so it says a lot that they do not really eclipse their precursors.

No, but I wish he'd stop putting his finger in the socket. I worry about the lad.

All true, and nicely put. I don't think the major chains expect anyone to preserve them, of course. They seem to change logos, design and store aesthetics quicker than I change tyres. To be honest, I don't really mind Dalston becoming a place where the risk of being mugged has shifted to the risk of being modestly overcharged. But my main sentiment is, "Après moi, le déluge." I am reminded of the effects of entropy every time I look in my refrigerator, so a bit of regeneration is okay with me. As for Denmark Street, I also remember the old hands bemoaning its changes when I talked to them in 1986, so it's certainly a ripe locus for old bloke nostalgia. ("Aye, an' you could get a Japanese Fender for next to nowt, lad...")

One of the best things about Denmark Street was that it never became a tourist trap -- it was a place that attracted visitors, and some tourists, but always maintained its identity as a place where the flesh, blood and sinew of the music business went about its day-to-day. The kind of transformation you mention makes a nonsense of local identity. I remember a visit a few years ago to a part of east London I used to haunt before it was sent for the socioeconomic equivalent of elocution lessons and a new wardrobe. Instead of the frayed fabric I had remembered, I found commerce indistinguishable from that of SoHo in New York: glossy chains selling the same sportswear, the same lifestyle accessories, the same ephemeral technology in pseudo-minimalist spaces, the same expensive but oddly unerotic lingerie, the same crockery, the same "unique" quirky small businesses that were now small global chains. I don't want or expect places to remain unchanged, and there are benefits as well as disadvantages to regeneration. Nonetheless, places do become soulless when they become generic. Denmark Street, like Soho and its environs in general, has had its heyday. It was great while it lasted. It will certainly be remembered but I agree that it cannot be preserved.

My first proper guitar came from Soho Soundhouse in Soho Square, my first proper amp from Rose Morris in Denmark Street. I bought them on the same evening and a couple of my mates came into town for the occasion to help me get the stuff home on the tube. I think both stores were frankly amazed that I had finally bought something costing more than a tenner. This was in the mid-1980s, so of course I was doing highly paid temp work at a mortgage company before going to university, and on the way home I realised I had left my Filofax on the counter at Rose Morris. Went up there first thing the next morning, feeling like a right muppet. There can't be many retail operations that generate as much nostalgia, and as much love, as music shops in and beyond Denmark Street. Good luck to Macari's, and to all who sailed in her.

In baseball, great players sometimes have their numbers retired. (Jack Robinson's number -- 42 -- is retired throughout the Major League.) Perhaps, in future, guitar shops might take a similar approach. "Oi! None of that -- that riff's retired! Show some respect!"

Well, not everyone can multitask as well as Keith Richards. On balance, music is probably healthier, though not necessarily cheaper. My longest friendship is with someone I met in primary school more than 40 years ago. In the 6th form, we would bunk off and hang around music shops, or hang around his house listening to his outstanding record collection. A couple of years ago, we started working on a few tracks that we eventually released online. He lives in England, I live on the west coast of the US. It was great putting something together with modern technology, including the capacity to emulate equipment and effects that we could only dream of tinkering with when we were feckless, potless teenagers. That friend introduced me to New York new wave, which he loved. At the time, it seemed remote and exotic, a great scene that had already faded and which we could only envy. Thirty years later, I'm writing for the same publications as Patti Smith and Richard Hell, and it tickles my adolescent ghost every time it happens. My old friend has released a few solo albums on a net label, and I'm overjoyed that a friendship with music at its heart has endured so well -- especially given that it took me 25 years to repay him for the Television tickets.

The underlying problem is that the amount of confusion, ambiguity and doubt makes a transatlantic purchase too annoying to complete, for me at least. Too many things in flux, too much scope for nasty surprises for reasons beyond one's control. Life's too short. A lot of this will probably settle down, but in the meantime it does discourage international custom. I have suspended all purchases from the UK for the time being. I'm buying German and Italian instead. I feel sorry for British businesses trying to deal with all this, and for anyone trying to execute ostensibly straightforward transactions. I would buy British, but I'm neither a charity nor a masochist.

The mercantile aspects will change, I expect. Economies of scale won't operate the way they did even a few years ago. But, as @Woodwind points out above, media and venues keep changing. Glastonbury two years ago was very different from 1990, when I last attended. In those days, I mostly went to the kinds of free festivals that might euphemistically be called "unregulated". I wouldn't be entirely surprised to see a proliferation of countercultural live settings a few years from now, nor to see bands gaining traction through performing in those settings. To be brutal, however, I think it will be a case of phoenix and ashes. Few live venues can realistically get through 2020 and 2021 unscathed, and hardly any would be able to return to status quo ante. So, "not as we once knew it?" I think that's overstating things -- but "as we once knew it" includes a lot of stuff that happened on the margins and in the cracks of mainstream and established commerce.

"Congratulations on purchase. You make wise decision. You are now in our power."

From Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father, the NME's 1988 compilation:

This explains why I have only owned two basses in my life. (For the record: a US Fender Precision that I sold in 1989, and the Warwick Thumb I bought last year.)

It seems that Daltrey has become the person who is trying to put us down and stop us getting around. Given the lyrics of "Substitute", of course, geography wasn't really his thing. I don't want to see noted vocalists getting into questions of government they don't understand, for the same reason I don't want to watch senior politicians trying to dance. It's always clumsy, their timing always stinks, you always respect them less, and it's always a moment that haunts them forever.

It appears that he won't get to get what he's after.

I just listened to it. At this point, it strikes me as a very promising, rather too abbreviated foundation that could be developed very nicely. I wonder what would happen if he listened to this with the ears of a producer? A bit like seeing a good sketch or maquette in an artist's studio: pleasing on its own merits, but also intriguing in its possibilities. As with any work that has potential, going further does involve some regrouping, but I'd say this is worth the effort. You're a good chap, Stew.

Precision.

I have a Rickenbacker 12-string on the way. I am a traitor to the Basschat camp in so many ways: 1. I own just one bass, and that's all I need; 2. I use an Axe-FX and a Helix Stomp, both without any Ampeg products or speaker wardrobes; and 3. I know what John Hall can be like but bought a Rickenbacker anyway.

Perhaps Basschat needs to establish a micronation along the lines of Sealand or the Hutt River Province. I'd be happy to trade with the regime of Crown Prince Ped and the Council of Mods (aka the Style Council). In all seriousness, things will change in all kinds of known and unknown ways. There are problems, opportunities, and imaginative solutions on the horizon. It is definitely worth paying close attention to this evolving situation.

Well, it is of course entirely your decision. I don't have a horse in this race; I stopped buying anything from the UK more than two years ago precisely because of the chronic uncertainty and vagueness of likely regulations. (Were it otherwise, I'd own a Status instead of a Warwick!) It is worth bearing in mind, perhaps, that this is a large world in which not everyone has been preoccupied with internecine disagreements within or involving the UK. Alerting potential buyers to the simple fact that things are changing might be in the interests of Basschat (which hosts the marketplace). I'd want to cover myself, but then I'm a ghastly American these days. Happy new year, Dad and others. Let's hope this nonsense gets settled for once and for all during our lifetimes.

The Basschat proscription against discussions of issues related to the UK-EU schism might make a modicum of sense for reasons of etiquette, but it is surely reasonable to put in place some basic notification that conditions are changing. Part of Basschat is devoted to commercial activities. Discussion of related changes -- and blanket notification that there will be changes, so caveat emptor -- is not only legitimate but also helpful. It doesn't have to be set in stone.