meterman

Only time I’ve been asked for set lists (plus lyrics in some cases) has been in originals bands, usually at festivals or when TV or radio stations have been present, and you’re asked like it’s a legal requirement, maybe it is I’ve no idea. Never ever got asked anywhere when I was depping in a covers band, no matter what the genre was. Might be because we were rubbish though 😂

This is a really (well, to me at least) interesting subject. I would say that covers bands are an essential part of the live music ecosystem. Loads of people love playing in them and equally loads of people love going to see them in their local venues, just so they can hear a bunch of their favourite tunes whilst having a few drinks and a good time on their Friday night or whenever. Pubs, clubs, bars and larger venues all benefit from having covers bands on, it helps keep the live music scene alive in some towns, and it’s a brilliant outlet for the musicians who enjoy playing covers, or those who don’t write their own material, or maybe do but don’t feel confident playing it in front of the Dog & Duck crowd on a bevvied up Saturday night. Also, sooooo many big pro originals bands relied on covers early on in their careers. Not just the obvious Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin (arguably), but Kasabian were more or less an Oasis tribute band when they started out. Loads of soul and R&B outfits leaned heavily on covers in their live sets too. And artists like Bryan Ferry or Siouxsie & The Banshees or John Lennon (and many more) cut covers albums during their careers. Full disclosure: I’ve done very little covers band work over the 40 years I’ve been playing, and have been lucky enough to be able to get away with playing originals most of the time, but I’m not too up myself to rule out playing in a covers band for fun or for a bit of pocket money if the opportunity came my way. I’d love to play in a classic ska covers band, or a soul revue, or a reggae covers band, or even something as left field as a Wire covers band. I reckon something like that could be a brilliant laugh. I’d have to draw the line at playing “Sex On Fire” though. Or that flipping Killers song....

I’m not especially nostalgic and so I never used to bother keeping stuff, just because I moved house so often and would declutter each time. But after 40 years I’ve still got a load of AAA festival lanyards and venue wristbands in a bag somewhere. The odd gig poster or flyer or ticket stub in a box, maybe some photos (definitely some Polaroids) etc. Some handwritten crib sheets with percussion charts on them too. I don’t even have physical copies of everything I’ve played on but I’ll buy them if I see them cheap. But the only set list I have kept is this one from a gig in Bulgaria in 2015. I was on a session gig and sneakily took a pair of scissors to everyone’s set lists and placed them onstage, so the first time they saw them by their monitors, they’d see this: When we got onstage everyone couldn’t stop laughing throughout the gig. It’s not big or clever or even particularly funny, it was just the unexpected factor that made the other players laugh.

Result! I’ve never headlined the main stage at IOW but have headlined a couple of the smaller stages there at a similar age. Biggest main stage headline gig (as a session player) for me was one of the London Hyde Park gigs when I’d have been 48 or 49. Never rule out decent opportunities due to age, you just never know what’s going to come along or when. In my case I don’t feel like I’ve ‘made it’ because I’m not famous, nobody knows who I am, I’m not even particularly good, I’m just generally available and get to play with mates who are a bit higher up the chain than me. And it always feels like there’s been an admin error and I’m doing those sorts of gigs by mistake. But I’d always do them if possible 👍 My two bucket list ‘made it’ gigs would have been TOTP and the Royal Albert Hall, I always wanted to do those but I never have, or will. But that’s okay, I’m too tired now anyway 😂

Bootlegs yes, but not t-shirts or merch stall gear. Have found tunes by one of my old bands on a couple of dodgy bootleg CDs, and in one case last year, a poorly pressed 7” single. Boils my Fosters, but once they’re already out there’s very little you can do except get your solicitor or publisher to issue a cease and desist letter and call the f***ers out on social media and make sites like Discogs aware that the items are counterfeit material which prevents them from being sold on their site. The guy that did the dodgy 7” sort of did me a favour though, in that his actions made the label I was signed to in the UK decide to put out a deluxe edition of the 7” in a picture sleeve with free stickers and stuff thrown in. That was a result. Never been in a band big enough to have had bootleg t-shirts done, as far as I know. Homemade badges would probably be the most I’ve seen.

Sticking with Scotland, possibly Glasgow? Lot of bands and musicians came from Glasgow. There’s probably hundreds but off the top of my head there’s: The Sensational Alex Harvey Band Teenage Fanclub Donovan Altered Images Belle & Sebastian Primal Scream Hamish Stuart (Average White Band) The Pastels Maggie Bell (Stone The Crows) The Blue Nile Del Amitri Texas Mogwai plus there’s Jack Bruce, and Angus and Malcolm Young from AC/DC, Mark Knopfler, one of Franz Ferdinand, maybe two of Orange Juice, couple of Simple Minds, a couple from The Jesus And Mary Chain, a few from Lloyd Cole And The Commotions (even though Lloyd is English), I mean there’s probably loads more but my memory is not on top form tonight...

Thank you, I got it second hand and it’s really nice to play. I’d still like to get a P-90 fitted because the undersaddle piezo is a bit shrill. But to play acoustically it’s great, can recommend them 👍

If they did an album of stripped down largely acoustic numbers like “No Expectations” or “Love In Vain” or “Country Honk” then I could see that working for them. Especially since Charlie is no longer around. The idea of them having yet another go at rocking out and trying to compete with their former glories though... bleah.

I don’t see this as a big deal (unless you’re a fan of the bassist from Porcupine Tree maybe). Nowadays with advanced studio production techniques vs the ever increasing economics of touring, it’s inevitable that some artists are going to augment live playing with pre-recorded elements. Acts as varied as Flaming Lips, Björk, Ian Brown, Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk, Aswad, Wire, etc, immediately spring to mind but loads of chart acts also do it. And it’s been going on for decades. I toured with a dance act in the ‘90s that combined live instrumentation with some of the impossible studio stuff coming from a DAT machine. At the time I thought it was a bit weird to have seven musicians and two singers onstage with a bunch of production stuff coming through the PA as well. Extra bass, drums and synth parts and production bits. But when we did all the festival gigs it became apparent just how many artists were combining pre-recorded elements to their stage performances. This was over 25 years ago and it was already happening before then. Especially with electronic acts that also used live drums or bass or whatever. If the UK Subs toured with Charlie Harper on a pre-recorded video screen I’d probably give them a miss. But a drum n bass act would be a different story.

Fantastic!

I’ve done it in originals bands, for a couple of different reasons. One, when you’ve been on tour for nearly 3 months and you’ve run out of clean clothes to wear, raiding the band merch doesn’t seem like too bad an idea eventually. Especially when the record company has produced 1000’s of them and you’re stuck behind a drum kit and nobody’s going to see you anyway. Getting your laundry done when you’re away for months is almost impossible. So, yeah... Guilty! Two, when the T-shirt design is a really good one and you’re playing in a great band on a huge stage and being paid daft money to be there, then why not? Again... Guilty! Similarly, I did a gig for Levi’s once and got a load of free gear from them, which I’ve worn onstage at various places. Nobody’s bothered. I’ll admit that although I take my work reasonably seriously I wouldn’t claim to possess an ounce of cool, so in my case I’d doubt anyone seeing me in a band shirt would give a toss. I’m a middle aged white guy so nobody really cares what I wear. I’m at that age where I might as well be invisible now anyway 😂 But also it wouldn’t bother me if I’d gone to see a band and one of them had a T-shirt with the band’s name on it. It’s not exactly Joy Division oven gloves or Sisters Of Mercy tea towels level is it?

^ This might do the job. Apply some T-cut to the scratch and buff it until you see some improvement. If it doesn’t work and the scratch is still really bugging you, maybe get a spot refinish?

I sold a black / black / maple 1977 Jazz bass in 2012 for £1495. It looked really beaten up, had a lot of dings in the finish, a replacement Leo Quan bridge and it weighed a ton. But it sounded divine. An old bandmate sold a ‘78 sunburst + maple Jazz in 2018 for £2000. Again, that one was a bit scruffy and weighed a ton but it was all original and sounded and played brilliant. That one sold on the same day he offered it for sale. I guess it comes down to what the individual buyer is prepared to pay for the bass, if it’s the right one for them?

Top choice 👍 Valium jazz at its finest! I love Julie London’s records but have a very soft spot for her final album before she returned to acting. “Yummy Yummy Yummy” from 1968 is stuffed full of pop hits of the day but she absolutely makes each one her own. As with Bobbie Gentry, I wish she’d continued her recording career.

When I still lived in the UK I was gigging loads more than I do now and the run up to Christmas would often be really busy. And very well paid.💰 I think my final three gigs in the UK were all in the week before Christmas 2019. And I always had extra DJ work on in Decembers. Never seemed to have any problem getting work. Pre- Br**** there’d often be residency bookings in Switzerland or Germany or France where promoters wanted UK acts. Not sure how easy it is to get those gigs now though. But now I’m living in rural French nowheresville and I barely gig at all, I just do as many records as I can during the year, or remote session work, and keep some money stashed away to tide me over, just in case. It helps that I have no debts and tend to live fairly frugally, but it works for me. Buying and flipping instruments can be a good side hustle but that can also be as time consuming as doing a regular day job. I recently scored around €2000 worth of vintage drums and percussion gear for €80 so when I get a spare couple of days I’ll be goggle-eyed in front of the computer listing stuff on Reverb. But it’ll be worth it. And there’s always bargains on Gumtree or at carboot sales or still on ebay if you know what to look for. Otherwise round winter I’d teach if I had any idea what I was doing in the first place. A number of musicians I know do temp work in winter, and if I had any transferable skills I would too if I needed to. There’s always something going, even if it’s not playing. Tech-ing, driving, doing sound if that’s a skill you have? Band photography if you’ve got the skills and contacts? There’s always something 👍

Nice score! 👍 A black JMJ is the only bass on my wants list. I had a black late 70’s Mustang for a while but that wasn’t a patch on the JMJ’s I’ve played. If I can find a used one near me I’ll probably have to go for it.

The owner of that place is a Protestant Glaswegian, so not a lot of coincidence there. Half his shop was also painted $h1t brown although the significance of that isn’t immediately obvious to me. Not sure I really want to know, tbh 😂

This ^ says it better than I ever could. Networking might well be the #1 skill that makes all the difference to a potential music career. I’m not especially good at networking (cheers, Aspergers!) but a few times crossing paths with better connected folk than me has undoubtedly saved me from having to visit the jobcentre plenty times over the years.

Your daughter might envision a particular career path but flexibility and diversion might be what helps and sustains her long term. Two examples: One of my musician mates is a talented self-taught all rounder, he’d always got by, playing in bands, DJ-ing, doing production and remix work whenever possible, also putting on club nights, basically ducking and diving but doing okay. Then his girlfriend got pregnant and he enrolled on a music recording technology course and got serious. Now he’s a senior lecturer Monday to Friday in a music college and still doing all the other stuff as and when he can. He earns a decent wage, has a nice house and a viable career that he can evolve with over time. He’s sorted. Another musician mate was basically a child prodigy and studied at the Royal College of Music. He had a 20 year career playing in successful bands (as in daytime Radio 1 successful, multiple Glastonbury appearances, major label albums, tours with Oasis, Paul Weller, etc) and did pretty well financially because 20 years ago it was still easy to make money from records and tv and film syncs. But when his band wound down he moved to the US and got heavily into production and mixing, and is represented by Universal. He’s super sorted now but it’s taken him 25 years of hustle and graft and some luck to get to where he is. But times have definitely changed and I reckon now more than ever, unless you’re a genius cellist or composer or producer and get discovered early on, and have a single track to go down, diversity is the key to a music career. Be prepared to change tack if needs be. But lucky breaks and good connections are still part of it. I’ve scraped a career over 30-odd years by doing my own records and working as a session player and a sideman, but also by taking function band gigs when necessary or playing in covers bands or DJ-ing in crappy clubs for cash just to pay the mortgage. Single minded determination over talent has seen me through. If I hadn’t been prepared to be flexible I’d probably still be living at my Dad’s house recording demos on a 4-track, bitter as heck about not getting anywhere. But I’m mortgage free now and can pick and choose my projects so I’ve done okay. Not gold plated swimming pool and private jet level okay, but alright. It might be a good idea to try and find out what how / what / where your daughter envisions herself being in 5, 10, 20-plus years from now and if she’s prepared to have fallbacks in case of lean times? Above all, I wish her the best of luck. And maximum respect to you for supporting her dream 👍

I like old Ibanez and new Ibanez. I know these particular old basses are not too sought after but I’d still have one of each of them, especially the natural Telecaster bass... Phwoar 👍

I’ve had original guitar versions on vintage Telecasters and I own the ‘not correct’ versions on modern Telecasters, I actually prefer the modern versions, they’re a bit more versatile. But for bass, I’ve played original Telecaster basses with wide range HB’s in which are fairly mudbucker-y and I’ve also played a handmade parts-bass with a Curtis Novak wide range humbucker and that sounded excellent, absolutely monstrously ballsy. I briefly wondered about getting one for my Mustang, but then I saw the price... oy vey!!! 😮😂

Yeah, in France it’s not straightforward at all if you’re sending anything to a country that requires you to fill out customs forms or anything requiring tracking. I recently sent some old master tapes to a company in the UK that specializes in transferring analog to digital. They had to be sent by recorded delivery and because they were going to the UK and it was basically a business transaction I had to fill in customs forms. The process took about 40 minutes. Five-part forms requiring signatures, email addresses, phone numbers, full contact details, all had to be typed in on an ATM style touchscreen machine that prints the shipping stickers and tracking receipts that then need to be verified and applied to the parcel by a staff member before it can be posted. Imagine spending 40 minutes in the Post Office on every parcel you need to send... it’s a hassle doing it once, I wouldn’t want to do it regularly, I don’t think I could afford the Nurofen. My Reverb shipping destinations now are EU countries only and it’s much easier just to deal with couriers. I know France is particularly notorious for bureaucracy and form-filling but it’s always been like that here. Some countries are even worse. The UK is so much easier by comparison. But from France, posting stuff anywhere outside the EU is a pain in the derrière.

I started out on the working men’s club / social club circuit in late 1983, early ‘84 around Durham and Teesside and it was still a bit like that video. Bingo. Pie ‘n’ pea suppers. Meat raffles. Backing the strippers. Supporting Roy Chubby Brown and all that. I hated the music (chart covers and standards, sometimes C&W) plus I was underage, so I only really did the gigs so I could drink beer on a school night. Eventually got blacklisted / barred from a lot of the mining town venues after a particularly grim two-set gig at some utter hole in Cleveland, maybe 1987 or 88. The first set we got barely any response from the punters. Slow handclaps, grumbling, etc. We weren’t very good but we usually got away with it, but this time even for us it was a tough crowd. So in the pie supper interval we nipped out to a late opening newsagents / mini supermarket and bought a couple of põrñø mags (possibly Razzle) and made paper planes out of them. During our second set a few punters were already p***ed and had actually started dancing to us so we chucked the pôrñø paper planes into the audience to try and liven things up. There was a brief exciting moment when a couple of women saw stuff being thrown into the audience and they picked up a plane, and then their faces dropped when they saw what the planes were made of and the audience scarpered after that. We got rushed out of the venue, didn’t finish the gig and didn’t get paid. Looking back, we were lucky not to have had our heads kicked in as well. Never played a working men’s club again, anywhere after that. Silver linings and all that 😂 Oh, and our band was absolutely, diabolically terrible. I’m surprised we got any gigs in the first place, we were that bad. There can’t have been any worse bands than us on that circuit at the time. (By the way, I don’t condone the pòrñø planes behaviour, I only ever did it that one time and I certainly wouldn’t do it again. It was a flipping stupid idea. If anyone reading this is thinking “that sounds like a laugh, let’s do it at a gig” - don’t!)

Bass - lead - amp for me, with just a clip on tuner. Easy! Sometimes I’ve recorded with a fuzz pedal but that’s pretty rare for me.

I used to buy and sell on eBay and Gumtree all the time when I still lived in the UK. I’d buy from Europe, Japan, USA etc usually with no problem. There was the occasional customs charge but nothing I wouldn’t have expected. When I sold my Hofner violin bass it was post-Brexit, I’d already moved to France, and I had zero takers from the UK. No enquiries, nothing. Same with a vintage Fender Telecaster. Both sold on Reverb to EU buyers so I’m guessing that the possible customs and handling charges put UK buyers off? I’ve bought mics and small bits of recording gear from the UK in the last couple of years without any outlandish charges on delivery, but not any Wal-sized purchases. But, if there was something I really wanted and could only get from the UK I’d probably do it anyway and pay the customs and handling on it. GAS isn’t a big thing with me though, so it would have to be an essential bit of kit.