TimR

You used to play with a pick.

Had 15 years off.

Are picking up the bass again but playing finger style now.

 It's going to sound different. That in itself will take some getting used to. But also adopting to a different way of playing is going to be very hard. Particularly with fingerstyle as the notes won't have the same attack and you need to approach the note timing completely differently.

1 hour ago, christhammer666 said:

the prices for gigs now crazy. as mentioned above i saw maiden as well and that was £130, its rediculous

I thought it was superb value. West End theatre tickets are higher. These are shows, not just a bunch of blokes in jeans stumming some chords.

£300 is too much though. That's getting on for £1k for a couple for a day out. Obviously there are people who can afford that or are passionate enough to save for it, but that's not a price aimed at getting a load of people though the door to see who Rush are. 

Grass roots music is price low, play small venues, purely because of supply and demand. 

I bought front standing area for Iron Maiden at the London Arena, an hour beforehand. I was about 10 people from the front.

I paid £130 including booking fee. My freinds had seats much further back and paid a lot more for them. 

Really these huge events are overhyped.

I almost got some tickets to see Rush around 2004 at the O2 Arena, same day for about half the face value, quite close to the front.  

19 minutes ago, peteb said:

 

As I said in my post above, I don't find that to be the case. There are parts of the north that are far more miserable! Probably why @BigRedX's goth bands do so well there! 🙂 

 

Well obviously it's grim up North as well. 

I think people's expectations are just higher in the south-east around London. 

Plus we are a miserable bunch. 

The further you go from London the more relaxed people are. 

26 minutes ago, Rich said:

This is a great idea, and more bands need to do this.

Every band should be recording and critiquing arrangements. Preferably before moving on to learning the next tune. 

Not as much as children airing their parent's political views on the News. 

Old thread from 2014. Time we updated it. 

What's on your 2025 Setlist?

Make it an easy cut and paste format so I can drop it into excel and sort.

==========2025=========

The biggest obstacle is the PubCos makong unrealistic demands on the publicans to make larger and larger profits - and then having a high turnover of publicans.

It takes time to build a reputation for a pub be that good food, real ales, welcoming atmosphere, good entertainment.

Mostly it's word of mouth rather than any social media promotion. My friends are just not interested in going out of their way to watch a pub band. Unfortunately too many bands are just playing pretty much the same setlists of songs chosen from about 200 standards. 

Somewhere there is a thread with the top 40 songs played by basschatters. Probably worth a dig out to see if its changed much. 

I am left wondering who is behind this. 

I have never seen a social media storm this big over Rush before.

Who controls the finances of the band? What's happened to Neil's share? 

While Geddy and Alex seem genuine guys, laid back Canadians, with a sense of humour and a desire to continue making music, there seems to be a much different drive over this latest tour. 

On 12/10/2025 at 12:24, warwickhunt said:

 

@BigRedX interesting as I've just been messing around further and based on purely my preference I tweaked the split point and settled on about 340Hz; came back on here and you've said 320Hz.  I then wondered if there was a mathematical reason for this area of the frequency spectrum, so I Googled 'frequency musical notes' and this area is around the 4th octave of 'E'.  

 

That will give you pretty much all the fundamentals of all the notes on the bass. E 40hz - G 392hz.

I put some stuff on reverb. It was obviously dealers who cantacted me. All offers were 50% below market price and I had priced competitively for a quick sale. 

So depends if you want to get rid, or get the best you can.

Although that's probably true of any online market place. I didn't seem to get any private buyers. 

Facebook marketplace.

It's harrowing at first but eventually you spot genuine buyers on their first message and ignore the obvious scammers.

Check date they signed up. Check their location. Ignore people who say "I will send courier..."

Make sure you put collection in person and cash only. 

I've known people who don't want anyone to know when they're out gigging as the house will be empty. 🤯

11 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

With my other bands one agrees a setlist in advance, forensically honing it to 'perfection', and follow it to the letter.

 

Another, we agree a setlist, but change it depending on the audience and what they react best to.

 

The other, we have a setlist but it's largely just a vague guide.

 

They all work in their way.

With 3 bands you're obviously not gigging the same set every week.

If you were out every week, fiddling around with setlists becomes difficult to manage and ultimately you'd find it really doesn't matter to an extent what order the songs are. After a while it becomes obvious.

I'd love to play in a band where the band leader called the next song out of his huge list of songs, or invited requests from the audience, but it's been many years since I knew someone who could run a gig like that. 

9 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Last nightwe got together and spent two hours watching the 49-minute video of the originals band's first gig and critiquing everything from the lighting, what we wore, where we stood  to what we played right and wrong and how we can tighten up dome of the arrangements. 

 

We agreed we meed a 'script' (more of a set of prompts) for the brief between-song bits to develop a more structured narrative. We also need to split the role of narrator and weapon-wielding clown...

 

It's turning into a crash course in writing, producing and performing a musical!

Hopefully the band is more polished than your typing. 😉🤣

Many bands play the same songs, in the same order, with the same patter between songs. This means that everyone knows when the gaps are and can grab a drink, tune the guitar, adjust the drum seat etc. None of these things are then done ad-hoc as they know there will be a gap after the next song and so don't inturrupt the flow. 

It can be quite difficult to get some members to agree to this but it makes things a lot easier. 

1 hour ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Power Windows is probably the weakest of the 80’s albums for me,

It's weird isn't it.

Moving Pictures and Power Windows are probably my 2 favourite albums. 

Moving Pictures being technically an 80s album and probably in the top 10 (if not number 1) of every Rush fan. 

It really depends if people are on the dance floor or not. Giving people's ears a rest for a few seconds, a chance for them to clap, or tell their mate how awesome the bass player played on that song, is ok. 

But yes, uncomfortably long pauses where it is obvious that the band are waiting for someone faffing, before they can start the next song, isn't a good look. 

I saw them in Birmingham on the Clockwork Angels tour. 

They were brilliant.

I also saw Iron Maiden this Summer in London with their new drummer. It was live music, their new drummer lost time and dropped beats and all three guitarists were making mistakes all over the place, Bruce's voice is a little bit tired but the show was awesome.

They explain why they chose her in the video. 

As bass players we should all know exactly why any particular drummer gets the gig in our band. 

2 hours ago, Misdee said:

I wasn't that keen on the later era of Rush with Neil Peart,

Later era? 

Yeah. "They were really good when they played last time. Let's go again."

Unfortunately, it's not how, or what you play, it's entirely down to how you make people feel. As a musician it sucks, as an entertainer, it's what makes a good band. 

16 minutes ago, Greg Edwards69 said:

I think sometimes, it's just the time of the month and year. This Saturday just gone at a regular venue was rather quiet compared to usual. We put it down as the last weekend before payday, compounded by it being the first month after the summer holidays.

Yes. We play 2 or 3 venues that have sporadic audiences. 

I don't think you can ever work out exactly why.

Unfortunately our drummer is a bit headstrong and if we play a new venue and it has a poor attendance his mind is made up and "We're not going back there!". Unless it's a gig he organised, in which case we should give it another go...

To a point where we were continually asked to turn down at a gig last year, for some reason the bass was hitting some natural frequencies and all the glasses were rattling. He's not going back there either - even though we played there before with no problems, and the place is under new management. I'm beginning to think he doesn't want to gig unless it's to his freinds. Which is why I left the last band.

10 hours ago, Uncle Rodney said:

The easy one is just to stay away, keep out of it.

I don't think that's easy, but probably wise.

Did people leave because it was poor, or because it was too loud, or because they didn't like the music?

We are getting the hang of the football crowd leaving as soon as the drummer starts winding his kit up. Now that the football is on at 5:30pm there are still a lot of fans hanging around the pub when we arrive. Then the music people arrive later on, a few of the football crowd hang around to hear 2 or 3 songs then quite often just disappear. 

People will put up with some truly awful musicianship if they recognise the songs. 

If the punters are pinned against the back wall, its too loud, if people are sitting at tables right in front of the band, it's not dancy enough and possibly not loud enough. We clear a dance area as well as clear the 'stage' area. 

I have an Android phone. The Do Not Disturb feature is very powerful with very in depth features. I don't know how the Apple version works but it's worth exploring. 

I went away for a week and checked messages and emails every evening for preview of message and subject line of email. No messages or emails were opened. No facebook, TikTok, BassChat...

The stress completely evaporated. And to be honest I learned that all messages and emails can wait until you reply, you don't have to reply when other people expect you to reply (immediately). 

Regards your singer. If it was that important that he tell you immediately, he would have made the time already. He hasn't, so my gut feeling is he's prepping you for something he thinks someone else will tell you, and he wants to get his side across first.

Honestly? It's not your job to manage other people in your life and get involved in their problems unless they specifically come to you, or you think they are in real danger. That way leads to madness. 

I have little time for people who surround themselves with drama where they are the lead actor.