Leonard Smalls

If it was their live, as opposed to studio, drummer that was Keith; he's still the drummer in the Badass Weeds with me , Andy from New FADS on vox, John from Snapdragons and Andy from Cassandra Complex on guitar. Aftet nearly 35 years of on-off existence the Weeds may still do as many as 1 gig a year...

Aye, but an obscure one!

I was in a band in the early 80s in Leeds... 2 of the members went on to become the Utah Saints, one went and joined the Rollins Band and one - the son of a famous agony aunt - went on to become a famous tv foodie and restaurant critic. I stayed resolutely unknown.

Here's me looking rockfish at the Marquee, 1990-something...

As far as I'm concerned, that's "Jammin'"! But, as Wikipedia says: A jam session is a relatively informal musical event, process, or activity where musicians, typically instrumentalists, play improvised solos and vamp on tunes, songs and chord progressions. To "jam" is to improvise music without extensive preparation or predefined arrangements, except for when the group is playing well-known jazz standards or covers of existing popular songs. Original jam sessions, also 'free flow sessions', are often used by musicians to develop new material (music) and find suitable arrangements. Both styles can be used simply as a social gathering and communal practice session. Jam sessions may be based upon existing songs or forms, may be loosely based on an agreed chord progression or chart suggested by one participant, or may be wholly improvisational. Jam sessions can range from very loose gatherings of amateurs to evenings where a jam session coordinator or host acts as a "gatekeeper" to ensure that only appropriate-level performers take the stage, to sophisticated improvised recording sessions by professionals which are intended to be broadcast live on radio or TV or edited and released to the public. I'm all for the improvising/free-flow approach rather than same-old same-old, though it appears that this is much rarer, especially in pub "jam sessions". Still, I guess punters prefer what they know rather than the possibility of a load of self-indulgent musos letting out their inner Derek Bailey/Peter Brotzmann!

Who knows! When I first started playing along to funk records in the early 80s all I knew was that the slap sound was produced with the thumb, but never having seen anyone use the slap I sort of made it up - and in the absence of any attempting to use proper technique it sort of stuck! It means I have difficulty playing anybody else's lines due to my self-imposed ham-fistedness... Pedal-wise, I've got the fx loop of a BBE pre going into a dbx rack compressor, then into a Wounded Paw v4 blender. One loop of that goes into a Digitech bass whammy followed by Dod envelope filter. Next loop is a Darkglass tube distortion into 3 Leaf envelope filter, and the last one is a Boss bass synth - all are blended with clean and back into the BBE via the other channel of dbx compression.

I made the mistake, many years ago, of assuming a Jam Night was actually involving any sort of jam... So rather than bringing my patent home-made raspberry/blackberry/redcurrant/elderberry concoction I wheeled my 4' high bass cab and rack of amps/effects into the pub. Where I was confronted by an array of Catweazles clutching penny whistles, bodrums etc, while at the mic was someone gently strumming an acoustic guitar and singing "I'm Leaving (on a jet plane)" (EEEK!) The "Jam" leader came up to me and asked what I wanted to play - I said I'd like to have a jam with some free-thinking people who are into making music in order to see where it goes; he said "we normally only have people coming up and doing a couple of folk songs that everybody knows; perhaps you can back one of them?" So I played in the background to a few songs I've never heard, without having been told chords or anything, all the while thinking "perhaps the damson conserve would have gone down a lot better". Now I know that many people's idea of a jam isn't quite the same as mine; it took me 10 years after this to actually find a band in the area!

Here's a bit of phone footage from a recent gig - can hear more bass at about 1'15"...

Funky clav...

How much more versatile are these expensive synth pedals than my humble Boss Bass Synth? I'm currently getting some great synthey-funk-wah tones using this blended with 3 Leaf envelope filter/Darkglass tube distortion and Bass Whammy into DOD envelope filter and oodles of compression...

If you're getting hum on an un-connected amp or combo that's another problem entirely - perhaps it's worth Portable Appliance Testing the amp to make sure there isn't an earth problem? Otherwise, a 230V isolating transformer may help...

Ground lift exists to disconnect the earths of connected equipment to prevent earth loop hum... So it doesn't actually disconnect the earth connection from the equipment, only from the return cable in an xlr in/out.

Audio, btw was recorded live in our living room direct onto DAT tape... We supported Carter USM at venues like the Marquee, Edwards no.8 in Birmingham, Gloucester Town Hall and a number of others dulled in my memory! Gaye Bykers spent a lot of time at our house drinking Jack Daniels, and we supported them in venues as varied as the Old Trout in Windsor, Corn Exchange in Exeter and somewhere-or-other in Oxford. Saw Silverfish a few times, but shoegaze wasn't really my thing.

No pick for me, but weird thumb/fingerstyle hybrid for me too, except I always play up by the neck - there's a noticeably worn area there on my Wal! So I use thumb-as-pick, or slap, or 2-3 fingers - often all 3 randomly within a song as if my right hand has a mind of its own... Bit like this:

Shifts all the time... But: Bop Gun - Parliament More Bounce - Zapp Get up offa that thing - James Brown Let's Start the Dance - Hamilton Bohannon Electrocuties - Funkadelic Disco to go - Brides of Funkenstein Drop the Bomb - Trouble Funk Release Yourself - Graham Central Station Do what you wanna do - T Connection

For me it's about playing music I want to play with people I want to play it with. So I have to get on well with them - at least be able to not throttle them after a few hours in their company. And I have to enjoy both the way, and what, they play; imagination is more important to me than outright ability though I prefer someone who can play a bit! Not really worried about money - it's primarily about the music for me. Which means very few, if any, covers, and then they're done as an interpretation rather than outright copy. I was speaking to a free-improvisational jazz drummer the other day about pleasing the audience and he said "f*%* 'em! It's about the music - It's inside of me and has to come out! If the audience enjoys it, great, but if not they know what they can do." I sort of think that too - for him it's possibly easier as he's seriously good and has played with all sorts of jazz luminaries - jazzers actually want what's inside of him! Gig-wise - no more than 1, possibly 2, a month (though my current band have broken that already!). I'd prefer to do 3 or 4 gigs then do some heavy rehearsing/jamming to make existing songs better and produce more new material. I gave up thinking I could make a living out of music 20 years ago...

Our own songs? All of them - probably 30 songs over 2 bands. Anybody else's songs? Probably none.

Lawks! I might suggest that to our drummist, though whether he wants to spend nearly £300 is a different matter! Does it mean you can actually turn everything down just a touch so as not to induce tinnitus in every audience member?

This is much more impressive hand music...

To be fair, she'd already been in Derek Jarman's "Jubilee" with Adam Ant, so her luvvie credentials were already established. I remember bringing my copy of "Sheep Farming" to the school disco and getting the DJ to play "Neon Womb". Me and Swamp and Sgav jumped around on our own while the rest of the kidz stared and probably sniggered from inside their voluminous trousers

Not too bad a gig in a bar in Presteigne... Most mistakes were from the guitarist - who'd also turned up a lot after soundchecking so it took most of the gig for me to make enough tiny adjustments until I was at the right volume.. Punters probably didn't notice - there was even about 10 of them headbanging at the front even though we're not in any way heavy! But in common with most pub/bar gigs about 1/2 the audience don't want a loud band so they go somewhere quieter - perhaps we should get the drummer to use his e-kit so we're just that bit less noisy?

I saw an awesome percussion solo - mainly on the triangle - by Mino Cinelu with Herbie Hancock's Headhunters in 1989 at the Town and Country Club. For further percussion brilliance, check out Daniel Sadownick with the Screaming Headless Torsos:

Bootsy Collins. Because with him, everything is funky. Even going to the toilet. Derek Bailey. He showed how music could be so much more than nice little tunes - anything can be music. Even going to the toilet.

We've got plenty coming up! 27th April - No.46 Presteigne 11th May - Paradiddles music bar, Worcester 19th May - Royal Bedding benefit at The Grapes, Hereford 27th May - Clun Music Festival @ The White Horse, Clun 21st June - Shakespeare Inn, Newport, Shropshire 27th June - Albert's Shed, Shrewsbury http://www.facebook.com/sixteenchokestart/