Gray C

Watched a few of his shorts when they’ve popped up and often find them funny, mentions of the ‘Dipstick lick’ in particular 😂

Although it wasn’t anything like the title suggested, I still found it pretty good, episode 3 with Nate Mendel in particular. Nice to see bass players in big bands acknowledging influences and their peers too. JJ Burnel and his sound getting mentioned a few times, but disappointingly no chat with the man himself. Respect for the late Jack Bruce and John Entwistle was nice too. I guess if we all had to make a list of bass players or the lines that influenced us, no two lists would be the same. Personally I wish they had included Geddy Lee, Sting, Paul McCartney even if just to talk about singing and playing at the same time in more detail, which was only brushed on. With the amount of bass players interviewed on the three shows they could easily have made 8 or 10 shows, but maybe they were cautious about viewing figures for something niche like bass playing, who knows? Here’s hoping we get some more episodes in future to dissect and disagree about.

Yes, an Aria TSB 400 in the pic attached. My first bass bought second hand in 1988.

Songwriting partnerships are very much a reality in my eyes, but it helps if the person you are writing with have the same taste in music, or at least have seen your writing before. They work best when you have a verse or chorus idea and get stuck on finishing the song. I’ve had partners transform a spark into a finished song a few times making the song far better. For me, it’s about finding that perfect fit musically with a partner which is the alchemy. Working on other peoples songs, you are always mindful that you may be taking their original idea to somewhere they don’t agree with or had envisioned. Sometimes by ‘improving’ the song they may think you’ve messed it up. It’s a tricky process indeed that takes practice and trust too as you share a raw idea with someone and trust them to help grow the idea and hopefully not kill it.

First Bass = Aria TSB400 Go to Bass = MIJ Fender Precision (60’s reissue) My Bass = MIJ Fender Precision (60’s reissue)

BBC4 right now, Manics are on top form, liking Nicky Wire’s Aerodyne too.

Just catching up with Chvrches, watched them evolve over the years from 2 synths and a drum machine to live drums, guitar and bass. Really polished sound right now, must be a relief to play at Glasto rather than support Coldplay every night instead.

Totally agree with that, she worked hard through the whole set and her voice was the same as it was 30 years ago.

John Taylor of Duran Duran, that’s why my first ever bass was an Aria. Just wish I could play ‘Rio’ like him, maybe then I could give up the day job! 🤣

Often these are simplicity themselves, but are recognised everywhere, even by non bass players. I’ll kick the ball in the air with the following….. Under Pressure - John Deacon - Queen Wichita Line Man - Opening run into it by the iconic Carol Kaye The Chain - John McVie for Fleetwood Mac Walk on the Wild Side - Herbie Flowers for Lou Reed My Generation - John Entwistle These are the ones that first come into my head, should be loads more I’ve missed 😝

Carol Kaye Gail Ann Dorsey Tony Levin John Giblin Guy Pratt

Not TV but Radio, check out ‘Master Tapes’ on the BBC Iplayer. Artists in the Maida Vale studios talking about a classic album they’ve made and playing the odd song from it. Listened to a few, loved the Wilko Johnson one talking about his choppy guitar style with Dr Feelgood and the Blockheads. A real treasure trove to have a dig around in if you have the time.

I watched their vocal warm up to ‘Seven Bridges Road’ backstage from 1977 on YouTube and it was spot on, just the five of them singing it in a circle with no music.

Geddy Lee for me, the man must have 3 brains to sing, play bass and do keyboards and bass foot pedals at the same time. Oh, and he makes it look easy too. 👏

Having watched all 4 of these I have to agree Keith’s was the weakest episode. I thought Mick’s was best as he seemed to be honest in his interview without much pretence. A close second was Charlie Watts, the ‘jazz drummer in the rock n roll band’, so different from the archetypal rock star, Charlie loved his drumming but didn’t care much for the fame and hysteria being a ‘Stone’ brought to him.