Cliff Edge

Porridge And The Hubcaps. The Big Cake Band. If it’s just a wedding band, Big Day.

In real life I was a freight forwarder for many years. I’m now retired. A freight forwarder is the intermediary between the seller and the the shipping company, be that sea or air freight. It takes care of documentation and arranging the shipping overseas. It may also liaise with a similar company overseas to handle import documentation,, duties etc, and possibly transport and delivery to the consignee. Basically taking all this off the hands of the seller, for a fee. And there are plenty of them, especially near major ports. Blue Aran may already have one they use.

Slightly off topic my wife and kids along with another family, spent hours wandering around Savannah Georgia looking for The Bench. The one in Forrest Gump. Until a friendly local told us it was in some museum somewhere, he didn’t know where. The location used in the film wasn’t even a bus stop, and there was never a bench there either.

Ooo I didn’t know about the auto feature, must look into that. It would certainly save rushed button pushing.

I bought a couple of guitar stands off a guy via Facebook Marketplace. He sent them by Hermes and I groaned a bit. I got a message from Hermes this morning to say it would be delivered between 11 am and 1 pm. It was, by a lovely lady who rang the doorbell and waited for me to open the door. Everything in the box was fine.

Not me, I only eat chocolate Hobnobs and there weren’t any of them in there. Er, so I’m told.

An Eric Clapton gig several years ago, somewhere in London, possibly the Albert Hall. No chat, not even a thank you after a number. Damn good though. Same thing when my wife went to see Chris Rea. Shut your eyes and you could be listening to a juke box.

I shall stick around, you seem to be a friendly bunch, and divide my time between the two. There is also Reddit r/Bass to read in between updates of course.

Yes, it it was a very long time ago though. Quite possibly late 60’s. And it was theatrically and sound wise, outstanding.

A kind of sub thread for “surprisingly outstanding ”. The Indigo Girls. I went to see them at Radio City in New York. Naturally the place was full of young girls, but Christ that band was good. Well worth the air fare and the tickets.

This can be quite common. The Band’s reunion tour was a bad mistake. They were awful. Didn’t appear to be anyone who could hold a tune or keep in time. Walked out on the Mavericks who were no better than your average pub band. This upset my wife who was enjoying standing next to Nick Lowe, who is always worth the price of a ticket. Supertramp reunion. Dreadful racket, again terrible vocals. Steve Earle used to be excellent but is now, and has been for a number of years, boring as feck. Far too much politics, and that stupid beard. Conversely I have never been disappointed by US country artists. And a rare appearance of Jimmy Buffet in London several years ago was outstanding. The large number of phone videos of the show that appeared on YouTube the following morning confirmed just how good it was. Rare when you consider how often you enjoy a live show, and then see a video of it and realise how God awful it was. U2 at Glastonbury case in point. The crowd loved it but the TV relay showed how bad they need a good singer. Flat as a fart is the expression that came to mind.

I never watched many of these but one that stands out in memory is Springsteen. After one song just him and acoustic guitar he said something similar to feck this, enough. And the band came in and it was electric for the rest of the set.

Old recording studios were equipped with a device which took the place of autotune. It was called a door. If the performer was inadequate, they never got past the door.

I was jokingly referring to Gloria, written by Van Morrison and recorded by him when in the band Them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_(Them_song) Pretty certain it’s not the same song. Not being a U2 fan I have no idea if they covered any Van Morrison songs.

U2 covered a Van Morrison song? I didn’t know that. 😉

I’m going to respond to a couple of replies here. Got to fess up here. It wasn’t I was just playing it wrong, I was actually playing a bum note or two. U2 would be improved with a good singer. (Controversial?) And yes the bass player on original records isn’t always the one on stage playing something different. Bass riffs that define the song - Brown Eyed Girl. The first 2 bars and everyone knows what’s coming next.

We are the invisible people. And it’s a nice sunny day, innit?

I’m recording the bass part to a very well known song I’ve been playing pretty regularly for maybe 25 years. listening to the playback I realise I’ve been playing it wrong. In all those years no one has complained or mentioned it. Not in the bands or in the audience. So it’s true. No one pays any attention to the bass player. Including me.

Thanks everyone for the welcome, it’s nice to be here. Frankly it’s nice to be anywhere at the moment.

I see what you did there 🙂

Never touch it. I’m a coffee man but I’ll take the slice of lemon in a G&T thanks.

The Ibanez and the Jazz

Thank you. There is certainly plenty to read on here. But where’s the bar?

Cliff Edge here, not quite on the point of crumbling, but I have been playing bass for a bit over 50 years. Rock ‘n Roll at first but later forays into blues, R&B, country in various forms and a bit of pop here and there. Gear is a 1973 Fender jazz which I’ve had since it was 8 years old, and an Ibanez RS900. An Ampeg BA112 serves the noise for the time being, and a very small collection of pedals. Is that enough? Well you did ask.

A 1973 Jazz I bought in 1981 and have gigged it regularly ever since. It will probably never be sold in my lifetime. The Ibanez is a recent acquisition. Very nice instrument taking a bit of getting used to, if I’m honest. Might be a keeper.