Cliff Edge

re Rick Astley while the overall performance was great, to my old ears anyway his voice does occasionally lack the smooth effortless quality of others. He hits the notes ok but just not quite bright enough is the best I can describe it. Just my opinion, got nothing against the bloke otherwise.

Me neither. Wikipedia.

That was his “talent” on X Factor, which he didn’t win. Apparently before that he was in some tribute bands in Ibiza. He is one of those irritating people who did absolutely anything to become famous. And succeeded.

The whole festive Telly Specials thing requires a suspension of belief. Which takes away a bit of the seasonal magic. I’m also miffed there was no showing of White Christmas this year. Just as well I have a local copy.

I like playing 50 Ways and try to get it in every set list we do. Not many bands around here would even consider it.

Sorry to wander slightly off topic but for me Celebrity Come Dancing is in the same category. Wife likes the dancing but for me it’s the band and vocalists. I’m quite happy to just listen to the music. Couldn’t give a toss about the so called celebs. Rick Astley and band was a lot better than I anticipated last night and he was quite impressive on the drums.

Best this year a pristine black 2006 3eq EB MM Stingray 4 HH. Worst could be contentious, a set of Ernie Ball strap locks. Bloody awful design. Replaced with a black set of Jim Dunlops.

Golcar Brass Band. Nativity thing in Haworth village church which was packed to the rafters. The vicar dressed as an angel was MC. Frankly I think most people were in there sheltering from the rain. No photos, tuba in the bass register. I don’t normally like brass bands but they were on form with no bum notes and the audience joined in with the carols. Great atmosphere. First time I’ve been to anything like that in a very long time.

Banksy.

Very varied selection there.

A black Stingray popped up on a local FB marketplace recently at a very good price and I quickly sent an interested message. And then I had a close look at the pictures. It was a wreck. It looked like it had been repeatedly banged on the ground or used for cricket practice. I suspect some young punk loving kid with no sense. I got a couple of replies from him over the next 3 days offering lower prices and then told him no thanks it’s too badly damaged. It remained on sale for several weeks.

I use KZ ZS10 Pro IEM’s straight out of the Focusrite.

My father bought my first bass. My only input was similar to “dad a couple of school mates and I have formed a band, I’m the bass player and there’s a bass guitar in the window of (local music shop that mainly sold pianos)”. It was Framus Star Bass, and I had no idea whether it was good or bad. This was a long time ago when the only basses you ever saw were big hollow body Hofners and cheap solid body Futuramas. It was ok and I kept it for a couple of years while learning on the job as it were. Wish I still had it really.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/dec/13/immediate-family-documentary-summary-stevie-nicks-james-taylor Should be an interesting film. The session players behind some of the singer songwriters of the 70’s and 80’s.

A Must To Avoid. Herman’s Hermits. she’s a muscular boy

The neck and headstock are surprisingly clean for an instrument that old. My ‘72 model is significantly more mellow. The damage on the back of the body says it’s been played a fair bit though. It’s still a lot of money for something that was thrown together in a draughty shed by un skilled labour. Bit like old British Leyland cars from the 70’s so beloved of hard up classic car buffs.

I recall seeing him perform that live on a TV show and he failed to get that high note at the end. So he apologised and told the band to play the ending again. And nailed it.

This. Some genre labels I’ve seen are frankly too stupid sounding to be taken seriously. Take Shoegaze as an example. Nothing to do with the music.

So true.

This is exactly how I feel, I was simply amazed at the figures. And who is it that names these genres and sub genres and what criteria is used in the process? Or do they just contact the artist and ask what the hell they’re playing at?

According to Spotify Bronx drill, ambient lo-fi and gym phonk were the three biggest growing genres on Spotify in 2023. What the hell is phonk? Apparently there are over 6000 genre classifications on there. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-67111517?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA

Great story. My dad played the piano and had a Thomas electronic organ in the front room, which my mother hated. Not sure about the neighbours. He bought me my first bass, a Framus Star. I have two kids, one of each, and neither of them followed me into seriously playing music, which I’m sad about really. But they both enthusiastically encourage me to carry on playing gigs 🙂

Broke a bone in my right foot a couple of years ago. Tripped and fell running up the stairs. Don’t do that. It’s healed but still aches occasionally and I’m sometimes aware I’m not always walking in a straight line, which is weird. Reading this thread makes me feel lucky as apart from the cancer last year, and hopefully I’ve seen the last of that according to the surgeon, there is nothing yet interfering with my playing. I can still stand through a 2-3 hour gig with a 10lb bass and only a mild back ache afterwards. Apologies if this sounds smug to those worse off, it is not meant that way. I’ve had other non physical issues in the past that did get in the way.

I met him once when my band supported him at some minor festival somewhere in the UK. He came across as a nice guy in the short time I had to talk to him, but by then his career was on the decline.

Just after GarageBand came out I watched a demonstration in a London Apple Store. Some guy came on stage with a Stratocaster, plugged into an interface and proceeded to put together the basics of a song from scratch with drums and bass keys in half an hour. Yes he’d obviously done it before, but nevertheless it was very impressive and did look quite easy. Sold it to me, although I have since moved on to Cubase, GB is very easy from the get go. Plus its drum samples library is especially good. And you can’t argue at the price, if you ready have a Mac that is.