Cliff Edge

1 hour ago, Rich said:

 

I haven't seen a single second of the Hootenanny so I can't comment on it specifically. From the sound of it however, I would have watched Rick Astley instead anyway. His voice these days is fantastic. I was dragged to see Take That a couple of years ago, Rick was the support and for me he stole the show completely.

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. 

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

Ah ok, I don't watch X Factor, or any of those talent sort of shows so I didn't know

Me neither. Wikipedia. 

10 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Was very surprised at that - I wondered why he was coming on, I don't remember him ever singing before

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. 

1 hour ago, AndyTravis said:

A mate used to go out with the sax player called Lisa in JHRBO…

 

Its filmed in advance, and one year was filmed in August 😂

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. 

On 30/12/2023 at 20:19, MacDaddy said:

Used to do 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover. Great bassline.

Currently doing The Lemonheads version of Mrs Robinson.

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. 

41 minutes ago, Mykesbass said:

Welcome to the very small club - thought I was the only member!

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. 

5 hours ago, Dan Dare said:

 

 Labels could even be limiting to the consumer, in that they may ignore something because it doesn't bear the right descriptor and miss out on something they could enjoy. 

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. 

2 hours ago, BigRedX said:

I get the point of genres, they have done wonders for attracting listeners to my most recent bands, but the more "specific" they become the less useful they are, and a lot of the time the subdivisions are fairly subjective anyway.

So true. 

1 hour ago, No lust in Jazz said:

As a Spotify account holder I would like to add that Spotify and its algorithms aren't all that. I am sure that its genre invention machine will be wasted on me. Paraphrasing @BigRedX There's music that I like and music that I dislike

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

2 hours ago, NJE said:

According to my parents I had a fascination with music from a young age and used to listen to my parents tapes and fall asleep next to the hifi. As I got older I had a strong love of music and it resonated with me a lot stronger than other kids my age.

 

When I was about 10 my dad started playing guitar with a friend of his in the kitchen every now and again. Neither me or mum knew that he had been a very talented musician when he was younger and mingled/crossed paths with some incredibly famous musicians (pre fame) who were similar ages to him. He gave it all up for decades and then the jamming turned into him forming a duo with his friend and they started playing gigs. I will come to why this is relevant in a bit…

 

I remember getting Extreme II Pornograffitti on tape and when I was 15 I made a conscious decision that if I ever wanted to make music that had such a huge impact on me like that album and many others did, I needed to learn an instrument before it was too late.

 

I think there were so many guitarists around that I decided bass would be a good idea, so my dad bought me a bass for my birthday, probably excited about me becoming interested in an instrument like him. I picked it up really quickly and also dabbled with acoustic guitar at the same time.

 

Within a year I was playing in my dads band and gigging regularly after recruiting a drummer and sax player. I gigged from 16 - 21 with my dads band and I earned enough to not have to get a regular job while I was at uni.

 

So it was probably a combination of living and being really moved by music when I was very young and then seeing my dad play that tipped the balance and made me play.

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.