Boodang

I changed my mind about Bonham’s playing as a result of having to learn some of his parts and thus you end up doing a lot of research to get it right. Not because of the technicality in playing his rhythms, as you say jazz drummers are the masters and a breed apart, but because I began to realise how many zep songs you can identify just from the drums. As for great drummers, one of the top me is Papa Jo Jones. He was an early proponent of the hi hat and bringing the drums forward as something other than just a basic timekeeper. Also, I use his ‘trick’ of having a floor tom to the left of the hi hat as I find this is a great way of making more interesting fill patterns.

I use three pedals; TC Electronic Spectracomp with the Captain East toneprint (it has a 30% blend). Aguilar Octamizer with a minimum amount of octave blended in. TC Electronic HoF with a small hall reverb toneprint with slight chorus added.

Two gigs this weekend, full on plugged in at the Canadian club and an acoustic half improvised at our Brit club by way of a farewell to our female vocalists who leave post soon. It was interesting to compare the two gigs back to back. Lots of energy at the first gig, plenty of people up and dancing, the acoustic gig was a very chilled vibe but there were moments where we had lots of people dancing and because it was low volume the families stayed and had a good time too. Interesting in a couple of respects. Firstly a lot of feedback to say we should do more unplugged and a whole demographic that prefer it to us in full blast mode and secondly a whole bunch of numbers we do better acoustically. A result of which is we might start doing an acoustic set at the start of our gigs and do some more acoustic nights as apart from anything else it’s a lot easier to set up.

If you can find one a SWR Baby Blue head (they did produce the head as a separate item to the combo, although the 2 x 8 combo is great). Pre switch mode psu and pre who ever took over swr and trashed it. Tube pre amp and DI plus a semi parametric eq. Great recording pre amp and has their aural enhancer control. Plus 180 watts if you need it.

Any bass with a bolt on neck… what a cack handed way to join two pieces of wood.

Would an EUB be an answer? I’ve always had one on stage and used to play in a Hendrix tribute with one exclusively (it was an interesting fit!). An NS Design on a tripod means I play standing up or on a bar stool with a back rest. There’s no genre I can’t play with it and as it’s vaguely upright-ish no one bats an eyelid in terms of you sitting down, and it doesn’t have to sound like an upright so good for pop/funk. Also it’s the instrument I’ve had the most people come up to me after a gig to ask what the hell it is!

There are some tri band toneprints for the spectracomp.

A bit random…. but if you want to sort out your compression properly get a tri band compressor. You can get some fancy rack units but also the tc electronic spectracomp does some toneprints that’ll probably cover your needs for less $.

Graphtech variable ratio tuners.

We do a whole set of Boston punk numbers and this would be perfect!!

Spaghetti monster on a pizza?!

Ppps if you do a gig sitting down and someone notices you then you’ve done more than playing standing up where no one blinks twice. Good or bad at least someone has paid attention to the bass player!

PPS to put it in perspective, we have a backing vocalist who does one number as main vocals. I bumped into someone who said ‘are you in the BVs band’. I said yes, he’s in my band and I play bass. They couldn’t recognise anyone behind the mics! Let alone how you’re standing or sitting. I seriously wouldn’t worry about and get on with the real job of playing and not what your posterior is doing.

PS if you want to make it interesting I have a great idea with which I’ve never had the balls to implement… get a motorised wheelchair, play the gig from it but give the remote control for it to the audience and see where you end up!

I remember seeing Sky play a gig, Herbie Flowers played the whole thing from a bar stool. So inspired I’ve done the same ever since. Only exception is when I play EUB because I just have to stand there. Firmly of the opinion the audience can lump it but equally when you talk to the punters they don’t see beyond the vocalists mic and don’t even realise you’re there!!

I’ve always hated country music with an absolute vengeance. Then I was in America and went into a bar playing live country music and my jaw was on the floor… what musicianship! Not that this helps you but total respect.

Doubles as a rehearsal space for our blues band as well as my practice space for bass and drums. Also got a sofa against the back wall for chilling out on. I run everything thru an XR18 and LD Systems speaker plus it’s all connected to the laptop so we can record rehearsals.

Anyone in a band here is at some stage an agent/promoter, otherwise no gigs would happen. I will be one of the people setting up/promoting the event and for that I won’t earn a penny. I have a main covers band I play in but it’s a small community here, so I’m depping on drums for another band until they find a replacement. I don’t charge for that either. We’ll hire a company to do FoH but the bass and drum gear on stage will be mine for bands to use. I’m not charging for that either. The bands will definitely get paid regardless, about £200 each, but if we make enough to pay more we’ll up it accordingly. As you can imagine there’s a fair amount to put up front to make this happen and it’s the first time we’ve done something like this, so who knows how it’ll turn out. I don’t think it’ll be a flop but equally I don’t know how successful it’ll be. As has been said, there’s no established scene here. I think my disappointment with certain band members attitude is that they’re quick to moan about the lack of a scene but won’t go out of their way to help establish one.

Exactly this! I couldn’t put it better. I definitely need to work out T&Cs that work for everyone.

Thanks! It’s not easy… hence my rant! But the musicians are wonderful people just not the best of circumstances for them to flourish.

We have to create a music scene here as it doesn’t just happen. The bands aren’t being asked to play for free they’re just not getting top dollar and if there’s excess it will get shared out. The main complaint seems to be a lot of effort for a one hour set and a defeatist attitude of ‘it won’t be successful’. But it won’t be successful if we don’t try and to a certain extent we’re trying to create something for everyone not just the bands, so it feels more normal here and everyone can have a good time. Sometimes you just have to put yourself out. You have to bear in mind we’re living somewhere where there’s no music venues…. Like literally none. It only happens if we put ourselves out. So yes it’s a bit of a rant but also an invitation for others to share their experiences…. a chat amongst bass players. One might almost call it a ‘basschat’. And for discussing it with the band mates, well that’s been done to death and almost split up the band. As was mentioned earlier, when someone has a certain attitude and can’t be shifted, you soon learn to live with it and the way we operate revolves around it. And as was also mentioned, there’s a limited pool of musicians here so to a certain extent you have to make it work with what you’ve got. In terms of western style music in the whole of Islamabad there’s 6 bands. That’s it.

Yep, have come across those kind of promoters and obviously it’s a solid no. We do play covers and there are some genuine charity gigs here but the band should change its name to Heart of Stone.

Don’t forget you always put pedals in parallel. I use a EHX tri mixer pedal which allows for three switchable channels in parallel. One has my straight tone with a compressor, the second an envelope and third an octaver.

Unfortunately in Pakistan gig opportunities are very limited. There are no music venues here and basically gigs only happen because we organise them. Obviously this requires a dramatic shift in mindset in how you approach them. I think the problem here arises because if there’s a big event gig at say a hotel we’ll get big money because there’s limited bands to choose from, but normally we’ll be playing a small club or cafe and there’s limited money from organisers and limited audience, so we have adjust our expectations, something some of our band find hard to do. As regards the event we we’re trying to put together, I think the thing that most fecked me off was that everyone said yes at the beginning and then came up with what I think are bullcr*p excuses later. As for the food vendors, basically they don’t charge for turning up as they know they’ll make money on the day. To be honest people would come to an event here as much for the food as for the music! And they’ll sell a lot food, very much worth their while to turn up.

Anybody else have band mates that think they’re rock stars? I hate to break it to our band but we’re weekend warriors and not the latest mega in demand festival headlining rock stars they seem to think they are! So, the latest epic… I tried to organise a small music gathering with a local organiser, just 4 or 5 bands with some food stalls and some acoustic acts in between set changes. At the start everyone thinks it’s a good idea, now I’ve got one band saying they don’t get out of bed for less 500 bucks, the rest of my band say it’s too much effort for just a one hour set, and another band complaining I’m depping for their arch enemy so won’t play. Honestly! Excuses from my band for not doing gigs now include; the set time is too short, the set time is too long (they won’t do more than 2 hours, so a tight window between too little and too much), it’s less than 500 bucks, it’s for charity (as in I don’t get paid), it’s the wrong audience and two nights on the trot is too much effort. We’re not young, everyone is a reasonable player, we’re not paying the bills by doing gigs, I play for the fun of it but seems to be an attitude with some of the band that money or billing is a sign of respect. I get it but I don’t think we can be that fussy or to be honest primadonna as we’re basically weekend warriors and the result is just less gigs which in my book is just less fun.