Pete Academy

[size=4][b]Celebration Hall Indoor Sports Centre, Loire Drive, Robin Park, Wigan WN5 0UL[/b][/size]

My favourites are The Detroit Spanners and The Dreadful Great.

Nearly Dan play at the Wigan International Jazz Festival on Friday 12 July. This is a double bill with David Lyttle, whose band features Jason Rebello on keyboards.

Thanks Nige. The core of the band is a five-piece - keyboards, bass, lead guitar, guitar vocal and backing vocalist - which has never changed over the years.

Great song.

Thanks for the review and the kind words. When we started, we knew Steve's vocals didn't sound like Fagens. We actually thought this was better. It sounded less like a full-blown tribute. The towel issue is a running joke that has been going for years. Gary, our keyboard player had a collie, and we always said it was Ollie' s towel. It's washed before every gig. Throwing it on the floor? No big deal. Bovine Noir is another long running in-joke. Any person that likes Steely Dan should recognise Black Cow within the first three notes.

This gig sold out last year, so f*** Glastonbury and come along.

Yep, there should be gas in the minibus.

Nearly Dan play at the Chapel Arts Centre in Bath on Saturday 29 June. www.chapelarts.org

Thought I'd give this a bit of a bump.

Earth Wind Fire

I've just been watching the funk series. Henry Thomas is a great player, and I love his Westone Thunder III slung high up under his chin. His slap bass lesson is classic...thumb, pluck, then professional standard riffs.

I've been watching some clips of the Rockschool series from the 80s on YouTube. I used to love it. Would something like that work today, especially with the amount of people playing instruments?

Nearly Dan play at the Band On The Wall in Manchester on Thursday 20 June.

Go go is the way to go!

Can't be a difficult gig for him.

Daryll Jones has been the bassist for the Stones ever since Wyman left. He's never in the photos or mentioned as a band member. It's obviously a dream gig. Is he just on a retainer?

I've listened to the album a few times and, in my opinion, it's vastly overrated and over-hyped.

Guitar related, but very interesting. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF1d227_4ac"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF1d227_4ac[/url]

I do actually love the track

The new Daft Punk single is ultra catchy and has Nathan East on bass and Nile Rodgers on guitar. But I can't help thinking it's just a Chic rip-off. Anyone agree?

Amazing.

Totally different players. Totally daft argument.

I've played over 60 Steely Dan songs over the years, including the aforementioned Nightfly track. To me it's all about getting the feel right rather than getting the notes right. Any half decent player can learn a bass part by rote, but does it feel right? I still don't play Chuck Rainey,s Kid Charlemagne part like he does, but I've stopped worrying about it at long last.

Last minute bump.