Seashell2

My friend's Dad used to call it 'that song about the nuns on a trip to the seaside' (' one of 16 Vestal Virgins who were leaving for the coast' 😂 )

Not Birmingham, please. The Commonwealth Games is bad enough.

Burke Shelley (Budgie) was just a little guy and he looked incredibly cool with his bass. And then there's Prince of course who looked cool playing anything!

Today it is 'What's New Pussycat?' by Tom Jones. Because I started singing it to my cat and now it's turned into an earworm.

I sometimes wonder what became of Edwardhimself. He was a young guy and seemed a bit troubled. I hope he's OK.

I love Nickelback! Haven't had time to read all 15 pages, so don't know if anyone else agrees with me 🙂

I'm not so much influenced by brand as by aesthetics tbh. I love the look of a Fender headstock so anything that emulates that is OK by me. Recently, one of my bandmates offered to bring along a headless bass as a back up for me (I was having a bit of technical trouble which turned out to be the rehearsal amp rather than the bass). I had to respectfully decline. I just would not feel right playing a headless. Respect to anyone who plays a headless (including Rhino of course!), but it would just feel completely wrong for me.

At the beginning of 2020, I had a noticable lump on the knuckle of my ring finger, left hand. And the little finger was getting very stiff and starting to turn inwards. Luckily, only slight pain and then only if I'd been playing for over an hour. GP sent me for an X ray and the results were phoned through to me at the beginning of the first lockdown. Arthritis, nothing much we can do. Well, I hardly played bass at all during 2020, and by the end of the year the lump on my ring finger had totally disappeared! Since the beginning of this year I have been playing loads. Ring finger still fine, but pinky getting very stiff and curling inwards. Impossible to play using one finger one fret. Have to slide whole hand up to reach, or find myself using ring finger instead of pinky sometimes. So this pretty much rules out anything that has to be played very fast. But since I'm not known as a fast and flashy player, I'm still in demand as a steady plonker! Luckily pain levels have remained low. So hope it doesn't get worse. Fingers crossed (which I can still do, haha)🤞🤞

Done. It just made me realise how ignorant I am about the specs of my bass. Who made the pickups? I have no idea! What sort of wood lies beneath the paint? Again, no clue. Hopefully that sort of answer will be useful for your stats though. 'X per cent of respondents were unaware of the composition of their own basses' Haha. Good luck with the project...I bet no-one else has chosen such an interesting topic!

This, oh this.

My cousin Stuart. I was 12 and he was 16. I went round to his place one day and he put a record on their state of the art Hi Fi. He said 'Never mind The Monkees, this is what you shoul be listening to'. I heard this amazing, heavy sound. I'd never heard anything like it before. I thought 'Yes! This is my music!'. It was Whole Lotta Love by Led Zep.

Well the drive there wasn't too bad, and parking was great. But it was freezing bloody cold. Unsurprisingly there were only about three people in the audience other than other bands. I take my hat off to them because I wouldn't have come out of a nice cosy bar to see a band in an arctic beer garden, no matter how good. Funnily enough, I think I played quite well Guitarist was a bit off though because by the time we played, his fingers had frozen stiff! Then I got lost on the way home and found myself driving right through the centre of Birmingham, which is the main thing I wanted to avoid. And then guitarist wanted me to stop at a garage so he could get some tobacco. I felt like saying 'No, no, let me go home' . But of course I didn't. Ah well, it's all over now until 15 May, so I can chill out for a bit.

So we're doing a gig as a trio tonight. It involves travelling from one side of Birmingham to the other. I'm a nervous driver and so I only agreed to do it on condition that I wouldn't have to drive. Guitarist doesn't drive anyway, so singer offered to drive. But yesterday her car failed its MOT, so guess what, I'm driving all three of us in my 3 door Fiesta. It's a multi band event, we're only doing six songs and we're not getting paid. And they've just texted me to say it's in a beer garden, it's cold and so bring a coat. Oh deep joy. I'll report back later to let you know if it was remotely worth it.

From my parent's era, there was Spike Jones and his City Slickers. 'Cocktails fo Two' was probably their best known hit, but my favourite is wartime classic 'The Fuhrer's Face', complete with many raspberry noises. 😂

Halfwound strings and everything set at 12 o'clock and I'm happy. 😊

I always have fabric plasters with me, and they usually work well. Protects the sore area and the fabric gives you a bit of traction. Make sure the plaster is well stuck down though. I once had one come unstuck at one end and started flapping around,making it really awkward to play.

Love the original post here, but honestly I gotta have fret dots!! To the extent that I've actually put my own extra dot on the 10th fret. 😄 It's just something to help me hit a G on the A string in dim light without my glasses on. I just thought, why struggle? And nobody else ever notice it.

My first bass was a Marlin Sidewinder.

Nothing when I'm actually en route home. But once I get in I do like a glass or two of Sauvignon Blanc and a big bowl of crisps. Preferably consumed in front of TV, watching old episodes of 'Angel' with cat on lap Perfect end to the evening:-)

Thanks,Chris! I think I am more or less doing that now anyway, but I always felt it was 'wrong' somehow. It's good to see it explained as a legitimate technique.

Hi Chris, could you expand on this, please? I've got a spot of arthritis in my pinky now and finding 1FPF nearly impossible. Forgive my ignorance, but what is 1-2-4 fingering? Thanks xx

It depends on the type of music really. When it was rock, I'd be in black jeans and a black lacy top with various bits of silver jewellery. In cold and draughty venues I'd add an ankle length black cardigan with ostrich feather trim. If more pop and lighter music was on the set list, I'd wear similar but without so many skulls 🙂 Country requires a long checked shirt, black cowboy hat and a shoe string tie. Now I'm playing more sophisticated stuff, which is even a bit jazzy. So I've started to wear dresses - always black or red. Sunglasses go well with this look, although if it's too dark you can't read the set list 🙂 Always wear long sleeves and low heels!

Nope, it's as much as I can do to change the strings occasionally! 😆

Very sad to hear this. Possibly the most exciting gig I ever saw was Budgie at the Winning Post, Witton in (I think) 1975. I think I fell in love with Burke Shelley right there.

Friday night saw my first full length gig with the band I joined at the beginning of 2020. It went pretty well. A small venue, with a small crowd- but they were very appreciative. It was absolutely freezing in the venue, so I do admire them all for sticking it out to the end. It was great to see people up and dancing- but whether they were moved by the music, or just trying to keep warm, we couldn't tell. 😁 Our set contains quite a few originals that are rather tricky to play. So I'm afraid I just stood there concentrating rather than trying to move about and look interesting. The lovely KevB came along and took a video. It's great, but I look very serious- almost on the point of biting my lip in concentration. But our wonderful front woman is very smiley and sings like an angel, so on the whole it came over well. We had some very nice comments afterwards, including from musicians I know and respect, so a good night all in all. But I must learn to relax a bit with this set. Need to practice more I guess, so that it becomes second nature.