Cat Burrito

We opened the Swindon Shuffle’s Friday Night at The Castle in Old Town last night. Arriving in good time to see the headliner’s soundcheck, I was immediately taken by the bassists sound. Very dubby. He had his back to me and when he turned around, he was playing with a pick, right up by the bridge! It was a Genz Benz amp and every time I hear one of those, they sound fantastic. 
 

We were the first of five bands and I think were given this slot as we’re just a duo. I would be too polite to argue but a few people suggested we should have been higher up the bill. In many respects though, it was one of the better slots. I had my 2008 USA Fender Jazz that was going through my board. Doing as the soundman wanted, he had me go through the Genz Benz amp and it sounded great. 
 

We did an all original set with the keys / drums on the iPad. Some soundmen struggle, with this set up but the guy last night clearly knew his way around the desk and the sound both on and off stage was glorious. 
 

We let the music do the talking but still had a bit of banter with the audience. We held the audience throughout our 30 minute set, something some of the other acts didn’t manage. Introducing two new songs and a few favourites, the time flew. At the end, I thanked everyone, only for the track to loop and start up again. I quickly stopped it and said “So sorry, you didn’t ask for an encore!” which I think endeared us further. 
 

I thought we played well. My lead vocals (I am not the main singer) are definitely gaining confidence and I am falling in love with my Jazz bass all over. A great night. 

We're kicking things off at The Castle in Old Town, Swindon this Friday, as part of the Swindon Shuffle. 

With my main duo, I am very heavily involved, from booking / organising through to choosing the majority of covers and co-writing music together. I think all the lead tracks / singles have started from me. Aside suggesting lyrical themes, I let Nick do the lyrics as it's definitely his area. I think we both acknowledge that it is all very much a partnership. I think we both bring something to the band that the other one can't and are hugely respectful of one another. Oh, and I run the social media too. 

My other band, I co-produced the debut record but now we're on album #2, I just write my bass parts and show up when asked. I practice my parts prior to getting together but my involvement is a fraction of what it is for my main venture. I think we value everyone's contribution and I have worked with them since 2016.

Back with an enhanced version of Deadlight Dance yesterday, and once again we were joined by our drummer from our Sixth Form band, Mike. This was for a street party in the road my band mate lives in.  
 

I had my trusty long scale Hofner Verythin bass but was mixing it up with several on the Gold Tone (AKA Goth Tone) Mandocello and even a couple on guitar and a couple on mandolin. I was going through my Boss BCB60 with the Boss IR2 at the end of the chain. 
 

I was telling the story of how we filmed our zombie apocalypse video in this very road, in a very light hearted way - see Infectious for details - when that Government text alert went off! You couldn’t make it up and it was a genuine comedy moment. 
 

We played well. We picked up some travelling fans from the last gig and even sold a few CDs. It was also an absolute pleasure to hang out with two of my oldest friends. 

Saturday night was a trip to London to play the legendary What's Cookin', for my friend Rich Davies and his band The Dissidents. I've been part of the band since 2016 and we have kept the same lineup throughout. They are all insanely good players and I like the fact that this keeps me on my toes. We had one rehearsal and I spent the week going through the set at home as we don't play live often and Rich had changed some keys of songs. I'd initally thought of bringing my Rickenbacker but midweek decided to change to my long scale Hofner Verythin bass. Rich wanted me to bring my Blackstar rig but I hate London load ins so when I found out there was a house rig, I was happy to use that.

Having travelled up with the keyboard player, we arrived in good time, only to find out our drummer was not so fortunate. We wound up sound checking without him whilst a kit sharing support band quietly twitched! Thankfully he arrived and we got all set up. The nice thing was I had a bunch of old mates show up, including a singer I worked with for 10yrs, a roadie from a previous band and the guy who does the videos in my main band. 

We went on and just killed it. Due to the tube strike, the venue was quieter than usual but respectably half full and all eyes were on the band. Props to the support act who danced at the back throughout our set. The downside was that an accident on the M25 meant I got in at 3.15am but it was a superb evening. 

We’ve let this run for 10 pages with the majority of posts being respectful but it’s clear from reading through and looking at our reported posts that this has now run its course. 

40 minutes ago, SimonK said:

 

It's a nice sentiment that social media makes people sound more extreme, but I made the mistake of listening to a LBC radio phone in yesterday while driving... breathtaking both the views of the presenter and the people who called in.

I agree. To be clear, I was referring to everything online, not just social media. It stands to reason that if someone only watches GB News or only reads the Guardian, they are getting that one perspective. Whilst I am sure that most intelligent people get their information from a range of sources, there are plenty that only get fed stuff from Facebook or the Daily Mail. 

I'm not ignoring the original post but I do worry that with algorithms, we are fed our own narrative and this has in some way contributed to a huge divide amongst people. I have friends who hold the polar opposite of my views and I genuinely value the banter we have. 

In terms of somebody being racist, sexist, homophobic (& I would add prejudice against the disabled), I couldn't be in a group with them. Especially as extreme views often come with the "everyone is entitled to my opinion" view. Given the lyrical themes of my originals band, I think it's unlikely those sorts of people would be knocking down the door to work with me. 

I have made music with people who vote very differently to me and I have focused on the overall person, their musicianship, enthusiasm, passion and whether they are good company. Generally though, most of my band mates seem to hold similar views to me. 

What a fantastic collection of basses you have! 

I recommend getting a Powerball, which you can get from Amazon. I had some problems early on and it was a good way of improving my strength. Obviously, I would advise seeking medical advice too but the Powerball really helped. 

51 minutes ago, Bassassin said:

Weird. There was a thread in Bass Guitars about this (which I assume was posted by the seller)

We don't allow What's it worth threads so they get pulled. They get a friendly message explaining why. 

I do two very different types of gigs so I'm going to give two different answers (assume playing well is a given) - 

Local - Good crowd, getting paid so we can invest back into the band, happy for us to do the sound (unless there is an engineer who is used to bands that don't just do the traditional formats), not going to bed too late. 

National / International - No big egos from other bands / promoter / my band(!) etc, decent stage / sound, proper rider that follows the simple instructions (although I am a professional so I rise above it!), decent crowd, shift a load of merchandise, quiet hotel. 

I must confess that since hitting 50 a couple of years back, I am deliberately doing more of the former as the later seems to struggle ticking some of those boxes! I'm definitely more selective with age. 

I did this for a few years, mainly on the Americana circuit. I then took my Jazz out for a multi-(rock) band all dayer in Sheffield and confused the soundman - he couldn't work put why my bass sounded the way it did! 😸 I think all the other bassists were active 5-string players and I had that setup. 

Ultimately, it is hard to control how others view you. I've left bands where seemingly nice people have got funny when I have tried to step back. I've offered to stick around and even go through parts with the replacement, which I would say is pretty decent of me, and still had a couple of people get funny. The last lot were completely reasonable though. It's certainly easier when there isn't a busy schedule. 

Nobody likes being told that they could be better so a small white lie about work getting busier and how you don't want to let them down sometimes works as a softener. 

Best of luck, however you choose to do it. 

I was rounds for the first ten years of my playing as I didn't know any other way. In the late 90s, I moved to flats. I stayed with them until 2019 and currently have a mix. I surprise myself in mainly having rounds these days but have Labella flats on my bass IV and an acoustic bass. I guess it depends on the song and the style, as well as the bass. 

I know it's a bit more but I have the Blackstar Unity 30 as I wanted it to be closer to my U700 but at home volume. That's a great practice amp but I wouldn't want to lessen the features. I don't remember Debut, unlike some of you. 

Another reunion with our original drummer from our first band. Street parties always fill me with terror but this one was quite good last time, so I hope the Wicker Man reference doesn't upset anyone.

3 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

Surprised by that. Can’t say I have experienced lack of bottom end on a Jazz.

I did a thread on it a couple of years back. I love the tone of Jazz basses and I love the look but I definitely noticed a drop in low end frequency when playing in small bands with this one. I've had it since 2015  and usually play a range of different basses, from Precision to Rickenbacker to Hofner to Thunderbird. We never did get to the bottom of whether it was me, my settings, my bass, the pickups or something else. Coincidentally there was a younger band on after us and the bass player had a Fender Jazz which had no bottom end too - far worse than mine. The first Jazz bass I owned had different string volumes so I sold that on but I have had a couple of good ones in-between. I bet the Maruszczyk sounds good as I think it's some of the Fender ones that can be a bit of a mixed bag. Anyhow, it sounded good last night so hopefully the problem is solved. 

A multi-band charity fund raiser for Dorothy House hospice, for us today. We planned to play an originals only set of Gothic rock with me dusting down my USA 2008 Jazz bass. I have been struggling with the lack of bottom end from J-basses but the addition of the Boss GE-7 to my board was hopefully going to fix this. I also added the Boss IR-2 as I often go ampless.

First band on really struggled against a rogue sub-woofer and we immediately started to twitch about our set. Thankfully the second band sounded much better. 

We took our time setting up on the back of the truck. We’ve added little bits of finesse like roses around the mic stands and burning incense onstage (typing that, I realise it sounds pretentious but it does make a difference to the presentation and it was remarked afterwards that we are very professional in our approach).

I thought we played well. The sound was fairly reasonable and my bass sounded immense. My wife said my vocal was getting stronger and we had a fair few compliments - comparisons to Joy Division and Bauhaus, without being derivative - which I will gladly take! 
 

One member of the audience hadn’t seen us since school and was very complimentary. A great day and a solid show. 

People didn’t really bring cameras to gigs in the 80s so my earliest band pics are of us stood around smoking cigarettes, thinking we were a bit edgy! The earliest live pic I can find is on tour with SkinTrade in the early 90s at The Old Angel in Nottingham. 
 

That P bass did all my early gigs, as did that awful (& heavy Peavey combo). 
 

And bringing the world into colour, with Deadlight Dance in Salisbury back in April.

I’m back to having basses / kit that isn’t sold on so quickly. However, now I have a handful of decent basses and both quality amp and ampless setups. 

We were rehearsing for a big charity multi band event this Sunday. Rushing from work, I was shattered and our drum track edits hadn’t saved so it wasn’t as slick as Wednesday’s run through. However, I am loving my BCB-60 board and have rediscovered my 2008 USA Jazz bass. Once we got over the hiccups, it sounded immense! 
 

I too have mostly stayed on very good terms with all my ex-band mates. However, I was in a duo in the early 2000s when I first got back into playing again, after a break. The duo quickly became a trio and ran for a few years with the three of us being thick as thieves. The singer used to get a lot of female attention but was always really humble. Then in the last few months, something changed. It was silly comedy things like him taking his shirt off onstage and posing with fans for photos. I probably overthought the whole thing but one possible turning point was us showing up to do an open mic and he was raving about some 19yr old who was playing. He really rated her and I remember saying privately when asked that I didn’t think she was anything special as a performer. He seemed really put out. I then noticed that having had a rock solid friendship that he was barely speaking to me or even looking at me.

He was turning 40yrs old that summer and had a wife and two young teenage boys. His wife was always really intense and a little hard work. One day she phoned me whilst I was on holiday to say that the singer had left her and run off with a 19yr old. The band kind of broke up as a result.

I saw him about a year or two later and was really pleased to see him. He was cool but a little distant. He then added me on his social media and was messaging me but as the messages started to dry up, I suddenly just started getting invites to like his new band. I wound up deleting him as I obviously wanted more from him than he did from me. I’m still on good terms with the other guy but it was not so much bitter, just bizarre. It had an impact on me for a couple of years but I just put it down to experience. I saw he was selling our albums as digital downloads on Bandcamp but I can’t imagine 20yr old recordings of a band that never made it do too well so wasn’t bothered. He tried to get the other guy to do a reunion without me about 10-15yrs ago but the other guy was classy enough to say all of us or not at all. Oh, and he’s now married to the aforementioned 19yr old, who is nearly 40 and they have kids together. Good luck to them. No malice on my part. A weird ending to what was a great run of music.

I think tastes naturally evolve. They also tend to come full circle, sometimes a few times over. 

I think age is a factor too. In my youth, I used to look longingly at the Ampeg ads. The dream became a reality as an adult. Then my back decided they weren't such a great idea. Good whilst it lasted though. 

I think I hold the view, never say never. 

I use it on everything these days. It suits what we do. 

We've had this twice and it is frustrating. I think the answer is always that you never get to the bottom of why. On both occasions I know that we had punters regularly asking the venue(s) for us to return. Both nights were packed, we played well and filled the dance floor. I put it down to the booker just not getting the band's style. I guess there are lots of bands jostling for positions that are limited and they have their favourites.