Gasman

Yeah, for me it's Red House...

Despite its name, the Hohner Marine Band range of harps are very good, I used them extensively when playing everything but bass in a previous band. Only downside was the price, about £40 each back in 2017, I ended up with 7 of them for different keys...

My vintage Selmer baritone sax was owned and played by Woolf Byrne on David Bowie’s first band’s (The Manish Boys) recording ‘I Pity The Fool’ in 1965. Is that too close a relationship?

Although primarily a sax and bass player I worked hard on my flauting some years back and still love it as an instrument, but in my band at the time the only opportunity to use it was for 16 bars of Nights in White Satin and some riffs and a chorus on Moondance, so it gradually fell out of use - I’ve not used it in any of my following three bands for seven years. I need to get off my a*se and start playing it again (even if just in private); what a waste of a sweet sound otherwise...

...but not for long...his GAS will soon be bubbling again

Another Saturday night gig, another North Dorset Carnival at Gillingham this time, so another early start (5.15) for me to get into the town before the roads closed at 6.30 for the procession at 7.15. Set up in the Royal British Legion, again a bit squashed with our temporary 6-piece line-up, but all neatly done - sat around swapping stories until we were on at 9pm - 10pm, then 10.30 to 11.40. Very good post-carnival crowd, some a little bit wobbly after too much cider, but no aggro and an invite back to play back at the club again in December. Our dep singiste did extremely well to cover all the material our regular lady does (she's away on a cruise somewhere), nice to know that there's essential backup in case of future emergencies. Back home to West Bay at 1.10 am, head still buzzing; nice that our Persian Cat Nunu was so glad to see me that he immediately deposited an epic present for me in his litter-box before I could even grab a cuppa... a sign of real love or an adverse comment on my absence perhaps? No pix of the gig unfortunately, but here's the glare I got when staggering in!

Oh yes, time to join in I think! First off, A deArmond Pilot Pro fiver bought as a first venture into B-string territory actually sounded nice with a set of new Swing Bass on, but it was a thing clearly meant for real men, not a mere stripling like me; it weighed in at well over ten pounds and had a fretboard so wide you’d need hands like a Yeti to cover it. So I moved from the cor-blimey to the sublime (I thought). I bought a Jazz fiver 60th anniversary model from a well known purveyor of bass stuff. Looked lovely, a fretboard as svelte as Ms Willets, but sounded just...meh, whatever I played it through. Now have a Bongo, ‘nuff said. i really regretted trying to roll back time by taking on a Bassman 4x12 cab (Memory lane, I’d bought one new back in 1980 but scrapped it in 1990, keeping its matching silver face amp that I’ve still got). I paid £150 for this dream replacement, spent another £100 on new hardware and a more for a Roqsolid cover so it looked nice, but never played a gig on it. Too big, too heavy. Sold it on here for £1 as I’d run out of storage space. And as for that Ricky 4004 Cheyenne 2, it looked superb in Trans Blue, but I could never get the action or sound I’d hoped for, so off it went, at a loss of about £500. Do you see a pattern emerging here, a chap dazzled by form over functionality? Could be said about other aspects of my life too...

As my old man used to say, I’m a fool to myself and my own worst enemy when it comes to resisting temptation, so of course I’m out in a big way. Bought this year - a Bongo 4H, a 5HH, a Harley Benton short scale, a compressor and a boost pedal and a mighty heavy old flight case just in case (!) I get that call to go on a world tour... So, over £3.5K happily spent at the time but the remorse is kicking in hard now; I need counselling before I see that early Tele bass I want but don’t need that will finally destroy my bank account!

Had to have a rehearsal last night because our singiste had mistakenly booked a gig in for this Saturday which she can’t make cos she’d forgotten that she’s going on a cruise on Friday ... ho hum. So one of her pals is depping instead. Bit of a PITA for the rest of us as we had to run through a load of our normal stuff that we can play in our sleep, only to find that instead of her adapting to our arrangements, it was her way or no way. Just for one gig. And key changes. All accomplished with fairly good grace and minimal eye-rolling between the rest of us. Oh well, it’ll all be ok on the night and I don’t suppose the punters will know even if it isn’t...

Mustang Sally gigged at a new venue (to us) last night - Milborne Port Social Club on the A30 Dorset/Somerset border. - not a big place, either the town or the club! Managed to cram all six of us in down one end of the bar, nice people (a free round of drinks to start with) and a constant 50 or so over the 9-11:30 playing time. Still in hand-over period getting the new KB guy up to speed before our rhythm guitarist leaves so still a few rough edges on the more involved numbers (eg Echo Beach, Geno, Sweet Child) - still, we're getting there. We all agreed that we seemed very LOUD on stage but the punters were happy with the levels out front - it's usually the other way around... I was amused to find myself staring at myself while having a pre-match slash, the first time I've seen a band poster in this kind of men-only location!

Index and middle finger mostly, although I find that I can play 16ths more easily just using the index finger - weird...

New band to me, but amazing - the bass player on 'Research Chemicals' live at Glasto certainly earned his $$! From what I've just listened to I'd say a mixture of Marilyn Manson, Captain Beefheart and the Blockheads with great vids. Thanks for posting!

This time of year we’re busy, so we use the gigs as rehearsals...

Ive been asked for set lists precisely twice in 50 years. It is indeed the venues that have the responsibility to pay, but very few do. Our guitarist has recorded a lot of music, gets royalty cheques from PPL, Phonographic Performance Limited, another organisation that monitors the use of original recordings on radio and Tv, issues licenses and sends cheques to musicians. It’s not covers bands that are ripping off original composers. Incidentally, performing third party numbers in rehearsal is apparently not chargeable, only public performance.

Do you need to remove them from the bass first?

Maybe those who consider covers bands a lesser breed might instead take aim at a lower level of parasite if that’s their fun; DJs for instance, although even they can be graded by their input to what the public hear. Watching a classic House music DJ mix live on real turntables, matching music, speeds and beats to the mood on the floor, is awesome, full respect. Guys who just plug in a thumb drive of premixed material, well, we’re getting down to virus level of parasite to a purist. However, it’s all entertainment to the punters, we’re all purveyors of music who stand or fall by whether those punters and of course event promoters want to pay to have us at a gig, whatever we play and however we play it. Why do we do it? So many reasons, from ego-stroking to just getting away from the TV once in a while, all valid. Now, a question that must be resolved; in a battle of the bands, would the Big Ticks prevail against a single @BigRedX?

They do Stiff Little Fingers covers...

I experienced the same coyness from my bank when my credit card details were ripped off and used by a bloke in Croydon to buy a load of exhibition stand stuff from a bona fide supplier. I managed to find out his name and address from them which I gave to the bank, so he should have been bang to rights for a fraud charge. My bank refunded the money rapidly and I changed all my login details. I asked them later if any action had been taken against roguey - they weren’t prepared to say. It left me feeling angry and violated, especially as they’d never queried the bloke’s purchases which were so far out of area and character for me, and I never had any closure on the matter.

This is very unfortunate and my sympathies go to both parties, but it does sound like a screw up by the bank. I suppose that the old fashioned cash deal and exchange in a car park is still the only certain way...

Another gig with my band Mustang Sally (I know!), this time at the George Inn, Mere, Wiltshire on Carnival night last Saturday. The pub is in the centre of the town so the parade goes right past the front door. Although this means that we got a good view of all the Majorette teams twirling their batons and the gaily lit Tableau and Action floats before we played, it also meant that we had to get to the venue by 5:30 'cos that's when the roads were closed to vehicles not in the parade. I made it by 30 seconds after a 45 mile drive from Bridport, after leaving home at four - I got back at 1 am. We are in a handover period between our departing rhythm guitar/vox and incoming keys/vox, so both are doing all gigs up to the end of October making us temporarily a six-piece. We somehow managed to all cram into one end of the front bar. I'd been feeling rather fluey/brain dead that morning so was a bit away with the fairies when loading up to leave home; result, no Ag700 amp in the jeep on arrival! Calling myself a proper See You Next Tuesday, the day was saved by remembering that I did still have my trusty old TH350 in the all-purpose travelling spares box, thankfully with the right speaker lead, so I dodged a bit of a bullet there. The pub was absolutely rammed all evening, plus loads of people outside in the town square all singing along and having fun - I have added a pic (not very good quality!) of the bar area that I grabbed whilst our guitarist and drummer worked their way through the verse of encore All Right Now. The lady on the table is our singstresse, thank heavens for her carefree approach to pub furniture , sense of balance after a few bevvies and some decent batteries in her radio mic! We were immediately re-booked for 2024 - that's a plus - but on the minus side all three of us plank spankers in the band are still feeling a bit deaf today...

Minor GAS eruptions still going on here; a 2 Note booster pedal and a modestly priced compressor pedal have snuck in under the radar, both courtesy of Basschat’s sales pages. How can anything so bad feel so good?

Don’t know why, but I can’t help thinking it would be amusing to substitute ‘NLAS’* for GAS and see if the answers would be the same... * New Lover Acquisition Syndrome

The vocalist in a London band I was in a long time ago swore that the person walking in with the Lady Eleanor wasn’t Roderick Usher but Roy Percusso, not surprising perhaps as the vocalist was also our drummer...

John McVie - tasteful, solid, super sound. FWM in general - not really keen, too many drama queens...

The Enid - Live at Loughborough Town Hall 1980. Symphonic prog-rock at its finest!