asingardenof

Beeyooteefool!

Pretty good rehearsal on Sunday (yes, I'm a bit late), and I think we have our two new tunes almost nailed. We had a bit of a chat about more new tunes but I don't think certain members of the band have much ambition in terms of what we should add to our set list. A number of absolute bangers (e.g. Go Your Own Way, or anything by Oasis) have been dismissed out of hand because the singer is vehemently opposed, so we're reduced to now learning a couple of plodders by Tears For Fears and Somewhere In My Heart by Aztec Camera, none of which I think will exactly get people in a party mood. Ah well, I'll have to put more effort in, because the last song I proposed (Two Tribes) is now a well-established crowd and band favourite. The seeming tradition of arranging rehearsals on holidays continues, as after having one on Easter Sunday the next date we can all do before our next gig in August is on Fathers Day.

Just had a follow up from my MP who apparently sent my concerns to the Secretary of State. I'm not sure the reply really says anything we didn't already know though.

With Trumpty Dumpty wanting to annexe Canada. Lame attempt at humour, just ignore.

*gestures vaguely at Brexit, Trump, etc.*

I once ordered sour cream from Tesco and they didn't have it in stock, so instead they substituted a £10 bottle of Pinot Grigio. It would have been rude to send it back, frankly.

Other way round these days though

However they seem like scholars compared to people in the Andertons videos, where they didn't even know how to pronounce Sadowsky for example.

This is also the case when it's in other basses too, it does the same sort of thing in my Sire

The last few times I've seen Tal playing she's been using a P-bass in preference to the Sadowsky

Ian is from Montana

This range will be competing with Sire and the Sadowsky MetroExpress range primarily, and I'm not sure what these bring to the table to make them stand out other than being a more recognisable brand to muggles.

My relatives live in Poulton and we go there quite often. It's a shame the café on the prom has gone downhill now despite its Star Wars fame.

Having relatives in the area surrounding Blackpool I don't think many of them are particularly happy with their proximity to Blackpool

Do you mean Blackpool? Because Lytham is nowhere near Liverpool.

In the 60s and 70s the amps would have predominantly been tube amps rather than solid state though.

Happy to support fellow musicians when they aren't creating noise nuisance

Yes, very much this! When I used to work in the centre of Truro there was a "busker" who "played" sort of flamenco-y guitar, and he'd more or less set up right outside our office (we were on the first floor). I say "played" because it was blantantly obvious that he wasn't playing live but was miming over a pre-recorded version, and his PA was so obnoxiously loud that we knew that within certain times of day whenever we'd get phone calls we'd have to tell callers - including important clients - that we'd have to call them back later because holding a conversation would be impossible without yelling over the noise. We complained to the council several times, and on his Facebook page, but all to nought.

This is going to end up being that "interpolation" stuff Rick Beato keeps railing against, isn't it.

Mine is a pretty cheap and basic one so is either on or off. Might have to invest in a better one where I can play about with the sensitivity and whatnot but for now I'm just going to leave it off.

Last night's office. The Squier continues to punch above its weight, the ABM was set just so and sounded immense, and having dropped the compressor the pedalboard may as well have not been there, albeit I needed the BDDI21 for our last encore song

First gig of the year after NYE's paid rehearsal, at regular haunt Spen Victoria CC. On the basis that the Siredowsky needed new strings (a Jazz with rounds isn't supposed to sound like a 60s P with flats!) and I hadn't had a chance to do that yet, I went with the Squier P as last night's axe. After thinking I was getting lost in the mix at previous gigs, I decided to forego my compressor this time, and holy cow my tone has returned. I think I need to use the compressor a bit more sparingly, as using it as an "always on" pedal isn't working. I went with the ABM despite the small venue, and decided to give the valve drive a go, and the fates all combined to make my tone sound, if you'll forgive my entirely unbiased opinion, fecking amazing - deep and thunderous while also clear as a bell when it needed to be. Things were a bit shaken up as we'd decided to mix our standard set up a bit, as we're at the point we don't need to look at set lists to know what song is coming next. Our singist, who normally favours a vaguely Adam Ant-esque getup decided to forego all that for an old band t-shirt - it can't be uncool to wear your own band's merch if you don't actually have any, this is one someone made many years ago. For the most part the running order seemed to go well, and new songs Alright and Mr Brightside went over very well, and using Two Tribes as our second encore song was a great choice. Only a couple of minor mishaps, where our keyboardist started his section of A Town Called Malice in the wrong key and dropped out for a verse until he could recover himself, and he lost the patch he was using for the guitar solo in Alright (I still don't know why our guitarist can't play it) so had to stay with the piano sound he was using for the rest of the song, which sounded, well, crap. But all in all a good start to our year of gigs. They're starting to trickle in now, and we might end up with about seven over the year, which will be good and manageable for me with a new baby on the way. A couple of shots but none of my footwear I'm afraid; I was only in scruffy Merrells so hardly worth showing. (it did get a bit busier than this...)