Big_Stu

[quote name='bubinga5' timestamp='1483732340' post='3209732'] I call him stupid because of the way he comes across in the vid that i posted. i did say, maybe i missed something, or maybe its a bit tounge and cheek. Like i said he writes some great music, but to dismiss Jazz like he does is stupid. To dismiss a jazz audience as he does, and maybe an amazingly talented band that is way beyond what he could play, but not be as popuar, is stupid. Its a great musician making stupid comments, and thats why i loose respect for him. i can't see any other way of seeing it. [/quote] Spoken like a true jazz snob

Slade had a minor hit called "Do You Believe In Miracles" which is about a chat they had with Bob Geldof while the band were playing in a flea-pit during their career lull and Geldof asked how they'd come to such a situation.

[attachment=231813:Ronnie_Scotts2016.png] The Steve Cropper Band at Ronnie Scott's, Soho last Thursday. Same instrument set up as Booker T & The MGs, and a mixture of Cropper's own songs from over the years, so sadly no "Time Is Tight". It even turned out that the Hammond guy "Rusty" Cloud from NYC and myself had a mutual acquaintance in the music world, sadly recently passed. Bass was by Jim Haggerty on a Lakland. All of them a very friendly bunch of guys. *not the sharpest of pics, but there was a stack of phones on the table and they were rushed one after the other.

The Steve Cropper Band this week at Ronnie Scott's.

[quote name='Geek99' timestamp='1477832549' post='3164679'] Take a warm coat - four feet of snow is not unusual this time of year [/quote] This! -12 to -14 isn't unusual in winter there. My highlights when I was there were "Manny's" and "Chumley's"; sadly both of which are long gone in their original form.

Just reading this auto-biog. I'm finding it compulsive, though quite thin on the ground with any detail on his days with Dr. Feelgood. Seems a [i]right decent geeza[/i] and has some excellent inside stories and little observations of the music biz, which are always great to see in music books. Glastonbury doesn't get off lightly either . His affection for Norman (W-R) is clear as soon as he appears in the story and is spot on (fwiw) to the couple of times I briefly met him - and I also spotted the pool of sweat that Norman is soon standing in when he gigs as Wilco observed. Few people will ever walk in Wilco's shoes in relation to his illness - and fewer still I imagine would have the matter-of-fact attitude towards it if they did.

[quote name='Stu-khag' timestamp='1476977878' post='3158961'] I heard the festival organiser mention he still gets paid in cash in hand as well![/quote] .............usually before the gig - or he doesn't go on. And he used to have a clock next to the stage so that he could coincide his last note of the night to the last second he was being paid for. Chuck Berry & Bo Diddley without either RnR wouldn't exist.

[quote name='PaulWarning' timestamp='1475327558' post='3145074'] I often wonder about the benefits of stereo, ok with headphones on you can hear it, but how many of us sit down and listen in the right position between the speakers?[/quote] I do more often than not, for listening for enjoyment rather than background anyway; the soundstage in doing so can be immense. I always use mono records to set up my stereo if it's ever moved so that the exact same levels come out of each speaker and blends in the middle.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1475264384' post='3144621'] Maybe time machines will be built after your gone blue then that generation will be able enjoy past,present and future bands!? [/quote] Then you really get to be here, there, and everywhere........... See what I did there?

[quote name='darkandrew' timestamp='1475262983' post='3144604'] Are "Luther built" basses any better than those produced by larger manufacturers? I wouldn't necessarily expect a guy in a backstreet garage to build a better car than a well known manuacturer in a multimillion pound factory. [/quote] If a worker in a car factory makes a mistake you get a Friday afternoon car that's never out of the workshop, or a guitar with a damaged finish, twisted neck, sharp frets, crackly pickups or a list as we might see on these hallowed pages; the manufacturer might get a few dodgy reviews but sells so many that they don't much care until you get events like the Toyota or Volkwagen problems. A place near me has paid off half of it's staff entirely because of the one of those issues - they were a supplier and demand plunged. If a luthier makes a bollox of a guitar it damages his personal reputation, he loses that income and his business potentially fails. John Birch guitars, which I have a fair bit of experience with was at it's peak when they had John "JayDee" Diggins working there. I also know two other guys who worked there, left and are still building and luthiering.

A Gibson EB3 because Jimmy Lea of Slade played one. I did get one, kinda, it was my first bass, I still have the receipt for it from JSG in Bingley, I paid £165 for it but it turned out to be an EBO which had been modded, s/n 907469. I sold it when I needed the cash and later saw it fairly wrecked in a junk shop window in Edinburgh.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1475180577' post='3143884'] Your experience of that first 25 years would be quite different than those that grew up in it and lived through it. Sorry, it's just the truth and I'm not budging on this one. Blue [/quote] No facts - remember? Just your not so humble opinion. [quote name='blue' timestamp='1475187427' post='3143958'] I actually heard a song that Paul worked with Rhianna on. It was pretty cool. Blue [/quote] Maybe - but I kinds get the feeling that if you were get hold of some of Paul McCartney's used toilet paper you'd be saying it was an artistic masterpiece.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1475089783' post='3143030'] I dropped a ton of $$ on made in Germany HofnerLimited Edition of the Club Bass with pre 1964 cavern club PU spacing. I also have and wear athe same tab cited military style blazers The Beatles wore for the 1965 Shea Stadium show. Blue [/quote] Which is worse, that blazer or a friend of mine who had his own Star Trek uniform, you be the judge? We'll not mention the netting T-shirt over a white silk shirt with a red silk neck-scarf (with black polka dots) that I used to wear to Slade events for quite a few years - it went with the bass, it had to be done.

It's looking very bad for Eric, successor to Duck Dunne in the Original Blues Brothers Band. Seems he was found in Central Park with head injuries and missing wallet. Doctors are talking of switching off his life support. He's very highly spoken of in the Blues Brothers members and ex-members.

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1475081900' post='3142926'] Indeed. But speaking as a friend I'd suggest it's best in the long run to ignore certain posters with whom one has a serious difference of opinion over a relatively unimportant matter. If unchecked it stops being about the issue and turns into a feud. I've learnt this the hard way [/quote] No chance of a feud Skank, like many others he can't help talking up his favourite band and it comes out as cr@p. Blue wouldn't be the first to do that here either - heck, incredible as it may seem I've been very close to doing so myself over the years When I was about that impressionable age I obsessed over Slade, they really were a case of "you don't [i]get it[/i]" for many Americans though it's documented fact that Lennon once stuck his head in the door when Slade were in Abbey Road and said "I like your singer, he sounds like me". But I grew out of that obsession long ago, though not before I'd had a Telecaster customised to be identical to Nod's, an SG Junior customised by John Birch to be identical to Nod's, bought Nod's own personal Hiwatt head & cab and had a custom bass built like Jimmy Lea's - but even I was realistic enough to know that they weren't the centre of the universe - even when I was eight.

[quote name='stuckinthepod' timestamp='1475080584' post='3142906'] Sound Control - Now a live venue [/quote] Yeah, it's a venue now, but I thought Sound Control was on the main road near Music Ground? Was it not A1 or something like that? I'm suddenly feeling very old.

Not that many years ago I was in a large Manchester guitar store, a salesman was trying to sell a package to a woman who I assumed was with her teenaged son, iirc the bass was an Encore. I stood observing for a while and the woman asked me what I thought of it. I said it was OK but if she was going for the package deal I'd be inclined to go for the Squier one which was similarly priced. She asked why, and I said because if her lad made a go of it he could upgrade it more easily with better pickups and machines for reliability to do bigger gigs - and if he didn't it would hold it's price better for selling on. As I was leaving the salesguy asked me how I'd feel if he went into my place of work and started to chip in. I said if he had a valid point to make he'd be welcome. The woman appeared to be getting her purse out so I thought all was good. The shop's gone, forget the name, under the arches at Oxford Road station.

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1475078315' post='3142887']That said, while you are perfectly entitled to hold any belief you like it is possible that frequent repetition of that belief may be counter-productive.[/quote] This - I've always said that I've always read every single post as "IMHO" but to make sweeping statements and to dress them up as fact is - as you say - counter-productive.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1475072924' post='3142816'] Strange as an American youth I was aware of The Beatles before any of the other Stars you referenced.[/quote] Another strawman, where you were living is irrelevant. The fact is that many of those names listed, that are part of your heritage, pre-dated and influenced the Beatles, therefore it's obvious that those names also influenced others at the same time. Those people would then have influenced others quite detached from the Beatles. Your insistence that The Beatles are the "Big Bang" of the music world is plain wrong.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1475071259' post='3142793'] You may have picked up on the electric from other artists, however that artist may have picked up the guitar because of The Beatles. In other words that historical trail in most cases can be traced back to the Beatles. Blue [/quote] I've never encountered such entrenched fanboi-dom in one of such advanced years before, I'm starting to feel uncomfortable engaging with you. Your desperate need to have your heroes credited with influencing all and sundry to play guitar is quite ridiculous and shameful. Negating credit for other people's accomplishments was something that banning payola and resolving the royalty rights of Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bo Diddley and many others who influenced generations of players totally detached from The Beatles (regardless of whether you were aware of them or not) should be over and done years ago.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1474919954' post='3141563'] History will say The Beatles were the pioneers traveling in unchartered waters[/quote] In biro Blue, in biro!

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1474854748' post='3141059'] I say, no Beatles then no Punk Rock. Blue [/quote] Yeah... but - you would.

[quote name='rushbo' timestamp='1474744958' post='3140240'] Back in ye olde Punk Rocke days, the vast majority of Popular music was deemed "boring", including The Fabs.[/quote] I was going to suggest that, but then thought it may be fair to say that The Beatles influenced the punks to not be like The Beatles?

[quote name='RockfordStone' timestamp='1474672035' post='3139843'] i think it was that regardless of age or musical knowledge/background "you had to be there" to appreciate artists like the beatles, jaco etc... [/quote] No, it was a different bit, the [i]"you had to be there"[/i] is old even by his standards, but it's an oldie that he plays a lot, though not the classic that "You just don't get it" has become. The one I refer to is about how anyone that ever strapped on a guitar owes it to the Beatles, which must be a bit of a pisser for Hank Williams, Buddy Holly, BB KIng, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and Uncle Tom Cobbley and all. After being pulled up about such a gross and repetitive overstatement by our Hiram, Blue later conceded that it was only a fact in his mind.

[quote name='drTStingray' timestamp='1474669265' post='3139832']Were you a member of the banking, minting or bank note printing industry? [/quote] First rule of the bank note printing industry is you don't talk about the bank note printing industry - and that's not entirely a joke.