arthurhenry

How come The Killers could use the name, when there was another band called "Killers". Could one name a band "The U2" or "The Coldplay" and get away with it?

Thanks. I did wonder if something like this would happen. Jim Roberts has now left "Bass Player" and I'm not sure I'll continue my subscription, so this online magazine sounds interesting.

Imagine the familiar scenario of a pub which puts on live music, but whose clientele are largely uninterested. Now imagine either an established, internationally successful and well known band, who would likely be unrecognised by the general public, or a group of similarly qualified, but anonymous musicians, were to perform there, playing a standard covers set of Sex On Fire, Summer Of '69 etc. An example band might be Journey. Example musicians could be Pino on bass, Tom Scholz on guitar, Darrin Mooney on drums and Danny Vaughn on vocals. Would the audience perceive something different to an average pub band? Would they react differently? Would they enjoy it? Would they carry on staring at their beer and wishing there was no band, so they could have a chat? Interesting proposal for a reality tv show.

He has mentioned that he found working on the book cathartic and a good way of keeping busy after Rush ended.

And of course you play the rhythm on the open A underneath the high notes. Many bass players just leave it out.

That's better! I wish I hadn't Googled that.

You are very wise!

The trailer for the series referred to "The holy trinity of rock", which I took to mean drums, bass guitar and kazoo.

Some immediate neighbours in my itunes: Ian Anderson, Anthrax Beethoven, Black Sabbath Debussy, Deep Purple Dio, Dixie Dregs Herbie Hancock, Jeff Healey Carole King, King's X Yngwie Malmsteen, Aimee Mann Joni Mitchell, Montrose Night Ranger, Mike Oldfield Procol Harum, Queensryche Slayer, Soft Machine Steeleye Span, Styx Suicidal Tendencies, Supertramp Stevie Wonder, Y&T

Neither could the audience or venue owners who booked them.

This is one of the inherent difficulties of the cover band world. There are excellent musicians, some of whom are pros who also work with well known artists, serious, practising players, average, non committal types and appallingly bad pretenders. They all play the same gigs and some of them are even in the same bands together. No one in the audience cares and venue owners who book the bands don't care.

I thought TW was great and there were some good contributions, but given that BBC4 describe the series as "An exploration of the contribution of key instruments to modern popular music" and that the trailer gave the impression that it would focus almost exclusively on electric bass guitar, I was disappointed at the amount of time given to examining bass as a frequency and its artificial creation in electronic music. That would have made an interesting programme in its own right. There was no mention of the P-bass, Jaco, or any one other than Bruce from the British rock players of the late 60s/early 70s, or any of the British new wave/post punk players. Instead we got Chic's bass player demonstrating BE's "chucking" technique by playing the same part over and over again. With better editing, a lot more could have been fitted in.

A chap once asked if I could play "Amnesia" Cliff Burton's bass solo with Metallica (actually titled "Anesthesia"). I told him I'd forgotten it.

From what I can gather, we can expect Jamerson, Hook, Flowers, Macca, Kaye, Bootsy and Bernard. One has to presume there will be some mention of the late 60s/early 70s British rock bass players and that Pastorius bloke. Apparently the guitar episode next week is not on a par with the drums and bass shows. Make up your own jokes...

So some people do find him funny then. Is anyone else using a set that's 20 years or more old, like mine?

Pardon? Wow. Well 20 years on and my hearing is fine and the plugs still fit comfortably.

Good tip. I have had the same pair for approx 20 years now and they still work and fit fine. I do recall being told that they should be renewed every five years! Is that why you're on your third set?

5th Feb 1988 at school. You could ask about my 19th, 273rd, 409th or 1001st gig and I could tell you the date, where it was, which band, which bass I played and whether there is any associated ephemera, photos or recordings. I have a record of every gig I've done.

Who's going to fill it in and sent it off? I often wonder what the outcome would be if one wrote off to the "For more info" addresses on the back of old album covers etc.

Imagine if people posted drivel in response to serious threads...

All the extra sleep I could have had if only I'd owned a copy.

Can you help me? Should I put Michael Schenker Group under M for MSG or S for Schenker?

Numbered strings is a whole other question. After 32 years of playing bass I couldn't tell you the 'number' of each string (without referring to your post!). Why is G '1st' when it's furthest away from your plucking hand?

No, we all love each other. Until the A and D starters turn up...

That's what everyone does so far....