Your oldest and newest bass playing photos

[BigRedX]

Following on from the various threads about how you started playing and what's keeping you playing I thought I'd see if I could find and the oldest photo of me playing bass. 

 

And here it is:

 

There a date, 1978, written on the back which means I'm 17, and you can tell that punk rock hasn't really reached Loughborough yet! The bass isn't mine, but one borrowed from a school friend for the purposes of doing some home recording. I didn't have a bass of my own until 1981. I like to describe this instrument as being made by someone who had once been shown a photo of a Fender P and then had to recreate it from memory using just what was available in the spare parts drawer of the local musical instrument shop. This is also probably the closest I've ever come to playing a "Precision" bass. No idea what song I'm playing other than it is likely be something from our "concept album" on the subject of Nature vs Man vs Nature. 

 

Compare and contract with this photo taken last week of me on stage at the Twisted Firestarter gig in Manchester:

 

So what are your oldest and newest bass playing photos. Add them to this thread. Don't be embarrassed!

Edited August 22 by BigRedX

[Dad3353]

Oldest (don't remember the date; that's our singer playing my drums at the time. It's an outdoor 'on the pavement' 'Fête de la Musique' event in our local town...) ...

 

 

Latest..? [Shock-Horror] I'm 'playing' a recording for a past Composition Challenge. No, it didn't win, but was fun trying (until I tried to get up..!  )...

 

 

Embarrassed, me..? Nah..!  

Edited August 22 by Dad3353

[Steve Browning]

1st one. Channeling my inner Zal Cleminson at a 6th form college gig (about 1976, I think).

 

2nd on. Reunited with my ex Pretty Things colleague Dick Taylor (on guitar) at the SoL Party earlier this month. Singer is the ubiquitous (very) Alan Clayson.

[police squad]

This first one is a couple of weeks ago, a band called Heores, new wave, mod , ska and punk. I'm depping here, nearly 57 years old

 

The 2nd one is from 1988. A band called Roadhouse, we did literally 4 gigs a week for 18 months till I left. I was 20 in this band

Edited August 22 by police squad

[BlueMoon]

First one is a rehearsal with a bunch of school friends circa 1973. The bass is a 1964 Burns Jazz……I still have it!
 

Second one is from earlier this year……….rocking a fretless P in a café bar.

[Russ]

Over in the thread about acrimonious band splits, I was talking about the band I was in where the guitarist just upped and left after a gig. Here's a pic of that band, and it's the oldest pic I have of me onstage (there's probably a few more that I have as actual photos, but this is the oldest one I have on the computer  ) - this is from around 1997, and that's me on the left.

 

...and this is a more recent one from a year or so back, playing my trusty Sei. 

 

[Lozz196]

So first we have me in The Shout, prob 88/89

 

Secondly we have me in The Spacewasters 2022 (I do have later pics but they’re pony, so this one gets the outing)

 

 

Edited August 22 by Lozz196

[Leonard Smalls]

Haven't got any photos of early Weeds with borrowed Gibson short scale...

But I do have Barf Roco stuff from around 1987-8. I no longer own the babydoll nightie as that was forcibly removed during the gig by singer and guitarist. luckily I had a codpiece on.

 

Then a couple of weeks ago at Rebellion:

 

[Chiliwailer]

1996, first gig, which was a RHCP tribute, I was 18. 

 

 

Last pic is actually the last time I played through an amp 😢, jamming with a drummer mate in 2020. 

 

 

 

[WinterMute]

One of the first gigs I played in around 1980 I think, Polesworth Working Mens Club.

 

 

Last gig I played, charity event for Capital 1 in a big tent in Nottingham somewhere around 2020. 

 

[snorkie635]

1st is from '78 - earliest picture on my i-pad. 19 at that time

 

2nd is from June this year, making me 66

Edited August 22 by snorkie635

[Stub Mandrel]

My first gig, probably 1987.

 

 

My most recent gig photo:

 

 

Inspired by @Wombat and his replica pose/playing style, it seems my left hand technique hasn't changed much in nearly four decades! Another shot from the recent gig:

 

 

 

Edited August 22 by Stub Mandrel

[Wombat]

c1979 local charity gig...

 

Aug 2025 local charity gig...

 

A theme going on that isn't just that I have the same bass on???

[oldslapper]

1976. 15 years old with my first bass. Made by Gary Nava, school mate (now makes bespoke instruments for people like Matt Bellamy).

 

2024. My last gig before retiring from

live bass duties.

[neepheid]

2009 - my first gig with my first originals band Panda Eyes, at the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen.

 

 

28/06/2025 - Me disproving Thunderbird neck dive theory at Maud Football Club with Nine Lives.

 

[JPJ]

First around 1977-78 Jedson short scale catalogue special, photo taken in my bedroom (I was probably playing through the family stereo using the old trick of the microphone input and putting the tape deck in record and pause).

Second one June 2025, playing my Boosey Hawkes Excelsior double bass, no amp, EBS Stanley Clarke preamp straight to FOH with in-ear monitors. 

[Cat Burrito]

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. 

[jazzyvee]

The first photo was around 1983 when I was posing for a photo student friend, trying to copy a Stanley clarke album cover pose. I've never been a smoker and didn't enjoy puffing that cigar.

In recent years I found that same bass listed on a French web site and resisting buying it.

I was a guitarist back then, the bass was really an impulse swap when I tried to sell my Laney Klipp guitar head to a small second hand guitar shop.

 

The more recent was taken at a gig where i was depping for a Bob Marley Tribute band. 

Edited August 23 by jazzyvee

[Franticsmurf]

This is the earliest photo I have of me with a bass guitar - a Colombus Jazz with matt black strings. Bedroom Arena, 1986:

 

The first time I played bass live. I'm hding on the left with the same Colombus bass as above. The band was 'Mr McHenry', 1992:

 

2024 Hullabaloo Festival playing with '50% Dave', the support act to my main band:  

 

Depping with 'The Gowertones' in July 2025: 

 

 

 

[jazzyvee]

.

Edited August 23 by jazzyvee

[jazzyvee]

31 minutes ago, Franticsmurf said:

This is the earliest photo I have of me with a bass guitar - a Colombus Jazz with matt black strings. Bedroom Arena, 1986:

 

 

The bass player in one of my first funk bands in the late 70's had a fender jazz and a columbus copy, we used to do quite a bit of studio recordings back then and the producer/engineer always preferred the sound of his columbus.

[Franticsmurf]

5 hours ago, jazzyvee said:

The bass player in one of my first funk bands in the late 70's had a fender jazz and a columbus copy, we used to do quite a bit of studio recordings back then and the producer/engineer always preferred the sound of his columbus.

I used mine to record all our early originals and it had a great sound on the recordings. I wasn't experienced enough to realise how good it actually was. And when those first two photos were taken, I was till a guitarist who played a bit of bass. 

[Dom in Dorset]

The first photo is pre 1989, I'd bought a Hohner Stienberger style headless by then. The band existed for several years under several names doing original songs before disbanding (Got tired of going nowhere)

After about a year the singer got us back together playing 50s and 60s rock n roll under the name Captain Jive and the Pink Sectets for a run of paid gigs. The bass unbranded but almost certainly an Antoria.

This picture was taken in July this year, I'm playing a shiny new Rick and singing in The Dooks ( Buzzard County's finest country rock trio)

Weirdly I accidentally stumbled on an antoria again last week so there's potential for two NBD threads.

[thebrig]

Here's me in 1967 wearing my "kipper tie", and playing my Burns Sonic Bass that I purchased second-hand for £15 from a mate's mate.

 

[StingRayBoy42]

Oldest:

No Fat On A Turkey 6th August 1991 - the day I first picked up a Bass.
(My brother's Hohner Jack... I had to lie and  tell him someone else was playing Bass - he'd lend it to a stranger but not to me. Cheers, mate.)

We thought we were the next Stone Roses... we were not.




Newest:

Depping with Manchester Ska Foundation last month - joined the audience for "One Step Beyond"



Playing the Sterling - not my first choice for ska, just fancied a change!