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Birthday party gig in the High Peak, Derbyshire, near Monsal Head. My car packed to the gunnels with all the PA and my gear etc. Went really well as the party guests were all Country music fans and knew most of the words to most of the songs. Cowboy hats n boots were the norm and there was a hog roast which was yum and a bucking bronco which was good fun to watch (none of the band took part). Used my EV subs, recently acquired to match the tops, for the first time and the sound FOH was excellent. Used my go to gig rig of Mike Lull P4 and Handbox R400 with matching HB 1x12 cab which sounded really good and I'm really gelling with now I've gigged it a few times ......and the cows enjoyed it. There were two large bovines in the pens next to the stage who were oblivious to the racket we were making and I'm sure they were nodding gently in time to the music 😊

Islamabad spring music festival finally went ahead. Stayed dry with a bit of cloud so not stupidly hot (only 35C at the height of the day). I played in three of the bands but the most fun was a Hendrix tribute as I found a guitarist who’s been inhabited with the spirit of Jimi…. Started with ‘Fire’ and ended with Voodoo and guitarist leaning his guitar live against the amp as he walked off stage, much to the consternation of the sound guy who wasn’t paying much attention until the howling feedback. Modest turn out but everyone stayed until the end and the food stalls were serving up great food. Right at the end as we were packing up lightning appeared in the sky and it was a mad scrabble to get everything packed away before it tipped it down but we got it done. All the bands used my Yamaha DTX ekit and it sounded superb through the PA. Getting 6 bands worth of musicians together was like herding cats but well worth it in the end.

Played a small festival in Wiltshire yesterday evening. Not much money but lovely to play out of doors in the sun. We bass players don't get much attention as a rule, but yesterday I had a couple of folk with kind words. The second guy was a keyboard player in awe of the sound of my bass. A Harley Benton jazz. He was quite right, it does sound awesome.

I can join in again! 4 Play (👊🙄) back in action after a 3 month break… Greyhound, Sutton Bridge. Singer was sober for once… made a modicum of difference. Played ok, decent enough turnout but quieter than usual. Usual Fender Dimension USA 5 into GK/Barefaced. Rock solid as always. Completely GAS free. TBH suspect many folks opted for garden/BBQ given the weather. Frankly, I’d rather have been in my summerhouse with gin but there we go! Nice Sunday afternoon gig at a more middle class pub next weekend.

Been interested in these for a while due to the nut width. This one popped up in conversation here and, well, one thing led to another and now it’s in my house! It came with a black scratchplate, which I thought looked ace, but the original white plate has aged to a lovely coffee-stain/cream colour, and looks absolutely effin fantastic! One surprise was the string width at the bridge - I’d just assumed it would be standard P spacing but it’s a little tighter. Nothing I won’t get used to. Changed the knobs just because.

In over 30 years of playing I’d never played a Gibson bass (but I always wanted one). I remember in 2002 finding a Gibson Grabber for £250 in Trade-It (ask your dad) but it was gone when I called. Anyway, fast forward to 2024 and this dropped onto my inbox and promptly a deal was made. Pick up this week and the bass is here and what a wonderful thing.

We had a bit of a schlepp over to Nottingham yesterday supporting South Africa's finest, The Soap Girls... It was the first outing for our new guitarist, who rather than humping around some enormously heavy Marshall amp, uses one of those Blackstar Amped pedals as part of his effects board. Sounded great! And as a whole we were mostly OK - I managed to mess up The Birdy Song (*), but much worse, our drummer managed to play completely the wrong rhythm for our final song which made it impossible to play to. And for some reason we decided to muddle through rather than put our hands up, point at the drummer and say "you've not only let yourself down, you've let the band down and you've let the whole audience down" then restart. Lesson learned! Still, rest of the songs were great - tight, funky and punky - I could hear myself (Parker into Helix/BBE/DBX compressor/Crown Power/Markbass 4x10 and we had folks jumping about in a groovy fashion rather than brandishing sharpened sticks and pitchforks! The Soap Girls were also excellent - great show despite the gratuitous nudity that was mainly to satisfy a number of slightly seedy-looking middle-aged gentlemen who were far more interested in getting a quick flash than in the music. And their bass player displayed impressive core strength by bending over backwards, unsupported to within an inch of the floor, then standing straight back up! They also expressed jealousy over our 2 bass line-up... Getting home took 4 hours, exacerbated by the obligatory 2am stop at motorway services to complain about the prices and quality while I smugly reminded them how I'd urged them to come and have one of the fine burgers (vegan and not!) at the adjoining brewery. I'd partaken alone, along with a fine pint of on-site brewed Castle Rock Mild while they'd complained of being full, having spoiled their tea by gorging on junk food on the way. Kids!!! Anyway, duff Soap Girls pic, none of us available:

I the words of the prophets, I had a doozy of a day. This is a long one so tl;dr version is my car broke down on the way to the gig so I got towed there, the gig went great and then I spent all night waiting for the RAC. First gig of the year and we were playing at the East and West Ardsley Social Club near Dewsbury. I was very excited, and even bought myself a new shirt for the occasion. Well, things did not go to plan for me. Half a mile away from the venue all of the warning lights on my dashboard came on, along with a warning of an engine malfunction and I believe the full beam headlights as someone coming the other way flashed me. I managed to pull into a bus layby and turned the engine off, after which the dashboard and lights stayed on but the engine wouldn't start and I couldn't close the windows or open the boot. After resisting calls from the band to have someone pick me and my gear up and abandon my car at the roadside, I suggested if I got towed I'd be able to get my gear out through the backseat and would call the RAC at halftime. Our drummist Mick and a bloke from the club came out with the shortest tow rope ever and a towing eye, and we very gingerly made our way to the venue with me trying very hard not to crash into the back of Mick's Range Rover. Mick took the turn into the venue too tight though, which snapped the tow rope and meant I had to be pushed to a parking space. We were only about half an hour to kick off at this point so I hastily assembled my rig (ABM atop Two10S, with the P-bass used for the first time in a while with my Sire still to receive it's new Sadowsky preamp), and with no opportunity for soundcheck (or "tonight's office" photo) we began. Someone in our following very helpful told us we were a bit loud so we all dropped the volume slightly and all was well. The crowd, other than the twentysomethings in our following, were very subdued and at halftime we debated cutting new tune Club Foot from the second set as it might not go down very well, but we figured if nothing else it would be a paid rehearsal so opted to include it and it went down pretty well. Our second set is a lot more energetic than our first and we were having a great one. We even got three encore calls which was surprising as we usually only manage one, maybe two. I was caught on the hop by Mick launching straight into Chelsea Dagger for our second and just managed to grab a pick in time to start where I should. Then we were demanded to play A Town Called Malice again, so I was a bit broken by the end. Afterwards I resisted further invitations by the band to crash on various sofas as my car was still unlocked, and with north of £1500 worth of gear in it I didn't want to leave it unattended, albeit in a well-lit and CCTV-monitored car park. So from 11pm I sat and waited for the RAC. And waited. Then waited some more, with a final burst of waiting after dawn. Finally the recovery patrol arrived at 7.30 and managed to get my now completely dead car to start off a jump. After dumping all my gear at home I left the car outside a local garage ready to call them tomorrow to get a confirmatory diagnostic of a possible ECU failure. Then it was home for some sleep. Hoping for a quick and inexpensive resolution to the car woes before the next gig in a fortnight. I had such a good day on Friday, but yesterday was a day full of finding out the bonus I'll be getting for getting chartered will now be ringfenced for car repairs.

I built this bass as a gift for a friend when I worked at the Yamaha custom shop in LA around '94-'95. I used a Yamaha neck but it had nothing to do with the company. The black lines in the fingerboard are graphite to increase the strength of the neck and to make the strings speak better. I wound the pickups as well. The body is basswood with a maple veneer on top. It's great to see it after all these years!

First show done…

Send me your narcotics, please! Where to start? There is no resentment felt across Europe for Britain, particularly when it comes to the likes of music, comedy and other artistic pursuits, which are massively respected. Your view is a lie sold to you by multiple governments and media sources to make you think Europe was to blame so so many of Britain's recent and not so recent failings. Brexit's not like the brochure, eh? Ever wonder why? Your second paragraph perfectly illustrates why there should be resentment, however. The Ibiza tourist of posts. Take your head out of your arse, lad. As you say, the UK entry was rubbish. Grindr visuals with music not fit for a Wetherspoons advert. Yet you somehow think there's a larger movement at play which was behind other countries not voting for such a terrible song? Was 2022 that long ago? Show some respect, send something entertaining and you get votes. It's oh so simple.

For bands who take the piss and use up the next bands time slot.......death For punters who get on the stage in the interval and try and use the mics.....horse whipping followed by death For punters who repeatedly ask for the same song even though it's been pointed out that we don't know that one.....pelting in the stocks followed by horse whipping and then death. 😊

You could have found out what music will be like when AI rules the world.

Hey gang I'm doing a couple of sold-out shows at Newcastle City Hall this weekend in the house band for the Auf Wiedersehen Pet 40th anniversary celebrations. 21 tunes, most of which I've never played before, all of which are bangers. We've been in rehearsals all week, with everything laid out as close as it will be in the night (albeit in a different venue). We're getting monitor mixes and FOH mix as close as it can be, so there shouldn't be a whole lot of work to do when we have production rehearsals in the hall tomorrow. Usually with gigs like this keys and arrangements can be rather fluid, right up to the show itself, and this one is no exception. It keeps me on my toes, especially as a non-reader. A few scribbled notes, a decent memory and a following wind will see me through. Gear-wise, I'm using what I use down the Dog and Duck... Handbox R-400 head, TKS S212 cab, and '71P with flats, and a Maruszczyk Jake with rounds (haven't decided which will get the nod yet), and an LR Baggs Venue DI (used only for silent tuning). FOH is getting the cab mic'd with a Beyer M88 and a DI from the R-400. I'm told a 50/50 mix is being used. The band are a bunch of great lads, and it's been a pleasure so far. Tomorrow, we're moving into the City Hall. I'll post updates when I can. This is Jamie. Jamie's a mixing GOD. Monitors...

Hello everyone! Here are mine: got the Contemporary recently & a friend is keeping his 40th Anniversary Jazz for me, so i will have it in a couple of months when i move to France! Can't wait!

Another Hereford gig to report. The Hey Yahs, wedding gig with the 6 piece line up at the Left Bank. First runout for the updated playback rig I run. Previously we ran two tracks one with click and a guide (me calling titles, cues etc) and the other was track (percussion, fx, occasional additional keys or guitar) and if no horns, horn tracks as well. This was a result of using tracks as an experiment to begin with, now we’re all in it needed improving, so up to four tracks now, separate guide, click, track and horns if necessary. Next stage is get enough money in the pot to go for 8 outs interface. This worked really well tonight though, singers much happier they could remove the click entirely, I don’t need the guide as much. Crowd were good, more interested in being outside earlier on but on the dance floor later, 2 encores.

The gear

We played at a charity football match at Concord Rangers, Canvey Island. We were kindly asked back after playing at the inaugural event last summer. As usual with these type of event, load in and setup was a bit chaotic with lots of people, and the schedule was rather loose, so we finished playing a lot later than expected. Started playing at 6.30 with 2x 1 hour sets, but we didn’t finish until gone 10pm as they held the charity auction during our break (by what I overheard, signed football memorabilia was changing hands for a lot of money which was great for the charity!) Luckily, a lot of people stayed on after the raffle and auction so we still had a good sized (rather drunk) audience till the end of the night. It also marked the temporary return of one of our regular singers, Jenny, as it was local for her and she's heavily involved with the family running the event. She was on great form and was like she hadn't been away. Shoebury Con Club next week.

Hello! Right, I've come up for air. It was a VERY late night last night 😄 Rehearsal days were 10-7. Show day was 9am-2m (as it turned out!) Yep - here's the set list: So, the songs all have some sort of connection to Auf Wiedersehen Pet and / or Jimmy. The character Oz was a big Merle Haggard fan, so that accounts for their presence, and that of steel player and all-round lovely bloke Mel Duffy, who is an absolute wizard. He's currently touring with Squeeze. We had various cast members get up during the evening to sing songs (the principal ladies sang Boots and Stand By Your Man, for example). Rehearsals were relatively painless - we'd all done our homework in advance, and there were only the odd arrangement tweaks to account for. It was a busier time for me as I was also vision editor, responsible for creating the 70-ish videos seen throughout the show on the massive screen. The shows themselves went fine, with only the odd flub from any of us that Joe Public wouldn't notice. The smooth execution was aided by one of the best crews in the biz. The shows were a massive success - 4,000 attendees in total, raising a shedload of money for charity. And I got to meet Bill Paterson. It was shot with a view to possible release at some point, but I don't know way more than that. Here's some pics! The AV room, where the director makes sure the cameras capture every little nuance....

Yes, the Sires are that good

https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_jb_62_sb.htm Save yourself a ton of cash and be amazed... Edit: roasted neck, decent pickups and many tasty colours to choose from too!

Great show, production was outstanding, no idea why people hate on it so much. Loved Ireland, Norway was great and Croatia surely should have won. Switzerland was pretty bang average, no idea how they managed that. UK was DREADFUL and over-performed really thanks to the jury vote. The staging was decent but really didn't mask how bland a track it was. And it's not all about people hating the UK, look at 2 years ago, if Putin hadn't have united the world behind Ukraine, we would have comfortably won it.

Time to take up acoustic bass methinks

How are you still alive?

Agreed. We should do one last year and then give it up. For our last entry, the song should be called "Yeah We Get It, You All Hate Us".

Baby It's Colditzside - Tom Jones/ Cerys Matthews

my latest buy chowny cbh 1 short scale

Drove back from seeing Phil Campbell then watching pub gig in Narberth over the weekend. Utterly knackered. Bluesfire played Cubanas in Barry, always good for us, as crowd into blues rock and guitar pyrotechnics. As I was getting ready to load (gig less than a mile away) had non-stop thunder for 5 minutes out over the channel. Managed to load as first rain came scattered big drops, but got in car and then it went biblical. Sat outside venue for 15 minutes until it stopped. Got in, to find guitarist's dad stuck in rain with pa , lights and puncture. Used venue pa and lights (as good as ours, better monitors, but vocals only). Meant a speedy knock down later. Numbers a bit low due to weather, so started 15 minutes late. Numbers picked up to be ok for venue but not as many as we expect. Familiar faces and some new ones. Alex got the crazies and did some mad solos, I played my '76 mij Maya fretless (really overdoing the slides and posing with frantic arpeggios) and Flea Jazz. Alex dropped me into a solo so I got the crazies too. On one song Alex called The Hunter. Paul started drumming Walk In My Shadow, and I started the Hunter as Alex came in with Sultans of Swing 🤣 somehow we all settled on Walk In My Shadow by the first change. Another song my high d started feeding back, in the playout solo so I had some fun with that. Felt like were were jyst having fun while people watched. Despite this, went down really well and we were bombarded with great feedback, especially for Alex. Several people promised to come and see my other, new, band on Saturday our first gig in Barry. Walked out on a high, promoter said he'll come to my gig on Saturday too. Nothing for us until July now, but got a good bucket on top of fee, so we were able to stash enough for rehearsal studion end of june and get extra each. Now radox bath...

Rubbish. had it been sung properly and had a choreografy with less of a 'killroom' vibe, it could have done well enough. The jingoism really is a bit of a turn off.

You're going soft in your old age!

I'm not sure that 'hate' is the right word, for me at least. My tastes in music could be described as 'eclectic', but with some notable exceptions, one of which is 'big beat', '1-1-1-1-...' Disco EDM, often accompanied by megatons of over-production. The tasteless lighting, stroboscopic flashing and incomprehensible choreography, each vying with the other to shock, don't inspire me to much more than reach for the 'off' switch. It's true I'm not in the target demographic, and I've never understood the 'disco' craze, either (as a technicien, I've installed too many disco lighting and sound systems to be impressed...), as I don't (read 'can't'...) dance, and don't drink anything stronger than Earl Grey (and even that's weak, when I make it...). 'Hate'..? No; if other folk derive some pleasure from it all, let 'em fill their boots, but don't try to tell me that it's 'quality music', 'cos it's not. It's forgettable pulp, throw-away nonsense that, for almost all of the 'songs' presented, will never be heard of again. To have anything visual needed to 'sell' the stuff says a lot. None of the 'songs' will ever have a performance with that same, or anything like close, backdrop. It's not a problem; it's all forgotten until next year, when, like the Christmas baubles for the tree, the band-wagon is rolled out again. So, Eurovision..? Whatever...

I've just received one, and I love it. It's my first J bass, and it does everything I need it to do. It's really well made, sounds great and was well priced.

Longest serving instrument is a Kawai K1 synthesiser bought in the mid 80s as I'd formed a proggy band and in addition to playing guitar, I had some synth parts. I still use it now mainly as a controller for a couple of rack units and software synths, but I don't play it live. Longest serving bass is my Spirit XZ2. I can date it back to 2008 from photos so I must have had it at least 16 years. It's been through all kinds of adventures from being dropped (no headstock is definitely an advantage) to being the communal bass for jam sessions (I'd never do that now) and it's currently the base (see what I did there?) for my VBass pick up. When I sold all my gear in my great 'toys-from-the-pram' retirement from live music episode in 2012 (I was fed up of playing the same old tunes night after night), it was the only bass I kept. I don't play it often but it will be the last bass to go if that happens again. I have a rehearsal tonight at which I was going to use the P Bass, but just typing all of this I think I'll take the Spirit, just to give it an outing. 2012 2013 2022

And to spite everyone, it would of course win.

Picked one of these up recently. Gigged it last night and liked it. Pros and cons with the size - It's tiny (but packs a big punch) so takes up hardly any room, but no chance of adjusting anything on the fly unless you have the eyesight of a Peregrin Falcon. Nice little pedal though.

I got my Kramer Striker five string fretless in 2002. It was my second bass, bought for my 18th birthday. My parents, divorced, clueless about music, contributed 1/3 the cost each and I the rest. It was between this and a Steinberger Spirit, back in the old Musicyo days. I went for the Kramer because it was both five string, very hard to get lefty then, and fretless and i'd just been introduced to Pearl Jam. I still occasionally gig this bass, but rarely now because it doesn't suit the style of music I'm playing. We talked about doing a studio recording and video and immediately I thought of this bass. It's a cheaply put together bass which now has a Kiogon loom to get the best out of the stock pickups, but it feels and sounds great. I love it and can never get rid of it.

Just to help with your GAS😊

Just watched Eurovision, and now I know what a world of AI music will be like.

MTD + Epifani, tough combo to beat IMO 😎

That’d be this bass I built when I was 16. 16 year old me had very different aesthetic preferences than 36 year old me. It’s also the heaviest bass I’ve ever played 😂

We do some Susan Tedeschi, John Prine, Buddy Miles and some Tom Petty. Not traditional covers. And our band is very heavy on guitar solos. Traditional covers in my area are the bands that play "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey Daryl

That’s pretty cool. The jam I go to is regularly hosted by Nicolas Meier who is well known on the circuit (and spent some time in Jeff Beck’s band,!!). When he’s not available Pete Roth often steps in to cover - another amazing jazzer and regular at Ronnie’s etc. What a pleasure to get to play with players of that calibre - not to mention how great the song the house band play to open the night is!!!