Leaderboard

Well, that's me crashed out of gear abstinence for this year and it's time for my full confession (although I'm 1 in, 1 out for the year so far, so could be worse). But I have a good excuse - this bass has been living rent-free in my head for nearly 12 years* and I finally snagged one in the finish I wanted. Black and silver ones pop up more often but I've only seen the purpleburst available two or three times in all these dozen years, so seeing as I'm not getting any younger, I decided a bit of carpe diem was in order. It's a three pickup, Les Paul shaped bass. It has three Greco T-bird-a-like pickups and three volume controls. That's it. Hardware is good quality - a Hipshot B style bridge and Gotoh tuners. It's had a life, there are some dings and scuffs in it but it's taken a polish well, the pickups have buffed up nicely and the fretboard enjoyed a drink of lemon oil very much. Lovely, dark rosewood board, yum. S'pose you'll be wanting some pics... It sounds great - I had a blast through my TC Electronic BH250 into headphones and it's got a lot of mid poke about it - might have to boost my mids a bit less when I'm playing this guy! Using the different pickups in different combinations makes noticeable changes to the tone, but it's not quite the same as having a tone knob - I might mod it but I'm not in a hurry. * TWELVE BLOODY YEARS - https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/210350-sorted-greco-3-pickup-les-paul-bass/

I placed this order quite some time ago, so long ago in fact that I don’t even have the original email chain with all of the details on it. I did ask Jon to ping the spec back to me so I can share it with everyone, but this beauty arrived today. It’s not the first lavish spec Shuker I’ve owned, so I know how good his work is, but this is quite something. The preamp/pickup combo is fierce, a really biting tone. Soon as I get Jon to send the spec back to me I’ll share!

Last night with BLOCKBUSTARZ Glam band in Bishopton Social Club turned out a fantastic wee night. When we arrived we were quite taken aback by the size of the venue. It was small with only 8 tables seating around 40. It apparently holds 80. Manager said things have been slow but he was surprised at ticket sales being so poor. Anyways it didn't look too empty so we just went for it and the audience were up for every bit of it. This was THE best audience interaction we've ever experienced. Enough so that when the singer was introducing the band he mentioned it was my birthday and the audience erupted into a "happy birthday" to me. When he mentioned its the drummers next week they did the same all in great humour. For a laugh he said the guitarists was in 2 weeks and off they went again and then Lynn's birthday was May and off they went and finally our singer Mikey even got a "Happy Birthday" too because they thought he was missing out. The whole night was like this. Not a lot of dancing first set but when we came back 2nd set they had obviously been lubricated at the bar and were up from first song. When we joked about what song we were doing next they responded by cheers or disappointed "awe's" when we didn't do an Osmond ballad, but just a great fun night. One of the best nights i've had as far as audience participation goes. Great positive comments at the end of the night too. Had one guy come over at the end and asked if i was the bass player and when i confirmed yes he said it was the first time he'd seen a bass player play the proper Jean Genie bassline with all the runs and fills. He was a guitarist himself. Organiser told us we were the best band they'd ever had in the club and those that never showed will regret not being there, but we have been asked to come back with date to be confirmed. We even had the honour of the amazing DJ Celebrity in Scotland Mr Tom Russell in the audience and at the end he couldn't be any more complimentary. "Band was very tight, obviously well rehearsed and compared to other Glam bands i've seen, far superior." Our Sweet covers were superb but unlike tribute bands we were covering just about every Glam band. His mate has provisionally booked us for Jan 2026. When we asked about the venue and if PA and lights etc his reply was "i want you to replicate exactly what you have tonight" so i'm guessing he liked it 1 hour drive home so not too bad. Was home for 2am. Usual gear. Sandberg VM4 into Shure wireless, Keeley comp, Mesa TT800 and Mesa SW210/115 cabs, platform boots as standard. Dave Not from last night's gig but the boots can be seen.

Maxell M9V Well,ummm,it's a battery Anonymous 14.07.2016 If you're looking for a 9v battery, this is a 9v battery. It provides power to things that require a 9v battery As a helicopter, totally useless. As a 9v battery, perfect. It will provide power for a certain amount of time, after that time elapses it will no longer provide power. As such it serves as a metaphor for the ephemeral and transient nature of being and provides proof(if any were needed)that entropy is the prevailing force in our all too brief existence. Also it tickles your tongue if you lick it. Hope you found this useful, next week's topic...trousers first ,THEN shoes. Show less

I got this at the weekend that I absolutely love to bits, and just wanted to share. A huge thank you to @walshy for his patience and good nature over the past weeks, as I’ve bombarded him with various questions, requests for excruciatingly detailed dimensions and pics galore. “Walshy, if the neck was an 80s pop act, who would it be? Which discontinued item of confectionery is the bass most like?” Prefab Sprout, and a Texan Bar, since you ask! I’ve been after a ‘68 to ‘73 period P Bass for a while now. I tried some lovely basses, but they weren’t quite for me, as I was after a specific neck profile. As soon as I picked this up I knew it was what I was after. Virginia Plain, Metal Guru, In a Broken Dream, All The Young Dudes, Ernie (the fastest milkman in the west), and this bass: 1972 was a good year…

Yesterday saw a return to the Blue Boar in Aldbourne, Wiltshire. It's been 6 months since we last played there and the deal is normally a 2hr acoustic set. Load in started with the "help" of our new furry roadcrew, Puma. She is lovely but I can't see her making old bones - too inquisitive! We get to the pub and some people had come down from London to see us which was humbling and nice. To be fair they were here anyway but had seen our poster and heard the name. We'd sold a CD before we started and set up our massive amount of kit. I was on mandocello, upright bass, mandolin, acoustic guitar and backing vocals. The London couple were quickly upstaged by a couple that saw us 2yrs ago and were from Spain! Again, I think they happened to be in the area but saw we were playing and remembered us from before. The landlady came up afterwards to say that the locals had been worn down by our consistency in playing gothic music and had to admit we were really good players. That made my night! And we were rebooked for June. I appreciate we're all bombarding each other with our bands, but if anyone is curious, we are live tomorrow on Swindon 105.5FM from 8pm for an hour of music and chat. The show is aptly called "Don't Stop the Music"... and why would we?

I had two gigs yesterday, first one with the acoustic duo and then later with the blues trio ‘The Alligators’. The duo gig was a 21st birthday party for the daughter of a couple who had come to see us at my local boozer on Thursday. The venue was a large pub in a village just east of York, playing in a long room with about 50 guests of all ages. Lovely people to play for, and a set of requests that spanned the generations - ‘Strangers in the night’ and ‘Fly me to the moon’ through to ‘Fields of gold’ and ‘Watermelon sugar’. Played for nearly two hours with only a short break, finishing at 7pm. When the lady who booked us came to pay me she had also bought us a bottle of wine each too, such a nice gesture. I quickly packed down and set off to gig number two, some 30 miles away in Hornsea on the east coast. Venue was ‘The Green Owl’, a modern cafe bar in the town centre. We’d been booked to cover for a cancellation by another band so didn’t know what to expect. When I arrived it was heaving with people, but fortunately we had a good amount of room to set up. The band are quite loud so I need to wear earplugs which often compromises my sound. Strangely in this room it was fine and had my Rumble 500 combo set in just the right place to hear a nice balance of everything, along with my passive Precision Lyte. Two sets of largely unfamiliar blues stuff went down well with the punters, and we managed to get through ’The Hunter’ by Free / Albert King which was requested by a friend of our guitarist. The encore was for the landlady - she asked rather bizarrely for ‘ 2-4-6-8 motorway’ by Tom Robinson which we attempted by blagging the lyrics with prompts from her! Overall a great night, and we’re back at this venue in April. Got in around 1am, absolutely knackered. Quiet day to recover today.

The return of Richard Davies & the Dissidents last night at The Beehive in Swindon. Wonderfully cramped and it felt like a proper rock ‘n’ roll gig. Good to blow off a few cobwebs ahead of tonight’s sold out London show.

Around October last year our friend Nick Smith came to see us about having another bass made but to his design of shape which he called the “Midas” We lost Nick in January in a tragic accident before we got past the design stage of his new bass. However he had selected all of the woods and we’d gone through the detail on the spec that he wanted. Following Nicks funeral at the end of February Gav and I felt it was only right that we finish Nicks bass, and after seeking approval from Nicks family we decided that it would be fitting that once complete we would hold a raffle or auction with all proceeds going to a charity close to Nick and his families hearts. Over the last few weeks we’ve been progressing through the manufacture of Midas number 1. And over the next week or so we’ll share the photos and videos of its progress so far. This video shows the design of the bass, technical specs follow “Greenie” the Kratos he had from us a few years back which had become Nicks main gigging bass for Genesis Connected. It features a one piece ribbon sapele body with a beautiful book matched flame maple top, flamed maple one piece neck with ebony fret board, Aguilar HJ pickup and 18v preamp, led fret board side dots, Grainger bridge, hipshot tuners and Evo Gold frets! Once the details of the charity raffle are tied down we’ll post on how it’ll all work, but we should have Nicks Midas done within the next 6 weeks! Stay tuned for more updates! SOLIDWORKS Premium 2023 SP1.0 - Midas Full Assembly 2025-03-29 09-46-28.mp4

I've had a busy 3 or 4 months of buying, selling and trading. Here are the ones that have come in so far in 2025. Very pleased with ALL of them! L-R... Ibanez Soundgear SR800BK (1993), Squier 40th Anniversary Precision (Gold Edt 2021) & Epiphone Grabber (2024) L - R... Spector Coda Pro 4 (2013), Kramer Spector NS2B (late 80s) & Stuart Spector Design (SSD) NS-94 (1994)

First two of four gigs for me this week. Tuesday afternoon I played with our duo at a ‘retirement village’ near Hull, the first time we’ve done anything like this. It is a purpose built complex for people 55 and over, with many facilities on site. They have a monthly lunch in an Italian restaurant that features varied sorts of musical entertainment. The guy who booked us saw my guitarist mate playing in a jazz club a few years ago, so we weren’t sure if it was that sort of stuff they wanted to hear. Fortunately ( for me in particular!) they were after us doing our requests thing, and did we get some varied ones - from Django Reinhardt, Tom Waits and James Taylor through to Deep Purple and Led Zep! Always try not to underestimate audiences like this, so we’re mostly ready for them now. The gig went well, with a nice meal before we started too. We’ve been offered another gig later in the year, and the restaurant manager wants us for a private booking in summer so all good. Thursday evening we played at my local pub just down the road. Again, request night format with a fair spread of stuff. Some wag asked for ‘Sir Duke’ and we duly obliged - glad I hadn’t availed myself of the free beers on offer before that one. As we were packing down we got offered a gig for this afternoon at a 21st birthday party near York. We’ve accepted it, but I will have to get on a flyer afterwards as I have a gig with the blues band straight afterwards at Hornsea over on the east coast. Been a while since I’ve done two gigs in one day, so hope my fingers last out.

Another Bootleg Eagles show, this time in Saltburn, North Yorkshire. 18 months of prep is finally paying off... lots of dates in the diary now. Great tunes, great bunch of lads.

Splendid weekend of shows with From Gold To Rio (Spandau/Duran show). 99% sold out show at the lovely St Austell Keay Theatre on Friday to start off.... great sound... and staff were fab. Audience were up for a party from the get-go too 😃👍 Then it was off to the beautiful Littlecote House (a Warners Hotel) for our Saturday show. A stunning (and haunted) place... with a posh venue within. Audience older and not as demonstrably enthusiastic as the night before but they seemed to enjoy it, so job done!)

The second of two gigs for the Dissidents and it was something of a mixed bag. On paper it was a rip roaring success but I must confess that I let the little things get to me, which I don’t normally do. A great start, in that my neighbour’s cat once again tried to come along. She’s a lovely little cat but I can’t see her making old bones - far too risk adverse. I managed to depart on my own and pick up the keyboard player. The venue was Tufnel Park’s Aces & Eights. The sound guy was great, the promoter was super friendly and we had sold out. Despite my fully charged wireless packing up during the first song, it was a great show. Relaxed, friendly vibe and we played well. I had a fair few old friends who I hadn’t seen for years come down and it rounded off what should have been a great night. The problem came around doing the merch store. We shifted 10 CDs, which is good going. However, I had one wannabe haggler, one drunk lady who inexplicably thought I was keeping money from the singer (it’s called being the sober sensible one!) and then one idiot who was actually really rude a couple of times to me. Being pragmatic, this doesn’t normally happen and the problem is clearly them, not me but it did kind of take the shine off of things. I am usually okay with idiots but I must confess that it definitely touched a nerve. I think going forward, we need to split working the merch more and I need to work out why my usually much thicker skin wasn’t so good on this occasion. Bizarre as I am letting a total of 2 minutes cloud what was an otherwise fantastic evening.

An odd weekend - On Friday evening I went to a little studio in Nottingham and played for the first time with a similarly aged keyboard player and drummer on some original tracks (sort of funky jazz with a dance beat). It's always interesting creating baselines to go with other people's music. I was particularly pleased with one track where my line made the track sound quite Flecktones-esque. (Not that I'm comparing myself to Mr.Wooten!) I was all set for a quiet Saturday evening when an old school mate Drummer (can't believe it's 40 years ago!) asked me to go to a local reopening of a pub with his son and daughter in the band and do a guest spot. Nothing too challenging, but I did have to figure out Elton John's "I'm Still Standing" on the spot - never played this before!

I went to the guitar auction at Gardiner Houlgate (work is slow) and I played this. It’s a handmade luthier built bass with a Sims Custom Shop neck and full Status electronics. It’s quite bonkers but it’s utterly amazingly well set up, with a pencil thin jazz neck with built-in LEDs. Little play wear and a fully fitted custom flightcase all for £503. It was very much a speculative bid, but I’m really happy with it. The mind boggles at what it much have cost when brand new.

Dep reasonably close to home. Small venue with an odd layout with us off in one room off the main bar playing through an arch. All seemed to go ok. A few flubs and nowhere to hide as the second guitar I have played with depping with them in the past was not there so just guitar, drums, Vox and bass. All good fun and generally got through ok with a good bunch of guys that it’s easy to work with with knowing nods 🙂 Having used the old skool (and heavy) Hartke LH500 last week it was back to Class D this week and I do find that the latter always seems to start sounding great but after a prolonged group of songs they ‘go off’ and need a break between songs to get their puff back, whereas the LH500 ‘seems’ to be more consistent. Maybe that’s just my ears ‘going off’ and needing the break, but it’s odd. Still living the FrankenJazz and the S2 didn’t get a look in. Still working out the new IEM’s and despite working through menus and setup in the week I was still only getting signal on one plug which I don’t understand, so more to do there.

TL:DR - I've bought a new bass. It's very nice. I've been hankering after a jazz for a while to fit with the vibe of my new band. Thought I wanted another Sandberg, a Vincent or really push the boat out and get a Lull. However, I fell in lust with the blonde Fender Japan Kazuki Arai signature jazz on the Bassbros website. It was 4.5kg however, so not for me. Then they got one that was listed as 3.8kg on their site. I messaged them to double check. It was actually 3.8kg. I was in trouble. Being away from Thurs to Sunday guaranteed that this would happen on Thursday afternoon (pic whatsapped to my by my delightful and not at all surprised by another big box arriving other half). Had to wait until Sunday to open it, it played nicely straight out of the box, but a swap to my preferred strings and lowering the saddles by a quarter turn really made a difference. The I plugged it in, oh my, these noiseless vintage pickups really are something. It's the sound I've been chasing for ages. The low B is fabulous. It's gorgeous and not at all 'signature-y'. An engraved neck plate is the only giveaway, and it comes with a plain one too, nice touch. I've got my first gig with my new band on Friday. Everything sensible says I should play my Sandberg as it's a known quantity. I won't though, can't wait to hear this thing in the mix. If anyone's bothered enough then I'll try to get some video and update this post at the weekend. Or, if you're near the bright lights of Chorley then pop along and check us out at The Shed and Garden.

Friday and Saturday was QuoVention, a gathering of Status Quo aficionados in Bilston's Robin 2 venue. Seven tribute bands over two evenings including guest appearances from Quo drummers Jeff Rich and Leon Cave and Rick Parfitt's replacement, Ritchie Malone. All the bands were excellent and gave the punters what they had come for. The backline and drum kit provided for us did the job perfectly and the sound engineer put in a sterling shift over the piece. The event took 18 months to organise and was a great success. Bands and fans came from England, Sweden, Belgium. Germany and Scotland. Back to publand for our next gig to bring us back down to earth. Ha ha.

Another early evening gig yesterday at The Lookout on the Pier in Scarborough with the acoustic duo. We arrived there slightly later than usual due to a traffic accident, meaning we had to divert through Bridlington but still got set up in time to start at 6pm. A full house of diners, some who had come with requests already written so we had a pile of them to get through. Best ones for me were ‘Wichita Lineman’, ‘Just a gigolo / ‘I ain’t got nobody’ ( David Lee Roth style), ‘No particular place to go’ ( which I sang for the first time in my life, forgetting how hard the phrasing was!) and then ended with ‘Enjoy yourself’. Used my Fender Kingman bass into the Rumble 100, with no PA support needed. Still exploring some settings with the preamp on the bass, including the subtle effect the phase switch has on things. We are back at this wonderful venue on 30th March, and it’s always a pleasure.

The Twisted Pair gig was very good. I didn't think we sounded all that great, but still a good gig. We're still working in a dep drummer. He's not the best drummer I've played with. However he understands the band and what we're trying to do. I arrived at 1:45 the place was packed. I couldn't find one open parking space. The reason I say it was a good gig is solely based on the number of people that came out. Very generous tippers too. I asked the manager if they always have a big crowd on Sunday afternoon. He told me they had a band last Sunday and the place was dead. So I was feeling pretty "stoked". I've attached a few pics. I bet many of you have rolled up to one of these venues sitting out in the " boon docks" Daryl

Our regular monthly gig at the Sun Inn in Beverley with the acoustic duo. Well I say ‘acoustic’, it was really ‘half acoustic’ as I used my Sire U5 short scale electric, into my Fender Rumble 500 combo, and it was glorious! Quite a few complements on my bass sound from people in the audience (which doesn’t often happen) so it confirmed my thoughts on using an electric bass on this gig. It can get quite loud and lairy and an electro acoustic can be hard to tame, so it was fun having more freedom to play without constraint. Our usual request format included ‘How sweet it is’, ‘Dance with me’ ( an instrumental of the Orleans tune ), ‘Rehab’ ( for the lovely lady behind the bar who is a massive Amy fan, and we got fed up of playing ‘Valerie’ for her! ), as well as ‘Whole lotta Rosie’, ‘Shang a lang’ ( for a group of ladies this time! ) and ‘Stairway to heaven’ which got the biggest round of applause of the afternoon. Really enjoyed the gig, one of the best we’ve played for ages - a perfect storm of venue / audience / landlords and staff etc. Already looking forward to the next one!

Was hoping for a good gig today, my and the singer's home town and a fair few people had said they were coming. A 5:15 sunday gig. We used the venue pa but the desk does auto setup with white noise so we had a good sound (4 vocals plus drums) restof us backline only. Had a decent soundcheck. Hadn't played a gig since start of December, just two rehearsals with just four of us. Place was rammed, which was great considering we've only played Barry once before. We made a handful of cock ups but recovered well. Went down a storm, the bucket added over 50% to our fee. Plenty of dancing(!) Lots of compliments especially for the sound and our singer's voice, also loads of great feedback on our setlist. Playing songs we love seems to work. Screenshot from a facebook live...

Hello! I've been an on-and-off TB'r for a few years, but the mods have finally left a bad enough taste in my mouth for me to give up on it. On a thread about "Best Pedals for Ultimate Clean Tone," I posted a picture of an empty pedal board as a joke. That was deemed offensive enough to warrant deleting my post on the grounds that I was insinuating bassists shouldn't use effects. The ironic part is that I myself have a large pedal board full of effects. Anyway, rant over. Here I am. Also, the challenge question on sign up felt like a trick question. Mr. Fender's first name was Clarence, not Leo.

Last year i've been working on a Wal copy bass. As Wal basses are my absolute favorite and i am the happy owner of 3 Wals (two MK1 basses and a ProIIe) i was wandering if i was able to build one myself. Since 2018 i'm following a luhiers education (6 hours a week) at the CMB in Puurs (Belgium). I allready build an acoustic steelstring guitar (Martin#1 copy) for my wfie so now it was time to treat myself. This Wal copy ofcouse needed to be an extra addition to my collection. Since i have a fretted Mk1, a fretless MK1 and a fretted Pro (which has a more vintage sound compaired to the MK's ) my weapons are quite complete. But they are all 4 strings ands sometimes i miss a low B. Since i prefer 4 strings i've decided to build another 4 string but tuned BEAD. To make a plan i disassembled my MK1 and measured everyting. Last week i've completed it and it feels and sounds damn close to my other Wals! Here are the specs: Mahogany body with ebony facings (maple veneer) Matching headstock Maple/mahogany neck Ebony fretboard Danish oil finish Lusithand Double NFP special MKII preamp Turner Multicoil Pickups ABM bridge Shaller tuners Handmade potmeter knobs and output.

Contact has been re-established with the school (staff turnover/changes in all the relevant booking contacts). Hopefully some positive news soon.

That's exactly what happened. I agreed to wait until after the next gig and take it from there. The band have been really understanding about it all. After the gig i realised how much i enjoyed it and decided it was better to stay with it. Band were over the moon about it and were not looking forward to searching for a replacement. As they said its not just about technical ability, its being a good fit for the band on a personal level too. I can't deny its a lot of fun, both on stage and off. Dave

Last night at Wilsons, Aberdeen with Nine Lives. Weird gig, definitely a game of two halves. First half was rank rotten - sound in the room was awful - could barely get the vocals loud enough without feeding back, started five mins late because of all the mucking about (not Axl Rose levels of lateness, but it still bugs me). It was passable out front, and people could clearly hear the words because I could see them mouthing along, but there was very little coming back making it hard to hear where we were in a song. No room for monitors in this pub, we basically had to rely upon reflected sound. So spooked I was that I didn't change basses at half time - I didn't want to introduce another variable to an already tenuous situation. But we sorted it. The table nearest the right PA speaker emptied at half time, so we took the opportunity to move it forward, not much - couple of feet maybe, but what a difference it made - it opened up the possibility of increasing the gain of the singer's vox without feeding back and made for a much better sounding second half. It got busy too, and it was much more fun. Went for a couple of walkabouts in the crowd which went down well. Lesson learned - kick people out of the way if you have to to get your PA far enough in front of the band. So, it was the BB1200 for the whole night, into the usual Markbass rig. Footwear - Vans calf hair checkerboard slipons. Hmm, quite colour coordinated last night, just realised.

A couple of live shots from last night, complete with footwear.

Bendricks Rock played Slipping Jimmy's in Newport last night. It was already busy due to rugby and got busier. Proper stage, which is cool for a pub. Dancing pretty much fom the off. The even danced to What Is and What Should Never Be. A bit of excitement at the end with a punter getting ejected, then mord drama outside while we were loading out. New Quecha hiking shoes with my orthopedic inserts, but my dodgy ankle was angry by the end.

Just back from tonight (last night's?) gig down at the local. Just a 10 minute drive from home, and using the Kala and Ortega U basses and Phil Jones Double Four amp so an easy load in and out for me! Full set of Irish standards (Pogues etc) and Levellers stuff went down really well, few deviations from the right notes here and there, but overall a great evening.

Tonight, Royal Blues at Katzspace, London Bridge, that London. Surprisingly packed for a Wednesday night, but we're doing quite well. It's original material, I use the term Americana, otherwise I'd have to say it's a bit blues, a bit roots, a bit country, a bit rock. Ibanez UB804 (EUB) - Swiff wireless - venue DI. The monitor mix was good and it sounded great FOH. Footwear black suede brothel creepers. And Leeds won 2-0 so even better! 💙💛💙💛. 😁 View from the stage

We played a 40th b’day party last night. Had punters up dancing from the first song - that’s a new and novel experience, so we enjoyed that. Except we later learned it was because the do started about 2.5 hours before we set up, and they were already well and truly lubricated with booze. By the second set, the families with young kids had gone home, and the remaining punters had largely passed out/thrown up or were harassing the pub staff. Total mess of a night - even though we played well. Not a family we’ll be working for again.

Been waaay too long since posting here and to be honest, my gig rustiness showed, having a few numbers where I just made stupid mistakes. But the rest of the time was ok, at the Playhouse Cheltenham. Very difficult to sell tickets at the moment, especially for an out of town band doing its 1st gig in the city but we got about 70 in a 190ish capacity venue, so enough for a party. Tenor sax player went down ill the day before but fortunately the trumpet 2 player lives a member of the RSC orchestra so she slotted in just fine. Took our own FBT Pa, great quality stuff and the foh and in ears sound was great, plus the drummer turned up with his dad’s DW kit so we sounded fruity. Played much better as the gig went on and the audience were good fun. Much less time to wait until the next one.

Anyway, yes, we had a gig yesterday and despite polishing my DMs earlier in the day I didn't take a photo of them. In fact I didn't take any worth posting. A new venue for us in Nuneaton. This is probably the 10th place we've played in the town and it's all been organic, word of mouth - which is nice. We had a few in from another venue we play not far away, which was also nice. It was quite a large pub so we were glad of the extra people. Low ceiling and carpet made for a slightly different "on stage" sound to normal, suppressing the top end, but I've played my Rumble for long enough to trust that it will still project a good tone out to the audience. The drummer even removed some of the gaffer tape damping from his cowbell 😂 Anyway we went down well, and they did the usual trick of waiting until the last song to start dancing and then wanting us to carry on all night. At least we left them wanting more. That's our last one for a few weeks - our guitarist is off touring the UK and Germany with Martin Turner (ex Wishbone Ash) through March and April. We just have the odd gig or two in the gaps. I'm looking forward to some free weekends to crack on with the garden and my VW camper (1979 aircooled late bay).

Two gigs for me this weekend, both on the East Yorkshire coast. Saturday saw me playing with The Alligators blues band at The Black Lion in Bridlington’s historic old town. Quite a large pub at the front, with an amazing room at the rear that is concealed from the pub by large velvet curtains. There are raked pews that lead down to a dance floor area, and the stage is like a small theatre, with a a large dB PA that unfortunately we didn’t get to use. Easy get in from a side alleyway so it looked like being a great gig. Unfortunately there was a distinct lack of punters, but we still gave it our best to the small groups of folk who ventured in. A great sounding room, and I used my usual passive Precison Lyte / Rumble 500 combo which I’m really enjoying. Finished at 11.15pm, quick pack down and home by 12.30. Sunday early evening I was at our regular haunt in Scarborough, ‘The Lookout on the Pier’ with the acoustic duo. A beautiful day meant the town was busy, but we got parked ok and set to go by 6pm. The venue was rammed with diners plus a few guests seated at the back. We played our usual request format, and tunes included ‘Samba pa ti’, a couple of Simon and Garfunkel things and ‘Copacabana’ which I’d forgotten how much of a workout the bassline was! We both were given a nice tip from a visiting celebrity couple who remembered us from a gig there a couple of years ago, and also received an enquiry to play at the local yacht club from a couple who’d arrived at the gig by yacht - who’d have thought that in Scarbados! It was one of those gigs where it all gelled - great venue, audience and our playing, so much so that I genuinely could have played for another hour or more. Still, home by 10pm to pizza and wine.

Well, a new venue has opened up recently in our town, it is under a resteraunt, quite low ceilings, low lighting, little groups of chairs, very tastefully decorated, the sort of place you would go to meet someone for having an affair or something - looks like a little jazz club, very cute. I can imagine a sultry singer in the corner, with a guy on a double bass and a drummer, with a bass, snare and tom playing with brushes some gentle music. Only they didn't get that, they got us! I was a bit worried about this one as it really didn't seem like a good fit, but a gig is a gig and they booked us. Turned up earlier than others, started loading in, at least there is room out the front to go straight in (can't park there, but there is a car park round the corner, but loading is fine). We had the whole of the window area, so had to wait for the drummer to set up to see how much room we had, had a couple of feet between a monstera and the cymbals, enough for me. The only hard part of the setup was getting in each others way and the fact there were already people there who wanted to chat. But the place filled up with quite a few people we knew, and some people who came specifically to hear us, including one woman who plays bowling in the room below where we practiced on thursday night so though we sounded good! Started off quite quiet and went down well. The drummer got louder and faster through the gig but not much you can do about that. After much discussion we didn't really change the set list that much, brought back some older ones, couldn't do the newer ones as a lack of practice over the last few months. But all in all, a good gig, people seemed to enjoy it, the staff liked it, and after years of declining venues in town, its nice to see one come back.

A ‘charridy’ job for the Glam lads last night supporting Leukaemia and bowel cancer charities. We were asked to finish the night off but for various reasons we asked to be penultimate. Didn’t get a sound check as time was tight and we were rushed on….consequently I struggled the first few songs as there was no backfill or monitoring on my side of the stage….still the show went on and apparently it sounded fine out front. A fairly full gig list until the end of May now…onwards and upwards.

The originals band is intended to perform the BL's songs live, while he records them solo and gets a production job done on them. Last night's gig was to promote his first single. We were at The Yard, Coventry's premier LGBTQ+ venue (according to their website). The drummer is also a sound engineer and had just taken delivery of 90% of his PA system, the FOH tops and subs being the missing components, so I brought my Alto TS408s and we used those for monitors and his DB Technology wedges for FOH. All set up and ready to go with Robert having a little tinkle. I was playing a Sei Original 5-string fretless through a Zoom MS-60B into a Tecamp Puma 900 and GR Bass AT212 cab, footwear was a pair of unbranded slip-on memory foam trainers, Ebay item 185202385506. I made a couple of cockups but it all went well, we got a very good reception.

A small handful may be interested but my musical duo are subject to a one hour radio special this evening on Swindon 105.5. You can listen on your smart speaker, computer, radio or phone. Music, chat, gentle humour. Feel free to dip in.

First on in a 5 band line up, for the A92 scooter club March of the Mods, charity gig at Beat Generator, in Dundee (I hadn’t realised how many proper name bands have played there previously, quite the alumni). Played the same event here a couple of years ago and didn’t enjoy it as our hour set was cut to 50mins before going on and turned out to be about 40mins, due to over running/poor organisation, earlier - utter waste of time. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that I approached this return with trepidation. However, we were a replacement band, doing a favour, so we angled for going on first to avoid a repeat of the situation. It’s a nice sized stage and was good for throwing a few shapes, especially as the rest of the band are fairly static, when playing. Proper sound check and we kicked off at 5:30. You’d think that would be playing to staff and walls, but no, plenty of folks in (it was sold out) and our set had them dancing from the get go. In short, it was great, despite the drummer messing up Town Called Malice for the last verse. Home by 8:00! Played my custom, Maruszczyk Elwood L, with gig appropriate scratchplate, through my usual MXR M82 comp, Tech21 VTDI (for grind on the appropriate songs), into the provided Peavey backline, which sounded absolutely fine. Footwear was Adidas Samba-alike, skate shoes (no pics ).

Played effectively a home town show last night at club 85, hitchin. Really cool line up and first gig since November for me and Gévaudan. Outed a new song, new drummers second gig and it all went off really well. One of those gigs where it just all clicked in and sound was great...although maybe a touch bass heavier would have been cool. Managed to pull some stupid faces as well which was cool. So good night all round. ✌️🧙‍♂️

2025 board updates Big board got the Shure wireless, custom CMC Proto Type, Origin TX-LP and Stomp XL and also now mounted to a Temple Audio Duo24. Small/Fly board is now mainly based on the Stomp plus some pedals I can’t live without.