toneknob

Last time I did this, I went to Vintage And Rare on Denmark St. When it came to renewing the documents a few years later (valuations were valid at my insurer for 3 or 5 years), I took along the documents and they simply re-signed and -dated the same forms, as if to say "same value still applies". V&R have moved out of Denmark St now, the premises is now occupied by No Tom Guitars, http://notomguitars.com/ - and they have a valuations service, see http://notomguitars.com/pages/valuations. If you use them, let us know how you get on.

I saw a great band at a festival over the weekend, Woohoo Review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xHMm_PhNXw Never heard of them before, and I've no idea who their bassist is, but she was brilliant as was the band.

[quote name='Skinnyman' timestamp='1407664434' post='2522641'] Carrie Melbourne. Played on a couple of Mike Oldfield tours, plays Chapman Stick. Awesome. Maybe not quite as good a sense of musicality as whatshername from the Pixies but she manages okay. Better than me any road [/quote] And Babylon Zoo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB5zXlwte9M

[quote name='julietgreen' timestamp='1407417724' post='2520286'] Is anyone prepared to post a photo of their grolsch bottle washer straplocks in situ? [/quote] As long as you don't mind a bit of blur, these two were readily available on this pc... (First one was my wedding day, hence the point of focus)

You can get them on eBay, just search for grolsch bottle washers. My local still sells Grolsch by the bottle, trouble is the washers these days are kind of plasticky, not like (but not totally unlike) the good old rubbery feel of old. They still do the job though, I've got a couple on my day-to-day bass. Happy to go drinking some if you want some sent on.

I've listened to both Live Art and Quick over the weekend and while I love the Flecktones, arne't American audiences terribly impressed at the slightest thing? - Vic plays open E "OH YEAH." - Vic plays pentatonic lick "WOOOOO" - Vic plays bent harmonic *screaming and hollering* - Vic starts Amazing Grace groove, cafe fails to sell out of loaves and fishes

I've been asked to play a few tunes with the band at a relative's upcoming birthday party, and the list includes Sweet Child O' Mine and On The Road Again. Sadly, it's the Sheryl Crow version of Sweet Child and the Katie Melua version of On The Road Again

+1 for Live At The Quick, also get Live Art (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Art). Then when the nights are drawing in, get their Christmas album Jingle All The Way, featuring their take on "The Twelve Days Of Christmas", each "day" has its own instrument and the appropriate time signature, and there's a guest appearance from Mongolian throat singer Kongar-ol Ondar. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DtRNRH6nP4

Good luck with it! I've played at Secret Garden Party and Bestival - one was brilliant, the other terrible, and this was largely dictated by the weather. Fingers crossed for sunshine.

Make friends with the stage manager, or whoever has access to your lock-up (you DO have a lock-up, right?)

Find a spare power socket and charge your phone during the set (turn it off, obviously)

1. await some evidence to support competence: youtube, soundcloud etc 2. meet for a pint to ensure they're not an idiot (advise a responsible adult of your whereabouts and expected return time) 3. meet at home (theirs preferably) for low-volume play-through of rehearsal material 4. spend actual time and money in a studio with other bandmates

Never assume you can use the headline act's equipment. Ask in advance, buy the bassist a pint, be nice to the gear.

Groslch bottle washers make the best straplocks.

Caught a few seconds while channel hopping. What was the point of it?

[quote name='theyellowcar' timestamp='1405273929' post='2500365'] So where do I start? What's the best way for me to find a bunch of like-minded people to make noise with? [/quote] Avoid the biggest band-related argument by deciding on the band name before recruiting anyone.

Yep, as everyone else said, try to rest it. I once had something similar, along the top of the index finger between the hand and the next knuckle out. I ignored it and ended up buggering up something in my hand which took a year or so to get right. It still twinges if I play too hard. As well as advice to turn your amp up and play lighter, get the rest of your band to turn down. If they don't, just stop playing.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1404897643' post='2496715'] True, but I wonder if they're the same four for everyone? I recognised five instantly; John Entwistle (hardly surprising), Tina Weymouth, Dusty Hill, Peter Hook and Bernard Edwards. Showing my age there, possibly... [/quote] Yep, I got those no problem by recognition. The others: 1. It's not Alex James, and he doesn't look American. So he's from Oasis (plus he looks a bit, you know) 4. That looks like the curly mop of a random Stroke on the right 6. It's not Gurno out of Haim, I've heard of Warpaint and they have a mostly-girl line-up so it must be 8. It's not Mickey Dolenz on drums, and they're too foppish to be American. Not mod enough for the Yardbirds, plus I'd probably recognise their bassist 10. Bloc Party and Snow Patrol aren't "world famous" (and if they are they shouldn't be), and he doesn't look American Bingo!

10! Some huge guesswork involved though. Although Tina Weymouth=Talking Heads is pushing it a bit, even their reunion is 12 years old now.

Here's the full list... 20. Jimmy Mack – Martha & The Vandellas – 1967 19. Uptight (Everything’s Alright) – Stevie Wonder – 1966 18. Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone - The Temptations – 1972 17. What’s Going On – Marvin Gaye -1971 16. My Cherie Amour – Stevie Wonder -1969 15. I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch) – The Four Tops – 1965 14. My Guy – Mary Wells – 1964 13. The Tracks Of My Tears – Smokey Robinson & The Miracles – 1969 12. Reach Out I’ll Be There – The Four Tops – 1966 11. I Want You Back – The Jackson 5 – 1970 10. Stop! In The Name Of Love – The Supremes – 1965 9. War – Edwin Starr – 1970 8. Baby Love – The Supremes – 1964 7. I’ll Be There – The Jackson 5 – 1970 6. The Tears Of A Clown - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles – 1970 5. My Girl – The Temptations – 1964 4. Dancing In The Street - Martha & The Vandellas – 1964 3. Ain’t No Mountain High Enough – Diana Ross – 1970 2. What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted – Jimmy Ruffin – 1966 1. I Heard It Through The Grapevine – Marvin Gaye – 1969 I suspect a fair chunk of these feature James Jamerson - can the Motown bass boffs here provide a definitive list of those that definitely do (or don't?) ps. the show is repeated next Saturday afternoon, 2.30pm

Soundgarden played all of Superunknown end-to-end, a concept that annoys me generally (I want a gig's set to be an unfolding surprise) and specifically (I prefer Badmotorfinger anyway, and half of Superunknown is a mediocre sludgefest). But anyway Let Me Drown/Fell on Black Days/Superunknown/Black Hole Sun/Spoonman were good. Sabbath: brilliant to see Tone and Geezer in such awesome form. Drummer was random rock bloke, and Oz was in good form for Oz, so below average. I wandered off for food mid-set, and then it started raining so I went home. Such is the ambivalence of the £2.50 ticket buyer! And as such, I got much more than my money's worth for the bit of Superunknown I liked and half a Sabbath set. Did anyone else get cheap ones? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/10930613/How-can-you-get-Arcade-Fire-tickets-for-2.50.html - although a gig chum on Friday suggested that the "leak" might not have been an accident but a ploy to get beer-buying punters in to boost high-profit sales (Fosters = £5/pint, Heineken = £5.50/pint - the Heineken had run out by 6pm on Friday)

Oooh, a chair. That's fancy for Enterprise.

Metallica: I downloaded the set on iPlayer, have half-watched about about an hour while ironing (something to do with hot metal) Got a bit bored with it to be honest. I'll watch the rest as I'm a big fan of Enter Sandman (it was the first song I learned to play all the way through when I was a nipper you see). This was funny though: say yeah if you want the earth to be a better place yeah! say woo if you love your brothers and sisters! woo! say yay if you're nice to people! yay! awRITE, this is a our new song it's called Ebola-Encrusted Poison Pustule On The Tip Of A ICBM Heading Your Way Hahaha atwothreefour

I watched Robert Plant's set this morning - for someone who doesn't want to play with Led Zeppelin, he played an awful lot of Led Zep songs, and the same ones he's been playing for ages. I love him but I'm glad I held off getting tickets for his tour later this year.

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1404307572' post='2491396'] That's the thing about Glastonbury. People who've never been just read about the mud and the toilets, and watch the TV coverage that depicts it as being all about standing in a field in front of a big stage. But there's so much more to the festival that doesn't get reported - and that's always where the real magic can be found. Each time I've been, we probably spend less than 10% of our time stood at the main stage, and the vast bulk of it exploring the smaller, weirder acts on the other stages. The Circus Field, the Comedy Tent, the Sacred Space late at night... etc. [/quote] Same goes for other festivals. What me and Mrs Tone found was that it wasn't the strength or otherwise of the main acts that made the weekend, but the number of punters there. So Glastonbury is way too huge, Bestival just about too big (despite having some *really* good smaller weirder areas), smaller than that pretty good. We're off to our favourite for the third year running this year, really looking forward to it.