Old Horse Murphy

I had a double-header this week and saw The Delines at The Fleece in Bristol on Tuesday. As has been my experience every time I've been there, the sound was spot on and the whole evening was sublime. I also felt very young too, given the majority of the audience! Last night I was fortunate enough to see Nile Rogers playing Bristol Harbourside. The band were on top form and it was an amazing gig, although Jerry Barnes' bass was very boomy. He was quite understated last night too compared to other times I've seen him play on TV. I preferred it and he's some player.

We were due to play in the evening after one of England's disastrous afternoon performances at a football World Cup. The landlord phoned us an hour before we were due to arrive and basically said don't bother as everyone has gone home in a mood.

Played a small local festival yesterday and although we were supposed to be on quite a bit later in the running order, our singer had a prior arrangement so we had to go on at 4pm. The "professional" sound engineers were possibly the surliest people I've encountered and for the first two songs there were no vocals or acoustic guitar through the monitors. Once they fixed that and after we/the audience endured three minutes or so of intermittent feedback, we actually played very well and have picked up a number of gigs on the back of it. My goodness it was hot work though and I'm glad I gigged the Status as I was worried about the heat affecting the action on my wooden necked basses which happened to me a few times before. Unusually for me, it was so hot I wore shorts on stage and the highlight was being told by one of the ladies in audience I had nice legs. I thanked her very much for the compliment but it was somewhat spoilt when I saw her looking for her guide dog shortly afterwards that was hovering by the food stand.

I've got one of the Markbass thingys. You'd be more than welcome to try it out for a few days if you want to Ian

My favourite colour scheme for a P Bass

I sold a blue Ric 4003S a few years back to a lovely chap who lived out past Cardiff. We agreed to meet at one of the service on the M4 to hand it over. He was telling me that having recently lost his cherished blue 4003 while touring the US (fortunately recovered) he wanted to buy a spare to use for overseas tours in case it happened again. Turned out it was Paul Gray from Eddie and the Hotrods/ The Damned. Nice guy. He said he was going to use the bass the following day for a gig in Bath/Bristol (can't remember) but my friend was going to it and told me she'd take a pic for me. He was true to his word so I'm glad it went to a good home 😊

Under 3kg? Wow! There must be some prisoners inside trying to tunnel out or something.

I’ve never like the mids on the Stingray 3eq and generally cut them too. Apparently Gail Ann Dorsey dials hers in with the bass on full and both mids and treble all the way back. It obviously works for her and who am I to argue!

If it’s any consolation I’ve had three shoulder ops caused by too much rugby and had a similar setup in my right shoulder to you. It took a while to heal but it did get better and while I’ll no longer be able to compete in the javelin on the world stage (not that I could before) as long as you do your exercises, it will improve. I don’t know where you’re based but you’d be more than welcome to try out one of my Hohner Jacks possibly for a long-term loan. Hang tough and wishing you a speedy recovery.

It's been going on for several hundred years so it's not a particularly new phenomenon, unless you're a tortoise I guess.

I can see that being problematic. I'm keeping the Conservatoire and selling the 1950 so at least I won't have that problem 😂