bassbiscuits

Great pics! Nicely done.

My trusty pair of BB604 basses. Gave them a wipe down after a particularly sweaty gig last night, and thought they looked lovely in the autumn sunshine on my settee. Not traditional BB shapes, but BB basses nonetheless.

Played at the ARC in Stockton on Tees with Elton Joel as part of the Counterfest tribute festival which is spread over six venues throughout the town centre. That whole bit of town was dead busy with people hopping between venues to see the different acts on. Great vibe to it fair play! Stage space was quite limited so stuck with one Yamaha bass throughout and my small Markbass traveller rig. Onstage sound at sound check was quite indistinct but once the place was full it all made sense and was much clearer. Steamy hot and busy gig too. Nicely done. Also made full use of the clocks going back to get an extra hour kip after three-hour drive back home to Leicestershire….

Yup I dropped music lessons at school at the first chance because I hated them - unengaging, badly taught and with no element of performance at all. It was some bloke rambling on about classical composers which meant nothing to a bunch of 1980s teenagers. Sad really as I’ve spent my whole life playing and relying on my own devices. Seems to have worked out ok.

Best formal lesson for me was a tutor called Thomas Lorenzo at Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts in 1998. I was in his class for a two-week summer school and his speciality was arrangement. He first got me thinking about how to use proper arrangements to make songs come alive. What a legend he is/was. Proper dude. Informal? Probably everything else that I learned from playing along to records.

Fantastic! We are meant to be playing there in December so hopefully that’s back on the cards.

Hmm not really no. I didn’t own a compressor until a couple of years later and have mids and highs all on flat anyway, with a flatwound P bass. Just didn’t have the right sort of sound or response I was after. Horses for courses innit.

Yamaha BB604 bass with a Markbass Little Mark 2 or 3 head into two Markbass cabs (usually a Traveller 2x10 and Traveller 1x12.) I play mainly loud rock and blues, and I’m quite heavy handed whether I’m using a pick or fingers. For an allegedly clean sounding set up it can get surprisingly gritty and gnarly at volume. Sounds great tho.

Briefly owned a Barefaced Big Twin 2 (I think) a couple of years ago and didn’t really get on with it at all. Yes it was unbelievably lightweight and could handle my amp (a Markbass Little Mark lll) running very very loud, but the sound just wasn’t for me - I get that they are meant as super transparent FRFR cabs but I found they lacked the bassy thump I look for in my onstage sound. Ended up with some Markbass Traveller cabs and couldn’t be happier. Still very portable and lightweight but with the familiar character of bass cabs too.

Quite boring practical stuff from me - best was a s/h Boss BCB-60 effects pedal case back in January, to replace my homemade one (which then became my acoustic guitar effects board). Also a nice Landlord Effects Taproom Delay pedal for my little acoustic guitar effects board. Princely sum of £29 for a little pedal which does exactly what I need. Worst was probably my Ashdown ABM500 head. Nothing wrong with it at all, but didn’t really use it much at first and then decided I preferred my existing rig so sold it on. Not a disaster - just a slight detour…

I average about 20-30 gigs a year, so a couple a month usually. That’s enough for me with family, kids, studies and work.

I have NYXLs on both my Yamahas which have been on for about a year maybe and still sound fine. The P bass has old Labella flat wounds on it. I bought them secondhand on Basschat about five years ago so no idea of their true age but they sound lush and have done a load of gigs with me.

Have recently discovered the Seldom Seen Kid by Elbow and fallen in love with it.

Much the same with O’Neills in Leicester. Decent pub gig which I’ve done many times over the years, can get a bit rowdy, but stuck in a pedestrianised section of The Lanes in the old bit of the city centre with a terrible job to load in. Parking anywhere nearby is also in very short supply making it all more of a mission than it should be.

And because drunk people sing and dance to it.

Likewise Mrs Bassbiscuits is very cool about my various basses, acoustic guitars, amps etc. I also cringe when I read those “have to hide it from my wife” type For Sale threads. She doesn’t regularly come to my gigs unless they are really cool ones like Alexandra Palace or some special occasion. But she’s 100% supportive of my gigging, and I just make sure that I’m useful when I am around the house to pay back her kindness.

Also Amy Winehouse at V Festival, Staffordshire, in 2009 I think. At the height of her “tabloid fodder” period unfortunately. Band started up, no sign of Amy for a good ten mins until she stumbled onto the stage. Show was an absolute shambles. Clearly was in a bad place at the time and sadly it showed.

Ryan Adams at Leicester DMH in 2015. Curiously he played rhythm guitar with his own support band which I thought was quite cool. But once the main set started he was dreadful. Seemed half asleep, lacklustre, lots of mumbling banter and pointless jokes no one could understand. He only played one song I even vaguely recognised, and that was played at a half-speed dirge. So disappointing.

Del Amitri in Sheffield Leadmill in December. Been a lifelong fan of theirs since hearing them on Steve Wright in the Afternoon back in the 1980s, but never been to see them. Time is running out to see them perform I suspect, with Justin’s Parkinson’s diagnosis. Also my missus has got us tickets for The Darkness in Leicester next year. It’s only a few miles from our house so it would be rude not to frankly.

Er not on this occasion! But I got a damp cloth out this morning and got all the grime off it.

Possibly my last gig at Leicester’s legendary music venue The Donkey. It’s changing hands next month and no certainty it will continue to host live music. We (the Andy Wales Band) stepped in last minute to do this gig, and there was a fairly good turn out of appreciative people including some unexpected old friends and familiar faces along the way. On a geeky note I was glad to be back to my Markbass head and cab after the last few gigs for which I’ve used an Ashdown head - nice sound, but just not for me. Bass is filthy and sweaty this morning - usually the sign of a good, loud, hot gig in my books.

Thanks all - some good ideas there. I’ve gone with some tape for now but I’ve got some back up ideas from you if that doesn’t work. Nice one.