bassbiscuits

Freddie, Bon, Ozzy, David Lee Roth, Steven Tyler etc. All legendary frontmen. I’m going to stick my neck out and guess some of them aren’t/weren’t the easiest people to deal with, and not great at conforming without putting their own stamp on it and their own ideas. To many people a frontman is the visible face, voice and mouthpiece of a band. Pretty unlikely to have a band in which a strong front person doesn’t stamp their identity in some way, so pick a good one.

I suspect music a bit like the apparent mental benefits of learning another language - they are both quite abstract, complex skills which people devise different ways of adapting to make their own. Both have got to involve a wealth of quite advanced brain skills. And if it makes us more attractive to the opposite sex then hey, jackpot.

I would add to that the social benefits of being in a band. Most of my friends are people I’ve met through through music, and playing in a band has given me with much of my travel and life experiences. Also a lot of what I’ve learned about the world, people and about myself has been via the “musician” part of my life, which has been the only stable thread running thru a lot of it. Definitely agree on the cognitive side of it as well. I don’t read music so the mental imagery I use to map out what I’m learning is quite elaborate. And I reckon that years of picking out basslines and vocal harmonies from all the other music is quite a skill of concentration and selection. So yeah. Basically being a musician is a superpower yay.

Amps will say something on the back about how many watts they put out at how many ohms. Something like 300w/8ohms or 500/4ohms for example. Similarly the cabinet should say whether it’s 8ohms or 4ohms. So you just need to make sure that the cabinet / speakers can handle the amount of power they’re receiving from the amp at the corresponding number of ohms. So a 300w 8ohm cab would work fine with an amp head that puts out anything up to 300w at 8ohms. Not sure if that’s what you needed to know. Apologies if it wasn’t, and hope it’s helpful if it was.

Thanks man. Hoping it’s the start of an exciting journey for him 🤞

I bought my eldest lad a Squier Strat and a Blackstar practice amp for Christmas, but gave it to him a few days early for a local community gig we both did. I didn’t/don’t have any money at the moment to treat myself to anything very exciting after that! I think my biggest festive music-themed indulgence was blowing £5 on a bottle of alcohol free lager at a gig. Yikes.

Not got a NYE gig this year. To be honest New Year isnt a great time for me (some quite unhappy associations with it) so I don’t mind being at home with my family. Besides, I’ve played on most of the last 20 NYEs since I’ve been gigging regularly so I won’t miss a few.

In my main band I’d be quite hard to replace. I’m one third of the band - I play bass, sing harmonies and a couple of lead vocals, am involved in songwriting with the band leader and also own the PA and lights. As a three piece with plenty of room in the music we each sound quite distinctive and removing any one changes things a lot. In my other bands, yeah I can be replaced quite readily and occasionally I am when gigs are depped out. I like to think they miss my input if I’m away, but I’m sure they survive perfectly well.

Don’t lower your own standards to fit in with someone else’s.

Final gig of the year with the Andy Wales Band at Bar Dos Hermanos in Leicester. It’s a sort of Cuban-themed tapas bar and I wasn’t aware it had live bands until recently. But it turned out to be ace. Decent turnout despite the freezing windy weather, and a relaxed vibe. Brought just my little PA (pair of old Mackie SRM350s and a little Allen and Heath desk) and a single cab bass rig but it was plenty. Really fitting end to my gigging year, with a cosy local Sunday afternoon gig. Here’s to 2025.

As a 12 year old picking up a bass in 1986 my bass gods were: Gene Simmons Steve Harris Duff McKagan Billy Sheehan Tom Hamilton I’ve ripped off a few ideas from all of them along the way. Started guitar at 14 in 1988 so my main influences were: The Beatles John Martyn Mark Knopfler Paul Weller Angus Young I’ve also always loved Matthias Jabs from the Scorpions but can’t say I’ve ever managed to play like him.

The fact it’s no longer used for ghost hunting suggests they’ve found the ghost and stopped looking…. More info needed for sure.

A varied weekend. Gigged at the Flying Circus in Newark with the Andy Wales Band on Saturday night. Our dep drummer did a sterling job despite not having had a chance to rehearse together. Then on Sunday I did the sound and lighting for the local kids guitar club Christmas concert at the village hall. Encouraging to see schoolchildren taking such an interest in playing instruments, and having been involved with a few of these events over the years you can see their abilities developing. Nicely done.

Del Amitri at Sheffield Leadmill on Thursday night. One of my favourite bands (and one of my consistently favourite songwriters in Justin Currie). Performance-wise it was great - Justin doing a charismatic job on vocals, acoustic guitar and bass; Iain Harvie bringing the guitar grit and the rest of the line up turning in a solid show packed with great sing along songs from the last 30+ years. But the sound out front wasn’t good - a bass drum and booming low end so painfully loud it swamped everything else and obliterated much of the nuance and dynamics of the songs. In contrast the encore of largely acoustic songs with lush vocal harmonies and accordion was a delight - without the overwhelmingly loud drums, they benefited from a lightness of touch that allowed these songs to absolutely shine as a result. They were some of the best and most engaging moments of the night. Overall a heartwarming gig, well-received by a capacity crowd, but hampered by poor sound out front.

Del Amitri at the Sheffield Leadmill in about three hours time.

Ah I wish! No it’s a Yamaha BB604 which is the same basic body shape and control layout and has a budget version of the NE-1 preamp in it. It’s a wicked bass and thankfully about 10% of the cost of a proper Nathan East one!

Matinee and evening gig with Elton Joel at Bibi’s Italianissimo in Leeds. It’s a bit of a regular December double gig for us and the nearest we get to a band Christmas party. Took along my usual Markbass traveller rig and cracked out the old P Bass as well as the Yamaha for a special event (both sounded dead nice actually onstage). Good crowds for both shows - lots of singing along and dancing and some very eager Kiki Dees lending their voices to it. Knackered but happy. Cup of tea and to bed I reckon.

That’s lovely that is

This one

Cheers Andy. Yeah I hadn’t really factored in this stuff! The quest goes on then…

Yeah cheers. I think I’m beginning to understand how complicated it can be! I’m fine with one looper - it’s just a case of getting it in time and then the entire phrase is locked together, but spreading it over two loopers has that ability for them to drift apart as you say. Hmm indeed.

December 1988, in a school common room where my older brother was a sixth former, with a band without a name. I just rang my bro and he can’t remember the first song either. The set definitely featured some Poison, Def Leppard and er, Wild Thing. VHS does exist of it somewhere, interrupted by someone announcing she was serving cake. Added info: gear was my white Westone Spectrum ST bass into a borrowed Carlsbro bass combo of some sort.

Eh up. So I’ve been having so much fun with my Boss RC1 looper that I picked up an RC3 this week with a view to running them both on a board - the idea being for have more control over different bits to drop in and out. However it doesn’t seem to be that simple. The second looper in the chain records whatever is coming down the signal path from the first looper, which means it’s doubling up on that as well as adding whatever I put into the second looper and things quickly sound terrible (and also seem to drift out of time rapidly). Am I missing something obvious here? To have two separate loopers going would I need to have an A/B pedal of some sort, to stop one merely repeating the other one?