Rayman

I did a cartoon of him a while back…. Fantastic bass player.

Khruangbin last night in Manchester. A bit of an odd one…. IMO, the Apollo is not the right venue for this. The band were fabulous of course, but the lighting was abysmal, and the sound questionable. I’d much prefer seeing them at an outdoor festival, in the sun for the chilled vibes they present. I was delighted to have Row A in the circle, thinking I was literally on the front row with a great view and sound. Wrong…. my seat was a ways off to the right with a very restricted view (couldn’t see the drummer) and a bunch of rows in front of me, which seemed to be occupied by the local basketball team. Not the venues fault, but disappointing for me. Also it was freezing! I’m usually too hot at gigs, but I had a zipped up leather jacket on throughout. They’re an amazing band, such fantastic musicians, and if you’re in the mood for chilled grooves they’re the band for you.

I wish I knew? Dave Green has just serviced it literally a couple of months ago. This was the first moment I turned it on since getting it back. It flashed, and tripped half the board in the venue. So, there’s something not right in there somewhere.

The Rigger in Newcastle under Lyme. Great little venue, always fun to play there. My bad luck with amps continues though…. the Ashdown ABM500 head went pop on me, again, so thankfully my trusty little TC BQ500 stepped in. A great sound all around in the end.

Jah Wobble. Absolute legend.

A hot one….. absolutely great crowd too.

Best: Fender Meteora. It took the place of the Thunderbirds for live stuff. Worst: Vox Pathfinder 10 practice amp. Absolutely rubbish.

I know right?

Seeing Jah Wobble on Saturday, Kruangbin in a couple of weeks, then Anthrax a couple of days later

My black ones are too heavy too, although the more battered one sounds fantastic. Weirdly the white one and the red one are lighter and much more gig friendly.

Pahahaha……. I had one of the Squier ones a while back….. I thought it was ok once I’d upgraded almost everything on it! 😆 It can’t be that long ago since Charvel brought out their latest version? You can still buy them, although I really didn’t like the look of them at all. You can also still get the LTD version I think…. I Have to say, for me, I don’t like this new shape either. It’s not the model he’s been playing live? I’m seeing Anthrax in a couple of weeks, it’ll be interesting to see.

Is there a manufacturer that hasn’t made a Frank Bello signature bass?

Pino

Yeah, it’s 5yrs old, and it’s basically silver now. The weird thing is that it’s constantly silver all over, back to front, except where it was covered. Suggests that the clear lacquer is not particularly UV resistant. I love the colour now. The company I work for have a pigment restorer designed to revive the colour, but I decided not to use it.