Dapper Bandit

Whilst there is a gap in the market from the supply end, I'm not too sure there is enough demand here to justify. A couple of promotion companies have gone under trying and there is another who I believe is doing modestly (in a breaking even kind of way). As @Leonard Smalls points out, there's a good number of people out there who are happy to sink their drinks and shout at one another. I remember playing a gig (several years ago now) where we went on before 11pm and despite having a pretty good number of fans we played to an empty room because they were all still in their preferred boozer. Walking 10 minutes down the road to a venue hosting a band they liked was completely outside the realms of possibility because they were having a drink in the pub. And the venue in question also served alcohol! A band I was in was once invited to take part in a local arts festival and as a result we were given a couple of free tickets that could be cashed in at other events that were part of the festival. One such event was seeing British Sea Power playing a new score to an old film (Man of Arran"?) at the local Opera House. It was half empty because the bar wasn't open...

I've pretty much dropped out of gigging now. The scene here is awful from my perspective and I just can't bring myself to go back out there. As someone who doesn't have an interest in performing covers, here are some of my reasons why: There is not a dedicated live music venue that will allow on local acts, the arts centre and opera house is al about bringing over UK folk acts / tribute bands. If you are local you play in a handful of pubs. If you are an originals band there are now two pubs that will let you play in their upstairs room. One pub is a proper skeevy dive, the room is literally the size of an average front room so drumkit/PA/amps is never going to happen if you want punters in. The other pub ropes off the stairs to the room when it's in use so you have to be "in the know" to even be aware there is live music on. The crowd is non-existant. A once thriving originals scene has dwindled down to people who are in bands and their mates that they can drag along to see them play. I used to be at gigs every Friday and Saturday night just to see who was playing, some nights not even knowing a single face. The lineups were varied and everyone would give every band a chance. Now the friends watch their mates play and then leave. The music is staid. No more mixed bills. You going to see a singer-songwriter play? Hope you like 4 other similarly befrowned young men pouring their poetry out over 4 similarly wrought collections of chord progressions. Metal night? How does 5 bands hammering away on precisely the same theme for 4 1/2 tickle your fancy (this was my last gig)? How does a jazz night sound to you? Oh, we don't have those over here. Same for funk/soul. Not a single band. The main drive behind young musicians here is to form a cover band good enough to play the one pub that would not automatically qualify as a festering pit. This one pub will retain the services of a single cover band in 6 month stints so all these kids are clamouring for a 6 month residency that if they're lucky might lead to them getting a wedding gig and then splitting up. There are a lot of contributing factors to this dire state of affairs but for me it's enough. I've had it up to my back teeth with driving miles back on ourselves to fetch our drumkit because the one promised by organisers never appeared and not one of the other 3 bands owned a drumkit. I'm finished with letting people borrow my amp so they can blow the cabinet and skip off scott-free (that was a fun one as that was a touring band that got paid and I am mates with the promoter. Lot's of "are you sure it wasn't fecked before the guy with the bass tuned to F# turned everything up to 10 and played as hard as he physically could on it?") I've grown bored of watching opening bands dragging all their friends off to a post-gig celebration party somewhere else before their drummer has finished removing their cymbals. I play instruments because I love music. Not playing live doesn't make anyone less of a musician just the same as belting out Chelsea Dagger down the Dog and Sausage doesn't make you less of a musician. I would love to be part of a group of people making and recording music we are passionate about. Maybe the occasional gig done right would be a real occasion to look forward to (something a bit more special than matching ties and a cheap banner hung behind the drumkit, maybe playing to a movie being projected or something). But the realities of my situation leave me to think that this isn't going to happen anytime soon and that makes me sad. But not sad enough to trudge on through the gigs that are available!

There have indeed always been excellent rock bands outside of English speaking countries, whom you could only find out about initially through niche interest 'zines/tape trading and later forums. Now the internet has reached ubiquity in our lives it's inevitable that this sort of cultural cross-pollination will occur. And everyone will be the better for it! I personally found my horizons massively expanded when delving into the Japanese new-prog movement in the late 90's/early 00's and if more people discover bands like Boredoms, Ruins or Zeni Geva then who knows where music will go next?

I've never used a pedalboard, always been more of a "put the pedals I'm using on the stage" kinda guy. I've learnt a couple of things along the way. I love a digital delay, most of the pedals I've bought in the last 5 years haven't hung around (which is frustrating as I basically got my needs sorted hundreds of £'s ago!) and the HM-2 is still my favourite distortion of all time.

Having tried a few, this is the fuzz that has stayed with me the longest and probably will never leave my side. It's a real shame Chunk is no more as this was a real gem of a pedal and they're getting very hard to find now.

Hasn't rock been declining since the late 90s? Watched a little bit of Scuzz back in the day, can't say I recall it being anything other than a slightly edgier version of Kerrang. Which is always doomed to fail in an expensive enterprise such as a TV channel as more niche interests aren't going to draw in the viewing figures required. I knew a lad back in the day who wrote Scuzz a really rude email about them not airing death metal bands in the primetime slots any more and he couldn't understand that not as many people will want to see Glen Benton as those who want to look at Paramore.

That's a Japanese domestic model, the Amaze series is a world-beating jazz bass. I've read reviews that have placed then higher than Sadowsky! I own a 4 string version of this and it's a true delight from top to bottom.

Bought a bass from Tom, to say he went the extra mile was an understatement! Great bass, great price and great bloke!

The Gravitas is a ridiculously lovely pedal, the Chase Bliss stuff is pricey but I honestly think they are a top tier company and the value for money is actually pretty good when you consider the range of sounds available from each pedal. For example the Warped Vinyl hifi does a lush chorus, great wobbly vibrato and evens gets phasey at certain settings. The Moog Ring Modulator also has a lush tremolo at lower settings, I seem to recall it could go pretty choppy as well but I haven't used it for that in quite a while.

Very surprised that when talking Japanese P-basses nobody has mentioned the Ibanez Blazer! Played a ratty looking one against a MIA Fender years ago, bought it on the spot as it completely smoked the competition! Still massively underpriced for the quality so I'll probably never part with mine. Slightly more expensive is the ESP Vintage 4, now discontinued and quite hard to find second hand but in my opinion this is probably the best P bass ever made. They crop up on here every so often and usually a similar price or cheaper than a US Fender and there is no competition in my mind, if money were no object I would buy every single one I see!