darkandrew

I know I shouldn't have done it but I have just dug out my old Toyah "The Changeling" CD, played it and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. I also now feel the need to confess to more than just a passing appreciation for ABBA. So having got that off my chest, has anyone else got any guilty pleasures (of the musical variety!) that they feel the need to confess?

I took the gamble and bought the CD at the weekend and .... well I'm pleasently surprised. It's very musical, very listenable and very almost a Yes album. In the same way that many die-hard Yes fans refuse to accept Drama as being a proper Yes album, I can understand why this will also be viewed as not being a "real" Yes album by many fans but put that to one side and what you have is a very well played and very well recorded album.

[quote name='visog' timestamp='1342285078' post='1732849'] 'Close to the Edge' and 'Relayer' are stunning and good luck learning the bass parts, let alone the vocal harmonies! [/quote] The mischievous side of me really, really wants to go into work one day and say "right kids, today you're going to learn to play The Gates of Delirium ..."

[quote name='spongebob' timestamp='1342279352' post='1732738'] Got to say it (maybe we should have a poll!), my favourite is 'Relayer'....but anything from their debut to 'Drama' works for me. [/quote] Although Drama probably just makes it as my favourite Yes album, without doubt my single favourite track is "Gates of Delirium" from Relayer.

Sorry, "newish" Yes album

[quote name='Stacker' timestamp='1342251415' post='1732256'] Drama was my least fav Yes album and so was the line-up that produced it; they were awful, live, as well. [/quote] It often polarises opinion, I colleague of mine at work (the other half of the music dept. at school) is an absolute Yes nut but won't even listen to Drama.

Hi, has anyone bought the new Yes album "Fly from here"? I see from the press release that it's pretty much the "Drama" incarnation of Yes but with a new singer and seeing as "Drama" is probably my favourite Yes album, when listened to as a whole album, I'm hoping that it's going to be quite good.

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1342177453' post='1730847'] A small ( ) selection of my own personal favourites, in no particular order (other than the order in which I thought of them!): ... Yes – Fragile, The Yes album and Drama [/quote] At last, someone else that appreciates "Drama" by Yes. As a complete album this is my favourite Yes album (even though purists will argue that it's not [i]really[/i] a Yes album).

[quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1341953593' post='1727067'] For "feel" try The Cure and/or Simple Minds - great work by both Bassists!! [/quote] I agree - Simon Gallup of The Cure is an excellent bassist, very melodic and combined really well with Borris Williams' drums on the Disintegration album. Likewise Derek Forbes of Simple Minds - absolutely excellent bassist, great "groove" and feel (check out some of the bass parts on the New Gold Dream album, actually there's a really good youtube clip that he put up of how to play the bassline from Colours Fly). There's also a track that he recorded with Billy Currie of Ultravox and Steve Howe of Yes called India (which is on Billy Currie's first solo album) that is worth finding and giving a listen.

Oh and another of my favourite albums to listen and play along to is Exodus by Bob Marley and the Wailers.

What no Rogers/Edwards recordings? The first couple of Chic albums are always worth a listen, as is Sister Sledge's "We are family".

I have four basses, two of them are fitted with active pickups and active pre-amps (a Specter with EMG pickups and tonepump preamp, and a Warwick with MEC pickups and preamp) whilst the other two are fitted with passive pickups and active preamps. It may be just coincidence but both my basses that have active pickups seem to have a softer attack than my passive ones. As I understand it, it's a fundimental part of the design philosophy of active pickups to incorporate a preamp in the pickup itself and I assume this design also incorporates some kind of noise gate which would lead to a softer attack - does this reasoning sound about right? I did think that maybe the neck-through construction of the Spector and Warwick may have something to do with it but one of the other basses is an Aria SB1000 which is also of neck-through construction but has an attack that is so fast you can almost hear it before you actually play it.

If I could give just one piece of advice it would be to not limit yourself to any one genre. The kids at the school where I teach often ask me what stuff I listen to and they can't understand how I can listen to Chic one minute and then Marilyn Manson the next. The same goes for choosing pieces of music to learn from - I know you've said you're into alternative rock but learning to play a Chic song or even a BeeGees song can not only be great fun but you can learn alot from them. So on that score - I'd recommend you have a go at the bassline on Good Times by Chic or We Are Family by Sister Sledge.

I had no idea it was so controversial. I suppose, like Paul Simon apparently, I thought that the purpose of the boycott was to show the South African government that the rest of world wanted nothing to do with them - not to silence black musicians and deprive them of a stage to both play their music and remind the rest of the world of their plight. Maybe I was just naive.

Just a shameless plug for Derek Forbes (Simple Minds, Propaganda) who is one of my all-time "bass heroes". I've just noticed on his website that he and Brian McGee (also of Simple Minds and Propaganda) have put together some gigs in the next few months as XSM (Ex-Simple Minds): [url="http://derekforbes.com/bassist/tour-dates.php"]http://derekforbes.com/bassist/tour-dates.php[/url] Shameless plug over!

Later on I started up my own goth band (for which I feel I must apologise) and put a load of stuff on multi-track (drums, keyboards, etc) which made gigging a hell of a lot easier. Who needs drummers anyway, they just end up drinking all the beer and eating all the biscuits!

Just finished it. It was OK - not their best, not their worst either. Pretty much an average Ultravox type album which after a 30 year break is quite surprising really (although what did I expect - Ultravox doing dubstep?) The album closer is a bit of strange one, kind of Ultravox doing jazz but the rest was pretty much a combination of Vienna / Rage in Eden / Lament with a bit of Visage's The Anvil thrown in for good measure (even features some Arp Odyssey solos). Out of ten I'd give it a seven.

This has just prompted me to do some looking around the internet and I came across a youtube upload claiming to be The Blockheads' version of Relax which was indeed very different from the released verson. Very funky and very different. I remember seeing a TV documentary about Ian Dury a couple of years ago and up until that time I'd never realised just how good The Blockheads were.

I remember carrying my 15" bass combo in my arms with my bass in a gigbag on my back all around the underground network from gig to gig in London when I was younger. That was hard work! I can't remember from memory what the drummer used to do with his kit though.

I'm just listening to the new Ultravox album, "Brilliant", which arrived from Amazon today. So far, so good - a couple of tracks have stood out so far ("Live" and "Remembering"); the expected Ultravox trademarks are there - dramatic piano lines, monosynth bass lines, etc. I'll write a bit more when I've finished listening to it.

Great clip - I'm a real fan of Trevor's work but I was always led to believe that it was The Blockheads that played on Frankie's Pleasuredome album.

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