darkandrew

I've just been watching a documentary on Iggy Pop and been reminded not just of his brilliance but also of his tendancy to get fully naked on stage. Now, I've got to confess that this is something that I just don't understand - I've been a gigging musician on and off for nearly 30 years and I've never been tempted to go naked. Ok, so the 20 or so most recent years have been as a teacher in school, and such things are generally frowned upon, but even in my Britpop days, I never had the urge to go out on stage and "whip it out". So my question is this; am I missing out on some life affirming experience? What are your thoughts on this?

Not necessarily - I think a 2008 bass is a 2008 bass. I've noticed with one of my guitars in particular, where I have 3 of the same make and model (MIJ ESP Eclipse) but all of different years, that the older they get, the more resonant they become, so being older isn't necessarily a bad thing. But back to my earlier point - it must be even more difficult for smaller stores to compete if they can't afford to carry large amounts of boxed stock and then have to discount what they do have because it's been used (and in some cases, abused) by every Mark King or Slash wannabe in the local area for the preceding six months.

That's a similar question to asking whether a "new" bass or guitar that's been hanging on a music store's wall for six months (and played by all and sundry during that time) is actually still "new" or should it be sold as used? Often, smaller music stores will only have one example of a particular model and they display it in the store. So if they don't carry boxed stock, should they sell all their stock as used and price it accordingly?

Another vote for Relayer but then, controversially maybe, I'm going to go for Drama and Fly From Here as my next favourites. As has already been expressed, Gates of Delirium from Relayer is undoubtedly a masterpiece but I also hold Machine Messiah from Drama in similar esteem. As for Fly from here, it's a lot lighter and more accessible than a lot of other Yes albums but that's not necessarily a bad thing, and on the topic of Fly From Here, I bought the "return trip" (Drama lineup) version from Pledge Music and it's even better than the original.

My wife's family are from Hong Kong and they stock up on cosmetics, baby products, etc whenever they come over here because the shops over there are so full of fakes that you can never be sure of what you're actually buying. It's now become such a big problem (babies poisoned by fake baby milk, etc) that the authorities are now beginning to take action against the counterfeiters but it's so embedded in the system that it's going to take a long time to clean up.

The Rob Chapman videos in Korea, when he visited the factory where his guitars are made, is also very interesting. I was particularly surprised at how much "human input" went into producing budget and mid-priced guitars, I had assumed (wrongly, it appears) that they'd be 99% CNC produced.

Keith Flint's recent passing has upset me more than the passing of many other musicians. I don't really know why, I was never a massive Prodigy fan but it could be because he's around my own age, or maybe it's because he was actually just a very "normal" and apparently really sweet guy, or maybe it's all of these factors meaning that I can easily identify with him? Who knows - it's strange the way that some things affect you more than others.

"Become Forever" by The Last Dance: 14 years on and still one of my favourite songs from one of my favourite albums.

I don't know about the original SB1000 but my JT had a wider neck than my EBMM Sterling.

My introduction to the amazing talent of Simon Phillips was through this and other Toyah records from the early 80s:

I have often wondered why radio stations, etc, have never seemed to notice that. It's not as though it's a one-off either, the sample is repeated quite a few times (what the f@ck, what the f@ck, what the f@ck was that?). Maybe it says "what the funk?", or at least that's what the radio stations have been told. On a side note, I once saw EMF in concert, downstairs in London's Astoria and they were absolutely brilliant. To this day, it's still probably the best gig I've been to - excellent musicianship, great relationship between the band and audience, great songs; just an absolutely brilliant atmosphere.

Just read this on the BBC News app: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-47473120 It turns out that Bryan Adams' "Summer of 69" isn't about the summer of 1969 but is actually "a sexual reference". There you go, who would have thought that? Are there any songs that you thought were about one thing but turned out to be about something else instead?

I'm particularly glad that no one's mentioned the Flying Pickets' version of "Only You" that made it to No.1 - one place higher than Yazoo's original.

One for the Depeche Mode fans - this band released a cover of the entire "A Broken Frame" album and it's rather good, especially the cover of "My Secret Garden" which is arguably better than the original.

And who can forget Strawberry Fields by Candy Flip? Most people, probably.

Currently listening to the new Queensryche album, The Verdict. And the shocker is that it's actually quite good, definitely the best since Promised Land (and that was 25 years ago!). OK, so there's not many original members of Queensryche left now, first we lost the lead guitarist and one of the main song writers, then we lost the vocalist (who happened to be the band's other main song writer) and now we appear to have also lost the drummer, but if you forget that the band have become a bit of "Trigger's broom" and therefore maybe a bit of tribute act to themselves, the actual album is a pretty good 45 minutes of music. It's a lot more varied than their previous offering, which was a bit of a tedious and relentless ride to be honest, and has a few songs that can stand up quite competently alongside the better stuff of their earlier back catalogue.

On a thread on our sister "guitar chat" website, I've written about a guitar I bought from a seller on eBay with the "click and collect" option: the guitar was handed over to Parcel Force on the Monday, it went across country and went out to my local Argos on the Tuesday, the driver couldn't find the Argos store (hint to driver - it's a big warehouse type superstore on an industrial estate and it has "Argos" written above it) and took it back to the depot. The depot then sent it back to the national hub, who then sent it back to the sender, who in turn received it back on the Friday. In the end the whole sale fell apart and he had to relist it, and was left with a bill for the failed delivery - nice one Parcel Force.

They may have had a sign or poster up somewhere saying that photography and / or filming were taking place, and your being there implies acceptance of this (most venues, nightclubs, etc have something like this somewhere).

As far as I know, they do. The only argument that could be used against the use of your image would be that it is misleading people by suggesting that you're playing when you're not - but that's more of an advertising standards type thing rather than an argument over your right to own your likeness or not.

I assume it's a UK based festival? As I understand it, in the UK you do not own you own image - as peculiar as this may seem. This means that if someone has legitimately taken a photo or video of you then they can use it - in fact the person that took the photo or photo actually does own it, which is why you can't just take one of your professionally taken wedding photos into Jessops and ask them to make you a copy. Even though you have paid for a copy of the photo, and even though you are in the photo, the copyright to the photo belongs to the photographer who took it.

Ooops, I think I've just come over all unnecessary. I did buy an SB1000 re-issue once, the John Taylor signature one with the Oak coloured wings and black hardware. I think I paid about £1500 for it, which at the time seemed like a lot of money, but thinking back to it - it was a beautiful bass, a real work if art and worth every penny.

And here's my Westone Spectrum GT too. I'm surprised how popular they appear to have been - they were great basses (typical Matsumoku) but I don't ever remember seeing anyone else playing one back in the day.

Just watched the first 2 episodes of The Defiant Ones on BBC4 last night and found it really interesting. Before watching, I thought the Jimmy Iovine story would be of most interest to me but I actually found the Dr Dre stuff more so - I think his reputation and dare I say it - the image of hip hop generally, unduly undermine a very smart, intelligent artist and businessman. As for Jimmy Iovine? Yes he's had some luck but as the old saying goes, "you make your own luck" and in Iovine's case it appears to have been made by hard graft - so good luck to him. The second episode left us in the early 80's and I'm looking forward to the next instalment next Friday.

I won't name the shop but I had a hankering for a particular guitar and found one in stock at a well known and well respected music shop. Before clicking on the buy button I thought I'd drop them an email just to check that they did actually have one in stock - the reply was that they did have one, on the shop floor of one of their stores and that it had some damage ("buckle rash") on the back. So, what if I hadn't checked first? Would they have taken my money and palmed me off with a damaged guitar, hoping I'd just accept it? It wasn't even as if they'd discounted the guitar, they were still selling it at the same price as another well known music shop and even when I queried the guitar's condition, I wasn't offered any sort of discount. Needless to say, I ended up getting the guitar elsewhere and will be careful with any future orders from them.

I remember seeing a video recording of a pub jam night (I think it was down in Folkstone) where Brian Nash of Frankie Goes To Hollywood got up and played The Power of Love - while not necessarily "World Class" it was actually surprisingly good. Edit: Here it is (and it even features Steve Monti of Curve / Jesus and Mary Chain on drums).