casapete

Great singer, guitarist and writer, top bloke too. When he played a local gig a few years ago, he covered the Lou Reed song ‘Perfect Day’, and as there had been a popular charity version of it in the charts he got various members of the audience up on stage to copy singing the celebrity parts, really funny.

Thanks, I’ll bear that in mind if I’m doing any restringing then!

Out of interest, any idea what caused the A string to break? They seem quite robust strings to me , and have never had any problems with them on my Ibanez or Taylor GS.

Although a lot of us take singers for granted sometimes, it is a lousy thing to be when you’re ill. I’ve never had to cancel a gig through illness ( apart from when I broke my arm!) but as a backing vocalist I know how difficult it can be when there are colds / flu and other stuff kicking around. My last band had to cancel gigs in theatres on a few occasions when our lead singer lost his voice, and it’s such a hard decision to make. Deps are so difficult to find too - usually if they are any good then they’ll be out working with their own band or even doing solo gigs. Unless your band are playing generic well known covers then it’s a big call to find someone available and suitable.

Any idea what channel number it is? Can’t find it on Freeview in my area.

You gonna bust some similar moves then Mick? 😆

Absolutely. In my old band we used to do a few medleys, and the various songs were joined together by either the main riffs or a few bars of drums. For example,we did a ten minute Motown medley which made this quite easy, as many have well known riffs / intros which are recognisable and share the same tempo. Our aim was to get people on the dance floor and keep ‘em there! The band played functions of all kinds, and we were usually successful in this. ( Other medleys we did included Disco, 60’s, 70’s, Rock and Xmas ). Even now when I hear one of the songs we ‘Medlied’ I still think of how it went into the next one!

The Coal Porters next Thursday at The Old Parcels Office in Scarborough. Great venue, looking forward to it.

Here you go….

Apologies, I honestly didn’t know. Will amend my post.

I always took my bass in to the hotels after gigs, no exceptions. Actually, after I had a hotel room cleaner come into my room one morning ( uninvited I might add! ), I used to jam my bass case against the door handle to prevent any further incidents. 😆

Post deleted.

A while ago there was a spate of band’s vans being broken into at Travelodges. Easy pickings if they don’t have alarms / security locks etc, as all the thieves have to do is watch the van being loaded up at the venue and then follow it to the hotel. Because the vans arrive so late there, more than likely the only parking spaces left aren’t near the reception area too, making it easier for the theft to go undetected. Be careful out there folks.

Many specialist musical instrument insurance companies ( Musicguard etc) will cover items left in the car, albeit with some conditions being met. Still better off left in the hotel IMO - a good chance some toe rag may just steal the car anyway, not even knowing what’s in the boot space.

Nice Les Paul Special - obviously a man of great taste.

True dat. Some Premier Inns don’t require the key card in the holder thing, although most do. Reception will often give you two key cards as well.😆

Because you’re staying in the same room for a couple of nights, from my experience of Premier Inns it is unlikely any staff will be entering it to tidy / make the bed etc until you check out. Obviously leaving your basses unattended anywhere does involve a certain amount of risk, but I’d still go with the hotel over leaving them in a vehicle. Put them upright in the wardrobe section, behind some clothes if possible and leave the ‘do not disturb’ notice on the door handle. Leave the TV on too, just loud enough for anyone in the corridor to think there’s someone in the room. I think you would then be extremely unlikely to have any problems.

Also if you order from them before November 11th they are offering free international shipping on all orders over $75. Great company, used them many times.

That’s crap but in this game stuff like this happens all too often. Back in the early 80’s when I had a day job, my band was offered a short tour in Scandinavia as a support act for a band who were just beginning to do okay. I booked time off work, even getting my boss to swap his holidays around with me so I could go, as one of us needed to be in the office. The band arranged the carnets / gear / transport etc, and I even went to Liverpool to queue up to renew my passport which was dangerously near its expiry date ( a round trip of 250 miles ). Then about 10 days before we were due to leave, the tour got cancelled. Flimsy excuses were offered but we suspected it was down to poor ticket sales / promotion etc. To cap it all, I had two weeks of lousy weather staying at home on my ‘holidays’ whilst my boss had a fortnight of glorious sunshine on his.

I don’t really have a problem with it per se - if someone pays the price I’m after then what they do once it’s theirs isn’t my concern. If I’ve bought something on here though, then I think it’s only fair to sell it back on here again,for a good price - if it doesn’t sell then try it somewhere else for more of a realistic price. (To be fair I’ve done this a few times when my listings on here have n’t raised any interest.) The one sale that did anger me was a few years ago (and didn’t involve this forum). A guy answered my local ad for a guitar I was selling. When he came round to try it he brought his lad with him, about 9 years old. Told me the guitar was for him, his first instrument etc and used that angle to get me to knock the price down which I did. Later that evening it was advertised on eBay for considerably more than he’d paid me. Was considering arranging some false bidding to mess his sale up but in the end I just let it go. Older and wiser now….

Looks good - how’s the Taylor doing Neil? Seems like exactly the sort of gig it would be suited to.

A couple of bands ago I had a call from a guy who had depped for me on well paid gigs in the past. He asked if I would do a dep for him, which I assumed was offered to me partly as thanks for giving him some dep work. Then it turns out to be with an 18 piece big band who used their rehearsals as informal ‘ gigs’ in a local pub, with a small cover charge on the door. When I asked him what that amounted to I think he said something like a fiver each plus a pint from landlord! He seemed surprised at my reply that I was busy on a Monday night ( I didn’t want to offend him by getting into a big debate about it). Never knew if he found someone to do it, but he hasn’t rung me for it again. 😆

Another Sunday night acoustic duo gig at one of my favourite venues, The Lookout Cafe in Scarborough. We were the first to use their new PA set up, which consists of a pair Turbosound Milan powered cabs. A definite improvement on their previous Alto cabs, with a crisper high end. Sound man Bob was well pleased with them, and one or two customers noticed the difference too. Anyway, a busy night with requests, including quite a few we’ve rarely or never done before - ‘Summertime’, ‘Blackbird’, ‘New York state of mind’ and ‘Downtown’. ( Some of these made even more difficult for me due to a very attractive & slightly inebriated lady dancing nearby ). We are next there at the end of November, and then also at their Christmas party in December. and here for @Mickeyboro Milestone Acoustic Duo Ibanez PCBE12MH bass into Fender Rumble 100 combo / DI into house PA. The Lookout on The Pier, 18, West Pier Scarborough.

I've been reading up on Quincy following his death and plenty of stuff I didn't realise about him. For example, never knew he produced these two pop belters for Lesley Gore in the early 60's -

For anyone interested, here’s a picture of my 63 Precision in the hands of its previous owner! Jeff Ramsdale was originally in Hull band ‘Roger Bloom’s Hammer’, who had a good go at breaking into the big time. They were signed to CBS and supported quite a few famous bands in the late 60’s including T.Rex. When Roger departed they carried on as ‘The Hammer’, and as well as Jeff they had Rod Temperton in the band of Heatwave / Quincy Jones /Michael Jackson fame. When The Hammer broke up, Jeff carried on playing, and the picture below is him with my bass playing at The Hofbrauhouse in Hull, probably in the late 70’s. By then someone had made a strange scratchplate for the bass which you can see. I played in a couple of bands with Jeff after this and the bass was refinished in a sort of mustard yellow by Rokas in London. Sadly Jeff died in a tragic car accident, and I was contacted by his family a year or two later to see if I wanted to buy his bass . When I went round to see it, it wasn’t in a good state after being kept in a loft for a while. After acquiring it I had it refinished to natural, and Paul did a great job of making the horrible holes from the previous scratchplate look like knots in the wood. Fortunately the original plate was still intact, and that’s how it’s remained for nearly 40 years. It’s a lovely bass, not heavy and sounds like a good P.bass should - will remain with me till I’ve departed.