casapete

I’d be very (pleasantly) surprised if my band manage any of our scheduled gigs before the end of the year. As the majority of our work is in theatres, I just can’t see how it will work with social distancing, and that’s if there are the theatres still open. Like a lot of other workers in the entertainment world, we will be some of the last to return to whatever ‘normal’ will be. We have 8 professional band members and 3 sound and lighting crew all relying on these gigs for our living, so it’s a massive blow to us. (And just to rub it in, I should have been playing at the TT races on the sunny Isle of Man this weekend - just hope we get the chance to rearrange it for next year. )

I agree with most of the above posts regarding using them purely acoustically. However, I’m struggling to think of any that are made without any provision to amplify them, so am guessing manufacturers believe they are designed to be / best used plugged in ,unless playing on your own for rehearsal etc. There doesn’t seem to ever be a lot of love on here for electro / acoustic basses - ‘I’d rather just take my Precision with flats’ etc being the usual kind of comment. For me I do think they have a different enough sound from a solid body electric, and perhaps more importantly they look different too! I’ve had my Washburn AB20 for over 25 years and used it on many acoustic duo and band gigs. It always sounds great and often gets commented on by people in the audience. Also got a Fender Kingman too, which sounds fab. I use Fender 8060 acoustic bronzewound strings on both.

Just bought a bass from Mark, and the whole thing has been so easy. Great communication, bass exactly as described in the listing and he even arranged to courier it to me despite having a preference for it to be collected! This is what makes BC a great place for buying and selling, many thanks Mark. 100% recommended! Cheers, Pete.

He did! Actually used a small trampoline during his set, whilst playing guitar too. Think it was a bit of a gimmick TBH, bit of theatrics etc. He partly blames this and doing flips as well for recently having both hips replaced!

Think he's being a trifle modest - I've seen him play piano on all his gigs I've been to over the last 40 odd years, and whilst he's no virtuoso he can certainly play what's needed. 'The sun hasn't set on this boy yet' and especially 'Goin back' are wonderful.

I loved Nils from his first solo album onwards. ‘ Keith don’t go ‘is a great song, remember seeing him in the OGWT clip highlighted.. He did an acoustic tour in the 90’s and came to a small club not far from us. Wonderful gig, and we managed to chat to him afterwards and get some cd’s signed. Also enjoy his playing in the E Street Band, and love the fact that when Steve Van Zandt returned to the fold, Bruce didn’t want to let Nils go so he kept him on with Steve too. Nils is also a very talented pianist as well as having a superb voice and his guitar playing is instantly recognisable.

It certainly would - a great venue, played there a few times. Just been a feature on Jeremy Vine’s Radio 2 programme highlighting the problems theatres and venues are facing, not looking good at the moment.

He plays guitar a bit (in a fashion anyway...) - seen here with his dad!

The ones who always asked me for a spare cable were the guys who spent next to nothing on theirs but laughed at me for buying quality ones, which last forever if looked after. I've also depped with a band that kept all their cables slung into a big trunk, and if you didn't get to the gig in good time you got the duff ones! I've always preferred to buy and look after my own cables, not to be anal about it but just to have that peace of mind in knowing they're all good. Having said that, my mate in my acoustic duo goes even further. He not only has a spare everything, but even a spare ipad (with all the parts on natch) and spare shirts / black suit in case of a drink / dining related mishap on high end function gigs. Needless to say he always gets paid for doing a top job.

Same here Stew. I actually have a spare of everything I use, apart from a cab. Think I would be really unlucky to blow all 4 speakers, hope I haven’t tempted fate though! Keep a small road trunk with everything in (apart from a bass obvs) including my 2 GK amps. I’ve always been the guy other band members come to when they need a spare item, but then again I think that seems to be the norm for most bassists ?

Yeah but you’ve got a Dano too so no problems. 😀

Always have a spare bass on every gig with my main gigging band. It’s a cheap and cheerful passive P-bass which I’ve used on a couple of occasions when my active bass didn’t like the wiring in old theatres for some reason. Not an ideal instrument for me ( bit heavier than my usual bass etc) but so glad it was there then. It usually lives in our van most of the time so I take it out every now and then to give it an airing and check it over.

I think Kevin McCloud from Channel 4’s Grand Designs was / is a bassist.

Reading a lot of the posts on here has made me realise I generally dislike music that is predominantly male orientated! I have tried to get on with heavy rock / all forms of metal / prog / jazz rock / anything else that is shouty or stupidly angry etc etc. Of course these genres are not exclusively 'male' but do seem to attract a larger male following than female. I've always been drawn to stuff with a groove and a 'tune' - something basically singable and/or danceable too! Fortunately Mrs CP likes pretty much the same stuff that i do, so no real problems there - she has even enlightened me to Leonard Cohen! If I played a lot of the songs at home that I've listened to on this post I would certainly now be single. 😁

Jimi Hendrix - played bass on some of Electric Ladyland album, including ‘All along the watchtower’.

New York always makes me think of these bands / artists - Lou Reed, Velvet Underground, Television, New York Dolls, Blondie, The Ramones, all the Brill Building stuff (Carole King, Neil Sedaka etc), Neil Diamond, Billy Joel, Nile Rogers and a lot of the Phil Spector stuff (Ronettes, The Crystals etc). Not sure if they were all NYC born and bred but certainly earned their reputation there.

Another of Mark's projects I loved was The Notting Hillbillies, a band he helped put together in mid/late 80's. Their version of Charlie Rich's 'Feel like going home' is just wonderful.

I always loved this version of 'Why worry' by The Everly Brothers. Comes from the Chet Atkins and Friends special with Mark Knopfler, - both play on it too. Apparently MK wrote the song with The Everlys in mind.

You wouldn’t, I’d be in front of you.......🥴

I was working in a record shop when ‘Sultans of swing’ first came out. We used to stock pretty much every single that was released, and I remember reordering this one regularly over quite a long period - only sold a few copies a week so went under the radar a bit. Then one day I thought I’d listen to it to see why it was selling and being quite surprised - this was after all around the height of punk, 1978 and it went quite against most of the type of stuff new bands were releasing. Anyway, it gradually became a hit, and so did the album. I never really got into DS that much, although have always loved Knopfler’s playing. One of those guitarists you recognise instantly, and a top bloke too.

I’m way more offended by the curtains......

Me too! ‘....superstar but he didn’t get far......’

Pretty much most of the music I love contains vocals / backing vocals. If you want to see more of what makes hired backing vocalists tick, try and catch '20 feet from stardom', a great documentary. Trailer here -

There are plenty of singer-songwriters who have had their work arguably covered by 'better' singers - as well as Bob Dylan you could also include Burt Bacharach, Kris Kristofferson, Brian Wilson and Jimmy Webb for example. However for me there is always something about hearing the originator of the songs performing them that cuts through somehow.