casapete

Sold Steve a gui*ar. Easy transaction, arranged a meet up rather than courier and all went well. Top feller, deal with confidence. Cheers Steve!

Think I’ve said this before on a similar thread, but anyway.... IME hotels and council run theatres / halls are the most likely to ask for the PAT details. We keep a file of all our PAT certificates ready for inspection if needed - theatres like to see these well before the day of the gig. My tech mate said that when asked for them, always ask to see the venue’s Electrical Safety Certificate to ensure what you’re plugging into has been tested recently. Think you’ll be surprised how few venues have these to hand. 😉

Of the USA models, the Sterling was kind of their 'Jazz' neck as opposed to the Stingray's 'Precision'. I've had a few of both, and while I found the Sterling okay, I always preferred the Stingray for feel (and sound too come to think of it). There was a blue Sterling for sale on here recently with matching headstock IIRC, for around £850 I think, which these days is a good deal.

I’m sure that ( like me ) there are a lot of Barefaced cab users who don’t give a hoot about matching rigs. 😆 Having said that, I also use a GK amp and cabinet set up, and have been very happy with it. Horses for courses and all that......

If you’re into Indian cuisine I can heartily recommend Mowgli Street Food. They have a place on Water Street not far from The Cavern ( and another restaurant in the city too ). Wonderful food and not overly expensive. www.mowglistreetfood.com

I’m always caught between either a) eating before a gig or b) afterwards. Option a) is the more usual. We’ve normally driven a fair distance, set up and sound checked and then have a couple of hours to kill before the gig so it seems the best plan. Usually eat somewhere with some band members and crew, and I really enjoy the social side of this. Try not to eat too much so I stay alert and up for the gig - used to have a beer too but just lately find that can be detrimental - damn getting old. Our band has a policy of finishing the gig and then getting home / to our accommodation ASAP so we never stop for takeaways after a gig. Option b) is rare for me. On local gigs I’ll have something when I get in ( sarnie or toast etc) but these days I can’t go to bed soon after eating a lot without feeling lousy the next day. When I first started playing in my late teens every gig was followed by a late night curry or burger, happy days.

On BBC4 tonight ( Friday March 25th) there is the 2018 film ‘Amazing Grace’, all about Aretha Franklin’s 1972 gospel album.

Assuming it's not fixed, then it must be on some people's radar? 'The UK's Top 100 biggest singles of midweek is compiled by the Official Charts Company, based on sales of downloads, CDs, vinyl and audio and video streams ...' From what I've seen , I would think that there aren't that many people on here who follow the charts - historically the singles chart has been dominated by the choices of (dare I say) it a younger demographic. When you start questioning their choices then you're probably just too old - I know this from experience, my interest in Top 40 stuff having been steadily on the decline since the mid 1990's.😄 My old band played one or two times a week at a city centre bar for 15 years. We used to keep our massive set list 'topped up' with the big tunes of the day, and some of the punters appreciated it. Once the song had left the charts though, the majority of the requests we got were for old standards and classic rock stuff. People want to hear something they know in these situations, the trick is covering the big songs but adding a few forgotten ones too. Once you start getting self indulgent and just doing the tunes you like, the audience will move on somewhere else.

Don't want to be that guy but.... https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/uk-top-40-singles-chart/

I could almost forgive her for the dodgy notes, but when a singer can’t even keep time and phrases everything so badly then it’s just not going to work. (Unfortunately that has nothing to do with her age either!) Coupled with a drummer who struggled with style and tempo of the reggae horror ‘mash’ then it was never going to be great. Of course, this is all made for TV jeopardy gold.....😄

We did Scunthorpe Baths Hall and Sunderland Empire Theatre this week. Scunthorpe gig is one of our nearest so always enjoy it. A great venue with top facilities and a good sounding room. Sunderland is another of my favourites - modern building containing an old style theatre, great crew and always an appreciative crowd. A really enjoyable gig.

Like you, I’ve never needed to change a set of tuners ( or a bridge either come to think of it ) in all the time I’ve been playing. Some basses have had better tuners than others, but never felt that they were so bad to justify the outlay on a new set. My 63 Precision has the original tuners and bridge still fitted, and both still doing the job after 60 years of service. 😊

Seen a few for sale over the years, and like everything else prices have steadily risen. Although not exactly rare, few seem to surface these days so demand / value rises. The Pro Tone range consisted of a Strat, Tele and P-bass IIRC. A friend of mine has the Tele and it’s a cracking guitar, especially for the c£200 he paid for it. The aesthetics don’t appeal to me personally - red / gold hardware / pearl plate etc, but some other colours did exist - black, blue, white, natural and I think sunburst. (Not sure if they all had the gold parts / pearl plates though.) I’d agree on price - somewhere in the £300/£350 area.

Maybe so, but he was there to do what they asked (albeit mainly for the cameras) - if he was bored with the material then he should have just carried on doing his thing. Session players manage it all the time.

More built in jeopardy I think - he seems a good player and would surely nail that solo in 10 mins max? The drummer from Liverpool is the main offender for me - surely there must have been better applicants, or again was he chosen knowing things would go t*ts up? The replacement drummer for the 95 year old guy on the other hand seems to be fine.

I would say ‘yes’ . The Rumble 500 is 350 watts into it’s own 2x10 speakers and is great IMHO. Also a loud combo for its size/ weight. I know TE watts are also loud, but don’t think you’d be disappointed - if you did need extra clout you could also add a matching 2x10 cab to release the full 500 watts into 4ohms.

Got ‘Breezin’ when it was released, and loved it. Not really my usual sort of music but great songs and playing, especially on ‘This Masquerade’. Also remember hearing him do ‘The greatest love of all’ from the soundtrack to the 1977 movie about Muhammed Ali ‘The Greatest’. Although not as technically perfect as Whitney Houston’s later version, his vocal is still superb.

Thanks Dave - we don’t always do such large venues but sometimes they’re the only option in some places. We’re doing Glasgow Kings Theatre on May 18th if you can make it-drop me a PM if you can. I just use my regular GK set up - 1001RB amp into a Neo 410 cab. Used this for years and never let me down. I’m the only one not using IEMs so like to have headroom onstage etc. Would maybe like to try something else for a change, Aguilar or Ampeg but the pandemic hit us hard so will need to save up for a while. Cheers, Pete.

We've done some gigs in Scotland this week. First one at the wonderful Caird Hall in Dundee (pics 1&2), a favourite of mine. Great crowd and a good sounding room. Gig made even better by some of the best pizza we've had at the wonderful Mozza restaurant near the theatre. Second one was at The Edinburgh Playhouse (pic 3). It's massive, seats something like 3060 people, unfortunately not when we were there though. One of the biggest seated theatres in Europe apparently. Gig slightly marred by a group of pis*sed people near the front kicking off through the first set, but the excellent security staff had them sorted for the 2nd. I love Edinburgh, and had time pre gig to walk around this wonderful city.

Drummer drove into the back of my old Astra estate. Had to claim on the insurance, and it was written off as the parts needed for the tailgate/ bumper etc came to more than the value of the car. They let me keep it, so sourced the parts from a breakers yard for around £150 IIRC ( was in the 90’s) and got it sorted for less than £300 in total. Nice man from the insurance company valued the car at £800 so for once I was ahead on the deal. About the only favour that particular drummer ever did for me too.

Great tune, wish I was in a band doing it. Was only thinking about this yesterday - we were gigging in Dundee, home of AWB.

I don’t generally suffer from anxiety so quite lucky there. I do get a bit twitchy if I think someone else on stage is nervous or likely to f*ck up though, and also strangely enough playing in front of friends and family. Think that comes from being made to play piano when we had relatives visiting when I was 7 or 8. I did feel more pressure during gigs when I used to play guitar, felt like everyone wanted me to prove what I could do ( which wasn’t a great deal...). Maybe explains why I found playing bass less pressured, and why I’m happiest not in the spotlight as such.

Yup, the old drummer was a lovely bloke - amazing for his age (mid 90’s I think). To be fair, as an ex dance band drummer , he was never going to hack doing rock stuff - same as the pianist who couldn’t grasp how to phrase the song and the drummer who hated reggae etc. It’s obvious that most of the people who were picked to be in the two bands were just totally unsuitable to add jeopardy to the programme ( as Cosmo mentioned in the previous post. ) Throw in a looming deadline for the first gig at a major festival along with a bit of sad back story stuff and it’s nearly as bad as ‘X Factor’ type rubbish. Of course, we had to have singers with no sense of timing as well. 😆

I’ve just got back from seeing Tommy Emmanuel in York. Stunning playing and not all 100mph stuff either, which usually bores me rigid. Superb support from Jerry Douglas, probably the world’s finest dobro and lap steel player. A great evening’s entertainment.

After more than 35 years running Astra estates , I’ve recently changed to a diesel Skoda Octavia estate. Great car, drives very well and pulls like a train in all gears with the boot area loaded, and does nigh on 60mpg whatever I drive like. Load area is good, although for the size of the car probably little more than the (smaller) Astras. I know Vauxhalls are often not liked by some, but I always found them very reliable and easy / fairly cheap to maintain. Hope the Skoda proves as good.