casapete

Friend of mine was the MD for them for that gig, remember seeing photos he took from the stage. He appears in the documentary too, playing guitar.

We have a theatre gig tomorrow night, and have all been requested to provide negative Covid test details. Also will each have some sort of test when we arrive at the venue. I’m impressed by their efforts to minimise risks, and happy to assist in this. Know it’s not a guarantee of safety but probably all that can be done to ensure the show goes on.

Saw them around 77/78 at Hull Uni. Gig lasted maybe 40 mins and every song sounded like Sheena....😆

Just started watching McCartney 3,2,1 on Disney + Series of six 30 min programmes of Macca chatting with Rick Rubin about his career and everything that has shaped it. Really interesting stuff and shot in black and white too. Recommended. 😊

Finally got round to watching this, found it very enjoyable. Loved Sly, Fifth Dimension , David Ruffin and of course Stevie Wonder. Couldn’t make out who was in the house band(s) but some great players.

Great list, very useful! Am I right in thinking the power/ watts ratings are ‘program’ rather than the more often used ‘continuous’ , if so maybe needs clarifying? Thanks for taking the time to compile it. 🙂

I was hoping he was in recovery following a medical procedure, but sadly wasn’t to be. Absolutely gutted.

Sadly this is all conjecture now, as it’s been reported by the BBC that Charlie has passed away. RIP.

The guitarist in my country band now has iPad Pros which he lets us use. He scrolls through the parts turning pages with a pedal which controls all the iPads ,(Bluetooth I think), works a treat. ForScore is the app used for this.

Just done a couple of small gigs this week with my country rock band. On Thursday we did a local pub, our first gig as a band in nearly two years. A few rusty moments but overall okay, although for me it was one of those gigs I just didn’t get into. Have a new drummer who is great, but had to keep an eye on him just to make sure he didn’t miss any stops or endings. Then last night we played a social club in a small town which had sold tickets for our gig at £5 a head. Was amazed to see we sold 80 so the landlord was well happy. One of those gigs that initially looked a bit naff but which turned out to be great. I really settled into it, and the new drummer was superb, listening to what was going on and not overplaying or hitting things too hard! (Should point out that we didn’t rehearse at all either, so flying by the seat of our pants.) Audience loved it, and so did I - used my Dano Longhorn, GK800 and Barefaced Compact for plenty of thump. Hopefully we’ll get a rebooking later in the year, and have another gig for the band in September. Great to be out gigging again, with both shows feeling fairly safe ( well, as safe as they can be these days anyway).

On here of course! I’ve had reasonable success using FB market place, but as Douglas says above, it depends a fair bit on where you live. Otherwise Gumtree can be useful too, just be prepared for some dumb replies.

Sad news. Met Martin a couple of times, once in a dark corner of an M62 car park we both laughed about. Lovely bloke taken too soon. RIP Martin.

Sky Arts are showing ‘Eric Clapton Live in San Diego’ from 2007 tonight at 9pm, and tomorrow (Saturday 21st) at 6pm. Guest appearances by JJ Cale and Derek Trucks.

Another ‘straight to the amp’ player here. Like Douglas, I also use a clip on tuner, mainly so I don’t have anything else in my signal path. I have nothing against pedals per se, but for the music I’m involved in I find them unnecessary. The key for me is finding a bass and amplifier combination that have the sound you really want, which in itself can be quite a job before thinking of altering it with pedals. I really don’t understand people who shell out big bucks for top end amps, and then spend even more on an expensive preamps and pedals which alter the basic tone! If you want to do this may as well just run all the F/X into a power amp or powered monitor cab like a lot of people are doing now.

I quite fancied a Gibson 339 when they were first introduced, but didn’t have the funds. Remember trying the Epi 339 soon after and it was not far off the same quality, great guitars. Ended up with a 335 in the end!

It reminds me of some of the recent Fano basses ( but maybe not the same quality obvs!). Agreed about the headstock too, fabulous.

That’s around £300 here, probably even a good price at that? With stuff like this it’s usually about finding that one person who will pay for quirky and rare.

I had a busy weekend. Birmingham theatre gig on Friday with over 600 punters, then Lincoln on Saturday with around 300 in. Both gigs went well, despite us being a cellist down on the Friday gig due to isolating. My initial worries about slow ticket sales may have been unfounded - early days yet but we'll see how it pans out. Sunday afternoon I had a gig at a pub not far from my place, playing with 3 other musicians I'd never played with before. Was a band put together by the singer/guitarist to do some covers to finish off an afternoon of other (mainly acoustic style) acts. Unfortunately the weather nearly spoiled it all but we managed to get finished just before the heavens opened. I make no apologies for the music stand - 12 songs in the set of which I knew maybe 4, so a necessity really. Nice PA and engineer along with Ashdown rig provided, so quite enjoyed myself. Went down well and maybe some more stuff in the future too. Love playing with new people, always a good learning curve etc.

Our first theatre gig since lockdown last night. Sensible precautions backstage and with the crew, although none of the 600+ audience appeared to wearing masks. Despite being (presumably / hopefully) mainly double jabbed oldies, nevertheless I’m glad they were a good distance from us. One of the benefits of doing theatres is the stage is normally a fair way from the punters in the stalls. The band did well despite being a string player down (due to isolating), and it was good to back doing it after nearly 18 months of nothing.

Tonight (13/8/21) at 7pm on Sky Arts there’s a programme called ‘Mick Ronson by Gary Kemp’. Not sure if it’s been aired before but could be interesting.

Or if it got a bit punky, maybe something by Tent Pole Tudor? 😆

Know it will have been a jazz gig, but if they bordered on the odd soul cover they could have done something by The Mar-Keys....

Both backing singers Lisa Fischer and Bernard Fowler have also been part of the Stones touring and recording schedules for over 30 years too, as well as working with many others over that period. Lisa also featured in the film documentary ‘20 feet from Stardom’ about backing singers which was very well received. The Stones do seem to hold on to great supporting musicians - the late sax player Bobby Keys also springs to mind.

Ian Stewart (Stu) was an original member of the band, but left as the band became successful after their manager didn’t think he fitted in with how he thought the band should look. He stayed on as pianist and driver / roadie for a long time afterwards.

I’d forgotten about Chuck! Hopefully he’s been well looked after during nearly 40 years.