cheddatom

I see a few bassists suggesting they're helping the drummer keep time. If you start trying to push or drag me I just play louder and stare at you

I hope that's not a reference to my bassist!! 🤣 I play a lot of drums. I like a bassist who doesn't have too much low end in his sound. It's really quite common for bassists to think they need a big booming load of bass that fills the room and it's impossible to play with

Prague last night was hot and sweaty, a perfect end to the tour. On the way home now. What an experience! Hopefully I'll get to do it again some day

They are! There were vegan burgers and wurst Last night was Weisbaden, great gig, although Steve collapsed early in their set. He seemed to get it together after 5 minutes to cool down but we were all worried. It's a pretty intense tour and I think at his age it's taking its toll. One more date in Prague tonight and then a long drive to Rotterdam tomorrow

Alte Hackerei in Karlsruhe last night. Another small and sweaty one. Excellent catering, they cooked burgers or wurst to order for both bands and all the crew. Free beer all night. Awesome sound and I played the best I have so far

Les Tanniers in Dijon last night. This is a big warehouse covered in graffiti. They call it a "squat gig" and everyone there was crustier than your average punk. The Dressing Room was a large room upstairs full of bunk beds and one random guy who'd been told he could hang out there and stay over. The sound crew didn't know which channel was which, messed about for almost an hour until we gave up saying "that'll do". When we went on it took 10 minutes for them to get the acoustic guitar to work again, so what was the point of soundcheck? We struggled through, the crowd got into it, then halfway through the set we switch back from electric guitar back to acoustic. The channel was muted and the sound man was nowhere to be found. When he finally appeared, he couldn't get it to work, and angrily blamed our guitarist. The only option was to play all the acoustic songs on electric. It was still a great gig, but very hard work!

La peche in Montreuil, Paris last night. The smallest venue on the tour so far. They blocked off the road to park Steve Ignorant's bus. I thought they'd be worried about police but apparently the police avoid this neighbourhood. Soundcheck took forever but dinner afterwards was lovely. A huge old topless punk was kicking off during our set, trying to start fights with everyone. The venue staff refused to do anything about him but eventually Steve Ignorant himself came down and dragged the guy out of the venue. This was while we were still playing! Concentration was a challenge

Me too!

Melkweg was incredible, the crowd were crazy. They don't know us at all but they were moshing and shouting along from the off. The best sound we've ever had too.

Ancienne Belique in Brussels last night was amazing, the biggest stage I've ever seen! Lunch in the canteen before load in was great. They had guys to help with the load in, and everything was put onto a section at the front of the dance floor that rises up to stage level. Sound check was faultless and then we got to chill for a few hours and enjoy some of the local beers. Dinner was awesome too! The set flew by. We seemed to win over the crowd, all except for the very front row who were all clearly camped out waiting for Steve Ignorant to come on. Their grumpy faces amused me anyway Ace set, loads of compliments, and loads of beers afterwards! We're on the way to Amsterdam to play Melkweg tonight

Dusseldorf last night. 5 minutes before we went on there were 2 people in the room. When we walked on it was more like 200! Quite the shock! Smashed it again, went down well, loads of compliments and we sold loads of vinyl

Hamburg was awesome. It was sold out, but they're there to see Crass. We went down really well, people were singing along from 3 songs in so we must be doing something right! 4 hours sleep last night so I was hoping to get some sleep in the van. Unfortunately our bassist has some godawful dad rock playlist blasting out the stereo. We just had Come On Eileen 🙃

You'll be glad to hear he smashed the set last night and I got to hear some top end from the bass for once!

Hah, he likes dull strings! He is actually amazing on bass, he's been playing 40 years, just a disgraceful oversight!

He's got some. Now he's staring at the pack looking a bit confused and complaining that they sound too bright 🤣

Hafenklang, can't wait!

Yeh I think they're calling it Steve Ignorant's Crass, his band are from his Steve Ignorant's Slice of Life band, plus Jay on drums.

SO36 in Berlin last night supporting Crass. The first night of our tour and it was crazy! I didn't expect so many people, or for us to go down so well with a crowd who don't know us. They were there to see Crass who are a lot more Punk than us but they loved it! Our bassist broke a string in the last song. Great timing as he's come on tour without a spare bass or any strings! What a pillock Hopefully tonight in Hamburg will be as good!

I've been giving him plenty of abuse about it. He reckons he's never broken a string before but that's no excuse is it? Anyway, we're on the way to a shop in hamburg now

Thanks very much!

I'm on tour in Europe and our bassist has broken a string. He has no idea what strings he has. Can someone tell me what strings a 2017 American Pro Fender P is shipped with? If we can get the right gauge it should save us a full setup

Pointing out the fact that property was easier to buy is not a slight at all! No-one is saying boomers don't deserve what they worked hard for. My parents also worked hard for 50 years, however, they don't take the fact that property was easier for them to buy as a personal insult. It's just a fact of life. If a woman points out to me that my gender has made it easier for me to earn more money than them, I'm not going to take that as a slight, because I'm aware that it's a fact.

I don't see any blame being apportioned. It seems to be imagined. Similar to those who don't acknowledge their own privilege, the mere mention of them having it slightly easier than other people is taken as a personal slight, as though they are personally to blame for other people's difficulties, which is not the case at all.

I was interested to see if I'd been hoodwinked by the media into thinking property prices had risen much faster than salaries. The current figures are easy to find from the ONS: Average weekly earnings were estimated at £601 for total pay, and £565 for regular pay, in May 2022 Older figures are harder to come by.. At October, 1970, the provisional figures of average weekly earnings of full-time manual workers were £28 Os. 11d. for men aged 21 years and over, and £13 19s. 10d. for women aged 18 years and over. I found an "old to new money" converter online. I've no idea if this is correct, hopefully some members can tell me? It's saying £28.05 for men, £13.49 for women. I don't really have time to find out how many women worked etc. to find the true average but to be generous let's say £28 So pay has gone from £28 to £601 from 1970 to 2022 or a 21.5 fold increase Trying to find house prices... At the start of the 1970s the average house price was £4,057 ... And now in June 2022, house prices have reached a record high of £271,613 So a 67 fold increase, or more than triple the increase in pay. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1971/jan/28/average-weekly-wage https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/averageweeklyearningsingreatbritain/july2022#:~:text=Average weekly earnings were estimated,(COVID-19) pandemic. https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/uk-house-prices-are-65-times-higher-today-than-in-1970/138813/ Like I said, I really don't begrudge anyone's success in the property market. These are the facts and it's not a personal insult to anyone.

Obviously individual circumstances differ, but the facts as EBS_freak alludes to are there for us all to see. It may have been "less easy" for you, but it was easier for boomers on average. I don't think anyone begrudges the boomers' success in the housing market. I certainly don't! My parents did very nicely.