KevB

Only saw him once, mid 80's in a tiny dive of a club with Norman on bass (though I did see DF without Wilko). Not particularly my first choice of music but it was slick and professional and he had charisma. A mate of mine loaned Julian Temple a load of rare DF memoribilia to use for the 'Oil City Confidential' documentary. RIP 'Mr Johnson'.

Personally I wouldn't spend a tenth of that on any bass anymore no matter what but if someone thinks that's what they can get for it then fair enough. In the current economic climate i think it might hang about for a bit. Anyway, here's Jim playing with the band If from 1971

If I 'd been able to make it i would have sneaked down for that. I still got to see them supporting Deep Purple in Birmingham though obviously with a reduced set list.

Yes I think the plan was to start the tour earlier but travel restrictions made it unfeasible.

Marillion last night in Sheffield were pretty good, though I don't feel as 'connected' with the band in the last 20 years or so. Looking forward to Sunday - Uriah Heep 50th anniversary show with Von Hertzen Bros as support, could be a belter.

Bowed out of the trio on Saturday night with a pub gig over 60 miles away, I won't miss that sort of travelling for little money upfront. Fortunately we made an extra £50 in tips on top of the fee so the petrol money was covered. Punters seemed to like us and though a rather sweaty night (plus I had a heavy cold) we got through without major incident. This leaves me with no ongoing music projects which should free up some time to get work done on the house and sell some surplus gear off (anyone looking for some Roland PK-5 pedals?) with a view to jacking in the day job next year and moving to the South West, it'll be an adventure. As most of my posts tend to be on this thread then I will probably have an even lower profile in the coming months. Cheers guys. Post script - turns out it was more than a cold, I've just tested positive for covid despite having 3 vaccinations. Oh well...

The scratch plates on the 4 stringers look OK but the ones on the fivers are a bit of an abomination.

Penultimate gig with the trio on Friday night, nice easy biker club rally over 2 days with camping etc (not that any of us stayed over). We did the Friday then another band headlined Saturday. The monitoring is still ropey (they provide all PA) but FOH sounded fine apparently. It was sweltering on dance floor in front of stage yet some folks were still up and grooving away both sets which was nice. Having gigged so little i was concerned I'd get cramp in fretting hand (it's happened before after a lay off) but sailed through it no problem, got some good feedback from punters. I think the other two will probably carry on with another bass player but gigs have been very sporadic and the other 2 have now gone on to other side projects so that's not going to change.

I was hoping to contribute to this thread in November about Kansas but they've just finally cancelled their 2022 European dates having postponed them twice since initially getting the tickets in 2020. What makes it worse of course is you only get face value refund and the extra add-ons (non negotiable) were particularly steep so no thanks to Gigantic you greedy gits.

Hardly gigged at all in months, hence few posts from me recently as they are mostly in the 'how was your last gig' section. Gone from being persuaded a few years back to join a 3 piece to do bike festivals in the summer along with my already existing band (who werent gigging much either) to being nudged into dropping the main band in favour of the trio which got quite busy then the pandemic hit and we've never really picked it back up. Main singer/gtr had a financial issue and late last year said after next months gigs he'd been advised by his accountant to keep a low profile so couldn't see it carrying on. I then worked out my priorities and decided I'd be jacking it in then as well. Subsequently the PA gear that the singer/gtr sold off has been replaced by new gear. I believe he unexpectedly came into some new money from a bereavement and he's constantly posting on his FB page about the solo gigs he's doing (he's always done this as a sideline but said he was getting very bored of it and preferred the trio). The drummer has now joined a second band as he wasnt happy with the low number of gigs, despite him saying how many gigs he could find for us, we've hardly done any biker stuff apart from 1 venue. It's become totally disfunctional and not remotely the set up I was originally asked to join (I was personally approached, didn't audition for it or was looking for it). In truth my personal circumstances have changed a lot since I joined the band (met a wonderful lady last year and things have got very serious very quickly, we're not kids so time is of the essence) and I really don't have the time for the band just now and won't be looking for a new band once I stick to my original plan and leave at the end of July. I think the other 2 guys will probably bring in a replacement and keep the band going in some form whilst predominantly doing their other stuff. The trio has become a sideshow and I'm not bothered about it anymore, time to move on. I will probably be moving over 200 miles away in the next year or two so no point commiting to any local bands at this point, maybe look around for something once I'm settled elsewhere with my partner.

Think it's still Neil Fairclough on bass?

Fair play to Macca if he's really going to do a 2+hour set at his age.

Not a festival goer but been persuaded to go to Chagstock this year. It looks small and friendly enough to be enjoyable and Kula Shaker are headlining one night, like a lot of their stuff but I don't think I ever got to see them so I can tick them off the list.

Really sad to hear this. I tried learning Greek a few years back (unsuccessfully) and part of the course was we had to do a little presentation so I picked Vangelis. Have all the J&V stuff and some Aphrodites Child too along with the odd solo album. He auditioned for Yes after Wakeman left first time and eventually they picked Pat Moraz instead. Apparently Vangelis spent more time playing drums at the audition than keyboards, bit of a character by sounds of things.

Whitesnake supported by Foreigner and Europe. Going to wave goodbye to dear old David Coverdale tonight as he brings his touring days to an end, it's forty years since I first saw him on stage. Should be a decent night.