KevB

Come to think of it, wasn't there a band called Deep Jimi & the Zep Creams?

I heard their most recent offering and it just washed over me a bit and I also find his voice a bit jarring at times, they can all play though. Some very nice bass work (in a very JPJ style not surprisingly) on there. I'll probably wait until they have more material to draw from before I go see them live though.

There used to be something in the smallprint with Royal Mail/Parcelforce that they would only insure musical instruments up to a max of £200, not sure if that is still the case or not. I've used them with no issues though. edit - Hellzero beat me to it.

I too have always liked the bass part in Winter Song but there are some lovely lines from a number of their 70's classics. I saw them a couple of times in the early to mid 80's doing their xmas shows. Alan Hull, Ray Jackson etc it was quite a lineup.

One band I was in decided to get a female vox in as a departure from the (often tedious blues) stuff we were doing. She asked us to learn some songs and one of them was this, so I tried to learn it it pretty much note for note and after we'd gone through it the keyboard player says 'it sounds a bit busy, do you have to play all those notes'. I left the band within a month of that.

Yes I had problems and complaints from a couple of bands back from the other members that there was an issue with my bass sound. Considering the band leader was constantly banging on about how long he'd been playing at a good level and how much he knew technically it seemed to completely pass them by that the issue had only arisen since they had started messing about mic'ing the bass drum (for pub gigs!). My guess was that, as the drummer was basically an ex metal drummer that he was knocking seven bells out of the kick drum and the mic was moving enough to start picking up my backline and causing feedback. But no, they had me moving heaven and earth trying to fix 'my problem', wasting my time needlessly tinkering with my set up and EQ before, lo and behold, the mic eventually was forced off it's holder completely with a noticeable 'clunk'. They then started to investigate that it *might* just be an issue with the bass drum mic and not my set up after all. Beware of self proclaimed experts.

Only did it in one band for a brief time and ours was firmly based on the Presidents of USA version. Fun though from what I recall.

That guy's fingers just arent normal though, are they?

I'm just a bloke who hangs about on stage with musicians and a drummer...

As others have said, the key is prioritise. You wouldnt need to have to learn 60 songs straight off even if you were joining Quo. Get their regular (or planned for the next batch of gigs after you take over) set list and then after those are sorted start working on their back catalog as and when it becomes necessary for future work. They are unlikely to ask you to go in and re record the original bass players parts on their previous releases so it's th elive work and future recording work that are the priority.

Hoping to try and fix up a date for my lot for next year at Old Wine Vaults. By the time we knew they were looking for bands they had already got enough to see them through next few months. For those who might be interested, Rob Balmer who took the pics is a pro photographer and has his own business if folks want photos taking on a comission basis, he used to take them in the Greyhound so has lots of live performance photography experience. Probably would have to be East Mids though. https://www.facebook.com/pg/RobertBalmerPhotography/about/?ref=page_internal

Being saying it for years. That programme is absolutely perfect for a band like Big Big Train who, because of the way they work and size of the project is not very amenable to being able to tour or do a lot of live work (though its obvious from the times they do a gig they are quite capable of cutting it live). Think a lot of people would fine them interesting, not just prog heads.

No, I keep the butterscotch thing just for Fenders😉 Ric is a year 2000 jetglo, pics below soon after I got it in 2002 (1 careful owner, £800). It's got a few road scars on it now but nothing major and some of the binding has turned a bit beige/off white but basically as it was.

Technically I have 5 but the cheapo semi acoustic is pretty much an ornament these days so realistically giggable basses, 4. Ric 4003 plus these fellas Currently the P bass is in Eb tuning, the jazz is in Eb but with a dropped Db which leaves the tele bass and ric in normal tuning for jam sessions and any other music projects that might come up. The tele has flats on for thuddy stuff, the ric can do the twangy stuff.

Bilbo will be along shortly to inform us all how 'completely pointless' it is... 😉

The wooden blocks used on Living In The Past, those slightly annoying tiny bells on The Bangles' 'Eternal Flame'.

It's become less essential with each passing year for me, guess that's just age and their apparent continual refusal to accept there's been a healthy modern prog scene in the UK for years. Always used to be the odd programme with nothing that interested me, then it was 2 or 3 in a series. Now it's got to virtually an entire series (last one) with nothing much of interest for me. I haven't even felt enthused enough to check out the ones so far aired in the current series so there could have been a major shift in approach that I've missed but I doubt it. If it stopped I wouldnt miss it at all, so much stuff out there on youtube etc.

Bald lad with the blue Ernie Ball? Yes I think I caught a bit of your set, sorry didn't see Ray though otherwise would have had a natter. I was in and out of about 4 venues at various times. Ended up in the Berliner watching basschat's Chris Sharman's band Water For Dogs. He's playing a nice Shuker 5 string fretless these days.

I was in a few of the venues on Sat so might have seen you - which pub?

Some bands start to wise up that folks of a certain age who's kids are already independent are actually more relaible and less likely to miss rehearsals and gigs due to some family crisis or other. The ones with some gigging miles have usually had the overdone ego thing fosters taken out of them too so are easier to work with.

Not 100% sure but I think I may have replaced the last original member of the covers band I joined this year. There seems such an utter lack of direction and leadership so I'm guessing there are no 'originals' left and I'm not really interested in kicking them into shape, tried that a couple of bands back and ended up getting ripped off. It's possible they've always lacked momentum, thei rgigging history seems very patchy for a band around for 4-5 years.

Triple bill last Friday of Those Damn Crows, Federal Charm and Bad Flowers all for about £12 a ticket. Solid modern blues rock, Bad Flowers are def worth a look if you see them listed as a support band on a bigger tour sometime.

Is the new band anyone I might have heard of? Being Notts based if there's a local bc'er I try to get to the odd gig if I can.

However much LB's star may have faded it is testament to his talent that when he's not in FM it needs 2 players to fill the slot.

Funnily enough I downloaded their Science Fiction album just the other week. Bit of a rockier/psych version of Magic Numbers in parts. Didnt know they were on tour would have gone.