Japhet

I've played pubs for donkeys years. I always say that I play the music free of charge because I love doing it, but I get paid to lug the gear in and out. £50 or whatever for 30 minutes work seems pretty good to me.

Streamliner is a good shout. I also tried my old Trace Elliot SMX through 2 compacts and it was fantastic.

Used to love playing 'The bed's too big without you'. If UB40 can get in here so can the Police.

+1 for the Gallien Krueger MB Fusion.

Watford Valves were very helpful when I had to change the valve in my SMX. Have a chat with them.

Gigging is the only area of my life where a group of complete strangers give me a round of applause and whistles for something I have done and I enjoy it. Nobody cheers and whistles and shouts when I do my job right. I'm not a show off or an extrovert, but when it comes to playing my bass, I know that without me the band would sound rubbish, and I like being part of a small team the gives the punters a good night and rewards them for getting off their sofas on a Saturday night and making he effort. Without gigs there would be no point In me playing.

He was certainly a huge influence on me wanting to play bass with his slinky but weighty style (if that makes sense). I had no idea he wrote 'Every Kinda People' which is a fabulous song. Such a shame that he pretty much gave up playing bass though because he had such a unique sound. Thanks for posting - good read.

It's very difficult sometimes to get 2 guitarists sounding good in the same band. so much depends on how and what they play and it's often virtually impossible to get them to understand that less is often more. Last gig I played one of our guitarists had flogged his Les Paul and I lent him my Telecaster. The improvement in sound was immense and everything had it's place in the mix. No doubt he'll shell out for another LP or similar soon though and we'll be back to square 1.

I was staggered the other day when I had a quick tot up of the gear I currently own and it came to a mind boggling 8K. No wonder I'm always skint! Mind you, it's taken me 20 years to acquire it all!

I'd head straight for the For Sale section and snap up the Tecamp Puma 2x12 that's on there! A bit over budget but a real quality bit of kit.

Nile and Bernard were such a combination.

I much prefer smaller venues now. Went to some shockers back in the day (Zeppelin at Earls Court springs to mind). There are some much better venues around now like the O2 Indigo and The Stables at Milton Keynes but I don't often see bands on there that I want to see. Did see Bowie and The Police at Milton Keynes bowl decades ago and they were both good.

Do you know what packed up in your Trace head? I've had Trace heads pack up in the past and never spent more than £100 getting them sorted. They had some earthing issues which can be fixed with a little spring washer once the head has been fixed if I remember right. Failing that I'd suggest GB Streamliner or a GK MB Fusion.

Prefer the Tecamp Puma 1x12 myself.

Check out the Lakland 55-01 in the F/S section. Stonking god bass wit a fabulous neck. Love mine to bits.

Lot of nostalgia going on here. When I was growing up you had to be a real enthusiast to get into music. I remember my Sister would record the Top 40 every week with a piddly mic in front of her transistor radio (and go beserk if anybody made any noise) - that was how difficult it was to hear the music you liked. Sitting through hours of dross on Old Grey Whistle Test before VCRs had been invented to try to find the odd gem. I'll never forget seeing The Police on OGWT! Couldn't believe they were white!

My Mum was a very good pianist and could play just about anything by ear. I can still remember her playing 'Mack the Knife' and 'Feeling Groovy'.She died young. I remember being dragged to see 'The Sound of Music' repeatedly. She wanted myself and my siblings to become the Von Trapps (bless her!). I was mostly a small terrorist with catapault! My Dad didn't have a single ounce of creativity but I'm sure my Mum would love the fact that I've been involved in music for many years

Clips are chalk and cheese. Tamas presumably demonstrating an instrument and Meshell playing a gig. Don't think many manufacturers would be happy if their instrument demo was a repetitive groove or that a live performance would be enhanced by the bass player emptying his trick bag repeatedly.

Nothing wrong with mine. Love it to bits. Still constantly trawl the F/S section though with absolutely no reason to do so.

I deleted the programme after watching it but think it was on BBC4. It was about Bowie's early years and his creation of Ziggy.

Been watching some recorded Bowie documentaries this week which has highlighted just how good Trevor Bolder was. So much of their stuff was recorded with minimal rehearsal and some of TJ's basslines are so well put together. He was one of the very best in my book. He and Woody Woodmansey were treated really badly by Bowie at the end.