BigRedX

Surely the fact that they get a quality control check in the US is done in an attempt to increase the perceived value of the instruments, otherwise there would be no point in doing it or publicising that they do it.

To the OP do you want to play covers or songs you've written yourself? If you want to do covers go and see some local covers bands and you'll quickly get an idea of which songs you need to know and then you can go away and practice them. If you want to play originals then put out some ads and jump in. IME enthusiasm always trumps ability in the early days of playing originals. Overall I have found the following: 1. You are rarely as bad at playing as you think. Even after 50 years of being in bands my playing ability is probably still well below average, but I've never had any problem finding bands and musicians to play with. 2. The quickest way to improve is to join a band. Playing with other musicians does wonders for your ability especially if they are of a slightly higher standard than you. 3. If you can bring something on top of being a bass player to the band that always improves your chances. Backing vocals are always and asset. Also van ownership or having somewhere for the band to rehearse, or being a decent graphic designer. HTH

It's a while since I last heard that. IMO that's stretching the definition of "cover" to its very limits with only the words and some of the vocal melody bearing any relation to the original. And the instrumental bits sound like they've been shoe-horned in between the singing. I know it's prog-rock and supposed to be clever and difficult and complicated, but even so...

What advantage do pickups wound in Germany have over pickups wound in China?

I think it has always been that way. When I was at university very few of the non-musicians I knew went to gigs and if they did it was for well-known bands at Rock City. They wouldn't even go to gigs on campus, which were relatively inexpensive to get it, unless it was someone they'd heard of with a least a couple of hit singles, so I was the only person from my course who went to see John Cooper Clark, The Teardrop Explodes, The Thompson Twins and Danse Society amongst others. As musicians we always over-estimate the importance of music to the lives of non-musicians. For most people music is something to fill in the silence when the TV isn't on, or BGM for getting laid.

No, I'm Brian!

Given the music, any knowledgable marketing company would have gone for something by Roger Dean. This resembles the sort of crap the covers band I used to be in would think was a good idea for a gig poster.

It really depends what your preferred finger-style and pick sounds are like, what pick(s) you use, and how hard the skin on your fingers is. If you're not getting enough variation with your current setup I'd start by trying some different picks - different thicknesses and/or materials, because that might be all you need to do. Finding the right pick for the sound you want is definitely worth while. I play with a pick that gives me a very similar sound to my fingers because for me the change in techniques is more about feel than tone. Otherwise go with a programmable effects unit that has a decent EQ section on it.

In that case use the method above to prune your mailing list down to under 500 addresses so you can take advantage of the free MailChimp service. IME all of the other free services simply aren't worth bothering with.

Not really. Apart from those sounds that rely on a specific playing technique that I haven't mastered (like slap) I can get all the sounds I want using programmable effects.

They were most definitely Bono and The Edge even back then. Still nice people though. Much the same for me. Apart from U2 (and they were terrible when I saw them at Rock City the following year and consequently lost interest) none of the bands I really like get to the point where tickets cost over a hundred pounds. These days most of the bands I like I get to see for free because I'm playing on the same bill.

I saw U2 in 1980 at The Boat Club in Nottingham with about 50 other people. One of those I went with knew them from when they were just a local band in Dublin so after the gig I got to meet Bono and The Edge.

As I said in the other thread, if you didn't see them in a little club back in 93 or 94 you've really missed your chance. IMO you'd be better off spending the money you'll need to fork out for Oasis tickets on going to see one new band a month at a local venue where you'll be able to pay on the door and, if you like what you hear, buy a T-shirt from them afterwards. You never know one of those gigs might include someone who goes on to be a massive household name, and then you can claim to have seen them when they were still good and you could talk to them afterwards.

Sorry to make you wait, but I was away on holiday and there was no way I was going to type this reply on my phone... I ran The Terrortones' email list and designed their monthly emails for 5 years. We used a desktop application called Direct Mail which is Mac OS only but it operates under the same principals as MailChimp except you can do everything apart from send the actual emails off-line without an internet connection. These days if you don't want to pay anything, the free version of MailChimp is really the only serious contender. Direct Mail has very useful spam count indicator, where it will tell you how likely your email is going to be marked as spam and highlight any obvious "spammy" wording or design so you can change these to something more likely to allow your email to land in your audience's in-boxes. It's a while since I used MailChimp but I would hope it would do something similar. The biggest problem you will have is that what is supposed to be one of the most useful features of any decent marketing email tool - user engagement reporting - is of very limited accuracy due to the never-ending war between the marketing email services and email providers privacy features. We had a mailing list of just under 1000 addresses and at best we'd get reports of around 100 of those actually looking at what we sent. The number of links that appeared to be followed was on average 10 per email split between everything in the email. This is for an eye-catching email design that was easy to ready and had all the links well marked. The reality will probably be that the actual number of people who look at and engage with your email will be closer to 150% of the reported figures but that's still a woefully low audience number for the amount of effort you will need to put in. So assuming you want to proceed you'll also need the following: 1. A "return" email address that is not a free webmail service. This normally means the band having its own domain name and an associated email address. You might be able to get away with a Gmail or similar address but it does massively increase the likelihood of your emails going directly to your audience's spam folder. 2. You must include an actual postal address in the email contact details. This is legal requirement for many countries. 3. An obvious and easy way for recipients to unsubscribe. Your other big problem is getting your email reported as spam. The strike count for spam reports is very low - under 1% for most email services, which means for your email list of 700 you'll only need more than a couple of spam reports for a single mail-out and you'll be suspended or banned. Use any features you mailing service supplies to ensure your email is less likely to trigger spam filters, and even more importantly ensure that the email addresses you have are from people who have specifically signed up to receive the kinds of emails your are sending out. We used to get audience members to fill in an email sheet at gigs. e could guarantee that at least 25% of these were completely illegible and another 25% resulted in bounced emails. Of the remaining emails there would nearly always be one that resulted in a spam report. These day my advice would be, if in doubt don't add it to your list. Use an on-line form provided by your email service to get new email addresses. HTH.

Lets stop trying to kid ourselves that seeing a bunch of semi-motionless blokes in the their 50s at some enormous venue is going to have a fraction of the excitement of seeing them when they were young, hungry and playing the sorts of venues where you could be stood right in front of the stage. Admit to yourselves that if you didn't see them back in 1993 or early 94 you've missed out, and instead go and see some gigs by new bands where it will cost you less than £15 and you'll be able to turn up and pay on the door.

Nice to see one in a colour other than sh!t brown.

If that doesn’t contain a Born To Rock F4B I’ll be disappointed.

AFAICS all the songs mentioned in this thread that are actually disco are in 4/4 with a shuffle or triplet feel.

Next gig for Hurtsfall is supporting Midnight Danger at The Bodega in Nottingham on Thursday 5th September. Tickets available here.

The bridge is definitely a John Birch. The rest? Who knows? No name on the headstock, no apparent custom switching options and non-original pickups. Just no.

I was expecting it to be purple…

If you can wait a week for when I can type on a proper computer, I can give you all the details of the system I used. However expect at the very best a 15% reported engagement and probably 10 people asking to be unsubscribed each time you do a mail out.

A couple of photos by Kevin Stevens from last night's gig:

Because of the non-GDPR compliance of the WhatsApp EULA, any serious business using it for transactions with an EU country could find themselves in legal trouble should anything ever go wrong. I used to work for a client whose business terms and conditions and NDA which I had to sign, specifically forbade me from having WhatsApp (and Zoom - although that has got better since the pandemic) installed on any device that I used for my business activities. If you've got a web form for initial on-line contact then there shouldn't be any reason to publish your email on your website, and if you do use email then you need to take steps to ensure that both your emails and your customers reach their proper destinations and don't end up being marked as spam or even worse being blocked completely.

I play in a genre that is image conscious (goth/post-punk/dark wave). So far I have been able to disguise that fact that I'm in my 60s by still being relatively slim, having enough hair to actually have a suitable hairstyle, a bit of make-up, and doing my best not to act like an old man. The fact that I still look quite a bit younger than many of my contemporaries who haven't aged particularly well, definitely helps.