BigRedX

[quote name='LayDownThaFunk' timestamp='1453999481' post='2965221'] If they REALLY want to have a go at 'making it' then they would also probably be willing to give up their jobs - you can't really do that when you have a wife/kids/house to pay for. [/quote] But there's also a lot of people who have come out the other side of financial and family responsibilities. They are in their 50s with the mortgage paid off, the kids if they had any left home etc. Many will have taken "early" retirement or be self-employed and a lot more flexible about taking time out of work to do music. A lot of older musicians are still young at heart or more realistically have really ever grown up and just went through a phase of pretending to be a responsible adult. I know I did. My current band are all in their 20s except for me...

Most of the bands that we play with use double basses. And hardly any of the ones who don't use Fenders.

[quote name='Ghost_Bass' timestamp='1453910321' post='2964124'] I see your point but in the last months/years there are a lot of pubs that stopped having live music and now only have DJ's and Karaoke. Their excuse is that is more profitable for them (i can't judge them for doing that). [/quote] And I'm sure that if you look you'll also find places putting on live music that weren't before. Things change. That's how it is.

[quote name='Ghost_Bass' timestamp='1453895884' post='2963894'] Oh! And i think nobody mentioned DJ's yet! They also have their good share in decreasing live music gigs. [/quote] DJs and discos have been supposedly killing live music since at least the mid 70s. They can't be doing a very good job.

[quote name='Bobthedog' timestamp='1453900771' post='2963972'] Is YouTube killing the UK’s live music scene? [url="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-35399194"]http://www.bbc.co.uk...t-arts-35399194[/url] Not sure if this adds anything but..... [/quote] Already been linked to in this thread, and as I said in my post above pretty much crap.

[quote name='4stringslow' timestamp='1453894461' post='2963862'] Here's a topical report about changing times for live music: [url="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-35399194"]http://www.bbc.co.uk...t-arts-35399194[/url] [/quote] Another crap article full of half-truths dressed up to make it look as though the sky is falling. There may be lots of venues closing, but there's also a lot of new ones opening. The location of venues within towns and cities changes as the use of the buildings around them changes, it's only natural. In Nottingham I don't think any of the venues that were putting on bands in 1980 when I moved here still exist, but there's plenty of new ones and definitely far more gigging opportunities for bands today then there were at any time over the past 35 or so years. London is a bit a of a special case though simply because as a location it's no longer anywhere near as important as it used to be. In the past (up to the 90s) if you wanted to get noticed you had to play in London, it's where all the record labels and music press were based. Nowadays though it's just another big city with some venues and no more or less important than other other big city with music venues. Unfortunately the venues don't seem to have realised this, and so it's little wonder that they are struggling. Finally Justin Bieber may have been nurtured for his audience on YouTube, but he was discovered by his manager from a video of him performing live in front of an audience.

And yet another thread about how there's no more gigs and that they are mostly crap and that it's all too much effort. What a load of bollocks! There are plenty of great paying gigs available provided that: 1. Your band is entertaining 2. Your band is prepared to put in the effort to go and get them I was going to write a whole load more explaining the above, but TBH if you need it explaining, you are probably never going to get it. My band is out there doing songs we wrote ourselves playing paying gigs pretty much every weekend because we are entertaining and because between the various members of the band we put in 20-30 hours a week promoting the band to get the gigs that we want. And that's what is required if you want gigs that pay and have a decent audience in attendance. Besides nowadays if you want to make money out of music, gigging is the product which has value because it can't be copied, and even a good video of a show is no where near the same as actually being there. It's not like the past where bands toured to promote sales of their album and it was acknowledged that touring lost money but that was outweighed by increased record sales as a result of people seeing the band live. Today when a digital copy of your music, no matter how obscure your band is, can be easily found for free on-line, the recording (and video) is now the promotional device to get people to come to the gig where ticket and merchandise sales are money makers.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1453847238' post='2963491'] That's an interesting take on it considering how well it sold and continues to sell. I don't really think the 80s started producing anything really defining until around 1984. [/quote] In the end it's all a matter of taste and has nothing to do with how popular the records were (or still are) For me the 80s were all about the first few years and became less interesting by the middle of the decade (much like the 70s) until acid house shook everything up again in 1988.

[quote name='Maude' timestamp='1453843987' post='2963431'] Strangely I've just been listening to Brilliant Mind by Furniture so I'll put that in as a classic eighties song. [/quote] Go and buy their album "the Wrong People" then. IMO Brilliant Mind is probably the weakest track on it.

For me the 80s was all about the single, as I discovered when compiling my list of favourite 80s albums, there were loads of great songs but often the album as a whole would be a bit weak. Also because the independent scene was in full swing there were loads of bands that made a couple of decent singles but never managed to scrape enough cash to ether to put out a whole album. Expect a massive list tomorrow when I get my act together...

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1453761706' post='2962622'] The Wall No pedantic replies please. [/quote] Ignoring the fact that it was released in 1979, for me "The Wall" is very much an album that signifies the end of the 70s. Compare and contrast with PiL's "Metal Box" which came out at the same time and was pushing music forward into the new decade.

Going amp less makes you entirely dependent on the PA monitoring. IME unless you are playing on big stages with good full range foldback, your bass (if you can hear it at all) will sound pretty nasty through the average vocal-biased monitor. Also the more things you put through vocal foldback the less useful it becomes for the vocalists who need it the most.

[quote name='EliasMooseblaster' timestamp='1453815382' post='2962987'] How difficult (and/or expensive) have you found it to get hold of replacement strings for E-C tuning? This thread has got me considering whether to convert a cheap fiver and give this configuration a punt, but I presume I'd have to chop and change with string sets. [/quote] It's not that difficult, although there doesn't seem to be the range of sets available to match B-G stringing. I tried it several years back, however I found that I didn't like the sound of the high C string much. For me it didn't have the required heft that playing the same note on the G-string did, and I found myself encroaching too far into the range of the guitars with insufficient tonal difference to make it worthwhile for me.

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1453729528' post='2962167'] Me too. I get all the advantages of fives, but my brain and hands just can't get used to them [/quote] I've never got this. It's just an extra string and it's tuned to the same interval as the others. It was a long time ago (1989) but I can't remember the extra string on mu first 5-string giving me any problems when I started. Maybe I found myself on the wrong string a couple of times in the first couple of days, but that was it.

That's custom even by Teuffel standards as it's normally only available in 6 and 7 string versions. For something truly futuristic check out his [url="http://www.teuffel.com/english/guitars/birdfish/birdfish_main.htm"]Birdfish model[/url].

If it give him the sound he wants then I don't see why not. Provided that it's robustly built enough to take the knocks then studio gear is fine in a live situation. I used to play in a band that took most of our studio (suitably rack cased) out to gigs as it was the only way we could replicate our sound live.

[quote name='Twigman' timestamp='1453744664' post='2962384'] Did you sell that to Jonny Shrimpton? If so I've played it. [/quote] TBH I can't remember who I sold it to, other than I think he came from Brighton and was going to use it in a "Royal Blood" type bass and drums band. However I can't imagine that there are many of these in existence and even fewer in the UK... What did you think of it?

[quote name='elephantgrey' timestamp='1453727127' post='2962129'] Pics please =P [/quote] OK... I don't own it anymore but this Atlansia Solitaire used to be mine: [IMG]http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n249/BigRedX/DSC02853.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n249/BigRedX/DSC02867.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n249/BigRedX/DSC02870.jpg[/IMG]

My Complete essential 80s albums: The Basking Sharks "Shark Island" Bow Wow Wow "Your Cassette Pet" The Comsat Angels "Waiting For A Miracle" The Dancing Did "And Did Those Feet" Freur "Doot-Doot" Freur "Get Us Out Of Here" Furniture "The Wrong People" Furniture "Food Sex & Paranoia" The Human League "Travelogue" Jesus Jones "Liquidizer" John Cooper Clarke "Snap Crackle [&] Bop" Joy Division "Closer" Medium Medium "The Glitterhouse" Modern English "Mesh And Lace" The Monochrome Set "Strange Boutique" Pop Will Eat Itself "This Is The Day… This Is The Hour… This Is This!" Shakespears Sister "Sacred Heart" Silicone Teens "Music For Parties" Simple Minds "Sons And Fascination / Sister Feelings Call" Underworld "Underneath The Radar" Underworld "Change The Weather" Edited to remove those artists that weren't from the UK

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1453725279' post='2962103'] I can add another option if anyone really has a 3,2 or 1 string bass as their main player? [/quote] When I was playing in my classic rock covers band I could quite easily have got away with a two string bass (E and A) for the majority of the songs we played. Conversely with The Terrortones despite being the most musically conventional of all my originals bands I have made the most use of my 5-string basses for both the extended range and playing positions.

[quote name='Twigman' timestamp='1453723340' post='2962070'] Where's the option for 3? [/quote] Or 2 or 1? I'm been playing 5-strings almost exclusively since 1989. I can't see myself changing any time soon. Even if I don't always need the notes or fretting positions offered by the low B string, it puts the E and A strings in position across the width of the neck the neck that I find far more comfortable than on a 4-string

[quote name='Twigman' timestamp='1453645536' post='2961322'] We have a battery powered card for the slot on the D50 ,containing a dump of all our sounds, which we used to use when using hired D50s on EU flyaways. We stopped hiring D50s and started taking our own as the EU hire stock all appeared to be broken! The D50 is getting old now (1986/87) and I would be concerned as to the reliability of any hired D50....there's nothing worse than finding the keyboard has a host of non functioning keys. [/quote] I'd now be looking at a modern replacement for it. At least get a full service by one of the reputable synth repairers. Do you know how the internal memories are maintained? A lot of programmable gear from this era uses a rechargeable battery soldered to a circuit board inside. Eventually these fail and not only do the user programmed sounds get wiped, but they can leak damaging other components on the board around them. I've had several items of vintage digital gear fail on me this way.

[quote name='Bassmonkey' timestamp='1453644575' post='2961308'] Saw Vice-Versa at The Warehouse in Leeds in the early 80s. Really good - had that soul boy kinda look and vibe, Happy days. Album wise The Stone Roses for me [/quote] I went to Sheffield (I was living in Swansea at the time) especially to see them in the early 80s (at the Hallamshire?) supported by two of Clock DVA. Awesome gig. Also Mark White was responsible for most of the vocals in Vice Versa - Martin Fry just played a Wasp synth.

[quote name='Twigman' timestamp='1453642074' post='2961280'] Does that mean our Roland D50 synth will have a problem? It doesn't have a 110V switch on it but we are looking at getting a transformer but hadn't considerd the frequency difference. [/quote] Make sure that you get a transformer with a sufficient rating to power the D50. Regarding digital gear, it's always been the older stuff that seems to cope less well with the change in AC frequency. I had a couple of US made digital delays from the mid to late 80s whose display times were always out by difference between the US and UK mains frequency. Personally I'd have a look to see if it would be possible to hire a D50 in the US and just bring a laptop loaded with a MIDI dump of the sounds that you need. If you don't want to go the 4-way extension route, then Maplins sell all the parts you need to make up your own mains leads.

Lots of love for ABC here. Personally I found them a bit of a disappointment because they were so ordinary compared with how brilliant Vice-Versa the previous band of Martin Fry, Mark White and Stephen Singleton were: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVXfUilHUIk