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I'm a huge Mark King fan.. he changed the way I think about bass. He has a great sound on this Midge Ure cover of a Jethro Tull classic..shows that he's able to play on other artists' records (remember Easy- Nik Kershaw) [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3HEYD0U_t4"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3HEYD0U_t4[/url]

I'm going to see them at the end of the month over here in Belgium... Looking forward to see them live again ...I think I've seen them around fifteen times and hardly been disappointed. King changed the history of bass when he showed up in the eighties. He has his manierisms but then again : the most of us lack a personal style because it is one of the hardest things to achieve...I am wondering how many bassplayers you would recognize around here based on their sound if you were blindfolded.

Amongst all the crap I have to endure (from Lady Gaga, Rihanna to P.Diddy featuring everyone who knows) any album of him is still a blessing. I'm not asking for compassion but the man has done so much for pop music that respect should be the least he's entitled to. His love for Motown is the fuel for this cd, not the money... I'm not going to buy it (since I don't like Motown :-)) but I admire his ambition to make the best out of it.

I think it's obvious that the man suffers from severe pains somewhere (he doesn't seem to jump around a lot anymore). Apart from that I still love his voice and I don't understand the criticism, he still sings in tune and he can move me. A couple of million fans can't be wrong ? I would have expected some more compassion for his physical condition but instead people just put him down, I know a lot of singers who sing worse than him without the problems Phil Collins endures. The drummer of the band I'm in interviewed Phil and he explains about his injuries (from 2'35"), the introduction and some comments are in Dutch of course [url="http://www.een.be/programmas/de-rode-loper/drummers-onder-mekaar"]http://www.een.be/programmas/de-rode-loper...rs-onder-mekaar[/url]

Well, let me say that I liked Phil Collins.. great musician and singer (wasn't too enthusiastic about the Wonder-song but it could have been worse) I totally didn't like that Queen Emily rythmsection.. that drummer didn't have a groove and I think that if you would have put pro-tools on it every bar should have to be corrected. "Use me" made me cringe, no laid back feel, just sloppy playing and the bass sounded ok but had no groove (the rythmsection looked the same way they played : bored). Most of the time you see in these R 'n B bands big fat black drummers who play incredibly well and powerfull and this was just a turn-off. She deserves better.

We are rehearsing with a new band and I only play fretless bass...Great but there's one big disadvantage. The band features three really good looking girls and because I have to play spot on I don't have the opportunity to look at those girls who perform a really sexy show.. In other situations : I often bring a fretless along when I know that the repertoire is going to be "boring". Cliché covers can be adventurous again when you play fretless, keeps you busy anyway..

I went to see Bona a couple of months ago in Brussels (I've seen him live often enough) and my perception of him changed since then. The show started with a good vibe and the whole band brought the music with enthusiasm..especially the fact that the audience included a lot of black people from the Matonge-neighbourhood around here (and some of them seemed to know him personally (he adressed them in French too)) gave it a friendly atmosphere.. At a certain moment Bona wanted to do a solo-thing on acoustic guitar and the whole band left the stage..The guitar-player (a white man with dreadlocks who had been playing really cheerfully until then) walked away and had nearly left the stage but was summoned by Bona to come back to hand him over his acoustic guitar although it was in his reach (at his feet) and nothing had to be changed. It looked like a gesture you use when calling a slave. You could feel that the guitarplayer felt humiliated and that he had to force himself to smile while handing over the guitar to a "proud" Bona. As if he wanted to show the public that he was the boss. The guitarplayer went back offstage but it took him the rest of the show to get back in his old mood. Bona interrupted the show a couple of times to talk about "space" and "the moon" and he started a long monologue to convince the public that they should refuse injections when they were ill because according to him it was all a conspiracy of the pharmaceutical firms to make people more ill with these injections.. The playing was superb but as a person Bona let me down that night..

Silly Love Songs - Wings Waiting on a train - Flash and the Pan We close our eyes - Go West Wild Horses - Gino Vanelli No more fear of flying - Gary Brooker Everything - Michael Bublé The Year of the Cat - Al Stewart Right down the Line - Gerry Rafferty Hollywood Nights - Bob Seger

Joe Jackson has so many great tunes that it's hard to have favourites.. I consider him a musician and an artist.. I went to see the Body and Soul Tour years ago in Mechelen (Belgium) when I was in my early twenties and it still is one of the best concerts I have ever seen (with Sue Hadjoupoulos on percussion). That night I saw Maby playing "Stepping out" on his white Fender bass and he kept the tempo up without any problem. I used that song later on to practice octaves on my bass. It's not mentionned a lot but I also think Maby has a great voice (love him singing "Beat Crazy".