peteb

It's a perfectly valid point and there's no reason why you shouldn't put it forward for discussion. I agree that if you wait and look around there are some reasonable deals out there.

Or you could look at it as a player rather than an investment, and accept the d-tuner and hi-mass bridge as genuine upgrades. I've already got a late 70s P bass, but if I was in the market (and I'm not ruling it out in the future), I would be popping down to Bass Bros to have a serious look at that one.

I wouldn't go that far. But, what they are, is vastly more consistent. I've owned a great 70s Precision and played several really nice ones, but I've also owned and played really bad 70s Fenders.

I've always liked Del Amitri, a great live rock and roll band, and he is a really good songwriter. We can only hope for the best for him. Obviously, it is very upsetting, not least because a good friend of ours (the wife of my best man), has got Parkinson's as well. She is trying to put a brave face on it, but it has affected both of them quite badly. If anything, he is struggling more than her, which isn't helping him with his own medical issues (non life threatening, but serious arthritis in both knees - not great for a drummer who still has a manual job). I know it's all part of getting older, but it all seems so unfair, not to mention heart-breaking.

The very same, except we call him Phil.

Funnily enough, Rhino Edwards (the other half of the Quo rhythm section when Rich was in the band) currently plays in a Free / Paul Kossof tribute band with Terry Sless (Koss's singer in Back Street Crawler).

I have gigged with not one, but three former members of Gerry & The Pacemakers at various times. However, I never with more than one ex-pacemaker at a time. I bet that you're all really impressed...! 🤩 I also used to dep for a singer who once did a Spanish tour with various members of the original Whitesnake line-up, and I am currently playing with the original keys player from British AOR titans FM...

I believe that Sean Hurley says that he usually ends up playing the P bass with rounds, but quite often producers will go for the flats option (but its nearly always a Precision). From what I remember Sadowsky saying in an interview, producers wanted an idealised version of the Fenders they were used to working with. He started off modding Fenders for session players, but started building his own when the models he recommended started becoming scarce.

The first song I ever played live, many years ago...

I assume that you are aware that there is a rather famous bass guitar version of this? Still not sure that it is the best thing to play at an audition for a pop / rock band...!

But is it just about fame? Iggy Pop is famous, and is also, very influential. But he didn't sell that many records and therefore has never got the call. Similarly, someone mentioned the Ramones above, who didn't get indicted until after all the original members had died. On the other hand, Foreigner are pretty famous, sold tons of records, yet never got critical acclaim and have only been nominated as they finally undertake their final tour and the BL / last original member has just been revealed to have some pretty serious health problems. The whole thing is nonsense and seems to be based on what a certain type of cowboy boot wearing, 75 year old thinks is retrospectively cool. As you say, it will remain on my ignore list, unless of course, they invite me to the ceremony, where I will be there sitting at the same table as your good self...! 😉

Maybe, but he is undoubtedly a "Rock 'n' Roll Star" and he's never sort of an opinion. In this instance, he may actually be right! I will take the RRHOF seriously when they unanimously induct the likes of Kim Mitchell and King's X. Until then, its just a shallow marketing exercise and no real indication of quality.

He's got a point!

Dunno, you could say pretty much the same for Peter Frampton, Foreigner, Mariah Carey and Ozzy. They are all big household names, especially in America...

Rather a strange admission from someone with such a punk rock background...! 😉

Don't worry, it can't have been her - this was 40 years ago (about 83)...!

In the early 80s, I was in a band in London with a very good girl singer that had a bit of interest, but there were a few personal tensions and we split up. Me, the guitarist and the original drummer decided to resurrect the band without keys and started looking for a singer. We held auditions over a couple of days in a rehearsal studio in the Elephant & Castle. The first session turned up a couple of possibles, but the second one was less productive. One girl turned up in a leather mini skirt, dressed up as if for a night out and looked great, but unfortunately she didn't have a great voice. The guitar player later rang her up, saying that she didn't have the right voice for the band, but she had something if they could find the right project for her. He ended up talking her into going on a date with him, which obviously was the intention all along. However, the best was saved for last. A Welsh girl (who I remember was a nurse) turned up about half an hour late, just as we were about to knock it on the head and go to the pub. It was pretty obvious she wasn't going to get the gig, so we take her for a drink. After a couple of beers, she was still wanting to sing and she obviously wasn't short of confidence, so we head back to the studio. We try to teach her one of our songs, which she just couldn't get. She then reaches into her bag and pulls out a Black Sabbath songbook and decides that she wants us to play Paranoid. We had been taping the auditions, so the guitarist discretely turns the tape off, only for me to flick it back on. She wasn't great, in fact she was awful and singing so flat she was nearly coming back in tune an octave down at times. At this point, her boyfriend comes to pick up her up and she's giving us her details, confident that she's completely nailed it! I must have played that tape to everyone who came down to my gaff for weeks...

I'm not so sure that it is. On some level, art should be its own reward and the fact that you've been successful and made a lot of money pursuing your art should be recognition enough! The RRHOF is really just an exercise to generate a relatively small amount of income to those who own the brand, not to mention create rather meaningless controversy on social media. Also, this hall of fame concept is really linked to the stats driven approach that the yanks insist on applying to sports. It's all very American! However, if such an institution is to exist, then I have no issue with Foreigner or Oasis being in it...

I don't really see the issue with many of them! Oasis - massive over here and pretty much defined the music scene in the late 90s to mid 00s, not as big in the USA but still well known Cher - longevity and a lot of massive, iconic singles Peter Frampton - Humble Pie and big solo career, still massive & influential in the States Kool ATG - big funk act, loads of well known tunes Foreigner - massive band, helped establish AOR as a genre, loads of hits and longevity Mary J Blige - pretty iconic for a while, although it depends where you are setting the bar Mariah Carey - great voice (if a bit OTT), massive hits and a huge star Jane's Addiction - very influential (no JA, probably no RHCP), again depends on where you are set the bar Ozzy Osbourne - can't think of any reason why he isn't in already for his solo career! As @BigRedX says, music is supposed to be an art and I'm not really keen on bringing in this element of it being seen as a competitive sport. I agree that it shouldn't really matter who is being inducted. But if you are going to have such an institution, I've no problem with a few of those candidates.

Yea, Birmingham was always a good town for us back in the day.

Maybe, but also the Midlands and the North East. We did play quite a lot of gigs in the Greater Manchester area / Lancashire rather than Manchester itself.

Not so much in the north. Hair metal and AOR were massive around here, and you can still get a decent audience in pubs today playing covers from those genres. It may have been a niche, but it was a pretty big one! I would say that agrees with my experiences, having gigged around the country in the 80s (and again more recently) and having lived in both the north and the south.

There are also pro players who know of all the options but gravitate to Fenders, because they know that is what their gigs require / their clients want.

A year or so ago, I saw a Scottish pro drummer acquaintance of mine playing with his blues band somewhere around here. The normal bass player was on tour, so they had a youngish guy depping for them. This kid was an ace player, had a degree in music, played in a classical orchestra (forget which instrument) and also played an upright on jazz gigs. In addition to that, he also did various pop or rock gigs on electric bass. He had just paid £3.5k or so for a new mint green, RW neck, CS P bass and asked me what I thought of it. I played it and it looked, sounded and played great. He said that he knows its not cheap, but he wanted a simple, reliable, top quality bass that he could take on any pro gig and know that it would work. You can't really argue with that. Would I pay £5k for one - I dunno, probably not. But I can see why he would...

If I had ever an opportunity to make any sort of a living as a pro, then absolutely. However, whenever I had a sniff then it jut wasn't a viable opportunity at the time. I am currently playing with a keys player who has been a pro since being a teenager - been in a couple of signed bands (one quite famous), done loads of tours & sessions, toured with a couple of famous old MOR household name acts and then slogged around the clubs when he got a bit older, etc. He did OK out of it, but I'm certainly a bit better off financially than he is now that we're both in our 60s (me early, him late 60s). Nether the less, I would have swapped his career with mine in a heartbeat...!