peteb

[quote name='EdwardHimself' timestamp='1338925646' post='1681264'] Yep, already been posted by Monckyman, who works with NMA: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/178209-stolen-gear-please-read/"]http://basschat.co.u...ar-please-read/[/url] [/quote] Yea, I was just asked to spread the word around - didn't see the original thread until after I had posted this one

Some gear stolen from New Model Army in Walsall on Saturday (below paisted from a facebook post): This is the full list of the gear stolen from New Model Army on Saturday night, this should not happen to any musician, but in this instance it is as personal as it gets. If anyone has any information but does not wish to speak to the Police directly then contact me and I will pass on the relevant information. Please re-post this net needs spreading as far as possible. Thank you x Gibson Les Pau...l Custom - red (serial number 2051429) Gibson Les Paul Standard - black (serial number 90362428) Epiphone Riviera - red with tremelo arm (serial number R97C0572) Lowden 025 acoustic guitar with pick-up (serial number 5131) Lowden 025 acoustic guitar with pick-up (serial number 12288) Gibson SG - black (serial number 8176566) Fender Precision bass - black All these items were in new or nearly new Hiscox guitar cases Evolution Keyboard (serial number MK361C - 222941) Ampeg SVT 3 amplifier head Fender Blues Master guitar combo (serial number B-181446) USA model 110volts. Custom built pedalboard containing three way control unit for Blackstar combo amplifier, 2 x Boss digital delays, tremelo and tuner pedals and a Cry-baby wah pedal Boss pedalboard containing Boss digital delay, bass overdrive, chorus, compression, and tuner pedals Gator 2U case containing AKG guitar radio receiver (serial number AK3254-001272) All these items were in new or nearly new cases Heavy multi-guitar rack Flight case containing tools for guitar repairs Bag containing microphone stands/drum loom Bag containing guitar cables, looms, power supplies, plectrums, capos, two guitar radio transmitters If you have any information please call the Police Station (crime number 20WS/91324T/12 - Walsall Police Station 0345 1135000) or email us at [email protected]

After a quiet few months I've got 5 gigs in 4 days! All connected to the Hebden Bridge Blues Festival thru, rather than the jubilee. I'm ambivalent about Frau Windsor myself, but if others want to celebrate then that's fine by me.....

[quote name='risingson' timestamp='1338288443' post='1672064'] Marcus is a really nice guy and a great player too. He came and jammed with us after one of his gigs in Liverpool a month or two back. Small world [/quote] I've jammed with Marcus when playing in the house band for an late night jam session at a blues festival, and will hopefully being doing the same over the weekend at the Hebden Bridge Blues Festival Great bloke and a very nice player.....

Not as difficult as it first appears! [color=#222222]As mentioned above, the Ox uses some pretty unusual techniques - try listening to the Van Halen version for a more straightforward interpretation of Entwistle's original bass part[/color] [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x122AkW4CyI"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x122AkW4CyI[/url]

FWIW I think that there is a place for tab, despite it having no professional applications. I play a little classical guitar around the house and have a small repertoire of old English lute pieces and can even shakily play something just about recognisable as ‘Mood For A Day’! There is no way that I could have done that with my meagre (notation) reading skills & limited classical guitar technique if I hadn’t have had access to decent transcriptions in tab! The main problem with tab is not that there are lots of poorly transcribed ones on the net, but that the many good ones that are available, along with a plethora of ‘Lick Library’ type video lessons, allow you to play exactly like your heroes without you having to figure it all out for yourself, which is how most of the old school guys developed their ear….. Reading music will open up certain types of opportunities, especially if you want to play in an orchestra pit (that so happily changed Hector’s life), if you’re going to audition for Beyonce’s backing band or if you want to play the type of sessions that Bilbo was talking about. That is all great, but you can spend a lifetime playing in top quality bands without being able to read. In fact, it would probably be better for your music career to have good harmony BVs or the right haircut! Bilbo asked before if it was a coincidence that if the musicians that I know who could read got the best pro gigs. Actually, by far the most successful of my mates would quite cheerfully admit to being a pretty modest musician and certainly can’t read music at all. However, he looks like a star, can sing, is a nice guy who networks well and has a certain amount of charisma (always the life & soul of the party)! He plays keyboards and rhythm guitar in a couple of alt rock bands (and works as a freelance guitar tech when they are not on the road) and is the one who is currently in France halfway thru a two month tour and who was posting pictures on Facebook of himself on a beach in Australia when we were all freezing in the snow a few months ago…!!

[quote name='ras52' timestamp='1336157551' post='1641993'] And perhaps reading helped them to become great players...! [/quote] [color=#222222]Not necessarily! It's the same old argument, there are plenty of great players who can’t read (Billy Sheehan can’t read, neither can Jeff Beck, etc, etc,), but are they exceptions to the rule or are there so many exceptions that the rule does not apply? Probably the best player I have ever played with (also the most highly regarded locally) can’t read a note…..[/color]

[quote name='Faithless' timestamp='1336138924' post='1641493'] And how would you develop your ear? [/quote] You sit at home with your favoutite records, a bass and a pair of headphones and learn the parts to the smallest detail. Ideally you do this with a wide variety of players and styles, hopefully developing a style that will be the sum total of all of your influences yet still your own. Then you play with as many different musicians as possible.....

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1336117932' post='1641010'] Not at all. My point was that your reading friends had the pro gigs and you didn't. Is that evidence of cause and effect? Might be, might not. [/quote] Wasn't sure there - when I read back what I had posted I'm not sure that I wouldn't have doubted me! I really don't know if reading was the deciding factor. I chased the gigs that I wanted and made contacts in the same way that they did, theirs just led to bigger things. I don't know whether reading got them in the position to be considered for the pro gigs or not. It helped that they were always great players! [quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1336117842' post='1641009'] I did a session last night and, in just over two hours (inc a tea break) recorded 4 tunes I had never heard with people I had never met before. The ear was important but it would have taken a lot longer without the dots. Tab would have been of no use at all. [/quote] Reading undoubtedly makes gigs like that a lot easier and opens up opportunities (although these opportunities do seem to be pretty rare IME). I don't think that anyone is arguing that tab would be anything other than useless in that situation, only that you can spend a lifetime playing in bands (including ones containing guys who play for a living) without ever seeing a chart.....

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1336035455' post='1639683'] I just want to stress that reading music is not just about reading music on gigs/sessions. Its a great way of learning about the mechanics of music. Learning parts by rote has its place but understanding notation is a massively useful skill when you are working with lots of different people. Writing ideas down becomes easier, studying other pieces of music like solos by other players, understanding theory and harmony, explaining intervals etc. Of course you can get by without it and millions do. You can also undo a screw with a butter knife at a pinch but why would you want to? [/quote] I would suggest that developing a good ear is far more important....

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1336035455' post='1639683'] You have played with these guys but they are the ones who play music for a living and have done tours, played on sessions (records, TV themes, adverts, etc.) [/quote] You seem to doubt me sir! The chap that I am particularly referring to is a very good keyboard player that I had the pleasure of playing quite a lot of gigs with last year, and who has on his CV a long stint touring the world with a 60s singer who is a genuine household name (he also played with a 70s pop singer who is pretty well known) and who worked in a studio and has a number of TV themes, ads, etc. to his credit. It is always good to play with good players, not least because you can learn a lot from them. And one of the things that I learned from him is that he seemed to place great value on having a good ear! I would guess that he may be able to read music because of some of the work that he has done in the past, but I certainly saw no evidence of it….!

This old chestnut again! If someone asks me to do a dep with songs that I don’t know, the first thing I do is pull up the tabs and then check them against the originals on YouTube, just because it saves time and tabs will give you a starter for ten! Many tabs on the net are not very good, but surely it doesn’t matter if a poorly transcribed piece is tab or dots? As far as I understand, tab for stringed instruments actually pre dates notation, which I always think of as tab for instruments where you can only play a note in one position (such as a keyboard). Both have their limitations; mainly that it is more difficult to show note length in tab, whereas notation can get very messy once you go too far off the stave. If a guitar player wants to learn ‘Eruption’ by Eddie Van Halen, then a standard notation transcription will be worse than useless but a decent tab could be very helpful…… In over 30 years of playing in bands I have [b]never[/b] been presented with a piece of written music (or tab for that matter but I have played dep gigs with chord sheets). I should point out that I have played with plenty of guys who play music for a living and have done tours, played on sessions (records, TV themes, adverts, etc.). I assume that most of them can read, but the subject has never come up when I have played with them in a band situation. If you want to play pit gigs then reading dots is obviously a necessity……

3-1-4 for me usually, pivot with your thumb to move from the 3rd to the 5th Obviously depends on the passage you're playing though.....

He has has also got quite a fascinating story for the film to call on, so it could cross over to the mainstream and appeal to people who have never heard of him! People are always fascinated by the best in any particular field and when you can throw in a rags to riches story with a tragic ending there is always a chance of it catching the imagination of a wider audience....

[quote name='Gust0o' timestamp='1335803930' post='1636281'] Anyway, f*** off about cover bands you - that looks like a wedding picture! Congratulations! [/quote] Yep, it is indeed - many thanks!

[quote name='Gust0o' timestamp='1335713166' post='1634863'] What I'm drawing for this entire thread, is that there's a lot more [i]crap[/i] - for want of a better term - associated with joining a covers band, than there has ever been, from my experience, in joining an originals band. [/quote] Actually Gus, in my experience quite the opposite - less egos involved in covers bands generally!

The white pearl looks good to me!

[quote name='jakenewmanbass' timestamp='1334573985' post='1617731'] Thanks!!, it makes a refreshing change to hear that attitude, musicians are either seriously undervalued or paid vast sums in our little corner of the worlds music market, I've been lucky to have a regular gig and a decent amount of freelance work, for most of my working life. If you're lucky enough to have a good balance between a day job and gigging then charge professional rates I say and get the value from your skills and a serious bonus to your annual, as I said earlier, other industries are not shy about charging, and life in the UK is expensive. [/quote] Whilst I appreciate your sentiments, I think that is important take into account what the market is (both for your act and more importantly the venue / promoter or whatever) and to have some sort of a business plan in mind for what you want to do! If you are mainly playing pubs or similar places you should bear in mind that there is a recession on in all but name, not to mention the smoking ban, etc and charge accordingly. A few years ago I was in a covers band that did pretty well, but we were prepared to lower our prices when things got tough for landlords. Remember that you always want the landlord / promoter to make money otherwise they won't bother putting live music on in the future. If they do well when you play they might not panic too much when they next lose £50 on a decent band that haven't played the venue before, just the same as you hope that someone will take a punt and put your band on in a town that you haven't played before! By the same token, you do not want to play for less than the market rate as, if nothing else, the venue will inevitably undervalue you and not bother to do any promotion for the gig if they have nothing much at stake!

[color=#222222]Yet another van story while I think of it, concerning a mate of mine who is a singer with a kind of sleazy charm that seems to be irresistible to a certain type of female![/color] [color=#222222]He was doing a gig in a WM club with his band in South Yorkshire somewhere, having taken the woman he was living with at the time and who happens to be the mother of (two of) his children. At the gig he meets a young lady who seems very friendly and is intimating that she would like to be even friendlier! In order to oblige, he sneaks her out to the hire van that they are using for the gig where they enjoy a brief, but undoubtedly very romantic assignation.[/color] [color=#222222]He then starts to worry that he has been missing for a while and that his missus may be wondering where he is. So he sends the girl back to the bar and gets in the hire van and intentionally crashes it into an archway, causing it very minor damage. He then goes back into the club saying “lads, I was just moving the van and I’ve crashed it into the archway”. They go outside to inspect the damage, moaning about his driving and how accident prone he is – thus alerting his partner’s suspicions that he has been up to no good (again)…..[/color]

[quote name='WalMan' timestamp='1334697335' post='1620038'] Slightly more recently he was stopped in a smaller van with the PA in it by an excitable young constable and his puppy walker. "Have you been drinking?" "Only water all night" "Well in that case I require you to take a roadside narcotics test" Puppy walker stood on the passenger side raises his eyebrows. "Why?" Response from the puppy was to the effect "You look dozy" which was greated by cries of "HE ALWAYS LOOKS LIKE THAT!" from the rest of the van & puppy walker telling us to sod off before putting the leash on his charge [/quote] [color=#222222]Last year we were coming back from a blues festival in a very smart part of Cheshire in an old van borrowed from one of the band leader’s mates in Halifax when we were stopped at 2o’clock in the morning by what must be the politest policeman I’ve ever met![/color] [color=#222222][font="Times New Roman"][size="3"] [/size][/font][/color] [color=#222222]Once he had satisfied himself that we were not on the way to rob Wayne Rooney’s house he sent us on our way having apologised for keeping us from our beds, not commenting that we had the keyboard player sat on my bass cab in the back (thereby no seat, yet alone seatbelt), a knackered van that must have had something wrong with it if you looked hard enough, or that we had a couple of open bottles of beer. Come to think of it, not even a suggestion of a breathalyser (Paddy was driving and had drunk two bottles of this local strawberry beer that the landlord had been giving us all day – completely sober but most coppers would have still have had a go at getting a result on a breathalyser)[/color] [color=#222222][font="Times New Roman"][size="3"] [/size][/font][/color] [color=#222222]Nope, just apologies and wishing us a speedy journey home. If only all policemen were like that….!![/color]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1334689411' post='1619881'] I think you win the thread. [/quote] I fear I don't do the story justice! You ought to hear them tell it - hilarious! Your trip across America was pretty cool......

Despite spending much of the 80s travelling up and down the country in the back of a transit, I haven’t got too many good stories apart from the time that the singer mistakenly topped up the petrol tank with water, which made for an interesting journey home! The best van stories I have are secondhand and happened to various mates. A guy that I used to share a house with, along with a few other mates played at various times in a pro showband, travelling up and down the country playing workingmans clubs and army bases, etc back in the days when you could make a living doing so. To amuse themselves on the long trips they used to always take a shotgun along, so that they could take potshots at passing motorway signs at 3 o’clock in the morning, etc. They used to have a roadie who always drove, chainsmoking and continually dropping ash in to an overflowing ashtray, which he kept by his side next to the handbrake. The guitar player thought that it would be a rather jolly idea to remove the ash from his ashtray, empty a shotgun cartridge into it and then refill with ash! Once they got on the motorway he lit a cigarette, whilst everyone in the back seats of the van waiting with bated breath to see what happened. Apparently it didn’t go off immediately, but halfway home he managed to stub out a cig on the gunpowder, which of course exploded, filling the cab with smoke causing him to veer onto the hard shoulder at 70mph, nearly crashing the van with all the other occupants in hysterics……

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1334505865' post='1616946'] Competence, feel and technique aside, I think I'd rather be in a band with Mr Peart than the frankly unhinged Mr Bonham. Bit too high-maintenance for me. [/quote] Dunno - old Neil doesn't exactly strike me as a barrel full of laughs.....

[quote name='Davo-London' timestamp='1334415519' post='1615949'] Bonham has an incredible following amongst pro drummers. Peart doesn't. Davo [/quote] To be fair, Peart has influenced plenty of drummers - just not as many as Bonham...!

It may be that there will be digital profiling / modelling amps on the market that are as good as the real thing. I haven't heard one yet, but it could be just around the corner. You will know that they have arrived when the likes of Steve Lukather, Philip Sayce, Steve Morse, etc start using them without being paid shed loads of money in endorsements!