peteb

The trouble is that you could argue that the supply side is being manipulated in the face of high demand, in a way that is not in the customer's interest. The difference with train and airline tickets (you can add hotel rooms as well) is that it is genuinely reflecting changes in demand and is more often than not in the punter's favour. The Government would be quite justified in intervening if they feel that it would be worthwhile. It is a bit unfair to expect Oasis to police all of this dynamic pricing malarky. They can have an influence on what the face value of the ticket should be, but beyond that they will have little control. Look what happened when Pearl Jam tried to take on Ticketmaster many years ago!

I always liked Live Forever. Apparently, Noel was a big Nirvana fan but he couldn't understand the negativity behind 'I Hate Myself and Want to Die'. As far as he was concerned, he had f*** all at the time, but he still had things to do and couldn't wait to wake up the next morning to live his life. He wrote LF as a positive response to the Nirvana song. https://www.bbc.co.uk/culture/article/20240827-why-oasis-defined-the-spirit-of-90s-britain

Basically when 'rock' became a thing in the mid-sixties, it grew out of not only rock n'roll and pop, but also blues and jazz. These forms of music generally incorporated an instrumental interlude that gave featured soloists a chance to shine. As this new genre was predominantly guitar based, this generally meant a guitar solo. Seeing as the first big stars of this new 'rock' music included Jimi Hendrix and Cream, the solos were sometimes more important than the actual song (especially live). This established the idea of rock songs generally having a default position of there being a guitar solo. This was reinforced by a succession of bands, from Free to Van Halen to Pearl Jam (and many others).

Doesn't the same apply for anyone who becomes successful in the music business, or life in general?

Let's be realistic, Oasis was always first and foremost about the Gallagher brothers. Sure, it would be great to see Bonehead get a payday out of it and it's always good to see people looking after their mates. But, it is about the brothers and always has been.

When it comes down to it, Oasis (and the bands that they influenced coming just after) were the last to come through and get record deals on the back of playing live, selling out clubs and building a big following. If nothing else, I think that it is great that the whole country is talking about a band from a working class background who play guitars and wrote songs that mean a lot to people of a certain age. Also, those songs were massive hits but didn't have autotune, five producers and seven people getting songwriting credits. It's a lot different to most of the stuff dominating the charts today and that's all good in my opinion.

Not to anywhere near the same extent that they used to, although I do take your points about venues not having recovered from the pandemic and the problem of developers building residential stock next to established venues. In the mid to late 80s, I played in an originals hard rock band that picked up a bit of a following but no more than that. Wherever we played in rock clubs, the place would be near enough full (even mid-week). We played at a club in Birmingham on a Friday night once with a not particularly big band from the NWOBHM era. There were 900 people crammed in, all paying to be there. A similar event these days would be very lucky to get anywhere near 100 punters. Just before Covid, I did an album with a band that had previously sold a respectable amount of CDs a few years before, mainly in Europe. There was no serious talk of going out to play live in this country - it just would not have been worthwhile.

A decent summary from Andy Edwards, the West Midlands' answer to Rick Beato and Robert Plant's former drummer. He describes them as a 90s version of Slade and how they represented a big part the lives of people who grew up in the 90s, not to mention that Wonderwall is apparently the biggest song on Spotify!

I've just been informed that the missus is going to be trying to get tickets on Saturday morning...!

...or the Beatles...

What these venues really need is for some guitar based band to break into the mainstream and create the buzz that Oasis did back in the 90s. Preferably with imitator bands following in their wake, also capturing the public's imagination. Then people might start getting back in the habit of going out to watch smaller bands live, like they did in the 90s / 00s

Absolutely. You can feel the whole room lift when a covers band start an Oasis song in a pub - it's great to see and even better to be part of if you're in the band. I have friends who used to work in music shops. They reckon that Oasis sold more guitars and got more kids playing than any other band of the time or since.

I don't think that the OP is trying to cling on to his youth or whatever the normal motive is for guys going down the botox / fillers path, just trying to get through an audition and look the part in promo photos, etc. Although I wouldn't 100% rule it out, I don't think that I would do it. I reckon that I don't look too bad for my age (early 60s), but the (almost) six pack is a distant memory and while I still have longish hair, it is a bit thinner in places. While dying my hair or getting more ink would be OK, but I'm not keen on fillers, etc. I know a couple out in Spain who do this as a matter of course and she kinda looks like a cartoon of a pretty girl, while the (older) guy looks alright but still has that slightly surprised look all of the time. I have made a conscious effort to start getting gigs in slightly different genres as I've got older. I can still look reasonably cool onstage in a blues band, but I'm not so sure that I can carry off the leather trousers or whatever I used to wear in a straight up hard rock act these days!

I dunno about that, but its true that back in the early 80s, we all had 70s Fenders that we modded and swapped out bridges, pickups, etc. I remember seeing an interview with Rick Wills (Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Roxy Music, Dave Gilmour, etc) on some YouTube bass channel where he and the guy interviewing him agreed that you couldn't really say that a Fender was 'yours' untill you had taken a screwdriver to it or modded it in some way!

The one I played was a four string and I loved the neck. Everything just seemed easier to play...!

I know what you mean. I have briefly thought of looking for a secondhand Fodera (one of the less esoteric models), but to do that I would have to sell three or four other really nice basses. At one time, when I started playing FSOs again, I wanted an USA Sadowsky but didn't have the money at the time. So I bought and sold a few super jazz type basses until I got an old spec Xotic jazz. At that point I thought, just how much better could a Sadowsky be than the excellent Xotic? For the type of stuff I generally play, a Sadowsky would probably be a better fit than a Fodera, so you have to ask yourself, could you justify buying a Fodera over a Sadowsky and then, could I justify getting a Sadowsky when I already had the Xotic? It's not like saying that you could get away with a Harley Benton or a Sire (which of course you could if you had to). These are all top spec, excellent instruments and as great as the Fodera undoubtedly is, do I need one when I already have some great basses that work for what I do? To cap it all, because of the people I'm currently playing with, I'm using passive Fenders on pretty much very gig these days!

I have played a Fodera. It was extremely good, one of the best (if not the best) basses I have ever played. Whether any bass is worth that sort of money is debateable, but it was very good...!

But there will always be a few gentlemen of a certain age (like me and you) who are going to check the gig out, and the vast majority are going to be a bit disappointed...!

That's a bit confusing - perhaps he should consider an alternative stage name for his showbiz endeavours?

Is that Lee Aaron, as in Canadian 'Metal Queen' singer? If so, I'm a bit surprised that she has come over to play gigs in pubs as I would have assumed that she would be hitting the club / small venue circuit. I'm always curious about the logistics about how you put together a tour for artists from overseas at that level.

I played at the Old Bush Blues Festival in Worcestershire on Friday, depping with Hooson Maguire playing rocky blues / soul stuff. Great little festival - sold out with 500 capacity, great crowd, well organised and really friendly. We stayed over for a coupe of nights and caught up with a few people we hadn't seen for a while. Great to play with my old mucka Paddy Maguire and the excellent Jenna Hooson-Maguire again. For those interested in such things, I was using a 78 P bass into a Caveman pre / Handbox R400 / Berg CN212. Apologies for the quality of the photos, taken on a phone by my missus, who may have had a couple of ciders / attempting to dance while taking them...!

Yes, that was definitely a good one... 🙂 I imagine that Luke would be great company, but possibly a bit exhausting after a while!

Obviously I confused the story with something else (or simply not remembered correctly, a problem with old age). This one is when SL was just starting out and was late for session and a bit flustered. It just shows that these guys can be pretty helpful to each other, even in what was a pretty tough industry. If you read the Luke autobiography, there are loads of anecdotes like that. It's all quite interesting to someone like me, and generally pretty amusing.

I believe that was a film score session where Luke turned up with a hangover, believing that he had a pretty easy part to cover and then being shocked to find that it was way more complicated than he had expected. After laughing at him, his mate Ritenour (who was a stronger reader at the time) took pity on him and swapped the scores! Remember that a lot of these guys like to affect a self-depreciating tone and tell stories about where they nearly come unstuck. If you read his book, you can see many testimonials about how SL could get something magical down first take without seeming to take it too seriously, which was highly regarded even among the elite LA session players of the time.

To be honest, I was a little disappointed in that! He can very obviously play, but his take on it wasn't anything special and he looked like he would have been happier doing his Stu Hamm on speed schtick rather than coming up with a great part on the spot. He's certainly no Steve Lukather or Leland Sklar type of character, nailing everything on the first take while cracking jokes and lighting up the room. I must say that he comes across as a nice guy, rather than the slightly smug poshboy that I find a little irritating on his YouTube clips. I am amazed that he genuinely didn't recognise the Rolling Stones (on one of their better known tunes). Perhaps if he had been more familiar with that type of classic rock music he would have been a bit more comfortable.