peteb

Some of them do seem to have a 'one size fits all' approach to any bass player in any band - allows them more time to appease the guitar player and work on the biggest possible bass drum sound known to mankind...!

Which is another reason why many FOH engineers prefer using a DI box...

I've lived in the North for nearly 80% of my time on earth and I'm still a southerner...! Just one of those things...

Last time I was at Jon Shuker's place, he had one on the go (headless, designed to fit into overhead storage) - looked stunning...!

Yes & no! If you can’t play, or if you are in a band who are poor musicians or sound awful then it doesn’t matter what gear you use. If you get to play in a band that sounds great then they will expect you to sound just as good as them. As a rule, good gear will sound better – but diminishing returns sets in at a certain point. If you don’t know how to eq an amp then it doesn’t matter too much what you use. My advice has always been to get the best gear you can reasonably afford, then learn how to use it and not chop and change too often. Good players will always sound better than bad players, but good players with good gear sound better than good players with crap gear! Funnily enough, I have just been talking to my guitar playing mate about this down the pub. He is starting to lose patience with his bass player, who always seems to be chasing a sound in his head and keeps changing his pretty decent gear for stuff that is no better than what he had before. He is talking about getting a rig that just isn’t going to work in 80% of the gigs that they do and will cause problems for the soundman (i.e. my mate). Always better to get gear that works with the way you play and the type of music you do – then stick with it…

The obvious musical one is playing Fat Bottomed Girls on what seems to be the Sheer Heart Attack tour. Most of the factual ones seem covered by that video clip above. I always understood that Freddie was friends with Smile long before he joined, and I had heard that he had even worked with Roger Taylor on his clothes stall in Kensington market before he was ever in the band. Also, I thought that FM re-joining the band, agreeing to do Live Aid and being diagnosed with AIDS in the space of one week was pushing it a bit. This is not to mention tracking down his future partner and introducing him to his parents (whilst coming out in the process) on the way to Wembley Stadium! The story I heard was that Freddie didn’t want to do Live Aid as he wanted a break after being out on tour, but was persuaded by the size of the potential worldwide audience he could reach with one show…

Just been to see it at the cinema. A rather uneven movie, at times completely unconvincing and at other times strangely moving. Lots of liberties with the sequencing of events and songs, which irritated me a bit. I thought that the music bits were pretty good.

This ^

3. Can he afford to stop?

From reading an interview on Luke's website, it seems that Joe didn't look after his voice in his first stint in Toto, which was the reason he was fired. But they stayed friends and he got himself back in shape, leading to him eventually being reinstated in the band.

Unfortunately, it is a big advantage to be able to drive and have a car if you want to gig regularly. I know some people in London manage on the tube and you may find a band who keep gear centrally and have a van at their disposal, but for many gigging bands everyone having a car is a necessity.

If you think that public transport in London is awful, imagine what it's like in most other cities throughout the country. I lived in London for the best part of five years in the 80s - often regret leaving...

I was recently playing a few months of deps for an R&B band while their regular bass player recovered from some medical treatment. As I was playing in a different type of band and using a new rig, I started bringing pretty much every bass that I owned to see how they worked. Of course I asked the rest of the band (well mainly the guitar player and the original bass player, who came to some of the gigs, even though he wasn't well enough to play) what they thought of each bass. They would happily discuss the merits of each bass, but essentially thought that they all sounded great (the guitarist's favourite seemed to whichever bass I had just done the gig with). The truth is that they were happy with any decent bass sound, even though they were quite aware of the differences in each one. Now I have come across one or two band leaders who are hung up upon a particular bass (usually a Precision), but that is pretty rare...

And with good reason… Surely everything in the chain from you striking a note to it reaching the listener’s ears has an effect on the end sound / tone / whatever. This can range from a tiny effect (like what lead you use) to a massive one (roundwound or flatwound strings). The biggest impact on the sound is how you strike the string i.e. your fingers (both left and right hand of course). This is because: a) the inherent tonal quality of your fingers is unique to you and; b) this is the first stage of generating the note and therefore impacts on everything further down the chain. I would have thought that most people, if they really tried, could tell the difference between a Stingray and a Jazz. But if I play a Stingray or a Jazz, it certainly sounds noticeably different, but it still sounds like me playing a Stingray or a Jazz. Similarly, if you were to get up and sit in with my band and play through my gear with the same settings, you won’t sound like me, but like you playing through my rig. I think that the main reason that people can’t seem to be able to tell the difference is that they simply don’t care. A Stingray and a Jazz may well sound a bit different, but the chances are that you will be able to get a tone from either of them that will work with virtually all types of music that use an electric bass guitar. There are hundreds of good bass sounds available (and even more bad ones) and as long as the bass sounds good I don’t think that anyone who isn’t on Basschat, the odd recording producer or an overly fussy band leader really cares. This is very different to an instrument like a guitar, which works in a register that people hear more clearly and really defines the sound of the music the band are playing. Van Halen and SRV each have / had great, iconic rock guitar sounds, but Eddie’s ‘brown’ sound would not have worked on SRV’s albums any more than Stevie’s would have worked on Running With The Devil…!

Not me, but a drummer I used to play with used to get this happening quite regularly

I should act that most audiences know enough to work out if a band is any good or not, so it does help to get the music right as well as making sure that you are being 'entertaining'...

I think that some people may actually be underestimating their audience here (hard as that is to believe). I would say that the vast majority of the members of the audience that I play to are quite aware of what a bass guitar is and also have a fair idea of its role in the band. They might not know much beyond that, but then again, why should they? I have always got a fair amount of attention , but that is more down to a little bit of stagecraft than anything else! Punters want to be entertained, so entertain them...

So can bass players

But is that because it is easy for the bass player, not generally being a soloist (unless you are Billy Sheehan), to be relegated to the shadows at the back of the stage? It is more difficult for a lead guitarist to hide at the back, even in the unlikely event that they wanted to. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be this way – compare John McVie and (to take an extreme example) Nikki Sixx?? I have always got recognition from the audience. At your school event, kids would have been coming to me – not because I’m a superior player by any means, but because I am more of a performer. A few of us went to see the Devil’s Slingshot a few years ago (rock fusion trio featuring Tony Macalpine, Virgil Donati and the aforementioned Billy Sheehan). This was the first time that my wife had seen Sheehan live and she was laughing as she said she could see where I had stolen my act from – not the bass playing (unfortunately) but the stage moves…!

I'm based in West Yorkshire (used to live in London more than half a lifetime ago)! Just got back from my pub gig, one that would confirm the worst fears of all the doomsayers on here i.e.only about 15 people there! Next gig is at a venue that always gets packed, so swings and roundabouts The thing is that I know plenty of decent drummers and several great guitar players, but it is very difficult to find a lead vocalist who has the pipes, can front a band and isn't completely mad. As you say, the singer is the focal point - it doesn't matter how good a band is, if the singer isn't up to scratch you are always going to struggle...!

What is all this talk about drummers as if they are semi-mythical creatures?? I have a phone full of drummers who are perfectly capable of playing in a decent pub level band (or better). The problem round here is finding credible singers...

It's just that none of the established music pubs around here would consider putting on an originals band unless they had, say, a member who was a bit of a local star and could guarantee bringing a following.

Maybe another example of the North / South (West) divide...!

Out of interest, how many non cover bands regularly play pubs?? Not many around here...

I'm not sure where the really good 'top-rated' cover bands do play then if they are not playing in pubs, especially as the club scene is not what it was. A heavy rock covers band are not going to get much work on the function circuit or playing weddings, yet they can still pull decent audiences in the better pub venues. There are plenty of people out there working a day job who are still capable players / singers (not sure about Sid from Accounts). Some of them have built up a fair bit of experience / stagecraft and actually know what they are doing...