peteb

But that is a different type of opportunity than what you would be looking for. There could have been a very similar opportunity available ten or fifteen years ago for a bass player to join the Killers...!

I don’t see what the problem is. The girl can obviously play and she is undoubtedly cute! She is certainly using her looks (in a pretty restrained way) to get attention for her bass playing. The same (on a much higher level) with Nita Strauss. There is no way she would be in Alice Cooper’s band if she didn’t look the way she does, but equally she would never have got the gig if she couldn’t hold her own playing wise! But so what… Ever since the beginning of rock and roll in the 50s, virtually every iconic male act has traded on their image, looks and sex appeal – be it Elvis, the Beatles, Guns N’Roses or hundreds of others. Why should a talented woman be castigated for taking advantage of their looks / image, when it is accepted that it is simply part of the package male artists usually need to be successful??

I got an email from the courier first thing the next morning and another to confirm delivery a few hours later. Remember that I bought the bass over the phone rather than online. If I was you I would give them a ring to check on progress / delivery.

I just bought a Jazz Bass from them over the phone on Monday. All went very smoothly and I had the bass the next day.

I had a similar issue with rather 'high cost ' bass (a Warwick Streamer Stage 1) at a bike rally a bit ago, in front of one of the biggest crowds I've played to in recent years. Fortunately I had a spare bass to hand and nobody noticed, but trying to change batteries in an active bass in a hurry backstage is certainly one of those banana skins that can trip you up if you're not careful...

I think that Blue’s original list was pretty sound, if a touch excessive on one or two points – do you really need a dedicated sound engineer / lighting guy for a pub band or is that just another mouth (or two) to feed?? I recently saw an article about this subject that I thought mad a lot of sense. I’m not sure who wrote it, but some pro who gets decent gigs, who said that there were three elements that he considered before taking a gig: the music, the hang and the money. ‘The music’ is obviously if the other musicians are of a good standard and if you like the music that they are going to play, ‘the hang’ refers to if you like them as people with ‘the money’ meaning was it a decent payer. For him to take the gig then at least two of those elements has to be in place, so for example he suggests that you might consider a gig playing music you don’t care for if it is with friends and pays well. To put it in context for my personal situation, I’m currently standing in for a band for a few months who are OK but possibly not the sort of stuff that I would normally play, but they are great guys and I’m earning decent money. On the other hand, me and some friends (who are good players) have been trying to put together a side project playing music that I really like but will probably not make much cash.

Nice clip, thanks for posting. Made me check out the original again as well, which I always thought was Jaco at his most accessible. Page's solo was cool as well...

Same difference...!

Not sure that he was ever quite up to singing 'Reach For The Stars'...

The thing is that Bobby Kimball was, once upon a time, one of the greatest singers around. It is quite shocking that he can actually sing that poorly...

The thing is that there is more than one way to skin a cat as it were and there are many different great bass sounds, just as there even more crap ones! What any bass player needs to do is find one that works for them and the type of music they play. My approach is that ideally it should be a tone that can be recognised as being a 'your' sound (hence I basically use just one sound and only use effects sparingly) and once you have found the sound that you want, then you forget about 'tone chasing ' and concentrate on playing!

I'm not sure that it's actually part of the show as such, just that it's easier (and more to the point quicker) for a roadie to pass him a bass rather than him check the tuning. I'm not sure that too many people are paying that much attention to Darryl Jones when the Stones are onstage.

I had one of these, but sold it on as I wasn't really using it too much (never bothered using the spare bass for a start). Nether the less, a great piece of kit that will be pretty much ideal for your needs.

I think that the clue was when the name of the band was changed to that of the guitarist. He is now the only key member of the band, that's just the way it works - not necessarily a bad thing but you have to recognise the reality of the situation. I would make a point of saying you think that they should get a dep bass player for the gig and that you expect a share of the gig money if they are going to use your PA.

Funnily enough, me & the guitar player were discussing this issue with another drummer friend in the pub over the weekend. He intentionally got a smaller snare so that he could control the volume better onstage. At the time I was in a band with him and thought that he should have gone for a bigger snare, but he was certainly on the right track. He was also the one who mentioned the rimshot issue with the drummer in the current band. No one wants it to be too quiet – drums in a rock band are supposed to be loud, to move air and inject a certain amount of excitement onstage. But there has to be a balance, especially on a smaller stage…

I know that it is not a popular opinion on here, but the fact is that most top rock drummers are pretty loud. From John Bonham through to modern day monsters like Kenny Aronoff, Taylor Hawkins, Josh Freese or many more – they can all play with a certain amount of dynamics but their default mode is f***in loud. I’ve been gigging in hard rock bands of various hues for the past 35 years and most of the better drummers within that genre that I’ve played with have been pretty thunderous. However, I do share your pain as one of my bands (playing rock covers) is having a similar issue. The drummer (not the best I’ve ever played with, but certainly not the worst) sounds great, but he is just too loud for most of the gigs we do these days.We need a find a compromise of volume and quality of sound from the kit, because our PA (not to mention our ears) can't keep up with him. You will probably find that most of the problem will be with the snare. Many hard rock drummers will intentionally hit a bit of the rim when they hit the backbeat. This makes the snare sound really big but adds a lot of volume. Our first option is to try and get our guy to do this a bit more selectively rather than as a default. The second thing is to try and persuade him to get a smaller, slightly shallower snare drum for pub gigs. This should still cut through, but with a more manageable onstage volume.

I've forced myself to take another look and you're right - he was hiding behind Kimball's not inconsiderable bulk! No idea why they gave the solo to the bass player then...

I'm guessing that when they got to the iconic Steve Lukather solo they realised that they didn't have a guitar player on stage and there was a look at Norm to say "it's down to you mate"! I've heard that Bobby Kimball has supposedly lost the plot a bit, but still amazed to hear him sing that badly...

You are of course right. The thing is that many of us do value the opinion of our peers (perhaps too much). Of course, having a good reputation with other players around town does help you get offers of gigs. The trouble with punters is that they tend to get the big things right (i.e. they can generally pick out the best bands) but they usually don’t understand why! I remember talking to one punter who was raving about a good band but seemed to confuse who was the best player in the band with the guy who had the best haircut…!

I agree with everything you say here, but I still think that to put on a credible performance there has to be a small element of something personal / selfish that you are inviting the audience to appreciate. When it comes down to it, most of us are just song and dance men of one hue or another and performing to an audience is the key to it all. But while playing rock, punk or ELO covers isn’t exactly high art, there does have to be an artistic element for it to be convincing.

In theory you should be more worried about your audience rather than other musicians' opinions. However, I am quite embarrassed about how much I value compliments from musicians that I respect and how blasé I am about what punters think...

Actually, I disagree with that. As much as I value performance skills nearly as much as musical ones, the most important people in the room are always the musicians. There always is a selfish element to any great performance and to have any authenticity the band have to satisfy themselves in order to satisfy the audience.

Pretty much this, where everything sounds bigger than the sum of its parts and you feel that you just can't get anything wrong! A great performance is usually (but not always) inspired by a great audience. After a great gig I don't even mind a long drive home - it can even feel sort of serene. Mind you can't embrace the serenity too much - I'm always worried about falling asleep at the wheel on a long late-night drive...!

Surely you are not expected to keep an audience for the whole of a 4 hour gig? I assume the point of playing that long is to catch an audience that is moving from bar to bar and try to keep them there for an extra drink, or pursuade them to return later on to catch the end of the show.

I remember helping out backstage on an event that they were headlining - terrific singer...!