peteb

Can't help thinking that one man's set of meatheads is another man's idea of a great rock and roll crowd...!

[quote name='neilmurraybass' timestamp='1457432071' post='2998382'] I can see I'll have to do a note-for-note demonstration! Neil [/quote] Now that would be brilliant...! I have been listening to that bassline for pretty much as long as I have been playing bass - it's pretty much part of my musical DNA! I have played various versions of FFYL in a number of bands, but I am not convinced that I have ever managed to get your version 100% right. It would be fascinating to see exactly what you played, especially with you actually showing us how you did it.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1457228874' post='2996600'] Excellent point, good money making opportunities are never advertised to the general public. Blue [/quote] It's not just about money, it could just be a band that is going to play pubs twice a month for fun! But the point remains that IME the best bands rarely advertise in this way, but tend to recruit thru recommendations from a network of their musician mates and friends of friends, etc.

I think that all four of the adverts in the OP are fine – all clear and realistic in what they are looking for and potentially good opportunities (depending on how good they are) for a suitable candidate. Personally, I would not consider Band 1 at the moment as they are not going to play out but if I was too busy in my day job to commit to regular gigging and wanting to keep my hand in, or if I was new to an area and wanting to make connections then they might be ideal. Again, I would have no interest in Band 4 (nor would they be interested in me) but it may well be a perfectly viable band for someone into that type of thing. However, I kinda think that this is missing the point. If any band has to resort to putting out adverts for musicians that they don’t know, then it is a pretty good indication that they are not plugged into the local circuit and do not have the connections with the local good players (or are not good enough to attract the guys who normally get the better gigs). Most good bands recruit from recommendations from a network of established players who all either know each other or know of each other.

No one has mentioned Oasis - first song on Morning Glory quoting a Gary Glitter song...!

If your diary isn't packed with gigs for the coming year and it looks like it will be fun / make a few quid then why not?? Looks like the drummer is not going to be up to playing for a while and the current bass player doesn't fancy it without him. Having said that you can always be prepared to leave if you find them untrustworthy going forward...!

How about 'Drinkin' My Blues' by the excellent Lance Lopez (former Buddy Myles protégé) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8G9vijt_do

[quote name='AlpherMako5' timestamp='1456086963' post='2985307'] Bradford used to be ace for gigging. Now it's rubbish. You could gig twice a week and not play the same place twice in one year. I'm going back a while mind you.... [/quote] Remember the Ring O’Bells, that big pub on the roundabout at Eccleshill?? Fifteen years ago they used to put rock bands on every Thursday night. It was a decent crowd every week (often rammed out) and it was like the start of the weekend for a lot of us. If I remember correctly we used to play there 4 or 5 times a year (as did you). The brewery saw how successful it was and decided to invest in the pub and ordered a complete refurb and then reopened featuring MOR acts from a booking agency three times a week. Eighteen months later the pub had closed (obviously the crowd watching rock bands every Thursday had no interest in 60s tributes on the weekend) and now it has been demolished and the site is a mini-supermarket…! The live scene isn’t dying by any means but it is not as healthy as it was 15 years ago. There are still gigs and an audience for a decent band but punters have less money and tend to pick and choose more when they venture out. Pubs generally are doing worse and loads have closed down, whether they feature live music or not. And of course, breweries have made so many bizarre business decisions to ruin successful pubs (like the example above) that it beggars belief…

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1455971403' post='2984081'] If you don't like people, bands might not be for you. Do solo projects or the hone studio thing. You shouldn't have to quit all together. Blue [/quote] If someone genuinely doesn't like other people I would suggest that they probably have issues that they need to address that go beyond music or playing in bands.

[quote name='Woodinblack' timestamp='1455455844' post='2979206'] strange as it would seem, i don't think that liking people in an essential, or even that important for being in the entertainment business. [/quote] I would disagree, especially in bands where you have to travel and spend a lot of time with other musicians and have a pretty direct relationship with your audience. It might be different for film actors, but the same definitely applies to the theatre. I know a very good drummer locally with a decent CV who no one will play with any more, basically because he is a bit of a sociopath. People have put up with him for so long because he's good, but now people have had enough and no one will touch him.

To the OP - if you don'et like playing gigs then just don't. There are plenty of other people who will welcome the opportunity to take your place.1 If you don't like other people then being in the entertainment business (basically what playing live is about) is probably not for you...

[quote name='Len_derby' timestamp='1455449415' post='2979119'] This is an interesting one. As a bar visitor both sides of the Atlantic (but only as a customer in the USA, not playing) my observation is that generally the American side is less rowdy and less downright rude. There seems to be increasing inability for Brits to hold their drink. [/quote] I have very rarely played a gig where the crowd is overly rowdy or unfriendly, even in towns that have reputations for being, shall we say a little rumbustious! The very odd occasions where it has happened are so rare that they have become the source of legend, or at least stories recounted in pubs by groups of musicians... I don't know what gigs some people here are playing, but I don't come across them.

[quote name='wombatboter' timestamp='1455266151' post='2977548'] Well played but the arrangement takes over the song... [/quote] TBH I kinda think that's the point! I enjoyed the clip but would never actually buy it...

The late Phil Kennemore of Y&T was a really nice bloke. A couple of us were drinking at the bar after a Y&T show while one of our geekier friends was trying to get autographs when Phil came to get a drink. We ended up chatting and drinking for an hour or so, talking mainly about travel and his love of Britain rather than music or Y&T, whilst he drank the bar dry of dark spirits! The rest of the band made an appearance later and all seemed nice enough guys but didn't really get the humour (we were taking the mickey a bit by this point) but Kennemore just had a laugh and chatted like we were all old mates!

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1454013115' post='2965511'] Yes, we know the history of the band but it's still not rock. Using a blues based scale does not make something rock. [/quote] You are of course quite right in everything you say, but you are kinda missing my original point. To a white teenage rock fan in a northern city in the late 70s, reggae was part of the alternative to mainstream pop and therefore was part of the wider alternative rock (of that time) culture. To this day I quite like hearing the odd reggae track but I know nothing about the genre or own any albums by any reggae artist except Bob Marley, although I did used to have a Steel Pulse album about 30 years ago (I wonder where that went).

A bit of a tribute clip / recent interviews with Jimmy and his Last In Line band members. You can see that the hard living has taken it's toll but you can see what a solid player he was (right to the end) and unsurprisingly, he appears to have been a bit of a character! I particularly like the anecdote where he was asked to retrieve a van from a police pound (as the original driver had been thrown in jail) and deliver some gear to Olympia studios where Led Zeppelin happened to be recording Kashmir. He stayed for two days... [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl8OvjtBmds"]https://www.youtube....h?v=Wl8OvjtBmds[/url]

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1453938777' post='2964583'] Pete you nailed it. Look at all the money my generation Is spending on the Flower Power or Happy Together Caribbean cruises. My friend Vance Brecia,guitarist ,backing vocals and musical director for Hermans Hermits told me those 60s oldy tours are making tons of cash. Blue [/quote] So are blues cruises and some of the classic rock holiday events.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1453938354' post='2964576'] Blues and rock are so closely linked, to me those two are one in the same. When I hear blues I can hear rock, when I hear rock, I can hear blues. Blue [/quote] As someone who plays the blues circuit in the UK, try telling that to some of the blues purists...!

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1453936276' post='2964539'] I understand what you're saying there and I don't of course dispute if it was like that for you but I have to say I never when I was a teenager/twenties in the 60s and 70s did it feel like only rock mattered. Rock was one thing but I was always also into blues, country, soul, ska, reggae, folk, jazz, ... just music really. And there was always plenty of rock I really did not like and still don't. [/quote] When I was saying 'rock music' I was meaning in its most encompassing definition, including blues, soul, reggae, etc - album orientated popular music of the time really.

Mark - it might be an idea to flag up what day the latest instalment starts on when you post on BC

[quote name='TrevorR' timestamp='1453930380' post='2964446'] I never realised he was a regular contributor. How cool. I had always wondered why he randomly was reviewing a bass for them. Explains it! [/quote] I don't think that it was over a prolonged period[i]. [/i]I also remember him reviewing an early Musicman Stingray - I believe that he finished the column by saying he was buying the review model in preference to his old Fender ([b]if [/b]I remember correctly)...!

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1453928702' post='2964416'] Cool story, My band is a 70s style hard rock and blues band. We have been together for 10 years and play around 75 shows annually. We still attract and have a loyal following of the 60+ demographic. When the 20 somethings wonder into one of our shows they leave immediately. That's fine, we're lucky, we don't need their business. So the point is, those of us still playing Rock and roll have to work hard on marketing to that 60+ market. A lot of us are still in great shape,we look great and were not settling for that rocking chair yet. Blue [/quote] There has always been kids who are not interested in seeing live music. In my youth they would have headed for the nearest disco! You are right that there is a new 60+ market for live music. The rock and roll generation(s) have grown up but they have no intention of growing old...

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1453929266' post='2964425'] Blue, if you'd been in charge in the late 1950s and had the same attitude to 21 year olds as you do now, then Rock and Roll would never have got started. We'd still be listening to Perry Como. Lots of young people are into rock, classic and otherwise. Maybe it's different in your world but that's how it is in the UK. However, the thing is, young people are not only into rock they are into all sorts of music. They are, in my experience, very open-minded about music. [/quote] I agree. There are plenty of kids into rock music but it just doesn't have the stranglehold of popular (youth) culture that it did when I was a teenager. Many will go and see a classic rock band in a pub one weekend then go to a dance club the next! Of course, you are also right that music does move on and we can't expect the music of our youth to be preserved in aspic. The classic rock of 20 years time in the future will doubtless be different to what it is now...

[quote name='GrammeFriday' timestamp='1453930703' post='2964452'] Yes, I did. Saying "I'm not trolling" is no guarantee that you are not trolling. And this is still looking like a troll thread to me. [/quote] To be frank, it seems more like that you are trolling someone by repeatedly accusing them of trolling! I don't think that Blue is right on this subject but it is a legitimate topic for discussion...