Skinnyman

Sorry, has to be done.... Was it a dance it a raffle? You set 'em up...

We used to get £250 the first time we played going up to £300 once they'd decided we weren't just "a bluddy noise" and booked us to come back. A couple of places offered £350 but £300 seemed to be the norm. Start at nine, break for't bingo and then curfew at twelve. Strike down and out by 12:30 cos Howard has to lock up and he's on shift again at six....

Precisely. There's a symbiotic relationship here - or should be. Pubs need bands to bring in the punters and bands need pubs to give them a venue at which to play. And let's be honest, we probably need the pubs more than they need us OK, if you're a band of sufficient stature that you can play bigger, music-specific venues then all power to your elbow and play what you want. But if you're in a band that plays on a Saturday night down the Pig and Whistle and you're being paid to do so by the landlord then, in my view, your job is to entertain the punters first and yourself second. And if that means playing bloody Wonderwall yet again then i will play it with a big cheesy smile on my face.

I'm a bit of a fan of remasters, personally. Most of the album's i bought in the seventies are pretty sh@gged by now and many weren't brilliant to start with given the quality of vinyl during the oil crisis. So i welcome the chance to get hold of an album I love on a format that is convenient and, often, with "extras" that add to my understanding. Yes, I know that some are cynical attempts by the record company to squeeze a few more dollars out of their fading asset base - but some are genuine attempts to make a "better" version using today's technology. YMMV of course - and we should bear in mind that the record companies have managed to sell me pretty much my entire album collection several times over on a succession of "improved" formats so i guess I'm just a gullible mug, ripe for exploitation. Hey ho 😀

As mentioned earlier, I think the bassline should serve the song. Sometimes root notes are all that is needed. One of the worst sins a bass player can commit ( in my opinion, of course, others are available and equally valid) is to overplay. So I'll happily play anything in the spirit of the arrangement we've come up with, even if it's simple and repetitive. I just relax and think of myself as playing tuned percussion

This. One of the things about being in a covers band is having a wide repertoire to suit the venue/audience/occasion. When i was gigging with my last band, having a setlist based on a single genre would have seriously cut down our bookability.

I use them and really like them. I don't like a bright or brash tone and these lose their "newness" very quickly. I don't gig the Dingwalls often but when i did, these were comfortable and - to me - sounded good. YMMV of course...

My two penn'orth? If you don't like the music then even if you put your own tastes aside and do it you'll very quickly get disenchanted and start to hate it. So why even go there? Tell them now that you're not going and then find something you do want to do....

I have one of them Rickentractor basses and, much as i love it, I've always been frustrated by the lack of anywhere to anchor a thumb while playing the E string (I use the floating thumb technique but do like a good solid place to rest the thumb while I'm on the E). On my Fender Jazz, there's a nice chunky pickup to rest on, ditto my Sandberg. But the accepted place to rest a thumb on a Ric is the top of the pickguard which, for me, is too far away. I saw the Zero Mod which is available from the US but it's £20-odd quid plus postage and it just runs along the top of the PG so doesn't, in my opinion, solve the problem. So I got some modelling putty and made my own as a prototype - once I'd got a shape and position that worked i passed it on to a mate who has a few 3D printers and the appropriate CAD software and received back this. I'm well chuffed with the result - OK, the shape could follow the PG slightly more closely and I'm a bit annoyed that I managed to scratch it when i was drilling it but i reckon it's pretty good for a first attempt, especially as I'm a cack-handed plonker who generally breaks anything I touch. Prototype And the printed article:

My mother used to run the village shop and i distinctly remember her getting a box of "pre-release" Aztec bars from the sales rep to try out as part of the market research. They were in proper wrappers but without the Cadburys logo and the usual ingredients and stuff. About six months later we got the first box of the "proper" bars. Mum had a sweet tooth so i suspect she conducted the market research single-handedly.

Page two and no one has mentioned Thijs Van Leer?

I shall continue with my solitary vice then. But welcome anyway.... 😀

Welcome Strawbs - is the username a reference to your favourite fruit or to the band? If it's the band, then you're doubly welcome as i thought I was the only Strawbs fan on here!

For auld lang syne..... ....too late to be a Yule log?

Er, thanks. I think. I can be round in about twenty minutes if you're sure it'll help 😕

WHAT????!!!!????

I got them to tune mine in the shop when i bought it....

I suggested that you could be boring instead... 😁

The word "angry" is redundant in that sentence... Just kidding. I don't mind a bit o'banjo now and again - although i find it best enjoyed in moderation 😀

Hee hee. In my case, it means "learn". Then get distracted, forget, learn again, sleep, forget... Rinse and repeat...

Agreed, unless it's done with grace and humour. And a combination of autocorrect and small keyboards is often to blame for the error in the first place

Thank you.... Right, back to it.....

Aaaaaaaaargh!!!!!!!

Fellow BC-ers, can I ask you to please stop posting on the forum for a few days? I have to learn a set of audition pieces for a gig that i really would like to get and you lot are all distracting me from practising. Between Off Topic, General Discussion and the market place, I'm spending time on here which should be spent learning new stuff. So, can you all please quiet down for a few days? (Thinking about it, some of these pieces are a bit challenging - give me a week at least...) Alternatively, just try to be a bit boring while i get my head round these things.... Thank you for understanding

That line is a perfect little gem. Thank you