EliasMooseblaster

Couldn't agree more with this point. Some music - at least to my mind - just isn't suited to huge venues. I realise, of course, that it's partly determined by an artist's popularity, but I just can't imagine something like Ed Sheeran at Wembley would work. Admittedly I don't care for his music, but if I did, I imagine I'd want to see him in a smaller venue for fear of losing the intimacy of the performance. A club or a small theatre would just feel more appropriate for an acoustic artist. I'm a little surprised that a band like QOTSA didn't translate better at the O2, but then that place is chuffing huge. I suppose you're getting into big backing band / daft stage prop territory by that scale. Santana worked well there a few years ago, but then his band and all their gear are like a small artillery unit.

I probably pick on Kiss disproportionately; I could have quite easily made the same point with my opinions on Poison or Motley Crue. I guess Simmons et al are just one of the better-known exponents of a genre I've never got on with - thus proving ead's point!

I'm going to give the boring answer and suggest that it's important to strike the right balance. There are some bands who are clearly excellent musicians and put a lot of thought into their songs, but don't have a great deal of stage presence - Mastodon are probably a good example, and I must admit I've found the same about some modern blues players like Joanne Shaw Taylor. The opposite extreme is Kiss, who write atrocious songs and are about as musically adept as my cat, but are famous for the sheer over-the-topness of their live show. I think the only bands who really get away with being so quiet and inwardly-focused are those in the vein of early-Waters-era Pink Floyd or Radiohead, where the music is experimental enough that's it's fascinating to watch them recreate it in a live setting.

An acoustic rendition of one of the staples of our live set, giving me a chance to break out the Tony Franklin fretless. Enjoy!

After Perinuem Osiris-Bontoff, heir to the Duchy of Greater Anushire?

If I stick to my perspective of a unique (or at least different) design making the model worthwhile, then definitely - that must be one of the most daring things Fender have put out since the Squier Katana! Afraid I don't know AAF's music well enough to have an opinion on Zamora's playing.

No, I shall have to confess my ignorance there. EDIT: ah, I see, it's that bloke from Alien Art Farm. For some reason I knew he played a six but had no idea what his name was. Or that his six was a custom Fender. I have learnt something new this afternoon!

Egads! Whose is that?

No, I shall also stand behind you on this one. I find Prince quite a frustrating case, because he was clearly such adept and gifted musician, but what I've heard of his songwriting leaves me utterly cold.

Does Rob DeLeo warrant one? I barely know Stone Temple Pilots' back catalogue; to be honest when I bought my Schecter Model T, I had no idea that it was effectively* DeLeo's signature bass, let alone that he'd led the work on building the prototype. I'd say it's sufficiently different from most mass-produced P/Js to say that he's done something different with the design, and it's a damn good instrument, so it checks those two boxes. *I say "effectively" as his name and signature don't appear anywhere on the instrument

Sounds like switching to the 'bird may be the answer! I'd echo all the previous comments to make sure you're as happy as possible with the minimal setup. There are already enough choices of strings, bass, amp and cab to keep you wondering (and chopping and changing) for years! If you're not happy with the bass, you can end up spending a fortune on different pedals to make it sound like another bass...or you could just buy another bass. At least if you're happy with the basics then any pedals are just decoration on an already satisfactory cake, as opposed to trying to cover an unappetising lump of charcoal with pretty icing!

I had a similar problem with a Warwick-Rockbass Corvette when I first started playing fretless. Lovely bass, great starter for going fretless, but one day a photo turned up on the Facetube of me playing it onstage. They're not even short-scale strictly (32"), but the tiny body made it look a bit silly on me, and I've since moved on to fretless Fenders. My 8-string is short scale, but I think it looks longer than it is due to the massive headstock the eight tuners require; it definitely feels smaller when I switch mid-set, but I manage to avoid looking daft... ...but on the other hand, if a Daisy Rock Butterfly Bass ever came up on the listings, I would be tempted. Just to prove a point, really.

Elias Mooseblaster.

Fixed...

+1 my Schecter shipped with Elixirs, and they were almost as bright as a fresh set of Rotosound Swing Bass when I bought it. Said brightness definitely lasted - I only took them off so I had a fresh set of strings to record an album, but I regret not hanging onto them.

I've never actually tried one of Vintage's bases, though I've owned one of their guitars for years and always thought it was a great instrument for the money. If that specimen was built after a certain date then it will have Wilkinson pickups and hardware in it, which are not to be sniffed at around this price point!

Yep, another one for The Who here as well! The Doors get an honourable mention as well, as I learnt keys before bass, and found Ray Manzarek's playing as inspiring as I would go on to find John Entwistle's. But in terms of feeling like a group is "mine," I feel like there are a few groups who I've discovered along the way that my friends will always think of as "that group Elias got me into." For that, "my" bands are Camel, Quintessence, Ozric Tentacles, Hooverphonic, and Emily Loizeau. Now it's come full circle and one of those friends is sending me albums by All Them Witches, Om, Unida - it's nice to think I'm getting something back from sharing/forcing all my musical explorations with/on people previously!

I was alerted to a *really* tenuous one yesterday evening: Unsurprisingly, Coca-Cola have muscled in on the forthcoming release of the new Star Wars film with a branding tie-in. Basically, if you buy a bottle of coke in the next couple of months, it is likely to have a mugshot of one of the actors printed on the bottle. The guy they commissioned to do the graphic design for these labels is also a singer-songwriter in his spare time. A few years ago, his PA called me out of the blue because he had an upcoming gig that his regular bassist couldn't make, so I filled in for that one. So in short: I once played bass for the guy who went on to design the labels for the upcoming Coca-Cola branding tie-in to the new Star Wars flick.

I think describing it as "Faulty" in the headline might be in the running for Understatement of the Year...

I actually preferred Abandon to Perpendicular...at least, I always used to. Haven't put either of them on for years, now I think about it. Perhaps I should go back and re-assess!

I think Gillan's loss of upper register was quite evident as early as 1998, when they put a new recording of Bloodsucker on the end of Abandon - the screechy bits so beloved of the original seemed to have been replaced with a relatively gentle falsetto! Not sure why they didn't just leave it off what was otherwise a surprisingly good album...

I broke a string towards the end of a jazz gig. Not even one of the peripheral ones, but the D. I had no backup (in fact, I was an undergraduate at the time, so I couldn't even afford to buy a new set of strings for a couple of weeks) and had to finish the gig with three strings and a big gap. Shifting hand positions for a bossa was straightforward enough, but trying to play a walking bass line under Autumn Leaves on two strings is not an experience I'm in a hurry to repeat.

Why do they always wait until you're trying to leave to pick a fight? One of the most miserable gigs I played was a local boozer out in somewhere near Northolt, where the punters clearly weren't interested. We were basically ignored for two hours, and it was only as we were about to carry the gear back out to the car that a fight broke out by the front door - couldn't they have waited until we'd gone? Thankfully the bar staff unlocked the side door for us, so we never saw how that one panned out!

Ah. I stand corrected regarding Mr Gadd's output. I didn't really think there was much to like about it in the first place; there's even less now.

Just in case we're running out of worms, here's a fresh can: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/14/louis-ck-sexual-misconduct-allegations-comedian-actor To summarise, the author argues that if you laugh at Louis CK's work, you're complicit in what he's done. I don't take this as a generalisation to apply to all creative wrong'uns, as the author explains that a lot of CK's work (particularly in stand-up) played up to the character of an awkward sex-pest, and so it could be argued that the material itself is tainted by his behaviour - now it turns out he was basically hiding in plain sight. In the case of musicians, I don't think there's anything in Gary Glitter or Ian Watkins' lyrics that allude to the horrible things they were doing behind the scenes. Can you make a stronger case for the art being kept separate if it doesn't reference the artist's crimes?