4000

I missed Magnum. No idea why. My mates all said Tank were the loudest but I missed them too.

When I first heard them I thought for some reason they were Dutch, and I didn’t even know at the time that the albums were recorded in Holland.

I was at Reading in ‘82. Heard the first night from outside the fence as we didn’t have tickets. Hadn’t taken any sleeping bags, tents or anything and ended up drinking soup in the Salvation Army tent in the middle of the night. Never been so cold in my life. If only the drink hadn’t worn off. 😂 Had tickets for the Saturday so saw all that, some excellent performances. Thankfully bumped into a friend in the evening who was sleeping in his car but had a spare tent. Myself and my mate were woken early morning by someone reaching into the tent and pinching my mate’s bag. My mate gave chase but lost him. Unfortunately the only thing in the bag were my mate’s soiled undies from the previous day.😂 Went home on the Sunday so missed that. That was the year the mighty (although much ridiculed at the time) Manowar didn’t turn up, so I had to wait til ‘84 to get my head blown off by them. Oh, was at Monmore Festival in 1982(?) when Hawkwind welcomed Nik Turner back into the fold. My main memory is of Nik making synth noises into the mic. We’d expected actual synth!

Angelwitch, along with a Girlschool et al, were one of the many bands I saw at the aforementioned Norbreck Nightspot. And apparently one of the bassists that I beat out when I joined my London-based metal band, back in the day, was Kevin Riddles, or so I was told. No idea whether it was true. One other surreal moment from that venue and era was a friend and myself chatting briefly with a very drunk, very much less famous but understandably pretty made-up Neil Finn, at the time I Got You hit big. I had to ask my friend last year whether this actually happened, but he has an incredible memory and he assured me it did. 😂

This, completely. It’s interesting that you should make the cello analogy because it occurred to me recently that many of my favourite players share something of that quality, and I do love cello!

Genesis were the band I was most into just before I started playing, so Mike was one of my main early influences. I discovered him long before I discovered Chris (who is my favourite player), and I like to think there’s a fair bit of both in my musical DNA. I always thought he was a really thoughtful, creative, melodic player, though definitely less up-front than Chris; let’s face it, most people are. The first album I heard by Genesis was And Then There Were Three and there’s some lovely playing on that, from nice melodic stuff like Snowbound to the tear-up at the end of The Lady Lies. In fact even if you listen to early stuff like Return of the Giant Hogweed, when he was still getting to grips with bass (relatively speaking), his lines are always interesting and creative.

A recently formed and as yet unknown Blizzard of Ozz played a couple of warm up gigs in 1980. One was at the Norbreck Castle down the road from me. Myself and a friend went down in the afternoon, trying to blag a way in to the soundcheck. The venue itself was kind of tacked on to the hotel, sticking out into the car park. We stood outside talking to a guy who said he’d already met Ozzy; after a while he disappeared into the venue. Shortly after a door at the back of the venue opened and 2 guys walked out. I went over and asked them if they’d seen our acquaintance. One of them said he might be inside and gestured towards the door, so we went in. We found him inside and asked where Ozzy was. He gestured to the door and said “he went out there”. Turned out the guy I’d asked was Ozzy. As a huge Sabs fan at the time I’d expected some great big larger than life bloke, but he was quite small and almost unrecognisable; he’d had his hair cut a lot shorter and was dressed nothing like I expected. Long story short, we stayed to watch an entire afternoon’s sound check, met and chatted with all the band, including a then unknown Randy Rhoads, Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake (as a huge Heep fan too I was very impressed by this). Bob Daisley was absolutely deafening, shaking the whole venue, which Randy tried to point out and which Bob was having none of. 😂 Ozzy spent much of the afternoon swearing at roadies or soundmen, but all the band were very pleasant to us. I still have a promo copy of Crazy Train, loads of which were handed out after the gig, and a signed copy of Sabs Vol 4, which I took along. Also saw a lot of the NWoBHM bands at the same venue. In fact I recently found out that in certain quarters 2 of my earliest bands were considered part of it, which made me laugh. Saw Lem and the boys a few times on the Ace of Spades tour, when they first really hit the big time. Met them too. Lem was a gent. Roadied for Grand Prix once at one gig; anyone remember them?

This. The stuff I’ve sold because it wasn’t right at the time.......but would have been in a later/earlier situation. TBH, I’d have most of my basses back in an instant if I could.

I always had problems with neck dive on the JCs (my neck and back are knackered so I really notice it), but never had a problem with the binding, but then I’m used to my Rics. As I sit down to play nowadays, I’d probably get on fine with the JCs now. Nice basses.

Do you mind? We’re a different sort of bonkers.....Rickenbonkers. 😁

They’ve probably got what I’ve got. I’ve been like death warmed up for about 3 weeks. A twin-neck/zimmer frame combo? Where do I sign up for that?🤟

You make a comment, expect to get negative responses as well as positive ones. Not that my response actually was negative....

Nobody said you had to like it. But at least two of us do.

I’m not surprised. I couldn’t fit my Triple O in several cars.

Did I miss that one?

I've always fiddled with my strap actually, and a lot more so since my back & neck problems started in '96. There are certain basses that at certain heights I simply can't play, because it affects the nerves in my arms and/or causes me great pain. And because I have problems with the nerves in my arms, there are some passages that are easier to play with my arm in a certain position, and the bass at a certain height, than others. As I mainly play the same type of bass all the time now, and I sit down and play in a particular style in my band (which isn't the only style I can play) I compromise, so its not so much an issue, but yes, I have often adjusted the length of my strap in the past.

Saw Jeff at Bass Day a few years back and really enjoyed his playing live. Saw Holdsworth with Jimmy Johnson and IIRC Chad Wackerman a few years back too. Jimmy J was sublime, as always. Love Bruford’s drumming.

I must admit, the amount of interest has surprised me. Not as much as the prices though!😉

If I’m honest I’d have been happier on the arena floor, but my mate jumped the gun somewhat!

As you say, we obviously see things differently. And yes, the artist - for me - is intrinsically connected with their art as its creator, but there’s no way I would stretch that to say I have to like the person to like the music. There’s no logic to that, IMO. Unfortunately, there’s little worse for me than bad cover versions. Here again we differ. I’d sooner hear the original artist do a poor rendition of a song than someone else. It’s their song, after all. Interesting and enjoyable discussion, for me at least. Maybe not so much for everyone else. 😂 Anyway, back to the thread!

But the song is a one-off. It can be reinterpreted, but it’s a singular piece of art, and I prefer, given the option (certainly in the majority of instances), to hear it performed by the original artist. Yes, it may be an interpretation of their original intent, but it’s still likely to be far closer to their original intent than someone else’s. Like BigRedX, I’m a songwriter first and foremost, so I perhaps see music differently. I’m surprised by the example you quote connecting my view with your wife’s. That’s not it at all. There are doubtless songwriters who are absolute knobs who have written wonderful songs and vice versa. What someone is like as a person has absolutely no bearing on whether or not I like what they’ve written. Well, I guess the proof will be in the pudding re Genesis. Interesting that you should mention Rush as I saw them twice (Moving Pictures and Roll the Bones) and they were disappointing both times. But they were still Rush, and I’d sooner have seen them than anybody else doing a bunch of Rush covers.

Nostalgia, or rather emotional attachment, is often a big part of why we like anything, and I’m sure you’re no different. Because music evokes an emotional reaction (or should IMO). Separating music from the emotions it evokes completely defeats the object for me. But if I’d only just heard an album by a band and really liked it, I’d want to go and see that band, not another band playing those songs. There’s no nostalgia there at all. And I refer back to BigRedX’s point about the few occasions where a cover may be considered better is often because it’s more familiar. Of course I exclude covers of Bob Dylan, simply because I can’t stand his voice. 😉😂 As an example of a wonderful cover, I put forward Todmobil’s version of Awaken by Yes. It’s wondrous, glorious, uplifting. But it wouldn’t be the same without Jon. Interesting referring to Matty Groves as a cover. 😉 😁With regards to traditional songs, we often don’t have the original, so we go with what we’ve got. My point in my previous post refers. And later versions are not necessarily improving on the original because L&L’s version isn’t the original. Would the “original” version of Banks of the Nile have been better than Fotheringay’s? I’ve no idea. I’d have been interested to find out though, but sadly I don’t have the option. Of course Fotheringay’s features Sandy, so I could be slightly biased.😉 I have to say, I don’t agree about Meet on the Ledge, but there you go. We’re all free to enjoy and interpret as we see fit, in the way that best suits us, and if we disagree, thats fine.

But the music is a product of the personalities. That’s the point. Maybe it’s different for me because I was a painter long before I was a musician and come from a fine art background. A Van Gogh is a Van Gogh because he painted it and put a great deal of himself into it. I see music the same, but then I always have. As for the comment about the music dying, I said in my previous post that’s stretching it. As with now-deceased classical composers, there will come a time when Genesis (for instance) are long gone and all we have - if they are remembered at all - are interpretations of their music. That’s fine. But at the moment, we’ve still got them and I personally would sooner see the band themselves, given the option. Don’t get me wrong, The Musical Box (another for instance) have been fantastic when I’ve seen them. But I’d still sooner see Mike, Phil and Tony (and Peter and Steve if available) play the material.

I don’t think anyone is saying that all music fades and dies after the original performance. I rather think you’re stretching the point there. And I guess there is always the potential for a subsequent version to be superior. There’s always the potential for me to win the lottery. 😉 But again, you’re stretching the point. How often is the original recorded performance of a song the first effort? What about all the rehearsals, demos, repeated takes? Yes, sometimes songs do benefit from a revisit by the original artist. One of my favourites, Who Knows Where the Time Goes by Sandy Denny, was recorded by her many times and some versions, and some performances, are better than others. But they’re all Sandy Denny, and all contain something that none of the many covers I’ve ever heard comes remotely close to (and I’ll laugh at anyone who suggests the Nina Simone version). I’m in complete agreement with Big Red X and probably for similar reasons. Using this thread as an example, I’d sooner see Mike, Phil and Tony perform Genesis songs, even somewhat under par, than a bunch of blinding session musicians. Because they wrote the stuff. And to some of us, for whatever reason, real or imagined, that matters.