jonnythenotes

Geraldine and John by Joe Jackson, Prove It by Television and Ships In The Night by Be Bop Deluxe....... Pretty easy to learn, but they all cover a lot of the fret board...fantastic..

Really nice looking piece of kit, although the relicing is pants.

Sometimes when I gigging, a Poltergeist temporarily inhabits my fingers causing me to play all the wrong notes. I am convinced the drummer is a malevolent creature who causes this, as whenever it happens, he stares at me as if he is willing me to die..

Best prog album of all time.....Larks Tongues In Aspic. One of the worlds greatest bass players also is the lead vocalist.. Check it out.

I find it more than just a coincidence that the word 'Fender' and 'ghosts' both have six letters in them. Also the word 'Fender' contains the letter 'e' which also appears in the word 'evil'. This cannot be explained away by modern science....

Same applies to me when I jump in a car that's not mine....dump the clutch, stall the car, and drive like an old lady for a while.

I think I have said it before, but bass solos are the handbrake turns or wheel spins of the music world.... Pointless egotistical crap.

Not long ago I was rehearsing upstairs at a venue called The Queens Hall in Nuneaton. I was first to arrive, so thought I would get the keys off the boss, go upstairs and start setting up. I got upstairs but had no idea where the light switches were, so I started wandering round in a large, and very dark hall looking for the light switches. At one point, I walked past a doorway, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a chap walk passed on the other side of the door. I stopped, turned round to ask if he new where the lights were, and realised I was looking at a brick wall with no door anywhere near where I was standing. As I was trying to figure out what had happened, I realised It had got very cold, and a wave of uneasiness started to creep over me. Next thing I was flying down the stairs like by pants were on fire. I had a word with the gaffer who said he was convinced it was haunted, and always tried to avoid going up there alone.... That place still creeps me out now even when the room is full.. Any skin crawlers you have....let us know...

Stage Clix system for me........... As mentioned several times above, soundcheck confidence alone is worth it. Knowing what you sound like out front instead of relying on a thumbs up from someone who has no idea on how you want to sound is worth the cost alone. Also, if you are tight for space in a small venue, it allows you to at least stretch your legs a bit without trailing a lead behind you.

Hi Tauzero..... I think having a female singer doing a few Groundhog Day songs will instantly alter the audience perception of very familiar songs, as they will see and hear a different delivery and visual aspect to what they are used to.... I was at a jam night a few months ago, and a girl asked if she could sing Stuck In The Middle, we did it with her but for some strange reason, it was played with the same groove as ' Beat It'...... It was very bizarre, but absolutely brilliant. We changed two things,the gender of the singer, and the groove, and it sounded like a song that was written yesterday... A real Groundhog Day set list favourite, but taken so far away from the original version, it was great for the band to play, and for the audience to hear...

One thing Zed mentioned, that I believe has more of an effect on a band than anything else, is the fact they have a female singer/ front person. Immediately they are in a minority, as I should imagine over 80% of all working bands are fronted by male singers...( this is purely a guess.) This fact alone will change the whole dynamic of the band, and also the type and style of songs they choose for the set... I have been in several bands with a female singers, and I always prefer the vibe they create within the band and the way the audience reacts to them... Different is good.... A sax player or brass section, violin, congas and percussion, dedicated backing singers, even some sort of a dress code that links all band members. As long as you have something that is slightly different from the mainstream, this will get you noticed. Going back to a female fronted band being an advantage... How many bands have you seen, or been invloved with that have a girl fronting the band, that use any of 'The Groundhog Day' set list... I should also think that a good quality female fronted band, playing none of the usual pub rock tunes, will get more work and attention than a similarly talented bunch of lads doing 'the usual fayre'.....

Nice one Mr Zed...... A interesting addition to the thread..... A bass player can change his spots....

Such a shame that the discussion started a few days ago has ended like this..... I started this thread in good faith, believing it would be of interest to all on this forum, and it rapidly took off, and if nothing else certainly split opinion over how we all view what we do, and how others do it. Might be just as well to pull the plug on it now, as we can all see how it has ended..... Put a lock on it....

Perhaps another way of looking at the audience wanting songs they know and feel comfy with, is that the band they are watching is either nor very good, or not very entertaining. An audience want something they can buy into and relate to, but if all the band can offer is songs, with no visual excitement, aggression, or energy, then the audience will default to something they will find rewarding... this being familiarity with the songs. Every year I am fortunate enough to play at The Cork Guinness festival in Ireland. Every pub, bar, hotel and street corner is packed with bands, all of which are wildly entertaining, yet virtually none of them bang out the usual pub rock stuff.... This is the second biggest festival of its kind in the world, and pulls in tens of thousands of people from all over Europe every year. It's been running for years now and is an 'All right now' free zone. This is because the bands booked for the festival are good enough to entertain without the 'Groundhog Day' set list being required. I am convinced if the standard pub rock set was attempted at the festival, it would clear the building PDFQ... How does that work then...?

And that's how two or three individuals derail a really good thread, and turn it into a mud slinging contest... Nice one chaps...

Bulls eye Bilbo.....

I can understand how Sex On Fire can qualify for a spot in a modern pub rock set list, along with Yellow and Mr Brightside and all the other 'modern classics' (AKA bubble gum rock,) as at least these were probably released and heard by the guys playing them after they were born. But what is it with All right now, Stuck in the middle with you, Sweet Home Allicante, Smoke on the water etc which were released 4 or 5 decades ago. I first started playing in the late 70's, and if I had decided to cover songs that were nearly 50 years old, I would have been playing songs that had been around in the 1920's When Al Capone was on the loose... A Charleston covers band.... How about some of those familiar songs that we all know, but no one seems to covers..... Drivers seat... Its my life.... Echo Beach... The Model.... Flyaway.... A design for life.... These would all fit in the pub rock bracket, and I am pretty sure they would be recieved well as they are fairly recent releases, anything but those old kicked and battered tunes that refuse to curl up and croak...

Spectoremg..... ( two comments back) I was wondering when someone would bring that up, you have hit the nail right on the head there. As I mentioned in by initial start up comment, there are thousands of songs out there that are just as familiar as the 100 or so that get used by so many bands. If its true that audiences call the shots on what they want to listen to, how come bands who don't follow this master plan succeed. Soul/ Motown/ Funk/Ska/ Disco..None of these play any of the 'Bible' set songs, and most people in an audience are not big fans of soul or funk or even tribute band that might be on offer, yet these type of bands pull more people, command more money, and play more rewarding stuff for them as players than the standard pub rock acts... I have not spent 30 years, and thousands of pounds to get to a decent standard so I can be told what to play by a pub landlord, a bunch of pi**ed women on a hen party or anyone else who only thinks the band is good after a dozen pints have been guzzled. Go to the Jam house in Birmingham, and see how many of the photocopy set list get played.....Zero...yet 300 people are in ther every weekend night for the sole purpose of watching a good quality band...

I hate to broach a taboo subject here, but a large part of what determines a bands set is the skill level and competency of the individuals within that band... You can only play songs that all band members can manage collectively, which means performing at the level of the weakest member. Also the drive of band members to improve behind closed doors is vital. So often a band puts together a bunch of 'Quick to learn songs' to get them up and running, with the intention of adding too, or improving the set over the coming weeks after the first couple of gigs, and all to often, that knocked together set of 'easy' songs is still being played months later. I really don't buy the 'audience determines the set a band plays' argument. I don't want to go to the cinema knowing how a film ends, or see a comedian when I know all the punch lines... Surprise, and a bit of self belief and aggression will be just as entertaining to an audience as familiarity. Sometimes you have to give people what they want before they know they want it...

I went to a couple of outdoor charity events over the last 2 weekends, and saw a total of 12 bands over the three days that these two events covered...(one being a two day event.) I heard Sanctuary 3 times, All right now, 4 times, a collection of Stones songs on what seemed like an endless loop, Sex on fire 5 times, and Dakota 6 times. It seems that many of the thousands of cover bands that are out most weekends share a blue print of a few hundred songs covering the last 40 years or so... What is it that makes so many...(not all...) bands ignore the tens of thousands of other songs that have charted over the last forty years, or that an audience are familiar with, and concentrate on Mr Brightsides and Sweet Home Alabama type stuff. Is it because they are easy to learn, or they guarantee a response from a audience who crave familiarity and a sing-a-long chorus, or is it just p*ss easy money for almost no thought process. Surely no one in their right mind feels good about themselves or their ability after they finish another ripping version of Mustang Sally or Chelsea Dagger...... What I am saying here is in no way a reflection on young bands putting there feet on the first rungs of the music ladder... these songs are almost a requirment, pretty easy to learn, and really help young musos get started.. but seeing seasoned and good quality musicians and bands pretending to enjoy playing Brown Eyed Girl for the umpteenth time baffles me.. Surely a good delivery of a lesser known song, where your applauded for ability, is more rewarding than Sweet child o' mine or Yellow.... I have still got Superstition echoing in my mind from the weekend.....( 4 times.)

80's just could not follow the late 70's punk explosion. Pistols...Clash...Damned...Stranglers...These and many others were mind blowingly exciting after all the rock and metal that had stagnated the day before Punk arrived. Then after punk we get....Howard jones...The Thomson Twins.... Bananarama....Hayzee Fantayzee ...Zigue Zigue Sputnik...Even the names look pants......And the cherry on the cake was Adam ' Prince Charming' Ant who bought with him the most insane fashion to match the blandness of the music..... 'Down in the tube station at midnight' or 'Agadoo'...... Give me a minute to think...

Give her a bit of handbag time on her own one day, while you visit the local car boot sale. Everything I have bought recently has come from a car boot, and always seems to cost around £40.... If ever she finds out the truth, I'm brown bread......

But as soon as you drive out of the fitting bay they are part worn....... What is the crossover point between new and worn tyres / cheap or expensive strings...

For me, very basic strings... Rotosound 40 60 80 90 round wound with bass tone full on, mids at 50% and top end wound back to about 80%. Play with my fingers, and its that sort of funky, (but no slap,) bass drum ' there and gone ' notes that I love, with plenty of space in between. Clearing string resonance between notes is that all important part of funk, which sets up everything else, allowing it to come through with absolute clarity... Might not work too well in an AC/DC tribute band though...