Norris

I've got two this weekend! ...and then about 6 weeks off while the guitarist goes on a proper tour of UK & Germany 😀

I bought a Roland PK-6 midi pedal from Ash. Great communication. It arrived promptly, well packaged and in perfect working order Thanks Ash

Vaughan Williams?

It's a few years old now, but my Roland Boss GT-6B can do pretty much any effects. They are cheap to buy used now (<£200). Obviously a lot more than just a compressor (actually a choice of several compressor emulations), but can also do that weird synthy/flangy/ring-mod/echoey sound you need for that one-off song. I mostly use mine with a "flat" pass-thru for most songs, but then on the odd song I'll use up to 4 different patches. It's also handy as a mute between sets and a tuner

My favourite noodling guitars were a Hofner violin bass and a nylon-strung classical guitar. Both of which my son took with him to university. Ah well, I guess they do belong to him 😂

Most of our "breakdowns" were actually just running out of petrol because we were too skint to put more than a fiver in at a time. We'd be running on fumes a lot of the time. The number of times I was roused from my post-gig slumbers by "Norris wake up - we've run out of petrol" doesn't bear thinking about The heater never worked so we were always freezing in winter. We had a piece of carpet that we used to put over ourselves to keep warm. Why we didn't keep a blanket or two in the van goodness only knows. Stoopid youths, eh? Then there was the night we pulled into the motorway services for fuel and the engine wouldn't start again. Then it was a ring-round of people to find someone with breakdown recovery cover to be "driving" the van. That was a long night! It turned out that a piston had blown

Absolutely when we started out. A 4th member would need to add a lot to a band to justify the others taking a hit on the pittance wages. There's also no excuse for not throwing in some backing vocals at least. Even better if you can lead a couple of songs to give the main singer a break

Did you watch it all? Screen grab just after half way, bottom right...

TV rule number 6357: Whenever there are twin guitars in a band the camera should never be on the one playing the solo

It's years since I heard of any restrictions on numbers of performers, and 3 was never one of those numbers iirc. We've always been a trio, because it suits us. We've always filled out to sound bigger than you'd think, and never been afraid of arranging songs that were originally done by much bigger bands. Three is the magic number

Back at the Piv in Nuneaton for another Sunday 4-6 slot. It's one of our favourite gigs, with a nice laid back vibe. They seemed to have the heating turned up to 11 though, so it was darned hot! There again it always seems like a "proper" gig when you're sweating, so I threw a few bass stances for good measure. I'm normally a reasonably tidy player, but this time had a rare melt down in the 2 octave riff in the middle of Frankenstein. Ah well, it gave my bandmates something to laugh at. No photos this time, so you can have another punter photo from Friday which I quite like because it shows how much fun we have playing together 😁

Like this?

And they were probably never asked back again "I just hate it... it really, it does disturb me, but I'll rise above it; I'm a professional."

It was a cold wet evening and Leicester City were playing an FA Cup tie on ITV (we woz robbed!) which probably all contributed to it being a little slower than normal in the Railway Countesthorpe tonight. However the people that were there were enthusiastic, and the fewer bodies allowed this rather good photo to be grabbed by one of the crowd (which I then stole from Faceache)... Friday gigs are always a bit tougher for a weekend warrior like me after a day's work. The guitarist had been rehearsing all day for an upcoming tour with Martin Turner, so we were both pretty done in by the end of the night. We have tomorrow night off though, so the whole band, WAGs and kids are going to see the new Led Zep film and grab a bite to eat afterwards The Sire again plus the usual GT-6B and Rumble 500. I also gave my black DMs an outing

I saw Sabbath in 2017 on the "last" tour. This looks to be a fabulous gig line-up of surviving members of great bands, but I'm not sure if I want to pay an enormous amount to watch from the back of a huge stadium. Most of the bands I love I saw "back in the day". I'm happy for them to stay there, forever at their peak, in my memories.

I played in a show band for most of 1985. It was a relatively short period of time, but so rich for incidents. The time that the band leader sacked 3 of us for being late back from a break - it was only a 5-piece band and we were the ones who could actually play. The Butlin's camp manager had kept us talking. There was a slight climb down the next, sober morning: "take as much notice as you need" The time I turned up for a posh do without my bow tie. My efforts to craft one from the vinyl cut out of the back of the driver's seat of the band Transit van and gaffer tape were not appreciated. I ended up wearing a horrendous giant vampire moth tie borrowed from one of the guests The time the band leader quaffed an amount of brandy and accidentally tipped his keyboard synth off the front of the stage. It laid there on the floor screaming away for several minutes until someone could cut the power

We did a gig in a WMC. We always did like curtains - just great for the occasional prank. On this occasion I set up my Traynor 400w head and 2x 15" cab behind the back curtain. In front of the curtain was a tiny 6" practice amp on a chair, with a lead connecting the two. I was chuckling all night 😁

There was the time I was playing in a cabaret band doing a season at Butlin's. We had just started a song when I sneezed. Next thing I notice the goop slowly running down the back of my plucking hand (ew!). A casual stroll to the back of the stage, a quick wipe on the back curtains and I didn't miss a beat!

I managed to do this around NYE last year. I'd taken loads of lights and my smoke machine. It looked great with a bit of misting in the air. The "whiteout" occurred because I didn't realise the footswitch had become gummed up and got stuck on, until I glanced behind me to see a wall of smoke and no sign of the rest of the band. The smoke machine was tucked behind my amp on a cramped stage too, so took some effort to switch off 😂

Winner!

We're a trio and we've managed to squeeze into some pretty tight places, but this... ... was a challenge... A new venue that has just started up and is still finding its feet. Funnily it's right next door to the Donkey, the great music venue that had an existential crisis back in November (if you remember). Our first time there, and we had been warned earlier in the day apparently, that they ran at a loss last weekend, and might try to reduce the fee or pay us off if it didn't pick up 😮. Well no need to fear - we pretty much filled the place and walked away with the full fee! It always adds a little bit of something when you have another band in the crowd. Well we had two! I'd like to think they came to see us perform and were not just reccying the place because they had bookings too. Well they stayed until the end anyway. The usual Sire etc. I did have to get a bit creative with the lighting though. I don't normally like my amp anywhere but on the floor, but it really wouldn't have fitted! Solovair boots again It actually turned out to be a good gig despite standing on a postage stamp to play. Apparently the curries they were serving were very nice too but I didn't indulge - I'd had my dinner and am trying to shed a few pounds 🤪

I tried speed a couple of times in my youth but can't say I really enjoyed the experience. I did smoke weed for many years and can't say it really had much effect on my playing either way. The most detrimental "drug" for playing was actually alcohol, which was imbibed frequently and copiously back when we had a band van (that I never drove) These days I live a pretty clean life. I gave up all forms of smoking a few years ago. I also drive most of the time now, so have 1 or 2 lager shandies at most or a lime and soda. I do miss the weed on rare occasions, but certainly not the smoking, or the coughing! Of course I've put 2 stone on... 😂

My Aria Pro-II SB-1000 was made in 1980 - the "batwing" headstock, before they had a battery indicator LED and before the jack socket was recessed. I bought it from Humbucker Music in Leicester in 1985 and played it as my only bass for the next 10 years