odysseus

I've encountered this sort of thing a few times - bassist crapslapping in between songs, even when there is no other slapping in the set itself. Jesus!.. Another thing that gets me is when bands don't seem to have endings sorted out for songs and they resort to some bizarre ping-pong effort that sounds like everyone in the band is trying to have the last word. Play the song, have an ending that everyone can perform crisply, Stop. Say whatever you need to, if that. Play the next song. Rinse and repeat! 😡

Nothing wrong with having diverse influences IMO. However, it depends what the guy and the other members want out of the band. If it's about creating something unusual then maybe he's all about bringing in a range of musicians, seeing who is good at what, and taking it from there. You might get something really interesting and creative out of it, but it would probably not have mass appeal and not many gigs, much less catapult the band onto the front page of Rolling Stone magazine. If it's about getting a load of gigs and creating something bog standard to appeal to the great unwashed shambling herd, then maybe he'll end up with a revolving door of dissatisfied musos, because he should have put his cards on the table in the first place. Further investigation would be good to try and get a bit closer to finding out what the plan is. Could be great. Could be terrible. Don't know unless you ask, I guess.

Damn! I love bit of Ampeg action, although I haven't owned one for quite some years. I'd love to hear one with my Big Twin 2. Enjoy the trouser-flapping thunder, sir!!

Respect to you, sir! Most fall by the wayside long before that.

Yep, I hear that. Fortunately, gigging is something I enjoy, but I don't need to do it, either financially or personally. I'm quite happy just to jam and write. I did the sideman thing a while back - I enjoyed it, but there was no option to engage in jamming and writing, plus the amount of gigs they did was way more than I wanted on top of a 50-60 hour working week. I ain't getting any younger! A thing I'd like to change is some other band members' attitudes - like when you do actually get a bunch of people together that want to play the same sort of music, after a while one or more of them gets complacent and doesn't turn up to rehearsal very often. There's a strong tradition of talking the talk but doing very little around these parts. I feel pretty good for someone in their 50s but I'd like to be physically younger, but only if I could keep the knowledge gained.

I can still bench press 300lbs at 53 years old, so I'm already a macho man

Who the hell is going to respond to that? 🤣

What about four eyes? Go big or go home... 🤘

No. I'm slightly short-sighted. I only wear glasses for driving, or contact lenses if I'm out socialising in dim light - pubs etc, which is hardly ever now.

Not any more. I had 2 Ibanez Roadsters years ago, both sold ages ago. I also used to have 2 Musicman Stingrays, one was single pick up, one was 2 pick ups. I sold both of them too.

Looks great, nice and chilled, especially in that you don't seem to be surrounded by hordes of chavs from Wigan and Wolverhampton looking for an all-day breakfast.

Badassery of all kinds going on....

That is certainly a great point in that music has never been so accessible. Plus if it wasn't for YouTube, I wouldn't have discovered half so many bands.

Probably 88 to 98.... the dregs of hair metal and the last decent Iron Maiden stuff, then through the grunge era and the early years of prog metal like Dream Theater and Symphony X, and onwards into more hard core stuff. I was 18 through most of 88 so my musically formative years were during this period... First picked up a bass in 89.

I recently bought some Vivo Barefoot shoes. I've quite taken to them.

I had the same when England got dumped out of the 2015 world cup. Everyone left. BL negotiated a slightly reduced fee for us to finish early.

I'd settle for everyone turning up to rehearsal regularly and being positive, with no egos. It doesn't seem that much, but it's difficult to achieve much of the time.

... and today I'm here to interview Winnie Mandela... Fnar fnar!

Spelling needs work, too!

It's bad enough the guy turned up unprepared, but doing that when you've recommended him for the band is even crappier because it's thrown you under a bus as well. I hope he ain't expecting help in the future.

Devin Townsend blew my socks off first time I heard this song....

I love me a bit of Voyager. I've been a fan since I discovered them quite by chance about six years ago. Don't think I'll be watching Eurovision though....

It wouldn't have done the job. 2 litres of water and an hour blasting the coastal footpaths made me feel more or less human again. I think another few months of abstinence is on the cards...

Sounds like you've struck gold there, dude. In my experience it's like herding cats. Enjoy!! 😁

Trying to build up the motivation to do the post-hangover mountain bike ride...