odysseus

I think age also has an impact on things - when I was a kid I could spend hours at a time doing stuff, be it learning classical guitar, reading, computer programming, playing a game. As an adult I have found that I reach saturation point much more quickly, regardless of whether I have other demands on my time or not. Also, kids don't seem to have considerations about learning stuff they want to do - they just do it. As adults we tend to look at things, stroke our chins, and thing 'Hmmm... that looks like a whole bunch of work...'

You could be right about people moving away after college. Cornwall is a lovely place to live, but there is very little in the way of career opportunities. Still plenty of college students around, which makes me wonder why there's very few bands...

Yeah, I hear that! I just quit my band too. Singer turning up to less than 25% of rehearsals... can't make Saturday rehearsal cos she's out on the p!ss... can't make Thursdays coz she's still on a comedown from all the other sh!t she took at the weekend. 40 years old, considerably overweight, crap diet, no exercise, still trying to live the life of a 20 year old. Ergo we can't gig short-notice as we're under-rehearsed, can't do full 2-set gigs for the same reason and constantly have to get support bands in. Can't book recording time either. Drummer is unwilling to do anything about it, as he rents a room off her. Guitarist is in self-inflicted ill health too, so would rather coast along doing bugger-all. People can live life however they see fit, but why be in a band if you don't want to put the effort in?

Yeah he seems to be very settled on his subject material! lol It's ok, but doesn't really motivate me to part with my hard-earned... I had to laugh at the 'Dave Mustaine presents' at the beginning... for those who are unaware of who Dave Mustaine is , and making sure everyone knows who's boss 😆

I'm curious... I live in West Cornwall, and 20 years ago there was a thriving original band scene in the area. There were a great many young (as in college age up to mid 20s) metal, punk and indie bands, and a smattering of other genres. You could go out and see a three band event Friday and Saturday nights and not see the same bands in a month. Recently, it would appear there are very few younger bands. Even the originals scene is largely inhabited by middle aged musos - there seems to be very few bands made up of people in the younger age bracket. I'm wondering why this is? Are younglings not learning instruments so much now? Are they moving more toward production, as in using Logic and Reason and all that? I really don't know. Is this the case in your area? Any thoughts on it?

A certain Mr. Maynard James Keenan with an early version of 'Sober'. Good grief.... 🤪

Just got a ticket to see Sham 69 at the Acorn in Penzance at the end of the month. Not my normal sort of thing but my bro in law says they are great live so I thought what the hell...

Yeah, I like it. Ole Megadave hasn't caved in to convention, and continues to deliver the gnarly metal goodies.

Ergh.... 😝

You can't polish a turd...

That is ugly as sin. But then, so am I....

A lot of gaffer tape, I would imagine....

Not a gigging tale. Nevertheless..... In the early 90s our original heavy grunge band used to rehearse in the church hall in a local village. We were there one afternoon a couple of days before a weekend jumble sale. There were heaps of clothing, toys, dog-eared copies of Jennings and Derbyshire books, and sundry other tat piled up on tables and chairs waiting to be organised into some sort of order for the sale. We couldn't help but admire their optimism. Neither could we help having a bit of a rummage through the sorry offerings and avail ourselves of some of the more choice items and dress up in them while we went through our set. About 20 minutes into the set, one of the local parishioners wandered in, probably to see where in the name of Jesus that ungodly devil-music was coming from. She stood there agape as we rocked out, myself sporting a rather lovely, floaty blue summer dress with little white flowers on, and the guitarist in an olive green crimplene trouser suit that would have fitted Montserrat Caballe. IIRC the singer had found a pair of pug-ugly checked old-man trousers, I can't remember what the drummer was wearing. I don't know whether any of the items had belonged to one of the parishioner's deceased relatives or whatever, but we found shorty after that our regular rehearsal slot had been given over to some other interest... presumably flower arranging or the Brownies....

Not a public embarrassment, just a personal one. On my first gig with my first original band, back in the day when I was young and pretty... after the gig, the guitarist's mum's mate came up to me and said, "Ooh you can do me in the shower any time!" I felt kind of dirty, and not in a good way. She looked a bit like Olive from On The Buses.

Mayones Jabba 4 that I got from Bass Direct a few months ago. Beast!

A blast from the past for me. It even made me forgive him for Walk Of Life temporarily...

To someone I know and trust, yes. Anyone else, no... unless it's Victor Wooten or Sonny T or suchlike! 😄

We write our own stuff, so yup 🙂 Grungey rock with a hint of psychedelia.

Bloody hell, how did I forget that? 😯

Anybody got any music releases on the horizon that they are eagerly anticipating? For me, Billy Howerdel has got an album coming out on June 10th. For the uninitiated, he is the guy behind A Perfect Circle, which is generally regarded as 'Maynard from Tool's other band', or in some cases Tool Lite, which I think does them a disservice. Ole Billy is very good at doing the haunting and spooky thang. I like his recent track releases, especially this one. I'm also looking forward to a new Polyphia album this year, but AFAIK there isn't a date yet. The boys seem to have got themselves new guitars and in this track using a sort of flamenco-ish vibe and lovely guitar sounds mixed with some more proggy and techy rhythm/percussion action, giving it a blend of old and new. They tend to incorporate a fair bit of other styles and bring guests in too. Should be interesting! Anyone else got some stuff they're waiting for? 🙂

Ooh... interesting....

I had a Dingwall NG2, which was an excellent bass. The only drawback for me was that it made it difficult to hold certain chord shapes further up the neck. I was still playing standard basses too at the time, so I may or may not have got used to it in time with perseverance. As it was, I sold it on to a splendid chap on here, as it was a five string, and I was no longer needing a 5er. Had it been a 4 string, I would have kept it.

Unoriginal seems to sell very well. It would appear that the great unwashed shambling herd like what they're familiar with.

Yup. Each year a couple of my mates throw a party when Eurovision is on. Don't know how that came to be a thing though...