Happy Jack

In all fairness, "the day" was nearly 50 years ago.

Doh! Sorry - this is correct and my earlier post was a typo. Thanks for the correction @itu

So, Trigger, about this broom of yours ...

That was genius. Very, very impressive.

Oooooh, ya beach!

Our guy (Paul the Drums, as he's known at the SouthEast BassBash) was so keen to nail this that he booked a couple of sessions in a drum booth at Bell Drum Studios (Acton) and just worked on it until he had the whole thing down. It makes a real difference ... playing live, you sound so much more convincing if the drummer is playing it exactly right.

And for some reason that's left me singing

The "dreary middle bit"? Pot, meet kettle. Overall, it sounds like an early attempt at being Euro ZZ Top. @Silvia Bluejay tells me that this was probably a bigger hit in Italy than Radar Love.

There's less of Denmark Street than there used to be (Crossrail construction works) but yes, plus Macaris down Charing Cross Road about 200 yards. Haven't been to The Gallery in years, but I imagine it hasn't changed much.

I think you're all being very harsh on these guys. I too would want to keep it all below the radar if I was re-forming S Club 7.

Poptastic!

Most cabs are either 8 Ohms or 4 Ohms. The lower the resistance, the more power will be extracted from your amplifier, so if you plug your rig through an 8-Ohm cab, and then plug it through an otherwise-identical 4-Ohm cab, the 4-Ohm can will sound much louder. NOT twice as loud, but a pretty big step up. Life gets exciting when you start combining cabs in pairs. For reasons that you can look up on t'Internet, if you pair two 8-Ohm cabs then their combined resistance drops to 4 Ohms, and if you pair two 4-Ohm cabs then their combined resistance drops to about 2.7 Ohms. There are plenty of amps that can handle resistance as low as 2 Ohms, but there are plenty more that can't. The easiest way to tell the difference is to look for the tell-tale white smoke coming out of the back of the amp. This is not a design feature. As a general rule it's best not to get hung up on wattage figures. They are horribly misleading, easily misunderstood, frequently misrepresented, and tell you surprisingly little about how loud a cab will go. Trust your ears. Go and see half a dozen bands playing the sort of gigs that you expect to play, check out what the bassist is using and how he/she sounds, go and have a chat between sets. Find a sound you like and see whether you can buy something to match. You'll sell it within the year as you learn more, but that's the price of spending time on Basschat.

Good thinking ... Marmite would work, wouldn't it?

And with the pickups reversed ...

Never heard of it?

That was Rick expressing his relief that he could stop singing that high. We've already dropped it from F# to E to make it possible for him to sing it, and he has a pretty good range. The Tokai Thunderbird that I was playing there was kept detuned by a tone and reserved for just this song at each gig.

Oh well, if at first you don't succeed ... cheat.

@Silvia Bluejay will fix ...

No worries Michael, just use a blowtorch on them and dunk them in cold water. They'll soon come round to your way of thinking. "Feed 'im to the pigs, 'arold."

If it's rusty, won't it already be a pale brown colour?

My my, hey hey ...

Bang on, Blue. I worked for a living for 44 straight years, earned enough to take early retirement, and took it with both hands. The great majority of my tiny annual income now comes from playing pub gigs (well below the threshhold for income tax) so that makes me a professional musician. And boy am I going for it. Not entirely sure what 'it' is but when I find out I'll come back here and tell you.