upside downer

Just in time with my entry 'Time Portal'. The image made me think of a swirly time and space portal from those old 60s and 70s TV shows so here's a slightly-skewed-in-places tune with a few echoey bits thrown in for a wobbly 'Woah, time travel, eh?' feel. But what is time? “Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so” said Ford Prefect to Arthur Dent as the Earth was about to be demolished in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Fair enough. Who am I to argue? Epiphone guitar, unbranded guitar in open G tuning, violin bass, Yamaha keyboard, Vivlex echo pedal, Zoom effects pedal, Roland cube amp, drums programmed with Hydrogen drums. Audacity and Wavepad remain my recording chums.

Not TV but a bass special from Vic Galloway on BBC Radio Scotland. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0017cy9 A two hour show featuring some bass-heavy tunes, snippets of Peter Hook, Jah Wobble and Youth among others talking about the low end. Predominantly post-punk era so fans of Jaco, Wooten etc. need not bother themselves with such frothiness.

From the cigar advert of 40 odd years ago! My old duo nicked a name from an advert, too. We went out as The Lionel Blaircuts. Soz for thread derail. As you were.

Holly and the Italians.

Confession time. That's the first time I've ever heard Shpongle and I thought they were great! Will be delving deeper into their back catalogue and I'll also be having a look at the two acts you've mentioned 👍

Trying some Shpongle for this afternoon's entertainment.

As @KK Jale pointed out, it looks like the work of Carmelo Catania. Here's a Catania mandolin with the same distinctive 'harp' logo. This fella Gregg Miner seems to know his onions. Might be worth contacting him? https://www.harpguitars.net/2013/04/14/carmelo-catania-from-iconography-to-reality/ https://www.harpguitars.net/

Well done to both top cats 👏👏 A fantastic array of songs this month and good to see a few more voters tuning in 🎶

Here's mine to go with Skank's fine pic. Our hero is doing his bit for the war effort but he keeps on picking up sounds from the wild and wonderful world of pop music. Nonetheless, he'll do his very best until he can have a well earned drinks break. Westfield violin bass, Epiphone guitar, Hydrogen drums and an air raid siren from Freesound. All recorded on wax cylinder from those fine phonographic chaps at Wavepad and Audacity. Lyrics hidden below.

Daft is my default 🙃 looks like we'll both be tweaking our efforts over the next day or so, ooer, missus 😁

Started out with a couple of originals bands in the early 90s, family life took over, got back in on the pub covers circuit some 20 odd years ago but haven't gigged for just over 2 years now and, with an ever-expanding family, it's hard finding the time for a regular gigging band at the moment. Potter about with home recordings (hurrah for Basschat's monthly Composition Challenge) and sometimes record with others. I've put the 'don't gig, record on own' option.

Trailer for the upcoming series. Don't judge a book by its cover and all that but this looks worryingly like it's going to head down the cliché carriageway. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ol1B3w7NtU

Having bored of convention, Hendrix would have learnt to play the guitar with his feet by the time of his appearance at Live Aid. By 1994 and the Woodstock 25th anniversary gig he'd be fretting with either ear and using his 'old chap' for strumming purposes. Karen Carpenter would now be a car painter.

A really strong field this month, well done to Lt Col Hector Del Var for holding off the opposition 👏

Here's mine, better late than never. Probably 😄 An instrumental with a slow and steady beat, a chilled feel and the wish that we'd all kick off our tight shoes, grab a tipple of whatever takes our fancy, smell the flowers and try and enjoy our time on this crazy old world with our fellow travellers in time and space. Drums - Hydrogen drum program Bass - Westfield violin bass Keys - Yamaha keyboard Guitar - an old, unbranded Strat copy using open G tuning and only 5 strings (like wot Keef does) with a dose of echo in places Recorded, as ever, with Wavepad and Audacity. I continue to give @skankdelvar a run in the cheapskate stakes

I did wonder that. When Martin Kemp was told about Carol's unfortunate situation and the need to find a substitute he said something along the lines of 'bass players are hard to find'. He should have just searched Basschat and he'd have found plenty on here in the right age bracket!

Klaus Flouride from the Dead Kennedys is a fine player who never gets much of a mention, certainly was an influence on me to pick up the bass.

It's more than likely a nod to the lyrics 'Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm sixty-four' by popular Merseybeat combo the Beatles.

Let's face it, stick any competent pub band of a senior vintage in this show and get them up to speed regarding presentation and stagecraft at a massive festival and you've got a better programme with better music in right away. The series started as a light piece of froth and nonsense and has continued in that vein but with increasingly extra dollops of TV artifice. All that arm waving at the 'gig' on last night's episode, Leburn's angst at getting that complex song Angels bang-on, it's all trifling cobblers aimed at the sort of viewer who has never picked up an instrument in their life. "But, it's never too late!!!" the show is seemingly screaming at those people, avoiding the truth that, if you do grab yourself a cheap electric guitar off of ebay and a copy of Bert Weedon's Play in a Day, the chances of Mica Paris turning up in your back garden to warble away with you to get yourself ready for a two hour set on Saturday night down the Queens Head are slim at best.

Tribute band night at the Roadmender in Northampton later on with The Smiths Ltd, Oas-is and the Clone Roses. Top, sorted, nice one etc.

An enjoyable watch. They've all got the chops required, it's not like they've just grabbed some poor sucker off of the street, thrust a Les Paul into their hands and gone "make some noises with this or Martin Kemp will look foolish", so the mild peril aspect is a bit frothy and will rely on whether the different styles of the players involved can gel into a cohesive unit before they get on stage. Which, I'm guessing, they will. The bands played at the Isle of Wight Festival last year and I can't recall headlines like 'Septuagenarian Rock Bands Bottled Off By Unforgiving Pop Crowd' in the press. Good to see Carol the bass player getting some kudos.

Well done, Skank 🎶 great tune!

45 minutes? 45 MINUTES? Takes me about a week! You're right, it is still good fun though 😁

You can really hear what a fine job Matlock was doing on some of those early live bootlegs like 'Live at the 76 Club, Burton on Trent'. JJ is one hell of a player, too. Simonon just picked it up, ran with it and did his own thing, no doubt inspired in part by his love of reggae. Punk, eh? Nowt wrong with the DIY ethic. It worked out pretty good in the long run for many in that movement.

Have started receiving notifications again, not just reactions. Huzzah!