NancyJohnson

Does anyone remember the scene from The Dead Zone, where on shaking hands with Presidential candidate Gregg Stillson (Martin Sheen), Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken) has this future vision of Stillson - now as President - threatening to cut a General's hand off if he refuses to have it scanned to start the launch sequence for nukes? I think the line of dialogue is something like, 'My destiny, gentleman.' This is the kind of vision I have with Trump, pretty much every time I hear his name. It's the quickest of flashes, but every time. A trigger response. Trump. 'My destiny.' Trump. 'My destiny.' He actually scares the shit out of me. He's batshit crazy.

I just saw the video of Trump Gaza. Jeepers. It's like you just couldn't believe this Presidency could get any more bizarre, considering it's come through an official channel and there's probably a million MAGA-types going, 'Oh, yeah!'

Counting Crows. Face The Promised Land.

It's inevitable. The Gibson bass choice is limited to three or four models and a limited colour choice. You'll probably find a larger breakfast cereal aisle in you local Lidl.

Gibson are as guilty as Fender. They bought out the Theodore, which is allegedly based around some unproduced designs from the 1950s (I bought one of the original run, it's lovely), but I'd struggle to name anything new beyond that.

Take Fender. Their instruments, be it bass or guitar, are all fundamentally based on body designs and innards that are over 60 years old; end of the day, if you want a Fender bass it's going to be a Jazz, Precision or maybe a Jaguar. The whole reinvention element of their business model is to offer different colours, different woods, vintage-styled pickups, mixing up the guts of the basses (offering P/J pickups, active EQ) and so on, in the belief that it's something new, when it isn't. I'm sure many people are of the belief that buying into Fender is like buying into Jaguar or Ferrari; this belief that the mass produced CNC'd instruments produced in Mexico or the far-east somehow share the lineage, legacy and pride of those built in the 50s and early 60s, but they aren't those instruments. Don't get me wrong here, I don't detest Fender, I've owned several of their basses, but I would never buy another one, new or used. There's way more gear out there that's better, more versatile than anything they make.

Fender and Gibson. The masters of reinvention. New year, same old shit.

I'd concur on the QC; I had two different 10" speakers (from Hydrive cabinets) that just start rattling, but Korg replaced them without question. Beyond this, the cabs were faultless. Larry is just a lovely bloke. Does what he does best; front of house, working the customer base, getting his product out there.

The Hartke one is 100%. Barry said they were just trying to entertain themselves at NAMM years ago. Even as an (ex) Hartke endorsee, I could see the humour in this!

We talked about trying to get Tech21 to drop Rocky Road, go with us and go the direct sale route. Remember that?

In answer to your first paragraph I'm of the belief that RSD just brings out several groups of people; 1. Those that have little desire to buy/consume music the rest of the year but see RSD as a reason for going to a record shop, 2. Those that see RSD as a means to turning a quick profit, 3. Genuine fans whose purchases are usurped by #1 & #2 above. While I have little (cough, zero) interest in vinyl, I don't mind looking around record shops should the occasion arise, although I find the whole experience (to use a '90s metaphor), like going to Gap. It's the same stuff everywhere. I just find the RSD fever all a bit exasperating.

I only bothered once, about five or six years back for a Tears For Fears at Massey Hall live CD. We had a little record shop in a craft centre about a mile from me so I thought I'd give it a punt, so I rocked up 8.30am, stupidly of the allusion I'd be home by 9.00am. On previous visits the shop it had been empty, in fact, I'd never seen anyone in there, but on RSD, nooo. I reckon there were 200 middle-aged men queueing all clutching pieces of paper with lists of albums; the shop owner was giving everyone raffle tickets and letting a couple of people in at a time, each of those people were coming out with carrier bags of vinyl. It was a shambles. It was just a classic case of Dad's Army-esque organisational incompetence. I went home clutching said raffle ticket and returned a few hours later and was still some way off entry. There was no whiteboard showing what was left (thus, no indication of whether it was still worth queueing) and when I finally got in, the proprietor advised me they didn't actually get any copies of the album I was after. I got home, fired up the inter web and ordered it from Sister Ray on condition it was still in stock on Sunday night, it would be mine. It arrived midweek. Waste of time.

I know there's some love for these here. Welwyn Garden City. Looks clean! Nice paddle headstock version. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/326420402512?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=NCWIl1-VSH2&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=DxWFUN6rTdK&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

I've never seen that clip...to be honest, Fashion were never that high on my You Tube search list. This is pretty good!

Singer at the time was Dee Harriss who was also guitarist. I don't think Martin Recchhi (bass) ever did lead vocals...they went through a few line up changes, would be interested to see this!