NancyJohnson

I actually recall the BBC getting all angsty about Statue of Liberty by XTC, what with it's lyrical content containing the words nearly naked and in my fantasy I sail beneath your skirt. When you think back to BBC radio in the mid-late '70s, many of the execs/producers/programmers who were controlling the nations listening habits were geriatric suit-wearing, pipe-smoking old farts so it's no wonder they were banning stuff and trying to uphold common sense and decency. What what. The were completely out of their depth; it would be like someone coming to me and asking me to throw together content for a show on New Zealand grime. This was also the era of Mary Whitehouse and we all know what a piece of work she was.

Listen to Heaven's Gate by Lutz on #SoundCloud It'll be replacing this. Something similar...

Evening bonny lads. One of our tracks has been denied an upload onto digital media as a sample we wanted to use is already in use elsewhere. Weirdness is that the person speaking is long dead and the audio was lifted from a You Tube upload. The main thing seems to be that it's a first dibs thing. So, I need someone to read a prepared piece for us so we can stick it into the track. Caveat here is that we need an American accent, delivered by a middle-aged to elderly gentleman. Oh, you'll have to record in isolation and email the file to us. Any takers?

I haven't watched it in years. Is it still on? @ahpook hit the nail on the head; it's too eclectic and that, for me at least, makes it pretty much unwatchable.

Never had any desire to go and see my old band...it took a while to get over everything that happened, so why bother? I've moved on. I understand that, without me as primary writer, it's taken two years for them to expunge my material from their set and I'm advised the new songs sound like someone throwing scrap metal down a concrete stairwell. Interestingly, from a Rock Family Tree perspective, the current line up of that band doesn't have a single member from the original line up, but past members have spawned other bands, so that's a good thing. My current project (Lutz) contains three ex-members and interestingly myself and three other ex-members are having a beery evening shortly to discuss throwing something together.

I gave some thought to installing the guts of a Rickenbacker into another bass (I'm not certain whether it was a Thunderbird body or a Jazz), but bailed for precisely the reason you posted - that the string spacing was such that there'd be some overhang. Ultimately, I just bought a 4003! It just seemed more hassle than it was worth to be honest and I would never have been happy with the end result.

I prefer solid colours over sunbursts or oiled finishes. Preferably black, although (as posted elsewhere), if I could locate a Hamer Cruisebass I'd swing for any colour to be honest.

I don't have favourites...probably easier to highlight the handful of tracks that don't do it for me personally. The beauty of the whole catalogue is simply how it ebbs and flows from the angular poppunk early on through to the majesty of the later material. The releases that get little mention (Transistor Blast and Coat of Many Cupboards) are equally good. I'd honestly find it difficult to say to a new listener 'Start Here'. The official collections (Fossil Fuel/Tiny Circus/Beeswax/Upsy Daisy) are all good, but I'd say grab yourself a copy of the Complicated Game book and throw together a playlist of the 30-odd songs covered in there. It's all encompassing.

Sorry...will be in contact.

While it's not my chosen delivery format, there is something wonderful about the 5.1 stuff that Steven Wilson has done with XTC. Drums and Wires is immense. Immense. I suspect the Dukes stuff might be more about getting yourself in a comfy chair and letting it just wash over you.

If anyone gives a damn, Steven Wilson has sprinkled his magic pixie dust on XTC's psychedelia alter-egos The Dukes Of Stratosphear material. Psurroundabout Ride sees it's release on CD&BluRay in less than a month. A smattering of bonus materials and All The Dukes' material in 5.1 psurround as well.

I did the gig last Friday and if nothing it just reaffirmed that the effort just isn't worth the result. Collectively we assembled in leafy High Wycombe from mid-London, Littlehampton, deepest Kent and my commute from Denham. Venue had undergone a bit of a facelift since I last played there, but really not in a good way, it was as if everything that made the venue what it was had been stripped away. It stank of disinfectant too. PA half the size of the old one, no monitors working, nasty house kit, sound guy was useless. They were also charging on the door ("£3.00 or whatever you can afford"). Whereas in the past the place would always have 40-50 people milling around, this time I doubt the place achieved double figures. To be honest, we played fine despite everything and just left by about 9.15pm, tucked up in bed by 11.00pm.

Oops. Well this went in the wrong section. That'll teach me for trying to do stuff on my phone.

I peruse the basses for sale section two or three time a day just seeing what's up there...while I have no real wants or desires; I've got four cracking basses I love, but I do admit to the harbouring of nugget or two of ache for a handful of basses that I've only played for a few seconds (Rickenbackers, heh) or ever seen photographs of. While there's some beautiful stuff on sale, for me a lot of it is just eye candy. I think where I'm going with this thread is the observation that some gear just never seems to come up. When I was offloading my Thunderbirds to fund my Lulls, I seemed to have sparked off a landslide of Thunderbirds for sale, now though things seemed to have settled and there's none for sale (much the same as it was before I started hoovering them up...I think I was up to 12 at one point). Granted some of these manufacturers don't trade anymore or are highly desired, viz. Hamer/Kubicki (I'd pull the trigger on either a decent Cruisebass or Ex-Factor today if one came up), or companies only building a handful of my desired models (Spector Forte 4X), or that some basses are just keepers (the PJ version of the Fender Jaguar). I bitterly regret not buying the Jeff Ament Hamer 12-string that was on here a couple of years ago. Ho-hum. Lunch over. Back to the grind.

I've gone through so much backline kit in the last four decades, I've lost track of what I've owned, but one thing I am prepared to impart is that with so many advances in amplification-tech, size really isn't everything. Live gigs aren't about masses of backline (anymore?) and I'm currently running - size for size - the smallest rig in decades.

I'd imagine if you set it onto wet varnish, the backing paper will stick like sh*t to a blanket and it'll be a nightmare to get off, plus the moisture will possibly react with the wet varnish and make it bubbly. If it's a waterslide, apply it to a dry, sealed surface, then seal it with a clearcoat layer or two, lightly rub down when dry with some fine grit (2000/3000) wet and dry, then clearcoat again and repeat until you're happy.

It was moreover the whole day...my commute is backroads from Reading, M4/M25/M40 - these numbers alone should be enough for any normal person to shake with terror. Its about an hour. At the end of the day M40/M25/M23/A23...it just sucked the life out of me a bit. Add to this roadworks on the M25 homebound just added to the ack factor. Anyhow, at least the Friday gig is only about 20 minutes from work.

I've got a Delano PMVC 4 FE/M2 in my P (it's the one designed as a standalone P-pickup; it's different from the one in their PJ set). Like it a lot.

As some of my closer friends will know, the last 18 months have seen me leave the band I formed eight or nine years ago then moving onto a more experimental studio based project (Lutz). A couple of months back I was offered an off/on/off live position with a band called Rocket66. I learnt everything only for the band to pull out of commitments, so things parked again. Anyhow, it's back on again...yesterday, up with the lark, I went to work at 7.30am, worked 8.15am to 5.30pm, then drove two hours from Denham, Bucks to Brighton Electric (great place, by the way) for a single rehearsal ahead of a gig on Friday. I got home this morning about 1.00am. I mean, I'm no spring chicken, but while I feel quite happy to have pulled a 20 hour day and added 200-odd miles to the clock, I'm thinking that I really can't be assed with the whole band malarky again, especially with my current workload.

Wowzer! I love you, Bertie. You're very kind.

I used to borrow a Jedson Telecaster shaped bass and a WEM Dominator from a guy who lived round the corner from me, but the first purchased bass was this white CBS/Arbiter SG shaped thing...they come up on eBay periodically. First amp/rig? Well, I'm struggling now. I owned a 1x15 cabinet of unknown lineage (I recall after money changed hands, I actually got it home using my dad's wheelbarrow) and at the same time I owned a secondhand H/H head that was really nasty (it smelt very electrical when it had been on for a bit, like a Scalextric) and a Carlsboro Stingray combo.

I've got an APC UPS if anyone wants it. We had some power issues here a while back, I was just sick of losing my work, so bought one of these. It was plugged in for about three weeks while the electricity guys were digging up the road, it worked faultlessly but has been gathering dust for about a year. It's one power in, four outs (or run an extension with the appropriate socketry. Despite its size, it is heavy...I can box it up and ship it at your expense or it might be cheaper to just drive over and pick it up if you're local (RG45, east of Reading). I'll throw in a four way extension too. Stock photos and web-link below. P https://www.schneider-electric.co.uk/en/product/BX700UI_APC/apc-back-ups-700va%2C-230v%2C-avr%2C-iec-sockets/