NancyJohnson

I've gone with a Ritter Bern. I'll report back.

Snark here. 100%

I had a brief exchange with Steve Barr many years ago; he was (at one point) planning to put out a coffee table book detailing all these weird and wonderful basses he'd bought and sold over the years. This must have been 15+ years ago. There does seem to be recurring stories across several bass-related websites about substance abuse and the taking of deposits for Lakland DPLE basses. He was active on alt.guitar.bass and alt.bass - going to newsgroups for bass stuff back then seems so quaint now - and he is a member here, although only one post: Incidentally, all the old newgroup stuff is now archived through Google Groups. I was just taking a look and don't have any doubt that my last contribution was around 2006. Some of the names on there bring back memories. Aah, Peter Duncan. What an asshat he was.

There's a name I haven't thought about in a few years. Wasn't there an issue with him trying to get a custom bass made (Lakland, I think) and making off with the customer deposits?

Interestingly, our guitarist made a post to Instagram with a photo of what he uses. Right now it's just this. He'll jack this into a little Mesa 1x12 (or whatever is available). Guitar wise, I know he loves mixing things up but more recently he's been favouring an SG or a (quite lovely) gold top Les Paul with P90s.

Two zips gave up the ghost on my old Roksak Thunderbird gigbag yesterday. Looking for suitable replacement suggestions.

What do we play? Something that might intimidate the headliner. If we're invited to do a second song, the hit.

I would say 'on' is subjective. Holding, more like. Given the pop sensibilities of your average Runaround audience, KM could just as easily have just danced around in the background.

Back gigging regularly, despite my previous post, we usually stop for a Double Whopper Meal now. I know I shouldn't, but well.

I know there was a desert scene, but you know that Palm Springs isn't like a fountain and a few big houses, right? The city is nearly 250 square km. Four times bigger than Manhattan. Twice as big as Manchester. At least. This is one of those stories that does the rounds every once in while, this idea that Sinatra roused up a few Italian/American arm-bending mafia-types who knocked up venues going, 'Nice little business you have here, you wouldn't want anything to happen to it, would you?' is preposterous.

I'd sooner have an Overend Watts signature to be honest!

Just picking up from your opening few words, it's obviously lucrative to the band, but the demand is more a rites of passage thing for many, like a gap year or going to Ibiza. Remember that it sells out way before many of the acts are even announced. I work with a lady in her early-mid 50s; credit where due she travels the length and breadth of the country going to gigs and festivals. She was distraught at missing out on Glastonbury this year. The musical landscape has changed significantly since I were a lad; we've moved from being precious about purchases, buying an album (or two a month, maybe) that you'd listen to constantly eventually through osmosis knowing every note from start to finish. Now the culture is pretty much everything available to everyone and people generally cherry-picking popular tracks by hundreds of artists and too many albums just full of filler. I'd still maintain a good chunk of the tickets are bought by people (the Spotify Generation as a mate succinctly put it) who have little or no deep-interest in music, but know all the words to a couple of Lewis Capaldi tracks.

As these are largely non-production line instruments, surely they're going to vary from one unit to another? Even more so than the differences you'd get from mass produced ones.

Having a trawl on various socials and reading threads about some of the older bands/artistes playing this year...lot of posts about Debbie Harry (voice gone/just stop), Generation Sex (shambolic), Sparks (just play the hits), GnR (is that Ian Beale/Mick Hucknall?). There's also a huge trend of responses trying to shutdown negative opinion, along the lines of 'My mother used to say if you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all.' I do wonder whether many of the respondees were actually around when these [older] acts were at their peak, rather than just using Glastonbury as a box ticking exercise. I also question whether many who went have something wrong with their ears. On the positive side, while I'm not particularly a fan of Manic Street Preachers, their set was clearly well rehearsed, on point and hugely enjoyable. Queens of the Stone Age, likewise. Same goes the Foo Fighters (even though I can't stand them). It's all well and good posting positive comments about these, but people posting negatives about Debbie Harry are just hit with a barrage of retorts about her being 77, how fantastic she is for that age and how she's doing her best. Honestly, who cares about how old anyone is? If you can't do it, then don't do it. Just because you're classified as a legend, does not equate to your performance being legendary. Someone needs to have a frank conversation with Debbie Harry and say, 'You know, love. It's over. Retire gracefully. You can't hit the notes any more and surrounding yourself with a couple of guitarists who are young enough to be your grandchildren just looks creepy. It's embarrassing.'

He's a lovely bloke. Very engaging and incredibly funny. He's known Eddie for decades, so that made things easier. He arrived at the H&A on a pushbike!

Gadzooks, yes! Spector!

Played The Hope & Anchor in Islington yesterday with The Adjacent Kings; it was one of those punk lunch things that seem to be happening more and more frequently nowadays. It's a really decent (basement) venue, far from the sh*thole it was pre-facelift. If you are playing there, take your own gear if you can; basswise there's a very tired Ashdown combo available. Happy to have run into @cheddatom who was playing drums for headliners, Headsticks. While I saw their soundcheck and had a very brief chat, I didn't catch their set. We'd literally finished, broke down our gear, went upstairs to try and cool down and our singer/designated driver was ready for the off as he had a 3 hour plus drive ahead of him. [Edit] Just as a side note, Spizz was on the bill as well. You may remember him from his single Where's Captain Kirk?. It seems we may be doing some dates with him in the Autumn off the back of this one, so all good.

Apparently there's 'furore and anger' about the Pyramid Stage having all-male headliners and also about having an American band headlining Saturday night. Isn't it all supposed to be about the music or is this just the tabloids spinning and whipping up something out of nothing? Probably the latter. What a fecking world we live in.

I'm not a fan of festivals in general and I wouldn't go to Glastonbury even if it was free and had all-access passes. My wife has been dipping in (and mainly out) since early afternoon. She asked who Generation Sex were. I didn't actually know they were playing. Bejeebus. Words fail me. There's a Guns 'n Roses tribute band on at the moment. The bloke playing Axl looks like an overweight accountant. The Slash bloke looks nothing like Slash bloke I remember.

But it didn't really go under as such, more shut down, restructure, relaunch. Although the LA store shut and they're pretty much a mailorder outlet (no storefront as such), selling their own Bass Collection basses, Brian May stuff, NS Design kit, plus peripherals.

I bought a Gibson Grabber (G3) for peanuts somewhere over in Romford, early 80s, maybe it was this place. When it worked properly (intermittently), it was dreamy, but a lot of time it just kept cutting out and despite it only being a few years old the pots were very crackly. I wasn't even out of my teens, but there was a level of kudos because I had a real Gibson. It was rubbish. One summer day in the mid-80s, I stripped the thing and spray painted the body with a couple of coats of a deep-burgundy VW rattle can over the original natural finish (which started to come off almost immediately). I used it for a bit more and traded it for some camera equipment in a junk shop in Windsor. Amazingly I saw it online a few years back, someone selling it at an inflated price as 'one-off custom colour'; the finish - some 30 years on - way worse that when I had it, but recognisable.

Or to none at all. We were mid-bill about ten years ago. Tuesday night in Bracknell. Nobody in. Zero. We were kind of looking around and going, 'Well, shall we or shan't we boys?' and then did 45 minutes to the sound guy and four mates who were under us on the card. It was kind of funny. The headliners were up in the bar, so we broke down our kit, put it in our cars and all went to the same bar while they were on. Rumour has it they played a couple of songs to nobody and just gave up.