NancyJohnson

Google tells me it was Ultravox (plus four others, Shock, Wonder Stories, Barbie Wilde and Metro). Nope, me neither.

I've been following Rusty Egan on Facebook for a while, he drummed for the Rich Kids and The Skids amongst others and has a long history of DJ-ing, club/shop owning. Some of you may know of him. More recently he's been posting up loads of old stuff on Facebook, some of it hilarious. This one caught my eye...in these times of either not being paid for gigs (or even getting a free ice-lolly after playing some sh*thole in Worthing after driving 100 miles there and playing 45 minutes because 'it was good for our musical CV'), it was enlightening to see how much Depeche Mode got paid for a 45 minute support slot at The Rainbow in February 1981.

I'm listening to doom and gloom on the radio.

I think the roots for this malarky came from a conversration many moons ago, when we discovered that there was actaully a song submission process carried out by labels and you were either lucky enough to have your song accepted or not. I used to be a biggish fan of band from Bristol called Straw; they submitted the song below, only to be usurped by Garbage.

I'll profess that making music has been a struggle at times, but over the last few months our erstwhile guitarist/producer Pete has been finishing off stuff I recorded back in February/March and doing cut and paste arrangements pending a return to getting us back in for vocals, so all good. I haven't really played a bass for more than a few minutes a time in over four months. That said, the cupboard is now effectively bare so me and Pete were looking for inspiration and we've hit on subject matter that we feel really has legs. We've decided to do a James Bond themed soundtrack album, drawing inspriation from post-Fleming Bond books - Kingsley Amis (Colonel Sun), John Gardner (who also penned License To Kill and Goldeneye) and Raymond Benson (who wrote the Tomorrow Never Dies and The World Is Not Enough novelisations). I got a rough of Colonel Sun a few days back and it's goosepimples-on-the-forearms brilliant...all those Bond hooks seem to be there, the old orchestral 'ba-baa ba-baa' stabs, the twangy guitar hooks. I'm very excited.

Years ago (early 80s), a mate of mine bought a new Fender Precision in Landaan. At the time Fender either didn't make the combination of body/neck that he wanted and, get this, the shop just swapped necks with a different bass.

I'd love a St Vincent. When my mum passed away, I inherited a bit (let's not talk numbers) and promised myself (and her too, as she did say to spend some of it friviously) an instrument of some sort. Actually popped an email to MusicMan about and asked whether they could tweak one of the grey-sparkle ones for me...single bridge pickup, coil tapped, volume control only, plain scratchplate. I mean, how difficult would that have been? I actually wanted less than the stock specification. Didn't hear a bean, so bought a Spector.

I've only owned one MusicMan (a Bongo 5HH, that I wish I still owned TBH), sometimes get an odd wobble for a Stingray, but it always passes...reckon it wouldn't be about the having, the thrill is in the chase. I like they're actually making a 5-string Stingray that looks like the 4-string. I love the St Vincent guitar.

I used to bloody love Angel.

Crikey, now there's a band I hadn't thought of for a long, long time. A mate of mine was a huge fan (he was also very big on getting groups of people who didn't know each other together as well); he organised tickets for a Hue and Cry gig at the Wilde Theatre, Bracknell about 20 years ago, perhaps longer. I can't find a single reference to it online, so I could have dreamt it, but unlikely. I guess there were about 20 of us. I'll profess I only knew Labour of Love (as did about 18 or us)...they did two coma-enducing sets with an intermission between and I swear about half the audience didn't return for the second half. I couldn't tell you what they played, how many were in the band, anything. I do however remember eating a rather splendid cheeseburger beforehand and had a pint between sets, beyond that? Nada.

Amazon. Avoid sellers and just go with Amazon. I've not changed strings on anything for a while now. Elixir prices are pretty eyewatering.

I own an old Line6 Spider IV that has served well enough for home demos, but the Spark has (warning, BBC-esque pun incoming) ignited my interest in amp modelling. The fear here for me here is more a case of just wanting rather than owning; I'd probably just dial in my desired tone and it would be unlikely I'd move from that. I get that tone from the Spider already.

The one thing I'd add here is that when I listen to newly released music (or stuff that's new to me), it doesn't stick with me like the stuff I listened to when I was a teenager. I'd put this wholly on it being an age thing...it's almost like an alzheimer thing, sufferers remembering things from decades ago, but not remembering their short term memory. A few days back, I listened to some Sweet stuff (Sweet F*nny Adams/Desolation Boulevard/Strung Up); these albums are burned on my psyche and I know thems inside out; conversely while I was never really a fan of XTC back in the day (great singles), I have grown to love them over the last few years, but only the singles (Nigel/Towers etc.) have actually stuck with me because I knew them in my teens. I suppose this is just my reasoning about investing too much time into newer music; I'm never really going to remember it, if that makes sense.

I'm just curious, question here for owners of NEW basses that have been knocked about a bit for relicing purposes, do you actually take care of the basses and treat them akin to pristine instruments or do you knock them about a bit to add your own mark? My old Aria Primary dates back to 1978... it's in shocking condition; every time I take it out I try and put another ding in it somewhere. Never put it in a case/bag, but obviously I do protect the knobs/machines.

I have a genre-spanning, all encompassing, various artist Spotify playlist containing about 1,500 songs that I tend to stick on shuffle during the day while I'm working; Spotify's shuffle play algorithms are a bit patchy, it does tend to play some tracks quite often, others not so much (when I started typing this it was playing Let It Snow! by Vaughan Monroe, right now it's Telephone Man by Mari Wilson). As I've gotten older, I don't feel I have the time or inclination to invest in new music, which really saddens me, and would prefer to listen to (older) music that makes me feel warm and fuzzy rather than spending an age trying to find something groundbreaking. (Now it's playing Wings' Live & Let Die.)

She's never played in her life, but has always loved The Cure (I think we've covered this elsewhere!).

So. Over the weekend, my wife tells me she'd like me to teach her how to play the bassline from The Cure's Lovecats. OK, I say, which bass would she like to use. She tells me she is happy with the old one (photo below), but remarked the glossy neck finish is 'sticky' so she went with a Lull ('too big') and eventually decided on a Spector. On a whim, I decide the neck is sticky, so I locate some 240 grit finishing paper and sanded it off. The decision took a couple of seconds, the sanding took a few minutes. Dusted it off and lemon-oiled it. Man alive. What a difference; so much faster.

I've seen this a lot in the last few days. So far a lot of positivity, but you're always going to get a handful of people who are just going to post negative comments sight unseen. Interesting. Apparently works with basses as well.

Despite my punk roots, my wife complains periodically that I have a penchant for what she describes as puppy-dog singers (quite where that came from, I'm unsure, but I think she may be alluding to How Much Is That Doggie In The Window? by Pattie Page). Anyhow, I'm not amiss to Veruca Salt (Louise Post/Nina Gordon), Pvris, Paramore, Kristen May (Vedera/Flyleaf/solo), Anika Pyle (Chumped/Katie Ellen), Jennie Vee (Tuuli/solo), Vanessa Carlton, Kathleen Hanna (Bikini Kill, Le Tgre/Julie Ruin), Michelle Branch. I'm also partial to Doris Day, Ella Fitzgerald. Amazingly, my most played track on Spotify last year was Sara Bareilles' Love Song.

Thank you.

Good grief. Words fail me.

Could have clocked in at under nine with shorter hair!