ubit

Mrs Ubits brother is a guitar player. She has two brothers , both are incredible musicians. The older brother always had a terrible singing voice. He set himself a target and said I will sing. Over the years he has taught himself to sing and now has a fine voice. He’s got a raspy tone kinda similar to Bryan Adams. Maybe that’s the answer. Put a bit of fry into your voice. I’ve been lucky in that I always could sing and over the years, I’ve become more known as the singer rather than the bass player. I’d like to change that and become the musician that everyone recognises. I do find that as I’m getting older, tuning slightly lower helps. Obviously now I know more about different tunings or keys, whereas before, I forced myself to sing everything in standard tuning, which can be hard on your voice.

You have to concentrate on the singing on ALL songs. There’s no way you can sing automatically. The bass has to be muscle memory always.

Taggart

So many theme tunes of my yoof had amazing bass lines. I used to listen in admiration every Saturday evening.

Nah, I’ll give him that. He pulled his weight there. Look, at the end of the day, he is my mate, but I just got sick of being in a band with him. I’ve played alongside him all my life, but it just got too much. My job means I can’t play just now, but if I manage to get a rotational position, I will get back to playing and I’m determined that I’ll find another guitarist. It was him that decided we would play trad songs and brought in the accordion player who played on all our rock songs. It was him that brought in another boy that played acoustic. Many times folk would ask , what does he do? You can’t hear him. We should have played as a three piece!

That’s what I used to try to tell the other guys in the band. I’m also the singer, so if I start singing a chorus when there’s meant to be a solo, just follow me. The audience won’t notice, but a glaring look and shouting will be noticed. It’s easier if you are just playing to ad-lib, but if you are playing and singing and you get it wrong, it’s harder to change.

It’s funny, pointy basses we’re all the rage back then.( early eighties) I nearly bought a sort of Explorer, but not as cool as it was a too pointy bass, but opted for the Westone. Thank feck!

I wonder how much £200 for a bass would be in today’s money. I loved it at the time, but once I was able to afford a Status, that was the start of my journey into really good basses

Definitely a Spectrum. Can’t remember the designation. I had a Hondo P copy and saw this in a shop window in Edinburgh. I borrowed £200 from my then art school girlfriend ( Thanks Jane) and bought it. I paid her back when we got home, but I just had to have it. I thought it was the most gorgeous bass I’d ever seen. As I say I’m gonna have to dig it out and try it with new strings and through the Svt, because it never got the chance all those years ago.

Nah, he’s a bald as a Coot Scotsman

My guitarist mate used to annoy me by saying that I only used the E and the A. That was because most songs we did spent most of the time on those strings. He never appreciated my runs and octaves Now I make sure I play on those strings with the stuff I learn. Stuff him.

In fact that’s reminded me, I’m gonna dig it out and restring it, just to hear what it sounds like through decent gear. Thanks for that 👍

I still have it up the loft. Wasnt actually too bad for the day

In our band, the guitarist, who is my mate, thought he was the band leader and tried to be in charge of everything. Resorting a lot to passive aggression to get his way. I’ve known him all my life, so I would flat out argue with him if I disagreed and sometimes just because I was sick of him being so bossy. The drummer and rhythm guitarist used to call us Mummy and Daddy. One of my biggest annoyances was when we all agreed to do a song, if he didn’t want to do it, we didn’t do it. He just wouldn’t learn it. Next rehearsal, we would ask, have you learned such and such? No, but I have learned this! Then he would produce a song that he wanted to do, but we hadnt agreed on. Made me realise that I didn’t want to play with him anymore.

It’s not hatred. Far from it with me. I just hate it’s over use, especially when demonstaring an amp or a guitar

Nah mate, soul/funk doesn't do it for me

One of my favourite albums was the live Rory Gallagher album Stagestruck. Teds drumming along with Gerry MacAvoy's amazing bass playing were perfect behind Rory. I saw Rory play years later and it was sad. He was a pale shadow of what he was. He was quite clearly drunk and kept disappearing, leaving the band to carry on. Very sad to see.

Definitely not our first gig, but very early on in my first band. This was in my let's be as rock n roll as possible phase.

That's why I like Scott Devine. he can slap very well but never uses it to demonstrate unless that's what he is talking about.

We played as support to another band that had been going for a while. We were nervous as hell if I remember. Before that, we went to a local Jazz club and performed a really basic twelve bar passage and I remember getting some polite claps. That was me, I had the bug!

Just about every review you see on Youtube of a bass, has some plonker slapping all over it. There is a time and a place for it. The mid-eighties!

I've never come across a rock DJ to be fair. Its always just pop up our way

I know what you mean, but what I mean is, it's much more entertaining to watch any kind of live performance than to turn up at a live music venue and find a disco instead.