Frank Blank

I usually just blat out a stock answer to this but today I've thought a bit more about it. I was eleven the first time I heard a bass in isolation so to speak was that bass line that starts at 17:23 on Tubular Bells, I loved many elements of that album but that bass line... it sent shivers down my spine. Next was listening to the first five Yes albums played by my brother, he really loved Chris Squire's bass sound, constantly banging on about the distinctive Rickenbacker sound, I remember sitting down and drawing that bass over and over for some reason. Then I was looking through his albums and I found Relayer, luckily I put the second side on first and heard Sound Chaser, which remains my favourite Yes track to this day. Although these were my earliest bass influences they were almost anti-influences so to speak inasmuch as I listened, admired and decided I could never play anything like that and anyway I only really excelled at art and technical drawing at school and had already decided (at such a stupidly young age, what did I know) that I was going to be a graphic designer (or commercial artist as it was called at the time) so I kept listening to all sorts of music, kind of unaware really how important it all was to me and carried on being a unpopular long-haired teenager who spent school breaks sitting underneath the oak tree next to the art department listening to Selling England By The Pound and The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway on a scratchy little cassette player. Then I was at my school's Friday night youth club disco. Two girls appeared in garish ripped tights and what I (I assumed) were pairs of their Mum's high heels. They were also wearing oversized dinner jackets adorned with badges, I remember seeing one badge which was the Bowie Aladdin Sane face and another that I thought was Elvis Costello. Both these girls were (in that horrible school hierarchy sense) unpopular and not considered 'attractive" by the popular boys. I took one look at them and thought "Right, my long hair and greatcoat need updating". Gradually I became a punk and after auditioning in the middle of a field on a mates drum kit I became the drummer in a few short-lived punk bands. One afternoon I was sitting on the doorstep of a mates gaff when he put on the first Public Image Ltd single, "Surely that's just four notes?" I thought. My mate had a bass so I sat on the doorstep with it and indeed it was four notes, I played that bass line and I was hooked. For some reason I kept on playing drums in various bands until I was about 25 and then I bought a Jaydee and now I'm here! So, in summary Mike Oldfield, Chris Squire, Jah Wobble. Heavy influences afterwards were JJ Burnel, Mick Karn, Gabe Nelson and Eugene Wright. But who influenced me to actually pick a bass up and made me realise I could play it? Wobble innit...

It was Dec btw. Yes, unfortunately. My first gig seeing A&TA was in 1979 on the Young Parisians tour and I have to admit I remained a bit of a 'first album' idiot. Although in its defence I personally think Dirk Wears White Sox is one of the greatest albums ever created. I think A&TA are the band that I've seen the most times apart from Killing Joke and I personally took their decline (or what I saw a s a decline) quite badly. Had I have been 10 I would have loved it too I think but I was a self-important eighteen year old by then and too far up my own backside to be genuinely subjective.

Knew it would be! I was at that gig, I finally gave up on Adam that night!

Where and when was that Adam & The Ants gig? Just asking because the last time I saw them (before his latest tours) was on the PCR tour.

Brill, cheers.

Man alive that’s great, I must hear some more!

I now sort recently washed socks back into pairs to the accompaniment of Talking Heads Stop Making Sense, that is all.

Ha ha, now three events in one year does not an award make! @cetera has made the point already but as a relative (to some of you anyway) newcomer to Basschat I have found the forum to be incredibly informative and personally (in a bass equipment sense) completely transformative. But by far the biggest surprise and delight, especially to an ingrained (albeit equal opportunities) misanthropist such as myself, has been the real sense of community (both on the forum and at the Bashes) and the lack of willy waving egoists. I’m not a good player and I’m even worse when it comes to bass tech, I have asked real novice questions over and over again and always received brilliant answers that were in no way patronising, impatient or finished with any sentences along the lines of ...you plug it in the input you tw4t! @cetera makes another important point about the lack of youngsters at the Bash and I think this applies to the forum too, I think part of the answer is in that very egoless nature of BC. Most forums and, well, the Internet as a whole really (at least the bits where people get to interact and discuss stuff), is about people venting from the safety of a keyboard in a bedroom, it’s about ego, conflict, competition and most importantly it’s all about f*** all. It takes time to mature into people able to communicate without preening about trying to make up for the gaping holes in ones character and personality that only slowly fill up with wisdom and knowledge over a lifetime. I’m afraid I think forums and meetings like ours will remain the preserve of folk our age simply by dint of the nature of maturing into an adult and developing a real interest in a subject. That being said there is something about being a bass player, a purveyor of low end frequency, that does seem to attract people from a noble seam. As I explained to a friend once at a reggae gig who commented that I was dancing at half the speed of the ‘chank, chank’ of the guitar, “Look at the bass player. The drumming is maths, the singer is ego, the guitarist (at least the lead) is a w4nk puffin. The bass player is what’s moving this entire audience.” Sorry went off on one there. Essentially I’d go, or at least attempt to go, to any and every Bass Bash I possibly could simply because I’ve never known a site or community like it and it flies in the face of everything I’ve ever learned about humans, so see you at the next one.

I was actually waiting for Benjamin from the props dept to furnish me with a large Churchillian cigar but then @silverfoxnik started randomly snapping before I had time to explain, ahem.

The highlight of the Bash for me (behind the two @Jabba_the_gut basses that I’m actually crazy about) was @obbm’s short scale Spector, I don’t know the details of the model because while he did tell me all about it I was far to busy playing it and trying to work out how to nick it.

You got stuck queuing at the tunnel too?

Thanks to all the usual suspects for organising another excellent Bass Bash. I managed not to attend the talk, nor participate in the raffle and I managed to give @Jabba_the_gut double homework, which appealed to my officious nature and infect @obbm with the Rob Allen virus. Thanks @BreadBin for saving my back. All in all a splendid day.

I’m the cl(a55) swot. Good to see you Sir!

He’s not joking, my fault again, RA is making me a partner.

We all noticed dude, next time.

I believe (don’t quote me) it’s 10am. I’m already in the car park and it certainly hasn’t started yet! 😊

I just bought a new rack for my basses so I now have three Hercules GS414B AGS Plus Guitar Stands for the raffle, if prizes are scant you might want to split them into three separate prizes! Ha ha 😂

See you at nine!

Definitely had some Mick Mills down his Gregory.

If you are referring to the photograph that includes my pert little tush then bollards.

Absolutely ^^^ this.

See, now, all you can eat isn’t good for me because I trough it in until I am incapable. @scrumpymike did recommend a good curry house last time but unfortunately just post curry. Having said that I was still, shall we say curry-bound at the last SWBash which rendered me unable to fully enjoy the Scrumpettes feast, maybe a glass of water with a slice of lemon the night before and then I can eat my own weight at the Bash.

I’ll be appearing on next season’s Grand Designs documenting the ups and downs of my bass case refurb from specialist instrument container to modern utilitarian living space.

One minute I was playing through our set list and the next I was packing everything up... and it’s only Friday! Hold on, cue mantra... “It’s on Sunday, not Saturday, it’s on Sunday not...”

Thanks @cetera, you beat me too it, apologies everyone *slinks back to Stomp tweaking*