Frank Blank

I'm going to watch these all day. Chris Squire and Bill Bruford, does it get any better?

I'm about nine mins into this, completely fascinating, I knew this was a complex track but f*** me, there is so much more to it tan I ever imagined, I'd also forgotten how damn funky some Yes is.

That's wild.

All this talk of The Damned reminds me of my favourite track, Love Song. I saw The Damned a lot back in the day but never got into them heavily, I was always going to gigs simply to get some dBs down me lug 'oles. I love the first side (showing my age there) of Machine Gun Etiquette but essentially I'm not particularly familiar with anything else. I think the first five tracks from this album might be (imho of course) the finest first side of rock music ever (apart from the production) it's an absolutely thrilling set of songs.

I play a Rob Allen Mouse 30. On Rob’s site he says... Mb-2, Mouse 30 and Deep 4/5 basses are designed with La Bella 760n (flatwound) strings in mind. ...the Mouse 30 Is strung through-body. I don’t think he would have designed the guitar this way if through-body stringing was problematic in any way.

Despite being one of the bands I have seen the most times I still have to remind myself that David J of Bauhaus played fretless. One of the pleasures of old age this not remembering lark...

Good to see a lot of love for Mick Karn here, much as I love Quiet Life and Tin Drum I’m just going to put a word in for Gentlemen Take Polaroids.

I had forgotten about them, they are grand.

I'm listening to this in order to learn it, suffice to say I'm a bout two bars in. I thought buying a Rob Allen would mean I was able to play it straight away..! 🤣

I just didn’t get Nightfly for years, decades, I eventually did get a hook on it via the lyrics I think. I love it now, not as much as Kamakiriad but damn it took a long time.

I saw them on that tour too at Hammersmith Odeon as was, July 3rd 1981 so good. I have seen them several times since, the last being 10th June 2017 at Usher Hall in Edinburgh, they are always astonishing.

Likewise...

I remember seeing them before their current laptop set performances when they had the big consoles which were part self-built instruments part installations of existing instruments stripped and incorporated into the consoles. Their home-made electronic drums were excellent, I used to dream of playing such a thing when I was a kid!

I am just watching another documentary that includes the Grateful Dead (Festival Express (2003)) and I am finally realising I don’t get the Grateful Dead.

...

Absolutely the same with Steely Dan, they were my brother’s music but then I became a punk and hated most music that wasn’t punk and especially my brother’s bands. Now I love Steely Dan.

This is vey true, I put a new set on my Rob Allen soon after buying it and it is such a different sound despite being the same strings, wondering now how long I'll have to play it before they sound like the old ones!

This is very true. Jaco leaves me absolutely cold and yet I recognise him as a great player and a pioneer. Kraftwerk, however, have been a huge inspiration to me over the years, I totally dig them and yet I can understand people who don't.

Agreement with lots of this. Manic Street Preachers - I dislike anything after Everything Must Go. Bob Dylan - Just can’t abide his voice. The Fall - Does not compute. ...and don’t get me started on Dire Straits.

The first side of Low is, imho, Bowie’s finest work by a country mile.

Graceland - Paul Simon I just don’t get it, leaves me completely cold.

Because we are off our mash on ecstasy pipes.