Old Man Riva

I’m not sure it’s a case that people are more easily offended these days. I think we’re being challenged to be more mindful of others and consider our choice of language, in a way that we perhaps didn’t do previously. I actually don’t see that as a bad thing... I like your suggestion of “kosmische musik”!

I think I may have posted this before, but what the heck... Been listening to/reminding myself what a good album Black Sea is...

... which was definitely an inspiration for this! I heard the Hawkwind track years before I even knew that Neu! Existed...

It’s not normally the sort of thing I’d listen to but from a bass perspective I found this fascinating, and whatever your taste in music it’s well worth a watch. He’s obviously a superb and innovative player, and also seems such a lovely guy!

There was an album out in 1983 that I really dug at the time (it was actually a mini album - not quite EP, not quite LP!) called Snake Charmer. The band were Jah Wobble, The Edge and Holger Czukay. It was such a diverse and oddly wonderful collection of music (only five tracks) that sounded completely different to anything else that was about at the time. Here’s a track called Hold On To Your Dreams (featuring a very ‘house-y’ vocal from Marcella Allen!)...

Alex and the gang again... the audience look truly bewildered!

May not be exactly what you’re after but I’ve a set of D’Addario Half Rounds (50-105) and a set of Rotosound Solo Bass (pressure wound 45-105) that have been tried then removed from a bass that, if you fancy giving them a try, you’re welcome to have. Just PM your address and I can put them in the post... At the very least it may just rule them out of your thinking!

The title track from Robert Pamer’s first solo album. Features the Meters on half of the album (inc. George Porter Jnr on this track) and NY players on the rest (inc Bernard Purdie). I really like his first record (and most of his albums up to his MTV period). It grooves like a good un. There are some good covers on there - Sailin’ Shoes, Sneaking Sally, and From a Whisper to a Scream - where he really delivers. I’m a big fan of his voice. Speaking of ‘From a Whisper...’, for me the definitive version of that (written by Allen Toussaint) is by Esther Philips, which I’ve posted below. There’s some lovely bass playing on both of these tracks... Enjoy!

“Dear Fender Custom Shop, I specifically requested lollipop tuners. Imagine my disappointment when...”

I think it’s fair to say not many teams would find a way to come back from Ole Ola...

Some days are like that, but tomorrow will be different...

“Everybody was Kung Fu fighting...”

Fancied a bit of Mott/Ian Hunter today so headed towards Hunter's first solo album for Once Bitten, Twice Shy, then remembered this... Ian Hunter, with the legend that is Mick Ronson on guitar...

Fabulous album. For me, her early career - probably up to Like a Prayer - is one great big brilliant pop record after another. I still think Holiday is one of finest pop records of the 80s or any other decade...

Open to any new sounds - always have been. When I was younger, when someone turned me on to something I hadn’t heard before (old or new), as much as I’d be excited I’d also have a moment where I’d genuinely feel perplexed, imagining a world of “what if I hadn’t heard this, my life would be so much less enriched”! It only took me to get to my 40s to get past that! That said, my most recent ‘new’ thing is from from 1973! Probably from a love of those late 60s/early 70s US TV cop themes I heard as a kid... https://open.spotify.com/album/0pFW8xs6GcqJqKKMIxCVcD?si=hwmn6eOpTaa9FjYXWCIaDQ

Can’t get enough of Alex and the gang at the moment...

I think Paul Raymond’s role in the development of the band is something that gets overlooked. They were at the stage where, to get the best out of the sound/songs, a full-time keyboard player just wasn’t required. Imagine the Lights Out and Obsession albums with a full-time keys player! Getting Paul Raymond in was a masterstroke and allowed them to effortlessly switch between having a highly accomplished rhythm guitar player and a top notch keys player all in one - and there haven’t been that many of those around over the years. It was also great that he finally got his writing credits recognised when they released the remastered albums in 2008...

When Bowie was going to do the Sound & Vision tour he was going to invite fans to submit requests for songs to form the set - essentially it was going to be his version of a greatest hits tour. This being 1990 he wasn’t viewed with much love from certain parts of the music press at the time so the NME decided it would attempt to rig the vote with endless requests for the Laughing Gnome, in an attempt to demean his back catalogue - “yeah, let’s forget his output from ‘71 to ‘80, but focus on one novelty song he had in 1967... that’ll show him!!”. Bowie being Bowie suggested that if this were to happen then no problem, he’d simply reimagine the song in the style of the Stooges or VU. I always thought that would have been a brilliant outcome! Mr Hackenbacker, do you incorporate any of Herbie Flowers lines from David Live into your set? His playing on that album is wonderful, and his bass interpretation on Width of a Circle is still one of my faves.

Yes, he did the farewell tour... then of course the following tour after the farewell tour that they did. He was a good fit - and in true UFO fashion (and as a homage to Pete!) used a Thunderbird (non reverse), rather than the Rickenbacker he used with Eddie & the Hot Rods, and the Damned...

Apparently there exists somewhere a studio session that Pete Way did with Paul Weller in the very early 80s. Both Way and Weller (along with Phil Mogg) were big fans of Steve Marriott so I assume it was of that ilk... UFO appeared to be one of those older rock bands that some of the punk/new wave musicians liked/hung around with. When Way left UFO Pete Farndon of the Pretenders was considered as a replacement. Pete Way also did some recordings with Topper Headon. And of course Paul Gray from the Danmed was Pete’s eventual replacement in 1983 (after Billy Sheehan stepped in to help out on a European tour).

There’s not a lot of live footage from the ‘78 tour but I found this on YouTube which, whilst the quality isn’t great, gives a flavour of how exciting they were as a live band during this period. It was on this leg of the US tour that SITN was recorded... https://youtu.be/RuOnBwAZbIU

Saw UFO for the first time in 1978 at Birmingham Town Hall as a 15 yr old. It was such an exciting experience, and a benchmark for live gig experiences for years to come. It was the ‘classic’ line up and they were a band right on top of their game. That they should have achieved more commercial success - and the reasons they didn’t - have been well documented over the years, but them and AC/DC (Bon era) were the only rock bands I knew that my punk mates also loved at the time. I think a lot of rock fans at the time were somehow suspicious of them - a bit “flash”, a bit “London”, not quite as down and heavy as, say, Sabbath or Purple. But that was part of the attraction for me. They were the first band I saw in the flesh that really looked like rock stars, in a way that Bowie, or the Stones or the Faces did on TV. And then there was the bass player...

What a fabulous bass - enjoy! I really like the synthy-ness of the ‘fuzz’ setting, if that makes sense..?

John Taylor’s let himself go... (There should be more of this type of thing these days!)