Old Man Riva

I'll warn you now, it's an acquired taste!!

Mouldy Old Dough by Lieutenant Pigeon, though mainly for the Coventry connection rather than its musical merits..!

Aye, I wouldn’t be handing over £16.99 let alone £16,999 for that Entwistle bass. I spent an enjoyable afternoon at David Pym’s place a few years back trying out some of his stock. He explained in great detail how certain companies operated. There used to be a piece on his website about it - there probably still is…

Do Denmark Street/Amsterdam guitars have something to do with the old Music Ground company, or is that a completely different entity entirely? Edit to say, apologies, I was slower off the mark than ossyrocks!

… featuring the late Damo Suzuki.

That’s fabulous, thank you so much for sharing! That’s the most in depth interview with Pino I’ve seen/heard - some great moments!

… not heard those before. Thank you so much for recommending! Been playing Frank on loop…

Funnily enough that’s exactly what I thought today when I watched the video. I’ve never given it a thought before, but when I saw the breakdown of Tribal Dawn I was completely taken by how ‘jazzy’ it sounded…

Well they both certainly had their own unique and distinctive ‘voice’ on the instrument, which I always think isn’t that common - a lot of really good players can sound like a lot of really good players, but don’t have their own distinctive voice. Of the two, musically, Mick Karn appeals to me much more. A genuinely unique musician, and also cool as f**k. It’s a winning combination!

… a brief appraisal of the wonderful Mr Karn from the excellent PDBass.

I love the bass part on Boston Tea Party. One of the things I tried to learn when I first started. It was a real struggle getting all of the cool runs he does…

In an attempt to list every bass player ever recorded, see below. I love them all, in their own unique way! In no particular order… JPJ Pino James Eller Derek Forbes Norman Watt-Roy Segs Trevor Bolder Chuck Rainey Tom Hamilton John Gustafson Charlie Tumahai Horace Panter Max Bennett Wilton Felder Jim Lea Herbie Flowers Willie Weeks Pete Way Fred Thomas Pete Farndon Sting Bobby Vega Mick Karn edited to also add; Paul Jackson Colin Moulding Kev Hopper Alan Spenner

Old Superlungs himself. Even gets a smile out of Whisperin’ Bob…

… a bit more on the Christmas Wrapping track and bass part.

Been listening to the first two Roxy albums today. This particular track got more than one listen …

This has a fabulous Tracy Wormworth bass line, which I always think is dead cool when I hear it. Really fun to play, too …

Go on, admit it, you’ve been out and spent a load of cash on basses that you didn’t need and a coffee you didn’t want just to use that excellent thread title! It was money well spent, sir!

It’s an interesting sound, isn’t it! If you dig that then there’s a more recent artist, Dan Snaith, whose album, Up In Flames, is worth a listen. The artist is sometimes listed as Manitoba, and sometimes Caribou, depending where you look. Here’s a taster…

Went to see triple harpist Cerys Hafana at Kings Place (on York Way) in London. Wasn’t sure what to expect but am always happy to shuffle along and have a look at something that may not be an obvious choice, when it comes to my usual listening habits. I was thoroughly blown away. Cerys covers a mixture of classic (predominantly Welsh) folk pieces along with original compositions. She switched to guitar at one point, with an interesting non-standard tuning, which felt a little odd compared to the rest of the set. Still enjoyable, mind. The venue was cool too - she was in the smaller room at the venue, which held around 200 people. Nice and intimate. The sound was excellent and the playing other-worldly. I’d imagine in years to come on Harpchat there’ll be folk saying, “Yeah, but Cerys only needed 90 strings”! To give a little taster, here’s a clip of her set from a few months ago. She gives an interesting insight at 8mins 16secs into how a triple harp works.

… if that’s the case then young Burns-bass can only play this using a sixpence as a pick whilst wearing clogs. Them’s the rules!

German art rock from 1972. Having a 1970s comprehensive school education we didn’t do German as a language subject, but, if pushed, I’d hazard a guess this translates as, “you’ll not be seeing this in Smash Hits”. Anyway … On a similar theme: From 1979, a groovy little number by the excellent Can. Bass was supplied by Rosko Gee at this point…

Should be a good evening... https://allevents.in/london/a-very-simple-mind-an-evening-with-derek-forbes/10000729633622807?ref=eventlist-cat

… the old curmudgeon actually looks like he’s enjoying himself!

The London Cast of ‘Hair’ followed by Chris Barber was a nice touch!

JPJ, with an honourable mention for Bobby Vega …