Old Man Riva

… on a related (ish) theme - early 70s P Basses - Stacey’s have a music and entertainment auction scheduled for next Tuesday. According to the catalogue there’s a ‘74 Precision listed. Not sure how these things work but thought it worth a mention.

The finish of the Sean Hurley P Bass in the pic is Charcoal Frost. It’s such a lovely colour - to me, anyway! It’s lightly reliced, where there is checking on some of the finish but all the paint was/is fully intact - any subsequent wear (where the finish has disappeared) has come from myself. The back of the neck on mine wasn’t reliced but it’s started to wear (from around the third to fifth frets) through playing. A few more pics…

Similar here. I’ve a couple of CS Precisions and a CS Jazz (all bought off here, funnily enough!) and they’re fabulous instruments - from a build, sound and playability perspective. I can’t praise them enough. The prices for newer ones (and secondhand ones in various bass shops) do appear to have risen significantly over the past couple of years, but private sales (and Basschat marketplace, obviously) can throw up some excellent basses for not-too-outlandish prices. Don’t think I’d be minded to shell out for a new one, mind, especially when there are some excellent used CS basses for sale out there. Here’s a CS (Sean Hurley) P Bass alongside an original ‘66 Jazz!

I seem to recall once reading/hearing that the same person was responsible for both the bass intro and the guitar solo! Tonka was also frustrated that George Martin faded quite a bit of the end solo out - never argue with the legendary Mr Martin!

Great advice. Absolutely spot on…

Segs from The Ruts. Just one proper album (The Crack) but his playing is superb throughout. There was also a track (Demolition Dancing) recorded after the debut album that hinted at further excellent things to come, where his bass is just this driving relentless tour de force. One of my favourite players. Him and Ruffy were a fabulous rhythm section… Could also add Horace Panter and Norman Watt Roy - more than the one album, but still a relatively small body of work?

Kevsy71 of this parish once sent me this link off the back of a Roxy discussion - well worth a read… https://www.uncut.co.uk/features/people-drifted-off-bryan-ferry-on-roxy-music-s-many-bass-players-28139/ (apologies, I don’t know how to get it to, erm, link?!)

It certainly was a lovely bass! But as you say, probably not £8k worth of nice…

Aged ice blue metallic 1970s P bass with Jazz neck in Peach Guitars?

Kamasi Washington - Vi Lua Vi Sol, and Truth…

Humane League Barry White & the Glove Unlimited Orchestra Manfred Mann’s Hearthband They Them

(probably not a pun, but...) The old tried and trusted Dire Straits and Chris Rea collaboration...

Daft Pun Eton John Men at Wok He He

Ate Bush

Samantha Janus once had a song in the charts, apparently…

Working Wee

This is going to sound ridiculous (because it is a ridiculous thing to say!) but, for me, that LOOKS like it’s going to sound great! Those white DiMarzio p/ups were quite the thing back in the day…

No, this is not the latest hip and groovy release by Ghost Funk Orchestra or some such, but Affinity from 1970 and features Mo Foster on bass and brass composed by JPJ. Get down with these very British groovy cats… P.S. I also found a lovely early 70s clip taken from an Annie Nightingale show featuring the band on the road. “And you try and tell the young people of today…”

Lovely, that. I had a 1970 Precision that had a lovely shallow neck (a B width nut, but slimmer front to back). One of the few basses I properly regret moving on…

Crikey, yeah, forgot about Wolfie Van Halen. His playing was ridiculous!

There’s one in The Gallery at the moment… (just in case!)

Ah, okay! Wished I’d managed to stay up and watch it now! It’s only since his departure that I’ve come to realise/appreciate what a phenomenal player and musician he was. He also seemed to live and breathe music, across many genres. What a bloody shame…

There was a 6hr version available on YouTube last night that looked like it included the whole event feed including stage changeovers (I got about half-way through before having to turn in at about 2am!) which, when I tried to view this morning said was ‘private’? Although not really a FF fan the overall event was something I was definitely interested in checking out, and from what I saw there was plenty to be blown away by - loved Shane Hawkins drumming and Violet Grohl doing the Jeff Buckley tracks and Valerie. And I also thought The Pretenders we’re just superb (and Supergrass, and Stewart Copeland!). Looked like a fitting tribute to a wonderful person and musician…