skankdelvar

[quote name='AndyTravis' post='1005978' date='Oct 30 2010, 02:00 AM']Is he still doing the 'Peace' sign a lot?[/quote] It's the thumb's-up thing that boils my piss. Nobody I know has done [i]that [/i]since 1949.

Whether McCartney is a good bass player and whether the Beatles wrote 'good' songs is a debate so covered in tiretracks as to be virtually worthless. And, in the end, it just comes down to personal taste. The 'influence' thing is often seen as an issue of musicianship and absorption of licks, sounds, techniques. But there's so much more. * They're responsible for the idea that bands could - and [i]should [/i]- 'progress'. Before the Beatles, bands were expected to last for a couple of years or so. They'd put out pretty much the same stuff across their brief career. The fact the Beatles' fame ensured they lasted for longer required that they had to periodically re-invent themselves. Thank the Beatles for Metallica refusing to lay down and die. * The Beatles killed Tin Pan Alley. Today, everyone's a songwriter. Unfortunately. * They moved beyond the idea of the Pop album as a collection of singles and filler. They used innovative studio recording techniques to go beyond 'song capture' and into the realm of audio creativity. It is the Beatles fault that we have 96 track desks and infinite channel capacity on DAW's. To the extent that recording live to two-track is seen as wildly radical. * The Beatles acted as a bridgehead for the idea of Pop as Art. Without the Beatles, no psychedelia, no Floyd, Velvets, JAMC, Husker Du, no chinstroking rockers. Just big sh*t-eating smiles and waves to the audience. * By virtue of their ubiquity and marketability, the Beatles opened the door to Pop merchandising, tat, spin-offs, stalkers and conspiracy theories. * The Beatles absorbed and re-purposed significantly different musical forms - reggae, folk, psychedelia, blues, soul. In so doing they exposed musos and audiences alike to new sounds and textures. You could make a shaky case for the Beatles being indirectly responsible for the idea of sub-genres within pop music * Without the Beatles there would have been no 'British Invasion' and no US exposure for bands like The Stones, Animals, Yardbirds. Muddy Waters would have spent the rest of his life doing cash in hand odd jobs and Blues Rock would not have been invented, so no bent note Les Paul Marshall Stackery. * The irreverant, provocative intelligence of their public pronouncements raised the bar for musos everywhere. Simple anodyne comments like "Thanks to all our fans and my favourite colour is blue" gave way to arguments about spirituality, The Establishment, war and - er - Universal Love. Without the Beatles, no Bono, no Zappa and no Silddx. * Philip Norman makes a convincing case for The Beatles as a major component in changing attitudes to authority, morals, sex and drugs. He also blames the Beatles for today's solipsistic Entitlement culture. Without the Beatles, chavs wouldn't exist and everyone would know their place, according to Mr Norman. And he may be right. Now you could argue that lots of other people were beavering away putting this stuff together and you'd be correct. But the Beatles were the catalyst, the bridgehead and the force which propelled isolated, nascent practices and ideas into the mainstream. So you don't have to like the Beatles - I don't much - to at least tip your hat to their influence on the landscape we inhabit on a daily basis.

Couple of days ago I received a mail from 'Grant at Korg' offering discounted behringer gear from the Behringer Distributor Clearence (sic) shop on ebay. Which I couldn't find. Strange days, my friends.

[quote name='JTUK' post='1004529' date='Oct 28 2010, 11:04 PM']be able to speak their language, whatever it is, IMO.[/quote] "A facility for languages is a useful talent in head-waiters." [Otto von. Bismarck]. The value of an acquired skill is dependent upon context and circumstance. That is all.

I liked Brow as well but somewhat unsure about the new gas smiley. Already seen used as a substitute for and Quite a promiscuous little smiley, when you come to think of it.

I've gigged quite happily on and off for 30 odd years, love the moment of going onstage - get really happy and excited. But I can't sit on my own and play something to the Missus. Completely go to pieces.

[quote name='spike' post='989378' date='Oct 15 2010, 04:03 PM']Wasn't there some sort of nastiness between him and Tony Goggle back in the 70s ?[/quote] Gibbler caught Goggle slipping his (Gibbler's) wife Libby the old French Mistake after a gig in Mannheim. When Libby Gibbler died in 2002 Goggle turned up at the funeral. The two men shook hands over the grave and peace returned to the world of jazz fusion. Ask Bilbo, he was there.

AVOID THE FOLLOWING: Drummers: Billy Fanta - Leeds - Nasty alopecia, cover your pint. Terry Gibbler - Slough - Wears a ski mask all night, even during interval. Brian Filbert - Okehampton - Haemophiliac who plays all his solos with his hands. Bring paper towels. Guitarists: Ben Feesty - Colchester - Endless lies about his "big patio" - he hasn't got one. Matt Edgeless - Leith - Only plays in key of A. Gets sulky and leaves if asked to transpose Phil 'The Waltzer' Orm - P'boro - Gets pissed and beats on any midgets in the audience. Total twat. Keys Manny Boyes - Bicester - A junkie with only one arm. Obvious problems. Liam Monplaisir - Hereford - Great player, but steals carpet from gigs. Loose bowels. Use a wireless.

* 5w valve combo > line level out > bass amp in or effects loop return * No line out? 5w valve combo > spkr out > hughes and kettner red box (or similar) > line out to bass amp in or effects loop return (send H&K RB spkr out to speaker) But probably easier to buy a dedicated valve pre-amp / distortion. Or something like a Tech 21 Leeds / SVT

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Hi Austin7 and welcome You should definitely come visit the UK - it's only an hour's flight or so from Ireland or the NL. Before you set off, post on here and we'll point you at some things to do, places to go etc. Enjoy the forum.

[quote name='risingson' post='981645' date='Oct 8 2010, 02:48 PM']I partially agree but there IS always good music out there[/quote] Possibly. But probably not. This sort of peppy optimism just sets you up for a life of black depression and a final, eye-catching public suicide. [quote name='risingson' post='981645' date='Oct 8 2010, 02:48 PM']you just need to look a little harder for it[/quote] Why should I go looking for it. It should come to me. Politely ring my doorbell, announce itself and run through the number. I'll let it know if it's any good. Which it probably won't be. Then I'll kill it and bury it in the back garden with the Avon ladies, the Jehovahs and that little f***er with the skateboard from up the road. [quote name='risingson' post='981645' date='Oct 8 2010, 02:48 PM']and approach it with an open mind.[/quote] Not a prayer. I'm staunch in my beliefs. And they're closed for business. [quote name='risingson' post='981645' date='Oct 8 2010, 02:48 PM']There is still talent out there.[/quote] Possibly. Somewhere in the rain-lashed Shetlands. Or Guadeloupe. [quote name='chaypup' post='981653' date='Oct 8 2010, 02:51 PM']I just don't like the myth that music was great at one time and it's not now. If that was the case then there would be no point playing anymore - just listen to old records.[/quote] Works for me, older the better. Bands of today aren't fit to suck the dangleberries off Ken Dodd's arse, let alone Max Bygraves'.

Say what you like about the monstrous record companies of yore but they acted as a fairly efficient sh*t filter. Now that every self-deluding spod and his mate has got garageband, the netz is an arse-flood of derivative, badly executed material with all the appeal of a nasty case of projectile leprosy. I'd be perfectly happy to see a revival of interest in 'Originals' if the output was any good. It isn't.

[quote name='Bidd' post='981504' date='Oct 8 2010, 12:49 PM']does anyone know Terry Uttley[/quote] Smokie's management company could pass on a message. Contact details here: [url="http://www.now-music.com/about.htm"]http://www.now-music.com/about.htm[/url] Currently touring Oz. Imagine the fun when they get to Alice Springs.

I would have attended every Level 42 gig on this tour, but I have a backlog of towels to fold. That said, I hope everyone who goes has a perfectly lovely time.

Nice work, Sir. May you have a lovely gig. 42 songs?

[quote name='TimR' post='976230' date='Oct 3 2010, 06:16 PM']You'll still get your hands very messy and once your friends and family have unwraped and played with their gifts I doubt they will want any more of them from you.[/quote] I preserve them in resin blocks. Make for nice paperweights, fridge magnets, key chain fobs etc. My triumph last year was a curtain pole. Each Xmas, everyone gathers round to see what I've done for them this year. And there's never a shortage, so don't give me any of your sh*t - I just don't need it, OK.

Hi I'm Skank and here's my early 70's retro cover band 'The Cover Ups'. The twist is that we only play songs that would have been in a covers band set in the early 1970's. So lots of Marmalade, Melanie, Pickettywitch, Englebert Humperdinck. And we do it in character, so lots of period jokes about Mr Enoch Powell, darkies and Concord (no 'e' that's for Froggies). Our fee is payable in pre-decimalisation cash, so pounds shillings and pence only, Mr Landlord! We are: Skank Del Var: Bass, B.Vox Derek Swarm: Singer, Guitar, Castinets Vince Felcher: Guitar, keys, sax, banjo, melodeon, chimes and frog Binky Statchworth: Drums, B.Vox and van The Binkster and I met while playing in Flat Mattress, a Noel Redding Tribute outfit. The Cover-Ups are playing a residency at The Pines Daycare Centre in Bicester every Wednesday afternoon up till Xmas. They won't let you inside but you can see us through a window if you look over the wall just by the bus stop. Give us a wave, eh!

[quote name='TimR' post='975694' date='Oct 3 2010, 08:19 AM']You can't polish a turd.[/quote] True. But they [i]can [/i]be moulded into a variety of interesting shapes. Ideal for friends and family with Xmas just around the corner. The thing about this thread, anyone with half a brain knows that a gig's a gig. Amazed we even need to debate it.

[quote name='keeponehandloose' post='974366' date='Oct 1 2010, 05:43 PM']Whats that little box Jamerson has plugged onto his bass in his photo??[/quote] If the chronology wasn't all wrong, I'd be wondering if was a Dan Armstrong plug-in effects box. A Jamerson expert may be along shortly.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='974385' date='Oct 1 2010, 05:58 PM'][b]Some people play music because they want to play music, as a form of self expression, especially the self part, to rationalise something into a form, if they are lucky, it will strike a resonance in someone else, and that is the bit that makes music worthwhile tome[/b] , not because a sound or chord sequence is familiar and comforting.[/quote] Y'know the first bit of that rationale could apply just as well to someone playing in a covers band. As for familiar, comfortable sounds and sequences, well, plenty of orig bands go that route. Which is why there is sometimes greater 'sonic variety' at covers gigs, compared to the linear homogeneity of originals bands output, saddled as they are with genre preconceptions quite as stifling as those of the plump, drunken lady yelling 'Play Mustang Sall-Ouch! " I would agree with you that 'challenging' music is a good thing when compared to 'over-familiar' music. Comparison is relative and not an absolute measure of worth, but we all know that.

[quote name='bassicinstinct' post='974350' date='Oct 1 2010, 05:16 PM']Self penned would be a much more honest description I think.[/quote] And the stiletto slides gently between the ribs. Nice work, Sir.

Why covers? Well, why originals? * Greater financial rewards from song publishing, etc? Unlikely in most instances if you're 'only the bassplayer'. * Moral superiority? Unproven * Increased likelihood of being 'signed' - possibly, but only if you're a pretty boy to start off with * Greater social cachet? Sigh. Frankly, any collateral 'value' one assigns to simply plucking a bit of wire is entirely in one's own head. Which is why threads that ask "Why don't people like what I like and do what I do, [i]it's so much better[/i]' inevitably come to grief. The scale of the ensuing disaster is dependent on the initial degree of goodwill and humility exhibited by the OP. If this is absent or lacking, they should prepare to taste leather, reprehensible though such an outcome might be.

[quote name='daz' post='972196' date='Sep 29 2010, 11:03 PM']Any clues as to why its persona non grata in some quarters.?[/quote] It is whispered that there was a sharp difference of opinion among the titans of bass who set up this site and / or its predecessor. So someone went off and launched his own bass site. Every so often, a BC-er is seized by the conviction that they'd be happier hanging with the Finnbass crew and crosses the Great Divide. Some would maintain it's a Devil's Island for naughty BC-er's. Others aver that it's a Paradise where there are twenty virgins for every poster. The truth may lie somewhere in between, but mythology has it tha[font="Courier New"][b]CLEARANCE DENIED - ACCESS TERMINATED - REFER ENQUIRIES TO SECURITY SECTION [/b][/font]

[quote name='Marvin' post='970991' date='Sep 28 2010, 06:31 PM']If the other two don't look at all similar the whole thing's off. This despite not even having played a note together. [/quote] That's the ticket. Musical compatability is [i]so [/i]over-rated on BC. A nice blazer and cravat combination goes a long way in this business. Either way, have fun, mon petit choufleur.