Doctor J

Imagine being the lads who called a premature end to The Beatles last ever live performance, even though they didn't know it at the time. Just waking up one morning, years later, reflecting on it and thinking "Bugger".

It's not the complete history unless there's two hours of footage of walking into guitar shops throughout the last 40 years and hearing relentless and merciless clicketty-clacketty coming from the bass section.

I was just going to say the opposite 🙂 The finish on these things isn't exactly robust. The ones which have been played regularly tend to show it. The biogunk which comes from our fingers and sweaty hands can do terrible things to the old finishes. The red in in the 3TS finish tends to fade when exposed to light over time too. The ones which look nice and clean have usually not seen so much action. It doesn't mean they're dogs, by any stretch, but pre-poly instruments tend to show they've been played fairly quickly, even if they've been lovingly cared for.

I think it's more that he's not listening to the band at all. If he was listening to the music, he most likely wouldn't be missing bars as it would be obvious where he is within the framework of the song. If anything, don't go louder to hear yourself, go quieter until he realises he needs to come down to meet the volume of the rest of the band. He needs to learn to listen to other instruments. What is the rhythm guitarist doing when he drops bars? He's in the same boat as you.

Double post

Thanks, I'm thinking of turning pro.

You raged against the loud teens?

Classic Stingray sound means different things to different people. A 2-band EQ version of any of them will get you as close as you need to classic Stingray territory. You don't need to go old, the rest will be achieved with your fingers, EQ settings and choice of strings.

Congrats, Skank, a top tune in a very strong month!

Not on this planet, not yet.

A fretless Precision is someone saying Leo didn't get it right first time.

It's all about the frets.

I think, in order to make any of Magic Alex's creations a working reality, you'd need actual magic, rather than money.

I think the tedium is in there because there was a lot of tedium, a lot of going nowhere. That's what's makes it so exhilarating when it finally does start to... ahem... come together. To cut that out for the sake of a highlights package is to remove most of the story. The bickering, the frustration, the tension, the boredom, it's all there for a reason. As @miles'tone says, there's an arc to the whole thing.

Whatever about his lack of ability to play music with other people, that kind of temper is the real alarm bell and is unacceptable. Being a precious artiste is no excuse for that kind of behaviour, even if he was a truly exceptional musician (and he's not, he's really not, outside of his own mind). There is no excuse. I'd have walked, to be honest. Life is too short for dealing with people who can't conduct themselves in public and control their emotions. If you stick it out, get all the issues addressed -song structure, volume, temper, it all needs to be discussed and resolved. Your rhythm guitarist and drummer need to contribute to the discussion, too, it shouldn't be just you who is the voice of reason.

Don't worry, you'll see him writing Octopus' Garden in ep. 3.

And Billy, too. He seemed to be having a ball. I wonder how he felt about it, given the level of names he had played with before. Just go in for a chat and next thing you're the fifth Beatle 😂 Anyway, Good Lady J and I watched part 3 yesterday and loved it. Loved the whole thing. Lennon and McCartney could say so much to each other just using their eyes. I felt sorry for George, at times, he was just on the outside of this incredible relationship, Ringo too, but you could see how, once the music started to flow, they all lightened up and spent so much time laughing with each other. The Twickenham bits were hard to watch but I think served their purpose showing how things changed when they were in a more comfortable environment. Just seeing how hard they had to work at refining their ideas into the songs I know and love was such great insight for me. Glyn Johns deserves a mention for his incredible outfits too 😁 If/when this comes out on Bluray, I'll definitely pick it up, I could happily sit through it again and again.

Watched part 2 last night, while enjoying a nice bottle of red wine. I found myself smiling like a goon for a lot of it, which turned into a dirty great grin when Billy Preston came in. Amazing, amazing, amazing.

I loved it. Seeing them appear human as they struggle to come up with something, the frustration, and then watching McCartney plucking Get Back, The Long and Winding Road and Let It Be out of thin air... just amazing, but the work which went into those songs is evident too. Brilliant. Can't wait to see part two.

I have a pretty big clue, I would say, and we both know Stewart has a clue, too. Again, I would suggest that anyone who has a problem with someone wearing a shirt, when they'd be ok with that person while not wearing the shirt, deserves all the self-generated ire they get. But none of this gets the genial Adam Clayton any credit.

Don't ever go to a Killing Joke gig 😉 Edit -> I quite like when performers give themselves to a performance, including what they are passionate about in "real life", rather than some choreographed and characterless vanilla run-through of hits just to appease punters, maybe with an air-grab or two to really show where the emotional parts are. Part of the appeal of the like of KJ is Jaz is authentic in what he believes and, when the rants start to ramble, Geordie starts playing the next song and the show moves on. Bono's non-musical exploits frequently inform his lyrics, you don't get one without the other. Besides, anyone who gets upset by a football jersey deserves to get upset. When Iron Maiden perform The Trooper, Bruce waves a Union flag. In many countries, that flag was the symbol of centuries of oppression, but he still waves it in those countries. It's part of an Iron Maiden show. It's part of the theatre. If you don't like the flag, or the jersey, or the artist's political beliefs, or their religion or anything else, then can you really like the artist? Does Rod Stewart not wearing a Celtic jersey make him any less Catholic, if that is what is offensive to people when he wears the jersey?

No.

I think it's always a good idea to share. In my last few bands, I usually wrote the music and the singer wrote the lyrics. We credited the songs to the band as a whole, though, because I believe the band should be like a gang. It's you against the world so you should stick together and share the spoils of victory (and the many, many defeats) as one unit. You need your bandmates, they wouldn't be there if you didn't. Everybody contributes in one way or another. You're either a band or a collection of self-interested individuals. Band every time, for me.

Tomorrow. I am very much excited about tomorrow. Not yesterday.