super al

My first gig this year with my main squeeze, Felis Leo. We played at the Angel Inn, Andover...my first time there. Back in my youth I would drink mainly at the Lamb, the Lardie and the Station. The gig was part of a multi band, multi venue festival under the banner 'Andover Rocks Reignited' and I think we were the only originals band playing at our venue. One of our guitarists moonlights in a covers band and they were further up the bill, we were on at 3pm and they were on at 8. There were 2 stages, one for bands and at the other end of the pub, one for acoustic solo or duo acts. It was amazingly well organised, to the second as well! There were screens onstage for the bands counting down to the start of their sets and subsequently to the end of their sets. This was incredibly helpful 😁 My set up was an Ibanez sr1205 which I haven't played in anger for a long time, a TC Electronic BH550 and my two Barefaced one10s. Had a couple of complimentary comments about the one10s and my sound so chuffed with that (compliments are rare so I'll grab em when I get em). The whole day was actually great with not even a minor gripe about anything, got our photo taken by the local rag, everyone was in a great mood, spoke to people in the flesh who I've only conversed with on our socials and people genuinely enjoyed our set! I still have the same warm afterglow now that I had yesterday 👍🏻 I've not received many video clips yet but here's a bit of Timezone taken by the singer in our guitarist's other band VID-20250330-WA0000.mp4

We don't seem to play AC/DC covers anymore but some of our songs sound very much like the Aussie ric rollers. There we are, playing at 3 on a Saturday afternoon in a couple of weeks...our 1st outing in '25. Couple more in the diary already. Who knows, might even reach double figures this year! 🤘🏻🦁

Love that tag line at the top and yet not a hint of any AC/DC songs 😄 Whereas...

I don't know much about Peavey basses but I must've done some research back in the noughties on cheap Jazz basses and discovered that the Milestone 1 was a bit of alright. I was gigging quite a bit around Southampton (Joiners, Hamptons, Talking Heads, etc) and wanted a budget bass I could take along to such venues, a work horse kinda bass, not your Sunday best kinda bass. I managed to get one for £60 from eBay, spent a bit upgrading it and bought a cheap Ritter bag, wonderful! Still got it, covered in stickers but the neck is lovely...more comfortable for me than my Fender Jazz. Does anyone know why they discontinued it? The Milestone 3 has the Jazz set up but looks pug ugly compared to the 1. Was it legal reasons? Cost? It seems like a good quality bass apart from the hardware I guess.

First band I saw live, Portsmouth Guildhall in '87. My memory seems to think Larry Blackmon came out of a silver coffin as the band started playing the first number. I think I was in awe as I'd never seen a live band that close up and that famous! Cameo were like a gateway drug at the time, Funkadelic, Parliament, Prince, James Brown, Defunkt, Was (Not Was) soon followed. I still have much of Cameo's output on vinyl, it was harder to find their 70s records before the internet you know...ah, those were the days...fetch me my pipe and slippers sonny!

With our hit 'sex on fur' (due to our west country accent 😂)

The band I joined in 2022 actually started out in the mid 80s as Escapade (yes, it's a heavy metal band!). They went their separate ways at the end of the 80s and then reformed with the original name in 2017. Recorded their first album in 2018 and then realised they couldn't release it on Distrokid under that name...thank god for that! I don't think I would've joined them if they were still called Escapade, seriously their days of escapades are looooonnnngggg behind them 😂 One of the early songs is about a pub we used to frequent that got demolished a few years back, it's called The Lion so they went with the Latin for lion which is far more palatable to bassists 👍🏻

The elixir of eternal Sonic Youth 🤓

I don't think I've ever looked at those dots on my basses when playing 🤓

Our drummer's rig is the Orange Terror going through and Orange cab and a Hartke cab (can't remember the speaker sizes). Lovely sound, cuts through just enough. My rig is a TC bh550 going through a pair of Barefaced one10s... it'd be nice to get them side by side for a bass off!

Back rehearsing after the Christmas break and picking up where we left off. Last year ended with the new drummer bedding in nicely, we're rehearsing in his studio which is within walking distance 👍🏻 We went through our originals set plus the Christmas song we wrote back in November. Just before the last song there was a pause so I just started noodling on me bass to keep the fingers warm and one by one everyone joined in...low and behold we have our first song nugget of '25. I thought afterwards that I've been listening to the Word Up album (Cameo) recently and that must be where the sparse, staccato sound came from. With Jon rapping and singing on top it sounds a bit Chili Peppersish 🫣 early days, early days 😄 Those are some of my favourite rehearsal moments, when a song idea comes to life. I'm playing through a similar amp/cab set up to @mikebass456 in the pic back up the thread, sounds ace... I now have rig envy as it's the drummer's

One of my clients played bass on the holiday camp circuit and jazz gigs around the South years ago, his son, Sam is a bassist up London way. He was/is in the Ronnie Scott's house band and I think he knows Gary Husband as he did some session work for John McLaughlin. He also went on tour with Strictly's Anton Du Beke. He's done some other sessions that I can't remember but last time I asked his dad about him he said he was in Van Morrison's band...that all looks pretty good on the ol' CV. He's not a young 'un ...like his dad says "he's at an age where he gets to fill a dead man's shoes" (lovely turn of phrase 😄)

Lovely Simple but effective one shot video too. ✌🏻🎅🏻

Bit of brass on a Christmas song? Can't wait to hear it. Jonah Lewie's Stop the Cavalry is another fave of mine, that brass band refrain just reeks of Christmas ☃️

£30! @BigRedX ...bargain. Our singer was a cameraman in Germany for many years (our song Summer Jiving is a true story from that part of his life) so you'd think we'd be all over the visual side of things but no. Shame about your singer packing it in, I pretty much judge bands on the vocal sound and style...both songs have vocals that I enjoyed. The Wombles have come up a lot recently, I listen to Gary Kemp and Guy Pratt's Rockonteurs podcast. Apparently there was a lot of musical talent inside those Womble costumes on TOTPs.