super al

I love that bassline, I never do it justice though. There's an acoustic version I have on a magazine cd (Q mag I think), can't for the life of me remember who did it but it's lovely.

I think he passed away around these 'ere parts (I live near Salisbury, famous for it's spire and oldest working clock!). I'm sure "Whiskey in the jar" was one of the 1st tunes I tried to learn.

I've always wanted to learn and play a level 42 tune so I started learning the sun goes down earlier this year but then had to learn 30 soul and Motown numbers for a depping gig (which I've done 4 times this year) and started another covers project which might not be suitable for a L42 tune. Off to the back burner with it. So Christmas is here and I've got a little time on my hands... it's a lot harder than Mark King makes it look! I'm going to have to break it down and play it very slowly 😊. If I manage it Hot Water next.

There seems to be a fair bit of love for Ibbies on this thread so to continue...my best and only purchase in 2018 was an ibanez sr1205 from these 'ere parts. Lovely nordstrand pups, great neck, lovely woods, etc. After 30 years of playing 4 stringers I found myself having to change basses and 'drop to d' during function gigs and I hate that. Now I just love a fiver!

You'd probably use your imagination during a great shag, probably need a good memory to relive it (the womble-bank).

D'oh! I just realised if you click on my name you'll see a pic of 4 accountants on holiday (I'm far right!)

I know. We were a pretty awesome band with some awesome tunes but if you find our MySpace page (if that still exists?!) You'll see we all dressed like accountants on holiday, not a good look. A lot of Southampton bands from 10 years ago had great names so you needed one to be on the 'scene'

Wouldn't it be great to have certain moments in your life and relive them again. Great gigs, festivals, great shags, etc. On tap. In that case a time machine but I get to be me back then, with hair and worry line free!

During the mid 90s I lived with a girl who was a music student at Surrey Uni and MDing for a musical theatre company in her spare time. The term "friends of Dorothy" came up a lot among the cast and crew. 10 years on and I'm in a new band and we're all sitting around brainstorming ideas for the band name. The singer suggests we do something Wizard of Oz related, I said friends of D and everyone said great, that's it. I then explained the term, sudden drop off in interest in the room! We went with Fly Monkeys, Fly! in the end and Friends of Dorothy became the name of one of our tunes. Sounds like the name was taken anyway 😁

One of my all time favourite albums is Short, Sharp, Shocked by Michelle Shocked. Some nice tasteful upright playing on it and tunes you can sing along to. I'm sure the lyric sheet has the song keys too (got it on vinyl but play the MP3 so it's been a while!).

Back when I used to write tunes in a band we occasionally supported a Southampton band called Toupe. Grant Sharkey and another on basses (can't remember the other guy's name, Karl I think) + a drummer. A little bit like Primus, a little like Zappa and great fun to watch. I can remember supporting them at the Joiners and a musician mate came to see us, he was amazed a band consisted entirely of rhythm section 😱.

Confession time - I actually like the 2 tunes I've heard from his new album, I wouldn't go and buy it but I don't hate it. Do I have to cancel my Basschat membership now or will there be a period of 'cooling off'?

I must check out The The, I remember them from TOTP but never ventured into buying any of their stuff (I was young and unsophisticated!). My "overlooked" album would be Jellyfish's debut Bellybutton. Among my diet of RHCP, Faith No More, PWEI and the WonderStuff this band crossed my path one night in a boozer in Andover (told you I was unsophisticated). Back in 1990 some pubs had video jukeboxes and 'the king is half undressed' came on, blew my tiny mind! I bought the LP, taped it (I think PWEI's cure for sanity was on the other side of a C90) then played it endlessly in my rusty old mini van everywhere I went. I think my mates enjoyed it or they were just tolerating it until the Poppies came on 🙉 It's a great pop album that crossed over into my alternative universe, catchy songs by a band not taking themselves too seriously. A little bit XTC, a little bit of Wings, maybe 10cc. Still love it now.

I love the look of that ibanez bass. Does it sound and play as good as it looks @Naigewron ? Btw welcome 😸

Do I have to wait another 20 years to offload my '87 Marlin Slammer at vintage prices?

From experience (I live near a small city) the good and the great musicians are nearly always in two or more bands. The singer's other band has five members, three of them have another band that takes precedence over date clashes. They manage to fulfill their bookings by having deps come in (myself included). For a pub band playing a 2 hour set for £250 they seemed better organized than our function band! Rehearsals were amazing, all the set (28 songs) in two and a half hours then down the pub. That's how it should be 😁

We had problems in our function band with the singer already booked up for a lot of weekends with his other band. We didn't realise how busy his other band were until he put his 'unavailable dates' in the calendar. It didn't help that the keyboard player seemed to be on holiday all the time too although we did have a dep available for him. I've learnt a lot about how a function band should work (and get work!) just from being in a non functioning function band 😂

Tis indeed. In this age of the internet I've discovered that just getting out there and playing with a smile on your face can get you as much work as having a slick website, flash video and a nice suit. Our drummer and keys player both refuse to lower themselves to play pubs yet the singer's other band play good time soul music to anyone who will listen, guess which band hasn't played since November 4th last year and which band plays most weekends? Not frustrated at all😡

An ex brother in law is a chef and worked at the Brits one year. The staff were finishing up afterwards and JK was the only star to go out of his way to say thanks for the great food! I have the image of JK as a bit of git but maybe he has his nicer moments (you just need to feed him properly 😂).

I was a Gil Scott Heron fan and when Emergency came out I was into that straight away. Loved SZ's bass playing, just a great funky groove in every tune. Learnt a few of the lines by myself which gave me confidence in my own ability at the time (the bass being very prominent in the mix helped!). After Emergency came out I went to the Phoenix Festival and Jamiroquai were playing the jazz tent. Never actually saw them, the tent was rammed so we stood outside and listened! One of those rare bookings where the artist goes stratospheric in the intervening weeks. Ah, my carefree days in the early 90s, I miss them sometimes 👴

That's true Blue but I don't really tut and roll my eyes, that's our drummer's job 😁

Never been a big fan of my Christian name, so glad when peeps starting calling me big al and super al. Dyslexics tend to think I'm anal (OK,OK, I'm getting my coat. Apologies to dyslexics)