TrevorR

68 Guns - The Alarm

Lovely Sunday Evening service this week. It was Epiphany so officially the last on e of the Christmas season. That meant we were huddled together in one corner as the altar area and stage was still set up for Christmas nativities and the like. Not ideal for foldback sound purposes or band sightlines but it worked out OK in th end. It was a nice meditative service with a lovely song list including some old favourites, a blast from the past and a couple of songs I’d never heard before. Unfortunately with Christmas and New Year we didn’t have the final list and keys until Thursday but “needs must” and all that. Thankfully, most of the songs were pretty straightforward. The setlist was: Great In Power Noel Here I Am To Worship Manger Throne This I Believe, and The Blessing. I’d not come across “Manger Throne” before but what a powerful song - Phil Wickham in uncharacteristically mellow and philosophical mood. I guess I always think of him as a bit of a praise rocker, or maybe that’s just the tunes of his that I’ve played. The band was small but perfectly formed… keys, (shy) acoustic guitarist (who doesn’t really seem to want to be heard), saxophone, bass and drums (not played with that drummer before), and two female vocalists. It’s pretty much one of the two regular groups I play with at church so it was all nice and familiar. It was a nice opportunity to give the Sandberg a rest for a week and remind my (more festively coloured) Wal Pro bass that Daddy still loves it. 🤣 it does have a lovely round and plummy tone which you ca roughen up at the flick of a switch if needed - but that wasn’t really the tone of this week’s service. Listened through on the stream and it sounded OK. Next time up is end of the month. https://www.youtube.com/live/1vZbSY2Z_2I?si=LrTLSrBfpkxDrOyz

Ah, but the CC payment hasn’t gone out though (to my surprise and no deposit either) so I’ll deffo be paying for it this year!! 🤣 Not sure what sort of abstinence limbo that leaves me in… 🤨🤔🤣 …but (Sandberg excepted) I’m in!

Well, since I’ve got a Sandberg on order, expected around Easter time, I guess that’s me out before it started!

Not bass related but Santa did bring me a turntable and a nice LP to play on it. Will be lovely to get my old vinyl out again and spin it through my stereo system! 🎅🏼❤️🤘

Me too! Any day of the week!

We did a lot of pub gigs too - a lot. And to be honest, I’d be more scared by the behaviour of heavily drunk mates of the groom or bridesmaids and bevvied up Sharon from Accountings than the average pub punter!!!

I always find the “what bass is too expensive to play down the Dog & Duck?” question very hard to answer given that this was my regular wedding, club and pub gig set up in my function/party band days. They were the basses I most loved to play, so those were the ones I played - wherever. OK, I didn’t pay today’s ridiculous prices when I bought them in 1993 and 2000 respectively but their second hand prices in the mid 2000s was still substantial. The Sandberg I bought this year would probably be considered expensive by many but, again, I love playing it so I do! Here it is funking it out at our local jam night.

And a couple of other faves I forgot…

Here’s some Spotify links to my suggestions…

My current faves are… The Greedies - A Merry Jingle (3/5 of Lizzy + 50% Pistols) Mannheim Steamroller Thea Gilmore - That’ll Be Christmas The Barenaked Ladies - Santa Sabbath (basically a festive version of War Pigs!!!!!!) Marillion - Carol of the Bells

Ultimate kudos for suggesting the ‘Slips! Love this song! So I’ll add a winter (if not Xmas) one too…

That’s so good! And it’s important too. It an be a slog and wearing, can’t it. I know that it has been with our lad.

Running late again on updates. Lovely communion service on Sunday night with a nice mix of carols and choruses. The set list for the service was: Great Things Holy Forever Make Room Seasons (piano and vocals) Communion - by Brooke Ligertwood, lovely song with some nice alternating 4:4 / 3:4 bars in the chorus for a wee bit of prog worship!! Mary Did You Know - modelled a bit after the Mary J Blige version Trust In God I do enjoy playing the Phil Wickham songs - they seem to encourage me to break out the plectrum as that just kinda sounds right for the rhythms in the bass. Not a very regular pick player but it just seems to work in the context of his tunes. Seasons is a lovely song with interesting words. We decided during the rehearsal before the service that it would be nice really stripped back so was just piano and vocals in the end. Mary Did You Know was fun too. Such a gentle mellow song, and again lyrics that capture the mystery of the Christmas story. We later funked it up as an outro instrumental after the end of the service. It was doubly good as we had a sax player for this week. Cool. And of course, the church was looking nice and Christmassy, which complemented the vibe very nicely!!! My Sandberg VM4 was my trusty companion for the service. Love that bass!!!!!

It’s been a bit of a jam-tastic week… Last Thursday was the third Country & Roots Jam near me. After the last one, a couple of guys asked if I fancied pulling together a few songs for this Jam. Nice to be making some local connections as I’ve been out of the local scene for years. We ended up playing the Luke Combs of Fast Car (which is nigh on identical to the original!), a tune called Jersey Giant and a version of Justin Timberlake’s Mirrors in a country style (thte singer had found an AI version on YouTube and we based it on that). Lots of fun. I also played on a couple of other tunes too - Me & Bobby McGhee and another one I can’t recall now. Here’s a couple of vids… And last night was the last Monday Night Jam of the year over in Woking , so it took on a decidedly Christmassy feel, of course. I got roped in to play on a couple of tunes… Driving Home For Christmas and Fairytale Of NewYork which was good fun, if a wee bit ropey here and there. However, I’d colluded with a few chums to sing a “Christmassy” version of a Black Sabbath tune - “War Pigs (In Blankets)”, if you like!). I heard it when I downloaded The Barenaked Ladies’ Christmas Album last year and decided that I HAD to do it at this year’s Christmas Jam. So a festive version of “War Pigs” . See what you think (I’m no lead vocalist…)