TrevorR

Lovely bloke too!

Who’s left? Lone Star?

Would love to have seen them with that line up. Love Paul Carrack and seen him in his own right several times!

Here’s mine... 01 Ever played a gig sitting down? A few times, sometimes by choice, sometimes when having back problems. 02 Ever gigged on a different instrument? Yes, played acoustic guitar, bouzouki and bodrhan at gigs. 03 Ever shared a stage with a musical hero of yours? Paul Jones (from Manfred Mann) goes to the same church as me. He’s sung at a number of services and specials where I was playing bass as part of the worship band. Have also backed slide-guitarist, Bryn Haworth, at church a couple of times too. 04 Any fan ever had a tatoo of your band's logo? Can’t be doing with tattoos, so that’s a No (edit) Oh a FAN? No, I really don’t think they would have... doesn’t really happen for drummerless 4 piece folk groups and wedding/covers bands. 05 Ever signed an autograph in a dressing room? Ha ha ha ha ha ha... on so many levels! 06 Ever cried on stage? Don’t think so. 07 Ever worn a hat on stage? Was going to say No but remembered a few baking hot open airs where some shade was a must. Never by sartorial choice. 08 Ever gigged with a band you hadn't met before the gig? No - not IN a band. Support slots to others, yes. 09 Ever been in a relationship with a fellow band member? No 10 Ever played in different bands on the same day? No. 11 Ever had anything thrown at you while playing? No, but a drunk punter projectile vomited over the guitar player’s amp once! 12 Ever crashed on the way to the gig? Not crashed but scraped the paint on my brand new car on one of those portable crush barrier things once - at Crystal Palace football ground. 13 Ever left a band over the choice of set list? No 14 Ever slept in the venue despite it not being a hotel? Not as a player but once, crewing, I fell asleep lying on some chairs a few rows behind the sound desk and woke up at 3 in the morning. All the rest of the crew had gone to the hostel we were bunking at and hadn’t spotted me so presumed I’d already headed off! 15 Ever been supported by a band clearly better than you? Yes, the keyboard player from The Albion Band and his wife at the Ludlow Fringe Festival. 16 Ever played a gig suffering from some debilitating medical condition? I’m a Type 1 Diabetic so all of them, I guess! 17 Ever been in a band where the guitarist was your favourite bandmate? Yes. Twice. 18 Ever played in the grounds of a stately home? Yes, a few weddings and the like. 19 Ever injured yourself on stage? No. Well, scuffed and banged my hands or fingers humping around speakers, flight cases and whatnot. 20 Ever been told that your bass isn't loud enough? A few times - never been one for ear melting volume.

How about Michael and his Engineering type chaps?

Nazareth

Fairport Convention’s big annual summer festival. Every August bank holiday weekend..

Well that means there’s a good chance you’ve seen Thompson and Tull too... I’m going to have a second go and say Rush.

Does it count as GAS if when you’re looking you 100% know that you’re NOT going to buy anything? I know exactly which models of Sandberg, Overwater Chowny and Maruschathingy basses I would buy if I was going to buy one, including detailed specs and colours... but I am absolutely not going to buy one.

Swarbs and Martin...

You mean kinda like...

I’ll take The Stereophonics (although I’d rather not)

And we have a winner... would have loved to have seen the classic blues rock line up of The Snake with Marsden, Moody and Murray. Once they went 80s hair metal with Vai, Sykes, Vandenberg et all they held absolutely no appeal. In 81 when I’d seen Lizzy and Elkie and had tickets booked for Gillan (with Janick Gers rather than Bernie Tormé sadly) both pocket money and Dad’s taxi service (the only Cornish venue was 20 odd miles away from Truro in St Austell) were too stretched to fit in another gig.

Did From A Distance with the folk band I had back around university (before it got ruined by Cliff and Bette Midler) so listened to a lot of Nanci’s albums. In fact our singer did the song at our wedding during the signing the register bit. Seen Nanci live many times and interviewed her for a web magazine I used to write for. Still love her tunes. Also, a lovely singer chum, Edwina Hayes has supported her several times which was a bonus!

Elkie was my second ever proper gig! One week after seeing Thin Lizzy back summer of 1981 (the tickets were my birthday present). I had liked Fool If You Think It’s Over and picked up a few of her early (Lieber & Stoller) produced solo albums. Much more Vinegar Joe than Pearl's A Singer. It was when Nights In White Satin was a hit and unlike Lizzy was a seated gig at the Cornwall Coliseum. She did a short 20 minute greatest hits set with all the tunes from the radio then said, “Right, that’s got that out of the way. Now let’s have some fun. Let’s rock and roll!” and she proceeded to do a fabulous hour”s blues rock set. The MD for the band was Geoff Whitehorn so that gives an idea of the level of rockiness! My ears rang louder and longer for that gig than for Lizzy. Heaven help the folks who came along expect two hours of Pearl’s A Singer! Saw her headlining an open air (bring wine and a picnic type) gig in the 2000s at Ascot Racecourse doing a jazz set. That was great too!

When they did the big PG reunion raise funds for Womad thing they did a small warm up gig so, basically, they could rehearse all the old tunes. Saw them at the Cornwall Coliseum - a medium sized regional venue. Couldn’t have held more than three or four thousand for a standing gig! They did loads of PG era stuff. So as well as Follow You Follow Me, Abacab and Turn It On Again we got tunes like Watcher Of The Skies, Carpet Crawlers, I Know What I Like and a full length Supper’s Ready! Was about 20 feet from the stage, right in front of Mike for most of it! Beats half a mile away at Wembley, any day!

His Loussier plays Bach albums are just fabulous!

They never ventured south of the border in their own right nearly enough. Promised myself I’d get up for Celtic Connections one year but it’s never happened!

Loved Capercaillie for years. Only seen them once, though. Reading Hexagon. Surprise, surprise, they were fabulous. Karen Matheson... what a voice!

I’m still just trying to get my head around the converse concept of “rational GAS”!

For some reason, right now I’m on a bit of an After The Fire kick... Been listening through their “Complete CBS Recordings” double album (all three 70s/80s albums plus Der Kommisar and bonus tracks).

OK here goes... 1. After The Fire 2. Elkie Brooks 3. Big Country 4. Whitesnake 5. Genesis 6.Nanci Griffith 7. Capercaillie 8. Gillan 9. Paul Simon 10. James Taylor

Evanescence?

I've seen B*witched loads and loads of times. But never singing... When they were recording their first album - or maybe when it was in the can and waiting to come out I used to chat to them most weeks. To make some money they all had jobs working on the tills at our local little Tescos. Being from the Emerald Isle (North bit rather than South) myself the sudden appearance of four Irish girls, including a pair of twins, on the tills made me go "oh!" - so of course me and the Mrs would say hello and chat (about nothing really) when they were ringing up our shopping. Then about 3 months later they started having hits and the house they were sharing in the town was suddenly deluged by screaming pre-teen fans... Claim to fame... I've never met Sinitta but I've known her mum for years and played bass for her on multiple occasions. She's a former Hi Energy disco singer and actress called Miquel Brown. These days she's mostly focusing on acting and theatre/gospel/worship singing. She's come along and sung many times at our church and so I've backed her on bass as part of the worship band. Lovely, lovely woman - and dead useful to know for those 6 degrees of separation games!

Frankie Miller