TrevorR

Frankie Miller

Took my, then, girlfriend to see her in early summer 1983 on The Changeling tour. Had absolutely no expectations but Lucy wanted to see her. The show was blooming brilliant! She was a great front woman and the band included Bebop Delux’s Andy Clark on keys, Phil Spalding on bass and a very young but no less brilliant Simon Phillips on drums! 😮

We have a winner. ELO (and Thin Lizzy) are by far my favourite band. And have been since the late 70s but I’ve never seen them live. ☹️ I was too young and lived too far from civilisation to see them in the 70s or early 80s. And then it seemed like Jeff would never tour again. I did see ELO Part II in the early 2000s which featured most of the band except Jeff.... Bev, Mik, Kelly, Hugh... which was an absolute treat. One of my fave ever gigs. Down near the front at a decent sized venue for it still to be intimate (Guildford Civic Hall) and singing along to all those great tunes. Wonderful. Since the Hyde Park gig our little boy has been too young to take to gigs but last year we took him out to his first ever “real gig” - The ELO Experience featuring our very own @casapete. Wonderful open air gig with a Blondie tribute band supporting. He loved it. So, we thought “Well next time they tour...” but when the tickets came out this spring took one look and thought “£450 - £600 quid for tickets for the three of us... And no guarantee he won’t get overwhelmed by being in an enormodome and we’ll have to leave part way through... I really don’t think so!” So for now I think we’ll just keep it to The ELO Experience for our ELO live fixes! Irony is I now know no less than 2 members of ELO. One of my little boy’s friends in his class, his Grandad was in the band on cello for a couple of albums in the early years. And a guy I know, Jo, has been playing keys for them for the last couple of tours. Still don’t think I’ll ever see then, though...

Saw them for the first time last summer at Wembley on their farewell tour. A chum’s wife was ill so he called me up and asked if I fancied going. Abso-flippin-lutely!

Headlined Penwith Rocks! in 83. Both them and 10cc were bloomin’ brilliant!

Second billing at Penwith Rocks! in 83. Love 10cc. With Gouldman and Stewart! That was a Bucket List gig!

On my list specifically because they are the worst band I’ve ever seen live. I didn’t see them on purpose- they were support to Magnum at the Hammersmith Odeon back in 1988. Abysmal choice for a pairing with a band like Magnum and absolutely gawd awful from start to finish. Also in my top (bottom?) 3 worst are Primus (supporting Rush - so disappointed, just thwacky clanky noise the whole way through their set) and Gary Moore’s fave support, Dave Hole.

Saw him at this ill conceived musical festival in Cornwall back in 83 called Penwith Rocks. Cornwall’s first music festival! But... They had it on the TUESDAY after August Bank Holiday Monday (on the basis that bands would be in the country for big shows that weekend and they could snap them up as an extra show. They budgeted for 30,000. In the end 3000 turned up because everyone was back at work! D’oh! It was a great day and a fantastic line up, though. Lost shed loads of money so they never did it again. Chuck turned up, scowled at the scratch band put together for the set, barely tuned his guitar and ran through his contractually obligated 45 minutes. Then went off stage only returning when the promoter had scraped together enough petty cash for a begrudging 5 minute encore. So the perfect Chuck Berry gig experience, really. Truth be told, though. He was great to see live as a punter. And it means I’ve seen Chuck Berry live.

Lucky one... and thanks to @dmccombe7 for forcing me to choose the right answer! 🤣🤣 Here’s mine... Which one’s a fib? 1. Meatloaf 2. 10cc 3. Aswad 4. Chuck Berry 5. Billy Bragg 6. Thin Lizzy 7. Jeff Lynne’s ELO 8. Toyah 9. Heavy Pettin’ 10. Lynyrd Skynyrd

Not myself, but a member of my team, who’s based in Aberdeen, works closely with Scottish Govt and Department for International Trade trying to get developers to place contracts in the UK and has been there many times. Recognised the layout of the sheds... it’s been a really tough period for all the yards with the downturn in the O&G sector, the fall in the costs of offshore wind and the competition from overseas fabricators.

I’m gonna say [edited to] Blur... ....because @dmccombe7 just beat me to it.

I'm saying "The Floyd"

No, sadly he passed away many years ago. A guy called Dr Adams. Best consultant I'd ever had. I had previously been at another hospital when it started. The ME played merry hell with my diabetic control meaning that I literally needed 3-4 times the amount of insulin as I used before to stay stable (which is insane and makes no sense - unless you have ME...). I've always been very careful with the diabetes and controlled it tightly so it was the last straw when I went to chat to the old consultant about it and ask for advice he looked me and just said, "Well if you're going to sit at home all day pigging out on Mars Bars and lying to me about it then there's nothing I can do about it, is there?" I went straight back to my GP's surgery, said what the consultant had said and demanded to be transferred to another hospital. Ended up with Dr Adams... He diagnosed the ME and treated and supported me through it. Best possible result ever in hindsight! Still think the previous consultant was an absolute [expletive deleted], though.

Nice looking set of jackets there! Is that BiFab?

Sadly still all too true. I was really fortunate. I'm a diabetic and my consultant at the time was all over it - he'd had a couple of friends/colleagues from medical school who'd gone from being up and coming, top flight surgeon-types to pretty much bed rest, so he really took it seriously. In fact, he took me as a bit of a case study/guinea pig to see what treatments might help. Not many are that lucky.

My job? Work on renewable energy policy, especially offshore wind, biomass and emerging renewable energy technologies.

ME is a b*tch. I was off work from 93 to 95 with it and then took another year working back up to full time. Always good to hear of someone else who crawled back up out of the ME pit...

My actual go to bass is this one... ...but the one I probably noodle on round the house most is probably this one... Faith Neptune Titan

Love this little doobrie for fuzzy cabs...

Thanks, love my Pro IIE bass. Yes the mutes are really nice. Made by a girl in the States I found on Facebook - Patton Bass Mutes. I’d been playing around with foam mutes for a while and saw these. Spotting a customer comment/endorsement on her page ascribed to a certain @wateroftyne piqued my interest. I really liked the design concept and thought the little loop would make using it so much easier to use... it does. Blew £45 on getting three. Don’t use them lot but they’re perfect when I do. Money well spent. The “holes” are slider switches that engage EQ filters. The middle one is an early version of Wal’s “Pick Attack” presence function. The other two are (had to look this up) low-mid boost switch for neck pickup, upper-mid boost/bass cut switch for bridge pickup. Gives the pickups a more punchy 70s rock tonality. Very useful as instant tone changes.

@dannymaddock That's really cool. Finding your passion and going for it. I wish you every possible success and look forward to seeing some of the instruments you make (hint, hint). Just don't you go making one of them vegan bass guitars otherwise Piers Morgan will probably have a conniption fit! 😉🤣🤣🤣

Or pity me... I usually rest my thumb on the neck pickup surround... then I play this bass where they’re practically flush with the scratchplate... #firstworldproblems

Yes, I rest my thumb on the pickup and E string but “rest” is the operative word. As in gently... not grind it into the edge of the pickup with 1000lbs of force like some seem to do. As to your new bass. Just find somewhere comfy to put your thumb, keep doing that and in a week or so it’ll be second nature. All just part of adjusting to a differently designed bass.

Notoriously unreliable are hookers. Do the rest of the scrum and forwards usually arrive on time?

P.S. Pike narrated the remade version from 2016. Not the 1974 original...