TrevorR

I’ve been quite lucky with headliners But my four worst bands were all supports… Heavy Pettin’ supporting Magnum in the late 80s. Talk about a mismatch in styles. The lowest grade hair metal. Actively painful on the ears. Speaking of painful on the ears… Dave Hole several times supporting Gary Moore. Australian slide guitarist but his schtick was playing with the slide way up beyond the fretboard creating almost ultrasonic sine wave tones. Once or twice in a set as a bit of stunt guitar would have been fine but every solo on every song! AAAAARGH!!! Primus supporting Rush at Wembley. Was really looking forward to this but it really did sound like a bag of spanner’s being tipped down a stairwell. Went to the bar. The Opposition - a doomy, gloomy goth type band who were second in the bill at Penwith Rocks ‘83. Rest of the lineup was great (Billy Bragg, Porky the Poet (I think), Renaissance, Chuck Berry, Aswad, 10cc, Meatloaf). But The Opposition were just unutterably dull. And special mention for Brooke Fraser a really great Kiwi singer at The Scala. It looked like she was doing a great show but the sound was so bad that literally all you could hear was a huge bass drum and keyboard sub-bass swelling and booming around the room. Could barely hear any vocals and for all I could tell the guitar player may as well have been miming without his amp turned on. I literally did not hear a note he played all night. Hugely disappointing.

This is the best I can do… it’s the E series but may be helpful. Never seen a schematic for the passive ones. From this linear 220k for the volumes, 220k logarithmic for the tones. 22k linear master volume. https://www.talkbass.com/threads/wal-bass-preamp.1316762/

Was so glad to have seen Chas ‘n’ Dave live (my nephew’s stag weekend). What a great fun gig and both fantastic players. I guess Dave Peacock is underrated because the music most of us know him for isn’t seen as “cred”. Folks forget that they were both busy session players pre-Chas’n’Dave and you don’t get there by being shoddy players.

Really looking forward to next Tuesday to see Public Service Broadcasting at a night club in Kingston. They’re doing some low key album launch gigs before their full tour later in the autumn. The new album is themed on the last flight of Amelia Aerhart and the singles so far have been cracking! Will be interesting to see what audio visuals they have lined up for these tunes - always a big element to their music/shows.

Went to see the Pasadena Roof Orchestra playing in Bracknell last night. Such a fun evening and what superb music - all 20s and 30s swing band stuff. Puts the “old” in “old school”! Took our 13 year old lad and he loved it. Been watching our old Jeeves & Wooster DVDs with him and he fell in love with Anne Dudley’s score. So the PRO felt like a no brainer. Gotta get them while they’re young! For those not familiar with them…

A chum of mine is promoting this gig in Woking. It’s going to be an epic night of great Steely Dan music. And before you think it’s just some tribute band it’s sooooooo much more than that. Get a load of the members of the band… some of the top of the top are going to be playing…!! Jeremy Stacey - Drums (Sheryl Crow, Eric Claption, Noel Gallagher) Paul Stacey - Guitar (Oasis, Steve Wilson, The Black Crowes) Yolanda Charles - Bass (Paul Weller, Robbie Williams, Mick Jagger) Pete Eckford - Percussion (Noel Gallagher, Steve Wilson, Phil Gould) Andy Caine - Lead Vocals/Guitar (Madonna, Take That, Brian Eno) Mike Lindup - Keyboards (Level 42, Dominic Miller, Phil Gould) Gary Sanctuary - Keyboards (Michael McDonald, George Benson, Chaka Khan) Sumudu Jaytilaka - Vocals (Van Morrison, Burt Bacharach, Jamie Cullum) Louise Clare Marshall - Vocals (Paul Weller, Michael Ball, Jools Holland, David Gilmour) Trevor Mires - Trombone (Tom Jones, Noel Gallagher, Randy Brecker) Andy Ross - Saxophone (Incognito, Beverley Knight, Redtenbachers Funkestra) Jim Hunt - Saxophone (Primal Scream, Amy Winehouse,Gregory Porter) Dominic Glover - Trumpet (Noel Gallagher, Amy Winehouse, Katie Melhua) Still some tickets left. Don’t miss it! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-stacey-brothers-big-band-steely-dan-project-the-royal-scammers-tickets-928035819117?aff=oddtdtcreator&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0BMQABHY29pRkKuFNgY6es_MB32LkZ5v15G7JUkMU3pUdgmlQ0xKRo_SDFgFzu4Q_aem_P_8amV7Q7YyxK5U63TA0dg

FREEDOM FOR TOOTING!!!!!!

[John Peel voice] …and that was Frank Spencer and The Bettys in session… Two more from them later…

Quite right… updated!

I’ve only ever owned 7 basses and I still own 6 of those. I think that 4 would count as milestones for me. Still own and play them all. My Aria SB700 - my first ever bass bought new as a 18th birthday present My 1985 Mark 1 Custom bass - bought second hand in 1991ish for £500 after I saw a classified ad in the back of Guitarist Magazine. My dream bass so a real milestone. My Tony Revell acoustic - funded from my split of the band recording funds when my college folk band dissolved in 1992. Custom ordered from a luthier based in Wales (he later went on to create Revellation basses - a short lived high level model) …and finally my 1979 Wal Pro 2 E - bought second hand in 2001ish for about 500 quid… just because I wanted one and there it was in one of my local guitar shops!

I reckon there are definitely two different questions here 1. Bass players the general public would recognise…. Paul McCartney Sting Keanu Reeves Jason Momoa/Aquaman/Wasn’t he in Game of Thrones? …erm, that’s about it. 2. Bass players the general public would recognise and know were bass players…. … [tumbleweed]… …erm, that’s about it.

Always took two basses on gigs (apart from very local ones)ready and set up on stage (in my view, a bass in a case in the boot of the car is no use in the middle of a wedding set when the guests are up and dancing). As it turns out I never had a bass fail but that’s not the point. My house has never burned down but I’ve still got fabric and contents insurance. We were being paid to provide a service at special occasions so why take the risk of a failure spoiling the event. With two basses on stage I did swap between them - one set on one, the next on the othe (just because I love them both so why not?). I might swap once during a set if one half of the set particularly suited one bass and the other one suited the other. Never got into that silly swapping between each tune.

As I commented on the FB page, it’s a free market and the seller is at liberty to list his item for sale at whatever price he wishes… …of course, all the rest of us and any prospective buyers are also at liberty to say, “£24k? Yer ‘avin’ a laugh, mate!”

Yes, they go so far down the ear canal that they’re not going to edge out and/or break the seal! Really helps the bass response too.

Go! Public Service Broadcasting

I was going to say exactly the same. Not quite as comfy as comply foam but rock solid and really secure seal. I use these with my 215s (which I use for my MP3 player, not as IEMs). https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00275F2GS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I own mine - either of my Wals, which I’ve had for 30 odd years. But if I was going to go out and buy another bass it would probably look a lot like this!

Here’s me from late last year playing a one off 80s set at a charity thing…

For me it’ll invariably be my Brook acoustic… But if it had to be an electric it’d be my Gordon Smith - twin buckers but splittable pickups!

Went to see the lovely Edwina Hayes at Runnymede Folk Club last night. Wonderfully intimate and relaxed way to watch a fab, folky Americana singer. She did this one last night too (Eric Bogle’s And the band played Waltzing Matilda - depressing and lovely at the same time!).

Nice. Steve’s such a good player!!!

Well, I was supposed to be seeing Trevor Horn’s band doing a selection of his hits this Friday but sadly he’d had a minor heart attack and had to have a stent fitted so gigging is definitely off the agenda. Get well soon, Trev. However, the venue has managed to secure The ELO Experience to plat again so we’ll be going to be seeing them instead - can’t wait! Seen them before and they put on a great show. They’re very good. So clouds and silver linings etc. The only shame is that, I understand, that our very own @casapeteis no longer holding down the bottom end for them.

I have it on good authority that Mama’s got a squeezebox. Apparently she goes in and out and in and out and in and out and in and out 'cause she's playing all night.

Hands that belong to folks like the fabulous Karen Tweed… …or Jamie Smith.

As good old Esther Rantzen used to remind us regularly… “If it seems too good to be true, it almost certainly is.”