BrunoBass

There’s a 2005 MIM Fender Precision for sale locally, good price and fairly tidy. As I’m currently in the market for a mid level P I’m quite tempted. I have reservations though, as I seem to recall that the general consensus regarding mid 2000s Mexican Precisions is that they’re not very good. Anyone care to chip in with thoughts and experience? Cheers 🙂

The other night after a few beers my son and I tried to initiate a conversation between Alexa and Siri. Neither of them were having it... 😉

I can remember looking at and listening to my dad’s copies of ‘The Shadows’ and ‘Out Of The Shadows’, their first two albums, when I was a young kid. The former, particularly with the teasing glimpses on the front cover of Hank’s Strat, Bruce’s Tele and Jet’s Precision... I always thought that ‘The Shadows’ is such a cool name for a band.

I arrived at a gig a few years ago, parked a few metres away from the pub door and sat in the car waiting for the rain that was hammering down to stop. After ten minutes I realised it wasn’t easing off so decided I’d better make a run for it and get the gear inside. I managed to shift my bass, amp head and cables bag quickly, then returned to the car for my cab, which fortunately had two little wheels built in that worked well if you tilted the cab and pushed. I got the cab out, locked the car, tilted the cab back and ran through the still pouring rain towards the pub door. At that point the wheels on the cab hit an uneven paving slap and abruptly stopped. Thanks to the laws of inertia I went derrière over tit, right over the top of the cab and into an undignified heap on the pavement in front of the pub door, much to the amusement of assorted band mates and punters. Now, I’m a 6’ 2”, eighteen stone lump so it wasn’t just my pride that was hurt. Anyway, nothing broken - I got through the gig and I can see the funny side of it now.

Big fan of Gang of Four. Andy Gill was indeed an innovator; it’s a pity that the guitarists he influenced are often more lauded than he ever was.

The fact that it’s chords / tabs implies that’s it’s strummers searching for these songs. It’s pretty common to hear any of these played at open mics, busked in the street etc.

My wife and I went to see a touring revue called A Country Night in Nashville recently, in Oxford. Super tight band playing country covers with two singers, covering material from Hank Williams right up to date with Trish Yearwood, Gretchen Wilson etc. I love country music so I was well into it, and particularly impressed with how accomplished the band were. I always feel that country demands real skill - nothing showy, just spot on, in-the-pocket musicianship. The bass player, a Mr Ben Wiltshire, was especially awesome. Cool blue flower ‘51 P bass too. Anyone know of him?

I took my younger sister to see UB40 at the NEC in 1986. Supporting were a reggae band called Paul Blake and the Bloodfire Possee who absolutely blew the headliners away. I’ve never seen a support act engage a crowd like that before or since. I saw Simple Minds at MK Bowl, also in 1986 with various other bands. Simple Minds were slick but soulless, The Waterboys were terrific, The Cult were half arsed and chaotic, but the winners of the day, somewhat surprisingly, were The Bangles, who were brash, exciting, clearly loving being on a big gig and brilliantly thrilling in a ramshackle, garage band kind of way. Really good. But the ultimate giant slayers for me, again at MK Bowl, this time in 1993 were Little Angels, opening for Bon Jovi. My girlfriend at the time was a big BJ fan (no, not in that way, sadly...) and I accompanied her somewhat unwillingly. I was delighted however to see that the Manics were opening (I’m a big fan) so I went down the front. They were great, but I stuck around in front of the stage for Little Angels who were incredible and made Bon Jovi look bored and jaded. They should’ve been massive!

First concert - Depeche Mode (Birmingham Odeon 17/10/1982) Last concert - Frank Turner (Birmingham Symphony Hall 02/12/19) Best concert - Ryan Adams (Oxford Apollo - summer 2011) Worst concert - Cast at Milton Keynes Sanctuary, late ‘95. Freezing cold venue, horrible intimidating atmosphere, nasty football fan crowd, bored jaded band. One of only two gigs I’ve ever walked out of. Loudest concert - Mansun (Northampton Roadmender 1996 - the second gig I’ve walked out of. Ridiculous, irresponsible level of volume). Seen the most - Frank Turner x6 Most surprising - Lana Del Rey, Roundhouse 2012. Took my daughter who was then a big fan. My expectations were low, I was surprised. Next concert - Easy Life at the Roundhouse in a few weeks Wish I could’ve seen - The Beatles / The Clash

No I didn’t, and they did it as a duo. I didn’t go myself, but people I know who did said if was very strange. There was no attempt to replicate any bass parts, nor to fill out or adapt the arrangements. Playing for instance a Muse song, which is very bass driven, without bass. It looks like they’re continuing as a duo. Good luck to them. I had a look at their social media accounts the other day to see if they have any gigs lined up, and noticed that they’d removed every photo with me in it, every post that mentions me, basically deleted any record that I was ever in the band. They’ve deleted any trace of our former rhythm guitarist who left amicably of his own volition a couple of years ago too. Very odd... In other news though, I had my first rehearsal with a new band this week. It went well, I liked them, they liked me, and asked me to join. It’s very early days yet, and we’re a long way off gigging, but it’s good to be back on the bass again. Let’s see how it works out. Tell you what though, it’s great to play with a good drummer again!

The Colour of Spring and Spirit of Eden are masterpieces. The latter especially is a slow burning gem that rewards repeated listening.

I’m just about to start working with an artist now. It’s my first ‘big’ tattoo (slready have a few smaller ones) I want something really, really amazing. I don’t mind paying a lot as I’m kind of going to be stuck with it forever 🙂 There are some insanely talented artists out there doing incredible work.

Oooh yes. Dangerous information. I got a spotless 2018 Affinity P for £100, including a decent gig bag, from their website.

We had trouble finding new relevant material to cover that was a) guitar based, b) currently on the radio / appealing to a younger audience. I was really pushing for this as we billed ourselves as ‘modern indie / alt rock’ and yet the most recent song we did was a Royal Blood track from 2013. In theory my bandmates were all up for it but in practice they baulked at nearly everything suggested; Blossoms, The 1975 etc. We got close, with a Sam Fender song, but it was too high for the singer, and he refused to change the key. They liked the idea of playing new stuff but we just always ended up doing another Kasabian album track... There was always resistance and prejudice towards certain bands (‘don’t like Muse, don’t like The Killers...’ ad infinitum) when in reality personal taste shouldn’t come into it. I was always keen on the idea of taking something pop / dance / hip hop and giving it an alt rock treatment but they could never see it. Words failed me at times.

Great bass work from Leon Sylvers.

We were asked to play at an outdoor charity event a couple of summers back. The organiser was genuinely surprised that we would need electricity. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Good luck getting that together, great track to cover. Post audio if you do, I’d like to hear it 👍🏻

Totally this ⬆️

16 gigs with band in 2019, that’s one roughly every three weeks which suits me fine. On average the gigs were within 5.5 miles radius of home. The furthest away was 26 miles and many of them were within 1-2 miles from home. All the above suits me down to the ground. Pity the bastardss sacked me really...

So the general consensus it that CleanMyMac (sounds like something Columbo might say...) is worth the money and offers a noticeable improvement in speed?

My perspective: get the bass you will use and lose the bass you don’t use. I really liked my Stingray but it was lying in it’s case unused for month after month. I sold it to fund my Jazz which truthfully I like less, but gets used every week. Depends how you view your basses, to me they’re predominantly tools that have to earn their keep.

My Mac is also a 2011 model and it’s decrepitly slow. I get massively frustrated with it and am regularly tempted to kick it down the stairs, which won’t speed it up but will vent my ire with it. I’ll be watching this thread closely because I’ve tried everything to improve things and nothing has worked for me so far.