SpondonBassed

It just happens that I have a shed with sufficient room for four basses...

Mezzoforte have their moments too. Maybe being in Ireland helped but it was a great find because it was outside of the US/Anglo monopoly on commercial music. It's an instrumental band which helps. The band formed in 1977.

So... four with pedigree and a mongrel/bitsa. That's your answer. Put the four good'uns into trust so that each child inherits one and just play your bitsa. It sounds like you are attached to your bitsa more than the others. Then stop getting SWMBO in the club so that you never have to drop serious cash on a bass ever again. I hope everything goes well for you and your lady on Wednesday and I look forward to your NABD (New Ankle Biter Day) post.

This might help in your search for ideas. Caution: It will only be of help if you are a boffin or you are friendly with someone who boffs big-time.

Are people bringing their custom built cabs too? I have worrying tendencies towards cabinet making.

I'm in. Can I bum a lift from anyone going past Spondon please? I'm ready to contribute to fuel costs. I'll travel light with my Pitbull and no amp unless called upon to bring one.

Paging @Les Some counselling might be required here Les. Sorry, Misdee. We had the showband thing going on. I was going to dances in the seventies and eighties. I lived in the countryside and I had to put up with the rural stuff until I left home. The showbands were the only thing to draw crowds in from the sticks. They'd cover tunes with a sort of wannabe American twang that sounded shyte to me. They never played soul. It's doubtful that it would be tolerated by the older ones in the community. When I got to Dublin I went to discos and live events. I saw Clapton at the RDS. Slane Castle was another good venue that I went to for the first few years. I saw Bowie's Spiders from Mars show there. We heard Simple Minds playing at Croke Park three miles from where we lived just by opening the window of our kitchen. Happy days. Yeah, fights, lots of those in the rural dance halls. We'd line up usually in two factions and I think it was just excess energy fuelled by drink because I never knew why we were always scrapping. No-one got maimed usually though. I was always able to avoid getting caught in fights in the city. It's not the same now. You seem to need a stab vest wherever you go. Like Bean9seventy says, it takes a bit of hindsight to understand some of the origins of what we take for granted now. I am only today catching up on a lot of stuff that went on right under my nose.

You will have less risk of nasty spores in the sawdust with that. It looks really nice. I'd be considering whether I could afford it on the back as well as the top.

Welcome back Tom.

Both have their merits but I think the first sandwich laminate is good. Possibly more stable if the woods expand at different rates too.

(I believe he hit the ground with an almighty Boosh!)

But it wasn't to BS 5261-2 dammit!

If you look to the left of this post you will see last year's beard. I cut it off at the chin and tidied myself up when I last had an appointment with my vet. The beard went into a supermarket bag. I'd have put it on EB if I'd been aware of the demand for them by gullible 'Tubers. Beard in a Bag - get yours now from any reputable old scrote. £50.

I like the quote from this: "Disco music is funk with a bow tie. —Fred Wesley, James Brown’s trombonist." In this article, it is said that disco started as early as the sixties in sophisticated dance clubs in Paris and New York. It became more widely known in the seventies because of its popularity in the gay underground dance clubs in New York and those sophisticated Parisian clubs. @Bean9seventy; Thanks for the Arlene Phillips' Hot Gossip clip. If my memory serves, I saw that for the first time on one of Kenny Everret's television shows.

It's an interesting topic. You're welcome.

From this it looks like you are right. "Carpenters’ version was punchier than the original, with a swinging harmony and shorter pauses. Richard used a click track to synchronise the vocals (masterfully arranged into four-part harmonies tripled into 12 overdubbed vocal parts) and achieve the right effect. It took 47 takes just to get the extended “wahs” the way he wanted on the closing chorus."

Hahahahaha! Nice of you to illustrate the chorus effect so literally.

A similar thing happened to me just over two years ago. Genuine sixties band, band member getting treatment for cancer - the singer this time - the others wondering if they'd have to find a singer as well as the other three roles they were looking to fill. Just to say before it is forgotten, the singer made a full recovery and is back singing. When you get to that age, you have the stamina to fight back. I was offered the role and accepted but then they went with someone else before my first practice! Later they contacted me again with the same offer. I am not one to wallow in self-pity and hold a grudge but my carer duties had grown significantly. This meant I could not deliver the commitment expected. I had to turn it down in fairness to the band. I just didn't want to become known as a flake if I had to cancel at the last minute for another domestic crisis. I wish I had thought of your job share idea then. It might have worked well. The core of band comprised of drummer, singer and guitarist. They were there playing the sixties hits as soon as they were released. They were in their late sixties and seventies too. It would have been a magnificent education for me. Ah well. I hope it works out like that for you at least.

I don't mind admitting to enjoying some of the Carpenters' music. I'd like to have heard Karen's voice without the chorus effect on it however. Did the vocalist use chorus too?

It amazes me that I can get strings made more quickly than one of the local music shop takes to get some in. Your situation is just as amazing. Well done for being patient. Most people these days would be ranting by now. Looking forward to your NBD post.

Thank you. I like the last image best.

Cor! That's a big 'un!!!

I sometimes wonder what would have happened with Disco, Soul and Funk had the 'Disco Sucks' movement not occurred. I think it had the effect of driving what was emerging from underground into popular culture right back down there again. Far from killing the genre it made it stronger. The underground (as perceived by mainstream culture of the time) was where these beats began. It's where they thrived. One megalomaniac DJ was never going to make much of a dent in it. Britfunk might have been on a slightly better footing because our music was being monopolised less by the broadcasters than ever before. Soul, Rhythm and Blues, Jazz/funk were all getting mainstream exposure and there was a bit of a revival that just carried on. Being able to record what you wanted to listen to made a huge difference to the youth now that they had the compact cassette. I see home recording more as a catalyst than a threat to the music industry. Stuff that is over commercialised always gets diluted 'till it's got that same packaging and bland delivery as everything else. Brit funk seems unaffected by Steve Dahl's hate campaign but I'd like to hear your take on that. Not being resident in the UK at the time, I missed out on a lot of the music that was played in the underground clubs. For instance, Northern Soul. Only now am I educating myself. You asked; "how would you know they were thumbing & plucking slapping the bass in 1975 if you had never seen the method done"? I remember where I first saw how that sound could be made. You will not like me for saying. It was when MK did an extended solo on Channel Four's The Tube in the early eighties. I was not a bass player then, I was a poser who'd been told by musical mates to hold this (a bass), put your left hand there and hold that string down and pluck. I became the bassist for Holiday Mood. Only when I saw MK did I think... AHA! It lasted for about two years then I dropped out to concentrate on my apprenticeship. I only picked it up again in my fifties.

...a great way to pop your bass builder's cherry!

Acrylic, showing the internals maybe? That's a challenge, I'll bet.