Kitsto

Are you "Tom"? If so, very impressed with the look (the hat and hair) and the 8 string bass. Big CT fan - met them when they played Nottingham Rock City 15+ years ago and have all their albums. Two things: (1) I'm not surprised you didn't manage to fill a 200 venue in Edinburgh because (2) I feel they've always been held back by their cartoon image caused in large part by Rick. Rammstein manage to muck around but be "serious". But CT have never had that serious tag. Yet even from their brilliant first 4 studio albums this was a band with serious musical chops. If your band has a more serious image then you're doing the original CT a big favour.

Same. I learnt the major and minor scales. They tell me where to put my fingers next. I can tell you immediately the names of the frets (i.e. the notes) on each string up to the seventh fret. Anything else I can work out. But I knew where to put my fingers long before I knew the names of the notes.

Don't stop playing. There is life after being in a band. I left the band I was in because of increasing irritations (including volume at which we played). Now I play to downloaded backing tracks.

I agree it's not great, but mitigating circs: last Lemmy vocal with 'Wind; nothing else sounded like that in the charts at the time (I thought it was great and the rest of the chart not); it made me (introverted teenager) feel cool listening to it - it gave me something to dance to at parties. Do I listen to it now? Er, no.

Bands are very peculiar. The best ones start off as friends first (U2 realised this when they almost came apart while recording Achtung Baby - it was Brian Eno who intervened and made them see the light). Springsteen in his excellent autobio discusses how he ended up being dad, friend, boss and banker to members of the E Street Band and what a nightmare it was (he had an altercation with one member who wanted more pay to which Bruce said: "You want to see the highest paid musician on the planet who does what you do? Go look in the mirror - it's already you!"). It's funny how bad at life a lot of pro musicians are. A friend of mine (gtr) runs his band with the singist - and they regularly chuck out the others. He asked me to join. Er, no thanks. A happy co-op is so hard to achieve that maybe being like Bruce or my mate is the only way to do it. If you do stumble into a happy band then cherish it.

Springsteen - Glory Days. Dreadful twaddle.

Sorry, what I'm about to say is SO basic, but: 1) whether you play sitting down or standing up makes a huge difference to everything else - the comment above about looking at every aspect (e.g. strap length) is spot on 2) whether you use pic or fingers 3) if fingers, whether you alternate index and middle or (like Jack Bruce and Ged Lee) just the index The best advice I got from a teacher was actually about my left hand. It didn't look right to me. He said, "That's because you play guitar, right? And you're fretting as you would on a guitar. Wrong - play it like a double bass or cello - use two or three fingers, not one." That made a huge difference to me - I started to adopt a much sloppier way of fretting and kept my whole hand much closer to the strings, always hooking my thumb over the top of the neck - all the opposite of what I'd done on guitar (which by now I'd abandoned). Nick Beggs has a fascinating way of fretting, essentially placing his fingers flat across the strings (not when he's playing stick). My RH I deploy as I did when I was taught classical guitar - floating thumb, alternating fingers - except when I don't. This may sound counter-intuitive, but I position my RH for playing with a pic and try to maintain that wrist and arm position when using fingers. There are no rules. Do what works for you.

It depends on whether you've lost any bone. When I was a kid I cut the end of my left index finger off with an axe (it was an accident; I didn't do it because I wondered what it would be like!). All that was left was a crescent of the bottom bit of the nail. I missed the bone but you could see it. My brother looked for the finger tip but couldn't find it. The hospital wanted to do a skin graft from my bum to my finger but I told my mum no. She agreed. The skin and nail grew back and within about 18 months you couldn't tell. The pad of skin at the finger tip was still a bit thin. But I started playing classical guitar a couple of years later and I don't remember that being affected in any way. From what you said (stitching the tip back on) it sounds as if you missed the bone. In which case the tip should grow back. This may take a while. But there's hope yet. I always assumed Tony Iommi took off some of the bone too, hence the need for plastic fingertips and detuned strings. Still, he got a new type of heavy metal music out of it and a career.

Thank you for posting these. I knew MK was in Japan but knew nothing else about him. What an intelligent, articulate fellow! I knew he had played with Bill Nelson (a favourite of mine) who'd also played on the Rain Tree Crow album. I also knew he'd died young - I think aged just 53. Prompted by the interviews I discovered online an absolutely brilliant live track called Sleepers Awake from 1996 with Richard Barbieri and Steve Jansen plus MK on bass and Steve Wilson on guitar - what a quartet (Japanese Porcupine!?). Worth checking out (below). But I wouldn't have found this without your posting the interviews. Thank you!

When I played in a covers band I needed to get up to speed quickly so it was a combination of (a) by ear (b) locating the root note and (c) watching my favourite covers players on YouTube. The band wasn't slavish to the originals so provided my part was OK it didn't have to be exact. Now that I just play for myself (using backing tracks) I like to take time to develop a bass part. I experiment a lot more, feeling my way. I sometimes go back to the songs in the band's set list and try to improve the parts I played back then. It's a lot of fun. I do write the parts out using tabs or just writing down the notes.

When I was in a band we got a number of gigs at charity festivals. Obviously they weren't paid, so they were easy to get on, but it was a good way of getting exposure (and used to playing to a crowd open air). That may be a way to getting paid gigs at 'proper' festivals.

Saw RT last week. I've seen him a few times before but this time he was on fire - hugely energetic and certainly not playing like a 79-year old (my son was with me and I said to him: "Trower is torturing that guitar!"). I'm a big fan of Richard Watts who sings like Jim Dewar and learnt to play the bass so he could be in Trower's band (Watts is a multi-instrumentalist). I really hope this isn't the last we've seen of Trower. He said recently he had another album lined up. But he says the operation is a big one and recuperation will take time. It's a 30-date US tour he's cancelled. Quite apart from the fact that having a big op at that age is no joke, he may not have the energy to tour again even if he does make a full recovery - since by then he could be 80 or even 81. Really sorry for him and the band - Chris Taggart on drums was excellent too.

OK there's a lot of space around the contents. But they were just trying to provide plenty of air on a G string.

I am so glad to see Wheels Of Confusion mentioned (I thought I was the only one who liked it). But funnily enough I think the best bit of the song is the 'pedal' where Geez plays a repeated single note and Iommi does his riffing over it (where you get the mystical howling over the top) - it starts at 2:50. I think it's magnificent.

Goth Tbird with flying skull strap

This. When I was in a covers band I had 10 basses (most of them Epi Tbirds). Now I'm not, I'm down to three and rotate them, playing each in turn for several few weeks. Could easily just do with one (I play along to backing tracks) but when I switch from one to another, the 'new' one feels nicely different. I have an active Tbird Pro, a passive Goth (a surprisingly lovely and lovely sounding bass for one that could be mistaken for a novelty thing) and an ESP Viper which is a modern take on the old Jack Bruce EB0 shape and cost double the other two combined. Why did I need so many basses back then? Dunno. Maybe to convince myself I was a 'proper' bass player?

I was my worst auditionee. The band (2 guitars, drums) sent me a list of songs. I rehearsed them for days on end, then turned up for the audition. They launch into a song without saying what it is. Then another and another. Some are in different keys from the originals. I have no clue, none whatsoever. At one point, mid-song, the lead guitarist wanders over, picks up my left index finger and physically places it at the correct fret. Then he wanders back again. Finally he says: "Roxette?" I say: "The Swedish duo?" "Nah, Feelgood." I'd never heard it before. It wasn't on the list. In the end they just ignore me and play on. Audition over I pack up and the band repair to the pub (I'd been told that going to the pub after band practice was mandatory as part of band bonding). "You coming?" one of them says. "Me? Sure." I follow in my car. In the pub I sit at the table saying nothing while they chat. I am feeling dreadful. What a complete and utter horlicks. I'm burning with embarrassment and shame. Then the lead guitarist looks over. "You in?" I couldn't believe it. They turned out to be a great bunch of guys and great musicians (the lead guitarist in particular). I learnt very quickly after that. Memorable gigs followed. I learnt later how I'd got in. Sheer desperation on their part. Not a single bass player for miles around. Not one. Except me.

My favourite Rick Nielsen quote is: "We're everyone's fifth favourite band." Their first four studio albums were superb and quite different from bands around them. I think Tom Peterson's 8 and 12-string playing provides an almost deep rhythm guitar platform for Nielsen to play over - it's why they sound so powerful live. Very touching that Nielsen always introduces Zander as "my favourite singer in the world". Very interested to hear about your book.

A friend of mine plays bassoon in a local amateur orchestra. They had to let go one of their windplayers because he was making mistakes (which matters more, I guess, in classical music). Now my mate has himself retired (mid-60s) in case it starts to happen to him. Sounds as if theplumber is doing the right thing: finding other outlets; while wondering how long this particular one will last.

The band I was in had a short contract we emailed to venues in advance. I left the band some years ago and now can't find it. But from memory here are some of the things you may want to cover: Length of set (with interval) and actual times (there may be a cut off beyond which bands can't play) Access time (what's the earliest you can get into the room to load-in + soundcheck) Space to park for load-in and load-out (check how much time after you finish you have to load out - when does the venue close completely) Public liability insurance (venue should carry this in case a member of the public gets injured) Powerpoints and availability of power Fee - how much, when and how paid (Deposit? Part on booking? Fee if cancelled?) Decibel limit and monitoring? They may want your equipment to carry an electrician's safety certificate (one of the guitarists was a sparks so did this for us). This isn't comprehensive but it may prompt additional thoughts from others.

I used to use two identical Tbirds in my gigging band - the only way I could tell them apart was by putting a sticker from International Rescue on the back of each - one was Scott, the other Virgil.

Plucking the strings hard - apparently Chris Wolstenholme of Muse does this ('harder than I've ever seen anyone do,' according to one studio engineer) - but I wouldn't be able to do that. Reasonably softly and smoothly is the way to go. Suggestions above about alternating fingers (index and middle) - I do this (I started on classical guitar and that's how you're taught) unlike Jack Bruce and Geddy Lee who play mainly with one finger, very fast - but, hey, I'm not them and never will be.

Used to have nine. Now down to three. I got rid of two (Chowny and ESP Ltd 4 string) by gifting them to my local hospice (where I'll end up one of these days) and they sold them online for a tidy sum. I now just have an ESP Viper (a sort of updated EB3) and two Epi Tbirds - one a Pro which is active and the other a black goth which isn't yet packs a big punch. No longer gigging so three is plenty. No longer suffering from GAS either, which is great (I used to have GAS for a Gibson Tbird anniversary edition in bullion gold but the finish doesn't look that great to me). My big regret is that I've never been able to play Fenders (hands too small). I used to have a mid 70s Precision which I sold here a few years back. Now that was a beauty.

Willie Nile - he did a great song 'Vagabond Moon' in the early 80s and I could never find anything else by him (pre-internet days). I assumed he'd disappeared. Then a fortnight ago I was looking up Richard Thompson and one of his credits was 'Willie Nile'. What? Turns out Willie Nile (Robert Noonan) did disappear - he made just 4 albums between 1980 and 2000 but has made ten since. I now have them all. I think he's fantastic. He's 75 and rockin' like a maniac.