Barking Spiders

It only averages out at 2 a year. In one year alone I was in 8 bands, none of which I did more than 5 gigs. It also includes depping once or twice in function bands. I like to spread myself thinly! My motto is 'if you don't succeed at first bail out as quickly as possible'

Well between the ages of ages 18 and 37 I must've been in close to 40 different bands, anything from a couple of gigs to a couple of years. There were a couple formed with mates with similar tastes that were good fun but ended due to stuff like new wives, new kids, new country. In most cases I'd joined through ads or having mutual friends and most of the time I felt like the hired help. So, when things got sh1tty there wasn't enough to keep these bands together or I just left because the music they played didn't interest me. Unlike some BCers I just can't get into playing songs I wouldn't choose to listen to for pleasure.

I've found being in bands generally quite dispiriting tbh. Apart from schlepping around from one venue after another, playing the same material to indifferent crowds in pubs and at functions is a bit of a downer. Then there's often the argy bargy with band members about direction and negative reactions to songs you might've written. Then, if you've actually made it there's all the shyte coming at you from social media trolls and snarky music journos. If that's all water off a duck's back, big kudos to you. Me? Maybe I'm too sensitive a flower for that kind of life.

For some reason I had this song going round my head. Haven't heard it in 3/4 of a lifetime. It was never a single but an additional track on the 1984 More Than The Sun 12" by Black. Hallelujah for Discogs and YT...

Apart from daydreaming about being a rock n' roll guitar hero for a couple of days when I was 14 I always knew I was destined for obscurity. That and the dawning reality about life in a band after schlepping around skanky dives across Merseyside for 6 months. When I read about such and such a famous band doing 250 gigs a year decade in decade out (hello Rolling Stones"!) I knew I made the right call. Anyway that and the fact I no longer have any time for rock n 'roll guitar 'heroes'., possibly the most boring of musicians.

Been having Filter going round and round my mind this evening so just had to stick these tunes on and crank up the volume. For my money they're the best band to emerge from the US in the 90s and by rights should've been bigger than bluddy Creed, Nickelback, Limp Bizkit etc. Fkin love these two tunes

All weekend it's been the new Chem Bros, their 10th and a cracker it is too boot...

Ah the Matsui . I remember getting one for my 14th birthday and having to lug around a shedload of cassettes in my backpack.

I'm out of GAS and happy to be so.For me having serious GAS is like having the hots for a some babe and not having a chance of copping off with her. I used to longingly look at Ken Smith and Jazz basses in Bass Direct knowing they were beyond my budget. Now I have no yearnings at all. My Ray 34 and Cort GB and Peavey combo do just fine

I be 15 in 1985 and my collection was based largely what I heard on John Peel. A good dose of post punk and the kind of stuff you get on electronic 80s comps now selling for a couple of quid on Zon. Basically what I'm still listening to a lot nearly 40 years later 🙃

I lived in Cheltenham for 20 years. Musicwise it's best known as the birthplace of Gustav Holst, Brian Jones and Richard o' Brien of Rocky Horror fame. Less known, Jaz Coleman of Killing Joke and the ultra chic FKA Twigs are from there too. It's also where Pigbag was formed.

hmmm I don't hear anything musically interesting in this new track. It's sort of similar to Start Me Up but fed through autotune

Pretty much true that though if you're and indie rock fan I guess you'd know Idles. And Nik Kershaw is a Bristol lad. I live half an hour's drive up the M5 and Bristol's been my main place for going to gigs. There are lot of bands former Peel listeners would've known like Rip Rig and Panic, The Pop Group, Blue Aeroplanes, F*** Buttons, Smith & Mighty, Way Out West. But on balance it comes down to just MA and Portishead as the most well known though I guess P didnt see themselves as a Bristol band.

But there's loads of vids on YT with players either showing their chops or of footage where bass parts have been isolated, so it's easy to separate them out from their bands. Drums are my main thing and I'll watch metal and fusion drummers for tips and challenges as often as I watch those from my preferred genres e.g. funk. I'm mostly influenced by the likes of James Brown's drummers and Ziggy Modeliste but it's also great watching top notch metal players doing blast beats

Def agree re Flea, Rourke, Thomas, Rainey, Zender and Bello. In fact my list is quite long Bello leads me to a whole host of bassists (and drummers) for that matter from metal and hard rock bands. Things I dislike most about these genres are the vocals, lyrics and the guitars esp the widdly solos. As well as Bello I like the playing of Dave Ellefson, Billy Sheehan, JP Jones, Dave La Rue, Steve diGiorgio, Geddy Lee and Geezer Butler Never cared much for Bowie but have a lot of time for his choice of musicians including Trevor Bolder and George Murray Never been much of a fan of Elton either but Dee Murray was a top player

Being the pedant I am, you'd have to qualify whether your mean a city proper or the greater metropolitan area. Fr'instance do you only include the inner London boroughs or do you also add on the outer ones? Any road, pound for pound I'd say Sheffield. Def Leppard, Arctic Monkeys, Human League, ABC, Cabaret Voltaire, Heaven 17, Joe Cocker, Pulp, Bring Me the Horizon, Comsat Angels, the beginnings of the Warp label (home for Aphex Twin, Autechre, Boards of Canada ..), Jilted John, Thompson Twins...

Recently I overheard a builder singing the chorus of Cant Get You Out of My Head, which on that basis would put the writers behind one of Kylie's biggest hits among the greats

As for Rod Stewart, if there's a more jammy, third rate chancer who has made a career in the music biz I'd like to know. His career is one built on sh***y covers especially The Great American Songbook albums and Soul Book. He just doesn't have the vocal chops to do these songs justice. I won't hear a good word said for him.

There are a few that come close but the thing with Motown is that the singers could actually sing. On the other hand Jagger and Bowie are/were a couple of hacks who struck lucky but couldn't sing for $*** but they look a right coupla smug barstewards in this vid.

I have to clean my ears out using a cloth after hearing the Disturbed cover of SoS . Not sure how old you are but I was born in the early 70s so the same age group as these post grunge and nu metal bands. That said, the Nevermore version that was put up is equally awful. Having a hearty dislike of metal and hard rock I guess I do have an inbuilt prejudice.

Driving to and from Morrison's this evening I've been blasting some Jesus and Mary Chain. Still sounds good to my ears many decades after hearing them back in 1984. Being the snotty teen that I was their notoriety 100% appealed. The attitude's gone but they're still my joint fave rock band ever..

Couldn't agree more though these bands wouldn't have known better as they're c@ck. Nu-metal was one of the lowest points in music along with the all those post grunge bands though these genres are interchangeable . The Disturbed cover is just too painfully earnest/earnestly painful. Then there's that atrocious take on Smooth Criminal.

Or to be precise nuck-nuck-nuckin' on heaven's daw-aw-whoaw. A rare case of where he Dylan original is 100 x better than a specific cover. + 1 for Judas Priest's risible Johnny B Goode and I'll add their execrable 'Green Manalishi' + 1 for Metallica's Whisky in the jar No mention yet of Jagger and Bowie's atrocious Dancing in the Street nor of the woeful Aerosmith take on Come Together. Then again Aerosmith have been terminally shyt3 so perhaps they didn't know any better.

and weak as p1$$. Whoever produced their albums needs sacking in hindsight.

On the way to work the morning I was listening to the full 2-CD version of Cheap Trick's Live at Budokan. When I was much much younger I had the original on LP and played it to death. On the strength of it I checked out several of their earlier studio albums but they're nowhere near as good. Quite insipid sounding in comparison. Seems to me some bands work best in the studio and others are best experienced live. IMO other bands whose live album(s) easily trump their studio albums are The Tubes (What do you want from live), Dr Feelgood (Stupidity), Motorhead (No Sleep til Hammersmith), AC/DC (If You Want Blood) and Blue Oyster Cult (Some Enchanted Evening). The last one is a good example esp when comparing the studio and live versions of Godzilla.