Barking Spiders

By this drum hitters reckoning , back in the late 80s-early 90s that would've made me a music whore where I was in four different music combos including a duo and a samba band.

a fair bit of the criminally underrated 23 Skidoo who old Peelie was a tad fond of . Most of their tunes had some nice bass bubbling away. This is one of my faves..

Further to the great William Shatner cover of Lucy, IMO this is even better, though not a Beatles tune

agreed, in fact I loathe the Cocker version so much I always turn off the radio if I hear it. Dreadfully overrated 'singer' if ever there was.

BBC4 showed a rerun of a 1988 edition of TOTP last night . It was probably a time when old (and younger) f@rts bemoaned the state of pop. Hardly surprising when the most rock n roll tune on it was Aztec Camera, that's if you don't count Tiffany's dire take on I Saw Her Standing There. She made amends for this by later doing a Playboy shoot., which was very nice actually 😊, as was Belinda Carlisle's. She was also in the show it but I always quite liked her, tunes wise and as an example of fit totty. But I digress. Just when I thought the Tiffany tune was the worst Beatles cover I've heard , alongside came the aptly named Wet Wet Wet and their p1$$poor of With A Little Help From My Friends but not helped by Marty Pellow's perma-smirk. Mind you the most cringe-inducing video of the night was Rod Stewart with some long forgotten and unlamented thing called Lost In You. It features a lot his ..errm. moves. He's also mauled some Beatles tunes but that's his stock in trade of late take some classic 60s pop, Swing or Motown classics and suck the soul out of them. So, I'll raise you Tiffany for the worst version of I Saw Her Standing There, although cleverly and cunningly she replaces 'him' with 'her'. Almost as radical a reworking as Money by The Flying Lizards. For best, is this live rendition by The Tubes

I've always got a perverse challenge out of trying to get the very best out of cheap gear, whether musical instruments or sports equipment. In my 20s and 30s I did a lot of gigging, own bands and as a dep, playing either bass, guitar or drums. My only bass was an anonymous EB short scale copy. My drum set was a 2nd hand Premier 4 piece and my only electric guitar was a Hohner 'strat' which was £100 new in the late 80s. I just had one amp, a 100w Marshall keyboard job which I used both for bass and guitar. In answer to the OP, you bet I would!

You're right, it isn't for me. IMO nearly all long books I've read, films & TV shows over 2 hours I've seen, symphonies and other long bits of music I've heard I always think they would've been better for some judicious pruning. Viz classical I only really listen to shorter pieces, many of which do happen to come in under 10 mins. Back to Tool's 5 albums, there are some ok longer tracks which would've made cracking 4 minute songs.

Over the last couple of weeks I've listened to all five albums and while each has a couple of really good tracks most of the other tunes have some good bits amid quite a lot of filler. Mind you the same can be said for pretty much every symphony or concerto ever written. That's the problem with tunes that go on for a long time. Anyway, overall I still don't quite get the devotion from many fanboys out there.

I did vote, for Another Girl Another Planet by the Only Ones. Pithy, lyrical and to the point but the only 70s-80s punk/new wave PR plays is the Stranglers' Something better change, Blitzkrieg bop by the Ramones and errm not much else.

I listened to it while working on my boat and TBH most of the entries are by rote, pattern based widdling high up the neck. Throw in some hammer-ons here, a bit of sweep picking there, a touch of vibrato blah etc. Way too many Slash solos in this list. I fail to see what he's brought to the table. Any such list that fails to include some Steely Dan is plain wrong.

https://www.planetrock.com/news/rock-news/the-top-40-greatest-guitar-solos-ever/ I think I agree with about 3 of these. Strange how Hendrix's Watchtower is at a lowly 40! What say ya'll.

Odd why the more than pretty good Enter Shikari were way consigned to The Pit whereas they headlined the Avalanche stage at Download. About the best UK live band currently, IMO.

Firstly look out for anyone you know who's got a larger than life personality and is maybe a bit of a showoff. Whether he can sing that well is of secondary importance. I'm not being facetious. There are many bands out there with good enough singers but few who are larger than life showmen/women who can command a stage

These last few days I have been mostly listening to Slipknot's newie and the very latest by Blanck Mass - Animated Violence Mild - which is kinda electronica's answer to death metal. I dont come across a whole lotta love here for the Knot. Am I on my Jack Jones here?

As it only has 4 strings I thought it'd be 33.334% easier /quicker than learning guitar.

maybe it's cos your using it as a kick drum?

I'm an office desk drummer and pub thigh paradiddler

or ever pretended a tennis racket/cricket bat/lump of 2 x 4 is a bass? l have yet to see anyone do it even meself

..that i play bass 😀

Bollox, I didnt even know they're over here. I'd have gone to see them in a trice. Saw them at Download in 2017 and they were the best act of the festival IMO

they're one of those bands who I want to like based on their politics and general approach to music but I only like Murmur. On the subject of bands who've gone on way way too long, Status Quo top the list. Even after Rick Parfitt has died, Rossi and co still carry on churning out dross, e.g. the dire current single Backbone which Planet Rock loves playing. Like the equally woeful Two Way Traffic, the lyrics are basically a load of cliched phrases cobbled together

thing is, how many did you already have anyway?

Like the olde f@rt I can sometimes be, when I'm in ASDA I do curse the flaccid pap being pumped out at quite high volume and think current mainstream music is the biggest pile of c@k ever made. Then I come across a random 1976 episode of TOTP on BBC 4 and am forced to change my mind.

Somehow I've never appreciated Tool till I saw them at Download. Maybe they're one of those who come across better live where their longer songs work better than on a recording. Similarly I've never cared for Dream Theater albums but I enjoyed their set as well.

Someone said about Last.FM going the way of the dodo. Not sure how. Still my main way of finding new stuff, much better than Spotify . Bandcamp is pretty good too. Of course perhaps the best way to find new stuff are festivals. Went to Download this year mainly to see Lamb of God, Slayer, Tool, Slipknot and Godsmack and came across Beartooth, Fever 333, Toska and Batushka for the first time. Great stuff