Barking Spiders

The drinks would be cheaper for sure but I couldn't make any promise about the standard of the toilets

Download was generally great but when punters are shelling out a few sovs you'd hope some bands would put on more of a spectacle which is why Slipknot are one act I'd give five stars too. I'm a fan anyway and that was the third time I've seen them and they always deliver and some. While Tool didn't exactly banter with the crowd they put on a quality visual display and Enter Shikari were top notch entertainment too. Godsmack worked the crowd well and had fun with the drum dual and Slayer came out with the pyrotechnics. But too many other bands still didn't put on much in the way of a show or engage with the crowds much. I'd have hoped that for an event like Download they would've gone the extra mile. I know there are BCers who just want the music and don't care for theatrics. That's fine for pub bands but on big stages surely should pull out all the stops?

Dunno how I've managed never to have heard of these guys during the last 20 years..until a few days ago. Well recommended if you liked trippy, electronica with a dubby vibe along the lines of early The Orb. Got this particular gem on at the mo.

depends if the 15 year old is a girl, boy , horse, whatever. If it's a girl (like my eldest teen) I'd be very worried indeed! 😧

As opposed to the monolithic Glastonbury where it takes half a day to get from one side to the other at Download the four stages were all pretty easy to get to, with the Main and Zippo just 5-10 minutes apart despite trudging through the quagmire. What I will say for Download there's more cameraderie and sense of community than other festivals I've been too, big and medium.

Tell you what though there was plenty for bass geeks to get their teeth into at Download. I've never been particularly a fan of Dream Theater but they were damn good. John Myung's flying fingers were summat else. Didn't know much about Tool but I particularly liked Justin Chancellor's playing too. Lovely tone. Some nice work from the guy in Godsmack and a new find in the fella from Toska. A good find they were.

Steantval's got a point though. To my ears these guys would still sound instantly recognisable from playing a few notes of an unfamiliar tune using their most familiar approaches e.g. JJ Burnel (as on the first 5 albums but not the others), Peter Hook, Mick Karn (fretless from Japan days), Mark King (Level 42 slap rather than his fingerstyle), John Entwistle, Steve Harris, Bernard Edwards, Les Claypool and Bootsy

Dissenting voice here. I was at Download this weekend and yes the rain on saturday was a bit cr@p but sunday was generally warm and dry although a mudbath. I don't usually do big festivals other than this one now and again, the only reason I go being to see certain bands I like all in one place that I don't get to see often. Unlike some other big festivals, it's a good natured crowd with no aggro. Mind you getting out of the south field was a total pain in the 'arris. Stuck in gridlock for over 2 hours before we managed to get out. Mind you people were mostly calm and chilled about it.

I'm a bit concerned Porky has fixed his gaze upon Axl's 'arris.😳

70s classic funk is one of my fave genres but for me none of these current so-called funk bands cut it. They may have the technical chops but none that I've come across have that swing. I remember there used to be a bit of a mini hype about The Bamboos. I listened to their debut album but it's just soulless swing -free pastiche of the Tower of Power sound. Ditto Vulfpeck, The Internet, Quantic Soul Orchestra, Snarky Puppy etc.

Look, the fact we're on here means we're all bass geeks to some extent but how far does it go? Do you ever take a bass with you into the khazi/bathroom, have basses hanging on the walls where other folk would have pictures, have the wife / mistress/life companion on one side of you in the bed and be cuddling a bass on the other, regularly clean them while the other half is nuzzling up to you on the sofa, spend at least half your monthly disposable income on bass related stuff, have t-shirts with images of semi-obscure bass players, go on holiday with one and what else? As for myself I'm actually a drum geek and always take my sticks and practice pad everywhere..even on holiday and to work 😀

Currently caning Polymer , the new Plaid album, to death. They just get better with age and IMO this might be their best album yet

Here is the new MP3 / FLAC only release from Solar Fields. More fine atmospheric, epic, Scandi electronica

Methinks this is the first time Amon Tobin's been mentioned on BC. The first four albums are cracking examples of off-kilter cinematic drum n' bass come breakbeat, Supermodified possibly the best.

darn tootin' he is for sure though he only features on the first two albums, great examples of the lead bass played with picks

Am I going against the grain by saying I cant stand his voice and that he ruined the Doobie Brothers?

errm '... wishy washy green types' ?

If you listened to an hour of Planet Rock you could be forgiven thinking rock smells a bit funny. On the one hand there's the constant rotation of usual suspects from the 60s-80s plus a bunch of 'new' faves that are regurgitating what's been before.

yup, especially when you consider acts in the 'Yacht Rock' 'genre' that make Little Mix look like Cannibal Corpse

IMO Screamadelica is their only consistently good album while Weatherall has been involved in much more interesting outfits such as Sabres of Paradise and Two Lone Swordsmen. All the other PS albums have been pretty patchy with 2 to 4 good tunes and lots of filler.

Hah and Primal Scream are one of the reasons why rock has become irrelevant. Mind you, rap has nothing more to say either having gone from a time when Public Enemy were full of righteous anger against The Man to the gash that's peddled nowadays. Drill and grime mean nowt to anyone over 30 and the rest of the world outside London and its suburbs. Thing is in all genres all possibilities have been exhausted and nothing is new anymore. Every genre has been crossed with another and now there's nowt new left under the sun that's yet to be explored.

Watched 40 Year Old Virgin last night in which the Paul Rudd store salesman character says 'If I hear Yah Mo B There one more time I'm gonna Yah Mo burn this place to the ground' . Of course it is one of the most irritatingly shyte songs ever. And then there's the Dude's (understandable) loathing of The Eagles in 'The Big Lebowski'. Just wondering if there are any other films where music artistes are on the end of a derisive comment.

IMO The Fatback Band need more love around here especially hugely overlooked/underrated bassman Johnny Flippin. Most of their songs have cracking basslines. Have some of this off the People's Music album

Ha ha not from this quarter you won't . I'm not a fan of any of these hyper, super advanced technical players whose musical output is largely limited to the stultifyingly boring fusion/jazz rock genre. Just my 10 cents worth. I really see little point in double thumbing. I can do it quite well but it doesn't groove.

Spot on. Seems to me many Brits think Europeans are UK fixated when in fact most of them don't give a flying feck and pay little attention to Brexit, the Royals, etc. In 14 years living in four different countries, whenever anyone asked me about Britain 99% of the time it was about the Premier League. So yes, the UK's poor showing in the Eurovision is more about the half ar$ed way the UK goes about it, mostly choosing unknown performers singing forgettable mush and with very little effort gone into production