Monkey Steve

I'm fortunate that I've never had to depend on getting paid, so I'm only interested in it being for the music and or the hang/craic. As long as it has those, there's not much better for me than playing a gig, certainly not a night in front of the TV not playing a gig I can put up with the odd duff gig. ever the optimist - next time it'll be better, right?

so no "we'll get you up to speed while we look for a new drummer" then? Maybe it's a guitarist thing. An old originals band of mine spent ages looking for a singer - we'd recorded a demo and played a couple of gigs as a three piece but the vocals were distinctly average (mainly because I let the guitarist do most of it) so we focused all our energies on finding a singer. Which took months without any suitable auditionees and the drummer finally had enough of not gigging, not even rehearsing most weeks unless we had a potential singer lined up, and left for another band. fair enough I asked a mate of mine who is an excellent drummer, he came for an audition and knocked it out of the park - superb. Great, now we can spend the time in between trying out new singers bringing the drummer up to speed. No. The guitarist was bored of playing the same songs and wasn't going to rehearse until we found a singer (and wasn't going to help look for one either). So he'd come back as and when me and the drummer found a singer, and not to bother him in the meantime. Technically he didn't actually break the band up...but when me and the drummer did find a new singer it was for a completely new band because we had no interest in staying in a band with the old guitarist. I do wonder if the guitarist thinks that the band is still a going concern and as soon as we find someone we'll be on the phone to get him back to the studio...he's not played since, and that was about 15 years ago Maybe you can round up a new band from the ashes of the ones you've broken?

do you only have them at home, or do you use them for gigs? the cover almost certainly won't include gigs (much debated on previous insurance threads)

I had a similar experience. Always used Allianz in the past, never a problem, but hadn't needed specific cover for a while so let it lapse. Then needed some cover last year for one bass and went with Allianz. Admittedly it was an expensive bass, but when I wanted to extend the cover to all of my gear New Moon did it for not much more than I was paying Allianz for that single bass, and a lot less than Allianz would have wanted shame there's not a Go Compare specifically for this cover

slightly late to this one, but another fan of Bellybutton here. Joyous jangly guitar pop for anyone who's ever tapped their foot to a Beatles song never really got into Spilt Milk, and never really got into any of the stuff that the band members did next, despite trying really hard

well for the last few days it's been the 1991 releases by Nirvana, Soundgarden and the Red Hot Chili Peppers...

Pixies - Beneath The Eyrie (deluxe version with clear vinyl and CD) - odd vibe, trying to make the songs sound eerie (no pun intended) which apparently has something to do with the atmosphere in the recording studio. Nothing sticking out as a classic big tune as yet, but it's growing on me I also just got the Soundgarden coloured vinyl bundle - all the studio albums from Louder Than Love to King Animal on nice 180g vinyl. Odd that they mix the colours where most of them have been pressed on to two discs...and somebody really likes orange Saxon - Heavy Metal Thunder: actually bought to get the live at Bloodstock bonus disc, and in anticipation of seeing then next month (get well soon Biff) but the studio re-recordings of their earlier songs are very good indeed New Model Army - From Here Band in a rich vein of form over the last few releases...this one isn't as immediate as the last couple, but like the Pixies is growing on me. I was getting a tattoo from Joolz Denby a few months ago and she was inspired to include a bit of "galaxy in space" on it because she'd just been doing that for the NMA album cover. When I saw the album I p#ssed myself laughing

been re-listening to the albums over the last couple of days. hasn't changed my opinion, but what a fantastic trio of albums they are Nevermind still stands up for me. I can understand the comments about it having been rinsed to death back in the day, but it's still full of great songs, and I don't have an issue with the mix. I probably haven't listened to it for a few years now - I tend to favour In Utero if I'm going to pick a Nirvana album to listen to, and it does sit up there with some "classic" albums like Led Zep IV which are excellent, but seem like an uninspired/cliche'd choice to play as the songs are so well known...and then I listen to them and remember how brilliant they are Badmotorfinger - still my favourite, and as above, the 25th anniversary version sounds excellent BSSM - brilliant...but sooo very long. Having mostly listened to it on CD for the last couple of decades, I'd forgotten that it was a double album. Personal choice, but there are three or four songs that I wouldn't miss that could have been trimmed and made it an easier listen. Plus the vocals...I've heard worse, but I've heard better. It's odd that he sort of inhabits an area somewhere between singing and rapping, and isn't especially good at either. Still, an excellent front man, and not the ugliest looking individual which never hurts a band. But more than made up for by the music - how the bass takes the lead on almost everything, fantastic feel and never overplaying despite it's prominence, and the guitar playing the supporting role with funky chops and lead lines without needing to play big riffs My vote hasn't changed - still Badmotorfinger, but it's been fun revisiting Nevermind and BSSM - thanks @hiram.k.hackenbacker

yep. Sounds brilliant To me the bass is clearer, in fact everything seems clearer, with great separation overall, and you can hear what's happening on of some of the muddier parts now To be honest, while it's nice to have all the extras (and I'm pleased they included the SOMMS tracks - took me forever to find that version when it first came out) I'm not a great one for alternative versions of tracks unless there's a substantial difference - I tend to listen to them once and then never bother again. I don't remember there being anything in there that makes me want to go back to those...although it's nice to have them

One point to add The devil in all insurance is in the detail, and it's worth checking all of the small print, and speaking to the insurers to make sure that the cover actually applies in the circumstances you need it. For instance, if you're off in a van you may want to add unattended vehicle cover, which sounds great. But in fact the cover only applies if the insured item is left in the locked vehicle and isn't visible from outside. If your gear is in the back of a van in a sealed section with no windows then you'll be OK, but if it's left on the seats in the front, or if the back has windows and any passer by can see all the equipment then it won't apply and your stuff will not be insured (so always take your bass to the hotel room at night)

a mate of mine posted on FB seconds after Download announced it's 2020 headliners on Monday that it was a poor lineup and he wouldn't be going unless they much improved the undercard, just furious that they weren't putting on bands that he personally wanted to see. And seconds after that another mate posted that Download are probably pretty confident that they can find 90,000+ people who will buy tickets to see Kiss, Iron Maiden and System Of A Down and nobody will be crying because he's not there I wouldn't say that anybody who does like Nevermind is stupid, or any of the multi millionaires who made it are stupid either. Popularity is no indicator of quality, but these arguments never get beyond "I don't personally like it".

this lot: https://www.newmooninsurance.com/ Like @Twigman I've never had to claim so can't share any experience of that, but much cheaper than previous insurance I've had...and the mods should be along shortly with a BassChat discount code if memory serves

In this world there is music that you like and music that you don't like. And there's plenty of both Life is much easier if you concentrate on the stuff you like and ignore the stuff you don't

kind of depends... Personally I prefer In Utero because it's much more raw, but Nevermind was mixed to sell a bazillion copies, and it certainly did that. So we might not be sat here discussing the cultural significance of Nevermind if it hadn't been mixed that way You can get the original Butch Vig mixes as part of the super deluxe reissue from a few years ago, but supposedly the band didn't think those worked and they picked Andy Wallace to do the final mix. Which they loved in the studio...and then hated when the album came out and they realised it was more hair metal than punk rock. I've got quite a lot of stuff that Andy Wallace mixed, and he's very good at making bands sound "big"

agree with all of the above - not from personal experience, but from a guitarist friend who I would rate as superb, but who would have a few lessons every now and then just to shake things up and see what else he could learn to get him out of a rut He told me two things: 1. As other have said, if you're not a beginner then be clear about what you want to get out of it, don't just pitch up and expect the teacher to have all the ideas 2. If you don't think the teacher is helping you, find a new one What he found was that a good chunk of the teachers he saw were great guitarists but rubbish teachers. He has a story about having gone to one specifically to learn about modes, only to find that the teacher just wanted to show him how fast he could solo in different scales. Which sounds bad (because it is) but he'd actually gone to the same teacher before and was really impressed with him when he was showing him soloing techniques and fingering in different positions, so it's horses for courses Once you know what you want to learn about, maybe come back and see if anyone can recommend someone in your area

True - I'd seen the RHCPs a couple of times touring Mother's Milk, playing at the Astoria, and they were complaining that they weren't sure they'd come back because nobody bought their albums over here. The BSSM tour booked them into the Brixton Academy, so a slight improvement on the Astoria, but they only played about four or five dates in the UK, presumably because nobody anticipated how much the album would take off when they booked the tour. It wasn't until One Hot Minute that they moved up to Wembley sized venues (and that was a terrible gig) As I recall Badmotorfinger was seen as good, solid progress from an up and coming band, but they stayed quite underground and didn't really take off until Superunknown

For me, at that age, the ones that stood out specifically for bass, and in terms of sound and presence more than pure technical skills, would have been Introduce Yourself by Faith No More (and to a lesser extent The Real Thing) and Live & Cuddly by NoMeansNo (actually from the tour of Wrong, as selected by @D.A. Smallswhich I now listen to far more frequently) Never really been a fan of solo/instrumental bass albums. the only ones I bought back then (in fact the only ones I've ever bought) were the first couple of solo albums by Stuart Hamm, and only then because I'd been dragged along to see Joe Satriani on the Surfing With The Alien tour, Stu was playing bass, and his bass solo was the only remotely entertaining part of an evening of remorseless widdling. But I found the albums to be pretty dull AOR, and only really liked Moonlight Sonata on Radio Free Albemuth

there doesn't seem to be an actual question that we are being asked to answer I like and have owned all three of the albums since they were released (and have owned several reissued, remixed and remastered versions since - in fact I've just got the new coloured vinyl reissue of Badmotorfinger) and saw two of the bands on those tours (sadly not Nirvana) but for me it depends on what is actually being asked: Most culturally significant? Nevermind, no contest Best bass playing? Blood Sugar Sex Magic - again, no contest My personal favourite and the one I've listened to most over time? Badmotorfinger - again, no contest, but with Nevermind a very close second And in all three cases, they're not my favourite albums by those bands

that was the size'd venue we were playing, only a couple of hundred punters each night in (possibly less than) 500 capacity clubs

seems very unlikely to be a nut problem, given that there's a string tree. Far more likely that he just didn't have a clue what he was doing when he put it on

I'd normally be with you on the "b'stard headliners fecking up the mix for everybody else who only gets a quick line check" but I had the reverse happen at a gig at Christmas at the Underworld We brought out own soundman (a pro, who was formerly in the band some years back) who also knew people in the two opening acts so he did sound for them as well. Leaving just our co-headliners using the in house soundman. they went on last, and by common consent they sounded awful in comparison to everybody else on the bill So it could just be that the headliners have their own soundman? Or they made a special point of being nice to the soundman - I've certainly seen bands sounding dreadful where they've done something to annoy the bloke behind the desk. I've also seen bands ruin their own sound by not listening to the soundman and insisting that amps have to be at certain volumes, etc That said, I was surprised about the Underworld because the in house guys often know then equipment and the venue much better than anybody else. We'd taken a different soundman to a gig in Manchester (Rebellion) the night before and the in house bloke there was superb for all of the bands further down the bill - we supposedly sounded pretty good, but had we not brought our own guy I'm sure we'd have sounded brilliant anyway

Helmet at the Islington O2 in a couple of weeks. might go to Acid Reign’s album launch gig the following night then it was supposed to be Saxon - Hammersmith for me, with Krokus, Girlschool and Diamond Head. It’s been rescheduled for the end of March so fingers crossed for Biff’s full recovery

to the OP, contacting local Cash Converters, music shops and anywhere else that might buy a musical instrument is worth doing.

are you a private detective by any chance?

and excellent live - saw him with Lounge Against The Machine at Sonisphere a few years ago and they were utterly brilliant And a shout out for the Lounge Kittens who's three part harmonies and piano version of the filthiest excesses of punk, metal and R&B are fantastic (and again, they are great live)