Monkey Steve

For the Chuck Mosley fans I’d also recommend The Man With The Action Hair by Cement and Soul Pretender by Primitive Race. I didn’t know about the last one until I read his obituary, and it makes his death all the more sad as he was really at the peak of his powers, the band harnessing his vocal drone. i also picked up Joe Haze Session #2 that was put out as a very limited single for Record Store Day this year - a couple of acoustic covers, very like the stuff he played live when I saw him

First saw FNM at the Marquee on the original Real Thing tour - the same week it came out. Got home from work, played side 1 before needing to leave for the gig. Blown away. I still have the 1989 tour shirt, with just the three UK club dates on the back. Seen them many, many times since, as well as Mr Bungle, and either Fantomas or Tomahawk (or possibly both). Love Mike Patton, although his bands can make quite challenging music. But for all that, my favourite FNM are the Chuck Moseley albums, especially Introduce Yourself (although the remastered first album is spectacularly good). Actually missed that line up playing at the Marquee (back in the days before they sold tickets, so you had to check the weekly listings and then turn up and queue on the day to get in - they'd played the previous weekend) Finally saw Chuck play at the Boston Arms a couple of years back, maybe a year or so before he died. If anybody likes his version of FNM I can thoroughly recommend his Will Rap Over Hard Rock For Food album (as Chuck Moseley and VUA)

part of my hating of camping at festivals was Day 3 of Reading, where you had to walk through the campsite to get to the main entrance, and it just smelled like an open sewer. As did half the campers...

Glastonbury's never appealed to me, but I love a festival. Ideally one with hotel rooms nearby (and having to camp at Glasto is one of my key reasons for not being interested). It slightly saddens me (in a fairly disinterested way - I've never been) that it's gone from being a few fields full of music loving hippies who were there to see some bands to being an "experience" available only to those with high limits on their credit cards who lurk on the website ready to snap up their tickets as soon as they go on sale, and who are there to show off that they're going rather than actually being music fans. the BBC's annual "you poor viewers at home aren't as cool as everybody here, we're brilliant" coverage doesn't help. Most of the music isn't really my thing, but that's no reason to hate the line up, I'm sure some people will like it. Just as I'm sure that nobody with a ticket cares in the slightest who is playing, as long as they can bore everybody about how amazing it is to be there. And (to steal a line from a drummer mate of mine who got sick of overhearing it in his local every year after festival season and would tell them all what he thought of their showing off) their claims to being music fans would be taken a lot more seriously if they actually spend a fiver and went to see new bands at the Dog & Duck rather than dropping several hundred quid for one annual event and then doing nothing to support live music the rest of the year. I'm sure there are plenty of actual music fans there...but the coverage and interviews with the crowd always seems to be about showing off that they are there I dunno, maybe it's ageing, and hating the pesky kids who ruin it for everybody else. I used to go to the Reading festival most years for about a decade after the millennium, and saw the transition from it being a rock festival compared to Glastonbury, with Metal Sunday and the punk tent every year, to a run of the mill pop festival that is full of kids running around with little interest in the music, excited to be at their first festival without the parents (and in fact a mate of mine's 17 year old went last year for exactly that right-of-passage reason). I tend to pick festivals that I know will be fun regardless of who's playing, albeit ones where whoever is playing will be within the venn diagram of what I like. I remember going to Download two years ago and being somewhat underwhelmed by the headliners and bands at the top of the bill, and because of that seeing loads of brilliant bands that would have escaped my attention if I'd been glued to the main stage all weekend. So either go or don't go, don't complain about the line up. Nothing worse than being with a mate who keeps droning on about how poor the line up is this year...I speak from experience...

yeah, pictures please when Timpsons have finished the job

an old band of mine played a couple of gigs on England football nights (that we'd not realised when we made the bookings) in pubs that weren't showing the game and the crowds were always significantly worse than usual On the way to a gig on Saturday, the singer was telling us how his two lads had asked if he could take them to the pub to watch some football that was on that afternoon. Them too young to drink, him too uninterested in football to want to watch it, but he thought he'd encourage their new interests so bought a paper and read that while they watched the game. On the way back they were explaining to him how the team they have chosen to follow, Liverpool, had got to the Champion's League final, and could he take them to see a Liverpool game next season? Yes lads, not sure about going to Liverpool but maybe when they play in London... He then googled tickets for their next game (yesterday's game against Wolves) and saw that on re-sale sites it was £120, and several grand for the Champion's League final, and decided that perhaps this taking the kids to football business isn't something that is likely to happen. I explained to him the significance of the Wolves game and that it might not be as expensive when they're not in with a chance of winning the Premiership, but I'm not sure that his kids will be seeing Liverpool any time soon. But he does like the idea of taking them to the local non-league club

Bit of an odd one on Saturday night...odd may be over-stating things. Not what we expected is probably closer to it We'd been told that we were playing a charity night for the tenth anniversary of the death of someone that our singer knew. The band being one that I've notionally been in for a while, but we've never played, or even rehearsed, because all the other band members are in a much better known, much busier band. This one is purely playing old hard rock covers for a laugh, and this seemed to be a great opportunity to cobble together half an hour of those, get out and see if it works. There are a couple of bands playing, plus mention of a bit of a jam session to follow, but it's tricky to get any details. Nothing on t'internet about it, or on social media, which seems a bit odd considering it's on at the Face Bar in Reading, a venue that has regular gigs and club nights. It's pretty close to where the singer lives, bit of a trip out of town for the rest of us, not least the drummer who is in another band playing the Incineration Festival at the Electric Ballroom in Camden that afternoon. The singer has to bring a bass cab to the venue (not mine, long story) and because of post gig drinking logistics decides that he'll do that in the afternoon rather than taking it as we arrive for the gig. First he's going to a lunch that the widow is having for friends. The first subtle shift is that the lunch seems to be for the widow's birthday rather than the anniversary of the death, although it may be the deceased's birthday - I'm a bit fuzzy on that. On mentioning that he's going to drop the bass cab off at the Face Bar, the widow tells our singer that the gig isn't happening there! Instead it's at an arts centre on the other side of Reading, and no longer seems to be a charity night, but a birthday gig. Ah, that explains the lack of any social media coverage then. Messages quickly sent to the band telling us of the change in details...slight concern that any mates who were going to come to the gig will now be gatecrashers... Still, it's a gig for the band, and when we arrive the stage is set up, and the "jam" part of the night is about to happen - do I know the bass lines for any of the following songs? This seems to be what the guitarist currently on stage and the singer are pretty sure they know. I can cover one song, and the bass player from the other band that is playing can do the rest. Songs are played, guitarists and drummers are swapped, and it's a really nice vibe. I guess two or three dozen people are there, certainly enough to make a reasonable crowd, all of them into the sort of stuff we're playing, with a small chunk of them participating one way or another We get up and do our half hour, go down pretty well (not that I think the crowd would have told us if we were awful, but we thoroughly enjoyed it). Not as tight as we would hope to be if we'd rehearsed more than twice, but close enough for rock n roll. Then over to the other band, an established covers outfit, who played a great set. Interesting set up too - everything (including the guitar head - they seemed to be using a Kemper) went through the PA, and levels were controlled on an iPad. No long, tedious sound checks when we played or the jam was happening - they'd set everything before the crowd arrived so those playing just plugged in, tuned up and away they went with a tweak or two on the iPad as and when required. So, not what we were expecting on many levels, but a really nice evening, a good first gig with the band, and all of us agreeing that we should do more of the same

and I quote: "PRS for Music does not make a charge for functions of a purely domestic or family nature, such as wedding receptions, christening parties or domestic birthday parties, when: attendance of guests is by personal invitation only (except for staff, performers, etc.); the function is held in a privately-booked room, not at that time open to the general public; there is no form of charge made for admission; there is no financial gain to the function's organiser or host (e.g. the person hiring the venue)."

stage left by default, even when playing guitar (though most of my guitar playing has been in a band with a drummer that I've played bass with since we were teenagers, so we're used to it). And agree, it seems to be the default set up when the venue/studio is providing the amps. Not sure if it's an actual preference, it's just where I always set up my amp. But I'm not that fussed if I end up stage right. Did a gig at the Underworld last year and there were only three monitors on stage for four of us, with me sharing the stage left one with the keyboard player. And the keyboard mostly doing samples, very little actual playing, but very closely timed so he had to be able to hear himself. Plus he was doing BVs and I wasn't for that one. So I gracefully withdrew, let him have the monitor to himself and just used the backline to hear myself, and picked up the rest of the band from their monitor mixes. Heard myself OK, not the best mix for hearing everybody else, but I could hear enough to be able to play everything correctly so it was fine.

I had an interesting lesson in band finances a couple of weeks ago. I'm doing a charity gig next weekend with a covers band I've notionally been in for a couple of years, but we've never actually played (or until two weeks ago, rehearsed) because the rest of the band are in a signed, name band, and we've never had the opportunity to arrange any actual gigs (though I depped with them for a couple of gigs last year when they were between bass players). The name band are very well known in a specific genre, regularly do (smallish) UK tours at not bad sized club venues, play festivals across the world, sell a ton of merch, and never go out for less than £1k a show...but once they've paid for vans, flights, hotels, and given money to the crew and the non-core band members, there isn't much left over for the core band members (the lot that I'll be playing with). So despite generating a decent amount of cash, it's very far from being a living, and while expenses are covered, it's barely a paid hobby - the core members paid themselves for the first time in about three or four years a few weeks ago, and it wasn't a huge amount of money considering all the band activity in that time (though they did then take me out drinking with the balance of the band bank account as I'd done the dep shows for free). And as men of a certain age with assorted family and job responsibilities, they can't really step the band up to the next level because they can't commit to weeks or months on the road, and at the level they currently occupy they aren't going to be offered many more gigs than they currently play. So they are all very keen to finally get this covers band up and running as they see it being far more lucrative - we can play as frequently as we want, expenses will be low, and it doesn't need three rehearsals a week. The other band will always be their first love, but they fancy actually taking money home with them after playing a gig for a change

I had a ticket for the 40th anniversary tour (having seen them first at both their 10th anniversary shows at Hammersmith) and even as we were buying them, it did feel like "see Lemmy now because he's going to be dead before too long and I doubt he'll tour again" such were the reports of his rapidly declining health over the preceding Autumn

In terms of being "shocked" - another vote for Cliff Burton. I was a huge fan from the days of Kill 'Em All, saw them on the tail end of the Ride The Lightning tour and had seen them play at Hammersmith just a few days before the coach crash, promoting the best album the band ever made. So full of life, literally at the forefront of inventing a new musical genre, and Metallica have lacked his influence ever since (not that it's stopped them making piles of money) Cobain was also pretty shocking, although the media was reporting that his private life was falling apart and the lyrics on the last Nirvana album were a pretty big give away about how unhappy he was. So perhaps not a surprise, but another one who went at the peak of his powers. In terms of being more sad that I usually am at the death of a celebrity (and rather than shocked) probably Elliot Smith, Chris Cornell, and all of the classic Motorhead line up, especially Fast Eddie (the other two had been very ill, and their deaths not being a huge surprise)

I'm not entirely sure... supposed to be doing a gig at the Face Bar in Reading in a couple of weeks. the band is a much longer and duller subject than needs to be gone into here, but it's me plus a few reasonably well known extreme metal musicians doing old classic rock covers, just half an hour for a charity thing in remembrance of a friend of the singer who died a decade ago. We had a quick run through over the Easter weekend, went well enough and just need another practice to sharpen up before the gig I don't know the venue so this morning I googled it to find that they have a booking that night, but it doesn't look like us and no mention of charity I probably need to check that it's actually happening, right?

I always used to get this - not stress, more the adrenaline from rehearsing, that my brain was fully switched on from practicing and wouldn't switch off. And other band mates tell me the same thing. Never really solved it but it went away - the next band I was in rehearsed at weekends, specifically weekend afternoons, so that was never an issue by the time I got home, and the last lot I practiced with in the evening left me with a two hour trip home afterwards so my brain had plenty of time to slow down before I got to my bed. The only thing worth passing on was telling myself not to worry about it. If it's two in the morning, lying there thinking "go to sleep, go to sleep, I need to get some sleep!" does not help, but accepting that I'm going to be a bit tired tomorrow seems to have better results. perhaps easier said than done

Happened to me on Easter Sunday - first practice I'd had for three months, and after a couple of hours of pretty constant playing I got cramp in my right hand's index and middle fingers as soon as we started "one last run through of the whole set" I've had it a few times before, almost always the picking hand, and always after a few hours of hard playing in a sweaty studio, usually having been drinking beer. So for me it's almost certainly dehydration, for which there is no immediate cure. Fortunately, because it is usually my picking hand I can manage it by switching to playing with a pick rather than finger style. I do have a wider issue with cramp, and am reliably told that bananas and water would make a much better diet to deal with that than what I usually eat. Lesson learned is to manage rehearsals so that I'm not actually playing for more than a couple of hours, and to try and be as hydrated as possible (that's usually a fail!) and it's never a problem at gigs as I won't actually be playing for more than a couple of hours on the day

The correct answer is "whatever I currently play". Never seen any studio stock them, no matter what i was playing at the time. But if i can get a set of something even vaguely similar that's OK on the day I'll buy those to get me to the end of rehearsal, so as a minimum some flats, some nickel roundwounds (though I personally prefer steel) and please, some five string sets, or even better individual strings. In my experience even the better studios will have a fairly wide range of guitar string gauges, albeit from one lucky manufacturer, and then one set of 40-100 bass strings (with no low E). So I never go to practice without bringing my own spares. I do think that studios miss a trick here. Bit like someone said on the batteries, there's a self-defeating spiral here - people don't buy strings at a studio because they cost more than in a shop, so studio's don't stock much choice because nobody buys strings from them unless they desperately need some. at which point they feel ripped off and will do their best to bring their own spares in future so that they don't have to buy from the studio again, so having made one sale the studio loses all future sales... Says to me that there's a market for a good range of strings, keenly priced so that the punters don't feel ripped off and will happily buy their strings, picks, drumsticks, etc from the studio because it's convenient. They might not make much of a mark up, but that feeling of not being ripped off would definitely get loyal customers coming back, and even a tiny margin on the sales would be made up for in the increased volume of sales. So to the OP, my suggestion would be for the new studio to make contact with a good local music shop and agree some sort of deal where they can hold a decent range of stock, and make the punters know that if they don't have their favourite strings right now they can always try and get hold of them if they're going to be a long term booking.

I'm not sure that it's easily available info - they have always been a custom shop, and never seemed that bothered about publishing stats for how many basses they've made. there is this: https://www4.cs.fau.de/~koesters/Privat/Wal/walspec.html Which is very far from official - seems to be a list of instruments that the site owner has been told about, rather than anything comprehensive. But may give you a flavour of the fretted to fretless ratios for the period

You might also look at the cost of buying the Allparts neck and asking a luthier to finish it for you...or seeing if any stockists have the finished Allparts necks

Yeah, Ibis are fine for the money. Tiny, and you need to be very good friends with your room mate (or have no shame) but clean, dirt cheap and as much (albeit limited in range) food as you can shovel into your face the following morning

beat me to it - superglue it ten minutes before you go on stage (and keep your hands off the strings until it's properly set) - it's worked for me in the past. I'd suggest gluing any open bits back together, and a liberal covering around the wound for luck

I think it depends a lot on both how it is set out at the beginning, and how the band members react. Some people will happily play for no money as long as they're having fun, and others won't. No right or wrong. My bugbear is when people agree to play for nothing or just expenses, and then do nothing but complain about it afterwards. One old band of mine did a wedding as a present to a mate of mine (not theirs). I offered to pay the band the usual gig fee, and to a man they came back and told me that they wouldn't take a penny more than the cost of petrol. On another occasion the same band did a "loss leader" for a mate of mine who was looking at getting into being a promoter - he knew I was in a couple of bands and asked if I could get them to play for a flat £50. The fact that he sold every ticket in advance, but still lost a load of money showed what a terrible promoter he would have been. For my other, non-punk band, it was understood to be a good opportunity to play a gig when we were just getting started, we'd probably only just about cover fuel, but it would be a packed crowd in central London for a new promoter who would then owe us a favour. The split was £10 each, but I'd happily put mine back into the pot if that didn't cover the petrol for anybody. Everybody understood, and the night itself was brilliant, but the lead guitarist from band #2 made a bit of an @rse of himself (long story) which as was standard he blamed on everybody else, and because the promoter was my mate, that made it all my fault. Including the fact that his girlfriend, having bagsied a £5.00 ticket, somehow managed to pay £10.00 for it, on a night where half of our mates, having also bagsied a ticket, just walked in without paying (more proof that a career as a promoter did not beckon for the organiser). Everybody agreed that they could cover their petrol with the tenner that they were getting, so my tenner was to go into the band's float and could pay for half the next practice. But the guitarist demanded that he get the tenner, because it was unreasonable that he should be a tenner out of pocket when he was doing a favour for me, it wasn't his fault that his girlfriend had paid twice the going rate for a ticket and anyway nobody else's mates had paid to get in (not actually true, plenty did). We gave him the money, but that pretty much cemented his reputation as being a massive, selfish c#nt, and was the start of the end for him in that band.

Love them - in fact (in my recent "got to re-buy all the old vinyl I used to have on 180g remasters" I got three of Budgie's in the last week, Power Supply, If Swallowed and Nightflight). Only saw them once, at the tail end of Deliver Us From Evil, about the time that they lost their record deal and just before they packed up, at the Clarendon in Hammersmith. John Thomas in full flow, brilliant night. My only regret was not buying a T-shirt

Saw the Stones at Wembley in 1990, and they seemed a bit past it then, with a big chunk of the crowd (me included) being there mainly because it was the Stones and this might be our last chance to see them. I remember them being OK, not spectacular. But the legend of the Rolling Stones, that's a fine thing, bigger than the sum of it's parts I have a lot of their records (and as a 50th birthday treat to myself just got Let It Bleed on vinyl as it's also 50 this year) and for me the sweet spot was Beggars Banquet and Let it Bleed through the albums that Mick Taylor is on, and not much after that.

The way it's always worked for pub type bands I've been in was that petrol was that any drivers got their petrol paid first, and always in a "take a tenner/twenty for petrol" way rather than an exact calculation of mileage, etc. possibly because I've never played in any bands for a living. For the semi-pro stuff, the gig won't be accepted unless the fees cover all the fixed expenses - van hire, fuel, hotels, etc. Personal expenses, like petrol to get to the pick up point, food and drink that's not on the rider, etc, was your own issue, but there was money available if a band member was particularly skint

I'll see you there...though as has come to be expected when I'm coming into town on a weekend, my trains are fecked up so I may not be able to catch much of Anaal Nathrakh