mikel

They seem to be doing a fair job of it from my viewpoint. Flogging off all our successful businesses to foreign companies so all the profits go out of the country and the companies involved are allowed sweetheart tax deals. Allowing private companies to run our public transport and make profits for their shareholders rather than profits being plowed back into the infrastructure or lower fares. Like a certain foreign company being allowed to buy a chocolate manufacturer in York, with the promise that the factory would remain in production, than allowing them to close said factory with the resulting unemployment. I could go on.

Is the urban decay band vid/photo not a bit overdone? Just saying. Why not try and come up with something different, ironic, unusual? It might get noticed a bit more. take the p*ss out of shiny new big business or yuppie housing.

We have rules,and as the band is an equal vote thing problems are few. We all agree on a song and learn our parts at home once the key and version are agreed. If anyone is not up to speed on a new song its put to bed till next rehearsal to allow anyone struggling to catch up. A song is not on the gig list till it is right. No noodling, ever, not even at rehearsal. That includes vocals and drums. Tune up only silently, almost every tuner has a volume mute. We practice quietly so errors are obvious and easy to rectify. If any member really dislikes a new song it is dropped.

Just an observation, but if the OP is so into Rap, and how good it is, why feel the need to defend it? Its simply another music genre. We all have likes and dislikes, its what makes the world go round.

Back in the early 70s we were booked to play a Xmas party for one of the huge, now sadly defunct, department stores in Newcastle. The venue was the Rainbow Room, a vast throwback to another era. Not sure who booked us,I think the bass players mum worked knew someone and said we had a band. We played all originals, a sort of rock/prog mix of highly un dancable shoe gazing stuff. We were given a huge dressing room and served a big buffet by two young ladies in black uniforms complete with white frilly aprons. We walked on stage to a room full of tables each sitting about 12 people, all formal and all in suits and evening dresses. There must have been 250 people all eating. We smashed into the first number, we were always loud but the gravity of the weird situation got to us and we played louder and faster than usual. We waited for the stony silence that must surely greet the end of the first song, and were greeted with loud applause. Shocked? you bet. We went down a storm and I still have no idea why. But we flatly refused to do anything like it again. Hardly our target audience by a long strech .

So what is the answer? Do we all stop playing in bands or orchestras? Stop listening to music? Use ear defenders every time we leave the house cos we may come into contact with a noisy vehicle or a road drill at some point?. As I say, It was his choice to play an instrument and to play with others, if he thought it too loud he could always have walked away. Everything is someone else's fault, it seems. No, we have personal choice and responsibility for the outcome of those choices. I have tinnitus from playing in bands, where do I join the queue to pick up my million quid?

So what? Hearing loss is almost inevitable as we get older, so how do we decide who has been effected by "excessive" noise and who is simply losing hearing due to natural causes? I still play in bands with guys I know from 50 years ago, some have hearing loss and/or tinnitus and some have not. What caused it, being in loud bands, listening to headphones, or natural causes? Its a can of worms open to any chancer to make some money out of the state, ie, us. Who is to say this person has not been using headphones at home at stupid volume.

Sad for anyone to have hearing damage, but for him to blame others seems way off to me. Cheap good quality hearing protection is easy to come by and works well. I use some that cuts the volume but retains the sound spectrum and I play in loud rock bands. I can see this opening a huge can of worms re the ambulance chasing lawyers. If he thought the rehearsals were too loud he could have said something, or walked. His choice.

Lacking in social graces would be my take. Common courtesy seems to be going out of the window. It is easier now than ever to send a quick message saying thanks but no thanks. Treat others the way you would like them to treat you. Name and shame would be the first step in stamping out this disgraceful lack of respect. We could then all watch the live stream of the disgraced culprit being stripped of their BC membership and frog marched from the building.

Wait for the "I can't chose just one" brigade to pipe up with a list of what they cant chose from.

TOTP. Will always have a place in my heart. I remember back in the day when Cream were on the show with I Feel Free. Pandemonium at school, a "Proper" band on TOTP, we talked about it for days. Jethro Tull were on playing Living in the Past, in 5/4 time. Can you imagine such a thing now?

About 3k for me, but that includes bass gear, my drum kit, hardware, cymbals and cases. back in the day I was a gear whore, but I came to the conclusion it sadly did not make me a better musician. I now practice and play more, and get the most from what I have, rather than thinking a new bit of kit will make me better.

If its an amp with a dedicated aux in and headphone out what you have been doing should not be a problem. May simply be a faulty amp.

Staying with Mackie. Our local rehearsal studio installed Mackie Thump speakers for PA and I am not impressed. The older/more expensive Mackie setups sounded good but the Thump's are not up to much IMO.

Possibly, but a lot of it comes down to fashion. Yes, they were the go to amps and cabs in the late 60s early 70s, but they were still good. They have moved on (On?) to solid state for guitar and bass, but they are primarily valve amp designers/producers. Fashion has moved on, from Trace ect, to the plethora of smaller boutique makers that are in vogue today. A Marshall bass amp with two 4 x 12s was a beast to behold, and to hear. The sheer amount of air being moved made a wonderful noise. Not like the piddling 1000 watt amps and multi 8" speaker setups today. No heft you see?

I live in Monkseaton and would be happy to check it out for you.

Why is it annoying if it means its easier for people resistant to gluten to have more choice? It is stupid to sell a bag of nuts that contains the warning "May contain nuts" but sometimes they do just that. What we need to be asking is why are there so many people now with intolerance and allergies? And do something about it.

Hey, dont feel sorry for us. We enjoy festivals despite the weather, we dont need sunshine to enjoy stuff. Its the "We are all in this together" spirit. I thing the US has many more and pressing problems than we do in the UK at the moment. I wont go into them here.

Only in retrospect. Woodstock was, at the time of inception, just a hippy open air festival, it achieved mythical status as it grew and grew over the days.No one expected a crowd of that size. Now it is the stuff of legend. It was CS & N first gig as a band and I recall them saying they were literally s*itting themselves before they went on.

/\ This. Surely the singer has to go with the music.

Kendrick who??????

It was tongue in cheek, you are missing nowt mate.

Award shows are a waste of time. There is no "Best", it's a back slapping jolly, thats all. The Oscars are the same.

Are you missing anything? If the band starts playing a different genre, and you cant get your head around the bass parts, then there is a reason to look into another way of playing and working on new techniques. I have been playing bass and drums for over 50 years and I can still come up with new stuff to practice and work on without going into standard bass theory or learning to read music. Its Rock and Roll there is no right way, just your way.

Sounds like you have it nailed. Why "Learn" lots of stuff you dont need and will probably never use? Why start playing what is expected, what is the tried and tested, why not be the original and unique you? If you like and enjoy what you do, and other musicians like playing with you then you pretty much have it down. Personally I only learn stuff that I hear that really interests me.