musicbassman

A band with a couple in it? I worked in a band with a married couple in it once, and their marriage was clearly falling apart after he (drummer) had an affair. Although they were still living in the same house, she refused to travel to gigs with him, and I had to go over to their house and take her to and from the gigs in my car. Sometimes we ended up travelling directly behind or in front of the drummer for most of the way there or on the journey home. So silly!

Hello all, Recently I put up a thread about a 'person' called 'Melvin Pierce' who was flooding YouTube with what appeared to me to be AI generated content. Semi easy listening, soft focus stuff. I wasn't absolutely sure whether it was for real or not, and thought maybe I was letting my imagination run away a bit. And now this appears - The Beatles Rubber Soul album reimagined in a Motown style. And yes, it's all entirely AI generated, and it all sounds just so authentic. If this is what's possible right now, then I really can't imagine where will things be in another ten years time . 😵

Oh yes, I've played with these types of people just too many times. Doggedly stick to the script even though it's b.obvious the singer has either skipped a line or two, or is singing completely out of their range....... I did a dep gig a couple of years ago where the band had 'Rhythm Stick' on the setlist. In F, as the original. Not the easiest line to play, and not helped by the newly recruited guitarist playing it in E from the off. He was on the other side of the stage and no amount of arm waving and gesticulations would make him look in my direction. Poor front singer wasn't sure what to do. When we took a break I asked the gitard whether he'd realised he was in the wrong key - he said thought it had sounded a bit odd, but he hadn't changed to the correct key as he thought 'people might have noticed' 🥺

1968. 16 years old. First song I ever rehearsed with a band was Sunshine of Your Love. This was round at the drummers house, he had weird parents who were hoarders, they never opened the curtains and the whole place smelt of wee. I was 'playing' a Watkins Rapier 33 guitar, we used to hire an AC30 from the local music shop on a Saturday morning, lug it down the High St and back to his house, and then plug in two guitars, bass, and three mikes. Well, it had six input sockets, didn't it ? One morning, an older guy from another local band came round to see us, and showed us how to play a 12 bar sequence. I was very impressed, and then realised that every single track on the John Mayalls Bluesbreakers album that I was playing constantly at home was simply yet another 12 bar. 😳

The greatest basslines - like this one - achieve both ! 🙂 👍

Do you know of the Escola Municipal de Música de Sant Andreu in Barcelona? This is the home of the extremely well respected Sant Andreu Jazz Band (loads of videos on YouTube) Might be useful to make contact with them ? Best of luck 🙂👍

Joining a pro band when I was in my early 20's, and meeting their guitarist, who I soon realised had more talent in the tip of one finger than I had in total. I had thought I was fairly on top of my game at the time, but (without putting me down) he suggested a few bands and bass players I really should be listening to, and I then realised how ignorant I was of a lot of excellent players. An absolute revelation. He went on to have a long career working as a successful producer and session musician - still active now, although well into his 70's Forever grateful to him. 🙂 👍

Oh go on, do tell us who this is.......... 😉

I'd never heard of Geordie Greep until a couple of weeks ago. He was the guitarist/frontman with a band called Black Midi. His first album has just been released, and it's the most interesting new material I've heard for a good while. Difficult to pick one track - (it's all on YouTube) - as each track is so different. Here's a track called 'Blues' which maybe gives you a taste. You'll have to watch it on YouTube as it has the dreaded f-word in the lyrics (just once, I think)

Played on the U.S.A.F. bases in Spain in the late '70's Six nights a week. Weekday nights you were expected to play 5 x 45's, Saturday nights were 6 x 45's. Sadly it turned out the band I'd joined for the duration was woefully under-prepared for such long sessions, and it was a killer for everyone. The poor front vocalist could hardly sing after the first week, so there were quite a few 20 minute Freebird guitar solos, I seem to remember. I was relieved to get back to the UK at the end of the contract, and vowed never, ever again. 🥺

Just in case any BC ers haven't heard of this, here's Percy Jones in full flow. Brilliant.

Yes, this is me in 1971 with an original Danelectro Longhorn bass, with the wooden toggle switches. I would guess this would have been made about 1967. Not necessarily of massive value, but incredibly rare now.

I read that as "When the nurse stops you weeing on the stage" Still true, though 🙂

Oh dear. Never heard of it. What have I missed ? 😳

Talking with another muso a few days ago, and we were considering how what was considered cool 'jazz funk' in the 80's has morphed into general polite background musak now. I mentioned a Youtube channel I've come across run by a person (?) called Melvin Pierce which has loads of tracks all done in this style, accompanied by videos of soft focus 'hip' people being cool in various ways, so it all looks a bit like some sort of continuous lifestyle advert. My friend said that he had come across this channel as well and was convinced all the music was AI generated and there was no such person as 'Melvin Pierce' I must admit I hadn't considered this possibility, but the more you look at this channel the more peculiar it seems. Some comments assume Melvin is a sax player, some assume he's a producer, and some think he's a guitarist. Who knows ? There never seem to be the same musicians appearing in any of the videos, of which (I've just looked this up) 132 have been uploaded since January this year. Video below is fairly typical - they're all done in the same sort of style. BC'ers opinions ?