musicbassman

I had to read that sentence several times before I was sure of what I was reading ! Is this a wind up ? 😲

I mean this very politely and respectfully, but isn't it interesting how one bass players idea of an 'awesome' sound is another bass players 'nightmare 'sound ? I would hate to have my bass sound like that on stage ! Obviously, many other opinions are available........... (ducks and runs for cover...........)

Yes, always, always, follow the singer when it comes to arrangements getting messed up. But if they start off in the wrong key, then a car crash is pretty inevitable, as there's no undo button. Best to bring things to a halt, make a joke about it, and start again, and thoughts and prayers they'll get it right second time round. 😬

Errrr - no. It's Paddy McAloon, his brother, the frontman and songwriter, who has the hearing issues, poor guy.

Oooh, I hope there's going to be a bass solo ! 😁👍

Always been a huge admirer of this band. I always felt they did themselves no favours by deciding on such a silly name - I mean, most band names are pretty silly, but Prefab Sprout is on another level ! Anyway, never mind 'out popped cookie' - what I want to know is - who was Paddy's 'Tuppentup friend' ???

Interesting topic. Did a dep gig last weekend and it was my first experience working with a band just as described by @stewblack - a click and full backing tracks, verbal cues, the works. I'm sure the end result was OK out front (they had a regular sound engineer who came to their gigs) but a most peculiar slightly other worldly experience on stage as relying entirely on IEM's and not a lot of eye contact for cues. This was a pro standard wedding/functions band and this set up was an absolute standard for them - they made it perfectly clear what I could expect when they offered me the gig, and I only got the gig because I took a deep breath and said I'd be happy to work like this 😬 Much to my relief, they seemed pleased enough with the end result

Any excuse for showing a bit of Rob Mullarkey. Here, he's playing his interpretation of Jeff Buckley's 'Grace' with the wonderful Natalie Williams on vocals.

Rob Mullarkey, my No 1 favourite player! 🙂 What an excellent, informative (and lengthy) video, well worth an hour of any BCers time.

Just take a listen to the first couple of minutes of this. Pure punk !

I'm 'blessed' with having a resting face that always looks slightly grumpy or annoyed, but this has absolutely nothing to do with my actual mood. Not a lot I can do about this, and I don't think it's done me any favours over the years......... This pic was taken at a gig a few weeks ago and is about as close as I can manage to get to a smile! 😬 👍

For anyone needing a quick breakdown of exactly what an IR is, here's a useful video from Adam Steel:

😊😊😊😊 👍👍

Mastery, and also a little sorcery at work here, surely. 😊 👍 And then there's a few comments below from people who simply don't understand ebb and flow, and nuanced syncopation....... ..."minor timing errors in the bass"........... ......"completely lacking in any pocket".............. 😳 and look out for a lovely bit of bass nonsense at 3.05, even Fagen must have cracked a little smile at that.

.....until you have to 'cos you've got severe cramp 🥺........but it's certainly a great riff. I can manage about 4 minutes of it before my fingers admit defeat ! 😳

Oh, what a great song! - and Anthony Jackson on bass. Always happy to play this, it never gets stale.

1970, and this is embarrassing. I’ve possibly done a couple of thousand gigs by now, and pretty well all are forgotten, but you always remember the first, don’t you ? This was in Exeter, and my first proper gig at 18. I was playing a Danelectro Longhorn bass through a Linear Concord amp and an old Selmer 2x15 cabinet. The band had rehearsed in the local church hall since forever, but I don’t think the songs were getting any better. I can remember playing Taste’s ‘What’s Going On’, Hendrix’s ‘Cross Town Traffic’ and Cream’s ‘White Room’ amongst others. We got a gig in a local youth club about a mile from the church hall where we’d been rehearsing and also kept our gear, but as we had no means of transport we were seriously planning on CARRYING the gear the mile long walk to the club. Then realised at the last minute this was a completely daft idea, so managed to persuade a reluctant builder neighbour to take us there in his van. The club was full of bovver boys/skinheads and their girls, who were all wearing identical short coats which I seem to think were called Crombies or something like that. They scowled at us as we set up and things didn’t get any better. We’d only played four or five numbers (which had been completely ignored by the audience) when the doors burst open and a rival gang of skinheads from another club turned up and a full scale brawl quickly ensued, chairs and tables flying everywhere. To try and continue playing would have been pointless. After a short while the local police turned up and cleared the place. We were paid £8. £5 went to the builder for the van, and as this was pre-decimal times we were left with 15 shillings each.

In case you were wondering, this is from the Youtube comments re the mute fitted on his P bass: It is a standard fender Jaguar mute, that belongs under the rocking offset bridge originally. It does not belong on a p-bass at all, but fits the need perfectly. There's mute kit sets available for about 30-40 dollars (original Fender) plenty of videos Out there how to drill the necessary holes. Same for the precision as on the jaguars. Check out this site on how it gets set up and was originally used: https://www.google.com/amp/s/mmguitarbar.wordpress.com/2017/04/17/demystifying-part-5-the-fender-mute/amp/

I was a big fan of their very fresh sound when they first surfaced, which I think was around 1980, and I saw them live a couple of times. Leigh Gorman was a monster player and a master at pick playing which suited their 'tribal beats' (as I think their sound was described at the time) Malcolm McClaren was a canny promoter and made much of Annabellas jailbait image, and also the band's references to home taping, which was a hot issue at the time. All seems a long time ago now, but Leigh Gorman's bass style really suited the music and still sounds absolutely on point today 👍

I'm on the fence about this. Tredici Bacci do some odd arrangements of songs but this one's so way outside the field that some may think it's edging towards a send up. I thought some of you might like a listen to draw your own conclusions. It was a great song, after all. 🙂

For those still slightly bemused by Jamerson's abilities, those words are exactly what he's all about. I've been playing bass since forever, but I didn't really 'get' Jamerson until I was in my 40's............ 🙂

As some of you may have noticed, I'm a massive fan of Cardiacs music. Tim Smith (RIP) was the driving force and composer extraordinaire behind the band, but never overlook the complex and cleverly crafted basslines played by his brother Jim. So, here's a guy who only describes himself as 'G' doing a pretty well note perfect cover of the acrobatic bass line to 'Dog Like Sparky' B****y genius in my opinion, both the original and this cover. 🙂

I'm surprised no one's mentioned strap weight ? I bought a very nice wide padded leather strap a couple of years ago - very comfortable, but it weighed 1 kg on it's own ! Not much point in searching for a nice light bass if you're then going to put a 1kg strap on it............