Dankology

You really shouldn't. Even with my relatively modest population of c9500 patients, I can see hundreds benefiting (to various degrees) from GP contact, in-practice mental heath workers, crisis teams, A&E liaison teams, community mental health teams, health coaches, care coordinators, drug & alcohol services, in-patient wards etc etc etc - this really does not equate to not bring able to access support and you do hard working staff a serious disservice by parroting this reductive (and really quite inaccurate line).

Again, I think we need to be careful about stating what "isn't available" vs what a system isn't currently able to supply. People in crisis/at high risk have to be prioritised, of course, and the system as it stands is saturated. Add to this the number of people who are referred for psychological and talking therapies who subsequently fail to engage fully/at all, people who don't take medication consistently/for long enough to be effective, the influence of coexisting drug and alcohol issues, people who are unable to distinguish between mental health problems and social/financial issues and an ongoing push to limit funding and you have a system primed for someone to say "this isn't working" and thus pave the way for a private provider to promise the earth - with all the inevitable consequences that brings. I'm not arguing that the system is perfect or even working anything like it should but I am very wary of blanket statements such as " one cannot access NHS mental health support" when there is a whole silo of vested interests who want people to buy into that mindset rather than the infinitely more nuanced real-life situation.

Without wanting to get further into semantics: it isn't so much that one cannot access NHS mental health support but rather that so many people are currently accessing it that wait times are ever increasing. An important distinction, I think.

This sounds uncannily similar. I have a certain amount of sympathy with people who have to be narcissistic enough to front a band and who were probably blindsided by initial success and its trappings, never fully maturing into a properly functional human being. In fact, the one question I was asked at every single gig (either by punters, venue staff of other members of the band) was "how/why do you put up with him?" - and my answer always was "because the music is better than the man" - and I truly felt a responsibility to the body of work that outweighed the various torments. Until it didn't!

I have to say that, on balance, my general feeling is one of relief - as great as the gigs looked, the stresses of actually getting to them, getting set up and getting out again would have really taken the shine off them. Swings and roundabouts...

Aw, you're a good man 😀 As it happens, you're on my list of people to contact this week re 2025 gigs - cannot wait to see your lot again 😍😍😍

A few of you here might know that for the last couple of years, alongside playing in my own band, I've also been a member of a fairly well known group that has been around in very various forms since the punk/new wave era. I've done two short British tours with the band as well as a couple of stray dates, the most recent being what seemed to be a very successful gig in November. The main man had floated a handful of 2025 dates by us a few months ago and we had dutifully blocked them out only to learn that a much more comprehensive tour had been booked as the ads hit social media. The drummer and I immediately cleared our calendars but the guitarist, a life-long jobbing musician, had just taken on his first ever straight job and simply couldn't commit to every gig. Having been told categorically that it was very much every gig or no gigs, he recommended an acquaintance to replace him. Our group WhatsApp got a bit quiet after this and we heard via mutual friends a couple of weeks later that the bandleader had met with this new chap and he was cheerily telling people around town that he had been asked to get an entirely new band together. We sat on this knowledge for a couple of weeks and I found that my usual back and forth of messages with (let's call him "Pete"...) simply stopped, even the non-musical rubbish that we often shot around. And then came a group message asking if we could squeeze in a rehearsal for a couple of stray January gigs and an odd "can I get a copy of the backing tracks - there's some things I need to check". At which point I mentioned that I'd heard someone was telling people in Manchester that he'd been asked to put a new band together... This had the predictable effect and both the guitarist and drummer vented the frustrations we'd kept bottled up for the preceding weeks. It was all turned back on us: we'd indulged rumours, got the wrong end of the stick and maybe it was time for a new start. "I'll see if the new guys can do the gigs"... two minutes later "they can!" - must be the shortest amount of time it has ever taken four musicians to read a message, let alone confirm 18 dates. And that was more or less it until on Christmas Eve a Facebook post appeared announcing an emailed "review of the year" type missive including "how I was sacked by my own band due to one member's stupidity". Said missive was inaccurate and quite insulting to the guitarist in particular and so I formulated a response and posted beneath the FB post. The slew of (public) messages that followed was both infuriating and vindicating and I don't think anyone could be in any doubt as to where the blame and the truth variously lay. Interestingly, the line is now that we staged a mutiny as we hadn't appreciated that our current 4-piece band was to be plumped into a 3-guitar, bass, keys and twin-drummer line-up - he should probably feel grateful that the economics (and stage plan) for that were never put to the test. It's ever so sad though. We were a great band and we went far and above what could ever be expected of musicians in terms of practically and psychologically keeping that band afloat. One day I'll tell of all the ridiculous tantrums, indignities, endless sacked van drivers and surreally farcical events that we went through. And the gazebo. It's going to be a great little book. I had a lovely coda of schadenfreude over the weekend: we received a message featuring a screenshot of a mayday message sent as the band's van had broken down part way to a gig on the south coast, driven by the previous tour's second driver, who had originally been sacked in part due to his constant efforts to join the band onstage. That did feel pretty good - well, that plus I'm so much better looking than the new bass player... Onwards and upwards 🙂

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1586546/ About the band Scarce - a great group who were felled by some incredibly bad luck.

Oh wow, that's where I grew up... Never the most glamorous of places but I'm impressed that there's at least one pub still putting bands on.

I'm originally from one of the several arse-ends of Bolton - give us a clue whereabouts you were...

The version on Live At Leeds is spectacular, even if it benefits from some overdubs. Dunno about it not being one of their greatest - I reckon it could be in their top 3...

Shakespeare North with the Mighty Wah last night - spectacular venue, lovely staff, amazing audience and we (primed by a run of support slots) played a blinder. Eldest daughter brought her German exchange partner with her - Christ knows what she made of it all. I had a bit of revelation re my always reticent bvs - whack the monitor volume up an just go for it seems to be the way forward. I used the lovely Jap P bass I bought through here a couple of months back and rather than doing my usual swapping between pick and fingers depending on the song, just used a plectrum throughout. I expect my tone was admirably consistent but I've inflicted a couple of areas of bass burn on my right hand in the process. I only want to do gigs in posh theatres from now on.

When I clicked onto the Justgiving link earlier today I was literally gobsmacked by what had happened. I mean, I always knew that the bassists were the eternal good guys of bands but this is genuinely moving stuff. The sight of Iris gleefully dancing to her dad's music a couple of weeks ago, ear defenders in place and at times hand-in-hand with another person using a wheelchair, the two spiralling around each other, is an image that will live with me forever. You've done a beautiful thing for a beautiful family.

I had a very similar experience in my first year of secondary school: asked to sing a verse of Good King Wenceslas in front of a class of 30 boys. "Unremarkable" was the quietly crushing verdict. I'm still horrifically self-conscious of my singing, to the point it nearly caused a major argument at soundcheck tonight. If angers me that the process was based entirely on identifying easy wins for the choir/other school stuff, rather than nurturing potential. But I'm fairly certain that I'm the only person fron that cohort gigging at a professional level so what did they know?

Just to echo @AndyTravis's comments above... Saturday was great: afternoon gigs might be the way forward. Fiasco Jam were phenomenal - great songs, great arrangements and everyone locked in. As I've already said to him, Andy might be my favourite bassist: despite his immense technical and sonic range, he always serves the song and never puts a foot wrong. We were a bit rusty in comparison but acquitted ourselves acceptably. Very grateful to FJ for taking us along!