Baxlin

Wasn’t the suggestion that Originals bands avoid the Arches, not that all bands avoid this venue? If you look at their website, they seem to feature a lot of tribute bands, which could be the reason for the caution.

'Fraid I agree with you, I let the sound man sort what’s best FOH. But I suppose most folks will (occasionally) wash their car or take it to the car wash, whereas I spend hours with various lotions and potions making my car look shinier than new.....

Going back to the Portuguese bass-only band, he is brilliant, no doubt, and he is playing a bass guitar, but he’s not really "playing bass", IMO. From his chord shapes, he could have it tuned to the top 4 strings of a guitar, rather than the bottom four, and play ukulele chord shapes? Having said that, I wish I was even half as good!!

I’m sure I read something a couple of years or so ago about changes to the music licensing laws, don’t venues now have to have a different (ie expensive) licence for more than 2 musicians, or have I got that wrong?

Spot on, and the really tiny one was a Little Giant. (we were only 16, after all) And they weren’t called gigs in those days, they were 'bookings'.

Somewhere in North Notts, late 1963, band name 'Vince Pinkerton and the Lawmen'. Me on drums in those days. Look at those huge amps.... How things have changed!!

Hope "hard copy" in whatever form doesn’t disappear, if only because I’d miss the sleeve notes.

Possibly it being "fetless" has something to do with it.

The "wall" behind is the shortly to open M1 junction 25, circa 1965/6, me behind the kit

When you think of it orchestras don’t only have music stands, but they also have a conductor to make sure they stay with it as written.

Good point, taken on board. However, we are all retired, jamming for fun, so the text and his reply were a tad tongue in cheek, as we all have songs we are not fond of, and rib each other about them.

Rehearsed last week without our rhythm g/keyboardist, so we weren’t trying too seriously. Jammed Brown Eyed Girl as we know he hates that song, but it worked very well. Texted him to say we wanted to work on it at today’s session, his reply? "I think I will have a migraine come on this afternoon". Hope he was joking.

Seeing some of the Elvis impersonators that 'perform', there might be some truth in this.......

Not to mention the many replicas of the likes of the AC Cobra, E-Type Jag, Lotus 7 etc which while not BEING the original, often,TBH, perform better......

As well as playing in a jamming band, I'm also on the rota for our church worship band, it’s a fairly big church, we have 3 drummers, several keys players, guitarists and folks that blow things, as well as 4 bassists on the rotas. Which means that while we play familiar songs (with some new thrown in), it’s rare to have the same lineup for either service on a Sunday. We have a good hour's rehearsal, but the atmosphere can sway how the songs are presented, so hand signals are essential, C hand shape for chorus, fingers raised relating to verse number, arched hand for the bridge, fist for finish, 'lifting' hand motion for building up, downwards for pulling back, etc. We also have a talk-back system, when the leader presses a pedal, it switches their mic from PA to our in-ears, for additional communication. Sounds complicated, but works fine!

+1 for buying a low cost instrument to get the feel of. I took it to the extreme, and I hardly dare admit to this in this company, but I bought a nonsuch (Oldfield?) bass via eBay for less than £30 (!) which I defretted, just to see how I got on with it. Really enjoyed it in the safety of my own home, but hadn’t the skill or the confidence to use it in the band. Sold it a couple of months ago for quite a profit, my ad suggesting that it might be ideal for a buyer to use to put their toe in the fretless water.

Have you seen the band 'New Amen Corner'? Young (brilliant) singer, even younger drummer, and the bassist is the drummer's Dad! Big age range........ But (IMHO) a fantastic band.

Black Epiphone EB3 with black scratchplate, neck and fretboard, even strung with black tape wound strings. Backup bass is budget EB2 shape, also in black, as is my Strat copy guitar. The exception is my treasured 1960s Hawk 12-string jumbo, which is sunburst top, natural grain elsewhere.

Maybe, but (allegedly) they’ve been asked many times over the years to name their own price to get back together, and they’ve refused. And with the success of the Mamma Mia franchise, and Chess being revived, it’s probably more important for the "A"s rather than for the "B" members........

Unless, like Joe Brown said when his guitar went 'off' during a gig, "Now for a little Chinese ditty, 'Tu-Ning' ".

My fault entirely.... Way back in the 60s, at a pub in Nottm, we were using their PA, with what passed as a sound desk on the stage next to my drums. Being a drummer, I had no idea how these worked, but the vocalist asked me to turn the whole thing up. Right next to the desk, mounted on the wall, were the burglar alarm controls. The PA volume didn’t increase, but about ten minutes later, the boys in blue arrived........ We never played at that venue again, for some reason

Thanks, separate tone for each p/u. Accessing controls is only via jerjiggling through the f sound holes. Assuming this is possible (they must have been fitted this way?) how would I add shielding, please? Thanks again

I have a budget-end EB-2 shape semi acoustic bass as a backup to my EB-3, and using it yesterday the sound man pointed out a mains hum type buzz when the volume on either humbucker was turned up. As it’s on both, I assume it’s not either volume pot, but anyone any ideas please? I tried different inputs, and different leads. I’ve had the jack socket come loose in the past. Thanks in advance for any help. Malcolm

OK, I’m of shall we say more mature years, so I went to the "Sensational 60s Experience" in Aylesbury on Friday evening. Mike Pender (ex Searchers), Mike d'Abo (Manfred Mann, but he also wrote Handbags and Gladrags, and Build me up Buttercup) Herman's Hermits (still with the original drummer, after 54 years!) The Fortunes (none of the originals) Mike d'Abo brilliant, the others good, but for my money the best were New Amen Corner, who did their own set, plus being house band for the two Mikes.

In Nottingham in the 60s, "The Mason-Dixon Line", we figured everyone would recognise the name, but hopefully wouldn’t immediately come up with the original. As has been said in a previous post, very 6th form.... Current (as yet) jamming band, Cabin Crew, because we rehearse in a log cabin.