Stub Mandrel

F$K! Facebook failed to synchronise between my mobile and my PC so it locked me out for 15 minutes. Fortunately I did remember the new passworm...

Great band, we saw you in Colne last year 👍

It would be interesting to know how many people have actually done that.

In brief longer passwords stronger than odd characters.

That would make a nice posh fireguard. Acksherley, I once made a speaker grille out of a fireguard...

Damn Ixm out of tlrts.

I make that 15 or 16 different marks or stickers! And no, none of them match the serial number...

Sorry this isn't vintage, but I thought it might be of interest that Fender were giving attention to neck (and pocket) marks in 2022, perhaps a little too enthusiastically?

My partner sells small items, mostly custom made or assembled to order, via etsy, ebay and Facebook. She sets aside time every working day to process every order and keep stock availability accurate. She aims to despatch every order by the next post day. I reckon she probably ships more parcels than BD by quite a margin. If she was to screw up, it would hurt her seller ratings badly. Running an e-shop should make these things easy, but only if you are conscientious about keeping on top.

I do all that online. Only speak to band on phone if it's something like "there's a carnival and we can't drive to the pub!"

Wild Willy Barrett and John Otway first came on my radar as a teenager in the 70s. Despite having a fair number of albums, fate meant I've never seen them live until last night. My brother and I arrived late, grabbed possibly the last two seats. Guess who were on the nextvrable watching the support. Lovely guys chatted at the interval and Willy managed the sell me a t-shirt and his latest lp.

http://www.gaiapress.com/en/article/472.html

This article may be based on a less than reliable book... http://www.gaiapress.com/en/article/472.html

Back in the 80s/90s there was this theory that some people generate a field that causes electronic devices to fail*. Since the digital revolution these people have become rare, if not extinct. I don't suppose you'd be interested in donating yourself for scientific study... *In all seriousness, I'm sure I remember something about people who generated high levels of static in days when 'microchips' were rather less tolerant of it.

Saturday was an odd gig. A huge pub in Bargoed. The main street was closed while a street festival cleared up and had to get access sorted for the load in - which was great, no steps and helpful punters who held the door open! The pub had had a great day with the combo of festival and sun, but we would be up against Eurovision. As I said, it was a huge single open plan bar, as in HUGE. It didn't feel like our audience but as we set up the tables in the middle section in front of the (HUGE, carpeted) band area filled up with people who were clearly interested. A few of folk asked questions and some leaving said they would be back later. Early start. Very odd to play with a large audience but only around 25-30 or so who were really into us, cheering, some dancing. While lots of people at either end for whom we were really just 'backing music'. We can't have been bad, if the sudden disappearance of most of the punters when we finished at 10:30 was an indication. A lot of appreciation for our young guitarist, Alex. The pub was open until one, but our guess was that the clientele changes from about 11:30 as other places chuck people out - a bit like a 'spoons. The load out was nice and simple, slowed down by half a dozen of the audience who had an extended chat with us. Why odd? Well it felt like playing to a half empty pub, yet even at a quiet point we were playing to well over fifty people, and it was much busier at times. It would have been nice to have the people who were really into their blues rock as an audience in a smaller venue.

Our guitarist went emulator and IEMs yesterday. We had to have a monitor for me and the drummer which largely negated the benefits. It was also too loud for me but ok for drummer.

Ready for lift off.

New venue for us, the Square Royale in Bargoed. Venue's poster for a change, not a bad job, i thought.

It was made ny Leo Fender in an alternative universe.

Unbranded Genuine 60s Homemade Bass Guitar - Spares or Repairs https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/314515383651?hash=item493a93e563:g:u0kAAOSwjOVjoNyp&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA8Kt6Lq17RqOYkQOeOTVYOOXWdOQoC4hMMKX6%2FFAxYXW7g2%2Bc9Dz%2F0nV3UsZ7Ozieu6oBHnfVssscZ1EERg4Hk7KRYBt8pYFfBHJA50AkWdhhuHE6fKDCLdtuYuNUAslt5KJu%2Bs1i%2BY5C5GC9qFlQkNUlznqPP5PCtR8IXoE2HceBwq%2Bqzfho6XpRGukZBa%2FpfxjDyhvyDPRpCR2N1S%2BXUBI5Q%2FUxXugQ92pvWI6hwYhviu%2F6BC9gSwJFeB0jX6shHPdaaEx9EpqEH%2BUL%2FE7CLoc8VKZfoXsQiuGuzST6hA5hZCVMMtFu3Z3NATqd3ObAyA%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR468uPGAYg

I've got one. They sound awesome and are very efficient = loud.

I reckon you are having us on. Show us the tea room poster! 🤪

Looking back, not forward, just returned from Northern Kin which was hit by a lot of mud (not much rain though, at least except for overnight). Some exceptional bands, Hawkwind (who played an epic set with many older gems and had an eye-wateringly good lightshow) and then Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons (who must have surprised themselves with how good their own material is, they used to only play Motorhead at festivals, for this just a handful of crowd pleasers) were the standouts. Also brilliant were Reef (great to see Jack Bessant fully recovered) and the Sweet who said they would finish at 8, so they didn't overlap with Jethro Tull, but they got such a huge reception they ended up doing their full set to a huge and rapturous audience, most of who fled towards Tull's big top afterwards. Ian Anderson must have been wondering why he had only half a tentful to start! Other excellent acts included Tom Robinson and Wishbone Ash (Andy Powell version, layed lots of Argus 😁 ), but we didn't catch everyone we wanted to see as there was once cancellation at the beginning (The Stumble) and we were off-site and arrived later on days 2 and 3 (so missed the Groundhogs 😭). Lots of other bands worthy of a mention, but I won't name check them all, musicianship was great even for bands whose music I am not hugely into. Only saw a bit of Lindisfarne and regretted no seeing more, for example. Some pics (no Hawkwind yet as downloading from my phone). (That's us in there!)

Was that the bit where Andyjr1515 is telling everybody that to raise a nut slot, you can pop some bicarb into the slot and add a drop of CA....

I played a couple of gigs with the Elf at a long thin venue. It was plenty loud enough and did not struggle.