chris_b

With my back I'd never get down there to turn over the page!!

I use a music stand sometimes, when I'm depping. Most top touring acts have monitors. As said above, David Bowie used one and came unstuck when he announced the wrong song. They started to play and he discovered he was looking at the wrong words, but also the drummers click track was on the wrong song!!

I don't understand this attitude. Why should the people at the Dog and Duck not get the same consideration? IMO every gig is the Albert Hall, and should get your 100% effort. I've been asked to join several bands by band leaders who have seen me on a gig.

Always leave relevant feedback on Basschat. Even post about it. The more information out there the better.

Depends how seriously you take playing in a band. Do you mind letting your band mates down, screwing up a gig, disappointing an audience, pissing off a promoter? I do, so I bring 2 of everything. The last time I had a cab fail was in the 70's, the last time I had an amp fail was in the 90's and I've never had a bass fail, but I still bring 2 of everything.

I did everything on my bass, changed pickups, bridges, setups etc etc. I was much younger. These days I just want to play them, and I can afford to pay someone else to roll their sleeves up.

I've owned 3 Laklands, a US 55-94 and 2 Skylines, 55-01 and 55-02. They were fantastic instruments and I loved playing them. I had to sell, back problems, or I'd still be playing them.

I like Coldplay. They write good songs, put on good shows, have built a loyal base of fans around the world, are very listenable if you're not a core supporter. I've played their songs in cover bands and they have always gone down well with the audiences.

When you play festivals you get what you get. You can have a good sound or a bad sound, it's in the lap of the gods. You won't sort out any FOH issues with your equipment. If your P bass sounds "perfect" through your rig, you don't need to do anything. For the situations where you might want something your bass can't give, try a preamp.

I've done a few gigs for free, but have never paid to play.

In the very early 70's we did a residency on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings. It was in Ladbroke Grove and there was usually a punch up on 2 out of the 3 nights. Not just handbags but real John Wayne bar room brawls, tables and chairs and everything. The fights never came our way but the management advised us if we kept playing the fighters would ignore us. And they did!!

Check out small Markbass combos. They have combos from 60 watts to 250 watts and you should be able to find a shop where you can try one out.

A lot of gigs pay into a bank account on receipt of an invoice. Nothing unusual about that.

Buying cheap can be a false economy. Cheap gear can easily make you sound bad, which is no incentive to pick up your bass. Buy a good combo and you'll sound great and always be able to sell it on.

In the early days we had to deal with people doing all of these things. Fortunately I haven't seen any "situations" for many years, but if someone is interfering with the band, the gear or the performance you have to stop until they move or are moved off the stage and away from the band. Until COVID I regularly depped in a band where the bass player refused to do the gig because the people made him "nervous"! I never saw any problems, but they were a little lairy at times.

Get an amp and a cab that are loud enough and light enough. . . . and then get a DB friendly pre-amp, or a 2 channel pre-amp, one for DB and one for electric bass.

If weight is a problem get a separate head and cab.

My main bass is a Mike Lull PJ5 with 10 year old TI flats and a lump of foam. Sounds magic. If I want to sound like a traditional P bass I'll turn the J off and use my Aguilar TH500. For a modern P bass sound I'll turn the P pickup on full and have the J on at about 90% and use the AG700 amp. If I want more mids and top I'll use the Aguilar AG700 and turn the J and tone control up to about 90%. The rig is Aguilar and Barefaced 112's.

. . . . and to clear up some earlier misinformation (for which I apologize). . . . Dave Richmond played bass on Je t'aime.

I guess without the Statins, and Beta Blockers some of us might be in trouble. . . .

If someone "couldn't do it anymore" for whatever reason, illness, dementia, physical injury etc, I'm sure a chat would be had. I've never experienced someone being fired for being too old. I have seen people being fired for being unreliable, falling behind in musical ability, not being bothered, wanting to go in a different musical direction, being dishonest, being a dick, even being a square peg in a round hole. I've seen people fired so the band leader can get his mate in. That's happened to me. I know a very good guitarist who was fired for being too fat. That was by the management of a girl group who later went on to have some hit records, and image was felt to be more important than musical ability. In that instance it probably was. No one's likely to use the O word if we stick to playing with our age group.

Do drugs make someone play better? Are we including the performance aspect? Which drugs, which person, which situation? It's got to be possible. There have been some fantastic players who were high on copious amounts of illegal substances. Did the drugs inspire them, and unlock their creative processes, or were they just very talented and having fun at the time? We are unlikely to see such talented people in our orbit, down the Dog and Duck, but elsewhere? As I say, it's possible.

In my 20's I spent 6 months playing the US airbases in Germany. We did 5 sets a night from Monday to Thursday, and 6 sets a night on Friday and Saturday. . . . and then we went out to party! The clubs in town did 6 and 7 sets. These days I so appreciate everything I took for granted back then.