chris_b

I was watching a podcast last night and in their view this tariff nonsense and the BS about Gaza, Panama, Greenland etc is just a smoke screen. Putting 10,000 soldiers on the Mexican border was something Biden had already negotiated!! The media is fixated on the BS and they are missing, or wilfully not reporting, the real issue. . . . Musk and Trump are attempting to steal the US Government. They are trying to shutdown the various federal law enforcement agencies and trying to destroy any opposition within Government. They are trying to put tens of thousands of government workers out of work, have arbitrarily made inoperable various government websites so programs for the poor and needy cannot work. Many of these actions are illegal and against the constitution, but that doesn't seem to be of concern to Musk/Trump. Where cases have been brought, Federal judges are stepping in and have put a hold on these actions, but a Trump lawyer has just told a Federal judge that it is irrelevant if actions are illegal or against the constitution when Musk/Trump have ordered them!!! This isn't being reported in the media and is a far more serious situation that any pseudo trade war.

Shame you're thinking of hanging up your bass. Bass has never been a hobby for me. Even if a band felt like work, it was always a million times better than w-o-r-k! I've worked with some a-hole band leaders but the a-hole managers were always worse. Good luck. . . . don't sell all your gear. . . . you'll be back.

Why give Trump credit for anything? He hasn't done anything that deserves credit. He lacks any scrap of integrity, knows nothing, lies about everything and threatens those who tell the truth. Name one conflict he's solved. He hasn't weaponized the media, he's bullied them into submission, like the GOP and now the various departments of Government. Soon there will be no independent media and the independence of the Police and other law enforcing bodies is looking precarious. There is not one positive thing that's come out of Trump's existence. He's in the process of throwing thousands of people out of work, denying millions healthcare and destroying treaties and pacts around the world. He word, and unfortunately now the word of America, is worth nothing. Don't give Trump credit until he's done something that deserves it.

I'd be looking at Newtone. British made strings that seem to get good reviews.

I thought that, which is why I added the "refusing more loans" bit. I believe the support for Ukraine is funded by loans and some of the US borrowing even goes towards paying off interest on the debt!!

Where are we going to sell goods worth £188 billion if the US stops buying expensive UK products? No one is going to wave a magic wand or step in to bail us out. They will be fighting their own battles with tariffs. Where will domino effect end?

Trump will just blame everyone else, like Truss does. The US mainstream media won't hold him to account, because the billionaires who own the media are Trump donors. Sadly his supporters will accept his lies.

Unfortunately he's right, but this attitude still has to be fought. I've just been listening to a Trump on Europe podcast. He's after the EU with a vengeance, but thinks he has a good relationship with Keir Starmer, so, "We will work something out". That sounds very ominous and is probably Trump code for, " Starmer is going to roll over and do what he's told". The UK cannot fall out of step with the EU in negotiating with Trump, under any circumstances.

The US National Debt currently stands at $36 trillion!! Most of it is owed to China and Japan. Why is China playing Trump's tariff game? At a stroke they could end all this nonsense by calling in their loans, or at the very least refusing any more loans.

Sorry but you can't placate a madman. Trump is a bully and a taker. Give him what he wants and he will be back for more. We have to get real and finally admit we are Europeans and Europe is where we will prosper in the long term. We have to make that work for everyone's sake. I pray I am wrong, but there is very little chance of a happy future for the US with Trump in charge, and in 4 years time the voting really will be rigged. A 3rd term for Trump or Trump Jr is almost a certainty.

That’s how it will go. Used gear will become more desirable and music shops and businesses will have to switch to non-US manufacturers or fail. Buy all the new gear you need now (that goes for everything else made in the US). Get your budgets in place and batten down the hatches. . . . the clown show is just getting started.

I play with a guitarist who uses a wireless set up. He runs about in the audience, stands on tables etc. He also walks around outside the pub, still playing. In Camberley, one night, he decided to run across the road (the A30) and play from the other side. The audience laps it up. He just made it back to the pub as a Police car pulled up. Also, at a festival, he jumped off the stage and walked through the audience, still soloing. Then discovers there’s no way back. He had to climb over a fence to get back stage and forgot to turn the guitar down, so we were rocking away with a shrieking cacophony of noises coming from the guitar amp until he got over the fence.

Trump will get around to us in time. He wants the NHS and to offload their additive and pesticide ridden food stuffs on us, and that will be the basis of any trade deal. If we don't give it to him then watch out for massive tariffs. The US is our largest market so Trump can destroy our economy in a matter of months. We need a deal with the EU and France knows it. We will pay either way.

Laurence O'Donnell is always very good. The US can probably outlast most world economies in a stand off. The UK needs to find other markets, and quick.

The Grey Horse was run by pub landlords who only wanted to sell beer and didn't care about the live music that was in the back room 7 nights a week. Then Richard Fletcher, musician, well. . . . drummer and great bloke, took over and sorted out all the problems. When Richard moved on the brewery turned it into a gastro pub!! We also had to move our cars in the middle of the first set because the landlord's wife's car was blocked in, and she wanted to go out for a drive!!

We were supporting Status Quo at the Western-super-Mare Winter Gardens Pavilion, when after several hours consuming god knows what, Rick Parfitt staggered into our dressing room to say hello. He took a turn for the worse and had a massive chunder in the sink, which wasn't connected to any pipework! The carpet was soaked and the room stank and apparently he blamed us when the promoter discovered the mess!!

I didn't like the versions played by the "bass cover guys". They were clunky and didn't groove. IMO they are not a basis for learning anything. Listen to the original Delbert and Temptations versions if you want the real bass lines. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq6OYSKIxxk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3x5aHMi8y0

Indeed, even though it was a lie circulated by the Police after the raid.

I wouldn't use a set of strings because Pino has his name on them. But I would use the strings that Pino is using, which, if you ignore the marketing, seem to be TI and Labella.

I bought so many sets of Stadium strings that Nick started giving me a discount.

I Got You (I Feel Good) was recorded in 1965. Predates any other Funk record I know about.

I spent many an hour lurking at the Bass Centre. Eavesdropping on the likes of Cass Lewis, Joe Hubbard and Dave Bronze. I never bought a bass, but I bought many sets of strings, several amps and a few cabs over the years.

That's like saying talking is enough and I don't need to learn to read or write. Lessons have nothing to do with brain-washing. They give us the tools with which we can express ourselves more fully and more completely.

Duh!!!! I missed one out. . . . !