Dr.Dave

Good call - evening's spent being attacked by a maniac with a twin headed baby on the end of a sword then a round of golf next morning !!

Fleetwood Mac - opp to work with 3 very different songwriters at the same time , a great solid drummer and the world's most underrated guitarist. Fleetwood Doc does have a certain ring to it !

Slade for me - no way I'd have ever picked up a guitar without Slade. I played a lot of Thin Lizzy stuff early on which helped me figure out how to sing at the same time and playing along to 2112 era Rush brought me on as a player leaps and bounds. I learned how to play blues from John McVie with the Bluesbreakers and through him got into Fleetwood Mac in terms of crafting grown up pop tunes and how best to support them as a bassist. Before any of that the first thing I remember being aware of as a little kid that made me wonder about the possibilities of being an entertainer was the Black and White Minstrel Show. My Dad had all the records and I used to sing and dance around to them but it never occurred to me to learn an instrument until several years later when a bunch of ugly looking noisy clowns came on telly with 'Take me bak 'ome'. It was like the camera focus pull shot in Jaws when Brody reacts to the shark attack on the beach. No idols for me - we all put our socks on the same way - but no Slade = no Dr.Dave because I'd just never have got interested without them.

Happily I fall into the stereotypical tight arsed northerner profile so I'm pretty much allergic to shops. I see shops as being places where everyone there has been trained and encouraged to relieve me of more cash than I wanted to spend and are basically servants of the devil. I can't even remember the last time I went in a guitar shop but it'll be in years. I go into Morrisons late on quite often to buy the fresh food on knockdown but usually end up in a fist fight with old ladies on mobility scooters to get to the corned beef slices. Just this past week one of my tenants ( I work in social housing) who , let's say , is differently motivated on the work front - def. not just a bone idle bastard scrounging off my taxes - actually took a crusty cob out of my basket and said 'these aren't for you...you're working'. True. How I laughed as I ignored the data protection act and shopped him for benefit fraud. So - you want a cure for gas ...... move up north and spend your life sitting in the corner of a pub moaning about the fact that it's not 1930 anymore. You'll love the misery. I do.

If I'm trying a line out either an open string or the same note fretted will fall under my fingers easier than the other. I've enough on singing so I'll always go with the one that allows me to play on autopilot but in bits where I don't sing - weirdly - I often do the opposite. I expect it's an insecure desire to let the williams know I'm actually doing something. Quite often I take my hand away if I'm paying an open note too which probably began as showing off but now is just a habit , though sometimes it's so I can quickly wipe my hand on my combats or make some kind of posy rock gesture.

Been many years since I was trying to get to a level where I felt good enough to play with other people but as I recall it wasn't a linear progression. More like stairs. I'd go along a bit without making any headway then suddenly go up a bit. Went like that for years. A mate of mine has a theory that nobody ever stays the same , you get better or you get worse , so practise keeps you getting better. Sure I could cast a couple of turds amongst his pearls but he has an interesting point.

Who told you that you have to play what the original player did ? Roll your own , mate. It's the best way to improve and develop a style and if anyone tells you you're doing it wrong you just send them to have a chat with me. Having said that - you have touched on an important tip for improving players of all abilities. Don't practise what you can play , practise what you can't.

Wasn't my amp - hired in ampeg top and 8x10 - I've little recollection of what went where , I just stupidly , and under time pressure from everyone gave the end of my guitar lead to someone who stuck it straight into some box or other that was hanging out of the Ampeg. My bass wouldn't work and everybody was on at me for 'not changing the battery' and if it'd gone on I'd have chucked my teddy so I grabbed my Precision , plugged it into the ampeg myself - told anyone not to come within ten feet or I'd deck them and did the gig like that. It was Jon Shuker who figured out and told me what had happened when I took it to him for repair.

Pub gig... 200 to 250 round here. We're a three piece so a tenner+ into each of two cars , 30 quid to our mate who roadies for us , free beers are thin on the ground these days so I might come home 50 quid or so better off than when I set out. I had a good night out with my like minded besties and there's bugger all on telly. So - is it worth it ?? I think that's a decision best left to the individual. Weddings ..... not for me because I'd have to play more MOR stuff than I want and also have to censor myself to the point of not being me anymore but the money's better. There are some bloody good bands on the wedding circuit but not my style , musically. Having said that I have thought about joining one to bolster my (soon to be) pension so never say never etc. I don't particularly enjoy evicting drug dealers but it's kept me afloat for 26 years , I would imagine playing in a wedding band could do the same for the next 26 with a slightly less chance of being stabbed.

One thing you might come across is that operators of house PAs or PA hire firms may get bolshy about using their own DI boxes regardless even if you have a perfectly useful DI xlr out on your amp. This can be for number of reasons. They may not trust your DI out but know their own gear well , they may consider it an H and S issue or they may be numpties that don't know what your DI out is or how to use it. A shining example of the latter can be found at Leeds Hop should any of you be going to play there. I insist on using my amps own - which has pre/post eq and a ground lift like most do. There are a couple of basschatters who may remember this because they were at the event - the last time I gave way was at Pendle Leisure Centre during the Colne R and B fest. and I only did it because the band didn't want me 'making trouble'. As if !! Anyway - these 'professionals' managed to wrongly rig up some phantom powered box or other and sent 48 volts straight into my (then) brand new active Shuker and fried it's internal electrics. I moaned about it on here at the time and there were those more technically minded than I who said I could easily have been fried myself. This was a large reputable (!) pro PA hire firm , not some 100 spot monkeys so it does happen. Stick to your guns - stick one end of a mic lead into your xlr DI out ( I'd always suggest you retain control over sound changes you make by going post eq )and the other into a stage box or mixer input. Remember the beauty of mic leads is you can easily connect more than one together to get longer cable runs and I always keep a couple of 10m jobs in my gig bag for that purpose. Don't buy black ones as the PA guys will nick them by mistake or otherwise. Subject change but I use my own mic on house/hire PA jobs too. Pontefract liquorice festival and the subsequent dreadful throat infection taught me that. Like a rat had crapped in my throat then died there.

I always think of Hysteria era Def Leppard as a bunch of craftsmen , including the producer , going about their work and succeeding. No artistry whatsoever but an example of what can be done with a workmanlike approach to unpromising base material. The bass parts are an example of that. Not a note that wasn't thought about in terms of enhancing a product to be taken to market. I can't fault that - but if I wanted to listen to a similar train of thought BUT based on artistry enhanced by good craftsmanship , which is a different thing , I'd stick The Nightfly on every time.

Interesting - I don't consume a lot of dairy and I'm off cheese anyway in an attempt to stay at 12st but I'll cut it out and see if it helps - cheers.

Ha - the Lion , Castleford !! Had a few weird nights in there over the years. We stopped doing it - and the Lionfest - several years ago because if they weren't pinned to the back wall with volume they weren't happy plus - weirdly - they didn't get the humour of playing such things as tainted love and Abba in a hard rock style. They just thought we 'got them wrong' !! We do the Junction up the road from time to time but ....well , Cas is Cas. Were I asked to prove to any extent that it's not grim up North then I wouldn't use it as a defence exhibit. Just looked on FB - sure I know your new singer - didn't he used to be in Phoenix Rising and other PurpleRainDio type bands?

Big problem for me is my throat , which gets so hoarse from singing I can hardly speak if we do two gigs on the bounce. Got to be poor technique on my part. The other thing is my knees which get really painful after a staircase load in then a gig ( like todays will be). Still - I always remember the story about some bloke complaining about his knee to his golfing partner while playing a round. 'I feel really sorry for you , old boy' said his partner. It was Douglas Bader.

Boroughbridge last night. Mostly hard drinking farming/countryfied types who's sister and wife are often the same person. I'm always wary of it , expecting to find them building a whicker man in the car park BUT... 5 mins before we went on a coach party of young Chinese tourists walked in. They were staying in the hotel over the road. Much singing and dancing and trying to be politically correct gagwise ensued and a great time had by all. As we drove off home we could hear a bunch of them outside their hotel still singing Living on a Prayer ! Never been filmed by so many people at the same time - I fully expect to be big in China by tea time and a state visit by Tuesday. Oh - and I won a Pakistan cricket shirt and hat in a raffle so I might apply for citizenship. About to leave for a tea time gig near Hemsworth at a toilet called The Tank. Rough as fcuk there. I think the last person who walked in that actually had a job got lynched.

Other band's T shirts ?? Never , never , never. Regularly I change out of one into something else to play. The punters wear band T shirts - the moment you step on a stage you're an artist , not a punter.

I went from an unplayable ( I know that now ) cheap acoustic to a Woolworths electric to a Columbus SG copy - played through a Woolies amp - to a Hofner Violin Bass which was the first thing I bought with my own cash. Not long afterwards I bought my Precision at 16 for £150 from a bloke I was working with ( deal done at break time in the works toilet !!) which I still use , had it 39 years. That was what I first gigged with and I'd cobbled together a Marshall JTM45 , a copy of a 15" JBL bass bin and a 1x12 cab my Dad made for me. That rig sort of survived til the first Trace Elliots appeared and I used Trace until they went furry. At that point I switched to GK - sometimes with Ashdown cabs - until just weeks ago when I got myself a Peavey Minimax/Barefaced set up. Talking of makeshift kit - a drummer I was playing with bought most of the parts for a Fender Musicmaster bass on the cheap , to encourage his son to learn to play an instrument. He was only about 10. Our drummer thought if he saw a pic of me playing it onstage with his Dad he'd get excited so we screwed it together with a Strat pickup , used 3 of my old strings ( 2x A's and a D !! ) and screwed on a camera strap in the back of an estate car on the way to a gig. I played half the gig with it , got the pics , drummer's son got giddy about it and he's now been making a decent living as a pro player in the Canary Islands for the past 15 years and still has the musicmaster - there's a nice story !

Different for me because I do half the lead vocals , but when a loud bloke with a flowery bass in an (humourous) offensive T Shirt calls you worse than sh*te ( good natured and victims chosen by years of experience )all night it's difficult to ignore him ! I'm always up front anyway - singing or not. I've been approached by people of all sexes , sexualities and ages - never had a problem making friends with the punters. Regularly it's because of my bass playing and folk are always chatting to me about it - so maybe my putting plenty into performance reaps it's rewards. If I stand in the shadows with my head down I'm making myself unapproachable. That's fine if that's how you want to be but you can't have it both ways. BTW - I actually do have a small collection of Parker ballpoints plus an expensive Omega blagged from a James Bond premier ! Oddly , nobody's ever asked me about them.

Don't know but I saw the Tom Robinson Band in Wakey last week - in a bar smaller than I usually play to about a hundred people. Guy's still kicking it with a back cat. of great songs but it seems not many are interested. Shame on them. Nice chap too - very approachable.

Saw the show at Leeds Arena. For those unfamiliar - it's a tribute show rather than a tribute band. They don't dress like the real Floyd and employ , for example , a stand alone singer for some of the tracks. The sound and light was out of this world and there's a fair bit of Aussie humour - clips of Kylie and AC/DC for instance plus a 40ft tall inflatable kangaroo !! The musicianship is top of the tree with several of the line up having worked with Floyd. Huge picked simple Precision lines underpinning it all - great show.

Mine's 20 years old , no idea what make. My mc stand tip would be buy a straight stand and fit a gooseneck. Most boom stands I'm forced to use from time to time spin round taking the mic away from you. My gooseneck stays put.

I share lead vocal duty with the guitar player , and the drummer mucks in too , but my songs are currently Bad Case of Loving You ( the gary glitter middle bit got stopped , too many complaints) Why did you do it/another brick in the wall medley Tainted Love ( played like it nicked my wallet) Winner takes it all ( see above ) Nutbush city limits ( alternative lyric version - usually reserved solely and gleefully for Sunday gigs since some woman grabbed hold of me and screamed 'fancy saying 'w***ing' on a Sunday , you're a f***ing disgrace') Fight for your right to party Roadhouse Blues/Blockbuster/Gene Genie medley Cum on Feel the Noize Get your rocks off but I can't remember it properly so I just make the words up. Mostly all done with a degree of aggression I only usually feel when using automatic check out tills , seeing or hearing the words 'Kanye West' or trying to get through on the phone to British Gas.

Some shithole in Barnsley. Had to fight my way past various pissed up throwbacks up a flight of stairs , lent on a handrail to help me up the last bit to find it covered in gob. Nice. Went to the traps to wash it off and was accosted by a dude wanting to spray me in scent for two quid. f***ed him off and finally got to set up my new Peavey/Barefaced kit. First time out. Well pleased with the punch from the cab and grateful that somebody's finally decided to build tuners into amps. No proper cask beer - just bottles of 'craft beer' which is trendy speak for overpriced toss in too small a bottle - which I had to queue up for. Don't these peasants know who I am ? Got heckled by some walking tattoo and retorted with 'Look arsehole , I'm at work here , do I come into your workplace and tell you how to flip burgers ?'. Had some sour faced slapper who was obviously no stranger to the chip shop try to sing 'Living on a prayer' with me but she got narky when I went into 'Gina shaves vagina all day' and fell down the stage steps on her way off which was the highlight of the night. We went down well , I presume because we were holding guitars so the pointy end went towards the ceiling which seemed to be all that was required to entertain the local worthys. All in all - a fairly regular evening for us these days , sadly. Gigs round our way being not what they once were. But I came home richer while the punters went home poorer so job done.

The interest is in making music. Playing bass is just a means to that end. If you never pick up a bass again but that choice means you continue to enjoy making music in other ways - why worry.

I'm with Rich on this. Fair enough , if it was a once in a lifetime opp to do Wembley Stadium or something I might be tempted but there's no shortcut for time , and if you push it you could end up with permanent damage. I have played injured - broken finger etc and strapped up with cracked ribs but that was different to an invasive procedure. There was minimal risk to me , just pain. If it was a longer gap to the next booked gig I'd suggest having a dep prepped and maybe sharing the gig. Easy does it. Hope you get a good cutter.