Dr.Dave

Dictators tend to have too little confidence , experience or skills to be good leaders .Good leadership qualities are not dictatorial. The trick with democracy is to avoid too much compromise - one definition of which is nobody getting quite what they wanted. Personally I'd find playing with a bully or a wimp equally difficult , though I have learned when to wear each of those hats myself and remain in control either way !

I haven't stopped gigging , though I can see it coming soon. The reasons are 3 fold. Firstly , I get more and more fed up carrying kit up and own fire escapes at one in the morning. Secondly , I'm sick of arranging my life around a calendar - constantly making sacrifices out of some sense of loyalty and commitment only for those landlord types I'm committed to cancelling on me last minute. Yet again recently I rearranged a holiday because of a gig and ended up spending £350 more on flights and hotels because the hol runs into the Easter period , only to have that gig cancelled because of a booking mix up. Lastly - much I want to do in life and that same calendar is stopping me doing it. I must be up to 2000 gigs or so now and at there's not many new experiences as a gigging player still to come - I've seen it , done it and the T shirts too tatty to keep wearing. I can get at my local gov.pension next year then I have no reason to even stay in a grey , socially deteriorating chav pit like Wakefield , let alone entertain it's brain dead. New ball game coming , I fancy. I have not yet become comfortably numb !

William ( loudly in front of his knuckle dragging mates) - Does somebody pay you to dress like that ..Hur , hur , hur etc etc Moi - Yes , you do you soft twat.

Easy for us. We ever don't rehearse as such but 2 or 3 times a year when we haven't much on we have a get together to try new songs. There are 3 of us so we bring one each to the party having informed the others by text message what our idea is. We all sing so each initially sings his own song choice while we rearrange the song to suit us and rock it up into our style. Finally we all have a go at singing it and whoever's voice suits best ends up doing the vocal. We deliberately don't listen to the original ever again as soon as someone makes the suggestion unless it's something we don't know at all - and even then only sometimes. I've been singing a Black Keys song for ages that I've never heard , though the riff comes on BBC tv links from time to time. 2 out of 3 of these songs make the set and maybe 1 out of 4 that do get dropped after a few shows because they don't work. We rarely spend more than half an hour on a song , preferring to let it develop fully at gigs - besides , we rehearse in a pub and the bar's open! No idea why but I always seem to end up singing Rod's choices and he ends up doing mine.

I've got the Tiger Tank one which is obviously very useful - you can get the Fender Bass one for £14.05 on the bay but as the owner of an Amazon voucher I got for Crimbo I think I'll get one from there.

Standard 2 set job in my local boozer but we got triple fee. We stopped at 5 to 12 for the traditional countdown and singing of that dreadful song during which I sloped off to the bog to avoid the toe curling embarrassment then came back on and did 2 more. So far as I remember the sets went - Gimmee All Your Lovin , Bad Case of Loving You/Gary Glitter medley , Viva las Vegas/walk like a Man medley , Werewolves of London/Sweet Home Alabama/that thing by Kid Rock medley , Tainted Love , Winner Takes it All , Detroit Diesel medley with a ton of other bits like Michael Jackson/Enter Sandman/Great Balls of fire etc with the ending being the grand Prix bit from the Chain. 2nd Spot went Beastie Boys , Something that's on the telly a lot that I can never remember , Roadhouse Blues/Blockbuster medley , All Fired Up/Rebel Yell medley , Country Girl , Spirit in the Sky/offensive version of My Coo ca Choo medley , Get your Rocks off/Pretty Woman medley , Daft version of Living on a Prayer , Cigarettes and Alcohol/Get it on/Take me bak 'ome medley , Purple Rain ( gleefully sung as Purple Vein). The we stopped and did a manic Quo medley with a bit of Silver Machine in it then finished by getting some totty up on stage for Mustang Sally with a Shout finish. Pints consumed included Yorkshire Blonde , London Pride plus several offerings from the micro brewery underneath the pub. Most were freebies and the others I stole off tables when the owners either passed out or went for a fight ! I did most of it in a dinosaur onsie because our guitarist complained that if I insisted in displaying my comedy T shirt of choice we might get beheaded on You Tube.

Westgate in Wakefield is renowned for bother most nights but Xmas is obviously worse. We played there last night but happy to report no trouble at the venue. There was fighting in the street 50yds away. Bloke was killed there last week. I can't help thinking the 'meeja' are making it worse. Half these throwbacks are out on the streets now because they think Sky News or the Mail will show up. In their tiny minds , having throwing up scrotes on the front of the paper gives the whole thing some sense of importance. Same deal with this Black Friday and other retail nonsense. Self perpetuating. I've done every bit of my ( albeit tiny amount) Xmas shopping on line while sitting in my penguin onsie watching Babestation. While folk were spending a fortune to drink watered down lager and having a fight at two in the morning I was coming home after a few free pints of real ale wedged up from the gig. All in all I reckon I've cracked this Xmas lark.

PHUQ. Tonight I'll try and show the punters of Doncaster a few of his lines. Jack was certainly a player I copied when I was learning - but I was only copying , he thought them up. Thankyou , Jack. Your body of work goes on.

I'm so old I can remember not being ashamed to go to a quo gig and I'm so Northern I think polar bears are soft , shandy drinkers but I don't wear a flat cap - or as we call them a '****' cap. The reason being clear if you put one on and look in a mirror. So for me it's a tie-dye bandana (cheaper than hair dye ) a baseball cap ( on backwards because I wish to automatically win the X Factor with four random undercracker showing car thieves who say 'innit' ) or a Soviet navy ushanka ( because I'm training to be a wife beating Scottish coffin dodger that spouts independence while living in Marbella who's in command of the Red October at 9pm every other f***ing night on Film 4 )

We've had a request.... but we're staying. We always like to come across new faces. The name's Bond - Unibond - I'm happy to fill your crack. The best things in life are free....so here at very great expense etc etc etc

It's all down to the cause , for me. I'm proud to have been involved in some of the fundraising events I've done but I've also refused some. As an example 'Help for Heroes' as an organisation has my total support but I'm less happy with some pubs that put on a HFH event where bands , and other attractions , give their services freely but the publican sticks up a notice saying he'll give 'a percentage' of his profits to the charity. What percentage would that be then? Many sound like an easy way to boost a pubs publicity and profits to me , and although there is doubtless benefit to the charity at the end of the day I'm extremely suspicious of the publicans motives. I'm afraid a lot of charity events - and charity shops/street fundraisers etc for that matter - are not all they seem to be if you look under the surface. It's a case of 'giver beware ' both in terms of your time and your money. I wrote and recorded a CD single once to raise money for the stroke assoc. I know where every penny of those I sold went because I handed it over to the SA myself ( my contribution was the recording cost - I did reclaim the cost price of the discs and printing - that info was written on the label). I was far less happy to find it copied and being sold by a trader on Wakey Market still with the donation info on the front. That totally changed my thinking on copyright theft , I can tell you. No knock off DVDs or illegal downloads in this house.

[quote name='mep' timestamp='1410871346' post='2554085'] Don't forget there is a key change at the end too. Good fun song when nailed. [/quote] Only if you want there to be one - what's with all these 'rules'? Rules are written for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men !!

In our current set - Cum on Feel the Noize , Roadhouse Blues/Blockbuster/Jean Genie medley , Spirit in the Sky/My Coo Ca Choo medley , Winner Takes it All ( metal version) , 20th Century Boy/Fight for your right to party/Monster mash medley. We dropped the Gary Glitter bit in the middle of something else because - well... it just upsets too many folk and although we enjoyed the black humour of doing it we don't want to upset anybody.

[quote name='spacey' timestamp='1410810698' post='2553514'] As with most tracks, if the singer can not sing it in the keys its in, best binned. [/quote] Fair play to you if it works for your band but that's he wrong way round for me. Whoever sings gets first dibs at the key on any song. Guitarist's second and bass last. I've got dozens of notes under my fingers as a bassist so why would I give a toss bass wise? We've even based keys on what our drummer wants because he sings too. Why do you think the original's in the key it's in? Because the singer asked for it to be , simple as that.

We've been doing this in the set for a few weeks and it goes down a storm. Us being us , though , it's def. had the Doc Blue treatment which , in a nutshell , involves the song being paid total respect but the original arrangement/version of it being paid no respect at all. we start it off as a solo guitar/vocal ballad to get the punters warmed up then kick it in with the hammer down after the first verse/bridge. We've also altered the structure around the guitar solo - at least I think we have because I've not listened to the original enough to be sure. I do play the verse riff because it's so recognisable ( and a piece of piss to play). We changed the key to suit our voices and it took me a few tries to get the vocal and bassline going together but not any worse than any other song really. The really high vocal in the chorus isn't a problem - I just sing a lower harmony and let the punters do it ! Why have a dog and bark yourself ? !

You can pick up a cheaper version of the Stage Pas systems - such as the 300w Skytec - for 200 spots. Or you could get a used 300w mixer amp and a couple of 1 x 12 cabs - Peaveys spring to mind - for the same cash which would probably sound better. Faced with the choice - buy a good mic and an average PA rather than a great PA and a crap mic , and get your good lady properly singing into it rather than around it.

Just home from tonight's gig. Def. agree with those who think they'd pack in if they couldn't gig. I'm not interested in seeing bands or playing alone - I just want the buzz. In most walks of life I'm not a consumer - I'm a creator. That's how it is. Not always easy to be that way but I wouldn't swap it. I'll stop one day and when I do I'll proper stop - I know that. - but it's been a great joy in my life and for the moment remains so.

we 'rehearse' whenever we have a gap of more than 2 or 3 weeks without gig - which usually means January time , though not every ear. It's more of a social to be honest , though we use the time well , repairing niggles in the set , changing arrangements and doing a couple of new songs which we'll have discussed before hand. We'll maybe have 2 x 2 hr sessions either end of a week - once a year. When it comes to adding new material we'll usually find something we want , talk about it at a gig , then play it at the following gig 'ready or not'. If it sounds anything like at all we need 2 or 3 gigs for it to sort itself out , otherwise we bin it. Usually whoever suggests it , sings it - though that often changes because we always let the other guys have a go and see who sings it best. We only do covers but our golden rule is never to listen to the original again. We just do it our way - total freedom to play it a we want. I had a crack at Tainted Love last week on a whim and that'll stay in. We played it like QOTSH might with Noddy Holder singing !

No - I wasn't born to do or be anything. If I had been I wouldn't have had to practise to get any good. I reckon anybody can do or be pretty much anything they want to , given the desire to do it. I started playing bass because every guitar player I knew as a teenager was better than me and figured I better do something different. I also figured it would be much easier to get to a standard where I could play in front of people on bass than it would be on guitar , and by and large I think I was right. That won't be a popular opinion round here , I expect , but I can't help that.

[quote name='andydye' timestamp='1409760425' post='2543043'] bu*ger! hope it's just slightly perished foam (which can be replaced) and not summat more serious internal to the amp! I think I was in Trad the day you picked that GK combo up (assuming it's the same one), it was rather a long time ago so if nothing's gone wrong with it thus far it's done superbly for you [/quote] BTW - just looked at your gig pics. You've lost your hair , got a goatee and put some pork on round the middle - you look worryingly like me !

[quote name='andydye' timestamp='1409760425' post='2543043'] bu*ger! hope it's just slightly perished foam (which can be replaced) and not summat more serious internal to the amp! I think I was in Trad the day you picked that GK combo up (assuming it's the same one), it was rather a long time ago so if nothing's gone wrong with it thus far it's done superbly for you [/quote] That was a kickback model - went years ago to a bloke in Hungary of all places. I've stuck with the GKs though - had them since Trace Elliot went furry and crap at the same time ! The foam looks OK , pretty sure it's not the amp. section. I bloody hate spending my brass on replacement stuff. Don't mind if I get new toys to play with but existing stuff going wrong.......... that's why my strings are pre-CBS ! Main thing is I want to be sure the speakers are jacobsed before I shell out. Last year I sent 800 spots on a new hot water tank and a plumber ( twat of the very first order too) because there was 50 gallons of water in my narrowboat bilge. Turned out to be a leaky window that I fixed for £1.79 for sealant. There was nothing wrong with the old hot water tank ! Don't want to make similar mistakes that cost me !

[quote name='andydye' timestamp='1409758273' post='2543022'] presumably you've already done the obvious 'trying it with different basses etc' thing just to rule out everything else? [/quote] Yep. Worse with the active stingray , turn the bass up and it goes haywire anywhere below the A string.

I've blown a speaker or two in my time. Usually they've gone farty and when I've tried moving the cone around with my fingers I can feel the 'scrape'. Other's have looked like someone's taken a razor to them and one just gave up and died on the spot. So - my GK 2x10 combo. After several years fault free - low E = farty sound. Get's better when I roll some bass end off but it's def. there using the settings I normally play with. Blown speaker - thought I. Trouble is - I've cracked it open and examined the drivers - including the 'scrape' test ... can't find a problem. Anybody got any ideas for checks I can make before I send Mr Eminence his Xmas bonus ?? No batts in my passive bass to get weak ( which I've had cause farty sounds in the past) No cables come loose resting against the cone. Maybe it's the first sign of a speaker on the way out - not sure. Stumped with this one.

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1408404522' post='2529937'] The Stones are still rocking around the world, as is McCartney, David Gilmour, Sting, Tony Levin is 68. [/quote] And the last time any of them carried a 4x12 up a fire escape in the pissing rain was.....? !!!! I'm nearly 53. The youngest in Doc B. Few aches and pains but why worry? What it means is I have 35 years experience and my energy is focussed rather than raw - which means if we're on a bill with a band of 20 year olds they're more likely to be in bother than we are. I won't go on forever but not because of age - it'll be because I've done it loads and want to do something else. I'm aware a lot of younger folk in an audience look at us warily if they don't know us but so long as we continue to have them dancing on tables by the end I don't really give a sh*t !

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1408347420' post='2529093'] Slightly as an aside, I saw a Lizzy tribute band a few days ago - Limehouse Lizzy. It actually brought back a lot of memories. The band were very good but the front guy was absolutely amazing. He didn't try to mimic Lynott or dress like him (black stingray with mirror plate) but he had great stage presence and very reminiscent of Lynott. Well worth seeing if you haven't before. [/quote] I remember him. We did a couple of shows with them in Masham. He was cheery enough but he sort of backed off shuddering and wouldn't shake my hand. I'd had a bath that month too ! Weird. Enjoyed their show , though. I liked Phil. As a fledgling singing bass player and rock fan I learned a lot from him. He seemed keen to diversify from the rockband front man role and it would have been interesting to see what he put out as his career matured. Sadly he chose to mess his life up and we never saw it happen. I can't think of anything more satisfying than to be rich, successful and well respected for doing what you love best and I find it hard to think of him now without adding the word 'pillock' in my head - such a waste.