Nail Soup

I read on-line descriptions of two bass players in the last week or two which really grated on me. They didn't relate to the bass players in question whatsoever, just seemed to use generic terms they had heard someone use about bass players before. Example 1: Sting. The Journo said that Stings bass playing "filled out the sound of the Police". No it didn't - he had an economic style designed to preserve the space in the Police sound. Example 2: Brian Ritchie of The Violent Femmes: The Journo said "and Brian Ritchie's bass playing keeps the group grounded". No it doesn't - his playing is very flamboyant, over-the-top and busy etc. Grr! Got any examples which grind your gears?

Most open mics have a variety of abilities and are very supportive to all participants. So just stick to the ones that are like that, do a bit of practice to get the best out of what voice you have, sign up and have fun!

John is increasingly dismissive of the other's contribution to SP, so he will look at this with scorn no doubt. Just hope Frank can do the songs better than Billy Idol did recently. Two nights at the Bush Hall won't reach many people though.... maybe there'll be something more after.

I love the looks of the orange one.

James Williams, of Iggy and the Stooges had a very high-tech career afterwards.... From Wikipedia: Technology career Immediately following his graduation from Cal Poly Pomona, Williamson moved to Silicon Valley. For the next fifteen years, he worked for Advanced Micro Devices in San Jose, California, designing products around its chips. His coworkers never inquired about his earlier career as a rock musician; in a 2010 interview with Uncut, Williamson asserted that many of his colleagues were "nerds and geeks ... they don't listen to The Stooges much."[17] In 1997, he was hired as Sony's vice president of technical standards; in this capacity, he liaised with competitors and helped to codify nascent industry standards, most notably the Blu-ray Disc. During the Great Recession, he accepted an early retirement buyout offer from Sony in 2009. In 2015, Williamson was selected to receive ANSI's Ronald H. Brown Standards Leadership Award for his contributions to consumer electronics standards development. The award, named after late United States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown, is presented as part of World Standards Day celebration.

My home town band... some people site this/them as the originator of goth. UK Decay - The Black Cat.

The late Gary Holton was in the Heavy Metal Kids..... were there any songs from them (didn't recognise any in the set list)?

I watched it, expecting it to be about some people forming a two tone band. It was more about the IRA etc... was a good watch, but mis-sold. They really have no idea about how a band works.. they painted the main guy as the lyrics person and the blond girl as the musical leader of the group, but they passed ideas between them or collaborated on anything. At the drummer's audition they decided whether to give her the job by recording two versions of the song ... one with her on drums and one with no drums at all. If the one with drums sounded better the job was hers! Especially ridiculous she was obviously a really good drummer. The girl in the record shop who had no had no musical experience at the last minute decided to take up bass. Next scene.. the band are playing a song with a cracking bassline. But I suppose non-musicians won't have noticed and just enjoyed it on face value. And maybe people who know any thing about IRA situation at that time would have found lots of faults with that side of the story.

Most of my favourite lines would be too simple or not well-known enough to serve as a party piece. So I'll go for "Good Times" by Chic.

Yes, one of the Johnny Ramones 'rules' was no guitar solos. On the occasional Ramones song which had a guest solo, Johnny did not play it, or any other solo, live.

My (bad) experience was late 70's/early 80's at high school.

Can definitely agree with "Anyone Can Play Guitar"... really good tutorials and aligns well with my music taste.

How are they making these mixes? Some kind of AI, or do they have access to the original stems? Or something else?

Each to their own, but IMO a high G has the classic Uke sound and gives rise to the 'closely bunched' voicings.

A lot of really cheap ukes have tuning, intonation and playability issues and hold the player back. For a small upgrade you can get a pretty decent one. You don't need to go high level, just something around 100 quid, similar to a starter level bass.