TimR

I went for an audition a few weeks ago for an originals band. The comms were very relaxed. The guy sent me his Spotify album, sounded great, but 12 tracks, he said meet up for a jam and see what happens. I turned up and he'd got most of the songs charted. Good charts! He led the band well, plenty of eye contact and nods and 'back to the top', 'another verse' calls. So I'm now in another band. 😆 I have been in the situation where I've been given a list of songs for an audition, the problem is, you can be able to play the original bassline to the original record, but you don't know their arrangement and you don't know what cues you're going to get from who. You don't even know if you're going to gel with the drummer. It's not an ideal way to audition. I'd expect a band looking for a serious bass player with paid gigs ready to go to have charts ready and maybe send them out, or maybe have recordings. This is how my brother's band operates, essential if you're using deps. I've even done a few gigs where occasionally I've never even heard the songs before, let alone practiced them. Hard work. More than one way to skin a cat.

This stems from a basic misunderstanding of grounding and earthing with electrical systems. The human body and the earth have average zero charge most of the time but this is average. There are chemical reactions going on all the time and elements are swapping charges increasing them positively and decreasing them negatively. It's basic chemistry. They're getting confused with voltage and the earth is only at 'zero' potential because we use that as a reference for electrical power generation. It's the return path to the power station and is not ever zero. During a lightning storm the local voltage of the earth changes as the charges in the air repel electrons away from them. Then when the ground becomes positive enough there's a huge discharge. Put your finger on the tip of your bass lead when the amplifier is on and you hear white noise, that's the radio waves hitting your body and all the charges in your body making all that noise. You can't zero them, it's a ridiculous idea. Not least because you'd have to get in a Faraday cage and then stop all the chemical processes going on in your body. Which would generally be a really bad thing for the continuation of your life.

We have had 3 singers in that time, but the musicians have remained the same. I'm not sure we play any tunes now that we played 10 years ago, but the tunes we play now get a younger audience and I can't remember the last time somebody asked us to play something they know or something they can dance to. Which I never understood, suspect a lot of audiences are musically illiterate to anything pre 1990.

Sounds like a stressful situation. Short notice gigs when you're not prepared bring out the worst in musicians. I'd take a deep breath, do the gig and sit back and wait for them to find a suitable guitarist. In the meantime join another band. You could be in for a long wait.

It's down to the band leader doing their homework and asking the right questions and giving the right information. I've recently been approached by two people putting together bands. It was pretty obvious to me which one was clued up and which one was a deluded dreamer just from the WhatsApp messages. If they're clued up they'll attract the right musicians and be upfront about what they expect. You're probably very lucky in that you've hit someone who knows what they're doing. It can take a long time and a lot of dead ends before you learn who to avoid.

Probably 17 on Bass but Id played in the Albert Hall and football stadiums in a marching band before then. We played a couple of birthday parties in houses and a couple of pubs (half the band wern't old enough to drink). We progressed to hiring a school hall and then a community hall with a big stage and a couple of hundred tickets sold for a multi band line up. Hired a PA and operator. The guitarist and I had to sign the waiver as we were the only 2 over 18. No security, a couple of mates taking cash on the door. Back in the days before health and safety and the requirement to insure everything to the hilt wasn't as rigid.

Leigh Gorman was only in the Band for one month, after Dirk Wears White Sox and before Kings of the Wild Frontier and never recorded with them. Dirk Wears White Sox is a superb album but the original bass player was Andy Warren. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Would-Be-Goods

#tracethebass https://www.beatlesstory.com/news/2019/10/14/trace-the-bass-paul-mccartney-s-lost-hofner-guitar

Right handed.

Digital mixer. Or maybe a Little Mark. Should have some change for some new strings.

Depends if your neighbours say something about your behaviour based on half truths and misinformation and as a result people stop buying your art.

Except that we aren't talking about people not playing a song because they don't like it. We are taking about people not playing any of an artist's songs because of something the artist has been accused of doing. And not just in our bands, on the radio, not including them in shows, on TV. The artist (and the rest of their band in some cases) loses royalties etc. And the key thing here is 'accused', they've not actually been found guilty in any court of law. It's a social media thing, where rumours and misinformation can bring down someone and the person who started it hides behind anonymity and there's no possibility of legal recourse.

My grandad was working in the mines aged 14. That's just a little bit over 100 years ago.

That's exactly what Cancelling is. Boycotting something simply because you don't agree with it. You're not interested in discussing it to come to a compromise or reach an agreement. There are different levels and can get to extremes when a mob mentality can exist. Simply refusing to play a song isn't as extreme but it's still a boycot. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancel_culture

That's because I didn't say they were. They aren't playing them themselves. It's the same as not booking a band because you think their politics would damage your brand. You're not preventing them from playing next door or in the next town, but if enough bookers decide their brand would be damaged... However they're effectively telling their band mates not to play the tune. I guess their band mates could disagree and get a new bass player in. But guess that begs the question of how do you explain why your bass player left the band. Musical differences?

I avoid Twitter at all costs precisely due to that kind of behaviour from people. Not reactionary on my behalf I can assure you. Read the comments above from people who won't play tunes from certain musicians who have never been found guilty of anything, but the poster thinks they probably are guilty becasue they read a rumour about them once. Some people won't play tunes because their own interpretation of the content leads them to believe something different to what the writer intended. People are very odd.

The venues stop booking people who they perceive attract negative publicity and would affect their brand. It's not about a one night booking for a band who has a single fan base, it's about the other 6 nights that month and bands who they'd share a stage with. Look at the fuss over JK Rowling for trying to promote women's rights. That's how cancelling works. Sure no one is actually stopping you play, or saying you can't play anywhere and you fans may well want to see you. But if venues can find alternative acts to book that avoids controversy, they will. That's exactly the same as people are doing in this thread with songs they feel are a bit borderline or acts who they don't agree with.

Personally, I'd just not play it anymore. As soon as you try to make ammendments some SJW with an agenda who had never even heard of that song up to that moment will have you cancelled. There are a lot of people who don't care what your motives are, they'll just use it as a platform to make as much noise as possible.

Had a look at the custom shop and downloaded order sheet to look at the options. There's no PJ option so I would probably go for a modded player series, but then they still have a limited choice of bodies.

There are plenty of tunes better than SHA anyway. 3 guitars in a band is 2 too many anyway.

Isn't 'Does your Mother Know' a reference to groupies who used to dress up to look older to attract rock stars. The US has different ages of consent in different states, many of them higher than the UK (and Sweden).

Paid £39 for 2 hours last week. But very good space. And few years ago paid a lot more for a massive space in Camden, but had grand piano etc in it. So depends if it's a room you can fit a drum kit and 3 people standing, or a large jazz band.

Are you including electricity and business rates?

Like any business, you need to diversify and spot other opportunities amd work really hard, I don't think just having a space for bands to practice in will cut it. https://www.thepracticeroomz.info/ in Stevenage have a wide range of services, from rehearsal rooms, recording, providing live PA services, organising multiple line up gigs, plus being all round really nice guys. I think Farm Factory at Welwyn and Apollo Audio at Hertford, make money during the day for recording pro acts etc.

Certainly would make anyone doubly cautious about borrowing any amps that looked on their last legs. Cue lots of tech savvy bass players with remote control self destruct timers fitted to decrepit amps. 😆