TimR

Yes. That's definitely more than a hobby.

[quote name='FinnDave' timestamp='1504033503' post='3362270'] My home insurers are very helpful, but insist that playing gigs for money makes it professional use and therefore not covered under home insurance. I get a good deal from our local insurer as my wife works there, but they still couldn't bend the rules that far. [/quote] How many gigs and what types of gigs are you doing? Did they not even suggest an additional premium?

Every album has been different. Some people (like me) like that. I don't think they've made a bad album. Some I don't particularly enjoy or listen to as much as others. It depends on my mood mostly. I guess a lot of people get nostalgic about the good old power trio, screamy band. Moving Pictures is obviously the biggest success and as such speaks to most people, there's not a bad song in that whole album and in contrast Signals had a lot to live up to and didn't really deliver for me.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1504023924' post='3362184'] Unless it was a free charity gig I can't see them covering you, I'd actually agree with them too. Typical four piece band is less than £15 a year per member with Ampband, job done all legit. [/quote] My brother has done this. They agreed that the number of gigs he does and the amount he gets paid for the gigs meant no additional premium. However, they wanted extra to cover his bicycle when out of the house. People tend to take out lots of little 'specialist' insurance policies to cover their hobbies instead of talking to the company that handles insurance they already have. There's a clause in my home insurance that excludes paying out on anything that already has insurance. Hence you are paying for your musical instruments to be covered separately at home, when they're already covered under your house insurance and the house insurance won't pay out if they're stolen from home. So part of your 'specialist' insurance is being wasted.

Most home insurance will cover PLI as long as it's not for your business, trade or profession. So it's worth talking to you insurers exactly what that means if you are not technically running a business. Then get it in writing.

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1504012932' post='3362106'] I had my MacBook knocked off a table at a gig in Bournemouth earlier this year. I wouldn't gamble again ever. [/quote] If you're taking £7k+ worth of gear to a gig, that's a different question entirely. Especially when your cheapest single item is worth more than all my gear put together. You really have all your eggs in one basket. My gear isn't even a 5th of yours.

A quick tot up of my gigging rig puts me at £1500. £4K seems an awful lot of money to me. That's a bass, an amp and two cabs. Any one of those items could become damaged but it would have to seriously kick off for it all to get trashed. If I was that worried about it I'd get it insured. I think last time I looked into it it was £50 a year.

Glad I saw them a couple of years ago. Has Peart said he'll never play again? There's no substance to that article at all. I understand they're not going to do great long international stadium tours but Metallica aren't doing those either. Two weeks at a time and even then not every night. People get old, I suppose, Geddy is a machine, that's what he wants to do, so I can understand the wish to push on. Does he need Lifeson to do that? I'd like to see a solo project.

Quite. It is the role of the musician to understand why tunes are as they are and to interpret the music and adapt to fit the occasion.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1503728374' post='3360530'] No not really, and yes, that's what we do but this is a discussion about some simple differences in playing that can enhance or detract from particular songs. I see you have experience of 2 numbers yourself. [/quote] Yes. What I have experience of is people trying (and failing badly) to recreate the exact original. And getting very frustrated in the process. It's something I really try to avoid now, I am not Bill Wyman or Paul McCartney. I've never heard any band recreate a track exactly as per the record and think there's a lot of people spending time on something that doesn't produce the results they think it does. As I say I've had better results when everyone just relaxes and plays something than when everyone gets fixed on how the original sounded. .

Oh god. Another thread of getting the cover exactly like the original. Just play the bloody tunes guys! The two tunes that spring to mind for me as being difficult to arrange for a band are Get Back by the Beatles and I'm a Believer by the Monkees. Both have strange intertwining rhythms and you have to work with the other musicians to decide who is going to cover what parts as they don't always just fall into place. I've had to abandon both songs in cover bands when people have been trying too hard, but nailed them both at jams. Never worked that out.

Tour of That There London? You'll be driving around as you won't get your PA and drum kit on the bus or tube. Assuming you're staying in London you'll be making a massive loss. Hotels will start at £80 a night each for a very low budget one. It's doable though.

[quote name='Bolo' timestamp='1503569685' post='3359221'] Depends on the direction of the wind I would think. Or am I reading this wrong? [/quote] No. It's always taken from the pole on the left hand side. So if the wind is blowing so the pole is on the right, you're looking at the back of the flag.

Assuming the story is true.

Some people don't want to forget.

But if you were as good as you could be and someone nit picked your playing, how would you respond?

[quote name='Geek99' timestamp='1503499970' post='3358755'] I'm embarassed to admit that I bought Now #4 on a cloudy day what feels like at least a century ago [/quote] Somewhere I have Now That's What I Call Music on vinyl. Think one of the tracks is The Camera Never Lies by Dollar. I think I've actually also got a couple of Top of the Pops albums as well. Although I think 'Album' is stretching it a bit. They're just compilations.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1503496496' post='3358706'] When I had an 11 year old he was listening to Pink Floyd and learning Comfortably Numb; but at 23 he's saying 'actually, Pink Floyd are often a bit sh*t'. [/quote] They suffer from the same problem as the Beatles. When they were new, no one had ever heard anything like it. Now there's lots of bands who were influenced by them who are doing better stuff.

Kids listen to all sorts. School of Rock has got my son interested in AC/DC and Led Zeppelin. Good music is good music, doesn't matter how old it is. People are still listening to the Beatles!

[quote name='Nicko' timestamp='1503491516' post='3358657'] Does anyone on this forum ever listen to anything that was released in this century? Most of these suggestions would be what the kid's grandparents grew up listening to. [/quote] That's not what the OP is suggesting though. It's a thought experiment on what you think are the most influential albums from your point of view. I would have given the same answer as Happy Jack. Who listens to albums nowadays? Not even me. Listen to everything and play along to everything.

My five most influential albums I listened to when I was first learning bass. Not necessarily bass technical albums but albums I would have played along to. 1. Live After Death - Iron Maiden 2. Fugazi - Marillion 3. The Wall - Pink Floyd 4. Eliminator - ZZTop 5. Power Windows - Rush I think that's really the game we are playing here isn't it?

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1503488424' post='3358612'] IMO if he wasn't prepared to do a proper job for £50 then he shouldn't have taken the gig in the first place. If that had happened to my band I'd be naming ans shaming the drummer in question. [/quote] You might be making yourself look slightly foolish.

No, neither of the logos are offensive. I was asked to put money into the poor box while I was in a bar in Detroit in the 1990s. I left pretty quickly.

"Was I supposed to come in there?"

[quote name='Nicko' timestamp='1503421354' post='3358109'] The hand wasn't x-rayed, they didn't seem that interested in it, although they x-rayed other bits of me. [/quote] Get it X-Rayed and if you've done something serious go and see a specialist. If you're serious about your bass playing and do long term dammage just for a pub gig, you'll regret it.