Leonard Smalls

Thursday 6th June we're in Hereford...

There's lots of new rock about! Angry: Happyish and a bit glammy Gothy Guaranteed to annoy most folks, so proper rock'n'roll despite being ancient at 2 years old...

I suspect that many of the 50+ers no longer look for new music - after all it's young'uns who tend to do the more interesting and ground-breaking stuff and the oldies plough the same old comfy rut... Not only that but the kids don't know what rock is and are more interested in textickling and them vlogs about make-up. And you've got to remember that looking for new rock'n'roll is a lot of bother when your joints are aching and the nurse is telling you it's time for your cocoa dear 😜

They put on a helluva lot of shows too... I remember when we supported them on about 15-20 dates one year - they did 300 gigs altogether. But then with 2 small combos, 2 guitars and a DAT machine they all fitted easily in their manager's mini!

I preferred their earlier work...

In Apocalypse Now doesn't that Army bloke say he loves the smell of Napalm Death in the morning?

The boy'll do it till the sun goes down.

Oh yes he did!

Funnily enough, all the bands I've been in since 1983 have never really done covers. And we had no trouble getting more gigs than we actually wanted! Currently we do just one cover - it's a punk classic mashed up with a funk classic- with 10 songs of our own, and we've got gigs booked up till November. Though we are putting together a slap bass version of a Misfits song as possible 2nd encore (wishful thinking?). Admittedly we've got very little in our own small town, but then there's no venues here bar tiny pubs where you've got room for the band plus 10 punters. They put on occasional open mic nights and covers bands but we don't want to play to audiences who aren't there for the music...

Or alternatively, get someone who knows something about music to choose the song and artist, not just stick the 1st X Factor wannabe up there!

Never heard of 'em 🤩

Aw shucks! Though the best stuff on there is with the rest of 80s Leeds supergroup, The Weeds, like Bedtime, Hammer Riff, Angels 1-5 which has the joy of New Fads vocalist, Mr. Pointy, ex-Utahs Drums Party-boy Keith and the Death Twins on guitars... (though they're all live)

Here's one of our love songs...

I use a Crown xls 1502 power amp fed from a BBE pre... That puts 1550W bridged into a 4ohm load. Very clean and reasonably priced - with the 2nd LED just about flickering I can drown out guitar and drums!

I hope you're going to warm your hands first!

It would have all been a lot better if Australia had been represented by King Gizzard, Germany by Rammstein, UK by Fat White Family, Ireland by Girlband etc. That would have freaked out all those people who actually like the exceptionally square wail-fest that it is!

Luckily with us melodies are few and far between... So I nail together a number of riffs in funky prog-punk style, guitarist puts some feedback over the top, drummer does an over-complicated pattern that speeds up by at least 10bpm over the song, then the singer shouts some lefty-stuff. Tom's yer uncle!

The works of Brother Smalls are to be venerated! I suggested this as a cover for our band but was shouted down by those with a lack of vision...

He should have used an actual cello!

Me like! Here's a surprisingly restrained and groovy slap solo from him, even though it contains some machine gun stuff and a short bit of tooth playing - starts at 2'30ish

I would most respectfully disagree!

Shame! It would have been most excellent to output midi fx bass plus fx loop and clean signal into a DAW, or use it as an offboard midi effect...

Does anyone know if the FI will output midi from a bass guitar input?