Leonard Smalls

Not a clue who most of these folks are!

Glass House - Peter Tosh

Barry Adamson from Magazine Norman Watt-Roy Bootsy

Funnily enough, our drummer has right trouble with 3:4 time as well... We've got one song where the 2nd chorus ends with 8 bars of 3:4, the last 2 bars are a rest ready for a bass break which is in 4:4. He plays the 6 bars we play in as 18 bashes on the snare, which works quite well, but it took forever for him to get the rest bars; I said count "1-2-3, 2-2-3 for the rest" and he was adamant it was 7 he had to count to, which meant for the first few gigs he started a beat late! He's finally got it, but doesn't understand...

How soon is now - The Smiths

André Rieu classical? In much the same way as the Carpenters are Death Metal! 😁 Extreme Easy Listening at best, though it's only easy to listen to if you like the slimiest of cheese 🧀😜

French Kissing in the USA - Debbie Harry

Go Johnny go! - Chuck Berry

You want beautiful wiring? Not a bass, but this is my Bow Technologies hifi pre-amp. Hand assembled!

Come on Eileen - Dexys Midnight Runners

Round here out in the sticks I wouldn't be surprised if half the people driving were over the limit! As the nearest police station is about 16 miles away they think they can get away with it! I remember our neighbour in our last house was a serious alcoholic farmer. He used to do a round of all the pubs in the valley and happily drive himself home. Someone told the police about him and he was done on a number of occasions, the last time he was told that if he did it again there would be a custodial sentence... I was having a meal in our local, which was about 3miles from home, and saw him arriving on his ride on lawnmower. His reasoning, once I'd deciphered what he was slurring, was that he'd be ok as it wasn't road legal! I took him home... Sadly, he didn't live much longer - died aged 49 and looking like 79.

Mommy, where's daddy? - Red Hot Chilli Peppers

Had the first rehearsal/jam for a brand new originals blues/rock band with the old guitarist from my other band... Weirdly, it was in a church (drummer is the vicar's hubby!) which sounded great as we weren't even loud enough for me to use earplugs. And it shows promise, some good groovy improvisations ranging from almost harmolodic jazz through straight-ahead blues to funk slap-bass rock. Looks like there's some potential!

Union City Blues - Blondie

Mind transplant - Alphonse Mouzon

Deep in the woods - Birthday Party

Poison - Alice Cooper

Aye, Czechia's entry this year should really have been in the final... Bit poppy for me, but did have hints of Placebo. And while I didn't watch the final as I was gigging (to be fair I rarely do anyway as I don't really like the Eurovision song format) but the staging is absolutely amazing. I'd love to play on a stage like that rather than a grimy grass-roots venue with 4 coloured spotlights and duff PA!

Not if I chose it! We still wouldn't win, unless the Eurovoters are into crazed electric jazz with metal overtones...

Impressive array of techniques!

Me too... But it's Toucan Play!

As inspiration for this month's composition challenge...

I done some jazz! A chaotic riposte to James Blood Ulmer's "Jazz is the Teacher, Funk is the Preacher"; this is The Creature! This started life as a bass improvisation over a 140bpm click track... Bits of guitar (Strat and Gretsch) were added and layered, plus various keyboard VSTs (clavinet, rhodes). Finally some brass ensemble VST to hold it together and trumpet samples found at Loopmasters to give it more spice. The drums were assembled using 16 tracks of individual brush/cymbal/hi-hat/tom sounds from Ableton's Loopmasters jazz drums sample bank. Most tracks ever used too - 36! All mixed in Doblies with a smearing of Neutron 3 and Ozone 9, guitars going through Bias FX and bass as recorded apart from a spot of small-room reverb.

We've got 3 whole weeks off, then it's down to Gloucester for this fine event!

Listen to the flower people - Spinal Tap