Leonard Smalls

I'm in two "main" bands... Weeds, formerly Dredd and the Badass Weeds were formed in Leeds in 1985 with members going off in 1986 to do stuff like Utah Saints, Cassandra Complex, New Fast Automatic Daffodils etc, mainly doing funk and reggae extended jams for parties. But we got back together for occasional giggage and recording and finally - last year - produced our masterwork (actually, it's our only work). This got seized on by a Chester radio station who've convinced us to do an actual gig. So we're rapidly writing 5 more songs from our various corners of Europe (West Ireland, Shropshire, Manchester, Sheffield, South of France) ready for our one and only rehearsal just before the gig in October. Other band is funkpunk with female singer and 2 basses, we're called Choked and have been going for around 5 years. We get together far more than Weeds! In fact we've got 4 gigs coming up including Rebellion Festival. We've got an album and a single with our old drummer...

I'm a Stool For Love - Prince Charles and the City Beat Band

Not tempted to stick with 'em?

Me too! And Rhythm Killers as well. Then this album as well, featuring a galaxy of groovy geezers, with Bill Laswell production...

Grate Balls Of Fire - Jerry Lee Louis

Toast! - Paul Young (or whatever alias it was!)

Urn-ie (the fastest milkman in the west) - Benny Hill

Come See Tomorrow-Al McDowell

World Destruction - John Lydon/Afrika Bambaata

Sea Cruise - Frankie Ford

I find that constantly shouting out "How ya doin' Glaston-berry!" Always works.

The Ripper! - Judas Priest

Original Funky Drummer!

Aye! But if it's a 160bpm punk thing we don't really want 110bpm funky drummer!

Aye! Bass players are their own worst enemy - we see it on BC frequently where amazing bassists are dismissed as wannabe lead guitarists, or "playing too many notes and not knowing their place". We have the biggest instruments (unless it's a Steinberger!) and so should wield them, rather than letting the look-at-me guitarists get all the adulation! We need a protest group - Musicians Against Guitarists' Attention-seeking.

We had a full band rehearsal yesterday to get ready for Worcester gig on Friday 11th... The part-band rehearsals really helped - everyone is now more receptive to what the others are playing, and as a result we're tighter and a bit heavier. Guitarman, however, hadn't learnt some of the intricate widdly bass bits I do which would have sound awesome if we both did 'em, so we decided he'd just emphasise the beginning of the phrase in one of the songs leaving me to have a number of mini solos... and in the other one where my busy line does a sort of double time syncopation with the vocals he does just muted scratchy stuff which further emphasises the rhythm. So a bit of a win! Just hoping drum-man doesn't start every song far too slow!

Big Spliff - Black Uhuru

That video is private!

Is Vicar There - Vic Goddard and Subway Sect

Say Hello Wave Goodbye - Soft Cell

Bastille Day - Rush

Hit Me Baby One More Lime - Britney Spears

Request time! Can you do play by magazine? I'd come!

Me too! There's lots of decent old joannas you can get for virtually nowt - old Challens go for pennies if you're lucky and are decent. I've just looked up our Pfeiffer, looks like they're selling ones similar for over E10000! https://www.pfeiffer-pianos.com/en/used/pianos

Funnily enough my mum's piano is still with us... Her parents bought it thinking it was new from the makers (Pfeiffer) in 1932. My mum learned to play on it, then did all her practice for LRAM, I did lessons on it, my mum gave lessons on it and recently we decided it needed a good service. So we found a really good piano builder who almost fell over when he saw it! He spent a quite few hours re-felting, adjusting hammers, sorting out the pedals and putting on a couple of replacement "ivories". It cost us about £400. Turns out it was actually made between 1872-74 and had been sitting in their warehouse for 60 odd years. And pianoman said it had possibly the best bass he'd ever heard from a piano - as good as a concert Bösendorfer he reckoned. So if you can find an oak overstrung Pfeiffer, buy it! And find someone very strong to move it. I've been involved in 6 moves with it so far and 'er's a reet bugger!