Leonard Smalls

We've got 4 consecutive weekend gigs from 20th April (Malvern, Hereford, Wellington, Nottingham - all decent supports), 1 in June (multi band Not the Vicars Tea Party, Gloucester), then 2 in July (Ludlow and Hereford, both good supports again), small festival in Pwhelli in September and a headline in November in Hereford (again!). Most of them are on the punk circuit, though at Pwhelli we're the only originals band on and Ludlow is supporting a ska band. Expecting more as well though I don't want to over-do it! But only 1 is within a half-hour of home...

Venus vs. Mars - Jay-Z

Feral - Radiohead

Found a vid of me sitting down with broken leg at Morecambe Nice'n'Sleazy punk fest. No fancy guitarist's stool for me, just a plastic garden chair!

Whip in my valise - Adam and the Ants

Life is the name of the game - Bruce Forsyth

Salad Days - Minor Threat

I did Morecambe Nice'n'Sleazy festival sitting down due to a broken leg... And a terrible bad back meant I sat on my amp for the whole of this gig too:

Been caught Stealing - Janes Addiction

It's the same as my big gig set up... Whichever bass, into either Helix or Future Impact pedalboard (or occasionally neither of these and straight in) to DBX rack compressor, BBE pre-amp and 1500w Crown power amp into Markbass 2x10 and 4x10. And strangely, I only play loud if I'm playing with the band.

There's more than that! There's also the original topic and spin off about anti-intellectualism... Talking of which, do overly-busy bass players prefer more exotic pizza flavours and die-hard root/fifth only folks favour a basic Margherita?

When my doc told me I had arthritis in my big toe he recommended either sour cherry juice or capsules... There are allegedly clinical studies showing that it helps!

Mug Push - Bootsy's Rubber Band

There is an Indian version of pizza... We used to live by a most excellent South Indian restaurant near Dollis Hill called Saravanas (no ' I'm afraid Doug!) which did a dish called Utthapam which had onions, fresh tomatoes, fresh herbs and lots of spices on a bread that was somewhere between chapati, naan and paratha. And it was lovely!

A couple of years ago I went skiing in Les Contamines where there was a rather fine but distinctly off-beat pizza place (L'Ours Noir) run by the ski guide we'd got to know... There were daily specials, the weirdest was probably a Thai Chicken Green Curry Pizza which was excellent, if a bit lacking in the expected chilli (we were in France, after all!).

Trans-Europe Express - Kraftwerk

As an object lesson in taking something simple and making far more complex while also elevating it to a whole new level:

This is often a BC way of saying "keep it simple cos that's the only way to do it that isn't blatant showing off!" 😁 I mean, there's all sorts of songs - Waterfront with its 1 note (though Simple Minds did far more complex stuff too), Rhythm Stick, School Days... But there seems to be lots of folks who are instantly turned off if music is at all complicated (Rhythm Stick excepted!) - this is why Mr Sheeran and Take That are multi-millionaires and Mörglbl are at best niche despite being completely awesome musicians. In the UK there's a weird sort of anti-intellectual thang going on; when I was a kid you should have heard the jeering from my 13 year old classmates when they discovered I'd read both the Iliad and the Odyssey. If a red-top newspaper ever reports anything scientific it's always prefaced by "Boffins have discovered", as if Boffins are a different species from yer average Joe and somehow to be pitied. I mean why would you tinker about with all this cleverness and not be watching the footie or enjoying the X Factor? The only sorts of knowledge that are acceptable under this scenario are an ability to recite every FA cup winner since 1921 or the exact exhaust valve clearance of a 1968 Ford Anglia. That's proper bloke stuff innit, not wishy-washy wet swot stuff! I blame The Beano...

Aye... I think it's a shame that complex music isn't more widely appreciated and that incredibly simple little ditties make the money! In terms of bass this is illustrated in our band. We've got two bass players - me playing far too many notes and R, who's from a purely punk background, playing easy root note stuff. However, this doesn't work in all our songs so I've taught him some chords above the twelfth fret to do effectively rhythm guitar stuff. First time he did this live a guy in the audience who knew R from his previous band shouted "Oi! Flash W4nkr!"

I remember a memorable gig at the Jericho Tavern in Oxford... We had this gang of twenty something lads (the Bromley Boys) who used to follow us, and being a bit influenced by our own craziness, all dressed up as women. However, this meant they all looked like the Monty Python crew in their lady-guises. I was just loading out my bass amp (still dressed in my wedding dress with black stripe painted vertically over my nose) when two local blokes came running past with the biggest Bromley Boy, Malc, looking the spit of John Cleese, in hot pursuit brandishing an iron bar and shouting "We're from faahkin Laaaaahndon!" Never found out what it was all about, we just got in the van with our obligatory Jack Daniels...

I don't give a fork - Suicidal Tendencies

Handcuffs - Parliament

A triple tie at the top! Well done all!

Wot,even Sid's masterful version?

Shurely shome mishtake? As everybody knows a bass player is musical if they only play root and fifth (and maybe a third or even a grace note if it's their significant birthday), always stand at the back (preferably mostly hidden behind cymbals, or better, a pillar) and absolutely never do anything that draws attention to either them, or God forbid, to their bass playing!