Leonard Smalls

Having a bit of a trip down rockabilly lane:

I used to have problems with the band not being able to hear me. Then I bought a 1500w amp... 😁

Finally got my 'puter to behave, and spent 2 or 3 hours noodling and doodling... Started with lots of percussion, got a keys riff going, added some big guitars, then a pumpinslappy bass thing. After that, a final roll in glitter and 3 coats of varnish. It's not jazz, but it probably is an oddity! And for those interested, recorded in Ableton. Keyboard sounds from Iris and Ableton's own. Drums are a mix of programmed and sampled clips from Designer Drums, Digicussion and EZ Drummer. Guitar is a strat, bass is a Wal and both are going through various Amplitube 4 amps, with some added Phasis and Raum on both. Polish added by Neutron 3 and Ozone 9.

Yup! A Sabre fretless is the one I've got... Does every mwah tone you could want, as well as rockabilly thwacking using the piezo plus optical pickups. I bought it on spec from BassDirect when it was about a grand... Even did a punk gig with it!

Funnily enough, I saw Kraftwerk, Bauhaus and Cabaret Voltaire there... Though not on the same bill.

I like this... With the added advantage of no magnetic pickups! (btw, I've got one of these and it's excellent)

Always a bit dubious about all in one for some reason. Too tidy for me! I'm looking at a PC Specialist build in Be Quiet! case, i9 11900kf processor, 1x500 + 1x1000Gb M2 SSDs + 2TB Seagate HDD, 32Gb of Corsair Vengeance 2.6MHz RAM at £1298... Though it will need a monitor. And also looking at a Xeon powered Dell workstation with otherwise similar spec, refurb at £800...

I'm going to have this soon too as my laptop is currently in 20 mins boot-up and 5 minutes to think about anything mode... Files are easy as they're on an external drive, but will have to remember vst passwords are download again. Then there's choosing a new 'puter... Do I go old workstation with 64gB RAM and multithread processor(s) or new 32gB with not quite as good processor?

Had a decent gig last night at the most excellent Percy's in Whitchurch, Shropshire... Well received, folks were dancing and there was a visitation by our very own @lurksalot, his brother and m8 Dave. Only one proper pink torpedo up, when the drummer started off what was meant to be our most complex song bass-wise as a double speed punkthing. Eventually muddles through, but don't think I've ever played so fast in my life! Anyway, here's one we didn't balls up too much, our opening number... TwoCanPlay Percys 12-2-22.mp4

Cheers! And Raph'n'Sam say hi! Let us know when you're gigging with your new band - they're willing to travel to support you!

RIP!

My mum was a decent recorder player - this is the sort of thing she'd play, with her mate on the joanna:

Excellent! Only found out today... Previous support band had cancelled. I think we're the middle band.

Bit of slap electro featuring Tyrone's double thumb!

Just got a last minute gig at the excellent Percy's in Whitchurch. Last time we played there we had a ready-made audience courtesy of our own @lurksalot! Now featuring rhythm bass (Raph, ex of Hereford punx Terminal Rage) and lead bass (me on full-time widdle-duty), with our relatively new Drummer Gaz, and of course Jonny on Hendrix noises and Sam on Righteous Vox. https://www.facebook.com/events/690644258971962?ref=newsfeed

You can like both, or neither... You can also like new, or old exclusively; in other words you can like whatever you like. Similarly, you can also express an opinion on what you like or don't, and you can also say why you do or don't like it! You can also say you disagree with someone else's opinion and even politely say why!

Sadly, I was a late comer and didn't discover them till Peel played "Hollywood" in about September '85... Though I immediately ordered RHCP and Freakey Styley on import from our local independent record shop! And early fans are less likely to go to see stadium Chillis as they'd probably see the MoR Sweet Pimento Peppers - as for me, I wouldn't go to any gig where you need a large video screen just to see the band. Max Chillis gig size I enjoyed was around 2000 at the late-lamented Astoria.

These creative fellas get a bit confused sometimes 😁

S'funny - both sound to me (apart from Antwan The Swan's attempted singing) like an average, 70's Americana influenced US rock band. Groove and attitude toned right down in favour of MoR type radio play-friendliness! So I'd contend that if you don't like this, you don't like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. What you actually like is the Sweet Pimento Peppers!

I don't think that's necessarily the case... Frinstance, I don't like the success of Coldplay, nott because I don't like success but because there are many other acts I'd prefer to be successful over Coldplay. It's not Coldplay's fault that they've made millions, that many people like them... But as far as I'm concerned it's a shame that something so musically staid is what the majority of people want! I just wish folks would be just that bit more adventurous with their musical choices, though with a complete dearth of interesting music on any mainstream TV or radio (apart from 6Music!) it's not surprising. After all, music TV consists of Masked Singer, X Factor and the backing band of Strictly... With the Chillis they started off more musically interesting,built a following who loved their manic mix of styles and energy, then they discovered that they'd make more money if they veered more toward easy listening. Or they got old. Or both! Whichever it was, it alienated the original fans - me included. However, I most certainly don't begrudge their success; they've worked hard, they were one of the best bands I ever saw live (Clarendon/MeanFiddler/Electric Ballroom gigs were awesome!). I just don't like what they do now...

This was me in the late 80s 😁

ER!

Indeed! I tried to explain to him the concepts of headroom and distortion, and the idea that bass frequencies need more power - even when I pointed to the big bass driver and said "big thing need big power" he still didn't get it.

We had one like that, England were playing (I think) Holland, so we brought a 12" portable tv along, stuck it on the stage and had the footie going while we played... Funnily enough, that gig actually got reviewed in Melody Maker, though the reviewer doesn't mention the telly, or the reason (possibly not the only reason!) why the gig was empty... https://pushstuff.co.uk/mmlives/barfroco110591.html I was the one dressed in an Edwardian bathing costume (as you do).

We did a support for Carter the Unstoppable at the Marquee many years ago... It went down so well that the Marquee offered us our own headline, which was nice, and in the week before Christmas! So we thought we'd make it special, we gathered our painters (who would paint both a backdrop and our white overalls in fluorescent paint - my Wal still has some blobs of it!), rehearsed to within an inch of our lives and booked a "festive surprise" for the audience. After our first number, our singer let slip that the surprise was due to be a stripper, which really got the male members of the audience going - you could virtually see huge clouds of testosterone condensing on the ceiling. 2 songs before the end our singer shouted "who's ready for the stripper?"; the (male bits) of the audience went wild, which he milked for every penny. When the much-hyped stripper finally came on there was a stunned silence, for it was a he... Not only that, he was a rather portly though not unattractive Father Christmas! Luckily the audience coped with the Noel-ish nudity and we finished the set without a single can of piddle thrown at us. But when we came off stage we found the singer's girlfriend snogging Father Christmas in the dressing room!