Leonard Smalls

The plan was to keep going in one of the middle carriages until we were arrested; we lasted a good half hour of banging away on acoustics, with lots of jumping around and gymnastics on the various poles and bars, before we were warned by a Transport policeman that this wasn;'t allowed... So like good boys we rather gratefully sneaked off with no arrests, and barely even the threat of it. But we could have been if it hadn't been for those pesky kids etc!

My band at the time were pretty busy - we even lived together! This is our gig list for 90-91:

The fact that the wheels have fallen off struck me as an exhortation to take to 2 wheels. Which for me means riding about on sweeping sunny roads on a 1000cc classic Italian Vtwin, so we have a lazy, not rushed beat, with a faint air of mild threat (as the film classification board would say) caused by the racket, the leather and the armadillo in the trousers. Now the final layer of varnish has dried, here it is - enjoy, or not! For those who are interested, the bass is a single track, and as usual, a single 1st take (can yer tell😁) - it's my Wal with a blend of clean and Future Impact dialled mainly into the bottom frequencies. Most of the other noises are (apart from the piano and EZ Drums featuring Jabo Sparks) bass with either ridiculous Future Impact noises and my new Dub Delay VST, or bass and octaver through Bias FX. Sequence sounds are from Isotope Iris 2, and all has been lightly polished with Ozone 9.

Obviously, you'll need enormous space reverb and plenty of compression. I'd also be tempted to turn the vox and guitars right down, and the bass right up. Hope that helps! 😎

Faith No More and "Easy"!

Hurrah! You'll be pleased to hear I've made no attempts at "singing". Though we do have a phat bass groove dribbling with Future Impact and lots of much weirder bass synth noises all rolled in my new Dub Delay vst...

I don't think that jigging around makes you an interesting bass player, and standing still doesn't make you boring. What does make a boring bass player is tedious note and rhythm choices, and perhaps more importantly, not Looking Like You Mean It. Any fool can bounce about uncoolly dad-dancing, but not every fool can stand stock still and absolutely kill it, like say Ron Mael or Kraftwerk! And any fool can move all over the stage wearing exactly the same clothes as they wear every other day (i.e. tshirt and jeans), but not every fool actually Looks The Part, like Bootsy!

Sort of new wave, but always liked what Mike Watt does...

I wanted more than 1 FX loop, so I bought a Wounded Paw V4 Blender. It costs more than double the LS2, and is shipped from Canada, and is quite large... However, it's got 4 separate loops with high pass, phase reverse, choice of how bypass switching and individual volumes, plus blending with a clean signal with bass and treble controls. So not I've got 4 loops consisting of Future Impact, Bass Whammy, 3 leaf envelope follower, and FwonkBeta/Darkglass tube distortion. It's like a mixer stompbox!

Can't go wrong with a bit of Suicidals, or their Infectious offshoot...

Tis verily the sport of Kings!

I vote for: Or:

Who knows! But our singer was meant to be getting married at the last Rebellion,so if it goes ahead this year we'll all be there as bridesmaids.

A dancefloor favourite for my Funk'n'Goth nights in mid 80s Leeds!

Urban or pink camo?

You'll no doubt be either impressed or deeply appalled to hear that I managed to get 123dB peaks in my living room, using my hifi! It was uncomfortably loud, and I realise now it wasn't big, and it wasn't clever. Still got the same hifi, cos I just know...

I do! No pie was safe 😁

Motorhead at the ABC cinema in Chester when I were nobbut a lad... Swans at the Mean Fiddler (wot a bleedin racket!) Barf Roco in our living room in a housing co-op place in Vincent Square, Pimlico. In hindsight, 10kw PA with full backline and miced drums was a touch overkill in a 5x8m room... Riot police turned up, and somehow either Jimbob or Fruitbat (can't remember which!) from CarterUSM broke their arm falling down the stairs. Happy days!

Especially for Doug I've done some weirdybeardyjazzyoddness... It's a celebration of the cheap Action Man substitute (Little Big Man) I got as a kid. It came with a parachute - song is in 3 parts as that's how many bit LBM broke into when I tested his 'chute! https://soundcloud.com/leonard-smalls/little-big-man (edited to add, strangely, it won't embed so link instead...)

Dennis Chambers.... Funky, musical and expressive!

Tis a bit out of sync and weirdly coloured, but...

I didn't buy a Wal for its wonderful tone or playability- in the topsy turvy world of rock and roll, having a good solid piece of wood in your hand is quite often useful...

My timing is definitely better, wot with playing to EZ Drummer for nearly a year; Real Drummer would invariably have speeded up by at least 10bpm per song, as well ad throwing in various bars of 5, 6 and even 7/4 due to many over enthusiastic under executed fill-ins. We called him The Dentist.