Leonard Smalls

If only it had been Dave Vanian and the boys! 😎

I've been listening to some Bristolian indiefunksters channelling the Slits...

Hip? Only if they subscribe to this doctrine: 😄 Though perhaps retro-cheese is just as hip as cassettes (*) in these crazy days! * saying that. a m8 of mine sent me his new album the other day. On cassette... I asked him how he expected me to play it - he said push the side and the usb connector will pop out!

I've never cut mine... I stick it in the slot, then gently move it round a couple of times. Holding tightly onto that end, I get the ball and ram that into the other slot. While keeping tension I turn the knob until it's tight. Never had a problem with them going floppy!

Back in about 1991 I was in a band that was doing quite well - headlines at the Marquee, reviews in NME and Melody Maker, big supports with Carter and Gaye Bykers. Our manager felt we would be "making it soon" so our guitarist and keyboard player left their jobs. But we never did make it; guitarman went to college to study furniture restoration, keys went back to removals, then moved to Wales... With new keys we were making the best music we ever had, our stageshow was exciting but somehow it just fizzled out. Luckily I didn't leave my job until 10 years later, and that was only to escape That London!

But only as far as page 8! 😎😁

😃 I always do this sort of thing when it's my turn to go plinkitty plink plinky plink wahboom:

I think it may have fizzled out by page 8... Then in 2 years someone will resurrect it for another couple of pages. But just to keep it going: I feel that those who like their music hard'n'heavy (not just metal, I'm not a metal fan but I like my jazz to be challenging, my funk to be On The One, my reggae not to be Lovers' and I tend not to like anything coated in saccharine apart from Bootsy's "Telephone Bill" - I also don't like any American songbook type stuff) won't really like SD. And those who aren't quite so keen on their music kicking them in the gut are more likely to be keen. Apart from the exceptions of either side, obviously!

I've been enjoying these folks and their beautiful melodies... 😁😎

I came back from skiing on 25th January to Manchester airport... I was very surprised to see that at passport control it already said "UK citizens" (with flags of Oz, Canada etc too) one lane, other passports in the other lane. The powers that be were so rabidly keen that this had started 6 days before we'd even entered our 11 month transition period! So it doesn't surprise me that carnets are already being enforced; as Cuzzie said above, remember the "hostile environment" brought in by Ms. May! As our band is relatively new, so we haven't had the joy of trying a European tour yet - though the added grief means it's less likely. And it's a shame that all those little-ish punk bands from Italy, Germany, France will also find it much more difficult, and lovely little venues like Percy's in Whitchurch will probably have far less variety.

But where's the fun in that? We Britishers, especially us Northern Britishers love to whinge!

Aye! One would hope that since there is now a means of directly petitioning government said government would give careful consideration to those that meet the criteria, rather than just a cursory dismissal (which is what seems to have happened to most petitions!). I've also attempted to write to my local MP (on a puppy farm related issue, so only anything to do with this thread if you're in an Osmonds tribute ) - he completely ignored all my points and said he would be doing nothing as "he believes in free enterprise". So it appears that the only avenue available to change government's mind is to get the support of the red tops... Given that most folk in the country think music and the arts begins with The Voice/XFactor/Karaoke and ends with Strictly I won't be holding by breath!

Indeed... This is the sort of devil take the hindmost attitude that has seen so many cuts in funding to the most in-need. But then, I'm alright Jack!

What about putting on tariffs to help workers on, say, farms in Norfolk? Though I suspect that this government (though this is more than a suspicion!) are so free market obsessed that help won't be forthcoming to those who lose out as a result of the self-inflicted free-for-all. After all, it's survival of the fittest, eh? They'll have to adapt or die! Which isn't the sort of message that you want to hear if you've sunk all your savings into getting a thriving business going trading with our nearest neighbours over the space of 40 years only to discover that you have no idea whether you can profitably carry on that trade...

I get the nausea thing... I always find they do something interesting, groovy, accomplished. Then they mess it up with either a) that horrible singing; I can't put my finger on why it's so unpleasant to me, perhaps because it's so blatantly unoffensive? Or perhaps because his melodies and chord sequences just chime with something deep down in me that hates smoooothjazz chord sequences? I remember going to see Larry Coryell once, and while dazzled by his prowess (!) all those elevator chord changes were like being drizzled with golden syrup in a bath full of honey (I understand that this may appeal to some). b) see a), though the band's chord sequences are just as annoying as Mr Fagin's (unsurprisingly) But then I like music to be visceral, challenging. And if it's going to be quite easy, keep it simple and groovy - like dub!

While any business would welcome a reduction in red tape and bureaucracy I don't believe that the current UK government can be trusted to do that... Frinstance, I've recently been lumbered with a number of surveys I'm legally bound to fill in for the Office of National Statistics (on pain of a £5k fine). What's deeply annoying is that I also have to provide exactly the same info to another branch of government (HMRC), just in a different format. Not only that, but another new law has just appeared where any business storing data on a computer or even just having cctv has to pay a fee of up to £2900 to the Information Commissioners office... Neither of these are likely to help businesses cope with the rest of the "opportunities" that the country has democratically foisted on them!

While I'm not directly of Scotchish descent, I have the name of one of the ancient clans (my ancestors were kicked out during the clearances), so I would also like to register my interest. Though my wife has an Irish granny, and I have a German mother so we can always escape to furrin' if necessary. Though whether we manage to do that before BlowJo pulls out the big plug and we all start to sink, Atlantis-style, into the newly enlargened Atlantic!

Indeed! {Cues up "Rule Britannia} And we'll have our empire back, we'll all be able to leave our back doors open, and we'll get proper summers and winters again, none of that EU climate change nonsense! 😂

I can see the sunlit uplands and the frolicking unicorns from here! However, just to throw a spanner in the works music-wise, I won't be looking forward to the possible return of carnets... Back in the late 80s I used to work in an office at the BBC doing carnets for film crews going to the far east... Every single piece of equipment, together with serial numbers, cases they came in, batteries, leads, connectors etc would have to be detailed in full, otherwise there'd be at best a lengthy delay (which cost a lot of money), or worse a delay plus a demand for import duty for the equipment to be released. And I was actually employed to do it right; imagine a band who don't know the possible problems trying to do a full carnet! Say you've already submitted it, then need new strings but can't get the brand that's on the carnet. Or the day before going the Whirlwind lead you've put on the form conks out and you put an OBBM one in instead. All of which could leave the band sat in customs for hours trying to prove how much they paid for the item and trying not to pay local VAT on it!

I'm afraid that's a rather blinkered view that ignores the fact that all art is entirely subjective.. All it says is " the music I like is better than the music you like, and not only that but you must be completely clueless not to like my music". I could say exactly the same (possibly with more reason 😉) about those who don't like proper innovators like, say, Derek Bailey. Or Ornette Coleman. Or Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society... 😋

But look at all that wonderful new freedom you'll have now that all our laws and regulations will be made by sensible English folks rather than by dastardly Johnny Foreigner! 😁

I refer the honourable gentleman to his quote from another thread...

Bosses? Decent wage? As a boss, we've had terrible trouble finding people to work for us - we don't pay the minimum wage but the Living Wage as a minimum. We can't afford to pay any more - the business just won't take it - though we give a pay rise every year. And I suspect it's the same for most other SMEs - they have to pay at least minimum wage, but often pay more. And they still find it difficult to find suitable people; all we ask for are folks who are willing to learn, can string a sentence together and are friendly and outgoing (we're a shop!). And we've found that the majority of applicants can't write a coherent CV, can't be bothered to write even a basic covering letter and haven't even attempted to find out what our business is. However, we've found Lithuanians who seem to far more personable and fluent in English! So far we've only managed to find one English person under 30 to work for us...

I never listen to lyrics! Or at least rarely... I'm a bass player who plays too many notes, I haven't got time for singists as well, especially ones who sound quite so annoying as Herr Fagin! Like I said, the best thing about them for me is their name...

When I was a young goth student I supplemented my grant by doing funk djing... As this was back in the 80s I had no idea how to find records by new funk artists - the NME and Sounds were no help! So I'd go and browse Jumbo Records imports section (can you tell where I was?) and buy anything with a black guy on the cover holding a bass, especially if it said in the credits "thanks to God and my mom" One day I bought an album that fulfilled all those criteria - sharp suit, sharp haircut, Stenberger bass, thanks to God and mom... Took it home expecting The Bomb, and it was a crazy jazz cacophony - funky, to be fair, but absolutely mad with ridiculous widdling and absolutely no-one urging us to hold our hands in the air. I late learned (after I had an epiphany and grew to love it, just not for discos!) that the man was Ornette Coleman's Prime Time bass player, and the album was: