Cliff Edge

I’ve never done that. It’d be pointless as I’m hopeless remembering names.

Over time I’ve had a mix of stuff depending on what I could afford at the time. From memory, in the early 70’s a Vox AC30 treble boost of all things. Rather good it was too. A Traynor passed through my hands, I recall it wasn’t very good. A wonderful Peavey TK something or other combo, I separated the amp and cabinet to make it more portable but it still didn’t fit in the Mini. A couple of Hartke 3500’s, the second because the first took up smoking and died. They went into an Eden 1x15 cabinet. Very nice. There were others I can’t remember, probably because they weren’t any good. All I have now is an Ampeg BA112 and I Di into the PA from a Sansmp BDDI It’s too bloody heavy for its size though. The Ampeg not the BDDI.

I can’t remember actually being 50 but I’m pretty sure I’m a better player now. If I’m not then I’ve wasted the last 60 odd years being mediocre.

Gretchen Peters in Bexhill on Sea last night. First class professional performance as expected from this seasoned artist. The final live tour by all accounts. Great band behind her with Colm McClean on upright and Precision. Not a name I'm familiar with. And no drummer. The support was Kim Richey who finished her set with quite possibly the best ever rendition of Sunday Morning Coming Down getting a standing ovation. A very enjoyable evening and a packed house.

Always good to see the bass player taking lead vocals.

Washing up liquid or any liquid soap works.

‘‘Twas the same with Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Fine I suppose for all the guitar nerds in the audience getting their rocks off but way too much widdling for the sake of it. “Is this tune ever going to end”.

Saw him Tuesday evening in Bexhill on Sea. I agree he can certainly play a guitar, but honestly after the fifth or sixth number it’s all a bit repetitive. And extremely loud. Bass player was excellent with a fine sound from the Ampeg stack behind him. The sound and lighting guys were perfectly synced with the music and the films projected behind him were very amusing. Sorry to say we left at the interval, along with a good few others. I’m pleased I saw him, we’ve had the tickets 3 years and we’re beginning to wonder if we’d ever see him. But I wouldn’t bother again. Sorry.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band last night at the Del La Warr in Bexhill on Sea. He, KWS, is obviously a very talented rock guitarist and he knows it, playing overly long guitar solos, with Status Quo style posing, to his devoted fans. But blues it ain’t. Well I don’t think it was as the vocals were largely drowned out by the guitar, which is a shame as when you could hear the singer he was very good. The bass was muddy and practically inaudible, badly eq’d in the kick drum. There was a very good keyboardist when you could hear him. The sound and mix is usually excellent in the venue and I’ve seen dozens of shows there, but last night was clearly biased towards the guitar player. And it wasn’t nice. I was bored after half an hour of repetitive loud widdling.

My first amp/speaker rig was a cheapo valve HiFi thing of no more than 20 watts. Tripletone comes to mind but I could be wrong. My father built a separate cabinet for me with a 15” Fane speaker. The whole thing was far too big. I didn’t do many gigs with it due to not being able to move the damn thing easily. Non driving schoolboy I was.

They are. They just don’t look the same.

I saw a local Beatles tribute act a couple of years ago in the Canary Islands. Music was good but the on stage banter in Spanglish with Liverpool accents was hilarious.

Lemonrock is light on specifics about the venues. Nothing about parking and access etc. Appears to be reasonably up to date in my area although some venues I would expect to see are not featured but that’s the venues responsibility.

Spirit in The Sky is a great record. I must have played it hundreds of times when I ran a mobile disco* back then. Never failed to get people dancing. * Don’t judge me, the girlfriend and I were saving up to buy our first house and it was money for old rope. Probably still is.

Agreed, this was a great show. An amazing voice and obviously a talented musician with an interesting collection of Fenders. Assuming they were all his. The band and backing singers were great too, especially the guitarist. And it’s not often you see a bass player use a Ricky in a backing band.

Watching this with interest. I often play outside in summer through a battery powered pa system with speakers not designed for bass.

That’s a whole other thread.

VAT is charged on everything in a totting up process, so cost plus freight plus duty, then VAT on the total. So cutting out the freight element reduces the overall cost. Employing a freight carrier, courier or post usually means they include a fee for the customs clearance processes including paying any duties on your behalf, before delivery. You can of course employ your own customs agent for this, but they are not free either. Unless you are knowledgeable enough to DIY.

Very recently I saw a 1980 EBMM 2 EQ Stingray on Facebook Marketplace for roughly half the price of an identical model on Reverb. Now I can’t confirm if the FB offering was a scam or just a post by an idiot, but it was a long way from me and frankly if I bought another bass right now I’d be looking at a divorce.

I’m not condoning illegality just putting forward an option. I’ve never been stopped and asked or had the car even get a sideways glance as I drove off the train at either end. I’ve never had anything to declare anyway. Apart from a few boxes of wine.

If it’s pre owned option 1 is Eurostar to Amsterdam and from there collect the guitar and bring it back yourself as your own property. Option 2, probably the best, is drive to Folkestone put the car on Eurotunnel to Calais and drive up to wherever in the Netherlands it is. Stick it the boot and come home. Either one will probably be cheaper and safer in the long run with off peak travel and it’s a nice reasonably quick drive up to Amsterdam.

Marty Stuart and the Fabulous Superlatives in Bexhill on Sea last night. A perfect example of performance professionalism. Could not fault any part of the show, the sound or the members of the band. Chris Scruggs, Earle Scruggs grandson, did some amazing stuff on upright, including a frantic rendition of Wipeout. Surf music at a country music show? You bet. Much use of b benders by Stuart on Clarence Whites old Telecaster and Kenny Vaughan on his. Harry Stinson on drums is a pleasure to watch, the man can really sing too. Last time I saw him was many moons ago at London’s Boarderline with The Dead Reckoners Kieran Kane and Kevin Welch. A fabulous evening’s entertainment, preceded by a fine dinner at a local Italian joint.

This is true but I got the Nordie’s cheap and it made a difference.

No issues on either site here using Safari on an IPad. No AV or Malware apps here of course but Safari will flag up issues when appropriate. The problems some are seeing are related to ssl certificate configurations, and in some cases Windows certificate caches. It’s wrong for the AV software and Malware Bytes to say the sites are insecure or contain malware because of this. The site owners should contact their hosting companies to sort our the problem, it’ll take about 5 minutes.