Twigman

[quote name='chrisba' post='973851' date='Oct 1 2010, 12:52 PM']I would rather play covers to 200 drunken students than original music to 20 introvert musicians. Loads more fun.[/quote] Not as much fun as playing originals to 1000 diehard fans though, believe me!!

[quote name='Norris' post='973830' date='Oct 1 2010, 12:37 PM']It depends what you're after. If you're serious about having a career in music, you would probably want to go for an originals or a tribute band. If, like me, you work for a living and just play music for fun & beer money, a covers band is a lot easy to get regular *local* work. I don't really want to be travelling all over the country several nights a week. I did a lot more playing in my youth, but it just hurts too much getting up for the day job now-a-days, when you've not got in until 2, 3 or 4 am. There are a lot of very serious and committed bass players on this forum. I'm one of the more casual ones [/quote] We don't play gigs week in week out and we don't play often enough to make a living from it. Generally we do it for fun though - it's hardly a career as such, although to some, given our discography, it may seem like one. Yes, we put the work in early on, gigging to empty halls with disinterested audiences but that's all part of it.... And we have the luxury of most of our gigs being fly aways to the Med for a Fri/Sat show, so we get a weekend away with the lads with someone else footing the bill and come back with more cash than we left with - could you do that with a covers band?

[quote name='mike f' post='970615' date='Sep 28 2010, 01:14 PM']I should imagine that a good few of you film your own band when ever you gig - perhaps more as a record of events than a rockumenatary, if you will.[/quote] We leave the fans to do that and post it on youtube.... quality varies from sh*t mobile phone footage to reasonable HD video camera work....but every gig seems to go up on youtube (we don't play many) and we have no need to film ourselves.

[quote name='Dave Vader' post='973814' date='Oct 1 2010, 12:28 PM']You get paid, and people come and see you.[/quote] Same here. So what's your point?

So many of you play in covers bands, in fact it seems to me that all of you do!!! What is the appeal of playing in a covers band? I've never understood it. I've always played in a band that writes and performs its own material - very very very rarely have we ever thrown a cover into our set and I always felt it was a pointless exercise. Does anyone here, apart from me, play in a band that writes its own material?

I play with Sad Lovers & Giants. Sad Lovers & Giants are a rock band from Watford, England who formed in 1981. Their sound blends post-punk, atmospheric keyboards and psychedelia and the band has been described as "a pastoral Pink Floyd." The band's members have included Garçe (Simon) Allard (vocals), Tristan Garel-Funk (guitar), Tony McGuinness (now part of the trance trio Above & Beyond) (guitar), Cliff Silver (bass), Ian Gibson (bass), David Wood (keyboards and saxophone), Juliet Sainsbury (keyboards), Marco Müllner (keyboards), Nigel Pollard (drums & percussion) and Wilberforce Hicks (keyboards). The original lineup produced two studio albums, Epic Garden Music and Feeding the Flame, before splitting in 1983. During this initial period they recorded a John Peel Session for the BBC and a live concert for the Dutch Radio Hilversum station, which was subsequently released as the album Total Sound. Live performances included headline dates at UK colleges and clubs with occasional trips to Europe, although they did support The Sound at a major London venue on the day Epic Garden Music entered the UK independent charts. European interest in the band began to grow, and with the release of second album Feeding the Flame, they toured Germany and Holland, gaining a dedicated fanbase. Artistically, Feeding the Flame is considered to be their finest work and hints at a potential that could have elevated them to the status of contemporaries such as The Chameleons, Cocteau Twins and Modern English. Tensions within the band caused a complete disintegration, however, with Garel-Funk and Pollard leaving to form The Snake Corps (inwhich I played keyboards). Not much was heard for a while; their label Midnight Music released a "mopping up" album entitled In the Breeze, which included one of their previously unreleased signature tune, "Three Lines". They returned in 1986 with an updated lineup (Tony McGuiness on guitar, Juliet Sainsbury on keyboards and Ian Gibson on bass), and new album entitled The Mirror Test. Although stylistically similar to the original lineup, the dark edginess of songs like "In Flux" had, to a certain extent, been replaced by more melodic songwriting. On the other hand, the new lineup had a live energy previously lacking, and as they continued to play the best of the old songs, their act developed to produce some truly memorable performances. As interest abroad grew, the band performed extensively in Holland, Spain and France, headlined at the old Marquee club in London's Soho, and with the release of their fourth album, Headland, were a featured band in Melody Maker. They released a further album Treehouse Poetry before Midnight Music went bust and the band split once again, coming together occasionally for gigs supporting And Also The Trees at the Marquee Club and London's Electric Ballroom. E-mail from Eternity, a 'best of' compilation, was released by the record label Cherry Red in 1996 after the company picked up the Midnight catalogue. In 2002, the band released a brand new album called Melting in the Fullness of Time. They played two dates in Italy a year later. SL&G (Allard, McGuiness, Pollard, Gibson, Müllner) played several gigs in Italy in April 2009, coinciding with Cherry Red's re-release of Feeding The Flame and Epic Garden Music. Hicks (also in Detachments) replaced Müllner later in 2009. They closed 2009 with a gig in their hometown of Watford. In 2010 Cherry Red re-issued The Mirror Test. In 2010 Sad Lovers and Giants have played a couple of gigs in Athens and a Midnight Music reunion festival in Barcelona. They are releasing 7" vinyl in October followed by a full CD & download album in spring 2011. Albums 1982 Epic Garden Music CHIME 00.01 (Midnight Music) 1983 Feeding the flame CHIME 00.03 (Midnight Music) 1984 In the Breeze CHIME 00.07 (Midnight Music) 1986 Total Sound CHIME 00.22 (Midnight Music) 1987 The Mirror Test CHIME 00.30 (Midnight Music) 1988 Les Années Vertes CHIME 00.40 (anthology - Midnight Music) 1990 Headland CHIME 01.10 (Midnight Music) 1991 Treehouse Poetry CHIME 01.20 (Midnight Music) 1996 E-mail from Eternity (The Best of Sad Lovers & Giants) CDMGRAM 104 (Anagram Records, distributed by Cherry Red) 2000 La Dolce Vita (Sad Lovers & Giants Live in Lausanne) VKR001CD (Voight-Kampff Records) 2001 Headland and Treehouse Poetry VKR002CD (Voight-Kampff Records) 2002 Melting in the Fullness of Time VKR003CD (Voight-Kampff Records) [edit] 12" Singles Man of Straw (DONG 5) "Man of Straw", "Cow Boys (version)", "Close to the Sea" Seven Kinds of Sin (DONG 31) "Seven Kinds of Sin", "The Outsider", "Ours to Kill" White Russians (DONG 34) "White Russians", "A Map of My World", "Life Under Glass" Cow Boys (DONG 36) Sleep / A Reflected Dream (DONG 40) with The Essence Clocks Go Backwards (DONG 59) [edit] 7" Singles Clé LM 003 (Last Movement) "Imagination", "When I See You", "Landslide" Colourless Dream LM 005 (Last Movement) "Colourless Dream", "Things We Never Did" Initial copies were pressed with the labels backwards. Lost in a Moment DING 1 (Midnight Music) "Lost in a Moment", "The Tightrope Touch" Man of Straw DING 5 (Midnight Music) "Man of Straw", "Cow Boys" Facebook page: [url="http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Sad-Lovers-Giants/104860292879894"]http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pa...104860292879894[/url] Video from Barcelona's gig on Saturday 18th Sept: [url="http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1409075703892"]http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1409075703892[/url] [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6ShZUMEVjE"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6ShZUMEVjE[/url] [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOfs4hLwZwU"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOfs4hLwZwU[/url] [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX1bwa-LU9c"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX1bwa-LU9c[/url] Last.FM page: [url="http://www.last.fm/music/Sad+Lovers+and+Giants"]http://www.last.fm/music/Sad+Lovers+and+Giants[/url] Should be enough for you guys!!!

Me at our gig last Saturday 18th Sept in Barcelona

I don't suppose my 83 Squier JV62 Precision counts....it's the only bass I've owned for the last 27years and gets played all the time. It's almost a Fender....and almost Vintage

[quote name='CWJ1000' post='903895' date='Jul 24 2010, 12:00 PM']btw it's not the "real" SLAG either is it - you weren't the original bass player and tony wasnt the original guitarist! ;-)[/quote] No it's not the real slag I agree I was never in the real slag and I have never disputed that. In fact I've had so many people ask if I'm also cliff silver on my facebook that I had to point out that I'm not in my fb profile. I have removed my earlier post, made peace withloism and hope that we can all have a great time together in Barcelona. I too recorded the 3rd slag album and was in the band during the writing of the 4th &5th albums... I did not mean to cause any offence. Moonbassalpha is an old drinking buddy if mine and simon's and it was meant as a bit of banter between old friends. I too respect all the old slag stuff we play - most of the set is from the early albums and I too enjoy keeping the music alive and I too acknowledge that I may not play things exactly as cliff did... I feel really bad for posting what I did and would delete the whole thread if I could, please accept my apologies and let's not have any I'll feeling between us. I'm sure we'll allgive excellent faithful performances and have great time.

Removed

I now have a custom made ABS full flight case for my bass and can whole heartedly recommend it...even Easyjet could only manage a few light scuffs on the exterior.....it may even be bullet proof???

Headlining MaxiPop festival Barcelona Sept 18. [url="http://www.casadelamusica.cat/ca/salamandra/concerts/2197/MAXI_POP:"]http://www.casadelamusica.cat/ca/salamandr.../2197/MAXI_POP:[/url]

[url="http://www.avopolis.gr/live/default.asp?ID=1296"]http://www.avopolis.gr/live/default.asp?ID=1296[/url] A review - can anyone translate Greek?

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='776702' date='Mar 16 2010, 09:06 PM']Not seeing anything about what it sounds like, or any samples?[/quote] link removed - free downloads are not great.... LOL It's 80s UK indie From Saturday's gig in Athens...

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='776584' date='Mar 16 2010, 06:56 PM']I'm used to mastering a stereo mix, but how can you remix if you only have the (I assume stereo) CD master? Not being funny, just curious.[/quote] By adding extra tracks and cutting up the stereo master, moving stuff around.......

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='776420' date='Mar 16 2010, 04:46 PM']I remember doing an orchestral course with the cellist Christopher Bunting many years ago & he had the opinion that the enharmonic sharp should sound that little bit sharper to emphasise the key and vice versa with the flats in such cases.[/quote] Not all that easy on fretted instruments....bending strings will only mange to sharpen the notes

[url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mirror-Test-Sad-Lovers-Giants/dp/B0032BVELS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1268756593&sr=8-1"]The Mirror Test: Sad Lovers & Giants: Amazon.co.uk: Music[/url] We made this album back in 1986/7. To be honest we hated the recording. Recently we spent a lot of studio time remastering and remixing (sort of - the 24 track masters were destroyed in a fire in 1991 so we only had the CD master to work from) this for rerelease. It is far more the record we originally wanted to make now. Perhaps one or two of you might like to buy it? LOL no not you lot never....anyway no harm in asking.

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='776404' date='Mar 16 2010, 04:28 PM']It's purely academic,[/quote] The best rock'n'rollers are always the ones who bunked off school

[quote name='Doddy' post='776372' date='Mar 16 2010, 03:57 PM']but this tune is in E major not C# minor.[/quote] but they are the same key (tonally) there is no difference. Emaj = C#minor

[quote name='Doddy' post='776372' date='Mar 16 2010, 03:57 PM']The 3rd in C#major is always E#. The 4th is F#,and you don't have both an F and an F# in a major scale. It's nothing to do with playing piano or not. The theory is the same every instrument.[/quote] Having never been formally trained I'm obviously not tied to these whacky conventions that name notes according to the key being played.....as far as I'm concerned the 3rd fret on the D string and the white note to the left of the 3 black notes is an F irrespective of which key is being played and E# is a semitone higher than E and in my mind will always be F irrespective of which key is being played.

[quote name='Doddy' post='776360' date='Mar 16 2010, 03:46 PM']Same note enharmonically-different function technically.[/quote] but the same note all the same... So the 3rd in C#maj is E# not F? it'll always be F to me...maybe it's because I was brought up on piano... My initial post was merely pointing out that although 4#s key signature denotes Emajor, it also denotes C#minor... that is all

[quote name='Doddy' post='776346' date='Mar 16 2010, 03:28 PM']What was so funny about my post?[/quote] your assertion that the notes were the SAME but DIFFERENT just seemed a bit desperate to me how can notes be [i]the same note enharmonically,but they are technically very different. [/i]? Either they are the same note or they are not.

[quote name='Doddy' post='776198' date='Mar 16 2010, 01:00 PM']They may be the same note enharmonically,but they are technically very different.[/quote] pmsl

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='775841' date='Mar 15 2010, 11:16 PM']Heh! If you can find the raised 7th (B#) in "I'm too sexy", I'll give you that one![/quote] B#=C :smoke:

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='774216' date='Mar 14 2010, 12:05 PM']The sharps at the start of the line denote the key of E Major.[/quote] [quote name='Doddy' post='774402' date='Mar 14 2010, 04:12 PM']In this piece we are in E,[/quote] C# minor anyone? and why not?