Cat Burrito

As part of Record Store Day, I played a church in my hometown. Not only did it mark 12 months of me being alcohol free but it marked the first time I played a venue that my Dad had played. No, we're not religious but it amazes me that in 37yrs of playing, it hasn't happened already. I had friends come over from Wales and down from Yorkshire and we were on it throughout. The playback confirmed it. It was promoting my friend Rich Davies and his band The Dissidents. Got to use my Blackstar head and cab with my trusty Ric 4003s. It sounded immense.

I think the tragedy of the modern world is that the average member of the public wants music for free but won't bat an eyelid overpaying for a coffee. When it comes to charity shows and the overused word of "exposure", it is interesting that the band is the first thing to be eliminated from being paid. People are not showing up to watch the person on the door or the person serving them. Throughout the 90s, I don't think I did any paid gigs. It was either a free gig or the minimal payment went into the band. Fast forward to now and my duo has done a few paid shows - all our money goes back into the band. We've also done freebies and open mic. I need to see us getting something, be it genuine exposure or just the opportunity to play a decent stage. I think for bands who write their own music, the standards shift. I wouldn't do a covers or tribute show for free because I would expect it to be of a standard where we got paid. Playing in my originals duo, it is more niche so I am alive to venues struggling. That said, I think many promoters could sometimes try harder. A couple of drinks and a meal isn't costing pub prices and things like collections for the band, covering fuel etc should all be used more widely. Musicians and their friends often spend the evening in the venue paying full price for drinks etc. I'm nearly 12 months alcohol free and the costs still build. Ultimately though, I would never criticise any band member for their choice to either purely play for fun or only demand paid shows. Your band, your rules.

I play in a goth duo where we play everything between us. Acoustic gigs are 100% live but the electric shows are very much backing we have recorded on an IPad with us playing along. I have been playing since 1988 and never dreamt I would do this. Ever. We formed this duo over lockdown and I was inspired by several new bands that I like doing the same. Let me tell those who are cynical, it's a discipline in its own right. Good musicians cover one another. If the track is going into a chorus at bar 60, the singer best not have come in late! Good monitors are key too because you HAVE to hear it and it isn't like playing with a live drummer. I don't doubt in more traditional genres, it would seem odd or out of place but it seems appropriate for this genre. I think it has improved my playing and I like that nearly 37yrs later, I still find ways to challenge myself.

The second of two gigs for the Dissidents and it was something of a mixed bag. On paper it was a rip roaring success but I must confess that I let the little things get to me, which I don’t normally do. A great start, in that my neighbour’s cat once again tried to come along. She’s a lovely little cat but I can’t see her making old bones - far too risk adverse. I managed to depart on my own and pick up the keyboard player. The venue was Tufnel Park’s Aces & Eights. The sound guy was great, the promoter was super friendly and we had sold out. Despite my fully charged wireless packing up during the first song, it was a great show. Relaxed, friendly vibe and we played well. I had a fair few old friends who I hadn’t seen for years come down and it rounded off what should have been a great night. The problem came around doing the merch store. We shifted 10 CDs, which is good going. However, I had one wannabe haggler, one drunk lady who inexplicably thought I was keeping money from the singer (it’s called being the sober sensible one!) and then one idiot who was actually really rude a couple of times to me. Being pragmatic, this doesn’t normally happen and the problem is clearly them, not me but it did kind of take the shine off of things. I am usually okay with idiots but I must confess that it definitely touched a nerve. I think going forward, we need to split working the merch more and I need to work out why my usually much thicker skin wasn’t so good on this occasion. Bizarre as I am letting a total of 2 minutes cloud what was an otherwise fantastic evening.

Yeah, been playing there for years. Once I played there and came away with a wife… not bad when most people leave a concert with a CD or t-shirt, at best!

The return of Richard Davies & the Dissidents last night at The Beehive in Swindon. Wonderfully cramped and it felt like a proper rock ‘n’ roll gig. Good to blow off a few cobwebs ahead of tonight’s sold out London show.

A small handful may be interested but my musical duo are subject to a one hour radio special this evening on Swindon 105.5. You can listen on your smart speaker, computer, radio or phone. Music, chat, gentle humour. Feel free to dip in.

@bassbiscuits, same as @MichaelDean said. 😎

I quite like the fact that production models usually require a bit of personalisation to suit as it makes them unique to me. I absolutely love my Hofner Verythin long scale bass but they missed a trick not putting white binding around the F-holes so I had that added to mine. It makes them pop out a little more. The original volume / tone buttons were a hideous orange so I changed them and I added the racing stripe. On balance the modifications were inexpensive and I have a truly one of a kind bass.

Yesterday saw a return to the Blue Boar in Aldbourne, Wiltshire. It's been 6 months since we last played there and the deal is normally a 2hr acoustic set. Load in started with the "help" of our new furry roadcrew, Puma. She is lovely but I can't see her making old bones - too inquisitive! We get to the pub and some people had come down from London to see us which was humbling and nice. To be fair they were here anyway but had seen our poster and heard the name. We'd sold a CD before we started and set up our massive amount of kit. I was on mandocello, upright bass, mandolin, acoustic guitar and backing vocals. The London couple were quickly upstaged by a couple that saw us 2yrs ago and were from Spain! Again, I think they happened to be in the area but saw we were playing and remembered us from before. The landlady came up afterwards to say that the locals had been worn down by our consistency in playing gothic music and had to admit we were really good players. That made my night! And we were rebooked for June. I appreciate we're all bombarding each other with our bands, but if anyone is curious, we are live tomorrow on Swindon 105.5FM from 8pm for an hour of music and chat. The show is aptly called "Don't Stop the Music"... and why would we?

My duo is playing my old local for the first time in six months. It's also serving as a post-birthday bash of sorts for me, so you're all invited! Nothing quite says celebration like 2 hours of acoustic goth music.

I lean towards not worrying about it too much. My first band in my adult life was SkinTrade and we had a marginally more successful Skin Trade around at the same time. We had the name first but nobody bandied around cease and desist letters. I then formed The Ex-Boyfriends, only to learn a band in the 70s put out a couple of records using the same name. For a while in the 2000s I was in the Driver Brothers, which was also the name of some DJs and then went on to Case Hardin, who had a country singer in the US who was actually called Case Hardin - nice chap, he bought one of our albums! At the moment, my band has a similarish name to another older act from the same genre. There's nothing original in rock n roll! Until the lawyers get involved, I wouldn't stress it too much.

I come from an Ampeg / Orange background and own / use Blackstar now. I have the practice amp, the 800w head and one of the professional series cabs. I did have the 500w combo which was great too but didn't pair with the cab so I sold it to buy the head (the theory being the head can be taken to gigs when there is a cab, rather than drag the whole combo out). It's all been really good quality. Great tone and I like the built in effects. Going forward, I'm not in a hurry to change anything. I've been lucky enough to use the 8x10 at a couple of big shows which sounds stunning with the matching head.

The vast majority of trades on here go off effortlessly with both parties being happy. We have had a tiny handful of problems over the years, as one would expect with any site. Our quick guide is here Advice for Buyers and seller but I would always just say, even the slightest doubt and wait for a better deal. Personally, I have only ever done bank transfers face to face when collecting or selling the gear.

A rare outing on lead guitar with Deadlight for our producer’s 60th 🎉 It wound up being a showcase of all the local talent, with tonnes of variety. Our original 80s inspired goth is always very well received and we had loads of friendly heckles - “you two are too polite to be goth”, to which I replied, “it’s a very misunderstood genre!”. A really special night and a pleasure to be a small part of it.

Best of luck for the future, whatever you decide to do Dave 😎

Welcome Jeff. My Dad's best friend lives in South Carolina (Columbia) as he married an American lady back in the early 70s. I had the fortune to stay there for a week in 2011 and loved it. I was able to borrow an old 1960s mandolin and sit in on a session at Bill's Music Shop & Pickin' Parlor. A great experience. I got down to the coast and saw quite a bit of the area. Following in my father's experiences, coincidentally my best friend from my schools days is also married to an American lady and lives in Georgia. I've yet to make the trip out to see him though. Enjoy Basschat.

I think I have most of their albums but personally I am a massive fan of the Phantasmagoria era, which is when I first got to know them. When my parents met with friends socially, their kids would always get banished to the bedrooms of which ever child lived there. My parents had two friends who had older sons and they had the most amazing collection of records. The impact of those records was massive on me, mostly punk / alternative from the punk era through to the mid 80s. I remember seeing all the old Damned albums there too, including the Black album.

In the Autumn, my band released a 5 track EP based around books we read and liked. The end song was "Monster", based on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Both of us (the band) felt the EP was our finest release so we have done a video to promote a second song. In case people were sick of our faces, we decided not to be in it... although there is a school of thought that could forgive you if you thought we actually were in it! The interesting thing(s) about this track are; 1) It's the first track I didn't play the main bass part. We wanted to mix things up so I played bass VI, keyboard and 12 string guitar on it, 2) The monster growl is actually my cat, sampled and dropped a couple of octaves, 3) The origins of the song were me sat on my sofa with a keyboard but when I sent it to Nick he started recording it with the chords in the wrong order. It actually worked better. The great thing about duos are the ways we interpret each others ideas. Anyway, for the minority who may be interested, enjoy. Warning: contains mild peril!

Definitely going to be filing this one under "strange". Thursday evening on FB and we were tagged in a 7 bands in 7 hours festival as one of the bands had been forced to cancel. Less than 36hrs notice and they needed a band to open a festival in Calne. It was to raise money for a young man who'd been killed leaving a young family. I messaged the organiser and initially had no response. A few people "liked" that we got tagged so I sent a 2nd, more personal message. No response but just as I gave up, he messaged in the morning saying we could open. Very much an electric set but we've only rehearsed the acoustic set recently so in a head vs heart decision, we decided to stick with an acoustic set. I then got added to a bands Messenger group (normally my pet hate in band life but this one had pretty much sorted out the 100s of messages about high hat stands and 4ohm cabs. Everyone seemed cool, which was nice. Pro sound guy, full backline etc, by all accounts. Playing acoustic versions of original gothic songs on folk instruments was going to be a tough sell, especially in what was effectively a working man's club but I was adamant in our self-belief. We had little more than a line check but the plan was I would play my bass parts on the mandocello, before moving on to guitar (a recent addition) and ending on my mandolin. I'd talked Nick into a smaller, more discreet music stand and we now have a band flag that we hung behind us. We go on and it was immediately apparent that we meant business. The (initially) small crowd were actually fairly intent on listening and gave us a warm reception. I noticed the sound on the mandocello kept completely cutting out and coming back in. That was down to the soundman and not the kit. I figured it was purely onstage as nobody batted an eyelid. And like Nigel Tufnel, I am a professional so I rose above it. We were going great guns until when Nick took the mandocello, it completely died. It rather killed our momentum and the soundman was initially clueless. We had a second mandocello (I refer you back to the Nigel Tufnel comparsion) and we bypassed the pedals to get a signal. Initially nothing but then Nick spotted the error (him, not us) and we finished our set. He checked all the kit at home and there was no problem with our gear. Chalk it up as experience. We stayed for a couple of the bands and mingled a bit. All the musicians we spoke to were super friendly but we left as the young teenagers with the Axl Rose style egos showed up. Some of the audience were absolutely wrecked. We saw one woman turn around and offer to smack some bloke in the face. I don't know what he had done but it seemed very OTT. We also made the mistake of momentarily stopping outside the ladies during load out. As the door opened a very mad (in every sense of the word) lady shouted at us for stopping outside a doorway. We'd only stopped momentarily and it was purely coincidence that she'd opened the door as we stood there. She started screaming about it being an entrance (we'd already immediately moved and apologised) before she added very loudly that she only had one eye. I felt the evening was starting to take a surreal turn so we made our excuses and left. We played well, overcame the technical problems, met some great people and encountered one or two characters. Business as usual in a small Wiltshire town.

***People of Wiltshire*** We're delighted to be a very last minute addition to a (magnificent) seven band bill on Saturday afternoon that includes Homer, Street Outlaws, Mike & the Free Spirits, Room 101, Viva and Six O'Clock Circus. It's a charity show for local lad Paul Smith who recently died, to help raise money for his funeral. We're opening the music up at 4pm and will be doing a 45 minute set mixing originals and covers (the best of our 3 main releases). A suggested entry of £5 on the door (less than a quid a band!)

We had an acoustic show case at The Cause in Chippenham. A truly fabulous space. Amazing sound guy who was genuinely interested in the bands, an audience who came to listen and the promoter even made us pizza! We played mainly original material, ending on a token cover. I played mainly mandocello, some guitar and a bit of mandolin at the end (so no bass yet in 2025). The other two acts were a folk singer and a fun time covers band, so a nice mix. The benchmark for which I will base other 2025 shows.

I've commented on vaguely similar threads historically, only to go back and discover my at-the-time dream bass is long sold on. However, around 20 years back, I picked up a cheap(ish) Rally mandolin. It has a pickup and is all solid woods (i.e. no laminate). When I got divorced in 2010, I literally sold everything I had and replaced everything I own. Except this mandolin. I've played others, even identical Rally ones from the same shop at the time but this one just has some magic that I can't explain. It was about £250 and even in the unlikely event of someone offering me £2.5k, it's never for sale. I think it's stood the test of time to show that is one load of talk that I am actually walking.