Cat Burrito

I upped my practice massively during the lockdowns and have kept it up. First rehearsal, and I played the worst I have played in years. I hadn't played standing up enough!

My first show in over six months was Friday night in Camden. It's only my 3rd since March 2020 & I found the other two fairly soulless affairs, compared to my manic 2019 calendar. This one was great fun. We were a little ramshackle in places (by our standards) but delivered a fairly decent 45 minute performance.

My cousin was born and raised in Houston, Texas. In '83 Eliminator came out and it was also her first trip over to see the UK family. As a 10yr old boy she introduced me to a couple of bands, one of whom was ZZ Top. Eliminator had just come out and they were yet to break in the UK - certainly my family hadn't heard of them, not that we were any sort of barometer of cool. I played that album to death and bought the earlier records and some of the later ones subsequently. When we took her to get her returning flight, we bumped into one of the band at the airport (I couldn't tell you if it was Billy or Dusty - I was 10 and it was the first celebrity I'd seen in person). My cousin shared the flight with the band and met them for photos / autographs afterwards. Being a three piece I was fascinated that one was credited with bass guitar and one was credited with lead guitar. It was probably through them that I learnt the difference. Years later Dusty sent himself up beautifully in King of the Hill. I always thought they were classy guys. Maybe not a band that stayed at the forefront of my tastes but certainly one who helped steer and shape things for me. RIP Dusty.

The other approach is to say "If anyone wants a fag, the loo or another pint, now's the time as we'd like to do one of our own". A line that works equally well when introducing a track that the keyboard player sings lead on.

Channelling the version of me that played in an 80s Sixth Form Goth band, I love this! I've made the switch permanently. 😎

I have a ukulele bass that looks like this. Great fun and plugged in, it is truly fantastic. The E is a bit buzzy but on a short scale that is to be expected and thankfully the buzz doesn't amplify.

I've predominately played original stuff over the last 34yrs but done a handful of covers bands. My favourite covers bands do one or two originals just to show that we can and I like that. If a band naturally develops that way, fine, but otherwise 2 or 3 is plenty. Simply put your options are you either role with the general flow or you walk. If I find myself out of thinking with the general band view, I go rather than continuing to be the one person arguing. if it isn't a big problem, put up with it.

Either way, it's nice to see young artists who don't rely on Autotune And the studio engineer that can work wonders.... This is what the internet was invented for.

I am completely comfortable with Autotune. I think if it is tweaking rather than re-writing a performance, it's fine. We use effects on instruments and electronic tuners and I think sometimes some people are a bit precious about it. With digital recording we've moved rogue cymbal crashes or the odd note if the general performance is good, so why not tweak a vocal? So long as it isn't doing something that realistically we could normally do. A good performance with a note that could be better, yeah, no issues from me.

I assume it's important if you play in a worship band but generally their are plenty of scenes that don't require any kind of faith. I've never asked my band mates about their beliefs as it's not relevant to what we do. Small self sufficient bands seem to be getting bookings in local pubs at the moment. I have 11 dates in the diary for 2021 but won't be out live for the first time until Thursday.

It was the same in my junior school but I managed to buck the trend by being rubbish at football and obtaining the Captain's badge. I think I was the first one in the school history to do that. The Vice Captain was similarly disadvantaged at football so when our house played football we suddenly had the other 9 players on our team acting as captain!

We're surprisingly on the same page over this. Interestingly my two main bands have a bit of gentle banter going on re the different vaccinations. The guide tends to be AZ (commoner), Pzifer (fancy) and Moderna (posh). Luckily we are all of an age where we are double jabbed. Those of us that worked through the whole thing financially covered those who struggled a bit more too, which was pretty unspoken. The drummer obviously got paid as he handed over a small wad of cash at the last one to cover the times where he was unable to pay.

Not as a moderator, no. But as for the rest of you....

We do an occasional Creedence Clearwater Revival tribute around Swindon. Never bothered with the look, all the focus went on the sound. Nobody has ever complained about us not copying the look.

I seem to be doing much better with badges on Basschat than I ever did during my stint in the local Cub Scouts circa 1982!

He was the other half of a rhythm section with me for six years. Agree with all of that!

I assume that is Lee? When we did the Ex-Boyfriends reunion show, she meant that a band reforming 15yrs later couldn't hang out because she kept him away. The sad thing is prior to this his Facebook page said "Happy - hit drums, sad - hit drums, any problem - hit drums" which rather suggests it was quite important to him! An irony not lost that they met at a gig... that he was playing!?

Employers are reporting Thursday as the most productive day in years....

I think the phrase Gig widow covers it. Probably a case of being a bit thoughtless and selfish too. Interestingly (or annoyingly) my mother in law transfers a lot of her anger about it onto me as I am out playing (or was pre-Covid) despite the fact that it works much better in my relationship with her daughter. Go figure.

For those of us who are married or in long term relationships, how important is it to have a partner who supports your music? Bonus question, what do they make of the amount of time you spend on Basschat? My wife comes to local shows if childcare allows and sometimes will join me on tour for a night. I can play her performance videos and she gives me an honest appraisal of how I am playing. She's musical and I value her opinion. By comparison my mother in law hated the fact that her husband played bass in a band and music was something of a taboo subject in their home. My ex-wife was also pretty supportive and I don't think I have had an unsupportive partner in my musical endeavours since my teens. Record Store Day on Saturday and the guy next to me flicking through the racks was telling a very bored looking other half about the joys of 180g vinyl. It made me smile as I have been that person and try harder to consider my audience a little more these days. Whilst my wife likes watching performances, she draws the line (understandably) at talk about valves or tone caps! I guess that is what Basschat is for.

Just before he died, guitarist Paul Fox used to play drums with my old band. Just get up and guest but he was a cool character. One night him and a few mates got up, turned the amps up full and blasted out Babylon's Burning. It was an amazing experience. His settings were basically on full for everything!

I'd probably spend more on a first amp with hindsight. And know not to get too attached to the bass as a load more would be coming along all too soon! 😂

We're changing Off Topic's name to "Get back to work, you're not being paid for this!"

I waited until I was number 6352 and you guys never did work out if that bass was any good for metal!