Cat Burrito

01 Ever played a gig sitting down? Yeah, after a knee op in the 90s. 02 Ever gigged on a different instrument? Guitar, mandolin, banjo, lapsteel and harmonica 03 Ever shared a stage with a musical hero of yours? Did two tours with Enuff Z'Nuff who I had posters of as a kid and we jammed onstage everynight. 04 Any fan ever had a tatoo of your band's logo? Don't think so. The pedant in me has to point out it's tattoo! 05 Ever signed an autograph in a dressing room? Yep. 06 Ever cried on stage? No 07 Ever worn a hat on stage? Definitely 08 Ever gigged with a band you hadn't met before the gig? Yeah, scary but fun 09 Ever been in a relationship with a fellow band member? Not sexual 10 Ever played in different bands on the same day? Yes 11 Ever had anything thrown at you while playing? A barstool! Glam band booked for a skinhead pub! 12 Ever crashed on the way to the gig? Yes 13 Ever left a band over the choice of set list? Indirectly 14 Ever slept in the venue despite it not being a hotel? Yes & in my 40s too! 15 Ever been supported by a band clearly better than you? If by better you mean sober, yes. 16 Ever played a gig suffering from some debilitating medical condition? Cancer in 2009 17 Ever been in a band where the guitarist was your favourite bandmate? Frequently 18 Ever played in the grounds of a stately home? Don't think so 19 Ever injured yourself on stage? A shifted nut cut my hand open in Norway last year. Blood everywhere! 20 Ever been told that your bass isn't loud enough? Too loud, too quiet... everybody is a critic!

My collection includes 2 Fenders with custom pickguards (courtesy of Greasy Groove in Canada) and the Rickenbacker pickguard is from that Ric spares place, Ricky Sounds. The Ric up close And my Precision when it was white

My fairly customised 57 Reissue in action. This bass has managed a few tours with me and always serves me well.

As above. I have used mine for recording without a cab too. The 20 seems like it would only be useful for home usage but I don't know as I haven't tried one.

It was my reluctant reference to the Little Britain sketch that I tried to pre-empt! His band is great but it was obviously all put together for him. I knew it was his ex-wife with someone but couldn't recall Kenny's first name. Mo Foster's playing is great. We used to cover it circa 1999.

The theme from Minder. Not cool but love it. (Dennis Waterman wrote the theme tune, sang the theme tune)

We've lost 2 tours, Spain and the UK. Anything in the diary I think will be getting pulled by the venue over the coming few weeks. It's going to take a while to recover from this. Things are so desperate already that one band has even had our rehearsal space pulled!

6feet7 beat me to it! Snap on both accounts!

A few bits and pieces like cables, pickguards etc. I recently took to selling a few things on here to clear some space and raise a couple of quid. Thankfully nothing too expensive.

I know there are a few folk on here who are not in the Ric fan camp but I love mine and wanted to give it a New Wave / Power Pop early 80s vibe. Off came the white plastic to be replaced with black plastic, and I had already added the zero mod thumb rest and the bezel cover. I added the neon white strings a while ago too. It got loads of comments on Friday's gig and seems to be getting a lot of likes on Facebook and Instagram.... so here it is in its full glory.

I think it's still early days so maybe a drop in about 10-15% tops but then this venue wasn't a chain pub and apparently the Greene King / Wetherspoons type pubs are hit a bit harder. My feeling is it'll get worse before it gets better. We already lost a 10 day run in Spain this week that was due to start end of the month.

My occasional CCR tribute played Swindon last night & the general feeling was we did good. I'd spent the day revamping my Ric and it did get a couple of nice comments,

We just took the inevitable step of cancelling a 10 date Spanish tour that kicked off in 2 weeks. Hopefully we can reschedule.

I think this is what the internet is for!

And me. I will flag it with the site.

I spent the last 3 years periodically recording an album with my friend Rich. It's a great band with some amazing players in it. We had a blast doing this at Mooncalf Studios in Wiltshire. The bass is a Ric 4003s going through a Tech21Sansamp VT Bass pedal straight into the desk. I guess we were trying to make a very commercial sounding record that sat somewhere between Iggy Pop and the Rolling Stones, very much aimed for radio play. I did some of the production as well as the bass guitar. We've signed a little indie deal and it comes out on June 12th. This was one of my favourite tracks and the video was just a bit of fun really. Check it out!

Interesting article. I love touring but even at my level of a few weeks a year, I wonder about the health impact. Invariably I am drinking far too much each night, never going to bed before 3am and still managing to lose weight, despite drinking to excess. I like to think if I was full time I would calm down on the drinking and late nights but I can see how it gets to be so insular and potentially damaging. Three weeks on the road around Europe and we were definitely guilty of more than a few Spinal Tap-isms "Thank you Spain" being said to a puzzled Italian audience was one particular highlight. Or lowlight. I'm pleased I'm normally health conscious and don't take any illegal drugs. Musicians seem to be increasingly that way these days. Certainly older musicians at my level.

They've all been pretty good to be fair but the Orange Terror Mk2 for me. Everyone on here seemed to rave about the Mk1, whilst acknowledging a couple of flaws re early break up etc. Loads of people bought that head and raved about it & then Orange stopped making it. They then quietly brought out the Mk2 with all the flaws fixed and they don't seem to get raved about. I love mine and use it over my more expensive supposedly better heads.

We have a Spanish tour at the end of the month and I am thinking it could be a problem. We'll see, I guess.

I'm 6ft 3 but pretty slim. My shoulder is wrecked from 30yrs+ of low slung basses and bad posture. I am afraid weight is very much a factor for me and I'm a bigger boy (height wise, at least). I'd say I was fairly strong as I do a lot to keep in shape. I think it's more age than build of the player.

Around 2013 Gibson finally worked out that if you reposition the strap button the problem is solved. So neck dive for me. Don't quite know why Gibson took 50yrs to work that one out, but there you have it.

Rod bought a Couch strap from me. Polite comms, easy to deal with, paid straight away and no fuss. Textbook Basschat transaction. Enjoy the strap Rod.

My Gibson is really light, possibly my lightest bass that I own. My Epiphone on the other hand is quite a heavy beast. It's the through neck one but I'd owned two Epiphone's with bolt on necks previously and they were light basses. I think they sound great for blues rock.