Muzz

Both of the above, plus about 1000...my main musical habitat these days is wedged into small spaces in pubs right next to the drummer, and that's where IEMs are of the most benefit. I slipped one half-out during one song on Satdy night, just to see how loud it was...I put it staight back in fully...

Yeah, I know, but he's not listening...which, ironically, might be something he struggles with in the future...

Decent outing Satdy night in a local-to-the-BL-but-not-me pub we've played before. Dep drummer B (A is seeking gigs elsewhere, C is the best of the lot but he's put his price up, D is...well, D) I like playing with (he's depped before (for a good run) a while ago in the trio I used to be in), tho he's an, erm, forthright drummer, so he's a little louder than the others. Rock solid, tho, and has a seasoned musician's confidence, so he's great to stand next to. No percussion, but we had a keys player who's a friend of the BL, but very Starlight Lounge Michael McDonald for a pub band - in fact, his main living is solo piano bar stuff. When he was good, he was very good (he's clearly an accomplished musician in his own genre), but he couldn't not play on some songs where he really shouldn't, if you see what I mean, and he didn't like the drummer's onstage volume. There was even a Dep Flounce at the end of the evening. He moaned to the BL, who picked up the moan about onstage volume, so I spent yesterday with the tray of Ferrero Rocher out doing my best diplomat impression trying to get them to compromise. Don't think it's going to work. The BL says he doesn't need ear protection with other drummers (and we play in small spaces), he has IEMs but doesn't use them, he has an RCF 12 PA top as his monitor instead. I've told him, anyway... A shame, because we sounded better with Dep B than we have in a while (through my IEMs, anyway), we've got Dep D for Satdy, at a muso-infested place (the BL's local), we're having a rehearsal with Dep D before then to get him fully up to speed.

Last weekend was a two-gigger (would've been more but the BL also goes out solo, so he had four), started with the monthly place, where there were no serious assaults and the Polis didn't show up (which was a bonus...tho I do question my musical choices when I'm typing that at this stage in my part-time career), we had a guest singer, a really talented girl who myself and a couple of other guys had tried to get a band off the ground with not so long ago: she's very very good, but ultimately not committed enough for a regular gigging band, but the occasional gig with her is a lot of fun, because it means a different setlist. Surprisingly lively in there (perhaps the reduced threat of being knocked unconscious had boosted the crowd...yeah, I know), and we had the second-choice drummer, who's so loud we don't need to mic his kit (a slight issue with the whole inears hoohah, but I can still hear him, it's just not as defined as through mics), and he and I had some fun with the older bits of the set; near the end, the BL seemed unable or unwilling to end Go Your Own Way, and stuck in a soloing loop, so the drummer and I gradually sped the thing up to about 200bpm until he couldn't keep up, and we ended it... I shot off at the end (one of the joys of bass, Stomp and inears; I was done and on the road in about four minutes) to go and pick the Lad up from Manchester Pride (he'd gone down on his own, didn't want him trying to get a taxi/bus/tram back solo; much of Manchester was faaaabulous, but there's still dickheads everywhere looking for trouble on the fringes), all was well. Satdy was a pub local to my mother-in-law, and my Lad stopped at hers, and he, his Gran and his Gran's bessie mate (the latter two have been going in there for 67 years) came to see us. It was nice to see them there, a 19-year old and two 85-year olds up and dancing for a good chunk of both sets 🙂 Fourth choice drummer, tho, so I spent a lot of the time doing my best Border Collie impression keeping him in time and on the starts, changes and ends. It's draining... This weekend it's the second choice slammer and an additional keys player (no percussionist) who've never played together before; they're both good semi-pros, but one's RHCP and the other's very much Steely Dan, it'll be...interesting...

Well...yes and no. If you save the Inevitable Cheese for the last few songs the punters are well oiled, and that's exactly what they want to hear: something obvious they can sing along to. It might come as a shock, but 90% of punters aren't as aware of music or as opinionated about it as musicians are... The trick is to do it well, of course, no matter what it is.

I've owned and moved on a lot of basses, but I've never wanted to own a Hofner violin, a Ritter (too expensive anyway), a Fodera (ditto), a Wal (ditto ditto) or the Jaguar-type shapes. And lots of smaller luthier stuff which I just don't like the look of. Other than that, I've tried lots and lots, including fretless (even a Wishbass...eeek), pointy BC Rich, T-birds (love them), Dingwalls, headlesses (inc.Status), Stingray(s), Warwicks, Alembic, Yam BBs, Overwaters, ACG and all the usual suspects, 4, 5, 8 and 12-strings, with flats, rounds and everything in between. These days my main criteria is low weight, which would rule out an awful lot of basses before they start. I've mentioned before I've come to know I'm a 'split-P pickup in the right place' bloke, so I can now look at a bass and know it won't suit. Knowing that twenty years ago might have saved me a chunk of money, but then I'd have missed out on the fun, and sometimes you have to try things to learn you don't like them.

After last week's Proper Music Pub outing, back down to reality Satdy night, in one of those 'Why do they even have a band on?' pubs...landlady was apparently new to the game, and wanted us on at 8, when we'd arrived at 7:30 for a previously-agreed 9:00 start (new mixer, a Soundcraft ui24, we'd given ourselves more setup time (normally an hour's plenty), despite the BL's assurance that he'd leart all about it and all would be fine, it wasn't - my inears were one side only, we'll get that sorted this week before the weekend's double-header), and then when we took a break at 9:45 she said 'I'd like you to play till half twelve'. She was politely and gently disabused of this notion (we're not Bluewine's band 🙂), nevertheless we went on about ten to eleven and finished after twelve...not that it mattered; another place with a sparse-ish clientele, average age about seventy, who went as far as polite applause. We finished the main set to the same polite applause and not a single shout for more. BL called two anyway, more to fill the time out than anything. It's draining, playing gigs like that. Gear was fine, apart from the one ear situation: never had an issue with the previous two digital desks I've used, the Soundcraft must have a different Aux Send setup, I believe there's a Mono switch in my Behringer P2 (never had to use it yet) which will sort, we're doing a 'technical rehearsal' (which I suggested last week) during the week. Next weekend's gigs will be with two different dep drummers, one of which is good, and the other...isn't. Friday's venue is a monthly residency-type thing in the grim place which was swarming with the Polis after that serious assault. Of course that's the one with the better drummer. Can't wait. Still, we got paid... Just remembered; big upside of the Soundcraft mixer is the mixes are all accessible via iPad/phone; I took my iPad and stand, so no hutching across a tight stage to get to the faders mid/between songs...it'll also do pre/post feeds to the Aux Send channel, so I can get my bass sound as is from the Stomp, rather than post-EQ for the mains, which is quite different...sounded really good in one ear, anyway...

In my post I pointed out that the BL who organises everything gets to call it, I do nothing on that front so other than working diplomatically around things sometimes, I generally zip it and get on with being as low maintenance as possible. If I wanted to make judgement calls I'd need to put a lot more work in.

The last two frequently-gigging bands I've been in (one for 15 years, one for the last couple) have both been run by the singist/guitarist, and to be completely honest I'm more than happy to let them do it. It takes an amount of energy to get it all underway, and that energy is fuelled by an ego which needs it, so I've always been happy to zip it and let them lead, and my job (apart from the obvious one of learning and playing the songs right) is to be supportive and diplomatic around that. I've said before that there's more than one skillset that makes a good band member, and if my part in the machine requires me to play some songs in some ways that I wouldn't choose to myself, it's a small price to pay for not doing all the other background work a gigging band needs to play the gigs.

Oooo, I'm late to this one (and hasn't it been busy and miffy? 🙂 ), but I like watching CB, and I fully get where he's coming from - if I could do what he does (and that'd take more rehearsing hours than I have left on the planet, plus some kind of genetic booster to get me even started properly) I'd do it like a shot, and I wouldn't lose a moment's sleep over it. And, as has been said, he's an ambassador for the bass in today's social media world (albeit one that sets the bar impossibly high) and doesn't take it all too seriously. I know Nige Clutterbuck, and he's been accused in the past of similar 'non-musical wittery' before, but most people/keyboard warriors who have suggested that on t'internet have failed to take into account that it was part of his job for a good long time (he worked for Rotosound, and 200mph slappery draws the crowds at trade fairs and online), and also he's a great bassist when he's not doing the show stuff.

No gig the weekend before last, it was cancelled just as I was loading the car (agent/new landlord non-communication, I'm completely bored with agency gigs now, the only ones we've had cancelled have been because the agent hasn't confirmed the gig (or forgotten to tell us) - I mean, agents have one job after the gig's been placed, right? Pfffft), but Satdy's made up for that. The Polished Knob in Tod, a proper music venue pub for a change: raised stage, drum riser, house PA, lights, etc, and more importantly a clientele who are there for live music. We didn't use their analog mixer, we just ran the feeds from our digital one to it (so my inears worked perfectly), and it was all good: dancers from the first song, three encores, etc, etc... Fans mounted high around the stage even kept the temperature pleasant (and that's not something you hear said in Tod very often). I can highly recommend it as a venue. Such a great change from the run of completely indifferent venues/crowds (and I'm using the term 'crowd' here very loosely) in pubs of late, it was positively life-affirming. We'll be back in the New Year (unsurprisingly, they're booked out till then) and I can't wait. Oh, and a new system for controlling the BL's tendency to have us way too loud too early: the percussionist (who goes out front for the soundcheck to listen) tips me the nod if we're too loud (he and I are on the same page re volume), then he distracts the BL with something while I surreptitiously drop the mains a little and turn the BL's monitor up. Did it Satdy, BL didn't notice. Don't tell him. 🙂 Potentially more problematic gig coming up Satdy; apparently the landlord's just got out of custody, having been arrested (for what no-one seems to know); after the Police turning up to that gig a couple of weeks ago (and briefly almost doubling the audience size) it appears we'll be back to normal. I'm not taking an expensive bass, and will be checking exit routes before we start playing. Modded Squier Sonic P (still very very good), Stomp, inears.

Coincidentally, I was noodling around yesterday lunchtime, and scrolling through the iPad to see what I could play along to, when I spotted Back Of My Hand...great song...

I had a new pair from ACS a few years ago - I stepped up to, IIRC, the two-driver one from the single drivers, and they were very uncomfortable getting them in and out, and wearing them. I contacted ACS, they double-checked, and they'd given me someone else's moulds. They were brilliant about it, and rushed me out the right moulds with their (at the time) top 5-drivers in... My Gran had a volume control on her hearing aids, which she used to devastating social effect when she needed to...if she reached for her ears while you were talking, you'd be in the doghouse later...

A P doesn't even have to look like a P... I've had all sorts of basses over the years in terms of makes and designs (and I'm going nowhere near what woods they were made of, nononononoooo), and the only ones that really stuck were ones with a split coil pickup in the P-position, because that's the sound I like. Pretty much all of the basses I've got now are that, tho to look at some of them you might not know: I've a Shuker Horn with a split-coil EMG soapbar, a Shukerbird with a split-coil Dingwall soapbar, a BB414 with a Yamaha split-P, a JJB Sig with a custom-wound Split-P and my current Cheapo Fave is a Squier Sonic P with a DiMarzio P. Some of them are passive, some have a John East Uni-Pre, they're all very different shapes (and woods, eeeek), but the two things they have in common are the strings and that pickup in the right position. A few of them have two pickups, but I very very rarely use the bridge pickup. I can get My Sound out of all of them very easily, and that's because they're all essentially a P-Bass. And none of them are a Fender...not because of any problems I have with Fender (I've had a fair few Fender Ps, too), it's just worked out that way.

Another +1 for ACS: I have both inears for use with the current band's posh desk (independently mixable monitor outs: it's the way forwards, kids) and more simple 17db attenuators, which I wear on simpler stages and also when going to see bands in loud venues. A good tip for attenuators is to put them in while you're setting up, so that your brain gets used to the lower levels of sound/noise coming in before it gets really loud. Do it now: I left it too long and have had tinnitus for a good while (I still remember the gig when the whining didn't stop), and you really don't want that...

A two-gigger last weekend, first on Friday at the monthly residency-type pub in Swinton, it's a late one, we don't start till ten, I was ordering a drink at the bar at nine when there was an unholy kerfuffle across the bar in the pool room, a full-on catfight (or rather an assault). Cue everyone in the pub restraining a younger woman who'd gone for a lady older than her. Ten minutes later as we're still setting up the 5-0 are in the pub, the victim had (it turned out) a fractured skull, cheekbone and broken jaw. Lovely. We went on a little late, played to an indifferent crowd (another of those 'Why do they put bands on?' pubs), and as I was leaving about midnight there was another police car outside and a couple of officers hanging about. I went home... Satdy was a teatime gig at a friend of the BL's (a bassist himself) house, in his big garden. Supposed to go on at 5:30, I shortened the day at home to be there, but there was another lot on before us (the birthday chap and his friend) needless to say we went on at about seven. Bah. Dep drummer, supplied electronic kit, different PA, it was a bit of a mishmash, but it sounded OK in my inears straight from the desk. The BL stayed and there was a jam session that went on for hours, but I was home for half nine. Modded Squier Sonic P (still pretty much perfect for the gigs I'm doing right now), Stomp, inears...some nights it pays to travel light...

Satdy was a Private Do booked via an agency. Company Summer Party, early start (6:30), early finish (2x45s), we got there to catering, bouncy castle, face painting for the plethora of kids still there when we arrived, etc, etc. What the agent had neglected to mention was the 150yd schlep of all the gear from the car park (in some faceless industrial estate Stockport way) at the front of the buildings all the way round and down to the bottom of the grounds. BL didn't bring anything with wheels on it (other than the van), so it was a PITA just getting the gear to the stage. Mostly indifferent crowd, more focused on hitting the free bar (cans and bottles, mostly lukewarm) and getting their kids back home, plus the rain about half time didn't help. Despite the lack of crowd enthusiasm or engagment, the organiser said 'You're the best band we've ever had', so I told the BL to take note and put the price up for next time. Small stage under an awning (didn't leak, a plus), but my inear mix was inexplicably awful and I couldn't get near the desk to adjust it. Two 45s, one encore and we buggered off - home for half nine, but the schlep ruined it. Plus point was I'd had that cheapo Sonic P to a good tech (Matt Ryan) local to me, and the final touch of a fret dress and good setup finished off a promising bass into a go-to one. Stomp and inears is the rest of the rig...

If it's an agency gig it's strictly 2 x 45 with a couple of encores, if it's a venue with a relationship with us we'll do a 45 and then an hour, and more encores if the crowd want them. We've got enough songs for over 2 hours, if it comes to that, but that'll need to be a good, well paying venue. Previous band was largely the same, but more flexible: we had a residency in an Irish bar in the city centre, they paid more and got 3 x 45 plus encores. That band had probably 150+ songs, so we could play as long as people wanted; we did parties where the host paid us more to keep playing, and RAF gigs where we had accomodation thrown in, and the drinks kept coming as long as we kept playing, so they went on a lonnnng time...ditto a few out of the way weddings...

Oh my word, that's lovely...

I think the question is what is commercial, and does the Hit Parade (blimey) actually cover that? You can get a Number One single in the UK with very few sales (compared to previous decades), whereas what I've found is a lot of very good bands who are around today (and by 'around', I'm meaning 'making new music and touring it, rather than touring their decades-old back catalogue') who have nevertheless got an awful lot of YouTube plays and streams. One example is Robert John and The Wreck, a Southern band whom I've been lucky enough to see in smaller venues, but whom nevertheless have YT videos with more than a million plays. It's a very different world in terms of how music is consumed, and to look at the Top 40 (which used to be the be-all and end-all of success) is nowadays only looking at a very small fraction of the wider picture, so the original piece doesn't worry me at all. There's lots of new rules for the Hit Parade (like No Artist Can Have More Than Three Songs In The Top 40), the Accelerated Chart Ratio* and the Standard Chart Ratio, so, although the Goode Olde Days saw lots of sales shenanigans, today it's even more manipulated, which is very depressing, and one reason I pay no attention to it. Here's an example: The ratio for an album stream in 1000:1. So that’s 1000 streams of a single track counting as a listen to an album. It doesn’t matter if you listened to one track 1000 times or the whole album front to back, it counts the same. * Although without this, Mr Brightside wouldn't have left the Top 40 pretty much since its release: it was in the Top 100 for 298 weeks...

It takes years off you, y'know... 🙂

Was talking about this the other day with my Lad, who's 19, likes music (tho his taste and mine don't converge much), listens to all sorts of music from 70s disco onwards, and has an 85 hour Spotify playlist. He has, however, never listened to an album, and has no interest in them as an art form. The way music is presented and consumed these days (primarily by the younger generations, tho I have to say it's a good while since I listened to a whole album) has changed dramatically. If he likes a song he likes a song, but there's so much more music available from all sorts of places that he feels no need to delve into that artist's catalogue.

Ohhh, thanks for that 🙂 Well, I don't think the Ted Hughes Award Committee's going to be troubled much, but it's a lot better. And at least it didn't, like Jon Bon Jovi did once, rhyme 'I wanna be just as close as' with 'The Holy Ghost is'...four times in one song... 😀

Oh, please; you know exactly what I was referring to by using the terms empirical and non-empirical. Bandying semantics changes nothing.

And the geese fly South early this year. Do you have the dossier? 😁