ivansc

Tony Maimone (Pere Ubu mainly) Toured with them back in the seventies. Great guys great band. Was in touch with Crokey recently and he is alive and well & still doing it in Ohio!

I suppose it would help if the "information" being put out was coming from honest people rather than politicians.... Don't trust any of them any further than I could throw them. Sincerely, 72 year old weakling, Weybridge.

[quote name='oldslapper' timestamp='1466580329' post='3076860'] Elton John has always had great bass players. Dee Murray was the reason I took up bass, [/quote] Sad memories of him coming to town not long before he died. Nashville. At the time Bob Babbitt Willie Weeks and David Hungate had already relocated to Nashville, so for a while we had a bunch of great pop bass players there as well as the regular goodolboys.

I lived and worked in Nashville for more than a decade. All the recommendations on here are good. I haven't been back to N.O. since Katrina but buddies down there say that the 9th ward (where the residents are primarily either black, musicians, or both) was worst hit and worst tended after. Sad. A huge number were re-located out of state and decided to stay put & earn their living where they were sent. But Austin really should be at the front of your list. Amazing live scene.

Interesting - bet he is not far off my age. We ALL started out playing with a pick back then it seems. Just that some of us are better than others!

So..... about time for the Mud nostalgia thread.....

Bretagne. Le Morbihan. Otis Redding and anything else RnB from that period. Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett.... But I also get away with a lot of Americana - they all seem to like Ry Cooder but I put that down to me indoctrinating them! Lots of blues and Rockabilly love round here, too, but maybe because there are a LOT of musicians in the area. Back when I lived in Corsica in the early nineties, we used to get some of the best funk/soul outfits I have ever heard, including in the US, doing residencies for the summer, while my lot were doing fete au village and bals populaire. 1 hour of musettes, i hour of le top 1 hour of mixed, till the last punter collapsed at about 6 in the morning! Well paid and great fun!

[quote name='AustinArto' timestamp='1464819675' post='3062971'] Trying not to be jealous and failing. Now trying not to imagine your fiery death. Failing. In all fairness though I was never going to get to do the early retirement thing so good on you if it's working out for you. I do have a missus who stands to inherit a fortune I just have to murder her parents. [/quote] Early retirement? I did my last pro tour in 2006, when I was 62. |Moved over to solo and duo gigs locally & have never really actually stropped working, just not as hard or as often. And the houses in France are what we have saved up to pay for in the hopes of getting some sort of pension from them. Not working too well at present as I keep working on them which sorta makes it difficult to rent them out! No sick pay, no unemployment pay, no pension.... its a grand life in the music trade tha knowst!

[quote name='leschirons' timestamp='1464853597' post='3063092'] Ah, but do any of you lot take.... Drum stool Spare mic for anyone that needs it. Set of 9-42 guitar strings A new pair of 5A drum sticks 2 guitar straps, with, and without straplocks Spare mic stand and XLR cable 2 extra cable extension reels Box of 50 assorted plectra A Line 6 Pocket Pod. It usually all stays in the car but has on occasions, all been needed. I even used to keep a pair of 14" hi- hats in the spare wheel well but gave that up when I bought a car with the spare on the back door. I'm like a sodding baby-sitter. [/quote] Did you actually PAY for all that lot too? You arent a babysitter, you are a.....VIRGO!

If you apply Wonky2`s criteria to defining who is a pro and who isn`t, I suspect that 99% of gigging pros would fail. I suspect you have never actually BEEN a pro, wonky. As with any business where you are self-employed, there are always going to be good times and lean times. It is all very well saying that in order to be considered Pro you have to make ALL your money from music, but realistically, that is not the way it works in the real world. I have gone from a six week tour of the UK working 6-7 nights a week to NOTHING for a month before now. You just never know. And of course the family still need feeding and the rent needs to be paid. If it makes you feel better to call us non-pros, knock yourself out. It doesnt affect the way guys like Mark and myself feel about what we do.

http://forgottenbands.blogspot.fr/2010/09/heinz-saints.html I have been playing bass for them for years and am temporarily the main singer whilst our singer gets over cancer. Rick the drummer was the last original member and he left to retire about the same time I joined. Whats in a name, indeed.

You tell `em, Mark. With 60 odd years of paid gigs under my belt, they all ALL count. Over the years I am not ashamed to say that I have very often had to supplement my gig earnings with a day job, but that was mostly because I wouldn`t go on unemployment whilst getting paid for gigs... and also because I had a wife, children and a mortgage to support! YES I have spent a lot more years when my primary source of income was music, but I have also been very glad to be, on occasion, a waiter, a plumber, an appraiser of musical instruments and jewellery, etc etc etc....

What an interesting idea. I am just about finished with my current project in France (repairing and converting an old forge) and may get tempted even though I already have a small studio inside the current UK house. What makes this such a great idea is that it CAN be moved. I love the idea of being able to take a studio with me as and when we finally move to France for good. And happily I have room in the garden of one of the houses for just such a building!

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1464706968' post='3061640'] The general feel of the song that I get is a harp back to the 50s-60s. Wasn't this a time when bass was underplayed? Wasn't it McCartney and others in the 60s that took the bass forward? [/quote] Not really. Plenty of somewhat gymnastic bass players around pre Jamerson et al. Not necessarily electric bass guitar, but bass none the less. You young whippersnappers didnt invent this stuff, you know! P.S. Get off my damn lawn, kid!

I was beginning to think you would wind up having to make a living as a blogger, Mark! Ice broken then.

What IS impressive is how the hell he managed to get it close enough to centred to even start turning it!

He didnt mention the Wukka Wukka setting?

[quote name='ivansc' timestamp='1464541209' post='3060205'] Zackly. Most of them sound like they are playing-by-numbers. And although there are some iconic bass lines out there that can make or break the song, even those dont need to be copied verbatim. IMO, of course. Most people seem to find it hard enough just to capture the feel.... [/quote]

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1464536326' post='3060168'] It's extremely rare that I've heard anyone play the original notes with the original feel. [/quote] Zackly. Most of them sound like they are playing-by-numbers. And although there are some iconic bass lines out there that can make or break the song, even those dont need to be copied verbatim. IMO, of course.

[quote name='Earbrass' timestamp='1464526875' post='3060070'] No, you just swapped one form of wage slavery for another which you find more palatable. Glad it's working out for you though. [/quote] Not necessarily. I retired after spending most of my life gigging in 2006 - but somehow found myself playing out again almost immediately. I just dont drive very far these days, is all. Or as often! Just found this on YouTube - Done with a phone camera by a pal. Great laugh - combined age at the time of over 260. Sadly Bernie (guitarist in black shirt) didn`t make it past February of this year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KqeZ5UabuE And no, we never rehearsed!

I do find it a little disturbing that most of you guys seem to regard a covers gig as requiring a slavish, note perfect, feel-perfect version of The Original Record. Really hope I am reading this one wrong. In any case, when I play covers, I try to sort of pay hommage to the original, but never follow anything note for note. In 99 cases out of 100, the guy who did the original recording has never played it twice the same. For me, that is where the fun is on any gig.

Bought mine new for £24 a couple of years back. Accidentally let the smoke out by connecting it to a mains supply with the wrong polarity, but incredibly, it still works fine on battery. Dont use it much since I tarted up my live rig, but it is nice as a quick & dirty bass DI for recording. Not as nice as my original H&K Tubemen, but since they are now so old I generally have one in the shop being repaired and one working, it is handy to have the Sansamp-alike. Reminds me I must get Tubeman #2 repaired. They are also pretty good for guitar AND keys.

Blue - The scene in the UK generally is nothing at all like the USA, or at least the parts of the USA I have lived and worked in. And no, the standard of musicianship in terms of playing in a band I would say is generally lower here than it was when I left the USA. But I have buddies in the USA who have actually had to leave the business after a lifetime of JUST music because the traditional gigs are drying up. If you dont mind making no money, OK. My kid brother is about to retire and he has rediscovered/invented himself as a blooz bass player - working with some old blues guys playing a mix of their stuff and blues standards. For mediocre money but at least it beats doing Holiday Inns like in the old days. One guy he is working with is Joe "Survivor" Carusoe, a Florida Blues guy, some youtube out there of him I believe. I used to do something similar in the UK in the seventies with chicago blues players (Homesick James and Big John Wrencher are the only ones I remember) on the College circuit & it was reasonably well-paid fun.

Isn`t that a WukkaWukkaThwokThwok like the one Batman used to use? Mutron or maybe a modded BassBalls.....

[quote name='Zenitram' timestamp='1463996803' post='3055570'] I thought you meant the nice sound you get when laying the stick on the skin and tapping the beat on the rim. Used in quieter passages usually. Is that also a rimshot? I'm a drummer so I should know these things, but I don't. I don't think I've ever hit a rimshot as described in the original post. [/quote] That is the (Nashville/country/cool latin) standard cross stick.