StingRayBoy42

The drummer in my Jazz band stood in on a gig with Noel Redding. So I've played with someone who played with someone who played with Hendrix. How's that for tenuous?!

Sounds lush! Welcome to the family.

Roy bought my pedaltrain JR - great comms, patience of a saint while I sourced packaging, quick payment and an all round thoroughly good egg.

I had a laptop that wouldn't stop playing Someone like you. I think it was A Dell.

Too many to list here, but not that many in the grand scheme of things. It should say on the pedal next to the power input; if not, check the manual. 9V tip (or centre) negative is the usual configuration.

+1 for the Harley Benton Powerplant range. I use an ISO-5 on my little board and it's great. 40 odd quid new, highly reccomend it.

Bought Dave's Smooth hound wireless. Top comms, quick postage, item exactly as described. Top Marks!

It was. You have been warned.

One of his ebay auctions has a link to him playing.

The new Katherine Priddy album while I make Spag Bol for my tea. Lovely.

Bill Withers if there ain't no sunshine...

I like Elixirs - used them a while ago and they do seem to stay 'new' for ages. I've got a set to put on my 5 as I want a brighter sound for that band. Elixir reccomend *not* using any cleaning products on their strings, just wipe with a dry cloth. https://www.elixirstrings.com/support/elixir-strings-faq?v=Products I use the Dunlop string cleaner on my EB Cobalts and DTFs at the mo - can't hurt, can it?

Oh... stop it, you! ☺️

How could I forget?! I played the Sousaphone on an episode of Lucy Worsley's history thing on the telly, the one about the Peterloo massacre. She's lovely - really friendly and down to earth. That's me in the background. (I'm the one with the Sousaphone.)

Stop it, you!

I love that BF/Tonehammer stack... my GASlight is on!

TONIGHT! The Meathead's Arms in Wolverhampton (a fight every night or your money back) with 5 piece girl singer pop music band! (We go out under different names because of something something different agencies something... I don't like to ask) Dep singer, lovely lass, worked with her before, ex-bandmate of the others, she's basically one of the lads. Unfortunately, she'd not got the memo about no dress code, so she was was dressed up like (her words) a high-class prostitute and the rest of us were in scruffy T-shirts and jeans. The football was on when we got there- the smell of testosterone, Ben Sherman shirts and poor quality cocaine made for an electric atmosphere. Load in and setup all pretty normal, nice big stage area so I set up next to the drummer to keep him company. A fair few people in, mostly ignoring us and waiting for Match of the Day to start so we treated it like a paid practice. First set we played really well apart from Toxic which we messed up worse than Britney messed up 2007, luckily no-one was listening so we got away with it. Second set had a couple of dancers and a few tables at the back seemed to be enjoying it. The drummer and I had a great time while the keys player was frantically doing FOH sound, sorting out clicks, cueing the singer and occasionally playing some keys. Highlights were the two Dua Lipa ones (Levitating and Don't start now) which are a blast to play, Murder on the Dancefloor (new one which we all complained about but now love) and Crazy in Love/Crazy mashup which I've FINALLY sussed out (It's really very simple, it goes 6, 4, 2. 8, 8, (4) 8, 10, Crazy, loads, 4(*), ending. Simple.) The drummer loves that one and plays it like he's getting paid by the note. It was the first public outing of my new improved enormous pedalboard (NIEPB) which sounded fantastic - the SA C4 patch for Toxic is brilliant (shame we totally buggered the song up, but the Bass sounded great), the EBS Multicomp gives the sound a fat, round, warm punch in the guts but in a good way and I'm fairly sure the two metres of retina-destroying pink LEDs make it sound extra fabulous. (It's not quite finished - when a certain online retailer who shall remain nameless bothers to post me the stuff I ordered over a week ago, I can hook up the patchbay AND have all matching red patch leads. Obviously, you can't tell they're red, what with the two metres of retina-destroying pink LEDs, but still...) Played the 5 String 'Ray which is still a work in progress - I did find myself reverting to using the B as an expensive thumb rest when I switched to autopilot, but Rome wasn't burnt in a day and all that. Second outing of the weekend for the rainbow Converse, foot fans! Paid cash, shipping forecast on the way home, back about 1 for last nights curry with a pint of Westons Reserve (8.2% ABV), an Old Fashioned (Lots of ice, much bourbon (usually Maker's Mark but Four Roses tonight), sugar syrup (use maple syrup for a really good one), Angostura Bitters, lots of stirring and a twist of orange peel over the top) and most importantly of all, desperately seeking validation from strangers on the internet. Cheers. Same again, please.

I used to be in a band with the keyboard player from the Courteeners and a different band with the drummer out of Catfish and the Bottlemen when he was about 15. A friend of mine toured the world playing keys with Cradle of Filth, she's got some good stories! On stage, they were all evil, baby-eating monster types - off stage, they were middle-aged blokes from Ipswich who complained about their shoulders hurting. Good days!

About five years ago I went into a florists in Kidderminster the day before Valentine's day. Ordered a bunch of Roses for the then Mrs StingRayBoy and nodded hello to the long-haired, leather jacketed old feller waiting for his flowers. We stood there and made "Tsch, mad this innit, what are we like?" faces at each other for a very long five minutes, while my brain played "That's Robert Plant. That's Robert Plant. That's Robert Plant. Out of Led Zep." on a loop. They say never meet your heroes, but I think he handled it really well.

Tonight! The Cantina Band's world tour of the Vaults in Knowle continued - A truly momentous occasion, as we had five (or possibly four?) new songs in the set! We'd done something on Wednesday called "Rehearsal" (?!) which is where you all cram in to a small room and try to play songs you don't know with nobody listening, so it's a lot like a gig except we had to pay for it. I don't think it'll catch on. Usual stuff - the bar was rammed, a few folk ventured to the corner betseen the toilets and the fire escape to see us., we played pretty well and those that were up dancing seemed to really enjoy it. Of the new songs, Lithium went down the best, Helter Skelter was the most fun to play and Centrefold was the cheesiest. Went for a wireless wander into the bar during Sex on Fire, which was a lot of fun and went down well. We all really enjoyed it for some reason, maybe sticking a few new ones wasn't such a stupid idea? Highlight was me being *just* about to start Ace of Spades, then the guitarist counting in to Whole Lotta Love... nearly went very badly. Sterling (my fave Bass for Rock stuff) -> small board -> Sansamp programmable -> Mark CMD121P Feet: Red socks -> Rainbow Converse. Had a laugh, got paid, home about half midnight for a curry, a Weston's Reserve (8.2% ABV) and an Old J Tiki Fire overproof spiced rum (75.5% ABV) Very different gig Saturday- female fronted pop stuff with the 5 string and the first outing for my new improved enormous pedalboard... Tune in the same time tomorrow!