StingRayBoy42

21st March 1992, Xaverian College Band Night with No Fat on a Turkey. We opened with Red Berry Joy Town by the Wonderstuff, we also did She Bangs the Drums (Roses), Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Queen) and three of our own. There's video evidence which shall remain encased in lead, buried under a volcano for all time.

When you drop Boss stuff, the floor will probably come off worse... I dropped a TU-2 down a flight of concrete stairs, still works fine!

I pronounce it 'Flanger' - never heard it pronounced 'Flanger' before.

They are beautiful... I need them!

Kudos to you for playing that live - killer Bassline!

LAST NIGHT! Azura (ignore the posters that say 'Azure band') at O'Neill's Leicester! We always have a good one here so we were really looking forward to it. We did it as a 3 piece due to the singer/guitarist being in the prcoess of being sacked (due to continued and sustained acts of egregious knobbery (with arseitude aforethought) and a complete lack of theology, geometry, deceny and good taste). Horrendous journey up (down?) the M6 through biblical rain courtesy of storm Bert (who names these storms? Seriously... 'Bert'?!), load in was the usual with the added fun of heavy rain, setup was good - the drummer and I had it 80% done by the time singer/keys/guitar had gone and dumped the van. It was pretty busy and the dancefloor was already packed when we started (I think the East Midlands Drop Dead Gorgeous Blonde Convention (EMDDGBC) was on in Leicester that afternoon) and the floor stayed full all the way through the first set, which was ace and went really well. Singer/keys/guitar (he's called Henry but it's probably easier to just call him singer/keys/guitar) had a gaggle of EMDDGBC alumni in front of him who were giving him loads (in a good way - asking for Justin Bieber songs, trying to put him off, asking him for mad announcements and suchlike), we got asked to sing Happy Birthday to Chloe (?) then someone else came up and said it was Alison's (or Alistair's?) birthday and they wanted Happy Birthday as well and before you know it, we're singing Happy Birthday *again* to NINE different people. I sang Shake Ratlle and Roll which we did in the wrong key so it was a Paul Robeson remix, I got all the words in Escape (The Piña Colada Song) right for (I think) the first time ever (singer/keys/guitar cocked up the BVs which is always hilarious (there are SO MANY words and all the choruses (chorii?) are slightly different)), the drummer got propositioned again (happens every gig, he always says no thank you (he's engaged)), quick vape and shandy break, second set was even better than the first (except some spunktrumpet grabbed singer/keys/guitar's mic which is attached to his keyboard and got some choice anglo-saxon from me, singer/keys/guitar and a bouncer), Country Roads had the whole place up and singing their hearts out, the holy trinity (Dakota, Sex on fire, Brightside) took the roof off, three encores (oh... go on then), we were all knackered and very sweaty by the end of it. Pack down (we have got way too much stuff), load out (bouncer gave us a hand with the big stuff), back down (up?) the M6 (rain: biblical), back to singer/keys/guitar place, stuff out of the van into my car, back up (down?) the M6 (the rain had somehow progressed from biblical to apocalyptic) to my Dad's place in Brum about 2am for a pint of Old Pa StingRayBoy's homebrew pear cider (ABV unknown) and the world's loveliest cat (and two other cats who are also very nice) and bed about 3. (Up at 10 and back down (up?) along the M6 to Jazz Orchestra rehearsal (with Birmingham's best japanese non-binary morris dancing trombonist) which was really good (first set Bond themes, second set christmas) but that's not really about last nights gig) I'd planned to take the P for a change but I picked up the wrong case and took the Sterling (no great hardship, it's a lovely Bass (did I ever tell you Ernie Ball gave it to me for nothing?)) -> small board -> amp board (VTDI set to fliptop) -> MB 802 -> PA (Newly re-soled cherry red DMs, foot fans). An absolutely top night.

And they say it's not a glamorous business!

Not a bit - it basically says Fenders are popular, Gibsons are not, all other makes are weird and these new-fangled 'five-stringed' Basses with their 'active electronic' wizardry are going to be quite the thing in the distant future of the year 2000.

Love the outfit. 👌 Or as the kids would say "Your drip is sick"

LAST NIGHT! The Cantina Band at The Boat in Minworth - a pub that wants to be nice but hasn't got round to it yet. Easy load in, horrible setup as we were crammed into a corner marginally bigger than a matchbox (a standard size one, not the big Swan Vestas ones). A fairly drunk bloke collared me as we were setting up and asked me what Bass he should buy 'for metal' then wouldn't leave me alone all night - throughout the evening, he confidently asserted that I was at Live Aid (I wasn't), I like 90s metal (I don't), I love Bon Jovi (I don't), I should listen to Slipknot (I shouldn't) and Nirvana were the best band ever (they weren't) amongst other things. He also asked how should he tune his Bass 'for metal' and what the notes are (presumably 'for metal'). I did my best to answer his questions as best I could and encourage him and he was friendly enough to be fair, but being talked at all night got old pretty quickly. No dancefloor as there wasn't room for one, total 'Meh' of a gig - not terrible enough to be a good terrible gig story, but not good enough to be actually any good. The closest thing to a funny story was a bloke with no legs coming in as we were playing 'Walk this way' 😳 A couple of dancers for the last two songs was about the highlight. Had the usual setup for this lot - Sterling -> small board -> amp board (have I mentioned how much I love the Sansamp VTDI?) -> MB CMD121P The Pleccy playing is getting better, I *think* I've decided where to put my right hand. Finished earlyish, paid, packed up, an hour home to a pint of Westons Vintage Pear cider (6.0% ABV), a cheese, ham and Pips La Barbacoa hot sauce toastie, a pint of Gwynt Y Ddraig Black Dragon cider (7.2% ABV) and a James Acaster Netflix standup special (very good, I recommend it). O'Neills Leicester tonight with the other band - always a good gig, fingers crossed. Actually, thinking about it, the toastie was probably the highlight.

I'd suggest 'The Bass Book' by Tony Bacon but if they're a Bass player they've already got it.

LAST NIGHT! The Cantina Band at The Vaults (Real Ale Bar (dog friendly)) Knowle. AGAIN. Great load in, park up next to the door behind the stage [sic], set up all good, I got to tell a new joke to the lads (too rude to repeat on a family forum such as what this one is), dep drummer (chap from my other band), singer and guitarists WAGs were in attendance, all good. The guitarist had also brought his two young daughters (last time they came, the landlady asked him to kind of keep them out of sight as they're probably too young to be in a pub, she then proceeded to get them dancing on a table, filmed it and shared it on the pub's social media. She's bonkers, but in a good way). After the unscheduled fun of two weeks ago, I was expecting the usual ambivalent punters and dispiriting reception and sure enough there weren't many there, but for some reason we all *really* enjoyed ourselves. Possibly because we were playing to a handful of friends and family so there was lots of audience interaction (basically good-natured heckling) so we ended up having a right laugh. It was the drummers birthday (28! My StingRay is older than him!) so he was presented with a cake and a rendition of Happy Birthday which he wasn't expecting and totally blew him away. Very heartwarming. The guitarist's youngest joined us to sing the last song, which was lovely - she's a budding guitarist so I hope we haven't put her off being in a band. I joined the landlady at the bar for Sex on Fire (the song!) which went down a treat, we got three encores (I think the WAGs enjoyed watching us sweat). Used the StringRay for a change (I usually use the Sterling with this lot - I definitely noticed the 'Ray sounds a lot smoother than the Sterling, especially through the many distortions) -> small board (now with pedal toppers! (which obscure the LEDs on some of the pedals 🤨)) -> amp board (Thumpinator -> VTDI (set to ROCK)) -> MB CMD121. Still getting used to using a pleccy but it does sound good on the punk numbers, especially through the Bass Soul Food. Paid, packed up, home about 1 for a pint of Aldi vintage cider. A good night!

I bought a Fishman Pro EQ from Dave - he was great to deal with all the way. More top Basschatting!

Rob 3D printed and sent me some pedal toppers in exchange for a donation to the Travis wetroom fund - very generous and he was lovely to deal with. Top Basschatting!

Sold Lorenz a pedalboard, he was great to deal with. Ta!

I like my AKG K92s - IIRC they were about £40

It did indeed keep up with the blowers, sounded great, had some volume to spare and got lots of admiring comments which is the main thing, right? Disclaimer: I used the Sansamp VTDI in front of it, which really does elevate it - more punch and a noticeably better sound IMHO. It's no slouch on its own TBF!

Me too! Great little amp and I'm sure it'll do acoustic/jazz rehearsals. I use it with a Sansamp VTDI which really gives it some oomph and brings it to life. I'm taking mine to a big band rehearsal tomorrow, hopefully it'll keep up with the 15-odd blowers... will report back!