Rich

Mike Oldfield, 'Moonlight Shadow'. A repeat offender. "Carried away by a moonlight shadow" Shadows are by definition a characteristic of light. Light, whilst being an energy, is not tangible and is certainly not capable of lifting anything, let alone carrying it. "The trees that whisper in the evening" Regardless of what time of day it is, trees do not have vocal chords. "All she saw was a silhouette of a gun" One can only assume that the gun was somehow hovering in mid-air, otherwise the silhouette of the person or thing holding it would also have been visible. The supposition is therefore that the events were occurring in an empty zero-gravity environment. "Four A.M. in the morning" Oh dear. I don't think I need comment on this any further. "Stars roll slowly in a silvery night" Nights tend to be varying shades of extremely dark blue, or even black. If they were 'silvery' the stars would not be visible against their background.

Here's another black mark for His Purpleness. Whilst it is true that doves do indeed have tear ducts, the emissions of which could possibly at a hell of a stretch be described as 'crying', they do not actually make any noise when they do so -- and they certainly do not 'scream'. Thus, in order to be factually correct, the lines in question should perhaps be "Why do we scream at each other? As unpleasant as it is, it in no way resembles the sound of Doves Crying; this is a more accurate representation", followed by a period of complete silence.

*holds out coat* *points at door*

I beg to differ sir. Robbie could play a tennis racquet and he'd still look good.

Here's a promo we've put together using footage shot at 2019's Phoenix Festival. Again, I apologise profusely for my legs.

Funny you should say that... way back in the day, the bassist in Chris Duarte's trio played guess what... there used to be vids of them on youtube but I can't find them now, everything on there is far more recent.

I mentioned this thread to Mrs Rich in passing yesterday, after she saw me video-hopping through youtube and asked what I was doing... I told her about my vague idea in the past of this 80s indie/rock band, and far from the expected "where would you find time for that?" she said "ooh! why don't you do it?". Hmm.

I saw "The Commitments" (only 2 of the original lot were in the band, including the guy who was the mad drummer in the film but was now doing lead vocal, and not much cop at that sadly) some years ago... the bassist was playing an Alembic Mark King with a huge Trace stack, and yes he took a slappy solo. I do remember looking at my watch a few times.

When I joined the ska band, they gave me some live recordings to learn along with... one of the bassists they'd worked with had been a superb player, very competent indeed, but her bass (never found out what it was) sounded totally wrong for the job -- a nice tone, but far too modern and hi-fi and smiley-face-EQd for the music.

The answer being: You guitarist (singular) have got your fat cloth-eared head up your *rse"

Oh go on then, seeing as you asked nicely... Only a short list so far but these were just a few off the top of my head. XTC Generals and Majors XTC Senses Working Overtime Wonder Stuff Don't Let Me Down, Gently Julian Cope World Shut Your Mouth The Passions I'm In Love With A German Film Star Joe Jackson Is She Really Going Out With Him Joe Jackson It's Different For Girls Squeeze Pulling Mussels Squeeze Another Nail In My Heart The Cure In Between Days Simple Minds Don't You Forget About Me Crowded House Don't Dream It's Over Danny Wilson Mary's Prayer

Would the buyer agree to you taking photo/video evidence of the handover? Thus providing you with proof that a} he received it and b} it was as advertised, etc?

God, wouldn't it be dull if we all liked everything? Apart from anything else, that'd mean that I'd have to actually like trad jazz *shudder*.

Funny how subjective it all is, innit? For me it's vice versa -- the highs of the 80s were very high, whereas by and large I hated much of the music of the 90s.

In terms of getting you from A to B, a Trabant does the job. Doesn't mean it isn't horrible, uncomfortable, smoky and gutless though.

It's quite fun isn't it, this imaginary setlist stuff? I've started compiling one for that 80s indieguitarrocktypestuff band I never formed. There's some bloody good stuff out there!

Funny you should say that... at one time, I did toy with the idea of putting together an 80s band covering the more alt/indie/rock-oriented stuff of the time, e.g. early Simple Minds, Black Sea-era XTC (would love to do Generals and Majors), Cult, etc. I didn't go through with it in the end, but I bloody wish I had now.

My usual answer to the oft-heard accusation that '80s music was all skill-less manufactured crap' is to tell the accuser to listen to Duran's 'Rio', Level 42's 'World Machine', Go West's 'Bangs & Crashes' (and any one of a million others), and then try telling me it was all skill-less manufactured crap.

Break out the white jacket and the Wayfarers.

Strings -- for me, Elixir nickels all day every day and twice on Sundays. Case/stand -- most of my basses live on a stand, in an old wardrobe. Best of both worlds... easily accessible, and free of dust. My Wal lives in its case primarily to keep it safe.

If you ignore the repeated title and the acapella intro... and it's a proper chart hit too.

I feel a Basschat competition coming on -- record The Birdie Song in as many different time signatures and genres as possible. Please can someone do a prog metal version?

I imagine that if permitted, they would be possible at very well isolated pubs out in the sticks, well away from any dwellings likely to be annoyed by noise. There's probably about a dozen of them in the country.

I only have 1 gig left surviving on either of my bands' diaries for this year, and that's my son's wedding evening in October. Neither band will be actively looking to make any new bookings this year even if the pubs do open up again... I think we're all just writing 2020 off as a mad dystopian nightmare and starting afresh next year. When you next speak to him, tell him I think he's a git too.

This has already been mentioned, but this is too good not to share