Rich

01 Ever played a gig sitting down? Yes, after a knee operation some years back. 02 Ever gigged on a different instrument? I did a few gigs doing just BVs and percussion after a carpal tunnel op. It was quite nice being able to concentrate on the singing. 03 Ever shared a stage with a musical hero of yours? No, alas. 04 Any fan ever had a tatoo of your band's logo? Nope. Seen people wearing the t shirt though. 05 Ever signed an autograph in a dressing room? Who would want it? 06 Ever cried on stage? No. Came close though, on the night my dad died. 07 Ever worn a hat on stage? Yes, every gig. 08 Ever gigged with a band you hadn't met before the gig? No, and I wouldn't like to. I hate being underprepared. 09 Ever been in a relationship with a fellow band member? No and I wouldn't want to. Absolute minefield. 10 Ever played in different bands on the same day? Yes, and on the same bill too. 11 Ever had anything thrown at you while playing? Spears, grenades, angry honey badgers. No knickers yet though. 12 Ever crashed on the way to the gig? No. Wrote my car off en route to a rehearsal once though. 13 Ever left a band over the choice of set list? No. 14 Ever slept in the venue despite it not being a hotel? No. 15 Ever been supported by a band clearly better than you? Thankfully, no. 16 Ever played a gig suffering from some debilitating medical condition? Yes, see 1 and 2 above. 17 Ever been in a band where the guitarist was your favourite bandmate? Yes, twice. A blues rock trio in Swindon, and also a fusion trio with @Witters. 18 Ever played in the grounds of a stately home? Don't think so. 19 Ever injured yourself on stage? Like many others, only my pride. 20 Ever been told that your bass isn't loud enough? Yes. What a glorious day that was.

You were lucky to have a lake.

I think it's @Reggaebass?

In all seriousness, this does look like a really absurd bargain but my old Pandora already does all that for me, so I'll leave it for someone else.

Mmmm. Noodles.

Mmmm. Cake.

Well, the mammoth clone works now to build the second part of the project and combine them.

I did, couple of years ago at the Fleece in Brizzle.

Ok, sticking my neck out a bit... you were only 17 when he died, so... Bob Marley?

Queen

Joe Bonamassa?

Stones.

Two PCBs in the mail from Fuzzdog. Looking forward to some nice relaxing tinkering at the workbench.

Oh my word. I feel an interesting photoshop project coming on

This. Absolutely everything about it. No redeeming visual qualities whatsoever.

Or aesthetics in general, for that matter.

Oh thanks, now I really fancy a caramac. Off down the shops for a spot of social distancing, then.

I don't mean functional features like slim necks or tighter string spacing, I'm talking about purely aesthetic stuff here. Body shapes and the like. I'll start the ball rolling. Early P-bass/Tele headstock shape. Don't like it, at all. It looks like someone's had a bandsaw accident with a regular P neck and tried to make the best of it. 90s hair-metal Charvel/Jackson pointy headstocks. Looking at them, you can just smell the hairspray and dodgy spandex. Stick your foot on the monitor and away you go. Far, far away please. "Whoops". Rawwwwk. Errm, no ta.

Cynical marketing exercise. "What are we going to do with all these leftover Jag bodies?" "Easy. Tweak the router CNC, knock the point off the top horn and bang on a Tele neck." "Ok, might take some time to do that." "Simple . We'll just call it CS or Masterbuilt and charge seven grand. The usual people will lap it up." "See, this is why you're head of marketing."

Long Beggs-related story. Feel free to scroll on by. Back in late '86, when I had hair and a discernible waistline, my rock-pop band were making our desperate bid for stardom. We lived in Reading, so it was dead easy to jump in the car and head into London to play gigs. We played quite a bit at the Red Lion in Brentford (RIP) -- our first few gigs there were as support to a guy called Philip Jap (the old farts among you might remember him) and his then band 'Secret Society'. I think he missed a trick by not calling them 'Jap's Eye'. Anyway, he asked us to play support at a party in London and we accepted. Being the mid 80s, slap was still acceptable -- almost mandatory in fact -- and our songs featured a lot of it. A lot. So there I was, thumbing the blazes out of my poor Wal, and it gets to the song with my showoff solo bit... I take a deep breath and go thwack-thwacka-ding wickety-wackety-wockity-dang, and having given it my best I look out at the crowd... straight into the eyes of Nick Beggs. Apparently an ex-label mate and friend of Mr Jap. I had a brief moment of wanting the ground to open up, I mean here's this bass god looking at me and I've just tried to impress this audience with something he could probably have done with one arm tied behind his back. But then his face broke into a big genuine smile, and with a nod he raised his glass towards me. I was walking on air for a month after that. I've bumped into him a couple of times since then, obviously he doesn't remember me but he's always been really friendly and happy to chat. Definitely one of our instrument's Nice Guys.