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I met a rather famous bassist today...


joegarcia
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So, I went with my drummer mate James to pick up a cab today (my second Aguilar GS412). I'd seen the listing come up on Ebay last week and within 10 mins of it being listed I'd cheekily arranged a sale with the seller. After the exchange of emails I knew the his name was vaguely familiar but wasn;t really sure so thought nothing of it.
So, as we were getting near his area today we noticed how posh it was and began to joke about what sort of massive band he must play with but had no realy idea.
When we arrived he was very freindly and showed us the cab. I'd arranged beforehand that I'd borrow a bass and amp to test the cab with, he had a DB750 but unfortunately couldn't find a speaker lead anywhere. He apologised and said we'd have to go 20 mins up the road to his bands practice space to try it out.
We loaded the cab into my mates car, I traveled with the seller and James followed behind.

On the way I asked what sort of stuff he played. He said he played a bit of everything, Funk, R&B, Soul, Rock, Jazz etc. I asked who he played with and he paused slightly and quietly said "Jamiroquai".
There was a moment of silence and I said, "Wow, as far as bass gigs go, thats about the best one in the country." He laughed and said we were actually on the way to JK's house and studio now.
Another silence fell.

I suddenly felt like a complete idiot for not recognising the name Paul Turner in the emails.
Anyway, we had a good chat about gear and Aguilar in particular and I bought the cab for a bargain price. He said he didn't really need it as he had lots of other Aggie gear and JK liked a very very quiet stage sound.

Still grinning now though. I'm probably one of the most undeserving guys on here to meet him as I am in to such different music and wouldn't really describe myself as a fan as some of you likely are.

Weird day.

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[quote name='joegarcia' post='138571' date='Feb 11 2008, 11:41 PM']On the way I asked what sort of stuff he played. He said he played a bit of everything, Funk, R&B, Soul, Rock, Jazz etc. I asked who he played with and he paused slightly and quietly said "Jamiroquai".
There was a moment of silence and I said, "Wow, as far as bass gigs go, thats about the best one in the country." He laughed and said we were actually on the way to JK's house and studio now.
Another silence fell.

I suddenly felt like a complete idiot for not recognising the name Paul Turner in the emails. Still grinning now though. I'm probably one of the most undeserving guys on here to meet him as I am in to such different music and wouldn't really describe myself as a fan as some of you likely are.

Weird day.[/quote]

I'm guessing if you met William Murderface - different story :)

Edited by MacDaddy
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[quote name='joegarcia' post='138584' date='Feb 11 2008, 11:54 PM']Hehe, yup. Glad someone on here knows who my avatar is of. :)[/quote]
I thought it was someone from He Man.

Cool story, and you're right ... I'm no Jamiroquai fan but THAT is the bass playing that made me want to pick up a four- or five-string and get some groove running. Did he play for you at all? Would've been awesome to get a quick masterclass!! :huh:

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[quote name='noisedude' post='138603' date='Feb 12 2008, 12:28 AM']I thought it was someone from He Man.

Cool story, and you're right ... I'm no Jamiroquai fan but THAT is the bass playing that made me want to pick up a four- or five-string and get some groove running. Did he play for you at all? Would've been awesome to get a quick masterclass!! :)[/quote]

Hehe, nah, got to play his old Stingray though which was lush.

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Had something similar to that many years ago. Me & my old band mates travelled down from Manchester to Ilford to buy a mixing desk from a guy in a bedsit. Then to go with it, we then travelled round to Surrey to buy a 50 metre roll of multicore.

We were a bit similar.....starting noticing the houses getting bigger and bigger.

Stopped outside his place, and knocked on this massive oak front door. A young girl opened it and led us in, and pointed us in the direction of the room her dad was in. When we opened the door, it was the door to a huge recording studio he had built in his house. Two 7 piece kits set up, a complete set of kettle drums, lots of saxes hanging all over the place as well as a myriad of other instruments. We spent about an hour there with him chatting away.

When we left, the drummer asked our keyboard player what his name was. He said "Jon something......a bit foreign sounding". Our drummer then realised we'd been at the house of Jon Heisman (seen [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtjDigJ_QQI"]here[/url] playing in "Colosseum II" with Gary Moore and Don Airey). Others may know him from "Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia" (I think she was his wife - which would explain the saxes everywhere).

Nice house by the way. :)

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Yup, similar thing happened to me many moons ago, 86 or summat... my band were rehearsing at a small club in Wokingham called Angie's, they used to let the place out as practice space during the day and then put gigs on at night. Anyway, we were close to packing up when this guy wandered in at the far end of the club. "Oh sorry" he said, "I'm not interrupting am I?". We assured him that he wasn't, but he offered to wait outside -- charming, polite chap he was. "Nah, it's ok" we said, "We're just packing up."
"OK" he says, "my group is playing here tonight, thought I'd get here early to see what it's like... oh, name's Herbie Flowers and I'm pleased to meet you all..."
You can imagine how far my jaw dropped.

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That's a pretty wicked story man...his playing is phenominal, love it, not to mention his tone :)

I guess everyone on here is going to be going mad over any Aguilar gear up for grabs on here now then, lol!!!

Don't suppose you fancy telling us JK's address though, i'll drop off a card in case Mr.Turner moves on at all, lol!

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I love these stories, hearing that not all megastars are vain and affected. I guess if I was a 'celeb' I'd be happy to meet people who didn't know who I was.

I read somewhere about a chance meeting - been trying to find the original article but it's long gone so here's what I remember:

Matey lives on a houseboat and is cruising on River X...night is falling and he needs to moor. There are big houses with lawns down to the river. A scruffy bloke greets him, they exchange pleasantries and Matey says: -I know this is a bit cheeky but could I moor here for the night? -Sure, no problem, come and get a cup of tea.

Anyway, they become friends (I'm starting to feel like Simon Bates here) and Matey often passes by on the river. One time they go down the pub and Matey notices that there's a bit of a buzz, everyone seems to know Scruffy though few talk to him. Scruffy seems unaware of this. Eventually after his fifth pint Matey goes to the bog and the bloke pissing beside him says: - So how long you known Jimmy Page then?

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A few years back I trotted along to a big name store to try out their Ampeg range. It was when the SVT-IV had just come out and there weren't many around.

I was about the only guy in there, and happily sat trotting out my favourite licks.

I was kind of aware that a guy had come in and was chatting to one of the store people. After a while the store guy calls over and says "can you play something - this guy wants to hear how it sounds?". So I turned up a bit, cracked my fingers, and launched into my rehearsed piece of Come Together - the Marcus Miller version.

The guy smiles, says "cool", shakes hands and walks out.

As I was leaving I asked who the strange man in the hat was.

Sadly it was Marcus Miller.

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[quote name='coasterbass' post='138971' date='Feb 12 2008, 05:17 PM']A few years back I trotted along to a big name store to try out their Ampeg range. It was when the SVT-IV had just come out and there weren't many around.

I was about the only guy in there, and happily sat trotting out my favourite licks.

I was kind of aware that a guy had come in and was chatting to one of the store people. After a while the store guy calls over and says "can you play something - this guy wants to hear how it sounds?". So I turned up a bit, cracked my fingers, and launched into my rehearsed piece of Come Together - the Marcus Miller version.

The guy smiles, says "cool", shakes hands and walks out.

As I was leaving I asked who the strange man in the hat was.

Sadly it was Marcus Miller.[/quote]
"Doh!" as Homer would say.

I once did the same thing in front of Andy Rourke of The Smiths, and he stopped me to correct me where I'd gone wrong.

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I bought my Trace Elliot along with a trace 1248 cab off ebay for the princely sum of £415. Missioned it pretty much to Wales to get it with my mum (couldn't get insured on the people carrier at the time). Get there and start chatting to the guy, turns out it's John Giblin, the ex Simple Minds bassist. Great guy, really friendly and chatty and he gave me a Yamaha 5 string which he'd mistakenly bought off ebay. True legend, gave me a big hug on the way out and told me to keep playing and keep in touch.

Paul Turner would have been more my sort of thing musically, but was awesome hanging out with John for a bit.

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