Some very serious vintage bass porn in this months iBass magazine ...

[Dingus]

I'm surprised no one else has posted this yet :

, [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb5KHXW48uI[/media]

Great to hear Norman Watt Roy talking about that bass , I can remember seeing him play it when I was about ten years old . It's a bit of an icon as far as I'm concerned .

Edited April 10, 2013 by Dingus

[Green Alsatian]

Nice one for posting this! I often wondered if Norman still had [i]that[/i] bass and what it looked like now and hearing him talk about it's ace! Even though he's been playing the gold Jazz for ages, I always associate him with that P and love his sound on New Boots & Panties.

I'd love to have a play on it!

Edited April 10, 2013 by Green Alsatian

[Dingus]

I too love Normans tone on New Boots And Panties , and I think back when that album was recorded it was before he had the Jazz pickup added at the bridge , so It must just be the sound of the original Precision pickup .

[Green Alsatian]

Aye, definitely just the sound of the stock P-bass on New Boots, and I think it was still just P on Do It Yourself too.

Going from various live footage and videos, he must have added it in late 1979/1980 during the recording of Laughter as the latest I've seen of the bass pre-Jazz mod was a Rock Goes to College performance from 1979 (playing Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick).

The Jazz pickup's in place on their vids from 1980 'I Want to Be Straight' and 'Superman's Big Sister', along with the 1980 Dominion Theatre concert (I watched this recently on YouTube - absolutely fantastic!).

[Dingus]

Watching footage of Norman on YouTube, he seems to had a stock chocolate brown Precision - presumably as a backup , around that same time . I know that around the time of Rhythm Stick he bought his Alembic from John Entwistle , and I seem to remember reading that he sais it was Peter Cornish ( maker of famous rock stars pedal boards ) who fitted the jazz pickup on the Precision for him .

[sblueplanet]

I remember seeing his gold jazz bass advertised for sale for just under £7k. I wonder if anyone bought it?

[Lynottfan]

Norman is a top man, a great inspiration to me, showed me that you can move as a bass player, you don't have to just stand there in the background, the man can play and then some, infact from another thread I would say that Norman can rock and groove! I love the rhythm stick P, watt a bass!

Thanks for sharing

[Dingus]

There's more where that came from :

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwmcMsQ37gs[/media]

In my book , Norman is up there with Pino Palladino as one of the best bass British bass players ever .

Edited April 10, 2013 by Dingus

[Green Alsatian]

Agreed - Norman's certainly one of my personal favourites.

I was cursing the interview cutting off at the end, when Norman mentions the Superman's Big Sister bassline and bumping into Mark King!

[Dingus]

I think you can get the rest of the interview if you go to the IBass magazine website and subscribe .

[MarkG3]

Thanks for posting I enjoyed it

[White Cloud]

Top player. I remember seeing Norman playing with the Blockheads...he used an Alembic Series 1 and the tone was to die for.