Billy Apple Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 I was just listening to Rainbow's Kill The King on t' radio and I was transported back to '78 when it was all to play for. If anyone had asked at the time I would've been a drummer, but I picked up the bass because no one else wanted to in the school band. Saying that I quickly made it my own and have never regretted the decision. The girls I was trying to impress at the time have long gone, but the bass has been in my life for 30 years and a bit now and there's still things to be done. I'm still mates with the guitarist in the school band and he is still playing too. I started with a 3 stringed Westone Thunder IA played into the same amp as the Guitarist. I think the first song I learned was Career Opportunities by The Clash Just startin' Still rockin' What's your story? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highfox Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Hearing Metal box for the first time, those deep dark rumblings started me off. [attachment=184198:286826_10150270852836016_1500921_o.jpg] and at the grand old age of 51, still trying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skybone Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Geddy Lee & Geezer Utler have a lot to answer for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChick Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 I loved Duran Duran and aged around 8 I said I was either going to marry John Taylor or learn the bass. No prizes for guessing which of those I ended up with Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyTravis Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 My mates all had guitars and mum and dad said no to a drum kit. That was 18 years ago, and the rest is history 😂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cameronj279 Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 I've only been playing 5 and a half years so not too much delving into the past required here! For me it was after listening to Primus for a few years I decided to look up live videos of Les Claypool. I watched a video of him playing The Awakening and just said "I want to do that!". 2 months later I had bought a crappy bass and amp to get me going. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartelby Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Hearing John Entwistle, Steve Harris, Cliff Burton, Moose Harris and Les Claypool as I was growing up. Then my mate got a guitar and it was obvious what I was going to buy. For my 16th birthday, much to my mum's disapproval; "more money wasted on a fad", I got a bass. 26 years later the fad is still going as strong as it was the day it started. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 It was the voices in my head ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Japhet Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Can't say for sure but I think being 10 feet away from Phil Lynott on stage at Brunel University probably did it for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coilte Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 (edited) With me, the bass was love at first sight/hearing. I never wanted to play anything else. The bands/artists who inspired me to take it up were Glenn Cornick in early Jethro Tull, Jack Bruce in Cream, Tony Reeves in Colosseum, and Peter Cetera on the first three Chicago albums. Later on, life got in the way and I stopped playing until about twelve years ago, when I got back into it. I have been making up for lost time ever since, and enjoying every minute. EDIT : I'm eternally grateful that I got the chance to tell the late Glenn Cornick via email, how much he inspired me in my early playing days. Edited February 18, 2015 by Coilte Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc S Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 I started way back, in about 1980 or 81 Some mates were setting up a band, and they needed a bass player I was into punk - The Clash, Undertones, Damned, The Stranglers etc I loved the sound JJ Burnell of the Stranglers got from his P bass So I thought "Why not?" and gave it a go [attachment=184199:Band 80s.jpg] Back in the 80's! I took to it OK, and always enjoyed my choice of instrument (though I would never say I was a "natural") After several bands splitting, and finally realising I was never going to make it as a rock star and 4 or 5 years of playing..... I gave up! Marriage, family life, mortgages and having to do up a house etc etc got in the way BUT..... after an absence of around 25 years (shock horror!) - I started playing again Wished I'd never given up in the 1st place, but hey ho..... just glad I started again Still love my punk music, but into all sorts of stuff these days, including folk and playing double bass sometimes too [attachment=184200:Nic and Marc RFC crop.jpg] Onstage at Rumney Folk Club, with my pal singer-songwriter Nic Thomas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HowieBass Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Six strings seemed harder than four back in the late 70s even when punk bands were getting away with only a couple of chords. Plus I wasn't the sort who wanted to be in the spotlight. It was only later that I realised that bass players needed all that power so then it became about WMD (Wattage of Mass Destruction)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Apple Posted February 18, 2015 Author Share Posted February 18, 2015 [quote name='bartelby' timestamp='1424251715' post='2694262'] Hearing Moose Harris [/quote] Nice to hearMoose being mentioned. I'm a big NMA fan and I think he's a top player. [quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1424251842' post='2694266'] It was the voices in my head ... [/quote] I get those voices too.. 'Jack, Jack.. Please stop!' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HengistPod Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 UFO at Aberdeen Capitol in October 1980. Pete Way. 'nuff said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Apple Posted February 18, 2015 Author Share Posted February 18, 2015 [quote name='HengistPod' timestamp='1424255634' post='2694332'] Pete Way [/quote] The Guv'nor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaytonaRik Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 No divine epiphanies for me - long time guitarist (20+ years) who happened to be in band as a vocalist (they already had a full compliment of guitarists when I joined) and the bass player quit. "You play guitar" they said..."fancy filling in on bass?" Not looked back since! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Jack Bruce and cherry red over mahogany did for me. Took me a while to get into it beyond a quick plonk now and again, but been playing seriously since 2009 now, loving it and hating that I didn't realise it was the instrument for me sooner than this - got a lot of ground to make up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Deeply uncool start. Age 10 choice between learning French Horn or Double bass. Worked through the grades but it was still like 'homework'. Then at 14, we stayed with my 'cool' uncle. I got to play his 2-tonne 70's Jazz, and he made me tape with Mahavishnu Orchestra and Cream. That was it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Schoen Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Hearing John Entwistle. His thunderous sound from the 60's and early 70swith Fenders and Fender/Gibson hybrids is my favourite bass sound. Bass that you can hear and feel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timmo Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 No exciting reason for me. I took it up because i found physiotherapy for my hands and fingers boring, so i took up the bass. Seems to work better than the exercises i had, and more exciting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CamdenRob Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 all the cool instruments were taken... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barneyg42 Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 (edited) I was learning piano and guitar at school and as my parents couldn't afford a clarinet I ended up with a cheap trombone. So I learnt my bass clef as well and when my bass playing mate decided to leave the school band he put me forward as I knew all the notes, a bit of practice and that was it!!! Left school whilst dabbling a bit and at about 19 got a Peavey TNT 130 and pre Ernie Musicman on the never never!!! Edited February 18, 2015 by barneyg42 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTUK Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 A couple of school friends got gtrs and were more advanced so when I picked one up I couldn't keep up... but I also heard low notes as well, and never wanted to do anything else. To this day, I just hear things just a little more than normal, IMO. None of the guys I started with still play..and some of them never ever gigged. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Starr Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 Reach Out, The Four tops, Dad was out so I could use the forbidden fruit of the (home built) radiogram which was in new fangled stereo. I can remember the first glorious discovery of the bass you couldn't normally hear on the gear of the time. I even spent an hour with pillows over my ears trying to filter out the rest of the sound, all that unnecessary singing and guitar stuff! I'm afraid I got distracted by 40 years of speaker design but eventually I found my way. If I get Alzheimers then the last memory to fade might be James Jamerson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ratman Posted February 18, 2015 Share Posted February 18, 2015 1980. In the space of about a month I heard some James Brown, Japan and level 42. Bootsy Collins, Mick Karn and Mark King. They all blew me away. I didn't really know what a bass was but I loved the sound of it and wanted to do the same. I got my first bass shortly after. Little did I know that I'd end up making a living out of it. Awesome. And just for the record, I'm over the Level 42 slappy thing and I play my bass properly now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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