Marc S Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 29 minutes ago, paulbuzz said: Obviously lots of mentions here for JJ (and with good reason!) but it's nice to see a couple of mentions for Paul Gray too, who doesn't normally seem to get much attention. Playing along with The Black Album was a big part of my early learning experience....... Mine too. I was fortunate to get a couple of lessons with Paul (free lessons too!) who showed me some of the bits I couldn't work out on bass lines like "Therapy" and "Dr Jeckyll & Mr Hyde". He was just so great to me & my bandmate (who was also a huge Damned fan). We cheekily just turned up on his doorstep and asked him the favour - he invited us back, and it was what spurred the young me on, at the time. Sitting there, playing the bright Yellow Rick that he played on OGWT and the Black album, with one of my fave players, who was one of the nicest guys I ever met... I've met Paul several times in recent years. Saw him with the Damned again, after all these years - and he's still an amazing player. Part of the best line up of the Damned ever Not a Rick player myself - but the sound he got live and on the Black Album and Strawberries was superb 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Dare Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 Bob Babbitt. Although I didn't know it was him (or even who he was), the bass part on Tears of a Clown (Smokey Robinson) really made me want to play bass. It drove the entire song. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevB Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 Blue will be along shortly to tell you all you have been influenced by McCartney whether you like it or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 Steve Chambers - a mate of mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mangotango Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 (edited) On 21/10/2019 at 01:42, Ricky 4000 said: Your dad = What a dude On the subject of Dads...not that I ever got on well with mine, but he did one thing right; when I was very young, he queued up for hours in the rain to buy tickets for the whole family to go and see this local band that was on in town...... The venue was Liverpool Empire, back in December 1965; turned out to be the last time that the Beatles played live in Liverpool. We were right near the rear of the Upper Circle - any further back and we'd have been on the staircase to the foyer! But even now, I do remember being able to see the band, being surrounded by loadsa girls screaming, and thinking, even at 7 years old, that "this would be something good to do". Couldn't hear the guitars properly, at all nor much of the singing...McCartney's bass rumble was what got to me that night. I could also hear the drums, but of course when it came to me learning to play, I made the right decision.... Later on, I remember seeing Stanley Clarke with Return To Forever on the Whistle Test and then Colin Hodgkinson live with Back Door, supporting ELP at the same Liverpool Empire (and being MUCH better than the headline band); and desperately trying to work out what each of them was doing. Then, one day a mate who knew that I was getting into playing jazz said to me "You need to listen to this guy...", and lent me his copy of Heavy Weather by Weather Report. That was it for me. Jaco…..maybe not my first influence, but defo my biggest. The only one who ever influenced me to buy a particular type of bass (and speaker size!! 1 x 18" cab, -flippin' heck, it was heavy) to try to find some of his magic. Edited October 23, 2019 by mangotango Subsequent devlopments added... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulbuzz Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 47 minutes ago, Marc S said: Mine too. I was fortunate to get a couple of lessons with Paul (free lessons too!) who showed me some of the bits I couldn't work out on bass lines like "Therapy" and "Dr Jeckyll & Mr Hyde". He was just so great to me & my bandmate (who was also a huge Damned fan). We cheekily just turned up on his doorstep and asked him the favour - he invited us back, and it was what spurred the young me on, at the time. Sitting there, playing the bright Yellow Rick that he played on OGWT and the Black album, with one of my fave players, who was one of the nicest guys I ever met... I've met Paul several times in recent years. Saw him with the Damned again, after all these years - and he's still an amazing player. Part of the best line up of the Damned ever Not a Rick player myself - but the sound he got live and on the Black Album and Strawberries was superb Nice story about the lessons! I know several people who had dealings with Paul in his other role as MU rep for the south west, and confirmed his reputation as a really nice guy. Great Rick sound, as you say, on The Black Album, and also on the Friday 13th EP. My only interaction with him was when my band supported Sensible's band (with PG on bass) at a local club. I confirmed the fact that I should never try to speak to any musical heroes when my attempt at conversation came out as "Uhbubub! Buhbub ububub buhbuhbuh uhbubuh"... 😩 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el borracho Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 John McCoy (if you can't guess!). Also from around the same time Gerry McAvoy and Chris Glen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverfoxnik Posted October 21, 2019 Share Posted October 21, 2019 Dennis Dunaway (Alice Cooper band) was the bassist who influenced me most before I actually started playing bass.. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris2112 Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 I started when I had just turned 13. I didn't really know any bassists at that point but I was mad about Slipknot and wanted to play music myself. Around 2013 or 2014, I took a couple of years off playing bass and played guitar. For whatever reason, I was burned out on bass. A sudden rediscovery of Jeff Berlin's music and teaching inspired me to pick the bass back up and I have never been so in love with it as I have for the past three years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrunoBass Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 Paul Simonon, Sting and the 2-Tone guys like Mark Bedford, Horace Panter and David Steele. I was ten in 1979, just getting into music and I thought all of them were great. Still do. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Blank Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 On 21/10/2019 at 10:51, cetera said: My 1st gig was Adam & The Ants on the 'Prince Charming Revue' tour... and I was fascinated by Gary Tibbs playing.... Where and when was that Adam & The Ants gig? Just asking because the last time I saw them (before his latest tours) was on the PCR tour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cetera Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 5 minutes ago, Frank Blank said: Where and when was that Adam & The Ants gig? Just asking because the last time I saw them (before his latest tours) was on the PCR tour. Oct(?) 1981 at the Dominion Theatre, Tottenham Court Road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Blank Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 Just now, cetera said: Oct(?) 1981 at the Dominion Theatre, Tottenham Court Road. Knew it would be! I was at that gig, I finally gave up on Adam that night! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cetera Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 1 minute ago, Frank Blank said: Knew it would be! I was at that gig, I finally gave up on Adam that night! Whaaaaat?!? I LOVED it..... set me on my course for entertaining live performance! Guess you were coming from the punk angle though. Me, I was 10 and loved the circus! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Blank Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 7 minutes ago, cetera said: Whaaaaat?!? I LOVED it..... set me on my course for entertaining live performance! Guess you were coming from the punk angle though. Me, I was 10 and loved the circus! It was Dec btw. Yes, unfortunately. My first gig seeing A&TA was in 1979 on the Young Parisians tour and I have to admit I remained a bit of a 'first album' idiot. Although in its defence I personally think Dirk Wears White Sox is one of the greatest albums ever created. I think A&TA are the band that I've seen the most times apart from Killing Joke and I personally took their decline (or what I saw a s a decline) quite badly. Had I have been 10 I would have loved it too I think but I was a self-important eighteen year old by then and too far up my own backside to be genuinely subjective. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Blank Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 (edited) I usually just blat out a stock answer to this but today I've thought a bit more about it. I was eleven the first time I heard a bass in isolation so to speak was that bass line that starts at 17:23 on Tubular Bells, I loved many elements of that album but that bass line... it sent shivers down my spine. Next was listening to the first five Yes albums played by my brother, he really loved Chris Squire's bass sound, constantly banging on about the distinctive Rickenbacker sound, I remember sitting down and drawing that bass over and over for some reason. Then I was looking through his albums and I found Relayer, luckily I put the second side on first and heard Sound Chaser, which remains my favourite Yes track to this day. Although these were my earliest bass influences they were almost anti-influences so to speak inasmuch as I listened, admired and decided I could never play anything like that and anyway I only really excelled at art and technical drawing at school and had already decided (at such a stupidly young age, what did I know) that I was going to be a graphic designer (or commercial artist as it was called at the time) so I kept listening to all sorts of music, kind of unaware really how important it all was to me and carried on being a unpopular long-haired teenager who spent school breaks sitting underneath the oak tree next to the art department listening to Selling England By The Pound and The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway on a scratchy little cassette player. Then I was at my school's Friday night youth club disco. Two girls appeared in garish ripped tights and what I (I assumed) were pairs of their Mum's high heels. They were also wearing oversized dinner jackets adorned with badges, I remember seeing one badge which was the Bowie Aladdin Sane face and another that I thought was Elvis Costello. Both these girls were (in that horrible school hierarchy sense) unpopular and not considered 'attractive" by the popular boys. I took one look at them and thought "Right, my long hair and greatcoat need updating". Gradually I became a punk and after auditioning in the middle of a field on a mates drum kit I became the drummer in a few short-lived punk bands. One afternoon I was sitting on the doorstep of a mates gaff when he put on the first Public Image Ltd single, "Surely that's just four notes?" I thought. My mate had a bass so I sat on the doorstep with it and indeed it was four notes, I played that bass line and I was hooked. For some reason I kept on playing drums in various bands until I was about 25 and then I bought a Jaydee and now I'm here! So, in summary Mike Oldfield, Chris Squire, Jah Wobble. Heavy influences afterwards were JJ Burnel, Mick Karn, Gabe Nelson and Eugene Wright. But who influenced me to actually pick a bass up and made me realise I could play it? Wobble innit... Edited October 22, 2019 by Frank Blank 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monkey Steve Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 51 minutes ago, Frank Blank said: It was Dec btw. Yes, unfortunately. My first gig seeing A&TA was in 1979 on the Young Parisians tour and I have to admit I remained a bit of a 'first album' idiot. Although in its defence I personally think Dirk Wears White Sox is one of the greatest albums ever created. I think A&TA are the band that I've seen the most times apart from Killing Joke and I personally took their decline (or what I saw a s a decline) quite badly. Had I have been 10 I would have loved it too I think but I was a self-important eighteen year old by then and too far up my own backside to be genuinely subjective. You're not wrong - Dirk Wears White Sox is by far the best thing he/they ever did...though at the time I was another ten year old who thought it was a bit weird compared to Kings Of The Wild Frontier...went right off them on Price Charming... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Blank Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 1 minute ago, Monkey Steve said: You're not wrong - Dirk Wears White Sox is by far the best thing he/they ever did...though at the time I was another ten year old who thought it was a bit weird compared to Kings Of The Wild Frontier...went right off them on Price Charming... Yes. If your first in was Kings then Dirk Wears must be a bit odd, I love some of the tracks on Kings, but then I would being a big fan of tom tom playing but unfortunately Prince Charming finished me off too. I kind of went to that gig as a farewell I suppose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonard Smalls Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 5 minutes ago, Monkey Steve said: You're not wrong - Dirk Wears White Sox is by far the best thing he/they ever did Aye - though Xerox and Whip aren't on it IIRC 😎 However, he was briefly in another of my favourite bands whose bass players (Jeremy Harrington and a bit later, Andy Warren out of off of the Antz) convinced me Bass was The Place: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Blank Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 21 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said: Aye - though Xerox and Whip aren't on it IIRC 😎 However, he was briefly in another of my favourite bands whose bass players (Jeremy Harrington and a bit later, Andy Warren out of off of the Antz) convinced me Bass was The Place: Agreed but both Zerøx and Whip In My Valise are on later re-releases. I love The Monochrome Set, I believe (I may have dreamt this) that I was at a Monochrome Set gig the night it was announced that Matthew Ashman had died and they did a song in tribute to him. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 1 hour ago, Frank Blank said: Yes. If your first in was Kings then Dirk Wears must be a bit odd, I love some of the tracks on Kings, but then I would being a big fan of tom tom playing but unfortunately Prince Charming finished me off too. I kind of went to that gig as a farewell I suppose. The year I did my A levels I also did an art o-level going the portfolio plus practical exam route. One of my portfolio pieces was q copy of this: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Blank Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 7 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said: The year I did my A levels I also did an art o-level going the portfolio plus practical exam route. One of my portfolio pieces was q copy of this: I have very nearly had that as a tattoo several times, I am glad to report I remain a clean skin. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorks5stringer Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 Pretty sure it was listening to the Four Tops 'Reach out and I'll be there' at the school disco circa 1968. James Jamerson on Bass, although it took me another 20 odd years to know that and appreciate his whole catalogue. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky 4000 Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 2 hours ago, Frank Blank said: [...] I think A&TA are the band that I've seen the most times apart from Killing Joke [...] I once spent a New Years Eve at a party with Big Paul Ferguson. What a super-nice bloke he is (and a great drummer!). 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Blank Posted October 22, 2019 Share Posted October 22, 2019 17 minutes ago, Ricky 4000 said: I once spent a New Years Eve at a party with Big Paul Ferguson. What a super-nice bloke he is (and a great drummer!). 👍 A proper gentleman with a super dry sense of humour. I thought Big Paul and Raven were a great rhythm section. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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