Who influenced you to pick up and start playing Bass.

[Stub Mandrel]

24 minutes ago, fleabag said:

Those graphics look like they were done by a comic book artist, i must admit.

A popular style, but it can look 'sixth-form art portfolio'...

Not that my own attempts at cover art are any better:

 

Edited February 7, 2020 by Stub Mandrel

[dmccombe7]

24 minutes ago, fleabag said:

Those graphics look like they were done by a comic book artist, i must admit.

its a fusion of artistic nonsense in album cover design. 

[pst62]

14 hours ago, fleabag said:

 

 

Cheers for the link Fleabag, Never heard of these lads before. This is fantastic stuff! It'll be getting a lot of play at work next week. 

Edited February 7, 2020 by pst62
Forgot to delete original post's text

[Richard R]

On 05/02/2020 at 09:59, hubrad said:

A chap who lived locally called Mic Hale, who rang up one evening and asked me to play bass in his ceilidh band for a one off, when I'd never actually played bass before . . 'I can lend you a bass'.

I'm not sure here who was brave and who was foolish! I presume you had some prior musical experience Mr Hale was aware of?  Did he say " I'll shout out the chord changes,  it's in 6/8, aaaand  off-we-go..."?

[fleabag]

18 minutes ago, pst62 said:

Cheers for the link Fleabag, Never heard of these lads before. This is fantastic stuff! It'll be getting a lot of play at work next week. 

No probs pst. Shame they never did more.  The band split but did other things separately.  Pal Dennis married a French woman and shuffled off to live in France about 25 or 30 years ago.  Frank the drummer took up Jazz guitar,  and Jerry the bassman is still around  playing in some mediocre bands that he's far too good for

[StickyDBRmf]

Two guitarists needed a bass player so I traded in my Fender Mustang (orange w/ red racing stripes) for a Fender Jazz sunburst torty pickgard maple neck w/ black block inlays. Mom & Dad bought me the Mustang fr Christmas & put the rest of the $ in for J.B. trade. We never did the songs but I just wanted to play the bass line from Inna Gadda Da Vidda for 17 mins. or the bass line from 3rd Stone from the Sun, or Sly & The Family Stone's "Sex Machine". Right from the beginning I just wanted to hold down the bottom and let all forms of Mayhem ensue. Actuall influences and who I studied and or emulated is another story.

[paul_5]

Geddy Lee for me. I was a keyboard player at the time and had bought Rush’s Show of Hands live LP for all the cool keyboard parts - that album is mostly taken from their ‘80s’ material.

I was enjoying listening to the record when  the bass fill on ‘closer to the heart’ hit me. A week later I bought a bass and learned to play ‘freewill’ as my brother had a Guitar magazine with bass tabs in it.

 

 

[hubrad]

On 07/02/2020 at 12:13, Richard R said:

I'm not sure here who was brave and who was foolish! I presume you had some prior musical experience Mr Hale was aware of?  Did he say " I'll shout out the chord changes,  it's in 6/8, aaaand  off-we-go..."?

Haha, prior form! We were both regulars at the same folk club, and he did say judging by my guitar playing I'd be fine.

I took it as a compliment!

[Richard R]

1 hour ago, hubrad said:

Haha, prior form! We were both regulars at the same folk club, and he did say judging by my guitar playing I'd be fine.

I took it as a compliment!

I think you were right to. 😁

[Mickyk]

Bridlington Spa Royal Hall,  April 1979.Thin Lizzy, right at the front,my ears are still ringing now.When i heard the first four notes to Jailbreak and Phil using his Mirrored Pickguard  reflecting the spotlight onto the crowd i was hooked.Never managed to totally emulate the guy,but it wasn't for the want of trying.Priceless.

[EBS_freak]

Paul McCartney.

I even was looking at Wal, a Ricky and a Hofner as my first bass... although they were obviously beyond my means as a youngster. (Although when I did have the opportunity to buy a new Wal I didn't as they just didn't appeal in the same way... wish I'd bought one though, I think the quotation I got back from Electric Wood was about a grand).

Anyway, Macca is a great person to learn from - especially if you follow through the albums. I progressed like he did I guess... from Love Me Do... through to things like Penny Lane. I bought the big white book that has got the whole Beatles catalogue (from the original albums at least), fully scored and learned pretty much all my basics from that.

As for bass players now, I don't really have any heros as such... I just like what I like, picking and choosing bits from different players to build my own style I guess.

[Count Bassy]

School trip to see Jesus Christ Superstar at the Palace theatre (1973/4 ish ??).  Those first few bars of bass at the beginning just blew me away and made me want to play bass. Sadly it was 30 years or more before I did anything serious about it.

[ezbass]

Not the person who inspired to pick up the low end machine, but certainly someone who wowed me at an early age: Joe Fagin (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Fagin). He used to play at a local pub in my youth with a drummer and keyboardist (IIRC it was just an organ). Having a great voice and full on front man charisma, not to mention great bass chops (first bass player I ever saw use chords on the bass) was enough to have this six string playing youngster spellbound on a Sunday lunchtime (their rendition of Tim Rose’s Morning Dew was stunning). He was also generous with his time, happy to share playing tips with my bass playing buddy.
 

Other pub band players who have also drawn my attention and admiration (eventually leading to my full-time switch to the bass) were the late Andy Brown (B-Sharp) and Chris Childs (Bad Influence at the time, but now better known for playing in Thunder. Another top chap, happy to chat about gear, etc).