What would be your bass gig of choice from all of history?

[Bilbo]

I am sure this has been done before but hasn't everything?

 

For me, the one band that pops up on my ipod with delightful regularity is The Dixie Dregs (particularly the early albums with Andy West). Every time I hear them I wish I could have had that gig. Other bass chairs I would have loved would be the Pat Metheny Group, Weather Report, Return To Forever, Al DiMeola, Michel Camilo and a few others but I do believe that, give a choice, The Dregs are the one that floats my boat every time.

 

What gig would you like to have if you ever got to choose?

[Steve Browning]

Easy for me. John Deacon's rig from the first tours. 3 x Acoustic 371s, 2 x Hiwatt heads and 2 x 4x12s.

 

D'oh GIG, not rig (berk).

 

Same answer though. JD for Queen's early tours.

Edited June 28, 2022 by Steve Browning

[Guest]

Would I like to have been Steve Harris? Yeah, why not.

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:

John Deacon's rig

[Guest]

Just planning my route through music history, jumping from being one person to the next. Start off as Glen for the first few months of the Pistols, then become Cliff in ACDC for Highway To Hell and Back In Black. Quick backcomb of the hair to be Simon Gallup for Faith and Pornography, then nip over to Craig Adams for First and Last and Always. Return to metal (and suddenly get a lot more technically proficient) as Junior in Peace Sells. Put my feet up for ....And Justice For All. And then move to the Cotswolds and make cheese, I guess. 

[Lozz196]

I think it would be Cliffs role in AC/DC for me. 

[BigRedX]

Because I see myself as composer first rather than a "musician", I'd always prefer it for one of my bands playing my songs to be successful.

 

However saying that, the only band I have ever REALLY wanted to be in was a Nottingham band in the early 80s called "None So Blind". They had great songs and a brilliant bass player, whose bass parts I really admired. I settled for being a fan and going to see them play as often as possible. A couple years later when their drummer, and subsequently their bass player left, I really hoped that I would be asked to be their new bassist. Unfortunately they picked someone else and TBH I simply wasn't a good enough player at the time have done the songs justice (even now there are some songs of theirs I'd struggle to play properly), and no matter how much I'd have enjoyed being in the band, the real magic of the music was in the interaction of the original band members and with two of them gone, it was never the same. I got my "revenge" for not being offered the bass player role by nicking their keyboard player for my synth band.

[pbasspecial]

John Entwistle or JPJ for the music. Adam Clayton for 25% of a shed load of money for playing lots of 8th notes all night long. 

[cetera]

Tiran Porter with the Doobie Brothers 73 - 76. The music, the basslines, the band members and the fun on the road/in the studio that must have been had!

 

Gene Simmons with KISS from 76 - 78. The music, the huge stages and over the top production, the gear (Spector custom, vintage SVTs and EV cabs), the money and the women....

 

Ricky Phillips with Styx now. The musicianship, the band members, the songs and the general high quality of the whole shebang....

[Tradfusion]

I always envied Guy Pratt who managed to juggle several amazing gigs at once, jumping from Icehouse to Pink Floyd to Brian Ferry and a slew of other famous names in between for touring and studio/TV work... his most recent project is Nick Masons Saucerful of Secrets, yet another enviable gig... he's had (and continues to have) an amazing career playing with some of the best musicians in the world... yeah I'd quite like Guy's job 

[Skin Lewis]

I'd like to play for Lucinda Williams. Or John Hiatt. 

[Rich]

I'd like Lee Pomeroy's job. His CV is quite literally awesome.

 

If it had to be one band, it'd be either It Bites or Frost*.

Edited June 28, 2022 by Rich

[TrypF]

The Pretenders. First line up or current one. Great song after great song, playing alongside some badass musicians.

[MacDaddy]

Ed Sheeran's bass player.

 

 

 

Edited June 28, 2022 by MacDaddy

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I'd be wary of playing bass for any band I really admire technically as I'd probably ruin it, so I'd choose the Sex Pistols in place of Simon Ferocious in 1977. I'd have been around five years too young at the time but at least I was skinny. Also I would have refused all offers of substances stronger then cider.

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

Since @cetera has nabbed Gene Simmons, I’ll have Scott Thunes’ stint with Frank Zappa.

[ezbass]

Peter Gabriel’s original So tour. Playing with Manu Katche alone would be awesome, never mind PG, Richard Tee and David Rhodes.

 

@TrypF’s Pretenders gig is a great shout. My old covers band did 3 of their songs and were always enjoyable (if a local Pretenders tribute band needed a bass player, I’d be all over it like a tramp on chips).

 

 

[4000]

Like BRX and also speaking as a songwriter, I’d sooner get somewhere in a project of my own, playing bass or otherwise.  But playing for someone else then for the simple joy of playing bass, Zero 7, early Seal or Hawkwind circa Space Ritual. For the joy of being onstage with artists that I love and simply contributing, then Sandy Denny, followed by Kate Bush, Fleetwood Mac/ Stevie Nicks, Genesis, ABBA and First Aid Kit.  

[Mykesbass]

Specific gig, Duke Ellington at Newport 56, backing Paul Gonzales on Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue.

[Doctor J]

Terry Butler's spot in Death, starting with Leprosy, before moving on to Spiritual Healing, though sticking around for Human, Individual Thought Patterns and Symbolic so I'd get to play with Reinert and Hoglan. 

[Barking Spiders]

Actually bass isn't my first choice of instrument, drums are. Gig of choice would've been in The Prodigy at Rock am Ring 2009, with tens of thousands of Germans going ape$h1t.

[StickyDBRmf]

8 hours ago, cetera said:

Tiran Porter with the Doobie Brothers 73 - 76. The music, the basslines, the band members and the fun on the road/in the studio that must have been had!

 

Gene Simmons with KISS from 76 - 78. The music, the huge stages and over the top production, the gear (Spector custom, vintage SVTs and EV cabs), the money and the women....

 

Ricky Phillips with Styx now. The musicianship, the band members, the songs and the general high quality of the whole shebang....

What? NOT Chicago Transit Authority? Playing with the most incredible Terry Kath? And Danny on drums? 

[StickyDBRmf]

Being that I would not be able to cut it with most bands I love, I would have to say the band I was in, in the 80's, The Illiterate Diplomats. The free-ist band situation I was ever in, recording all warm-ups and improvisations, where many songs started, an environment where if I wished, could make any sort of sound/noise, for as long as I cared, without even a raised brow. 

[oldslapper]

I’d swap with my mate Alan.

 

 

[rushbo]

Mike Mills from REM. You get to play incredible basslines on some of the best songs of the latter half of the twentieth century on a selection of gorgeous instruments.