what was the first number you gigged on a bass ?

[Machines]

I'm quite sure it was Pantera - Cowboys from Hell.

[mrtcat]

1994, School talent show. Played an Ibanez £150 special thru a session 100w combo (the envy of every bass player in the school). We did a full uncut version of Killing In The Name Of by Rage Against The Machine. 20seconds into the "f@@k you I won't do what you tell me"bit the deputy head hit the fire alarm button so we had to stop. The fire brigade duly arrived and me and the rest of the band got suspended til the end of term. Rock n Roll!!!!

[derrenleepoole]

I was 18 ish if memory serves me right, so about 1990 or there abouts. The venue was Accrington and Rossendale college in the student hut at the main Accrington site. We were called No Hot Ashes (wheelie bins had just come about) and all the material was nearly all original, with a few blues covers thrown in - not that you'd of noticed because we played like a punk band! I remember the feeling of dread/excitement of doing the gig, I remember what I was wearing, what the room was like and everything - just not the songs. I even remember having a paddy because I was so nervous and the guitarist pulled my lead out of my bass by accident part way through a tune I was playing a Hohner P-bass copy that was fretless in sunburst finish running it through a Laney Linebacker 150 amp. I believe there is a video of it somewhere

[derrenleepoole]

[quote name='mrtcat' post='917340' date='Aug 6 2010, 07:53 PM']1994, School talent show. Played an Ibanez £150 special thru a session 100w combo (the envy of every bass player in the school). We did a full uncut version of Killing In The Name Of by Rage Against The Machine. 20seconds into the "f@@k you I won't do what you tell me"bit the deputy head hit the fire alarm button so we had to stop. The fire brigade duly arrived and me and the rest of the band got suspended til the end of term. Rock n Roll!!!![/quote]

Genius

I once wore a sh*t Happens tee-shirt at a gig in a Catholic college, and was promptly told it did, and not to wear it

[franzbassist]

First song I ever played was an end of year school concert, Cobham in Surrey, 1981.

The song was "Since You Been Gone" by Rainbow, and I was playing a blond Satellite (remember them?) P bass with maple fingerboard and black nylon strings through an HH Bass Machine Combo.

I remember it really clearly, and can still recall the names of the rest of the band too!

Cheers

Gareth

[BigRedX]

The first time I played the bass at a gig was at the only public performance by the full Midnight Circus line-up. This would have been at the Ad-Lib Club in Nottingham some time in April 1981. We all swapped instruments in the band depending on the song, so I think I only played bass on one (an original composition entitled "Pre-Natal Counselling") and guitar on all the others.

I didn't play bass full-time live until my next band about a year later.

[philw]

[quote name='walbassist' post='948144' date='Sep 7 2010, 11:43 AM']First song I ever played was an end of year school concert, Cobham in Surrey, 1981.

The song was "Since You Been Gone" by Rainbow, and I was playing a blond Satellite (remember them?) P bass with maple fingerboard and black nylon strings through an HH Bass Machine Combo.

I remember it really clearly, and can still recall the names of the rest of the band too!

Cheers

Gareth[/quote]

Who else was in the band Gareth? I'm from Oxshott originally so knew loads of people around there. My Mum's in a nursing home in Cobham (just past the petrol station on Stoke Rd) so I'm up there visiting pretty often.

Meanwhile, back on topic. My first gig was in a pub in West Hampstead called the Railway. It was probably 1983. The band was The Lemming Glass Company and I can not only name all the members, we're all still occasionally in touch. I played a fretless white Washburn (no idea what model but it had P & J pickups and buzzed horribly). Can't remember what the bass combo would have been. The song we started with was probably "A Twist of Lemming". I can still remember the bass part too.

Phil

[franzbassist]

[quote name='philw' post='948160' date='Sep 7 2010, 11:59 AM']Who else was in the band Gareth? I'm from Oxshott originally so knew loads of people around there. My Mum's in a nursing home in Cobham (just past the petrol station on Stoke Rd) so I'm up there visiting pretty often.[/quote]

Hi Phil

Well, small world eh? I grew up in Oxshott too, moving to Stoke d'Abernon when I was 11. We lived on The Chase off Wren's Hill; went to Royal Kent, and then on to St Andrews in Cobham.

The band was: Nic Ford on guitar, Ric Phillips on Drums, and Phillipa Grundon and Lisa Tickner shared vocals. Ring any bells?

Cheers

Gareth

[philw]

[quote name='walbassist' post='948170' date='Sep 7 2010, 12:06 PM']Hi Phil

Well, small world eh? I grew up in Oxshott too, moving to Stoke d'Abernon when I was 11. We lived on The Chase off Wren's Hill; went to Royal Kent, and then on to St Andrews in Cobham.

The band was: Nic Ford on guitar, Ric Phillips on Drums, and Phillipa Grundon and Lisa Tickner shared vocals. Ring any bells?

Cheers

Gareth[/quote]

Very, very small world then Gareth. I went to Royal Kent also, then on to Hinchley Wood – my Mum and Dad didn't fancy St Andrews. I lived down the cheap end of Oxshott (Waverley Road) and I reckon I'm a little bit older than you (51 the other day) so we probably don't share too many contemporaries. I'm afraid the names don't ring any bells.

How weird is all that eh?
Phil

Edited September 7, 2010 by philw

[deathpanda]

my very first live performance was on guitar, the first song we played and my favourite from the set was Orange Juice - Rip It Up. I was 16, and later that year I did an open mic sorta thing with my mum, playing bass on man who sold the world by Bowie. did them both drunk as hell and was still nervous.

[benh]

I think my first live performance was at 13, played "My Generation" at a 60's themed open mic night in my hometown, with a crappy "Parksons" branded 4 string and a Peavey Microbass practice amp - it's a good job they're only 15 watts, otherwise someone might have heard my poor attempt at the bass solo!

[ShergoldSnickers]

'Badge' - the Cream number. My own 18th birthday party at the Shay Club in Halifax, 1975. An Avon EB3 copy feeding a Linear Conchord 30 watt amp into a home made 2 by 12. All borrowed.

[bluesparky]

"Another one bites the dust" and a 12 bar blues, with my Sunn Mustang bass, through a peavey microbass amp cranked up full at a school concert.
I'd only been playing a few months, I was 15, and it was in '92.
I'm still in a band with the guitarist, but he's now a drummer, wise move.

[leschirons]

Black magic woman. I also sang it.

Hohner cricket bat (borrowed)
Peavey Combo 300
Felsted School 1988

[tauzero]

London University, International Hall, 1976. I was 18. "Back in the USSR" by the Beatles, which I'd never listened to the bassline on, so the bassline was my own invention. Hayman 40/40 that I'd just put together with parts from the Fender Soundhouse after it had had a fire and Hayman had gone bust, and I think I went into the PA. Our set was roughly half and half covers and originals.

[Lozz196]

My first gig on bass was with a punk band I was in, called The Shout, and we played originals, so the first song was Lest We Forget. The gig was at The Adelphi Club, in Hull, 13 June 1987, if my memory serves me well. Up to that point, though I was primarily a bassist, I`d only ever played gigs as a guitarist.

[Bassman Sam]

My first gig was at the school annual dance in Glasgow around 1969-70. I was playing a borrowed P bass and after playing Badge, Whole Lotta Love and Cherry Red, the crowd were shouting "Band off Disco on" for the rest of the set.

Sam

[MattM]

[quote name='thepurpleblob' post='914331' date='Aug 3 2010, 09:44 PM']The first gig I ever played on bass was a charity thing at the now demolished Cascade Pub in Wishaw, Scotland.[/quote]

Small world, I grew up literally round the corner from the Cascade, however was fortunate/unfortunate (delete as appropriate) never to have played there, as I never got into gigging until I moved down south. First line at a gig was 'Brown Eyed Girl' on a Westone Thunder 1A through a Roland Cube at the Royal Oak (or something Oak anyways) just outside Horsham in West Sussex. To this day, I can never go to a function where the band invariably has this in the set list without picking holes in the bass solo part, they NEVER play it f**king correctly....(!)

[dougal]

Walk Don't Run - The Ventures, followed by Apache - The Shadows.

I played bass in a 3 piece guitar group run by Tony Buch at Thanet Music Center; I was 11-12(ish) which puts it 1985-6

Weston Thunder 1A bass, into a sound city 15w bass combo.

We had a video somewhere. Lost in the mists of time

[Vinny]

Substitute, earlier this year, age 38.
Di'd into the PA using a Rumble 60 as a monitor.
Thought I'd be nervous but was quite shocked to discover I couldn't give a monkeys.
Still am quite surprised when we go on now. I always think 'why int I bovvered?'

[oldslapper]

Funeral for a friend/Love lies bleeding.
6th form concert.
1976.

[Raslee]

I was a late starter on bass but the first band that i played with, Beyond Infinity, did covers and awful originals, with covers being Deep Blues 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' & 'Zombie' by the Cranberries oh and that 4 non blondes track - think it was called 'Whats going on'. Glad to say i was poached 6 months later after several gigs and began an apprenticeship in mothership style funk.....and never looked back-until now !

[JJTee]

6th Form Folk Evening, probably late 1992.... Enter Sandman on a Aria Pro II Spirit, though a Carlsbro B-150w 15" combo.