Fish out of water

Black, with tortoiseshell scratchplate. I originally though it was a 66, but found out it's a 63. I sometimes use it live (although never do it justice).

It was half the price that the copies sell for nowadays.

You are a lucky, lucky man my friend. 8-)

I agree with everything you're saying here. My big worry now is that now our band has got to a decent gigging standard, we will start to stagnate playing the same places in Aberdeen. Its hard to get all the band to come out of their comfort zone and do some different places. Also there is the costs of travelling far and wide (new bands rarely cover costs in that one). whilst I am lucky enough to be able to spend a bit of my own cash to do these things, its not the same for everyone.

I suppose that was a contributing factor to me ultimately deciding to leave Aberdeen - I was fed up playing the same places. I love Drummonds as a venue but you can only play the place so many times. It's all relative though - I should've known I'd end up playing the same places all the time in bloody Glasgow!

Ebay. do a search on project bass necks and you should get a fair amount back.

I would rate some of the Fender Japanese stuff from the 80's to the late 90's as generally superior to the US stuff. Attention to detail is spot on.

I have a 1994 MIJ Jazzmaster and it used to be a pain in the arse at times because of the shallow break angle of the strings over the bridge but a proper set up will pretty much eliminate those sort of problems straight off and if not you could just have a Buzzstop fitted I suppose.

The MIJ's haven't held their value quite as much as the CIJ's for some reason so if you were astute in you research, you may be able to get a bargain.

The thing with the Tupolev is that it received a full overhaul in December, and was structurally sound. So far, the reports are saying that it didn't crash for technical reasons - after all, the minimum visibility for landing at Smolensk was 1000m, and the plane attempted to land in visibility of 500m or less.

Quite a few experts have pointed out that the Tupolev was actually quite a decent plane - they were only banned from the EU for noise reasons, and many of the crashes were nothing to do with the plane itself. It was also built for difficult conditions - and the accident record is comparable to a similar workhorse, the Boeing 727.

But as you say - what were so many top brass doing on the same plane?

My bad - perhaps I'm overly coloured by negative reports on Soviet -era passenger aircraft.

So, pilot error then (or insert conspiracy theory here)? For a plane that looks a lot like the old BEA 1-11 (such a spotter) it sounds like it was retired for the same reason - fuck all wrong with the plane itself but too noisy for some.

As for the top brass thing, totally; when I think about it I haven't a scooby whether most other nations separate their VIP's - I haven't a clue what UK PLC do for instance. But common sense would surely dictate that they should.

It was well intentioned, but logistically it wasn't going to work. Mainly because the old people and bar staff moaned about volume. If it isn't loud enough though, its shite.

Oddly enough I think the response to a band from within Ellon would be more muted than to a bunch of out-of-towners for some reason.

That said I played in a few places in Ellon now I think about it and somehow managed to avoid all the town's pubs. The BB hall (how they talked the BB people into that I'll never know for the gig was carnage), the Canteen in Ellon Academy, some place up the back of McDonald golf club that used to be a nightclub but now sells alarms. It was called Shuffles; wasn't long before some wag re-christened it Scuffles.

Also played Hatton hall, Pitmedden Hall. Basically a wee tour of village halls! All in 3 or 4 band bills and pretty well attended.

Think Euan's point about the rarity of these things is worth expanding on - I think if you have something like this once in a blue moon then you'll get the people down. Run them all the time then people'll get fed up pretty quickly, no matter how good you are.

First of the questions has got to be why putting so many of the Polish head sheds on a rather rickety looking Tupolev was considered a good idea?

No idea but I really dig your avatar.

Do you really think people would turn up no matter what?

If i booked a venue and put on...lets take this recent gig I played in drummonds: min diesel, iname and y change costume do you think the locals will be interested?

No.

A few people from town will get the bus out, but other than that the locals would prefer to get pissed in the local ned pub (the new inn by the way, which is essentially a public toilet with a bar installed in one end).

Yes, you're pretty much spot on with your New Inn assessment.

Just out of interest how busy was the Drummonds gig?

As I said in my original post about a bit of fly-posting, if the promotion side was done properly then yeah, it would as curiosity is a powerful thing, even if just for one gig. If they thought you were gash, they probably wouldn't turn up to the next one (if you so desired to put on another one) but you'll have at least tried and possibly even made some cash for the coffers once the PA and engineer are paid for.

You're also neglecting the fact that small towns like Ellon, Peterhead, Aboyne, Kemnay, etc have the local academy with herds of kids who can't get into pubs and only get into Aberdeen at weekends but probably listen to music obsessively. If a gig was run as an over-14's, then they might just appreciate somebody taking the time to come out their neck of the woods.

It'd be a pain the tits to organise but let's face it, audiences are hard as fuck to find these days and normal gigging strategies don't work for most bands in my opinion; first few gigs great, then once excitement is over you hit a wall of steadily diminishing attendance.

Ellon has NO music scene... the most that goes on here is the local music lesson placey puts on a monthly show in the station hotel to give kids their first chance to play live for friends and family.

Man, things have well changed then.

I think if the gigs are well enough advertised locally (bit of fly posting etc) then people will turn up no matter what.

If you're worried about the type of person attending the gigs then you may need to examine whether you feel your ends justify your means. Small towns generally nearly always have the local gang wandering about terrorizing the local 14-30 year old male populations. They will turn up to your gig and, depending whether or not they like you they may or may not cause trouble.

That said, I played a good few gigs in Ellon back in the day - all were pretty well attended and we never had a problem from the Young Ellon Mentals (probably revealing my age there) who were invariably there too.

Confused now - is the bass on sale a 4001 (binding on the body and neck, shark tooth inlay fret markers, stereo input) or a 4001S (no binding of any sort, dot fret markers, mono input only)?

If its an S in mint condition you can hike the price up accordingly as they are the rarer beast, otherwise you are looking around what Droid says.

Now, where's the photaes?

What Nick said.

I haven't tried Zoom stuff for years so they may well have improved but Zoom still brings to mind for most people 2 second gaps in signal whilst changing between effects. I just prefer stompboxs anyway.

I'd maybe recommend anything out of the nano-range by electro-harmonix. Great bang for buck ratio. Or a Digitech bass synth pedal - magic pedal and you can pick it up relatively cheaply on ebay.

Got any pics of the Rick?

and tuts too.

Another slightly off topic drum kit post.

And another. Supporting a band called Darkwater in some place or other. A completely unlikely pairing of bands, pseudo-heavy rock/metal type thing vs a pyschedelic/shoegaze type thing.

Anyway, setting up the gear, as you do and trying to avoid the multi-layered behemoth that is Darkwater's drumkit, their drummer goes to ours: "Don't touch my kit; its my touring kit".

Fucking plank.

Get Loose Promotions are no bad - might even get some free beer out of it. Also try contacting Craig McGhee - he runs a night (La Cheetah Club) that puts bands on.

Stay AWAY from PM Music or anyone offering a gig at the following venues: Ivory Blacks, Rockers, or Cosmopol. KMR are good but will want you to sell tickets, tickets, tickets.

And share the love for Newcastle - I'm with Gladstone in having no joy getting anything.

But, on reflection, I think Drummonds and Tunnels should be fucking applauded and cherished by local bands.

Can't speak for The Tunnels as I've never played it but agree with you on Drummonds and I'm pretty impressed its managed to keep going all this time.

In an addendum to my previous post, I've just been told by a promotor that the load-in for my gig on Saturday night is....3.30PM!

Ach, a lot of the soundcheck timing stuff is ubiquitous up and down the country.

You get some places (Twa Tams) that tell you not to turn up till half seven/eight o'clock and the first band is on at ten.

You get other places (Barfly used to be bad for this) that set load in as Half four. On a Friday night gig.

When was the last time Drummonds PA was serviced anyway? If its not much different to the one that was there the last time I played then its a shitload better than some places.

Fits with the combo breaker?

And you're quite clearly wiping your arse wrong.

That's nothing; I was in Primary7 by the time I found out I could take my wilberforce out of my trousers to take a wizz.

I do like the albums, 'Loveless' more so than 'Isn't Anything', but I've always thought they were a bit overrated. Other bands took their formula for guitar effects and did a far better job of actually coming up with some tunes....

...like...

These are slightly odd, maybe even eccentric. But not weird.

Weird is coming out with a statement along the lines of "has anybody ever wiped their arse so much it bled; I have."

That's weird.

Ha ha, I heard about that too.

I see MBV weren't any better in their heyday then - walked out the Barra's a couple of years ago as I thought they were rubbish. Playing was poor and mix was terrible. Was roundly castigated by many for not "feeling it" or "not getting it".

For the record, I love both albums. Just think they don't cut the mustard live.

Heard that too.

I take what you're saying about other stations but when in things like Music Week, the other stations never seem to get that much of a look-in regarding things making the a,b,c whatever playlists whereas whenever anything makes the Big Bad One it tends to get a mention.

Not saying I agree with it mind, just something I've observed.

Hmmm. That remit's a bit of a shitter, isn't it? For a song to be successful, it needs airplay. Airplay generally has to come from Radio 1. Radio 1 will in a Logan's Run stylee, exclude anything that doesn't fit with what their (presumably focus group directed) perception of a 15-29 year old's listening habits.

How do you get round that?