My History FROM 2000
Looking for frets again, in 2001, I bought an Ernie Ball Music Man Sting Ray, although this was a brilliant instrument I only played it at one gig. I then picked up a Five String De-Armand, rather cheep at a local shop, and began using it at rehearsals, my first obstacle was where the notes were on the B string. I found that I was looking away and playing five semis down, that was the hardest thing I have ever found about moving up from four strings. However, before getting to use it at a gig I fell in love with a Warwick Streamer Six, a 6 string bass I found, which had been custom made around the mid 80’s for Mark Griffiths who plays with Cliff Richards and the Shadows. After fighting the five string I found it almost played it's self and had to buy it. The only bass I played at gigs for the next three years.
June
2004 I visited the
Overwater
factory in Carlisle! While they filled my wife with coffee, I
was measured up for a 7 string. It took 5 months to build and arrived in the
November. This is still my main instrument today, together with an Overwater
fretless 6 string they made for me to arrive 2007 and a semi-acoustic 6 string I
collected in 2010. In 2004 the old school band were
invited to a fancy-dress party. It was suggested we dress as the Droogs from
Clockwork Orange and maybe perform two or three songs. This escalated leading up
to the party and we eventually appeared as the
"Droogs"
and performed as the main
attraction of the evening. Robert and Dave
making their first public appearance since 1964. After 2 more gigs Robert the
drummer decided to call it a day, this was disappointing but the Droogs returned
in 2005. During
2005, a phone call came from Roger, who
wanted to do the same as Kev and Dave, rehearse
and only do an occasional gig. A gig with a real 60's band is really enjoyable. With
The Droogs, the 60's show was performed on various occasions, and for me, they
were very enjoyable evenings. We had enjoyed regular rehearsals for almost 10
years. The last gig I did with the Droogs in 2007 raised Ł508
for the Air Ambulance. They now have another bass player and have changed
to another drummer. Bad Moon Rising, Mr Tambourine Man, Waterloo Sunset, Poison Ivy, Lucky
Man, Dedicated Follower of Fashion, Sweet Home Alabama, Needles and Pins, Last
Time, Midnight Hour, Badge, Apache, Space Oddity, Black Magic
Woman, All or Nothing, Urban Space Man, Something Good, Proud Mary, Day Dream (What a Day For), When I'm Dead And Gone, Ob La
Di, Shame Shame Shame, Hang on Sloopy, Blue Suede Shoes, Wipe Out, Walk Don’t Run, Do Are
Diddy,
All Shook Up, Keep on Running, Walk In The Room,
My Old Man's a Dustman, For Your Love, Shaking all Over, All Over Now, Spirit in the Sky, Keep A Knocking, Hay Baby, Hi-Ho Silver Lining, Hay Joe, Running Bear, Crossroads, House of
the Rising Sun, Lola, Lying Eyes, Paperback Writer, Stairway to Heaven, Well Its Alright, Baby Come Back, Gi'me Some a' Loving,
In My Minds Eye, Eight Days a Week, Help.
I heard this band were looking for a Bass Guitarist in January 2005 and
started to rehearse with them. The band was excellent, formed from 5 different musical
backgrounds including the excellent lead vocals from Christine. I
sadly left this band when Sean was
moving away to be a university teacher and Christine and her family were
emigrating to Australia. Christine is now singing in Australia. Undercurrent kept going and I did some dep's, rehearsals and gigs,
with them at the beginning of 2009, with just two of the originals.
Now a very disco band.
November 2005 I enjoyed being a part of the band in the "pit" at
the Kettering Scouts Gang Show. The other musicians and the cast were excellent
and the show was far superior than I had expected.
"Ayleys Comet"
I first played with this band in
October 2005, when I was completely without a gigging band, first gig at very short notice, Rob and Frank on guitars and Ian
on drums. Frank was about to emigrate and Hayley joined the band soon after
me as lead vocalist. This was Hayley's first gigging band, she has a wonderful
voice and I'm sure she has a great future. I
enjoyed an excellent time with
them through 2006 and continued to enjoy occasional gigs with them in 2007. Robo
and Ian were the stalwarts in the band and Joan, secretary/manager, the wife of lead guitarist Rob,
did all the background hard work for the band. A temporary return with
singer, Kristina, in 2008 after Breeez decided to
fold and then with Toni Marie
& Malcolm at the end of 2008 up to New Years Eve. I still did occasional dep's.
and later Joined Flingel Blunt
with Robo and Malcolm.
After attending "Jam Nights" at local pubs, attempting various rehearsals
and playing dep gigs, with various bands, In 2002 I replied to an advert on a
local web site and joined a band called "On
The Run". Ian and Nick
on Guitars, Dave on Drums and the fantastic Theresa the singer, her personality
gave us some great gigs but she was not enjoying the
best of health and we combined with another band, Loose Covers, and kept the name On The Run. This added Brian on Keyboard and
three girl vocalists Anna, Kelly and Lindsay. These three girls singing
together were really good but it was disappointing that we never did a gig with
all three, some with two and some with one. Anna was the main singer and did
most of the gigs but babies followed. Lots of hard work rehearsing brought in
two more girls, Natalie and Dee. These two were very good and worked and sang extremely
well together. However, work commitments of other band members kept gigs to a minimum so I
began rehearsing with UnderCurrent.
ON
THE RUN WEB SITE
During
2005 I had started picking up the
WAL fretless again, but I don’t think I could ever
permanently
go back to four strings, after the seven string it feels like a
pencil neck, so I started looking for a five or six string fretless. In
November 2006, I went to the Manchester Bass Day where I played a very nice six
string fretless, but it was not for sale. Overwater had a stand at the show so I
approached them with my slight disappointment with the string spacing on the
seven string, and they agreed to make me an
Overwater
“close string spaced” fretless 6
that finally arrived March 2007. It plays lovely and I amazed myself at the next
gig and played it for most of the night.
Finding
a Musician Web Sites do work, I received an enquiry April 2007 from a group of musicians
calling themselves "Better Life",
I didn't get any pictures! there were 8'ish of them who wanted a Bass Guitarist to help with a recording.
Three quick rehearsals and I was in the studio for several days. My contribution
was recorded by Mark Hutchinson at Rooksmere
Recording Studios Overstone, using the Warwick 6 string. I now have
a copy of the finished CD, hear some tasters on my index
page.
"Breeez"
I
first met Roy, the singer, in 1968, we have always been friends, and still are, but had not played on the
same stage at the same time until April 2007! Three rehearsals before the first
gig which was very good with Tracey on Keys, Kev on guitar and Jooles on Drums, one of the best bands I have played with.
It's difficult to understand why good bands don't always last, I hope my today
page will eventually show they do. Although much loved by
audiences, the sad decision was made, at the end of 2007, to end March 2008, a
decision that did not get my vote but the last few gigs went really well. The final
last gig was May 2008.
"Lou Short & The Girls who Love Sci-Fi" Yes I was one of the girls!!!!!!
My
first gig at an acoustic venue. There were about 6 good acts on, it was not
strictly acoustic, but we were on last and the audience
loved us. Lou has all his own original material, which comes in all shapes and
sizes. Click here
for Lou's site. We
also squashed into a very small Radio Studio at Harborough FM and various other
gigs. Lou eventually found a bass player for his style.
Who was Jack? 50's, 60's and very early 70's music, nothing newer, with emphasis on the entertainment. No rehearsals just gigs, July 2009 well into 2010. The audiences were always guessing if we are all Jack The Lad but it was originally Keith on drums and Martin on guitar and lead vocals. Martin performed and Keith and I were his backing but without a lead instrument I was very busy on the bass. The line up constantly changed, the other picture June 2010 had singer Vicki and Robo on guitar.
Beguiled
My
first rehearsal with this band was at the beginning of 2009. In the vane of bands like "Porcupine Tree" and
"Dream Theatre", as well as covers by the likes of Led Zeppelin, Black
Sabbath, UFO etc. and around 65% their own material. Lead Guitarist/vocals ‘PJ’ Jennings and Phil
White, also composer.
Nick (Ted) Meyers on drums/vocals.
This was a
style I had missed out on for many years and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with
them. Three fantastically talented musicians totally dedicated to their style.
Regular rehearsals but very few gigs. click
here for their web site.
I
Placed an order at the end of November
2009 for another
Overwater Bass.
Meanwhile
I sold the WAL
4 string fretless
to Michael in New York at the end of 2009, who was very pleased with it, and
the Ernie Ball Music
Man Sting Ray
4 string in January 2010 to Steve from
Derbyshire, also very pleased. The Overwater Expression was ready March 2010 so
I visited the factory to collect it.
The
Expression
just being finished in the Overwater
Factory.
Galveston
8 string November 2010: Bought a new (second hand) Bass, F# being the bottom string. I unexpectedly won
this on eBay for what may have been a low price. Difficult to find details but as far
as I can tell it's a UB8000 made by SilverStar a part of Un-Sung Musical
Instruments in Korea. Body Swamp Ash, Neck Hard Maple Set Neck, Finger Board
Guiding Light Drama Group During 2011 I had some rehearsals with a local panto group as part of the backing band, a piano bass drums trio. There were about 25 in the cast, for a Dick Whittington interpretation. The final performances were at the end of October 2011, three nights and a matinee. They all work very hard and I also ended up being sound and lighting engineer. It was a very interesting experience but I found it a lot of rehearsing for so few performances, and it all had to fit around my current bands gigs. Will I do it again ? that is the question !
Click here for:-