Got an email last week from the lovely Nick at the Bass Centre telling me about the Marcus Miller clinic they were hosting last night.
The Bass Centre normally hold their clinics in the shop, but the take-up for the clinic was far to high, and they moved it to a local pub. I’ve chatted about this with a few people, and other than Victor Wooten, can’t think of any other band-leader/bassists that would draw that kind of crowd for a clinic. Even big names like Doug Wimbish, who did the last Bass Centre clinic, can’t compete with that…
The pub was packed, and Marcus played a handful of tunes (starting out with Run For Cover, a tune from David Sanborn’s album Voyeur that I haven’t heard since I was at college!) and answered questions. His natural sense of humour and passion for music comes across really well in this kind of setting, and the audience lapped up every demonstration.
These kind of events are always a great chance to catch up with friends, meet other bassists, and generally hang out with bass-people. this was no exception – the guys from the Bass Centre, Alex from The Gallery, Steve Davis, Mike Brookes, John East…
The gig was organised by Fender with the Bass Centre, and Fender UK’s AR head is an old friend from Ashdown days, Hoda – I so rarely get to see Hoda, he’s a v. busy man, so getting a chance to catch up was fab. The other lovely surprise was bumping into Pris from Holland – she helped organise the UK Bass Day last year, and is on tour with Marcus’ band doing merch.
Come the end of the night, Hoda, Pris, Marcus, BeBe (sp?) and I hadn’t eaten, and where else is there to go from the Bass Centre but over to Brick Lane for a curry – Chutney’s did the business, and much lovely food and chat was to be had. Then, like Bruce Cockburn in the song ‘Coldest Night Of The Year’ I ‘drove all the people home, I was the one with the car’.
A fun evening all round.