Tag: bass

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My Izzard knowledge knows no bounds…

Thanks to Deb’s Blog, I found this Eddie Izzard knowledge test, and I scored –

——————-
Definite Article!
Your Izzard-ness is at 89!
Your Izzard-ness is off the charts! You must be a bit of a bastard, cuz you’re getting shagging a-plenty! Your knowledge of the Action Transvestite is unrivaled, and you KNOW you wanna be a beekeeper! You wanna KEEP BEES! But you’re COVERED IN BEES! Quite sexy, actually. Well-done. You beat out Sexie Eddie, Kilted Eddie, and the lowly Plain-clothes Eddie. If I asked you, “Do you have a flag?” you’d say “Yes, five of ’em!” You’re like Achilles without the Achilles Heel… Immortal!

Test statistics:

* Compared to users who took the test and are and in your age group:
o 100% had lower Izzard-ness scores.

——————-

So my Eddie-obsession is now official, and I’m supremo ‘in my age group’. Deb scored 91, but she’ll be in the ’25-29′ bracket whereas I’m in the ’30, going on 70′ bracket.

Soundtrack – JBK, ‘Ism’; Talking Heads, ‘Fear Of Music’; The Cure, ‘Greatest Hits’.

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The New Commandments.

Most of the time, I’m glad I don’t watch much TV. However, missing Channel 4s The New Ten Commandments was a bit annoying. I found out about it on Paul’s marvellous blog, and now really wish I’d seen it.

Shifts in what is perceived as ‘moral’ are fascinating, particularly in relation to Britain now having made the shift into being a ‘post-christian’ pluralist culture.

There are a couple of noteable quotes on the website, some really good, some nonsense.

Into the latter category comes this gem from Janet Street Porter –

‘The commandments can’t be very relevant,’ she says. ‘Otherwise people would repeat them every morning as a kind of mantra to live their lives by.’

Riiight – so everything that’s relevant becomes a mantra? OK…

Here’s the full list –

  • Be honest
  • Don’t kill
  • Look after the vulnerable
  • Respect your mother and father
  • Enjoy life
  • Nothing in excess
  • Be true to your own God
  • Treat others as you would like to be treated
  • Be true to yourself
  • Protect your family
  • Try your best at all times
  • Look after your health.
  • Don’t commit adultery
  • Live within your means
  • Appreciate what you have
  • Never be violent
  • Protect the environment
  • Protect and nurture children
  • Take responsibility for your own actions
  • Don’t steal

An interesting list, fairly predictable, and also clearly not a list that most people live by – Live within your means is obviously being ignored big time given the debt levels in the UK, parental respect is pretty low on the priority list, so is taking responsibility for our actions…

The one I’ve bolded up there (my emphasis, not C4’s) is the interesting one, given the ramifications of carrying it out – Treat others as you would like to be treated is such a huge thing to take on. To the point where Jesus reduced the whole of ‘The Law and The Prophets’ to two commandments – love God, love eachother – that’s what the second half of that means. We all want to be treated fairly, to be shown mercy, to be appreciated, protected, have time to enjoy ourselves, to feel safe… How much of our time is spent either trying to bring that about, or avoiding practices that cause the opposite? It’s interesting that most of them are very parochial – lots of things to do with the small stuff of life – family, personal responsibility etc. Very little to do with the big stuff of life – government, global issues, God/spirituality…

Anyway, the campaign is a chance to do just that – to give to other people the kind of fair deal that we expect for ourselves. None of us would wish the situation that much of the continent of Africa finds itself in now on our worst enemies, so why do we support a system which is making the poverty worse…?

Laziness, inertia, ignorance – I’m guilty of all three when it comes to the problems of people ‘over there’. But we need to make some changes. All of us.

Soundtrack – Zakir Hussain, ‘Making Music’; Carl Herring, ‘Azure’.

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The wisdom of Mo

England hasn’t produced that many solo bassists, or bassists who front their own instrumental bands under their own name. One of the few – one one of the finest in the world – is . Better known as a session player (Jeff Beck/Phil Collins/etc.), Mo has released a string of really really beautiful solo records, with his fretless bass as the primary melodic voice. He’s great. His last album, Time To Think is one of my all-time favourite bass-feature records.

Anyway, the reason for discussing Mo is that I found a cutting from an old copy of the sadly now defunct Making Music magazine. The cutting is a column that Mo wrote for them about session playing. Here’s an excerpt –

“There’s a certain mythology currently surrounding session work:

1 – It still exists as a career option
I’m afraid it doesn’t. The thrusting, vibrant scene of some years ago has, regrettably, gone. There’s still a fair amount of work around, but it’s almost entirely for artists and producers who happen to be friends – ie it’s very much ‘who you know’. Breaking in is harder than ever.

2 – You must be able to read music
It helps to read and is, on occasion, vital, but for many gigs you don’t necessarily need that particular skil. You must, though, be able to create a bassline from a chord chart and , in some cases, no chart at all – ie your musical ‘ear’ is everything.

3 – You mustn’t contribute ideas to a song but just play the written part
This is nonsense: it’s quite possible both the producer and the artist haven’t a clue what bass does or how it does it and are desperate for your expert input. Een a written line should be scrutinised in case you can improv on it.”

Wise words indeed. Certainly true in my case – all the session work I’ve had has been through friends and chance encounters, not some marvellous mythological network of agencies and management.

Soundtrack – , ‘Music Has The Right To Children’.

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a great week for gigs

So last night was the third night of going to gigs in a row for me, and another fantastic night out. This one, at , was part of the /-hosted night called , and featured Andy, along with and Deacon Blue frontman, .

Cara was up first – blimey, I wish I had that much talent at 19!! She’s obviously heavily Tori Amos influenced and had a batch of really nice songs, sung well. Bodes v. well for the future.

After that was Andy – as the more attentive of you will know, I’ve played with Andy lots, including being on his last album. We’ve even gigged together at the Troubadour a couple of times. Andy was showcasing a whole load of new songs, as well as a handful of favourites, and sounded great, as always. He also flagged up the campaign, and wrist bands were available, which reminded me that I ought to do that with CDs from the shop… Anyway.

The headliner (and the reason tonight’s gig sold out a week in advance) was Ricky Ross – I was a big Deacon Blue fan back in the 80s/90s, and have seen Ricky solo live before, so knew he’d be good, but was still surprised at how good his new material is. He’s apparently been consuming a steady diet of Randy Newman for the last while, as the influence hang low over most of the new songs, but in a really good way. I mean, if you’re going to be influenced by someone, who better than one of the finest songwriters of the last 50 years?

Ricky’s a great performer and story-teller, and I’m really looking forward to his new album coming out.

And then I’ll be back at the troubadour for My gig with BJ Cole next Friday – so I hope to see you there!

Soundtrack – , ‘Season Of The Hurricane’; , ‘Manic Moonlight’.

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Some things are just so… WRONG!!

OK, so I was checking out the site of a venue that a friend of mine’s band are playing at, and found this list of events for the week – I draw your attention to the listing for the 28th – “ALL YOU CAN EAT FISH AND CHIPS FOLLOWED BY KARAOKE @10PM” – all you can eat fish and chips?????????? WTF???? I don’t even eat fish, in fact, find the whole idea of eating any kind of animal completely twisted, but I’m still really really wierded out by the combination of this most british of institutions coupled with that most heinous of american serving disasters. It’s like asking if you want to supersize a Vegetable Balti. Just Plain Wrongness.

I mean, OK, so it’s an English theme pub, but still, ‘all you can eat fish and chips’????? no no no no no no no. Stop it.

Soundtrack – , ‘Back In The Circus’.

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More great live music in England

…and I don’t just mean my upcoming gigs! :o)

is probably best known as drummer extraordinaire with Level 42, Alan Holdsworth and a whole bunch of other people. He’s also a stunning piano player, and has assembled a remarkable band under the name , featuring one of the finest bassist on the planet, , along with Jim Beard, Randy Brecker, Elliot Mason, Jerry Goodman and other top level fusion cats.

I saw them play last year at Turner Simms theatre in Southampton, and the gig was outstanding – very challenging complex music, but marvellous and uplifting too.

They are back on tour starting this Saturday in Milton Keynes, and I urge you to go check them out – click here for the tour dates, which include a week at Ronnie Scott’s in London, and gigs in Manchester, Gainsborough and Gateshead.

Chances to hear music this great outside of the major London concert halls doesn’t come along to often, so please support it. There’s been a thread on the forum about great bassists often bypassing the UK on their European tour dates – if tours like this don’t get supported, it just proves why we’re so often overlooked.

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Another magical Jonatha gig

Tonight’s gig was at , a half hour set, opening the evening (don’t know who the other bands were, didn’t stick around). Another stunning gig – the room was packed, but as it holds about 45 that wasn’t hard (they say the capacity is 60, but I can’t imagine getting 60 people in a room that size!)

Playing songs from the new CD, from Steady Pull and from Plumb, it was lovely to hear Jonatha do a slightly longer set than at the Bedford. She even managed to play a piano with no sustain piano and make it work, which is pretty skillful, if y’all ask me.

and Not-At-All-Evil-Dan came along, at my suggestion, and were both mightily impressed. Also bumped into Andy Piercy, who produced one of the Johnny Markin records I played on in the mid 90s, which was a night surprise. He loved the gig too. Everyone loved it, she’s a genius.

So don’t miss the rest of the London gigs!

Soundtrack – Dream Ticket on BBC 6 Music (who just read out my mini-review of the Jonatha gig).

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fairwell, tooth.

A trip to the dentist this morning resulted in me coming home with one less tooth in my head than I had when I arrived – how come they take my teeth and then charge me £45 for the priviledge? surely they should pay me for my lovely knackered tooth!

Anyway, there’s now a gaping hole in the back of my mouth where said tooth used to be… it’s been broken for a long time, but now there’s just a space. Fortunately it’s far enough back for me not to end up looking like some kind of solo bass Shane MacGowan (thanks for that mental image, Evil Harv).

So I’ve been eating lots of ice-cream today, as instructed by my dentist. That’s the kind of prescription I like! ‘Take two scoops, 9 times a day’.

Teaching this afternoon was fun, trying to explain bass-ness while not dribbling blood and bits of gum and jaw-bone down myself. ewwwwww

so now I’m sat here, with an empty tub of Haaggen-Dazs in front of me and a dull ache in my jaw (from both the monster injection I was given and the tooth being dug out – that’s got to do some muscle damage…)

Still, I’ve got Jonatha Brooke’s gig at the Betsy Trotwood tomorrow night to look forward to! yay!

Soundtrack – , ‘Hearts And Bones’; , ‘Big Dreams And The Bottom Line’; Peter Gabriel, ‘So’; , ‘Plumb’.

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Aha, I think it's fixed…

Well, after much marvellous help from , It looks like the new paypal thingie in the shop is now working! The PHP troubles are dealt with, my paypal account is upgraded to a ‘business account’ and I can now take any old Credit/Debit card orders via paypal without the need for people to sign up to paypal in order to use it! This is marvellous news, believe me! If anyone feels like trying it out please, be my guest. It’s even set up to copy your address details across into the paypal pages, so that you’ve got less typing to do, at least, that’s the idea… Hopefully all of this will mean lots more lovely CD sales for me!

Soundtrack – Finley Quaye, ‘Maverick A Strike’; , ‘Shapeshifter’; , ‘Big Dreams And The Bottom Line’.

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