The Last Bass Outpost
Main Forums => The Bass Zone => Topic started by: westen44 on November 28, 2021, 12:44:05 PM
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https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/whitesnake-announces-new-bassist-tanya-ocallaghan/
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Nice hair to go with those chops. At least she won't be quite as distracting as Rev Jones was with Leslie West.
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I really like her Irish accent. It's not quite so thick as some, probably due to living in America for a while. But it is still very much there.
In this interview, there seemed to be a number of rambling questions to her. But toward the end she becomes animated. I found it interesting. She is an environmental and animal activist. When it comes to music, she has always only been interested in bass. I like her attitude.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVfQh_vFEc4
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I know her quite well personally and she's great fun! And a awesome player.
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I know her quite well personally and she's great fun! And a awesome player.
I bet you do, you dirty dog! ;)
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(https://myalbum.com/photo/2fkpkNC7Z5jA/360.jpg)
Here we are, almost six years ago!
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I wonder if she can endure those male chauvinist lyrics and a (semi)lead singer who wields his mic like a d*ck all night, for a whole tour. :mrgreen:
(https://www.milwaukeemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Whitesnake-Kenny.Yoo-004.jpg)
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Poor fella can't even get the mic up these days.
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Poor fella can't even get the mic up these days.
;D ;D
Looks like he's taking a very satisfying pee.
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;D ;D
Looks like he's taking a very satisfying pee.
:rimshot:
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A pee onstage...like that female singer some weeks ago.
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A pee onstage...like that female singer some weeks ago.
I read about that. What she did shocked the rest of the band. I suppose it might be hard to be mentally prepared for something like that.
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The fan seemed to enjoy it...
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The fan seemed to enjoy it...
He volunteered. But it's the band members I was talking about. They had no idea something like that would happen. Just when you think you're getting to know your lead singer, she goes out and pees on somebody from the audience.
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One would think the band would be quite familiar with the singer’s antics .
There was a reason I was reluctant to sit on the couch in the green room …
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One would think the band would be quite familiar with the singer’s antics .
There was a reason I was reluctant to sit on the couch in the green room …
The name of the band is Brass Against. I found this statement they made about the incident.
"Sophia got carried away. That's not something the rest of us expected, and it's not something you'll see again at our shows."
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Once your excitement over some dangling dreadlocks has subsided, boys:
There was/is/will be only one Whitesnake bassist ever
(https://theconcertdatabase.com/sites/theconcertdatabase.com/files/neil%20m.jpg)
and I just saw him last week at a club gig with some no name drummer called Ian something.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7Zmvm_p8Xk
Nuff said. If Coverdale still had ears, he would have rehired him long ago.
Flashback some 41 years ago, at 34:03, back when no one could touch them at their game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyfktFO2dy4
What the old Whitesnake line up had in loads was musicians who could convey emotion, not just an image.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyRjIoYjIUg
Now, Tanya who again? No 7 or 8 (depending on how you count) in a succession of bassists who have followed Neil playing alongside DC, none of them with the same quality, originality or feel. Great dreads, you say?
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For the record, I'm not one of those guys who gets excited looking at female bassists. I have my reasons. Female drummers, though, are another matter. Very sexy, IMO. In this case, though, I was mostly just reporting the news about Whitesnake. Whatever happens I look at as temporary since David Coverdale will stop touring in 2023. I might add that I'm glad this forum doesn't have threads showing one female bassist after another. 99% of the time I just don't care. I think Dave instituted some kind of ban on that kind of thing and that's good. In the case of Tanya O'Callaghan, she does get my attention mostly because she is Irish. Most of the time that kind of thing appeals to me --unless U2 is involved.
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For the record, I'm not one of those guys who gets excited looking at female bassists. I have my reasons. Female drummers, though, are another matter. Very sexy, IMO. In this case, though, I was mostly just reporting the news about Whitesnake. Whatever happens I look at as temporary since David Coverdale will stop touring in 2023. I might add that I'm glad this forum doesn't have threads showing one female bassist after another. 99% of the time I just don't care. I think Dave instituted some kind of ban on that kind of thing and that's good. In the case of Tanya O'Callaghan, she does get my attention mostly because she is Irish. Most of the time that kind of thing appeals to me --unless U2 is involved.
There was a huge "girls with basses" thread at the Dudepit. IIRC the majority of the pics were women who weren't musicians just posing with basses. It turned into something for all the knuckledraggers to leer at. Not what we wanted here.
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There was a huge "girls with basses" thread at the Dudepit. IIRC the majority of the pics were women who weren't musicians just posing with basses. It turned into something for all the knuckledraggers to leer at. Not what we wanted here.
Very good. It was the right decision. I wasn't sure of the background behind it, but now I know.
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Tanya is a proficient modern day bassist, not a bimbo holding a bass. But judging from her style, she has listened more to Flea than Neil Murray (as you would expect from someone of her generation). She's no less qualified than any of her many predecessors following Neil in Whitesnake, none of which contributed anything noteworthy to the band sound (name players like Colin Hodgkinson, Rudy Sarzo and Marco Mendoza failed abysmally), Guy Pratt (who never toured with WS, but only did a few gigs with Coverdale Page in Japan, plus did some studio work with WS) perhaps excepted.
And Michael: Not for a second did I think you were posting about her with exploitative intent or to create a bass bunny calendar. Actually, I had thought about starting a thread with the news of her joining Whitesnake myself, but then I heard how she plays (technically fine) and surmised that she won't be another Neil Murray either. Coverdale has been hiring people - male or female - based on foremostly image for a long time. All luck to her, the last Irishman with WS was now-Def Leper Vivian Campbell of Dio-fame who was fired by DC because Vivian's girlfriend didn't get along with Tawny Kitaen's hen pecking order on tour (plus Adrian Vandenberg feeling a bit competetive about Vivian - only to end up with Steve Vai as Vivian's replacement and thus be totally relegated to the background!). Yeah, "musical differences" alright! ;D
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I hope Tanya will turn out to be a good choice. But it sounds like, overall, her style would be too modern for me. But that's to be expected. I recently starting watching this video on legendary vs. modern bass lines. I liked the first half tremendously. But as the second half progressed I found myself feeling very much out of touch. To the point even that I finally stopped watching the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghk6CC55r7A
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7Zmvm_p8Xk
What happened there? Did they ask a roadie to fill in for the lead vocalist?
That must have felt akward for Ian and Neil. :o
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I hope Tanya will turn out to be a good choice. But it sounds like, overall, her style would be too modern for me. But that's to be expected. I recently starting watching this video on legendary vs. modern bass lines. I liked the first half tremendously. But as the second half progressed I found myself feeling very much out of touch. To the point even that I finally stopped watching the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghk6CC55r7A
Really cool recording! I seldom take the time to listen to videos like this, but there's a lot of interesting stuff there.
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Really cool recording! I seldom take the time to listen to videos like this, but there's a lot of interesting stuff there.
The conversation became more lively and informative than I was expecting. I usually don't much watch videos like that, either.
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What happened there? Did they ask a roadie to fill in for the lead vocalist?
That must have felt akward for Ian and Neil. :o
Purpendicular is one of the more busy Purple tribute projects on the European club scene (I wouldn't call it a "band", the line-up changes constantly, the only stable positions are the Irish lead singer and Ian P guesting on drums). The lead singer isn't great, but he's generally better than on this (meanwhile pulled) tour where he sounded strained and rough around the edges. Mostly, his Coverdale is better than his Gillan.
Ian Paice says he does it to stay in shape. He doesn't like rehearsing at home and he doesn't want to learn new songs, the ones Purpendicular plays, however, he all already knows.
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Tanya is a proficient modern day bassist, not a bimbo holding a bass. But judging from her style, she has listened more to Flea than Neil Murray (as you would expect from someone of her generation). She's no less qualified than any of her many predecessors following Neil in Whitesnake, none of which contributed anything noteworthy to the band sound (name players like Colin Hodgkinson, Rudy Sarzo and Marco Mendoza failed abysmally), Guy Pratt (who never toured with WS, but only did a few gigs with Coverdale Page in Japan, plus did some studio work with WS) perhaps excepted.
And Michael: Not for a second did I think you were posting about her with exploitative intent or to create a bass bunny calendar. Actually, I had thought about starting a thread with the news of her joining Whitesnake myself, but then I heard how she plays (technically fine) and surmised that she won't be another Neil Murray either. Coverdale has been hiring people - male or female - based on foremostly image for a long time. All luck to her, the last Irishman with WS was now-Def Leper Vivian Campbell of Dio-fame who was fired by DC because Vivian's girlfriend didn't get along with Tawny Kitaen's hen pecking order on tour (plus Adrian Vandenberg feeling a bit competetive about Vivian - only to end up with Steve Vai as Vivian's replacement and thus be totally relegated to the background!). Yeah, "musical differences" alright! ;D
Just by coincidence I happened to run across a video by the Scott's bass lessons guy in which he listed the 10 best female bassists. Although Tanya wasn't on the list, he did include her as an honorable mention. Her name must be out there as a highly regarded bassist. It's no surprise that David Coverdale would choose her. I'm not holding up Scott as some kind of ultimate authority. I don't even subscribe to his channel. But he definitely does know a thing or two about bass. If he thought enough of Tanya O'Callaghan to put her name on the list, it wasn't just by accident. Most likely she has listened to Flea a lot. Probably many other bassists like her also have. Personally, I'm too out of touch with modern bass to have much of an opinion on matters such as this, though. A number of years ago, I was around a much younger bassist for a while who only wanted to listen to Flea, Les Claypool and bassists like that. It became a convenient way for me to get rid of "Bass Player" magazines with bassists on the cover I wasn't interested in. But she was genuinely thrilled to have the magazines.
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For whatever reasons, Neil Murray is an unsung hero, probably because he is just "too nice" and down to earth. Very few bassists can match this technically, much less compose it into a Whitesnake song:
https://youtu.be/nHZ55vMvfg8
It's living proof how something can be technically ambitious (that's some Rocco Prestia-style fast triplets there, played with a supple feel) and sound beautiful, yet contribute to the song. None of his successors had his natural ear for the music of Whitesnake.
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I don't know why Scotland has given us bassists as great as Jack Bruce and Neil Murray. There must be something in the water. Whatever it is, I have to believe that it must be something more than just coincidence.
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Neil is such a great guy!
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Yes, and for not realizing and valuing that, I believe that David Coverdale is just not very deep (no pun intended).
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Did you know he studied graphic design before he became a professional bass player?
And he owned a (lo-z) Les Paul Bass in the early seventies.
So he must be a great guy :mrgreen:
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:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
Thank God he wasn't also Dutch, two things in common is bad enough!
:mrgreen:
This is a great interview with him, really in depth and not just bass playing and bands either:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/neil-murray-whitesnake-black-sabbath-bassist-1211886/
And the most telling part about DC is this here, kind of heart-wrenching:
"When’s the last time you spoke with David Coverdale?
Probably a few months ago. I didn’t speak to him for many, many years. I went to see Whitesnake a few times when I wasn’t in the band. And he’d even say onstage, “Oh, I hear Neil Murray is in the audience. I hope he’s going to come backstage afterwards.” And I wouldn’t do that simply because there would be such a difference between their level of success and what I was doing at the time, which would be virtually nothing or something very obscure. I’d just be very uncomfortable.
But we’ve had a few conversations. We aren’t really on the same wavelength anymore, I’d say. He’s lived in America since 1985. He’s been married to two different American women. The whole success in terms of the post-1987–and-onwards career has been so focused on that style of music. Even though he has great affection and nostalgia for the earlier albums, he doesn’t ever try to play that style of rock anymore.
I don’t know. If someone is a multi-millionaire, and I’m the opposite, no matter who they are, whether you know them or worked with them or whatever, there’s such a huge gulf between your lifestyles that it’s kind of hard to get on the same page.
I get on fine with him, but it’s very much on his terms. If you read interviews with him, you don’t really get to the heart of David. It’s very much, “Here’s the same quotes and stories I’ve told everybody else.” I don’t know him well enough now to get beyond that. He’s had more contact with Bernie (Marsden) over the years because of the huge success of “Here I Go Again.” It keeps getting reused for movies and adverts and whatever. They’ve both done extremely well out of that song.
The thing is, if that song sells a few more Whitesnake albums and I’m going to make a little bit of money from it, that’s great. But I haven’t been with any bands where I’ve really had the sort of payday that some of the guys in the band have had. It’s partly just timing. I was with Sabbath where nobody was particularly interested."
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Thank God he wasn't also Dutch, two things in common is bad enough!
:mrgreen: :toast:
Neil Murray seems like a down to earth and honest kind of guy.
Not the same blood group as Coverdale for sure.
Great interview, nice read.