The Last Bass Outpost

Go figure...

I know Oklahoma took a pounding, but it is the "normal " season, yes...?

What's it doing round your way...? it has been a lot colder and wetter in the south of UK than normal so far this year...

If it all goes to plan a life size and slightly adjusted (Chinese built) replica of the Titanic will set sail for New York from Southampton; hopefully the Gods will not be displeased nor affronted...

BBC News from March

Titanic II

The Jazz and the PC had an outing on Sunday at an invitation I received some months back but I had to think rather carefully when I got a list of things for the trial run...

It was obvious that there was going to be some brass and a female vocalist...

What did I have to learn...?

Fontella Bass - Rescue Me
Gloria Estefan - 1 2 3 4
Foundations - Baby Now That I've Found You
Whitney Houston - Saving All My Love
Sandie Shaw - Always Something There To Remind Me *
Swing Out Sister (Dusty cover) - Am I The Same Girl
Dionne Warwick - Walk On By *
Amy Winehouse - Tears Dry On There Own

* did not get played - but we did jam on AWB's Pick Up The Pieces

I mostly played the fretless but used the PC on Rescue and Baby to give a fretted sound...

Got invited to join today... I have to get back into sight reading, though... what is quite frightening is that I enjoyed playing the material... the bass in all of the material we played was fun to play...! I'm stunned I just said (wrote) that...

Line up is guitar/bass/drums with 2x tenor sax (one is a "c-melody" I think) and a trumpet player, and female vox... seven piece...

I need to get down the shed...

One of my literary heroes, Ian M Banks, announced today via his website that he has terminal and inoperable cancer - the writing is now over and he is understandably withdrawing from public life to concentrate on doing those things and visiting those places that were only in some future that may now never be...
I can only hope that he remains fit enough for long enough to enjoy the time he has left...

Slainte Mhath Mr Banks...

"We can order it for you, Sir..."

Those words echoed through my childhood... there was a chainstore familiar to both sides of the Pond called Woolworths that is long gone here, but it is where my late dad, in the 60's, used to go and buy the number one UK single every week, but once I got into more specialised music but shopped locally did not even stock Alice Cooper records or tapes... So, around the corner was this little record shop, and although they did not have a massive stock level they would order some items for you, for a reasonable deposit... I bought Billion Dollar Babies there, and Muscle Of Love, and WTM Nightmare, as well as some GFR, Made In Japan (by some minor UK outfit barely known by this forum's members), RB's Rainbow... all my formative stuff... I had two items on order for a year: one came in which I still have, albeit now mine after my dad passed as I got it for him; it is now considered to be Scotland's "National Anthem" and was the original artist/release on a private label in Scotland, so it has more than sentimental value... the other item was called Man On The Silver Mountain and due to a technicality it never came in - turned out it was released under the guitarists name, and not as a band name... I did eventually track it down but have now passed it on to someone who appreciates it more than I...

So, what has this got to do with what has happened today...? Well, the UK's last music chain-store, HMV, went into administration and is on the verge of closing it's doors forever...

As a company they failed to embrace the digital market and has been struggling to make headway for some years... this is symptomatic of the modern-world's love of the internet... only 10% of the UK is on-line, but so much music and DVD's are now bought via that means... Here, now, the only large-scale access to music and DVD's will only be through the "Wallmart" type outlets...

As for that "specialist" outlet...? Now gone and the site is part of a shopping centre/mall that has been there for over twenty years - the building of it also took out the instrument shop where I bought the Peter Cook...

The joy of browsing through a record shop and picking up a tape, an LP, or a single, or a video, or nowadays, a CD or DVD, even a computer game, are consigned to history, unless it is a top-ten seller...

So, who's going to enjoy a festive white-out this year... time to start posting those pics of the scenes around their homes, and who will be deluged and digging themselves out...? ... and will Al be smoking out the neighbours...?

Fat chance of any snow in the South of Britain, as far as I can tell, but lots of rain to see the year out...

(Just in case... )

Ladies (you know who you are, Lady V) and Gentlemen...

It has truly been a pleasure and an honour to have known you all...

May (Mayan) God (s) preserve us one and all... even the politicians...

Britain has lost one of her truly great scientists and eccentrics...

On the 26th April 1957, a programme called The Sky At Night was first broadcast, and he has almost continously been the presenter until his death today - the worlds longest running presenter... I expect that record to stand for a long time to come...

I went to see him some years back at a theatre in Aldershot with some friends and was thoroughly entertained by his amazing depth of knowledge on Astronomy and there is a great quote of his that he was, "The only man to have met the first man to fly, the first man in space, and the first man to walk on the moon..."

RIP Sir Patrick, you have earned your place among the stars...