Bomb the Bass

I'm typing this with sore fingertips. It's the index and middle finger on my left hand, which I suppose is unusual given that I am right handed.

It's a bass injury, of course. Yesterday I rehearsed for the first time in few weeks, and as is so often the case, my fingers had recovered from previous bass playing activities enough for a fresh injury to occur.

When people discover that I play bass guitar in a couple of bands a common reaction is "Oh, so you're a musician then?". Well, no, not really. I don't think so. Whilst many bass players are indeed talented musicians I wouldn't put myself in the same category as them. I see what I do as the equivalent of keeping time whist moving my fingers around. Even so I find it quite tricky and have to concentrate. An unfortunate side effect of this concentration is that I tend to stick my tongue out of the side of my mouth or gurn horribly with the result that a lot of gig pictures of me are hideous.

So even though I've played loads of gigs and been on a handful of records and CDs I still feel like a fraud. I'm afraid that someone will find me out, take my bass away and replace me with someone who knows what they're doing. That this hasn't happened yet over twelve years is astonishing to me.

I still enjoy it though. For many many years the height of enjoyment for me was going to see a band play. Not a specific band, you understand, just (good) bands in general. It gave me a high that nothing else did. That is... until I discovered that playing a gig was even better.

It's cumulative as well - playing a few gigs in a row increases the enjoyment even further. I suppose the regularity helps defuse the nerves, leaving you with the enjoyment. It's a shame that I don't get to play gigs in a row these days. The last one was at the beginning of August; the next one scheduled is in November.

Still it will give us a chance to do some more recording, something we've neglected for a few years; there are quite a few songs now that we've yet to commit to MP3. Watch this space. Or rather, watch Myspace:

www.myspace.com/chesternoise

Hopefully regular rehearsal in the near future means we can get these new songs nailed - and my fingers will get hardened to the abuse again.