Thank you Willamina!!

We'll just keep this one short... For all of you down in Willamina that came out to the Wildwood Hotel on Saturday night, THANK YOU!! We had an incredible time and judging by your rather impressive dancing and interaction, we think it's safe to say that you had an incredible time as well. Thank you to the Wildwood Hotel for having us out again and making us feel welcome. Rumor is we will be back for a benefit sometime this summer. We will let you all know once it's on the books.

Thank you again for making Saturday so great. Take care and we'll see you all soon!!

QN

Wolfgang's Vault

Last month I happened upon Wolfgang's Vault . It's a site set up buy Bill Sagan who purchased the late Bill Graham's archive of concert recordings and memorabilia. He's selling this memorabilia (posters, t-shirts, etc...) while streaming some great concerts that Graham promoted and recorded over the years, mostly at the Fillmores and Winterland. Of course, none of this is without objection. A number of bands (The Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, you know, some minor players) are questioning the legality of the whole operation:

http://www.mp3.com/news/stories/7837.html

I'm not a lawyer so I can't predict where the legal chips will fall but I am a musician and I understand a musicians right and desire to control their music. On the other hand, I'm also a fan with an insatiable desire to hear music. I have to believe these concert streams will only generate further interest in a band's back catalog. For bands like Flock of Seagulls or ABC it has to be a boon to their catalog sales. I became a big fan of The Band in recent years and listening to a couple of their concerts on the site has me wanting to dig even further into their catalog. Maybe they can work out a deal where they pay a fee (like a percentage of the sales of the memorabilia) to the artists to keep the streams up.

BTW-If you haven't seen The Band's farewell concert "The Last Waltz" filmed by Martin Scorsese, what are you waiting for? Brilliant!

Anyway, you may want to check out Wolfgang's Vault while it lasts.

Keep Listening,

Guy

The Police Reunion

In case you haven't heard, the concert industry is a buzz with the prospect of The Police reuniting for a tour to commemorate the 30th anniversary of their hit "Roxanne".

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003527290

As The Police are one of my favorite bands of all-time and Sting was a major influence on me as a bass player, I must say that I'm exited by this possibility. No one is confirming yet but sources say the rumor is true. There is little I wouldn't do to get tickets to one of their shows.

Fingers crossed,

Guy

Know Your Equipment

This may seem obvious but you really owe it to yourself to know your gear inside and out. A lot of musicians aren't into gear to the degree that some of us are. Nevertheless, not knowing some of the intracacies of the gear you use can burn you!

Recently, QN played a private party at the Crystal Ballroom. We were very excited about playing in such a great venue and in preparation I went through my gear and gig toolkit earlier in the day. A couple weeks prior we played the Ash St Saloon and the guitarist in the other band lost an amp halfway through their set. Of course, Sam came through with his and they carried on. Here's to musicians helping each other! Anyway, call me paranoid but I literally wake up at night thinking about some gig catastrophe due to equipment failure. So, as I was checking for the fuse my amp head uses, I inadvertantly reinserted the fuse holder upside down and engaged the 230v circuit. This amp is an Eden WT-400. The "WT" stands for "World Tour" which means it can be used in other countries that run 220. I get to the gig and set up. The amp powers on but no sound comes out. We checked the most likely causes (bad cables, the bass itself, the cab, etc...) with me not thinking that accidentally flipping the fuse holder changes the power supply circuit. Whoopsie! Oh well, I ran direct through the PA and everything was fine. Our set went off without any further glitches.

As I was troubleshooting the head the next day, I went to the Eden forum where someone was discussing how to prepare their head for a European tour. "Just flip the fuse holder", they said. Ding ding ding! I've had my hands inside all kinds of electronic equipment for nearly 20 years and I missed this! Grrr! But, this just goes to show how even someone with no technical knowledge could have fixed my head simply by having a good knowledge of it's features.

This was a good lesson: Know your gear! It's a mistake I won't make again and I'm glad it happened when it did.

Onward and Upward,

Guy