Jamming with the new old guys

So one of the guys who works in my office, John Noakes, was heard to remark a week or so ago that the bass player in his band had recently undergone a triple heart bypass. Naturally I jumped in to voice my concern usurp his position and John threw me a CD with 11 tracks on it, and told me there was a practise the following Monday (aka, tonight).

Here's the 'setlist', as it were:

• Gimme Three Steps, Lynyrd Skynyrd


• Ten Words, Joe Satriani (instrumental)


• Walking By Myself, Gary Moore


• Whisky in the Jar, Thin Lizzy


• Once Bitten, Twice Shy, Ian Hunter (of Mott the Hoople fame)


• Stand By Me, Oasis


• Black Magic Woman, Santana


• Can’t Get Enough, Bad Company


• Waterloo Sunset, Def Leppard


• Hard to Handle, Black Crowes


• Cocaine, Eric Clapton

We played through all these tonight, with me 'lending my jazz influences' (aka, not playing the real bassline and just improvising instead...some would say it was just laziness in not learning the songs properly, but they're no fun) to the pieces.

Had a few jams too, which was sweet - been so long since I've played music with others. Given that the guys were in their 40's/50's (let's hope that that's either right, or that they don't find this post...) I was surprised by how much energy they had, and they really knew their stuff.

I felt a bit...underequipped with my £70 bass and £5 lead, given that everyone else turned up with a sackful of pedals, Gibson guitars and the like. Still though, it's what you do with it that counts eh? Or so say us students who can't afford fancy gear.

Hopefully I'll get a few more sessions with these guys before their regular bass player recovers (such a callous bastard aren't I), and after that I may see about adding some keys to their lineup, though I'm not sure I can keep up with them if I do that - we'll see.

All the best now, off to rest my fingers.

Xx