Entertainment For Lively Minds
It's the Basscast!
Posted by Mark Ellen on 18 January 2012 - 9:16am.
In celebration of James Medd’s stupendous piece in Word 108 on the secret world of the bass guitarist, Medd and Mark Ellen present a podcast with session wizard and bon viveur Guy Pratt – who tells tales of working with Pink Floyd, The Smiths, Jimmy Page, the dictatorial Madonna and David Coverdale (who he impersonates immaculately). And explains the correct pronunciation of “Whitesnake” and how he did a Sophie Ellis-Bextor hit in 17 minutes. He also peels off the world’s greatest bottom lines on the office bass guitar. Our story starts on an aeroplane piloted by Floyd drummer Nick Mason experiencing strange and artificial turbulence...
Brilliant. Can I put a
Brilliant.
Can I put a request in for more of these specialist session musician podcasts - keycast,windcast etc.
These top-drawer session musicians are obviously the musical equivalent of butlers in the Queen's bedroom - invisible attendees at great events. Excellent stuff.
Help!!!
The last two podcasts haven't shown up in my itunes yet, is there anything that I can do to sort this?
Try
1. either right-click on the name of the podcast within iTunes and select "Update Podcast", or
2. if there's a little "i" symbol within a circle next to the name of the podcast, click it and and confirm that you want to update
If those don't work, try deleting the feed and re-subscribing.
Update
worked fine first time, thanks for that Fraser, I knew you'd sort it!
cheers
Ian
Wonderful stuff!
The best podcast since Nick Lowe.
I could have listened to another 2 hours of Guy Pratt talking.
His book is well worth reading
(My Bass And Other Animals) and he occasionally does spoken-word gigs where he tells the same old anecdotes :-)
.....Let's Kick the Shit outta this place shall we Osakaaaa!!!!
There was a time when David Coverdale was in the habit of
shouting "Let's take the f**king roof off this place!". When they played Donington in the early 80s, he started in on his regular call but swiftly had to modify it to "Let's take the f**king... err... sky off this place".
Availability
I know your answer may be "Well subscribe then" but the magazine has disappeared from the shelves of my local ASDA (Morley, Leeds) for about 4 months now. I did ask this question at the time but reply was "Everyone's at Glastonbury - fair enough I thought. Any ideas ?
I'll ask
Will get back to you.
Here you go
Morrisons
Windsor Court
Morley
Leeds
LS27 9BG
They stock The Word.
I think there should a 5 min
weekly TV show called 'Coverdale Speaks'
This week from Russia
This is the best
Podcast you have put out to date. By far. So good I will listen to again. I never do this. I may even keep it for listening to in the future. Guy Pratt can't be the only musician with such good anecdotes, but he can sure spit them out. Entertainment of the highest order. Well done, The Word.
Absolutely
out of the top drawer.
Thank you.
Well,
who'd have thought it, a bass orientated podcast. Tears were rolling down my cheeks. Thank you very much. I may even listen to it again.
I was only really aware of Guy Pratt from...
... his YouTube appearance(s) playing those nifty bass lines (followed by the Bee Gees!). It was wonderful entertainment and I could have listened to those stories for hours.
As Gerry D said, there's got to be more of 'em out there with some cracking stories to tell. Let's hear 'em!
Totallyagree
one of the best ever - and I'm the type who usually says why can't you just have Ellen & Hepworth every week.
Had had a bit of a work related setback
at lunchtime on Thurs, and was a bit low when I put this on on the train that eve. Haven't laughed at a Word 'cast more in ages, or needed to more. So thanks. Saved the one about hearing loss til this week when a) have cheered up and b) I have retrieved the situation I think.
Suggested new strapline: Word Podcast, All Human Life Is There
Very good
although he doesn't suffer from modesty this fella does he? And things turned distinctly frosty when that quote from Nick Mason came up.
However, I was won over especially with the David Coverdale impersonation and I must learn to play all those Chic bass parts.
Marvellous podcast
Up there with the Danny Baker and Martin Fry podcasts.
Keep them coming!
Really good
I usually enjoy the podcasts but this was a peach. I've read Guy's book which is excellent too.
Thank you
wonderful podcast, really enjoyed it.
Thanks so much for all of it, the podcast, the mag (just got my lastest issue in Sydney Australia today) and the blog.
All the best chaps
Have you spotted
the small but significant Zappa mistake yet Mousey?
Are you referring to "Moving to Montana"?
Posted here
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/engineering-pedantry-no-entertainm...
Ah yes
Didn't realise you'd already picked up on that.
Carry on ;-)
Am I on to it
or what?
(goes back to harvesting this year's crop of dental floss...)
Guy Pratt, as funny as ever.
A truly wonderful podcast. Made me laugh out loud more than once. His Dad was Mike Pratt, 'Randall' in 'Randall & Hopkirk', so he has a head-start on the Credibility-ometer. Read his book, "My Bass & Other Animals", as well. Also laugh out loud funny. Tells a great story of playing an open air gig with Gilmour on a warm summer evening. They finish one track and Guy glances down at the set-list. He's not required for the next song so takes off his bass and nips down, under the stage, to take a leak. Mid-stream he hears DG singing the opening lines to 'On The Turning Away' and drifts into a reverie. "I love this song. Why don't we play it more often? I especially like this bit, where I come in...Oh Fuck!"
I want to work in a place
that has an office bass guitar too.
(Although an office drum kit would be more theraputic)
Congratulations - you have found my tipping point
although I'll have to wait until my next subscriber's copy comes through so I can get my special secret code. I saw Guy Pratt playing with The Blockheads this summer and was frit to find out how few people around me were as excited as I was to spot him in the band. Most of the talk beforehand had been about how we were about to be short-changed by the non-appearance of Norman Watt-Roy.
Code
I'll e-mail it to you.
Above and beyond dept
Say, for instance, that I'd opened iTunes on my shiny new iPad and couldn't for the life of me see something that looked like an 'Advanced' menu where I'd then follow the rest of the easy-to-follow instructions I'd been given? You know, just theoretically...
iTunes on the iPad
Works differently to iTunes on a computer. As far as I know, you can only manage feeds that available through the iTunes Store itself. So you'll need an app like RSSRadio or Instacast. There's a few different options - I prefer the former, and it handles podcasts very elegantly.
Thank you
I'm very much obliged.
I want to use the first Madonna impression...
...as a sample in a track I'm planning. Can I? Can I?
You know the one, "Time is money and the money is mine!"
That'd sound great.... can I? can I? Pretty please???
Nile Rodgers also mentions that as being one of Madge's
favourite phrases in his excellent biography 'Le Freak'
Superb Podcast!
We listened in the car - The David Coverdale impressions had us howling (The A47 was empty - no-one heard). Having read his book, and having heard him play, I think Guy undersells himself in the autobiography - as if he were somehow just lucky.
He is a wonderfully funky player and can obviously nail anything that is thrown at him.
Also a very good raconteur - he appears to be one of those people that is easy to get on with, does what he is asked and presumably does not tell too many potentially damaging 'tales out of school', just the amusing ones! - in other words, a perfect sideman/session player.
Prattcast!!!!
A great listen on a walk to work, ashamedly I had not heard of Guy Pratt before but he was well worth listening to, and I would happily listen to more from him.
Coming from very close to Redcar I had to laugh at his impersonation of David Coverdale as no native of that rather sad seaside town would have such an accent!!!!!
Very good 55 minute Roger Waters radio interview.
.be
Talks about things like looking like Richard Gere. Well worth listening to.
Sizeable bottom...
fantastic podcast.
best podcast for ages.
best podcast for ages. so funny, i bought the book.