This was one of the first small pieces I wrote for Guitar & Bass Magazine back in May 2008. In the subsequent years, curly leads have become de rigueur among certain stoner rock bands and Roland have reintroduced the JC120. I even found myself standing in a cloud of dry ice during 2018. However, apart from that, my judgement still stands.
1- Fighting
Thank god for that. Perhaps it was due the kind of bands I used to like but when I was going to gigs as a punter, during the 80’s, it was always kicking off somehow. And not always in the audience, a friend of mine got a right good shoeing at a Dead Kennedys gig once- and he was doing monitors. They still sell alcohol at gigs and some of the music is more violent than ever but only once in the past 18 years have I seen a band stop playing to try to calm a situation and that was due to the pit security starting it anyway. If you believe the tabloids then the nation is crippled by gangs of violent youths. Well, I spend a lot of time around large gatherings of youths and I haven’t seen it. Lets keep it that way, shall we?
2- JC120s
Where have they all gone? Stages used to be knee deep in these and despite having the worst sounding ‘distortion’ control in the world, artists as diverse as Andy Summers and James Hetfield used to swear by them. Fads and fashions for gear come and go but eventually one usually trips across some maverick who swears by a laughable piece of kit that everyone else dumped years ago. But not the JC120. This transistor driven Roland combo seems to have disappeared into the ether, its shimmering cascade seemingly silenced forever. Perhaps all those African bands that you don’t hear of anymore, who were last enthusiastic users of this item, took them all home with them.
3- Gobbing
During November 2007 I was involved with the Sex Pistols UK tour. These dates were prompted by the 30th anniversary of the album Never Mind The Bollocks and I was initially worried that it also might be the 30th anniversary of the audience spitting at the band. I even bought a couple of pairs of surgical gloves as I thought they might come in useful for handling instruments that had become ‘slippery’ all of a sudden. No need though, the audience was neatly divided into the younger “Eww, gross..” generation and their parents, who are now estate agents and car salesmen and are above that kind of behaviour. So we can consign gobbing to the dustbin of history. Good thing too.
4- Dry Ice
Not to be confused with smoke. Smoke is a crucial element for making the beams of the lights stand out in a suitably dramatic fashion and therefore the smoke machine- and its stealthier sibling the ‘cracker’- is still standard issue. Dry ice is the heavier stuff that looks like smoke but never rises further than the knees. No self respecting 70’s rock band would be without a suitably epic atmospheric number where this stuff was allowed to tumble over the stage edge. You know…Stone‘enge and all that. Its probably banned by the HSE these days (dry ice that is, not epic atmospherics).
5- Loads of Par Cans
Speaking of lights, Par Cans have become very much a bit player these days. Digital technology has meant that one programmable light can do the job of 20 by moving around and changing colour at the Lighting Designers whim. The days of huge banks of lights (known as Par Cans) each flashing their individual colour on and on ad nauseum can relived by staring at the cover of Queen’s Live Killers album or watching Iron Maiden’s promo clip for Run To The Hills (as if you needed an excuse!).
6- Fretless Basses
The 80’s again. A gig wouldn’t be complete without one of these swooping and bubbling away, everyone from Pino Palladino to Mick Karn to New Model Army to the bloke from Stump had one. My mate Pete considered it so crucial to have one on hand that he pulled all the frets out of one of his spare basses with a kitchen knife. The workshop I was an assistant at the time charged him a fortune to re-fret it once sanity had prevailed. I haven’t seen a fretless since.
7- Singers climbing PA stacks
They were all at it once some bloke called Bono had made this crowd pleasing manoeuvre popular, although I had seen Lux Interior from The Cramps do it first a few years before. Now PA cabinets are smaller, modular and more often than not hung from the roof, I suppose opportunities are radically diminished. You can sometimes see musicians standing on the sub bass cabinets in front of the stage, should the venue be large enough for it but it’s a pale imitation of seeing the singer scaling a giant stack of black Lego to go serenade a random girl in the balcony.
8- Curly Leads
If older readers had strayed a little too far onstage back in the day, the end of one of these would spring out of the amp and smack them in the arse mid solo. So, you can understand why they are no longer popular. Even the fashion for all things vintage hasn’t extended to the curly lead, not even among the most retro of bands. Brian May bravely modelled one well into the 90’s but according to his website, even he hasn’t used one in over 10 years.
9- TU12 tuners
A neat bit of patricide by Roland/Boss when they wanted to start pushing the TU2 as the tuner of choice. However, just about every pedal company makes a stompbox tuner these days and lets be honest, it is a much better idea. Usually built like a tank, nice bright LEDs and they mute so you can do away with the A/B box or volume pedal you needed to silent tune with a TU12. In fact does anyone, anywhere still use a tuner with a needle?
10- Silver gaffa tape
Once upon a time it was all you could get and everything was covered in it and looked a mess. These days black is the norm (of course) and a whole spectrum of colours is available, including glow in the dark versions. Military suppliers Silvermans will even sell you a camouflage roll. Careful where you put it down though, you might not be able to find it again…