The Silver Lining - Part 2

The morning rolled around, and I was up with the bin men and strange neighbours that liked to put pets in wheelie bins. Which I don't condone. Even though it is kind of funny. Anyway. Today was the day when the first meeting of my Super-Band was to be had, and we had it in a conveniently placed studio in Liverpool. I arrived first, as per usual, being the least furthest away than JJ and Mark Partly, the legendary drummer from the band Mind Picture Presentation. I went into the building, and a long haired Asian man asks me if he can take my bass. I look at him funny and ask him if I can take his wallet and car keys. It took him ten minutes to explain to me that he was going to tune it and also teach me a lot of what I'd need to know about the technical side of playing bass guitar in a band. Whatever happened to picking up an instrument and playing? Technology happened, that's what. I reluctantly handed my bass guitar to the man, who referred to himself as John, and implored me to do the same. So I did. I called him John like he asked me to. And there were no further problems between us. He told me that my bass could also use a good and proper cleaning, as it was dusty and had random bits of glue where I used to have stickers all over it.

Second to arrive was JJ, who already seemed to know a lot about what she needed to do with her guitar. Her guitar technician was called John, only this long haired man wasn't Asian. He was an American. They greeted each other as though they'd met before, and instantly begun talking about guitars and guitar related things, and stuff about how great guitars were. I looked at bass John, who shrugged, and went away to clean my bass. I walked over to JJ and guitar John, and somewhat abruptly interrupted their conversation.

"JJ!! You made it! How are ya?!"
"I'm fine, long time no see eh?"
"Yeah, you're looking well after all that happened!"
"Thanks! So are you. You'll have to excuse me Mike, I have a few issues with my guitar and John here is going to help me with it."
"Oh.. ok.. sure.. I'll go.. over.. here.. and wait for Mark to show up."

So I did, I went over there, and waited for Mark to show up. For a further half an hour. My phone then rang, and it was the man himself.

"Mike! Mark here! Stuck in traffic on my way in, I hope the studio is big enough to fit my equipment!"
"It is, don't you worry about that! I've got it all sorted! JJ is here too already, so we'll probably just jam for a bit until you arrive."
"Ok man, take care, I'll be there as soon as I can!"

Short but sweet, the conversation confirmed to me that he was taking this whole thing seriously, and was bringing his big guns with him. His entire drumkit, which was bloody massive, truth be told. He had four bass drums, because he had a tendency to switch between two areas of his kit. Yes. His kit had different areas. It probably had it's own map and national anthem too.
I was summoned into the next room by bass John, who had all but finished setting up my bass. He was about ready to tell me all the technical stuff I needed to know to work it in a studio. I did laugh when he said "work it" as though I was to walk sluttily around the studio flirting with anyone and anything in my path. He wasn't laughing.

The Silver Lining - Part 3

Another half an hour had passed, and I had gotten to grips with some of the stuff Bass John had told me, but I was still having difficulties with some of the more technical stuff. He wasn't amused when I told him that all I ever really did was turned up, plugged in and played. This was because he was a technician. Taking the bass guitar from me, he played me some incredibly complex bass solo, and I swear as I saw him play, the strings were smoking. Either that or I hadn't cleaned my bass in a while and it was kicking up dust. I'm gonna go with the smoking strings. Because he actually did a tiny smile when I said it to him. Guitar John told me that this meant he was incredibly happy and was pleased with the compliment he was given. I was unsure, but decided not to compliment him again, in case he went mental and grinned.

Suddenly, and with his own fanfare, which he was doing himself, mimicking a trumpet, the door burst open, and in comes Mark, twirling some drumsticks, and busting some serious moves.

"Hey guys, I'm here!"
"No... Really?"

JJ looked over, and shot the remark to him.

"Yeah, so.. uh.. let's get started! What did you guys have in mind?"

At this point, I walked to Mark, and so did JJ, where we all sat down in conveniently placed office chairs to discuss what we wanted to do. And, as it happened, we didn't really know what direction we wanted to go in, which is lucky, because having such an illustrious musician amongst our ranks soon proved to inspiration enough, and we had formulated a loose theme to follow. And so it was. We all turned for the door to help Mark's team haul his kit into the studio. It took hours. There were so many drums, cymbals, and individual little bits and pieces that had to be brought in and assembled. But JJ and I were honoured to even be allowed to help. Once we'd all finished, we stood back to admire the masterpiece that the drum kit was. I even took a picture on my phone. I was in awe. And I was in jeans. Unrelated, I know, but I felt like saying it.

Stepping inside the beast, Mark grabbed some drumsticks, and asked us if we'd like a quick demonstration of what he had in mind for us. We both nodded like the over-excited fan-boy and fan-girl that we are. So demonstrate he did. For twenty minutes. But it was as if it was just five. We were blown away by the invention and skill he was intending to use on our project. Upon finishing it, he got out from behind the kit, and told us that he'd finished warming up now, and asked us if we were prepared to start jamming, and forming our sound. There was no movement from either me or JJ, as we had literally been lobotomised by the sheer awesomeness of his drumming. Bass John and Guitar John each came up alongside me and JJ, and nodded our heads for us. They then looked at Mark, with a strange air of familiarity. It was almost as if they'd known each other and had been in a band themselves for twenty-five years...