Sorry, it was the best pun I could come up with! However, it was another successful weekend this time playing for Truly Collins and Pure Entertainment at a Coronation festival in Dagenham.
I didn't have to think twice about accepting this phone call for two good reasons. Firstly, the wonderful Joe Donegan who I play with in Cloneplay was on drums. And secondly, it gave me the perfect excuse to be rather self indulgent and immerse myself in the classic grooves of Nathan East and, in particular, Leland Sklar.
Even if you're a younger bass player and haven't heard of Leland Sklar by name you will have definitely heard him playing given he has over 2,000 album credits as a session bassist - checkout https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leland_Sklar_discography and you'll get the idea...
However, also checkout his amazing YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@lelandsklar6363 where he has hundreds of videos and many, many play throughs of his live Phil Collins performances. It was for me a wonderful and insightful reference into (attempting to) recreate his style and technique for my show.
It also made me realise I had the Sussudio bass line all wrong for so many years. I thought the riff was essentially anchored to C all the way through but it's so much more subtle than that, quickly alternating between C and D - it really does make a massive difference. Watching Leland's video helped unlock that groove and there's also a fantastic YouTube tutorial from Talking Bass that breaks the riff down and helps you build up the speed and stamina to play this riff for five minutes or so: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qqj0Rpoe4k.
So then, Sunday's set Sussudio set:
- Sussudio
- Another Day In Paradise
- Invisible Touch
- Against All Odds
- Something Happened on the Way to Heaven
- A Groovy Kind of Love
- Loco in Acapulco
- True Colours
- I Can't Dance
- You Can't Hurry Love
- Two Hearts
- I Wish It Would Rain Down
- Easy Lover
- In The Air Tonight
- One More Night
Until next time :)