Ive always been impressed with the way Mark King seems to be really happy to meet and greet all the guys from the statii forum which goes to show what a decent all round guy he is and that always goes along way with me having had my fill many years ago of meeting aloof "rock stars etc.i might add that he does this after gigs when its down to his discretion(as opposed to a clinic situation where you wouldnt have much choice) but he is happy to do this as im sure he knows its important to connect with fans of the band and fans of his playing,id like to think he enjoys this interaction aswell and all the guys here speak highly of their experiences of meeting up with him,Bravo Mr King.

So i thought i would share my experience of yesterdays Bassday UK !.

I met one of my all time bass heros, Mr Billy Sheehan,and had little chat,i found him to be 1 of the most humble genuine and pleasant people you could ever meet,if he was a complete stranger and if you met him at the bus stop you would still enjoy passing the time of day just talking about the weather.Great guy and brilliant clinic /QnA.Bravo Mr Sheehan and thank you for coming over to the UK to play for us.

Victor Baily is an all time legend of the bass,his clinic was great,he was friendly,funny and the mans warmth of personality came across strongly,i dont do this often but it was cool to have my pic taken with the man and a pleasure to meet him for even if it were just for a minute or so.Bravo Mr Baily and thank you for coming over to the UK to play for us.

Stu Hamms clinic was brilliant and the mans playing is awesome.After the clinic i stood in line and bought his live CD and he kindly sighned it for me(which was nice ).
Afterwards i bumped into him outside and he asked me for a cigerette,i offered him a roll up but he didnt want that and got 1 of someone else.I asked him if he had ever used any of the status bass,s that were made in England by Rob Green and with next to no interest he said NO !.and looked like he didnt know what i was talking about.
I said that they were the same carbon graphite headless bass,s as used by Mark King at which point he kind of rolled his eyes and in a very downbeat tone of voice said and i quote, "OOOH NO !" then shrugged his shoulders,TURNED AND WALKED OFF!!! in the middle of my sentence,,,,,,,,NICE!.
Yes Stu Hamm IS an amazing bass player but if i had to choose between getting a ride in a limo with Mr Hamm or standing at the bus stop in the rain with Mr Sheehan i know what i would do,,,,ID MAKE SURE I LEFT HOME WITH MY BROLLY AND CATCH THE BUS WITH BIG BILL.
I dont suppose there was any reason to be overly pleasant,afterall id already given him my £10 english pounds right!
Pehaps it was ME,perhaps he didnt like the look of me or somethink who knows.?
Anyway,that aside it was a good day out so well done to Mr Steve Williams for organising the event and im looking forward to next year already.
One thing i would say is dont forget your earplugs because after several hours of many many bass,s slapping popping and rumbleing in the background it tends to be abit deafening and blends into a big old bass SOUP! but then thats what all these expos are like eh.cheers

Glad you had a good day, sounds like the sort of event any bass player would enjoy, wish I could've been there.
As for the Hamm.....well, seems he was either having his period or perhaps he is just a bit of a prick huh? I'm with you, the more personable the man, the more respect he gets.

Oh well,he probly just had a long day away from home eh:|
But its all good eh:)

All American professional bassists hate Mark King!

That's just fact!

Hey Moo, what is the reason do you think?

I read a recent interview with Meshell (great musician and bass player btw...) stating that she rediscovered the music of L42 (she problably attended a L42 gig during the US tour...) and was now looking for a new bass that would sound a bit snappier than her old Jazz Bass as she likes the sound of MKs basses a lot...I would suggest a STATUS!!

That's interesting. I always thought there was little or no consideration for such a bass player like MK here in US and I never understood why.
How do you base your idea moo?

Strangely enough you seem to of answered your own question Enzo.

In 2007 i was in an elevator when i guy asked me what i was doing in the USA,i told him i was doing some gigs over there and the conversation turned to music,during the convo i asked him if he liked Level42 ?
to which he replied "LEVEL 42..............BUT THIS BUILDING ONLY HAS 28 FLOORS !
i REST MY CASE !:D

This is a deep and multi-facetted discussion we have here.

Being a Yank, I could offer a few perspectives on this, but I'm be afraid I might ramble on for pages and pages. I have a minimal knowledge of the UK music scene, but what I do know (at least I think) is that the UK is exposed to huge diversity, musically and culturally. One example is how the UK had BBC Radio that held no style of music back from the public.

The short-sighted "american" players you mentioned have the american music business machine them, which exposes them only to the "hits", and overlooks the depth of variety and artist. When you combine that with EGO based musicians, who knows what may spew out of there mouth.

I was lucky enough to hear Standing In The Light when it came out, since I was a funk and jazz fusion guy, always searching.

Not all professional Bass Cat's are narrow minded.

Gotta run, will chime in later.

Peace. ;)

Dont panic my friend,my previous comment was nothing more than a light hearted jest,personaly i like many many american things
like Dinnertime for example. hell yeah.cheers:D

I've noticed the same thing...I put it down to British players in the funk/jazz arena not really being taken seriously by the US "heavyweights."
It's the same with RnB/hip hop.....the Yanks do it better,and don't take kindly to British artists playing "their" music.:D

A few years back when Oasis were in their pomp,I did some work ine the US for a hi-tech music company,creating sound library material for a dance/hip hop sound card...the sort of funky stuff,noodling stuff that most people on here could probably pull off when messing about at home, and think nothing of..

They were gobsmacked when I got there and this bloke from Manchester gets off the plane (well p!ssed...) and they couldn't understand a word....:D

They were aware of Oasis,but they were a guitar band...you know,rock...so how come you play like this?

As has been pointed out,they just didn't get it at first...they had already had an idea in their minds of how I would look and sound,from the music that I was creating.

In the UK,I think we're much more "open" in terms of culture and who plays what.There are less "straightjackets" in terms of what music you should be playing or listening too,depending on your heritage.

Saying that,Iabsolutely loved my time working in the US...I learned so much....I'd gladly do it all again tomorrow.

And it's all just my opinion,of course.:)

I think you pretty much nailed it, well stated Sir B)

Like slapmonster i absolutley loved my time in America and will definatley go back again,next time i might just nip up to Canada and go for a couple beers at Todds local alehouse,,,,,,,,,,,,,,any takers chaps ?:D

I'm sure Todd would be more than happy to meet up for a pitcher or two of the old Moosehead LOL :D On a more serious note, I met Nathan East for the second time back in March, and when I mentioned Level 42, the first thing he mentioned was the Standing In The Light album !! He seemed to dig MK's playing, and he is a real US bass heavyweight !!

Here's a shot of myself and Mr East :D

Well, I'm American and I don't hate Mark King???????
I've met Stu Hamm and found him to be more of a bass player and less of a PR guy.
The guy is away from home, wife and kids, who knows maybe even a long day ect....
I'm not making excuses, but come on guys, none of us know what the reason was for his actions.
I say this because I let a similar, (actually worse), interaction go with John Entwistle.
I was a young rock bass player here in Houston and was lucky enough to get a meet and greet with the band.
The show was delayed at one point for reasons none of us knew. When I was ushered into the greeting area the first person in was the Ox, I had a picture ready for a autograph. He didn't look to happy, but talked to a couple of others and then came over to our area and the man in front of me asked him if he had time for an autograph and a picture, he walked right by and told us to "f*ck off" and walked out of the room.
I've been on enough gigs to know that I've had that feeling at the end of some, even though I've never treated a fan that way, I realized he's seeen it on a much larger scale.
Later I read how he and Roger had been fighting that night, bad enough that he smashed one of his Alembics in anger, so I'll buy the guy some leeway in his actions.Even though he's from another country makes no difference to most players I know and myself.
When I read judgements with such a broad focus I can only think of people with small minds making them.
We are all players that differ in style, experience and location, embrace it and learn and you'll grow.
I play hard rock to blues and I appreciate all of it, Mark, Geddy, Stu, Victor, who ever....
I find common ground here in the instruments that I play, but I like the diversity in the others who use them around the world.

KILL ALL BASS PLAYERS........oh...wait a minute....:o

Did someone say beer?

Could i just point out that in the OP there was never any intention of any yank bashing,infact im pretty sure i stated that 2 out the 3 players mentioned(Sheehan,Baily and Hamm) had been brilliant allround on the day.
Infact even Meatloaf sang in that dreadful dreadful song that "2 out of 3 aintbad", :D
Ive already stated how much i enjoyed the hospitality of the fine people of the US but dont get me started on Meatloaf,i cant stand that guys whinning screech:D

And yes Todd,someone definatly said BEER!
Theres a slim chance it might of been ME.:)
Beer is my friend,when i drink i think i can actually play some bass,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and that helps trust me :D

OK... That was not intended as Yank bashing (I have plenty of that but not music related).It was merely a comment on how American professional bassists rate MK.

In the 'Bass Player' top (can't remember how many but quite a few) bassists of all time, Mark King wasn't even mentioned... Not even a squeak!!

They will list someone like Stink... Sorry Sting but not MK. They just don't rate him at all!

Absolutely true, after discovering MK in the 80's it boggled my mind that there was never any mention of him this side of the pond other than the occasional mention on Canada's much music!