Colin Hodgkinson - an awesome bass player

I totally forgot about this guy. He played in a band from North Yorkshire called Back Door in the 70's (they kept playing up until a few years ago when a couple of them died). My dad had their first album on vinyl and I snatched it off him in the early 90's and wore it out. Such a great sounding trio, defined by the insanely raw bass playing of this guy. Check him out at the Montreal Jazz Festival in the 70's thoroughly enjoying himself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFKxnj5PMvU

And here he is playing on Back Door's first album: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk_Ub1Xx8ig

I really enjoyed that.

Heh, gotta love this comment from the second video!  WWBD???

"If you're a bassist, be forewarned: listening to this album is a deeply humbling experience."

It sounds like he chose not to reverse the string positions when he flipped that bass over.

It seemed as if the high strings were on the top with the low on the bottom.

I wouldn't go that far. Let's face it, the most important element is the music. I think as musicians we forget that most people enjoy a performance for the audio, not because they are interested in the technique being used. Music is an aural experience first and foremost. Although I admit that as a guitarist, I get a little pissed when the camera focuses on the  singer's face when a great solo is happening. 

Hi, That first video was horribly shot and the person with the camera on his/her hands was an idiot! They could have shown a lot more and we could have seen his hand on the frets and his hand on the strings easily enough with a couple more feet to the right to be able to see what he was doing. Instead you get it all hidden, and while it is rather interesting to see the hand from the back of the neck ... going from the top to the bottom ... but in the end ... the guy's craft is hidden and no one can see it. Stupid video that should be trashed! Typical of most music video stuff when people do not know how to direct or appreciate people's abilities and craft!

That's about the only place the cameraman could stand without obscuring the audience's view of Hodgkinson, or standing in front of his amp. I imagine he moved as far round to the front as he could.

jamesg1213

Hi, That first video was horribly shot and the person with the camera on his/her hands was an idiot! They could have shown a lot more and we could have seen his hand on the frets and his hand on the strings easily enough with a couple more feet to the right to be able to see what he was doing. Instead you get it all hidden, and while it is rather interesting to see the hand from the back of the neck ... going from the top to the bottom ... but in the end ... the guy's craft is hidden and no one can see it. Stupid video that should be trashed! Typical of most music video stuff when people do not know how to direct or appreciate people's abilities and craft!

That's about the only place the cameraman could stand without obscuring the audience's view of Hodgkinson, or standing in front of his amp. I imagine he moved as far round to the front as he could.

BS. I laid down on the floor and slid across to get good shots of Gong and other bands! You're only as good as how much do you want to see and appreciate in any artist!
 
If you don't have the "sight", or the "view" ... without the naked girl to show her bobbies ... then you do not "belong" in the filming business ... but a live event is a chance to make that artist SHINE ... and if you do not take care to pay attention to the music and the details ... you should NOT be there.
 
But you have to KNOW the difference when you are having someone do this for you ... because ... it looks cool man ... is not film and won't last!
 
The great images will shine forever! And not just in rock music! ... I'm pretty sure you remember the names of the bobbies adn naked girls in any of those MTV things ... naked today ... GONE tomorrow! And then you can check to see who directed the Michael Jackson stuff, or The Police, or the really good ones! ... there is a massive ... major ... difference ... but you have to know that ... to appreciate it!

Moshkiae

BS.

No need for rudeness Pedro, a different opinion to yours isn't bullsh1t.

I laid down on the floor and slid across to get good shots of Gong and other bands! You're only as good as how much do you want to see and appreciate in any artist! 

I'd like to see those 'good shots'.

 
But you have to KNOW the difference when you are having someone do this for you ... because ... it looks cool man ... is not film and won't last! 

No idea what that means.  

 
The great images will shine forever! And not just in rock music! ... I'm pretty sure you remember the names of the bobbies adn naked girls in any of those MTV things ... naked today ... GONE tomorrow

No, I don't.

 And then you can check to see who directed the Michael Jackson stuff, or The Police, or the really good ones! ... there is a massive ... major ... difference ... but you have to know that ... to appreciate it!

I doubt that even if whoever was filming Colin Hodgkinson had an unlimited budget they would have hired Godley & Creme or John Landis to film him. It's a short movie of a bass player at a jazz festival, not a video for MTV.

Hi,

James ... the point is ... you have to take an interest in what gets photographed and filmed around you. It's easy to say ... I'm into the music and don't care about that ... but you are your own business these days, and that is another facet into it.

Generally, ALL new bands can not use any professional and you start with your close friends and school folks ... and they learn as much as you. No one taught me to film these or to photo these, except that I worked a photo lab for 9 years phtographing kid's pictures in schools, sports and what not, and then print them - we had our own lab - ... and after a while you should have a pretty good idea of what is good and what is not.

But yeah ... no issue there ... in a situation like this ... as rare as it is for this person, NOT SEEING is worse than seeing it ... and then it comes out like this.

The hard part here is that most Festival ALWAYS have professional photographers and film makers and it is likely that they will concentrate on the better known artists ... and not the lesser ones that always show up at that festival that many people ignore ... but on occasion blow out the audience ... same as Stevie Ray Vaughn, who took a film maker his own initiative to shoot ... when no one was going to, or had been called to shoot!

That would leave it all to a friend or relation to get something ... and they did ... but had no way to get to the front of the stage, without being told get off.

Again, it would have been better for the musician to have foreseen that on a place this big ... but I doubt many do.

Not trying to be rude ... but on this day and age ... 2012 ... it is important that all of you musicians be aware of the impression yo are making and that the camera helps you guys more than it doesn't. This is the age of impressionability and even if you, or I, do not like it, the fact is that it is there ... so help yourself!

It was the same thing then, as I had a friend that did a lot of Janis Joplin, and he was concerned, as was her management, that a lot of cheapie pictures were not helping her enough. She was big enough that it didn't matter was my thought and comment ... and later I ran into the same thing when Porcupine Tree would not allow pictures to be taken even though I was one of the official photographers for the Festival ... but I respected their wishes ... but in the end, they were the ones that separated themselves from the rest of the people in there ... but they were well defined ... so I was ok with it. Several of the other bands have used my pictures from that event!

And I did not charge them for it, btw, because I believed in their music, and in film alone the Festival cost me $130 and prints (one 5x7 set each for the bands and festival promoter, was $240 ... I BELIEVED IN THE MUSIC and the care for these bands. So not seeing, appreciating, the work I have helped with in progressive music, is, to me ... sad ... it means music is not as important to you ... as it is to me! I sincerely doubt that, but you can not see my point and think I am denying you yours.

I only do progressive bands, and had designed a film scenario for the Coffee House that Bapu didn't understand, or didn't like or they didn't "get" ... and it was a tribute of sorts to Creme & Godley I suppose ... but what the heck ... there are other bands that are more interested in the work than bands that are not!

No worries ... I have another band I am working with here in Portland and am planning on filming it with the equipment from the NWFCenter.

bapu


Hi,

Hi,

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Hi,

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Hi,

I must be high.

At least I try to say hello to everyone ... instead of simply trashing the thread!
 
Unffortunately, I take my art seriously, and though some of my pictures are not published or shown here (like Ozric Tentacles twice), in the end, I can't help thinking that the respect for the work to help some folks is simply not ..... whatevah!
 
Keep on Bapu'ing!

I can't help thinking that there must be a reason why the camera was placed in that spot - I've seen hundreds of Montreal Jazz Festival clips from the period and most of them seem to have quite good camera work, i.e. when John McLaughlin is shredding, you can see what he's doing. Maybe Colin's set was a spontaneous happening and they didn't have time to set the camera up properly. Who knows...but at the end of the day, this is some rare footage of the great man playing solo and I'm not going to knock it because I can't see his fingers. 

Wow.  Proof that he has fingers!  I was beginning to wonder...

(Hi!)