The Guitar Auction - Four Day Sale (03 Dec 24)
LIVE AUCTION - The Guitar Auction - Four Day Sale (Sale Date: 3 Dec 24 10:00AM) BID NOW at Gardiner Houlgate.
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Chris Cross, Ultravox bassist, RIP
- Thread starter Michedelic
- Start date
Wow. Thank you. Amazing, and sad. Now I don't feel so bad about my hoar…uh, I mean, collecting. Plus all the memorabilia, clothes, and especially his music collection. There were plenty of 'but, of course' titles, and some real surprises, but I appreciate his wide taste.The Guitar Auction - Four Day Sale (03 Dec 24)
LIVE AUCTION - The Guitar Auction - Four Day Sale (Sale Date: 3 Dec 24 10:00AM) BID NOW at Gardiner Houlgate.auctions.gardinerhoulgate.co.uk
It made me smile to see the Guild 301-B. When I saw them the first time, they did an encore of Eno's "King's Lead Hat" where both he and Midge were playing bass; one had the Guild and the other the white P-bass(I don't remember who was on which).
Similarly, coming up, Christie's is liquidating Jeff Beck's collection, a mind blowing but bittersweet event…
Plenty of historical gear there, but unfortunately both sales mark an end of an era.
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There's a duelling basses photo on the lot #23 description for the Guild, and footnote that mentions he used it during the Foxx era, and Ure used it for later bass battles.
The hammer went down at a pretty reasonable price, but then you have to add 26% fees (that's what I knew would push the Ibanez Musician beyond what I was willing to pay, but it still went at a reasonable price).
Can't believe how much his Squier went for - The power of Live Aid.
As for the EMS Synthi, yeah, would have been nice, but...
I was tempted to pick up one of those Rockman D.I. just for the Def Leppardness of them.
Ah, I didn't get that far with the individual listings, I just kept scrolling and scrolling, amazed at the volume of all his gear and other possessions. The Beck listings were like that as well, quite a few basses, novelty instruments, and surprises. I have a few items previously owned by name musicians, but acquired from an odd assortment of circumstances. The only auction item that I actually won was a Cioks DC10, off of Ebay, from Lou Reed's estate. I put a banana sticker on it.
"Vienna" was a good record. My band covered "All Stood Still" in the 80's -- over a thousand notes on the bass (I counted).
When I bought my first synth, the mono Sequential Circuits Pro-One(their answer to the Mini Moog)for bass duties largely inspired by Chris, it could accommodate two sequencer patches, unfortunately volatile. The very first riff I programmed was "All Stood Still". It later did not escape me that Berlin's "Metro" was swiped from that, and the greater irony was that the band that I started soon after I got the keyboard went on to open for them.
Wiki tells me that "All Stood Still" and "The Metro" both came out in 1980, so I wonder who had it first? Berlin was a new LA band, and British Ultravox had a new lineup, so it would be surprising if either was aware of the other.
I played "All Stood Still" finger style up on the 12th position on a fretless bass, using a Mutron octave divider. This would guarantee a muscle spasm today in about a minute.
I played "All Stood Still" finger style up on the 12th position on a fretless bass, using a Mutron octave divider. This would guarantee a muscle spasm today in about a minute.
"Metro" was first released as a single on a small label in 1981, then remixed for the Pleasure Victim album, first released on the indie Enigma label in 1982, then picked up by Geffen in 1983(all info from Wiki, and as I remember it). That's when they got the big MTV push, and we played with them in the spring of '83. They were kind of a bunch of wannabes, from Fullerton in Orange County. To me, the chord changes on the chorus of "Metro" always sounded suspiciously similar to Gary Numan's "Down In The Park" verse changes.
His recording tone with Ultravox always blew me away; it was a really deep hairy P-tone, picked. He made it sound like it belonged.
I absolutely love his tone on Reap The Wild Wind. Great bassline as well.
