Date : 3rd May 2004 Allenby Campus Bramley Attendance : 17 Apologies : Bert Askes & Kerry Hiles 17 Bassists Present: Martin Simpson, Dave Askes, Wesley Chetty, Bruce McLachlan, Kai Horsthemke, Graeme Currie, Nippy Cripwell, Victor Masondo, Gerrie Lubbe, Clarence Davidson, Johann Kruger, Chriselda Brits, Juan Brits, Colin Deacon, Bongani Madide, Quinn Hawley & Philip Raath After an extremely disapointing turnout of only five people at our last meeting in March at the School of The Performing Arts due to a major communication breakdown, the S.A.B.P.C. guys bounced right back and seventeen lucky people enjoyed a great evening at Allenby. Gito’s death hung over our heads and people wanted to talk about it but the atmosphere was still one of vibrance and togetherness and though I’m speaking for the other guys, I feel that Gito would have approved of this. We all arrived at Allenby by 7:15 and after quite a long chat session between old mates that hadn’t seen each other for a few months, Graeme got started with his presentation of site reading but not before we had a photo shoot of the guys with their basses. The S.A.B.P.C. members organised themselves for some shots that will appear on the front page of the website in the coming months (and hopefully, next year’s calendar) and we even got some non-members to participate in a group shot of their own. After the photo shoot it was time for Graeme’s presentation. As is usual with Graeme’s presentations, we all sat transfixed with his knowledge and the manner in which he shares it. As is becoming a custom, Nippy imparted some of his vast knowledge to everyone present – we’ll have to convince the man to do a presentation of his own one day!!!! Everyone got involved in the presentation, clapping out the beats that Big G chalked up on the board and in what seemed no time at all it was 8:45 and just enough time left for me to run over some subjects regarding the website and the lack of its use by the county’s bassists. Graeme brought along a card for Gito’s family that we all signed and I’ll take this along to next weeks guitarists meeting to aquire more signatures before handing it over to Erika. Our upcoming joint meeting of the South African Bass Players Collective and The South African Guitar Players Association on 23rd August at Allenby was spoken about in depth and Graeme suggested that we kick off the evening of recitals at 18H30 to enable us to get a full two and a half hours worth of entertainment laid on. We’re hoping that this will be just the start of many collaborations between the two clubs and will strengthen the bonds between us. All those people interested in taking part in the evening of recitals must let me know their full intentions (number of tunes they intend to perform – maximum of two - and their titles) before 11th August as a programme needs to be drawn up for the evening’s events. The Next meeting will be held at Pretoria Tech on May 31st where we will enjoy a presentation by Marc Duby. Directions to the venue will be posted on the S.A.B.P.C. website in the next few days. Till next time Happy Bassin’ Martin