Current NCM
(Many more postings to come, please check back with us.)
#39 Pete Henderson 1965
June 6, 2010
OK, here's a story for you! It happened on the last chorus of the last song of the last day of our 1966 10-day tour of Japan. The promoter had provided a cheap standup bass for me and I was slapping madly away on it (the song was "Saint's Train") when I noticed that the strings were getting farther and farther away from the fingerboard. Next thing I noticed . . . my bass was in TWO PIECES. I was left with the body and the neck/fingerboard which had become unglued. This put quite a damper on our finale. To put a good face on it, Skiles collected all the flowers that were onstage for the girls, put them between the f-holes in the body along with the neck and strings and all the guys in the group became pallbearers as we slowly marched the dead bass offstage humming Chopin's "Funeral March.
You'd think the audience would have laughed at this, but no. Instead there was a grim hush over the whole crowd. They were aghast that my ax had self-destructed right before their eyes. Ah, those serious Japanese! LOL
BTW, I am most pleased to be a part of the NCM once more. Apparently retirement is receding into the distance. Good!