No TL for SEAL

[Psychicpet]

On a slight non-gear tangent but stil gear-esque, I saw Seal perform on Letterman the other night and much to my surprise his band was un-Levin'd! On his last world tour Seal was using TL as his bassist and when I heard he was gonna be on Dave I thought I'd get a chance to see one of MM's biggest supporters layin' down on Letterman... oh well, I guess Seal (a great singer/songwriter I love) has finally settled on keyboard to fulfill his lo-end needs .... still a great singer though!
Now back to bass.....
I've just been freaking out my tone a bit with my SansAmp for dist. and borrowed the Tech21 Killer Wail wah......very Audioslave... very fun, the coil tap on the SR5 is great to flip up to give the effects a little more juice from the pick-up or just turn up a little bass or mid. With effects running it's very easy to see just how many different tones are under the Ray's hood. What great basses we all play...

 

[hendmik]

Having watched tonylevin.com fairly closely this past year, he's been working primarily with Peter Gabriel and most likely wouldn't have been available to record/tour with Seal. He's obviously an extremely busy guy, so this shouldn't really be a surprise to anyone.

 

[Psychicpet]

Ya, I'm a daily TL.com surfer myself but with the way Tony was filling in with Kevin Parent and then given his talents I thought it'd have been easy enough for Seal to have one 45min. rehearsal with Tony for the one song perf. but it does look as though his touring band could change due to the relative early stages of his album release and if it does take off then hopefully TL might fill in and come back through Vancouver yet again

 

[Eric Moesle]

If I remember correctly, TLev toured with Seal about a year and a half ago, and commented that the tour was cancelled only after a few shows, there was little if any turnout. TLev missed out on a King Crimson tour because of his committment to Seal, and the tour fizzled. Its possible that TLEV wouldn't jump on another risky Seal project if he had other possibles in the wings. Who knows.

 

[Psychicpet]

True enough, but if a contract was signed I'm sure Tony would've gotten his terms regardless of Seal having cancelled the tour, I'm sure it would've been the label/Seal that would have took it on the chin for having to pay out band contracts for a cancelled tour.. I'm guessing..

.... make sure you get it in writing every time!!!

 

[Eric Moesle]

While I'm certain that a seasoned pro like TLev would have had a contract for the Seal tour, it may have provided for a "per show" fee or a weekly rate, not necessarily a "tour" rate.

If it was a weekly or per-show pay, I'm sure he lost out by missing the Crimson tour . . .

 

[Psychicpet]

true, and not to mention the fun of playimg with Crim .

 

[LeftyLB]

I think Eric has hit the nail on the head with his comments. Here in his home country, Seal's new album is not getting very favourable reviews - Comparing him to the "Lighthouse Family".

They accuse him of producing very lightweight pop tunes that do not do justice to his enormous vocal talent. Seal was always going to struggle after the success he had in the mid nineties, as he cleaned up with grammy's and brit awards on the strength of his second album.

More worryingly, a review of a small key gig he did in London last month quoted his backing band as looking completely bored - if that was the case they should be sacked on the spot and I will play bass for him for free anytime he wants and I will have the most energetic grin on my face all night.

On the strength of what we have seen so far this year, I cannot see any tour being given the financial support to get the big guns like TL in for the tour - I do hope that I am wrong!

I saw TL on tour with Peter Gabriel in London in May and he is the absolute bassmeister - He is the same age as my dad!!! there is hope for us all.



LB