How did you get into music? When did you start reading music? When did you start playing bass? When did you become a professional musician? How did you start playing with Jools Holland? How did you switch from upright to bass guitar in Jools Holland’s band? What’s your approach to playing so many high-profile sessions with world famous musicians? Have you worked with any of your musical heroes? How do you choose the right bass for each gig or studio session? What amps do you use and why? What do you practice and how does your technique change between upright and electric bass? Did you even play with Squeeze?
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When and how did you finally come to play bass guitar in the band?

DS Well the first time I used it, it got rejected! One of my earliest TV appearances with Jools was a show for Amnesty International. We were the house band and we had to play for Lisa Stansfield, Mica Paris, Sam Brown (before she became a permanent member) Rick Astley and Desree. Mica did ‘I Put A Spell On You’ so I thought “OK, double bass will be good for that” but the rest of the songs, as far as I was concerned, had to be on bass guitar. This was not only because of the style of music, but the original bass parts were either played on a synth, or a five string bass. Either way, I needed those low B’s C’s & D’s. The only bass I had at the time with a low B was a Ken Smith six string. Jools didn’t like it one bit! Didn’t like the sound, the look, or the vibe, so I did the whole show on double bass. It went fine I guess, but my nose was a little out of joint, though I had adapted the bass parts and everyone seemed happy.

Didn’t a similar thing happen during the filming of Chris Evans ‘Don’t forget your Toothbrush’ on Channel 4?

DS That really was the big turning point in me switching to bass guitar. That show was broadcast ‘live’ so the band were under an enormous amount of pressure. If one of us screwed up while playing for, say, Roger Daltry, the whole nation heard it right there and then in their homes. And Roger wouldn’t have been too pleased either! Anyway, I’d been using the double bass for all the shows, which kept Jools happy. Then, one week the guest was Chaka Khan. I couldn’t believe it! I was, and still am a huge fan of hers, this was a dream come true for me. The two songs she wanted to do were ‘I’m Every Woman” and ‘Ain’t Nobody’. I thought “Great” but there is no way I was going to play those songs on double bass. I told Jools, but he wasn’t thrilled by the idea.

Why? Surely he must have realized the bass guitar was the more suitable choice?

DS His feeling was, the band had it’s own sound, it’s own identity, he didn’t want us to be yet another characterless, generic TV house band. I totally understood and appreciated what he was saying but in this instance, when I’m about to play for one of my all time favourite artists live on TV, I had to stand my ground, and I did. So that night I played my white 77/78 Fender Jazz. The only other dilemma was what to do about the low E flats in ‘Ain’t Nobody’? First of all I thought about detuning the E string, which would of course change the positioning of all the other notes on that string. I hadn’t done much detuning in the past, and this hardly seemed the ideal time to be experimenting! So I used a Boss Octave pedal, and played the line up the octave. I kept the pedal on for ‘I’m Every Woman’ to get the synth sound that was on the remixed version we had been given on cassette. Yes, that’s right, cassette! All went well, and Chaka was thrilled, as I know we all were.