TimR

Blame the drummer. I would. If he’s not keeping time you probably find that there’s a lot of interplay going on between the two of you and you’re probably normally carrying him when you play together. As soon as you’re not playing together it’ll be impossible to lock in to each other. If he’s not even playing to click and you’re trying to follow him then you have absolutely nothing to go on.

It’s a bit of a Curates egg. I’ve played originals in a pub that when we started there was just one man and a dog. And by the time we finished the dog had gone home.

One day I’ll write a list of the thousand plus songs I’ve ever had to play in any band. Narrowing it down to three of those will be a hard task. Each one will remind me of some battle with a drummer/guitarist/keyboard player/singer over some completely irrelevant minutia of detail that one of them has spotted and insist we replicate, ignoring that the rest of the band hasn’t captured the feel and in some cases failed to even get the basic chords right. The curse of the musician. Just listening to Sultans of Swing in a pub right now. I’d forgotten how subtle the playing is in Dire Straits. Great band. Apart for Money for Nothing - I played that in a band in 1986. That’s going first on my list. Gold - Spandau Ballet. Played with a drummer who couldn’t play a triplet feel and stamped all over the vocal line with his right foot and 5 beat bar fills. Moon River - ruined for me by a drunk guitarist who played it in 4/4 for a first dance at a golden wedding anniversary gig and the drummer just followed him in. I don’t think any songs are particularly bad, but many take a horrible life of their own once you’ve tried to gig them 😂

@warwickhunt the problem is often audiences don’t show their appreciation until the end. Not everyone wants to dance. I’ve had gigs where nothing we play seems to get anyone moving. But at the end there’s a queue of people waiting to shake our hands and thank us for an entertaining night. Go figure.

Life is too short to play with bad drummers. Dep gigs or auditioning, if the drummer can’t keep time and/or doesn’t have feel, I’m out.

I got paid £70 for a dep gig last week. Maybe 2 hours to run through set at home. 2 hours travelling, 3 hours at the gig. That’s about £10 an hour for a gig. My regular band seem to want to practice 2 hours every week, I’m not sure why. We don’t get £70 a gig and don’t play more than once a month and we don’t play music I’d ever listen to. I’m pretty sure I’m playing to play in that band even with a free rehearsal space. Rehearsal is starting to be a waste of my time, gigging though I see as the end game and we usually have a decent and appreciative crowd.

They’d have to aggressively pursue anyone dressing up as Kiss and playing Kiss songs. It would be very hard to do.

Performing other people’s music is easy. Composing other people’s music is impossible.

Their last album was 2012, 7 years ago. That’s still relatively recent and recent enough for them to tour with the lineup that created that album. I’m not sure what the cut off would be for me. If we are talking about bands, the band I was a founder member of in 1996 is still playing. The only member remaining is the drummer. Technically, over the last 23 years he has only ever played in ‘one’ band. Personally I’d find that quite limiting, I like to have a complete change every now and again. It was actually a pretty good release and revelation when I left that band as I was beginning to think I wasn’t a very good bass player.

Yes. But if they’re still making and recording new music that’s popular, they’re not hanging on the successes of others who went before them decades ago. They’re still a ‘real’ band, rather than one approaching a tribute act.

The lineup that recorded the last big hit.

Irrespective, MCCartney is a pretty bad example. He’s not wandering around incognito most of the time and then popping up for a performance dressed up as a 1960s version of himself with 3 other people and still claiming to be the Beatles. In fact I’d say he is the polar opposite. He’s moved on and had success with many other projects. Fair enough he’s had the money and hit the big time at the right time that others haven’t managed but for the purposes of the discussion I’d say he doesn’t fit our description. Now the Bootleg Beatles are probably more along the lines of the ultimate direction that these bands will end up being. There’s nothing wrong with that at all as far as I can see. I just think it’s a bit weird when the performers have forgotten that they’re playing a part when they step on stage. That part is ‘the person they were 30 years ago’, fine, wear a wig, wear odd clothes, put on an exciting and dynamic performance, but I think the only person they’re kidding is themselves. There was a great Saxon program done where they tried to be relaunched from playing in Spanish clubs to age related audiences, to become a modern, relevant British heavy metal band. And they weren’t really up for it and it fell flat. Some people are living their onstage persona still, when really they should have moved on. Perform as that person, but 30 years on who in their 50s and older, really recognises themselves as that 20 something rebel?

Indeed. A very realistic wig. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-6621355/amp/Paul-McCartney-76-looks-chilly-steps-New-York-City-amid-plunging-temperatures.html

McCartney doesn’t wear a wig. I assume he was showing typical British humour when he made that remark.

That really depends on what the business entity Status Quo is, and what partnerships and contracts are involved with the other members.

Yes. That’s been well known for a long while. There was an interview with Daltry about choosing a new drummer and the new choice of ‘the four to the floor guy’ didn’t fit with the rest of them. Having a powerful melodically strong rhythm section meant Townsend being pushed into rhythm guitar position a lot of the time.

@Barking Spiders the longer and older bands get, the more they start to resemble West End Musicals or any other travelling play. People don’t expect to see certain lead ‘actors’, unless they’re specifically advertised as being there, and essentially there’s only one ‘licensed’ version going on at any one time. If the audience don’t like that, then they vote with their feet, whether it’s right or wrong is a moot point. But clinging on to a version of the original band isn’t really facing up to facts. It’s just entertainment at the end of the day.

At what point do you stop playing music with the musicians you created it with, and start to play the part of someone who used to be in a band? If you’re dressing up and putting on wigs to make yourself look like someone else (even a former version of yourself), playing music written 30 years ago, then it’s gone from the former to the latter.

Indeed. It does become a little bit embarrassing to watch though. Usually in a small local theatre or holiday camp. If these guys are the creative musicians or even professional level musicians they think they are, with all their contacts and history, it shouldn’t be too hard to start completely new bands with new songs. If I was playing holiday camps in 2019 with a band that hadn’t had a hit since 1989, and it was my sole income, I’d be wondering exactly what I was trying to achieve. If it’s a weekend turn up and play and take the money, that’s probably exactly the same as most of us are doing, but we are doing it with more transparency, I don’t wear a wig and pretend I’m 40 years younger than I am...

Iron Maiden had it sussed.

Get some cards printed. Go watch some cover bands. Work out who the main man is and chat. Put cards up in local guitar shop. Same as advertising yourself as available to join a band but just not as a permanent player. The more bands you play with, the more word will get around. I’m playing in a covered band but do the occasional dep for people I’ve played with before or people they know.

Have you considered depping?

I listened to it live on Radio 2. Thought it sounded awesome. Crowd were loving it. I cant image watching them to be particularly riveting. I’m sure they used to add loads of dancers in hot pants to their gigs to liven it up.

No one should come to first rehearsal with any specific ideas of how you are going to play the song. Unless someone has sat down and written out arrangements, the first play though is to feel how a song goes with your individual’s abilities and styles. After a few play throughs it should be obvious 1. Whether the song works. 2. What parts clash. 3. Which bits are empty and whether they need filling. Deciding on a fill, before you’ve even played a note is daft. So is deciding on a harmonic line when you’re just assuming that the guitarist will be playing what’s on the original recording. If you’re not, why should he be? And people who can’t play bass showing me how to play a line on bass is always entertaining. I let them show me, say “That’s interesting”, mostly it’ll be an incoherent mess, then I do what I want.

@casapete Yes. I went outside and ordered it on my phone for delivery next day. Same price.