TimR

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.

Which makes me suspect that it’s done deliberately to get customers into the shop. I had exactly the same conversation practically word for word in two separate Currys stores. They really didn’t want to sell me the PC. Suggesting the next model up. Then checking stock to find that the 3 on the system didn’t exist and when I suggested I’d buy the one on display, both stores spent at least 15 minutes ‘looking for the boxes’ before deciding they couldn’t find them and on no account could they sell them without the box. The same happened with Bluetooth headphones in 3 stores. The £15 ones wouldn’t be suitable for me, then they couldn’t find any in the stock room. I wonder how many people are upsold all sorts of things.

I think online stock levels still require a certain amount of manual intervention. Not bass related but I was after a kickboard for my kitchen from B&Q. My 4 local stores all had it in stock. I visited them all, after the second one I phoned ahead to the third one. Yes. They had one in stock. Finally it seems that the item I wanted was discontinued anyway. I doubt it’s done deliberately, except for PCWorld/Curry’s where they definitely stock extremely cheap PCs to get people into the store and then upsell, it’s just bad management of inventory.

I think it’s partly because often you come out of a big chorus into a verse for the solo and that’s usually when a song scales back anyway. I think the way forward is to record the song and see if it actually is losing drive and thickness or whether it’s my imagination. I’d then be able to play around in my own time and see what works.

We kind of have. And the bottom falls out of the songs in the solos and the songs lose momentum. Yes. Space, and light and shade are important but don’t think the guitar solo is necessarily the right place for them.

Cool. No one will remember the bum note and half the audience won’t notice a guitar out of tune if your singer is running around and getting all the attention.

I think they’re some Pink and Christine Aguillera numbers. Lots of strings/keys padding the sound. Some of them need to descend to D so mean playing up the octave.

Timescale-wise. We have learned about 12 songs from scratch in about as many practices and played our first ‘full’ gig with the new singer two weeks ago. We have a 30minute slot to fill on Saturday evening with the last practice last night. Sitting down and working out arrangements doesn’t really happen, we jam through a song and improvise round it to see if it works quickly. Then develop it or scrap it depending on first impressions.

Indeed it can. However that takes time. The songs are evolving slowly. Most of them are fine. Just two or three that have no baseline other than 8th root notes.