Rich

I've never heard a shim speak...

Going out as a 4 is fine if you can't make it, but to leave you out simply to get a few quid more each? All it says is that you personally are less important to them than an extra tenner, and that is outrageous. You're a band member, if you're available you should be included for the gig. As Paul said, either split it five ways or don't do it. Sounds like these 'kids' have a lot to learn.

In my ska band, if I can't make a gig Mark the rhythm guitarist takes over bass duties and the normally guitarless frontman does rhythm duties. Interestingly Mark and I never discuss our bass parts and how we approach them - there's no "I play that run differently" or anything. If neither of us can make a gig, it doesn't happen - Mark is the only bass dep they'll use.

My reaction to that would be "fine, in that case I'll sex & travel and you can play them all as a quartet then".

"Top Ten"s are meaningless. Music is a way of life, not a competition.

I've been trying for ages to get Dancing Queen into the Destroyers party set. There's a brilliant horn section part hiding in there somewhere just waiting for our MD to devise it and write it out and it'd be a 100% cast iron guaranteed floor-filler. And as a bonus, that gorgeous bassline.

Ditto, reported. He knows perfectly well that it's not a Leo.

I was in one band for a while where the keyboard player's ladyfriend came along to every rehearsal. Never said a thing, just sat there nursing a drink. After a few weeks I mentioned to him the fact that she didn't say much. "Oh yeah," he said, "she's Dutch, her English is non existent." Turned out he had, errm, obtained her services one night in Amsterdam and got on quite well, so she came home with him. Yes, he was a bit weird.

I can't speak for Pete, and no I wasn't there either. Maybe you're a bit easier-going than me, or a bit more patient. I dunno. I'm lucky, I haven't been in rehearsal rooms where that or worse happened, but I'd only be in there once. Like I said, life's too short.

I would venture that a bandmate who loses his temper, to the extent that he has to be taken outside to calm down, is NOT a minor issue. I'm happy to 'deal with' many things, but that? Nah.

Feel, my árse (that's a statement, not a request ) I've got to that don't-suffer-fools, "life is too short to..." age. In this case, life is far too short to tread lightly around people with anger issues, especially if that anger stems from having their inability to show the most basic musical competence pointed out to them. PiIIocks like him just make me cross. If he can't or won't calm the feck down, stop blethering about 'feel', get his head round sticking to a song structure and stop hamstringing the band, the only logical course is either to bin him or, if the band won't show him the door, walk.

Done

I just had a flashback to my O level maths classes at school, and the teacher who had breath so bad it probably contravened several articles of the Geneva Convention.

Roadblock - Stick, Ashcan and Watercloset

It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow - Irving Berlin

Too Drunk to F**k - Dead Kennedys

Love on the Rocks - Neil Diamond

Have You Got a Light, Boy? - The Singing Postman

Kick Out The Jams - MC5