Covers bands - what's the appeal?

[Twigman]

So many of you play in covers bands, in fact it seems to me that all of you do!!!

What is the appeal of playing in a covers band?

I've never understood it.

I've always played in a band that writes and performs its own material - very very very rarely have we ever thrown a cover into our set and I always felt it was a pointless exercise.

Does anyone here, apart from me, play in a band that writes its own material?

[Dave Vader]

[quote name='Twigman' post='973812' date='Oct 1 2010, 12:26 PM']What is the appeal of playing in a covers band?

I've never understood it.[/quote]

You get paid, and people come and see you. And not just musos staring at your fingers and calling your gear sh*t, women, women who dance, and wear skimpy clothes.

[wateroftyne]

I've spent most of my life playing original material, and it's been fun & rewarding because the songwriters I've been lucky to work with have been brilliant (I can say this, 'cos I don't write the tunes).

IMO, there's not point playing original material unless you genuinely believe that it's great. Playing original material for original material's sake is pointless.

My gigs are 70/30 in favour of original material (it varies depending on the band). To be honest, I don't really care who wrote the tune... a good tune is a good tune.

Edited October 1, 2010 by wateroftyne

[Twigman]

[quote name='Dave Vader' post='973814' date='Oct 1 2010, 12:28 PM']You get paid, and people come and see you.[/quote]
Same here.


So what's your point?

[Mr. Foxen]

The vast majority of people would rather have numbingly familiar than stimulating and new.

[Dave Vader]

[quote name='Twigman' post='973822' date='Oct 1 2010, 12:32 PM']Same here.


So what's your point?[/quote]

Out here in the sticks of Devon, people don't like things they don't know. While I appreciate that original material is far better, and I used to love doing it, really, still do when I get the chance, realistically unless I were to move to a decent sized city (London etc.) I am not going to get gigs that pay and have audiences with original material.

I am very jealous that you are btw. Once I got past 30 I realised I was unlikely to get many more chances to make money playing my own music, so I picked up my bass and answered some adverts, now I do alright.

Don't have the time or the energy outside of work/family life to build up a decent following for an originals band now, plus being over 30 means it's only folk or jazz left to me

[Norris]

It depends what you're after. If you're serious about having a career in music, you would probably want to go for an originals or a tribute band. If, like me, you work for a living and just play music for fun & beer money, a covers band is a lot easy to get regular *local* work. I don't really want to be travelling all over the country several nights a week. I did a lot more playing in my youth, but it just hurts too much getting up for the day job now-a-days, when you've not got in until 2, 3 or 4 am.

There are a lot of very serious and committed bass players on this forum. I'm one of the more casual ones

[Low End Bee]

I don't do the covers thing but I can totally see the appeal.

People singing and dancing along. Easier to get pub gigs. Don't need to bring your own crowd. Quicker to learn an existing song than arrange and write one yourself. Pick from thousands of great songs. Still playing live music.

I get paid too. But I could get paid on a more regular basis doing covers. It's just a choice. We're two sides of the same coin.

Are the LSO a covers band?

[Raggy]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='973826' date='Oct 1 2010, 12:35 PM']The vast majority of people would rather have numbingly familiar than stimulating and new.[/quote]

Thats pretty much it there ^

[Lozz196]

Having played in both originals bands, and covers bands, I would describe them like this.

Originals band
You love the songs/music
Venues generally pay you very badly
The audience can either be really into it, or not, depending on their individual tastes
You`re considered "lucky" to gig on a fri/sat, and have had to put a great deal of work in to get that far
You usually play with 3 or 4 other bands, and have 15min changeovers, with everyone on stage in each others way

Covers band
You love the songs/music
Venues generally pay you rather well
The audience usually get into it, as what you`re playing is familiar to them
Its virtually a given that you will only be offered fri/sat gigs
Its rare that you play with any other bands, you`re usually the only band for the whole eve

I love what both types offer, but the covers band I`m in now is more "comfortable" in terms of both physical comfort, and financial comfort.

[Twigman]

[quote name='Norris' post='973830' date='Oct 1 2010, 12:37 PM']It depends what you're after. If you're serious about having a career in music, you would probably want to go for an originals or a tribute band. If, like me, you work for a living and just play music for fun & beer money, a covers band is a lot easy to get regular *local* work. I don't really want to be travelling all over the country several nights a week. I did a lot more playing in my youth, but it just hurts too much getting up for the day job now-a-days, when you've not got in until 2, 3 or 4 am.

There are a lot of very serious and committed bass players on this forum. I'm one of the more casual ones [/quote]

We don't play gigs week in week out and we don't play often enough to make a living from it.
Generally we do it for fun though - it's hardly a career as such, although to some, given our discography, it may seem like one.
Yes, we put the work in early on, gigging to empty halls with disinterested audiences but that's all part of it....

And we have the luxury of most of our gigs being fly aways to the Med for a Fri/Sat show, so we get a weekend away with the lads with someone else footing the bill and come back with more cash than we left with - could you do that with a covers band?

Edited October 1, 2010 by Twigman

[arthurhenry]

The point is, you gig instead of sitting at home. Many start off in covers bands with the intention of moving on to original stuff, but it doesn't always happen. Remember, the Beatles were a cover band. To me it's very satisfying to play live often and get paid whilst still being able to play the way I like to play and express myself on my instrument (man) on the foundation of a well known song. I genuinely play bass in covers bands just the way I would in original bands, I wouldn't have it any other way.

[Clarky]

I have played for over 2 years in an originals punk band (the songs are very good IMHO). There's a limit, however, to the number of times you can play to a handful of people without thinking about the more instant gratification you get from seeing a crowd loving the music because they are familiar with it. If you're not doing it for a living its supposed to be about having fun isn't it? Playing late on a Monday night in a Camden bar to around 10 people (4 of whom are from the last band on the line-up) knowing your alarm goes off at 5.30am isn't always my idea of fun!

[Dave Vader]

[quote name='Twigman' post='973844' date='Oct 1 2010, 12:46 PM']And we have the luxury of most of our gigs being fly aways to the Med for a Fri/Sat show, so we get a weekend away with the lads with someone else footing the bill and come back with more cash than we left with - could you do that with a covers band?[/quote]

Not always, but we do get the odd one (specialist 80s, more tribute than covers really, certainly no artistic integrity, but we do charge through the nose for one like this).

[chrisba]

[quote]You get paid, and people come and see you. And not just musos staring at your fingers and calling your gear sh*t, women, women who dance, and wear skimpy clothes. smile.gif[/quote]

Spot on. The guy that runs our band says "We are entertainers. People come to the pubs we play in or pay us to play at their parties because they want to be entertained. If we could write songs that are more entertaining to our audience than the covers we play, then we would, but we aren't clever enough to do so."

I would rather play covers to 200 drunken students than original music to 20 introvert musicians. Loads more fun.

[Twigman]

[quote name='chrisba' post='973851' date='Oct 1 2010, 12:52 PM']I would rather play covers to 200 drunken students than original music to 20 introvert musicians. Loads more fun.[/quote]

Not as much fun as playing originals to 1000 diehard fans though, believe me!!

[Mr. Foxen]

Not as fun as playing Doom in front of 200 speakers.

[wateroftyne]

[quote name='Twigman' post='973854' date='Oct 1 2010, 12:54 PM']Not as much fun as playing originals to 1000 diehard fans though, believe me!!

[/quote]
Of course it goes without saying that you're in a minority - most orignals bands (or covers bands, even) don't get to experience this.

But you know that, don't you.

[crez5150]

Money..........

[the_skezz]

Cos while people seem to enjoy our originals, they're not familiar enough with them to really get into things. Hence a lot of cover material slowly being replaced by originals as we write them - the audience knows the songs and like the familiarity.

Plus Territorial Pissings as a closer is f***ing [i]brilliant[/i].

[Twigman]

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='973860' date='Oct 1 2010, 12:57 PM']Of course it goes without saying that you're in a minority - most orignals bands (or covers bands, even) don't get to experience this.

But you know that, don't you.[/quote]

Most originals bands give up before they get the opportunity to experience this - I'd agree.

.....but what if they hadn't given up?

[paul h]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='973826' date='Oct 1 2010, 12:35 PM']The vast majority of people would rather have numbingly familiar than stimulating and new.[/quote]

I keep trying to reply to this but I don't know where to start.

I am quite familiar with any number of songs. Some of them I would even qualify as "favourites". Is that wrong? Should I only listen to new songs. Then what happens after I am familiar with those? I'm confused.



Sounds like the sort of thing I would have said after an empty originals gig.

[Clarky]

[quote name='Twigman' post='973869' date='Oct 1 2010, 01:00 PM']Most originals bands give up before they get the opportunity to experience this - I'd agree.

.....but what if they hadn't given up?[/quote]
We've been going for two years but we're a minority interest (originals punk) and we've never had a crowd bigger than 100 (of which perhaps 30-40 to see us, the remainder the other bands). Last year has been a disaster with crowd sizes falling sharply (recession, I'm sure, especially on weekday nights) and its been tough to get any joy out of it. We played a gig a few months back where we ended up as the entire crowd (the three of us and Mrs Clarky) for the headlining band, a reasonably well known punk act from the '70s.

If you play to 1,000 diehard fans you are a lucky sod. Like WoT says, you are DEFINITELY in the minority

[wateroftyne]

[quote name='Twigman' post='973869' date='Oct 1 2010, 01:00 PM']Most originals bands give up before they get the opportunity to experience this - I'd agree.

.....but what if they hadn't given up?[/quote]
99% of the time, they'd be playing to 20 people in the back room of a pub.

That's the reality..

[wateroftyne]

[quote name='paul h' post='973875' date='Oct 1 2010, 01:04 PM']I am quite familiar with any number of songs. Some of them I would even qualify as "favourites". Is that wrong? Should I only listen to new songs. Then what happens after I am familiar with those? I'm confused.[/quote]
You do what Mr. Foxen presumably does. Buy a CD, listen to it, hurl it in the bin, and then look for something stimulating and new.