Covers bands - what's the appeal?

[BOD2]

[quote name='Bilbo' post='974015' date='Oct 1 2010, 02:08 PM']There are now 25 people reading it.[/quote]

Nope 24. I just gave up and left.....

Doh ! No I didn't - I came back to add this reply

[Twigman]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='974016' date='Oct 1 2010, 02:09 PM']The answer is pretty apparent, even in this thread: Because it pays.[/quote]

So who plays bass for the money?

I know I don't.
I do get paid but that's not my motivation.

[xilddx]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='974012' date='Oct 1 2010, 02:05 PM']These things always end in a competition between bullshit analogies.[/quote]
That is a crap analogy isn't it.

How about this one. "Why wipe your arse with paper in England, when you can caress it with silk in India?"

[paul h]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='974016' date='Oct 1 2010, 02:09 PM']The answer is pretty apparent, even in this thread: Because it pays.[/quote]
Because it pays and playing live is fun and seeing audiences dance is cool and because not all songs are crap, even if they are by other people and because I'm 40 and I don't want to be famous any more.

[Conan]

[quote name='Twigman' post='974020' date='Oct 1 2010, 02:11 PM']So who plays bass for the money? I know I don't. I do get paid but that's not my motivation.[/quote]

That puts you in a pretty privileged position then, I would say. But I still don't see how or why that gives you the right to question or criticise the motivations of others...

[stingrayfan]

[quote name='Conan' post='974008' date='Oct 1 2010, 02:03 PM']Man! This thread's on FIRE!!![/quote]
Yeah we do that one in our cover band. It's by the Kings of Leon. People love it. :-D

[El Bajo]

This threads a bag of balls.

I love watching cover bands (if they are good). Beats listening to what those kids by the pool table have put into the jukebox, or the landlady sticking on her favorite Simply Red CD. I have a freind that has played covers to thousands and had everyone on their feet. I had a covers band at my wedding, it cost over £1000 and they where by far the tightest and best musicians I have seen in a long time.

I love playing in a covers band, I get to take out all those songs I learned when i was growing as a bass player and play them live. We learned Spirit of Radio, Don't let me down, Knights of Cydnia and Australia the other day and rocked out. Can't wait to play them in a live situation where I have that pressure of perfmorming in front of an audience knowing that if I destroy the song I'll look like a pleb. And I love getting a good reaction from the audience, we're all enjoying the music together.

On the other hand I understand the need for a creative outlet and I play in a prog rock band. Changes are 90% of the UK population will hate it and the other 9% will think its 'alright'. And we certainly don't have a following. But I love it, though at the moment I prefer the covers band!

Does that make me an entertainer or a musician. They are the same thing aren't they?

[paul h]

[quote name='stingrayfan' post='974029' date='Oct 1 2010, 02:14 PM']Yeah we do that one in our cover band. It's by the Kings of Leon. People love it. :-D[/quote]

I know that song! Therefore I reject it.

[3V17C]

i would imagine that not one person started out playing bass with the lofty ambition to be playing covers in pubs! However things change and personally I'd sooner be gigging with a (decent) covers band than not gigging at all.

A few years ago i started my own covers band playing the songs i want, in the venues i want, when i want and its all good. The gigs are much less hassle and you get paid reasonably. i do still do originals in another band though and gig all over the country in (mainly) decent venues and on decent bills so that keeps my 'artistic integrity' going.


peace

c

[Bilbo]

[quote name='Conan' post='974028' date='Oct 1 2010, 02:13 PM']. But I still don't see how or why that gives you the right to question or criticise the motivations of others...[/quote]

We all have the right to question and criticise the motivations of others, just as they have the right to ignore us and treat us with utter contempt. None of this matters, guys.

[tauzero]

[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]
Most of them still won't experience it because they're crap.

I enjoy playing good songs, whoever wrote them. I also enjoy creating basslines, which I get more freedom to do in the originals band (and, come to that, in the ceilidh band, which is a "trad. arr." band).

[lemmywinks]

[quote name='Twigman' post='973945' date='Oct 1 2010, 01:36 PM']playing covers doesn't make you a lesser bass player at all.

you are all probably much better than me

I just think covers bands may have their place at weddings or the like but it's not why i started playing bass........I certainly believe that covers bands take work away from originals bands and believe that that is bad for music

ergo covers bands are bad for music.

I disapprove.[/quote]

So if there were no covers bands then every pub would be full of adoring crowds dancing away to originals bands? Really?

If originals bands aren't pulling a crowd then they should improve and promote themselves. It takes more work for an originals band to build a crowd as before you get them to come to a gig nobody gives a sh1t about you. There is no built in audience, and that audience is usually a totally different one from the covers scene

What i don't understand is the whining - "you're killing music" blah blah blah. It's been done here before and every time has been shown to be a huge logical fallacy

Believe it or not some people will go to a pub on a weekend whether there's a band on or not, if they are hearing music they like played by a good band then they're likely to come back, spend more money etc.




Btw the covers scene and originals scene where i live is pretty dire, many venues make more money when they have no band on at all. Do you hear me whining that "DJs have killed music"?
No. Accept it, move on, play to your audience

[Conan]

[quote name='Bilbo' post='974034' date='Oct 1 2010, 02:16 PM']We all have the right to question and criticise the motivations of others, just as they have the right to ignore us and treat us with utter contempt. None of this matters, guys.[/quote]

Fair point.

Edited October 1, 2010 by Conan

[thisnameistaken]

[quote name='silddx' post='974022' date='Oct 1 2010, 02:12 PM']That is a crap analogy isn't it.

How about this one. "Why wipe your arse with paper in England, when you can caress it with silk in India?"[/quote]

Why experience the drudgery of a flight to India when you can have sedation and wake up there feeling a bit groggy and wondering why your bum hurts but still be grateful that you didn't have to make your own entertainment for a few hours.

[wateroftyne]

I blame the Third Reich.

[Bassassin]

I think I might've missed the boat with this one, but most bass players are happy to play covers because most bass players are not composers, and therefore have no particular personal investment in the music they are playing.

Jon.

[Twigman]

Whatever


It's Friday

I obviously touched a nerve.
There must be something in that.

LOL

[TimR]

[quote name='paul h' post='974023' date='Oct 1 2010, 02:12 PM']... because I'm 40 and I don't want to be famous any more.[/quote]

Yep. I sussed this when I was 22!

It takes a lot of hard work and luck to get famous.

I've seen some very bitter people who've spent their lives trying to get famous when none of their friends have had the bottle to tell them that their songs are not the great masterpieces they think they are.

Lots of unsigned originals artists would do well to play in a covers band to get experience of exactly what music is all about before they even pick up a pen.

Being in a covers band is HARD graft too. Anyone who has played a dinner dance will tell you that.

[Mr. Foxen]

[quote name='Bilbo' post='973970' date='Oct 1 2010, 01:45 PM']Because more people eat MacDonald's than at Michelin star restaraunts - not just because it costs less but because they don't like to be challanged.

Its a strange thing, isn't it. In every other walk of life; furniture making, fashion whatever, the customer expects to pay more for a specialist quality product and less for mass produced/production line stuff (like buying a bass?). More to the point, the workers involved in the production line work are paid less than the real craftsmen and are generally less skilled and certainly less satisfied. In music, it seems to be the other way around. The gigs go to those who reproduce the mass market material whilst the more creative/demanding skills of composition, arranging and the performance of art music etc are devalued almost to oblivion.

I say leave the production line work to them that likes it and I'll go apply for Arts Council funding for my musical theatre production based on the Communist Manifesto [/quote]

I am listening to Bilbo's music now, and enjoying it, it is not very familiar to me, mostly because his genre is outside my general exploration, I'd not know if the tunes are covers or not (presupposing the are within genre covers). I decided to hit the link whilst ignoring so many others because I think his attitude might produce music I enjoy.


[quote name='lemmywinks' post='974041' date='Oct 1 2010, 02:20 PM']So if there were no covers bands then every pub would be full of adoring crowds dancing away to originals bands? Really?

If originals bands aren't pulling a crowd then they should improve and promote themselves. It takes more work for an originals band to build a crowd as before you get them to come to a gig nobody gives a sh1t about you. There is no built in audience, and that audience is usually a totally different one from the covers scene

What i don't understand is the whining - "you're killing music" blah blah blah. It's been done here before and every time has been shown to be a huge logical fallacy

Believe it or not some people will go to a pub on a weekend whether there's a band on or not, if they are hearing music they like played by a good band then they're likely to come back, spend more money etc.




Btw the covers scene and originals scene where i live is pretty dire, many venues make more money when they have no band on at all. Do you hear me whining that "DJs have killed music"?
No. Accept it, move on, play to your audience[/quote]

Thing is, originals bands might not be motivated by showing off to an audience, or by making money for themselves or someone else. The more those are the motivation, the less likely I am to enjoy their music. So yes, bands that are aiming for audiences and money are killing music, because music I don't like is dead to me. In fact, when I'm at a gig, and there is a vast crowd of adoring fans, it totally annoys me, I'd rather be among very few people, so aiming for a crowd also kills my enjoyment of live music.

[wateroftyne]

[quote name='Twigman' post='974067' date='Oct 1 2010, 02:30 PM']I obviously touched a nerve.
There must be something in that.[/quote]
Trolling, more like...

[xilddx]

[quote name='Bassassin' post='974064' date='Oct 1 2010, 02:28 PM']I think I might've missed the boat with this one, but most bass players are happy to play covers because most bass players are not composers, and therefore have no particular personal investment in the music they are playing.

Jon.[/quote]
f*** me, Jon, that's extremely contentious!

[Doddy]

[quote name='Twigman' post='974020' date='Oct 1 2010, 02:11 PM']So who plays bass for the money?

I know I don't.
I do get paid but that's not my motivation.[/quote]

Sometimes I do-I have bills to pay after all.
I play both originals and covers-mostly covers. I regularly play to large audiences and have toured all around Europe and America. Plus,I don't need to have a day job,and I love every second of it.

[thisnameistaken]

[quote name='TimR' post='974068' date='Oct 1 2010, 02:30 PM']It takes a lot of hard work and luck to get famous.

I've seen some very bitter people who've spent their lives trying to get famous when none of their friends have had the bottle to tell them that their songs are not the great masterpieces they think they are.[/quote]

I think people in cover bands don't realise that people playing originals aren't doing it to "get famous". Maybe they've been playing covers for so long that they've forgotten what it's like to play music for fun instead of for money.

They could do to join an originals band and be reminded of why they started playing instruments in the first place.

[lemmywinks]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='974070' date='Oct 1 2010, 02:30 PM']Thing is, originals bands might not be motivated by showing off to an audience, or by making money for themselves or someone else. The more those are the motivation, the less likely I am to enjoy their music. So yes, bands that are aiming for audiences and money are killing music, because music I don't like is dead to me. In fact, when I'm at a gig, and there is a vast crowd of adoring fans, it totally annoys me, I'd rather be among very few people, so aiming for a crowd also kills my enjoyment of live music.[/quote]

Just because you disagree with their motives (however right or wrong you may be about them) doesn't mean they are "killing music" - such an idiotic phrase which is why it's in inverted commas

For most covers bands i know the motivation is pretty much just being able to get out there and play, they make a bit of beer money which they will most likely spend on beer and cab fare. Is a band that just wants to play a gig totally dead to you?

If there was a band playing covers of music you really liked and doing a really good job of it would you stop to listen?

[paul h]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='974082' date='Oct 1 2010, 02:38 PM']...Maybe they've been playing covers for so long that they've forgotten what it's like to play music for fun instead of for money.

They could do to join an originals band and be reminded of why they started playing instruments in the first place.[/quote]

Playing covers is fun. Playing originals is fun. I haven't forgotten why I started playing music. It's just that now I am old and married I do it for a different reason.