Played a blinding gig last night...

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

..but it was on the cards. Played a gig last night at The Sportsman (Croxley Green).Never been there before,barstaff and guvnor great
Ordered 1st round of drinks ,they were free. Cool! Did gig , people were getting into it etc.

We get paid,then singer quits. The arrangement was we were gonna have a 'band meeting ' after this gig.
Myself and Mr. Drums didn't think we needed one and all could've been said at next rehearsal.
The general consensus ,was that we weren't doing enough songs as we'd like and that progress was slow.

Myself and Mr. Drums have been at most rehearsals,unlike the 2 guitarists and singer with holidays .
One of the guitarists broke his wrist and we waited for a few weeks for it to heel.

I've had a terrible year,and was a bit slow learning one or two i m o tricky songs ,as my brother moved in
and my job is freaking me out and depressing me.I was upfront with the band on this,and only Mr. Drums understands.
The majority of the latter stuff was all cover songs chosen by one of the guitarists and the singer. When I learnt songs,the guitarist wasn't ready
but nothing was said about that. Songs were ignored when I was ready,but when I think we ain't doin' 'em anymore they resurface and someone else
hasn't learnt them. Then I get blame for being slow learning them.

I t hink that it's all one way traffic with the blunt guitarist and the singer,so I'm not gonna pursue this anymore.

We are ripped apart(which was the name of the band) Think I'll stay home and play with myself for a bit

Edited November 28, 2010 by RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE

[icastle]

That really sucks but there is a good side to this.

It means you can sit back and concentrate on sorting out the other stuff you're not happy about without band politics distracting you or adding to the situation.
It gives you a chance to get some practice in, learn some new tricks and get your act really polished.
Once you're stress free and polished a band will snap you up and value your input more than you've been getting of late.
A band that truly values you will bend over backwards to keep you onboard.

So, you sort out the first two things and the last two will just fall into place.

See - told ya there was a good side to it

[Prime_BASS]

In exactly the same situation.

Our singer and 2 guitarists are unhappy with how things are going. Me and Mr.drums (sorry got to steal that) think everything is fine, we gig regularly and are building up new material.

The others feel it's slow, boring or whatever else. They call a band meeting and basically call the shots, they don't want to do any more gigs until we have a whole new set. "WTF?" was my answer but in a more polite and long winded way. We end up agreeing that we will focus on writing new material. But since then only the rhythm guitarist has bothered to turn up, the others with claims of being "ill" and having to look after siblings.

Later we find that the singer "cba" and the lead guitarist made himself busy.

I don't understand how they can be so demanding then not bother to turn up to rehearsals.

Before myself and the drummer joined they had been together 9 months and had 2 original songs, in the 10 months we have been with them we have roughly 45 minutes of originals and covers. So it's hardly been as slow as they think in my eyes.

I just don't understand what's up with them really, I feel as though they are being mardy and pathetic with no good reason. How can they expect more from others when they don't give more themselves?

I dunno.... Im rather vexed at the whole situation.

[leschirons]

I sympathise with both of you. It can all get very one sided at times. Makes me think that one day I'll just say f*** it and do home recording on my own and the odd dep.

Seems in both your cases you have a good thing going with each of your drummers so maybe try and find some like minded people to join up with.

[icastle]

[quote name='Prime_BASS' post='1040591' date='Nov 28 2010, 11:20 PM']In exactly the same situation.

Our singer and 2 guitarists are unhappy with how things are going. Me and Mr.drums (sorry got to steal that) think everything is fine, we gig regularly and are building up new material.

The others feel it's slow, boring or whatever else. They call a band meeting and basically call the shots, they don't want to do any more gigs until we have a whole new set. "WTF?" was my answer but in a more polite and long winded way. We end up agreeing that we will focus on writing new material. But since then only the rhythm guitarist has bothered to turn up, the others with claims of being "ill" and having to look after siblings.

Later we find that the singer "cba" and the lead guitarist made himself busy.

I don't understand how they can be so demanding then not bother to turn up to rehearsals.

Before myself and the drummer joined they had been together 9 months and had 2 original songs, in the 10 months we have been with them we have roughly 45 minutes of originals and covers. So it's hardly been as slow as they think in my eyes.

I just don't understand what's up with them really, I feel as though they are being mardy and pathetic with no good reason. How can they expect more from others when they don't give more themselves?

I dunno.... Im rather vexed at the whole situation.[/quote]

A couple of months should be long enough to get a complete gigs worth of covers ready but, unless you have a truly fantastic songwriter amongst them, coming up with enough original [b]and[/b] quality material to do a complete gig is going to take one hell of a lot longer.

I guess the question "what do you want out of this?" needs to be asked of your AWOL band members.
If they want to gig then they need to understand that it's going to be a long time coming if they refuse to do covers.
If they want to songwrite then they need to understand that it's going to be quite a long time until you have enough quality material to do a complete gig.

The best compromise would be to have a mixture of covers and originals - that'll open more doors for gigging and allow you to perform whilst spending some quality time on writing material (if thats where they want to go).

However, neither option is going to work unless they put the same effort into it that you and Mr Drummer have been trying to.
I have to say that you're a lot more patient than me - I certainly wouldn't stay with a band that had taken 10 months to get 45 mins of material together!

[chris_b]

Don’t waste your time on amateurs; you need to find players with a more professional attitude.

[yorick]

Take your drummer and find another band. Write new stuff with him, take singing lessons

[neepheid]

Similar situation to me - the band I was in broke up. We had a few weeks off while the singer moved house (fair enough) and I instigated a meet down the pub to get things kick started again. Guitarist announces that he feels the band has run its course. As the main creative source in the band that meant tatties over the side for the band. There's more to it than that, but I'm not going to discuss it publicly. Suffice to say it was a bolt out of the blue to the rhythm section.

Singer, drummer and myself are going to get someone new and start from scratch. In the mean time I've been keeping myself busy with ska covers and augmenting some folky stuff with bass (no drums) which seems to work quite well.

[Wolverinebass]

[quote name='leschirons' post='1040612' date='Nov 28 2010, 11:35 PM']Makes me think that one day I'll just say f*** it and do home recording on my own and the odd dep.[/quote]

That's what I've done at the moment. Just concentrating on my own stuff as I just have it lying about to record. I'm sick and tired of trying out for bands. So many folk are just idiots. Some of them incredibly talented idiots I grant you, but idiots nonetheless.

A month ago, I did a gig with a band just for fun. Had to learn 10 songs in an evening. No pressure eh?!! Did it just as an exercise to see if I actually could and the gig was great. I wasn't fussed about the band's material and I said "thank you, but no thanks" when they asked if I'd join them. Had I liked their stuff more, I would have joined as they were a really good bunch, but musically it wasn't quite for me. I got to play a gig which I haven't for a while and they got to play it too as they'd have had to cancel otherwise. Everyone wins.

Just form a band with your drummer. He sounds like a good bloke who you already have a good thing going on with. Take some time out from it, work on your chops and look for folk after new year when everyone starts doing stuff again.

[waynepunkdude]

What are the chances of a drummer being called Mr Drums?

[Lozz196]

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='1040974' date='Nov 29 2010, 11:41 AM']What are the chances of a drummer being called Mr Drums?[/quote]
I though they were all called that.............................

[icastle]

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='1040974' date='Nov 29 2010, 11:41 AM']What are the chances of a drummer being called Mr Drums?[/quote]

Dunno, but I used to have a GP called Dr Payne

[mrtcat]

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='1040974' date='Nov 29 2010, 11:41 AM']What are the chances of a drummer being called Mr Drums?[/quote]

My guitarist is called Russ Axeman

[icastle]

[quote name='mrtcat' post='1041308' date='Nov 29 2010, 04:07 PM']My guitarist is called Russ Axeman[/quote]




Anyone gonna own up to having a sound engineer called Jack Offman?

[waynepunkdude]

I have ruined this thread, I'm sorry.

[MoonBassAlpha]

[quote name='icastle' post='1041053' date='Nov 29 2010, 12:39 PM']Dunno, but I used to have a GP called Dr Payne [/quote]
Hmmm. Mine's Dr Corps