Why are you in a covers band?

[bassintheface]

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1363793440' post='2017752']
No worries, but it's also coming across to me that you have a bit of a problem with originals bands, in that you seem to agree that we're mostly posturing arrogant tools who can't write or perform. Anyway, there we are.
[/quote]

Not at all, nothing could be further from it and I haven't seen or heard your band so couldn't comment.
Like I said - it's probably the old typed forum communication which is just 'black and white' and can be read either way.
I just agree that I've experienced many who think they're "insert great band / singer / songwriter / performer etc here......" and they're not!

I certainly don't have a problem with them, neither with covers bands in general.
Naturally there's good and bad in all.

I've done hundreds of gigs with some terrible originals bands, weirdly, usually in London and only a few great ones. I can can count on one hand how many of them have moved me to go and spend my money on a cd or itunes purchase.

I'd jump at joining a decent originals band if it were the right style and thought it had potential. I regularly dep for some originals bands and will continue to do so.
Where would we be without new music after all? In the past, and that's no good to anyone!

Edited March 20, 2013 by bassintheface

[Cat Burrito]

I must confess I've been surprised that in 7 pages this hasn't turned into a big old bun fight.

We're all different and want different things from bands. Seems pretty straight forward to me.

Personally in 25yrs my bands have almost always been original bands but then I've been fortunate to work with some very gifted writers. I'd rather play covers I like then work with a bad writer. Not really experienced these arrogant musicians everyone is going on about, they tend not to get past audition (if that far!) on the rare occasions I've stumbled upon them. I'd never knock or claim to not understand someone wanting to do covers. I can see strengths in all types of bands as well as disadvantages.

[Low End Bee]

[quote name='BurritoBass' timestamp='1363794222' post='2017771']
I must confess I've been surprised that in 7 pages this hasn't turned into a big old bun fight.

We're all different and want different things from bands. Seems pretty straight forward to me.

Personally in 25yrs my bands have almost always been original bands but then I've been fortunate to work with some very gifted writers. I'd rather play covers I like then work with a bad writer. Not really experienced these arrogant musicians everyone is going on about, they tend not to get past audition (if that far!) on the rare occasions I've stumbled upon them. I'd never knock or claim to not understand someone wanting to do covers. I can see strengths in all types of bands as well as disadvantages.
[/quote]

Too true. It's all about context.

[Conan]

[quote name='DorsetBlue' timestamp='1363794072' post='2017766']
As Howard Goodall said in his recent Music History programme, there is a considerable amount of new Classical/Orchestral music being written.....a lot of it is being written for films.
[/quote]

But due to "supermarket" radio stations like Classic FM, little of it gets heard by the majority of "classical" music "fans"...

[Conan]

[quote name='BurritoBass' timestamp='1363794222' post='2017771']
I'd never knock or [b][i]claim to not understand [/i][/b]someone wanting to do covers. [/quote]

I think that is the issue. It's not that people openly condemn those who play covers, it's more of a kind of incredulity that they would even consider such an unbelievable position!

[xilddx]

[quote name='DorsetBlue' timestamp='1363794072' post='2017766']
As Howard Goodall said in his recent Music History programme, there is a considerable amount of new Classical/Orchestral music being written.....a lot of it is being written for films.
[/quote]
But that's film music, and the musical director will tell the composer what they want and the composer will supply it. Nothing like a composer just composing for art's sake. They can't afford to rehearse and pay for an orchestra to play their music can they.

[Low End Bee]

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1363794637' post='2017784']
But that's film music, and the musical director will tell the composer what they want and the composer will supply it. Nothing like a composer just composing for art's sake. They can't afford to rehearse and pay for an orchestra to play their music can they.
[/quote]

But wasn't Mozart churning them out to order to get paid by the Emporer bloke who was in Beetlejuice?

[Dave Vader]

[quote name='Marvin' timestamp='1363790234' post='2017668']
[size=4]Thing is when people hit their mid 30's they seem to think that's it, life is over, I can't write any more, I'm confined to covers. Trying to find people to do original material is incredibly difficult, which may explain why I'm in a band with a guitarist who's 23 [/size]
[/quote]

Heh, and why I'm in a band with 2 16 year olds....

I like original stuff, I like the extended breaks between gigs. I have encountered an equal amount of egotistical tools on the covers circuit (which i've done a lot of).
I am however probably about to hit the covers scene again (if i can find a like-minded bassist and drummer) as I am a bit skint, and reckon a 3-piece power trio playing obvious songs to drunken muppets could sort out my financial woes nicely. And I mean obvious, with my terrible singing and excessively long guitar solos which will go down fine in the pubs of devon.

At 35 I have realised I can do both, quite easily, and one can fund the other.
Both have their ups and downs, don't get free festival tickets off a covers band though.

[xilddx]

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1363794585' post='2017782']
I think that is the issue. It's not that people openly condemn those who play covers, it's more of a kind of incredulity that they would even consider such an unbelievable position!
[/quote]
I think you are creating your own problem, who's said anything like that?

[Clarky]

Old timers do get gigs with originals bands - I'm 49 and the rest of my band is between 26-34 years old. Age isn't the determinant of joining a good originals band. Not being a twat generally is

[xilddx]

[quote name='Clarky' timestamp='1363795087' post='2017795']
Old timers do get gigs with originals bands - I'm 49 and the rest of my band is between 26-34 years old. Age isn't the determinant of joining a good originals band. Not being a twat generally is
[/quote]
+1 mate.

[icastle]

I don't actually care what I do as long as I get paid.

I wear my musical clown whore badge with pride.

[xilddx]

[quote name='bassintheface' timestamp='1363794139' post='2017769']
[b]Not at all, nothing could be further from it and I haven't seen or heard your band so couldn't comment.[/b]
Like I said - it's probably the old typed forum communication which is just 'black and white' and can be read either way.
I just agree that I've experienced many who think they're "insert great band / singer / songwriter / performer etc here......" and they're not!

I certainly don't have a problem with them, neither with covers bands in general.
Naturally there's good and bad in all.

I've done hundreds of gigs with some terrible originals bands, weirdly, usually in London and only a few great ones. I can can count on one hand how many of them have moved me to go and spend my money on a cd or itunes purchase.

I'd jump at joining a decent originals band if it were the right style and thought it had potential. I regularly dep for some originals bands and will continue to do so.
Where would we be without new music after all? In the past, and that's no good to anyone!
[/quote]

Yeah, I should probably put a link in my sig or something

[xilddx]

[quote name='Low End Bee' timestamp='1363794792' post='2017785']
But wasn't Mozart churning them out to order to get paid by the Emporer bloke who was in Beetlejuice?
[/quote]
Well, kind of

[Conan]

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1363777903' post='2017335']I can't ever imagine wanting to be in a covers band.[/quote]
[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1363795037' post='2017793']
I think you are creating your own problem, who's said anything like that?
[/quote]

Er.... well, I [i]thought[/i] you did - but on re-reading all 7 pages, I have to concede that you [b]didn't[/b]. So.... I might well be guilty of what you say. Bollocks.

Why would I think that? I must be getting confused...

[BigRedX]

As most of you know I play in an originals band and a "classic rock" covers band.

I joined the covers band, because one of the guitarist who's a good friend of mine happened to mention that their old bass player was leaving and would I be interested in joining? Since my previous band had been doing some covers in their set and for the first time in my musical "career" I hadn't been the main song writer which had actually led to me developing far more as musician, plus the fact that I'd seen his band play and they were a lot of fun, I said "yes".

However at around the same time I met up with the people who eventually became the Terrortones. So I found myself playing both cover and originals. And while the covers is a lot of fun, the Terrortones have turned out to be probably the most exciting and hard working band I've ever played with. After years of playing my own compositions to small mostly indifferent audiences, I'm suddenly in an originals band that has an enthusiastic following, gets gigs all over the country, and actually gets paid for them!

TBH if the Terrortones keep on growing, I can't see myself doing the covers band thing for much longer as I simply won't have the time for it.

So why am I in covers band. Because it's fun and I get to play some great songs from my youth. However no matter how much fun it is it will never match the buzz I get from the Terrortones.

[xilddx]

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1363796124' post='2017808']
Er.... well, I [i]thought[/i] you did - but on re-reading all 7 pages, I have to concede that you [b]didn't[/b]. So.... I might well be guilty of what you say. Bollocks.

Why would I think that? I must be getting confused...
[/quote]

No worries man

[BigRedX]

[quote name='SpaceChick' timestamp='1363778216' post='2017342']
For me, I'm still very much learning my trade as a bassist, and with an eclectic taste in music I enjoy re-creating tracks I have known and loved and learning songs which have passed me by.

I have complete respect for you guys in originals bands, however, at this stage in my life as a bassist the safety of being able to have a song to work from (albeit putting my own stamp on it) gives me the confidence to play that I wouldn't have at this moment in time if I constantly needed to develop my own basslines.

Don't get me wrong, I noodle and create my own basslines all the time, but that is in my own home, I wouldn't have the metaphorical balls to play them in front of other people..... Yet!
[/quote]

I never understood the need for musicians to start by playing other people's songs.

When I was younger, my interest in being able to do this lasted as long as it took me to master the chord changes for my favourite song in the Beatles' Complete songbook. Then I went out and formed a band with some like-minded people from my class at school. It never occurred to us that we should be playing covers. All our favourite bands played songs that they had written themselves, and therefore so would we.

Of course we weren't very good to start off with, but because we were young and naive, we stuck at it, and guess what? We got better and started writing songs that we could be proud of.

[BigRedX]

[quote name='RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE' timestamp='1363781391' post='2017431']
When I was gigging ,all but one of my bands were covers . My first gig was not until my 30th birthday party( I was still 29;)
Too old to do originals.
[/quote]

Just over 3 years ago, I joined the Terrortones some 6 months before my 50th birthday.

You're never too old unless you think you are - In which case you probably are.

[gjones]

[quote name='Truckstop' timestamp='1363778272' post='2017345']
Have you never listened to a song and wished you were there playing it?


[/quote]

Yes.



I've been in very few covers bands (I've depped occasionally for wedding bands but they were usually thrown together and the players weren't up to much). I've played mostly in bands writing original stuff and blues and rock 'n' roll bands. Original bands are great but can sometimes allow me to be lazy and play within my comfort zone (I've written some great basslines - if I do say so myself) but have had to tone them down because the song needed something simpler. I don't feel I've ever been really stretched and would love to play some Blockheads stuff or Jamiroquai or even Muse where the songs were picked for their bass awesomeness and not because they're only 3 chords and easy for the bridesmaids to dance around their handbags to.

[Muzz]

[quote name='Clarky' timestamp='1363795087' post='2017795']
Old timers do get gigs with originals bands - I'm 49 and the rest of my band is between 26-34 years old. Age isn't the determinant of joining a good originals band. Not being a twat generally is
[/quote]

Y'see, you're gigging with da kidz there, Clarky...my originals band is aged 48, 49, 49 and 50.

We don't look it, though.

We look 60. Especially when we're loading the van at the end of the night...

Edited March 20, 2013 by Muzz

[WalMan]

Played originals for years. Always enjoyed myself playing what I considered were good songs broadly written in a band context - though I'm sure if we had ever "made it" that might not have been the vocalists vision of the split of things and would have made years of friendship awkward, but he didn't so it wasn't. He emigrated years ago & the creative flame sputtered on for a while, but eventually died and turned into a covers band (itself looking to have its life support switched off anytime now I think) so perhaps the writing split would have been against us, but there was more to it than that. Still it never came to that. We had a good following in a smallish area, but never managed to break out.

We would religiously rehearse / write every Monday night. Ideas flowed, sometimes from jams, others he (a basically non playing musician but with a way with words & vision) might hum the gist of a line and we would flesh it out - see examples elsewhere in your "basslines you're proud of" thread. Some of the happiest & most creative days in my life (child production excepted).

Getting a collection of musicians that can put together originals that are not dervative and/or sh*te seems impossible, or perhaps I just move in the wrong circles.

Nowadays I play in two or three covers bands, that sort of keep me amused, but all have issues (IMV).

New project starting that produced an email recently that said amongst other things "[i]I've been doing some thinking and I believe we are better than the covers we're trying to do, and will flow far better if we just jam loads, record it all and use them as a springboard to really get cracking on some funky and bluesy originals. ... planning to get together ahead of this rehearsal and perhaps others to work on some concrete melody ideas, song keys and lyrics[/i]" so who knows, perhaps I'll find the spark again. I need to as what little playing I'm doing at the mo is killing me

[Marvin]

[quote name='Dave Vader' timestamp='1363794859' post='2017787']
Heh, and why I'm in a band with 2 16 year olds....

I like original stuff, I like the extended breaks between gigs. I have encountered an equal amount of egotistical tools on the covers circuit (which i've done a lot of).
I am however probably about to hit the covers scene again (if i can find a like-minded bassist and drummer) as I am a bit skint, and reckon a 3-piece power trio playing obvious songs to drunken muppets could sort out my financial woes nicely. And I mean obvious, with my terrible singing and excessively long guitar solos which will go down fine in the pubs of devon.

At 35 I have realised I can do both, quite easily, and one can fund the other.
Both have their ups and downs, don't get free festival tickets off a covers band though.
[/quote]

Must be something about elder devonians

You won't be short of bass players in North Devon, it's riddled with them

Just don't play Sex on Fire, I don't think the pubs of devon can handle that any more.

You could ask Jon Wines, although I don't think he's forgiven you for leaving the last covers band you were in together

[xilddx]

[quote name='Muzz' timestamp='1363796935' post='2017827']
Y'see, you're gigging with da kidz there, Clarky...my originals band is aged 48, 49, 49 and 50.

We don't look it, though.

We look 60. Especially when we're loading the van at the end of the night...
[/quote]
I'm in the same position as Clarky in Kit's band.

[Twigman]

[quote name='Muzz' timestamp='1363796935' post='2017827']
my originals band is aged 48, 49, 49 and 50.


[/quote]
We are 48, 52, 54, 56 and er 28

The 28 year old was drafted in as a repacement for someone who now lives in LA - He was the 56 year old's son's friend.