Where to start when starting a band...

[theyellowcar]

The last few weeks I've been hankering after playing in a band again, but I'm a little bit lost as to where to start. All of my musician friends are up north, and I don't really know any folk in London who play (amazing right?)

So where do I start? What's the best way for me to find a bunch of like-minded people to make noise with?

[discreet]

I've had a couple of good results using this site.
[url="http://www.starnow.co.uk/"]http://www.starnow.co.uk/[/url]

Look out for jam nights at your local boozers too.

[theyellowcar]

Thanks Mark!

I thought I had started this in General Discussion rather than the Bass section, could someone move it?

[Lozz196]

Local rehearsal rooms often have ads for musicians wanted. Bandmix is worth a look too, and as Mark says, local jam-nights are a great way to network.

[discreet]

[quote name='theyellowcar' timestamp='1405274398' post='2500373']
Thanks Mark!
[/quote]

'Looking for jam nights' is a great excuse for a local pub-crawl. Research, innit?
I'll come along and 'help out' if you like...

[gary mac]

Lemon Rock is worth checking out.

[HowieBass]

Notice boards in music shops? Leave the wallet at home though...

[CamdenRob]

I put an ad up on Gumtree when I was looking for other musicians to play with a year or so back... Got three or four responses a day whilst the advert ran. Once I'd sifted through all the metal bands I ended up going to several auditions and eventually sorted out a couple of bands.

I'm a grumpy bastard with a very stringent set of conditions for any band I'll play in, so for anyone more reasonable and normal I'd imagine it would be even easier to find a band

[toneknob]

[quote name='theyellowcar' timestamp='1405273929' post='2500365']
So where do I start? What's the best way for me to find a bunch of like-minded people to make noise with?
[/quote]

Avoid the biggest band-related argument by deciding on the band name before recruiting anyone.

[Damonjames]

Jam nights are a great source, you get to see prospective band mates in action and this can save you the hassle of auditioning people who really have no ability. It also allows people to see YOU!
Failing that, joinmyband.co.uk has proven useful as well as musolist.com

Be patient and know what you want before you start out, if you settle you at get a few
Months Into it and realise it's not for you and then you have a to start the process all over again.

[Number6]

Gumtree is a useful site but be careful because a lot of grumpy bastard's read it.....lol ;-)

[rOB]

Dunno if this is what you're looking for but I've started a couple original bands from scratch and I'd suggest writing and recording home demos of songs before advertising if at all possible.

Then you can send prospective band mates the material to make sure they're into what you want to do. Also gives you songs to play together at the first few meet ups.

I'd give some thought to the logistics of band activity as well. Where/when are you rehearsing? When/where will your most frequent gigs be? Can you accomodate someone who works shifts?

Post on social media and get your Northern muso mates involved, they might well know people in other areas of the country.

Hope some of that is useful.

Edited July 14, 2014 by rOB

[allighatt0r]

I've had luck with partysounds.co.uk in the past, but I think it's declined recently

[Iain]

I found my current bunch of reprobates on JoinMyband. Worth keeping an eye on IMO.

[redbandit599]

We found a guitarist through bandmix recently, he's very good and fits in well.

Might also be worth looking at Facebook for any muso type communities. Our new singer responded (she's great ) to a post I put on The Essex Coverbands Community page on Facebook. I don't go on it much, and there may be other variations of this that are suitable near you.

[Weststarx]

Check out 'Join My Band' thats how I got into the last 3 bands I was in!

[barkin]

The last 2 outfits I've become involved with were from me responding to ads on Gumtree & Joinmyband.