Reasons For Getting Fired From A Band

[12stringbassist]

[b] [font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][size=3]Reasons For Getting Fired From A Band[/size][/font][/b]

Telling the singer that [i]it's not really good enough that he can't keep to an agreed setlist and that getting a guest sax player to come and toot and fart away and destroy our second set, while he goes and sits outside to get pissed[/i] is a really good way of getting fired.

[FinnDave]

I haven't been fired from a band (at least, I can't remember it happening!) but I am the one who has been designated the bringer of bad news to members who no longer fit. I had to fire the guy who recruited me to the band, he pressed me to explain why...telling him it was because he was a whiney useless f*cker may not have been my most diplomatic moment. I also had to separate the band from our erstwhile 'star vocalist', which went a little better.

[Skybone]

Reasons for getting fired from a band?

Because the other band members are/were bellends.

[StringNavigator]

Thanks to the original poster for raising a timely topic for me. I'm afraid that this is just a run-of-the-mill anecdote, but here goes...

I just got let go after 3 rehearsals because I told the head guy that fiddling around with intros and endings was not such a good idea with the gig being only a week away. We all know that the bass must start and stop with certainty or the song is weak, and he kept making changes to the point where I couldn't remember anything. As a new BP, I could have simply worked on my CD's with my Tascam CD Bass Trainer. But he wanted to recreate the old band's arrangements. Why do people fiddle with hit cover songs, anyway? Just play them the way the dancers know them... 

I also suggested to end a song on the F chord instead of A minor which just left the whole song hanging in mid-air, especially on the bass. He was at a loss for the final chord so I opened my big mouth to help...

The band set-list he had given me three weeks earlier indicated the wrong artists and the wrong keys on 8 of the songs... Some songs were not even going to be done... So I learned a slew of songs for nothing. When he suddenly told me at the last rehearsal that we were going to play "Roll With It" in the key of E, after having learned it in G, I explained that it was in the key of G for a reason. (...try it in E on the spot!... lol!)

So I got the email telling me he retrieved the old bass player back to do the gig! "He's a pro...", he says... After I spent gas money, parking money, studio money, 6 hours total driving and 6 hours of rehearsals I got told in an email that someone else, Boomerang Bass Player, Professional is doing the gig ($) and maybe we can pick up later on. All that from someone who was begging for a BP. Who had gone through apparently excruciating auditions within the year only to end up bass-less, so he called my ad.

So I don't know if I was fired or not, but I'm moving on anyway. I wrote them a polite email. However, I sent his email and my reply to all the band members. But... I did learn 31 tunes that I wouldn't have otherwise. Plus getting to play with other old school musicians 'live' in Toronto, Canada is not easy. And the singer was a very charming lady with a superb voice. So I enjoyed the outing. I also got a bit more focused on wanting to keep with the Soul/Motown/Stax music thing and definitely do exact covers only with a female vocalist or vocalists in the future.

Thanks for letting me blow off some steam... And for all you BP's out there who have been used and abused.... We salute you! God works in mysterious ways...+

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 7, 2018 by StringNavigator
added lol added some clarity

[StringNavigator]

On ‎10‎/‎05‎/‎2016 at 07:47, MoonBassAlpha said:

Got fired from a band... and was replaced by a younger, taller, trendy looking lad who was about the same ability on guitar.

I just realised recently that the Small Faces were all about 5'5"... Thus the name... A very talented bunch, to say the least.

I'm 5'8" and always the shorter one in a group. Of course, short people are better looking... But I don't brag about it, eh...?   

 

 

 

Edited October 7, 2018 by StringNavigator
5'5"

[Bluewine]

I think it has to be a working band where your making money you need to eat to get fired. Otherwise what have you been fired from?

Reason for getting fired? Not doing your job.

Blue

Edited October 7, 2018 by Bluewine

[Bluewine]

1 hour ago, StringNavigator said:

Thanks to the original poster for raising a timely topic for me. I'm afraid that this is just a run-of-the-mill anecdote, but here goes...

I just got let go after 3 rehearsals because I told the head guy that fiddling around with intros and endings was not such a good idea with the gig being only a week away. We all know that the bass must start and stop with certainty or the song is weak, and he kept making changes to the point where I couldn't remember anything. As a new BP, I could have simply worked on my CD's with my Tascam CD Bass Trainer. But he wanted to recreate the old band's arrangements. Why do people fiddle with hit cover songs, anyway? Just play them the way the dancers know them... 

I also suggested to end a song on the F chord instead of A minor which just left the whole song hanging in mid-air, especially on the bass. He was at a loss for the final chord so I opened my big mouth to help...

The band set-list he had given me three weeks earlier indicated the wrong artists and the wrong keys on 8 of the songs... Some songs were not even going to be done... So I learned a slew of songs for nothing. When he suddenly told me at the last rehearsal that we were going to play "Roll With It" in the key of E, after having learned it in G, I explained that it was in the key of G for a reason. (...try it in E on the spot!... lol!)

So I got the email telling me he retrieved the old bass player back to do the gig! "He's a pro...", he says... After I spent gas money, parking money, studio money, 6 hours total driving and 6 hours of rehearsals I got told in an email that someone else, Boomerang Bass Player, Professional is doing the gig ($) and maybe we can pick up later on. 

 

 

 

 

 

For me it's always understanding my role in a band. For example, I was hired to play bass guitar and help with backing vocals not for booking, resolving song issues or volunteering ideas.

Blue

[Teebs]

9 hours ago, StringNavigator said:

I just got let go after 3 rehearsals because I told the head guy that fiddling around with intros and endings was not such a good idea with the gig being only a week away. We all know that the bass must start and stop with certainty or the song is weak, and he kept making changes to the point where I couldn't remember anything.

 

This sounds awfully familiar!

Bollocks to 'em!

Good luck SN

[dmccombe7]

Don't recall ever being sacked from a band. I've left a few and failed one audition but other than that i'm just a likeable chappie. 

Reasons i would expect to be fired and i won't accept from anyone in a band :-

Regularly not making rehearsals unless plenty of notice.

Regularly not learming the songs properly for a rehearsal.

Cancelling a gig unless a justifiable reason.

Getting drunk at / before / during gig. (don't mind afterwards as long as it doesn't hold me up getting home)

Think that's the main reasons i would fire someone or expect to be fired.

Ego's i can put up with rovided they are good musicians and do their bit.

Dave

[Count Bassy]

Only been sacked once: I was told that I wasn't keeping up with the rate of new material (covers band). To be fair it was stretching me , but I suspected at the time that it was more to do with the fact that I expressed my opinion on stuff (politely) rather than just accept what the guitarist and drummer (original band members) said. I later found out that the previous bass player had moved back into the area and was playing with them again, so I suspect that that was a lot to do with it as well.

Or perhaps I'm just stinky poo.

 

[Monkey Steve]

On 07/10/2018 at 22:46, StringNavigator said:

Thanks to the original poster for raising a timely topic for me. I'm afraid that this is just a run-of-the-mill anecdote, but here goes...

<snip>

sounds very much to me like the BL didn't want any arguments from any pesky kids, telling him how to play songs and threatening his position as clearly in charge! 

My only sacking came in similar circumstances - there wasn't an agreed, established BL as it was a new band and i knew all the others apart from the guitarist, but I butted heads with him.  I genuinely didn't like anything he suggested, from the music he wrote and expected the rest of us to play like we were his backing band, to his suggestions for band names, to the full brass arrangements he brought in on his computer one week (and this from the days before laptops - he spent the entire rehearsal setting up his desktop, trying to get it to play through the PA, trying to get the click track to work to that it would only go to the somewhat bemused drummer).  In turn he hated all of my songs and played them with an unimpressed look of long suffering, he didn't like my bass sound, technique, or anything i had to say about his stuff.

So when the singer popped round to relive me of my duties it wasn't a big surprise, and I genuinely wasn't that sad to go as it clearly wasn't working.

Move on to bigger and better things

Edited October 12, 2018 by Rich

[StringNavigator]

On ‎07‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 19:53, Bluewine said:

For me it's always understanding my role in a band. For example, I was hired to play bass guitar and help with backing vocals not for booking, resolving song issues or volunteering ideas.

Blue

I agree. As a retired military, I understand this concept well. Especially if I had been hired by Wilson Pickett or Stevie Winwood. I can be the best of cogs in a big machine and take direction well.

However, this was a tiny sum gig with a guitarist-leader not blessed with look-at-me talent nor basic ability in arranging (deer in the lights look for the final chord?). No written music, chord charts or audio samples for the new BP. Poor BP... And he's telling me to play swampier. Everything had to sound swampy. I guess I was ejected from the swamp.

He was a constant pot-head, but I never held that against him. Perhaps even mild drugs can cloud the mind, I don't know. The set-list I had practiced to, stated the wrong keys and artist versions from what was sprung on me at rehearsal. Now I know why they spent the last year chasing BP's, but they always fall back on some "a pro" that he knows who never stays.

A marvelous female singer, though, which is what kept me in for three weeks. I'm not at all mad. Actually I feel relieved. You see, I always maintain a self-consciousness and situational awareness and examine my words and actions before and afterwards. It's a part of my social perception. But I can never truly understand how so many people cruise through life blind, unaware of the stage and the part they play.

I'm glad to be searching for a new band, though. I learned 31 new songs that I'd never have learned on my own and walk away richer for that. They can fire you, which is pretentious to say the least, but they can never take away your talent. And you only get better as time moves on. (Where else could I speak my mind on BP firings...?)     

 

 

 

 

[StringNavigator]

On ‎08‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 09:24, Count Bassy said:

Only been sacked once: I was told that I wasn't keeping up with the rate of new material (covers band). To be fair it was stretching me...

I recognise that feeling...

How many new BP's get fired for not capturing the repertoire within some arbitrarily stated time period? Too many...

It seems that band dictators completely underestimate the complexity in a bassline. The entire band actually follows the bassline from start to finish. Even if you pick it up quickly, it takes time and repetition to play it confidently. It's not just melody, nor is it only rhythm or harmony. It is all there, at once. The backbone of any song. The drummer can flub a part, the guitarist can lose notes and the singer can forget lines and the song still goes on. But if the BP falters for even a second, the whole song comes to a grinding halt. Not being perfect a few time gets the BP fired. 

And it's typically the BP that gets changed out for perceived incompetence. Drummers usually get fired for personal reasons. Singers are golden. And it's usually the guitarist doing the firing. (Perhaps they think they can do a better job as they play 6 strings...) Bands are typically started with vocals and guitar. Then they start adding a rhythm section at the last minute. The BP is expected to jump in ready to go. But it is always a stretch, as you say. Any BP will admit that 40 new songs can't be learned in 2 weeks. Oh, you can play 'em, but they won't lock-in well until well practiced in ensemble over a few months and you can play them in your sleep..

With Jazz and Blues, I can improvise all night and there's no errors. But with rock or hit pop tunes, the bassline must be an exact replica of the recording. This takes more time than BL's are willing to admit.

 

 

 

[StringNavigator]

On ‎08‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 09:26, Monkey Steve said:

sounds very much to me like the BL didn't want any arguments from any pesky kids, telling him how to play songs and threatening his position as clearly in charge! 

Amen,. Especially with a lady vocalist. Hindsight is 20/20.

Being polite, diplomatic and helpful doesn't trump insecure.