Classic Rock in pubs, is it compulsory?

[RhysP]

[quote name='fleabag' timestamp='1492988078' post='3284707']
We throw the crowd a curve ball after playing some sh*t rock covers by kicking in The Riverboat song

Turns heads, does that number
[/quote]

Play some sh*t rock covers followed by a really sh*t rock cover - yeah, that's some curve ball.

[fleabag]

Ouch !

Your opinion on what's sh*t has no bearing on anything. How do ya like them apples ! ( as Matt Damon once said )

[Leonard Smalls]

[quote name='Tonteee' timestamp='1493036350' post='3285000']
Wow! Brilliant!

Also, danceable drum pattern and excellent funky bass with a discernable root. Them's the ingredients for fonk, right there...


When are you next gigging?
[/quote]

Cheers! We've just turned down Glastonbury (!) due to not liking camping among 250000 people... We only gig when we really want to!
And no other gigs planned at present - not easy with band members living in Shropshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Ireland and South of France.
There is a Dredd and the Badass Weeds Facebook page - we've been going for nearly 35 years!
And my new band, 16 Choke Start (funk metal, hopefully including a rapper and turntables!) will be playing pubs in the South Shrops/Powys/Herefordshire area. No covers either, apart from a few by The Wurzels

[Damonjames]

[quote name='SisterAbdullahX' timestamp='1492986043' post='3284689']
Simply that. Does anyone on here play pubs but not play the same old tired Classic Rock covers?
Been finding that my usual staple of function gigs has steadily dwindled over the last few years to the point where I'm getting fewer than ten a year and could quite fancy packing them in altogether and just finding a nice local pub band to play for the enjoyment of it rather than having to entertain drunken wedding guests. However, the prospect of having to go and play all the standard rock tunes makes me think I'd probably just rather sell all my gear and pack in altogether! Does anyone play covers that aren't well known at all and still get a favourable response from the audience and get rebooked? Seems to me that, even if you don't play the rock stuff you still have to play well known songs, whatever the style of music you play, and that just bores me. Also, all the other bands that play that style of music play the same tunes!
[/quote]

Don't ask questions like this, some of us will be out of a gig 😂

In all seriousness, my band (Karl's old band) play classic rock, but try and do songs by well known artists that you don't hear so often. It works for us! Having said that, we play freebird (much to my dislike) just like practically EVERY other band on the circuit.
My previous band did a grunge tribute, and we had a full diary for the 2 and a half years we were together. We were limited to certain venues naturally, but it still worked.

Just try it, whatever it is you want to do. Find a venue you have played before and know the landlord, and ask for a favour to try it out!

[Japhet]

I avoid the usual suspects of pub rock like the plague. I refuse to play Alright Now, Sweet Home Alabama, Sex on Fire and many, many more. My current band plays covers of songs by the likes of Storyville, Chicken Foot, The Rival Sons, The Boneshakers. The Buddaheads, The Temperance Movement etc. When we do something by a mainstream band it tends to be something less well known. When we do a ZZ Top song, it's Just Got Paid or My Head's in Mississippi - not Sharp Dressed Man or Gimme All your Lovin' .

Edited April 24, 2017 by Japhet

[DaytonaRik]

Outside of Think Lizzy I've formed a rock band with a difference - we've taken a slightly off-tangent approach of playing pop/rock tracks that have been covered (rocked up!) by other artists - The Atari's Boys of Summer, In This Moment's version of Call Me, Halestorm's version of Bad Romance, Taking Dawn's version of The Chain etc. We try and prove that a song can be played in a way that keeps it recognisable, but it's no longer a pop song!

We sprinkle in a few straight ahead but not frequently played tracks too - Lita Ford's Kiss Me Deadly and Slash's Baby Can't Driver featuring Alice Cooper and Nicole Schezinger being just two There are already loads of bands doing the usual suspect 70's/80's tracks and we decided as a collective that wasn't going to the be the path we followed. Time will tell as we're out gigging from October onwards!

Edited April 24, 2017 by DaytonaRik

[fleabag]

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1493037588' post='3285023']
Reggae? Do much reggae?

[media]http://youtu.be/CZHWy6W00oM[/media]
[/quote]


Good choice !

I've had their first CD Un-Led-Ed for a couple of decades now. Weird mob , but brilliantly entertaining

[Johnny Wishbone]

[quote name='Leonard Smalls' timestamp='1493035723' post='3284988']
[MEDIA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WRGw-D08Gc[/MEDIA]
[/quote]
Frog and Parrot?

[Rocker]

Always remember that he who pays the piper calls the tune. Or something like that. If your band is booked to play in a pub, you play what the audience wants to hear. You are not expected to like the songs, only to look like you are enjoying playing them.

[Woodinblack]

To some extent. We vary what we play depending on what we think or know a pub will like (and there are some that if you don't play the classic rock you don't get invited back). Generally find everyone loves the ska stuff, so monkey man and the ska version of brown eyed girl. Yes it is important that they like the songs, but in general, we do enjoy what we play mostly, as if we didn't there wouldn't be that much point in doing it.

[IainS]

We've talked about doing less well known songs but concluded that we might as well write our own stuff as nobody would know it anyway, but we don't have the time for that so we play well known pop classics. Never classic rock though, just classic pop.

[dudewheresmybass]

Soo good to see someone mention dread zep.
I had the good fortune to work for them on a uk tour in the early 90's. Lovely lovely people and boy, did tortelvis know how to work a crowd!!

[inthedoghouse]

[quote name='Damonjames' timestamp='1493043548' post='3285121']
In all seriousness, my band (Karl's old band) play classic rock, but try and do songs by well known artists that you don't hear so often. It works for us!
[/quote]It didn't work for the last band I was in, sadly, but not surprisingly.

[Damonjames]

[quote name='inthedoghouse' timestamp='1493058601' post='3285290']
It didn't work for the last band I was in, sadly, but not surprisingly.
[/quote]

I should clarify, I'm not talking about a night of B sides here, just not their greatest hits in a lot of respects

[inthedoghouse]

[quote name='Damonjames' timestamp='1493063236' post='3285354']
I should clarify, I'm not talking about a night of B sides here, just not their greatest hits in a lot of respects
[/quote]Same here. I generally like classic rock but even I didn't know a lot of the songs until I had to learn them - so no chance for the average Dog and Duck drinker. I'm glad it works for you though.

[fleabag]

[quote name='dudewheresmybass' timestamp='1493057164' post='3285272']
Soo good to see someone mention dread zep.
I had the good fortune to work for them on a uk tour in the early 90's. Lovely lovely people and boy, did tortelvis know how to work a crowd!!
[/quote]

Ah yes, Greg Tortell. Mad as a bucket of slippers

Have some more, DWMB. Get yer teeth into this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAM1MKi7bNU

[Leonard Smalls]

[quote name='Johnny Wishbone' timestamp='1493048069' post='3285174']

Frog and Parrot?
[/quote]

Yup!

[steve-bbb]

[quote name='SisterAbdullahX' timestamp='1492986043' post='3284689']
Simply that. Does anyone on here play pubs but not play the same old tired Classic Rock covers?
[/quote]

then the trick here is to play the venues that dont expect or demand all that sort of tired old sh1te usually with a decent venue manager who understands that they dont always have to accomodate the lowest common denominator musical tastes of their establishmnets clientele

[Paultrader]

We dress up, play 50s and 60s rock and roll with singalong 60s pop songs added in. We shamelessly work to get the audience singing and dancing. I get my kicks from seeing everyone having a good time.

Seeing everyone waving their arms in the air and singing themselves hoarse to 'Daydream Believer' is my idea of performing heaven these days!

[Grassie]

"Classic Rock in pubs, is it compulsory?"

Only on the Isle of Wight...

[paul h]

I spent all last year trying to get a modern country band together. It proved impossible to get a guitarist that wasn't a classic rock player. Every profile on every band site and every guitarist all seemed to list classic rock as their interest first!

I even swapped to guitar to try and solve the issue...but ultimately I'm not a good enough guitarist to pull it off so I gave up!

And every band I've been approached by, or considered approaching, turn out to just do the same old stuff. It's almost as if there are only 100 songs available in the pub band vocabulary.

To be honest, I would rather never play live again than do the same old songs that I've had to play over the last 30 years

[RhysP]

[quote name='paul h' timestamp='1493117728' post='3285703']
I spent all last year trying to get a modern country band together. It proved impossible to get a guitarist that wasn't a classic rock player. Every profile on every band site and every guitarist all seemed to list classic rock as their interest first!

I even swapped to guitar to try and solve the issue...but ultimately I'm not a good enough guitarist to pull it off so I gave up!
[/quote]

That's because it's a lot easier to be a decent classic rock guitarist than it is to be a decent country guitarist.

[ivansc]

The UK Country Western club scene has been declining steadily since the mid to late eighties, which is why there aint a lot of interest in playing it.

Come to think of it, the same thing is happening on the roots RnR and rockabilly scene.

Us old folks that grew up on that stuff are dying out!

Modern Country???? I do OK with rootsy Americana laced with Gulf coast soul funk boogie stuff, but not too much in the way of good paying gigs out there for it.

[Happy Jack]

[quote name='ivansc' timestamp='1493208429' post='3286486']
The UK Country Western club scene has been declining steadily since the mid to late eighties, which is why there aint a lot of interest in playing it.

[/quote]

That's because they all moved to Germany.

http://youtu.be/hW0dt6HT9Hk