What It Takes To Make It

[Bluewine]

Great commentary on why it's so difficult to make it.

Let's Talk About It

Blue

[steantval]

Audition for the X Factor or The Voice 😀😀😀😀

[Bluewine]

1 minute ago, steantval said:

Audition for the X Factor or The Voice 😀😀😀😀

I think you have to have the same attributes going for you even with the X Factor.

Blue

[Bluewine]

I think only Ace  or Kiss fans have ever heard of Ritchie Scarlet.

Blue

[Bluewine]

2 Ritchie Clips

I get why Ritchie never made it big, but I still love old NYC guys like him

He's full of himself,a throwback from the past, you gotta love it.

 

Blue

 

 

 

Edited January 18, 2018 by Bluewine

[PaulWarning]

as he says be under 30, (unless you're seasick steve) be talented, and above all be very very lucky, ( the Oasis doc on iplayer, unless they'd not blagged their way onto a Glasgow gig it might never have happened) how many hundreds of thousands of bands have there been and how many have even got to the stage where they can make a living at it? a very small percentage

[Bluewine]

2 hours ago, PaulWarning said:

as he says be under 30, (unless you're seasick steve) be talented, and above all be very very lucky, ( the Oasis doc on iplayer, unless they'd not blagged their way onto a Glasgow gig it might never have happened) how many hundreds of thousands of bands have there been and how many have even got to the stage where they can make a living at it? a very small percentage

Agreed,

Me, at 64, all I want is to have 2 gigs a week. That means decent bar gigs and my share of the local Festival & Fair business.

Blue

Edited January 18, 2018 by Bluewine

[joeystrange]

I agree with Paul that you need to be very very very lucky to ‘make it.’

You don’t even really NEED to be that good. Sometimes just being in the right place at the right time is enough.

[Cat Burrito]

12 hours ago, Bluewine said:

I think only Ace  or Kiss fans have ever heard of Ritchie Scarlet.

Blue

Yep I was a huge Ace fan back in the day.

12 hours ago, PaulWarning said:

as he says be under 30, (unless you're seasick steve) 

Seasick Steve's story was proven to be very manufactured though. He'd been working in the music industry for years. 

[chris_b]

To make it in a band. . . . easy. . . . meet the right people. . . . . just when they are looking for a guy like you.

. . . . if you want to go the working musician route then learn to read, play like a demon with a technique to match. . . then meet the right people, etc

[Barking Spiders]

Making it is purely down to the laws of probability. At any time there are thousands of music acts trying to make it. Most will be of comparable talent, looks etc but only one will be at the right place, the right time, with the right sound and looks for the times and with the right contacts. Being technically accomplished and knowing music theory are pretty irrelevant

[Bilbo]

This guy didn't make it because, from what I can see,  he is only OK. The standards required to get to the top are very high, even for bands and artists we don't rate personally. The pr required to promote a new artist nowadays is expensive so you need to convince people to invest in you. You need to be exceptional. I know I am not and never have been so, much as I enjoy doing this, there are no pipe dreams involved. The art is it's own reward. 

[chris_b]

42 minutes ago, Bilbo said:

The standards required to get to the top are very high, even for bands and artists we don't rate personally.

Musicians usually don't "make it".  Even the very good ones.

Talented and original performers do, so just find one of those and be his best mate and right-hand man in his band for as long as it takes him to "make it".

Then don't be disappointed if you and the band are fired just before the first album is released.

[discreet]

Be under 30..? Oh dear. 

'Making it'. What does that mean, anyway? Quite a few famous artists had a terrible time of it, really. My definition of 'making it' is not being poverty stricken, having somewhere warm and dry to live, food, drink and a loving family. Not very rock 'n' roll, I know. You can live fast, die young, do drugs, drink too much and be a rebel who plays by nobody's rules but your own if you like. Been there, done that (except for the dying young bit) - and it's highly overrated.

[PaulWarning]

2 minutes ago, discreet said:

Be under 30..? Oh dear. 

'Making it'. What does that mean, anyway? Quite a few famous artists had a terrible time of it, really. My definition of 'making it' is not being poverty stricken, having somewhere warm and dry to live, food, drink and a loving family. Not very rock 'n' roll, I know. You can live fast, die young, do drugs, drink too much and be a rebel who plays by nobody's rules but your own if you like. Been there, done that (except for the dying young bit) - and it's highly overrated.

there's been a thread about this before, I think the consensus was being able to make a living at it, i.e. pack up your day job

[discreet]

33 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

there's been a thread about this before, I think the consensus was being able to make a living at it, i.e. pack up your day job

I've drifted in and out over the years. I don't have a day job, but that's probably not entirely down to my 'success' as a bass player.

Edited January 19, 2018 by discreet

[Cosmo Valdemar]

16 hours ago, Bluewine said:

I think only Ace  or Kiss fans have ever heard of Ritchie Scarlet.

Blue

I saw him play with Mountain a few times.

[Bluewine]

8 hours ago, Bilbo said:

This guy didn't make it because, from what I can see,  he is only OK. The standards required to get to the top are very high, even for bands and artists we don't rate personally. The pr required to promote a new artist nowadays is expensive so you need to convince people to invest in you. You need to be exceptional. I know I am not and never have been so, much as I enjoy doing this, there are no pipe dreams involved. The art is it's own reward. 

Yeah , Ritchie is ok and now he's ok and older. 

 

I like "Without Your Love*

Blue

 

Edited January 19, 2018 by Bluewine

[Bluewine]

Just now, Bluewine said:

Yeah , Ritchie is ok and now he's ok and older. However, Ritchie has gotten further than most of us. I've never played with Ace, Alice or Leslie West.

Blue

 

 

[Bluewine]

5 hours ago, discreet said:

Be under 30..? Oh dear. 

'Making it'. What does that mean, anyway? 

For me , at 64 making it means keeping a 3 gig per week schedule.

Blue

[steantval]

21 hours ago, PaulWarning said:

as he says be under 30, (unless you're seasick steve) be talented, and above all be very very lucky, ( the Oasis doc on iplayer, unless they'd not blagged their way onto a Glasgow gig it might never have happened) how many hundreds of thousands of bands have there been and how many have even got to the stage where they can make a living at it? a very small percentage

Mark Knopfler hit the big time when he was 30/31.

[Bluewine]

1 hour ago, steantval said:

Mark Knopfler hit the big time when he was 30/31.

Mark is an exception I'm sure Mark is not the only one.

Blue

[T-Bay]

He seemed realllllllyyyyyy old at the time though.

[Bluewine]

6 minutes ago, T-Bay said:

He seemed realllllllyyyyyy old at the time though.

And he  didn't really look like a rock or Pop star.

Blue

Edited January 19, 2018 by Bluewine

[T-Bay]

Very true, just goes to show it’s possible, not easy by any stretch, but possible.