Jam nights - cliquey

[peteb]

9 hours ago, nightsun said:

Chuck my tuppence in...

I've been running blues jams for many, many years, and there are as many ways to run a jam as there are stars in the sky.  Most of the basics have been covered, but a few things to bear in mind from the hosts point of view:

• We are there to attract punters; musicians and non-musicians into the venue to spend money on alcoholic beverages (and crisps). If alcoholic beverages (and crisps) are not purchased then the chances are the Jam won't be there for long.
• This is a careful balancing act
  • Musicians want to play.
  • Punters want to be entertained
• Get the balance wrong and you end up with a room of musos nursing a pint all night, or the house band playing a 3-hour gig for thruppence.
• What may look like a clique to you, looks to me like my reliables.  They turn up every month without fail and without them there probably wouldn't be a jam.  
• If you are new come and say hello
  • Tell me what you like to play
  • Be honest about your ability, if you're a bit unsure say so, I'll get you up with some experienced musos to help you along.
  • Put your name on the list of jam and you WILL get called up
• Everyone WIll get at least 3 numbers, I can't guarantee when (see the balancing act), see above
  • if you need to leave early, again let me know, I'll accommodate you in the grand scheme of things if I can
• I run Jams because I love playing with friends I don't get to gig with. I love watching something come together from nothing, from musos that may have never met let alone played with each other.
• I most certainly don't do it for the kudos or the money.

 

So if you attend a Jam and it seems a bit cliquey, consider the internal political bollocks that may be in play to ensure that the Jam is there the next time you fancy a little no pressure play.  Of course, some Jams can be really cliquey, I don't go to them either :-)

 

An old band leader used to run a jam on pretty much the same lines and for the same reasons. OK there wasn’t an actual list and you only got two songs but very similar apart from that. I used to be the house bass player for most of them when I was playing with him and they were usually fun.

In my experience, running a successful jam night is a bit of a balancing act. For us it was a chance to play with our mates who we weren’t gigging with regularly, finding musicians who were new to the scene / area as well as giving youngsters a chance to get a bit of experience, not to mention the odd old-timer who didn’t gig any more but still wanted to get up and do the odd tune.

I think that people have to realise that music scenes by their nature tend to be a bit cliquey. The guys who get the work are those who are well known, have decent networks and who everyone knows that they can play. I would have thought that jam sessions are the best way to introduce yourself and get the opportunity to become ‘one of the guys’ i.e. join the clique!

Certainly, the most rewarding thing about being involved in the house band was finding a good new player you hadn’t played with before. Also, the guy who ran the jam (as well as others) used it as an opportunity to audition people without a formal audition, which was how I originally got the gig in his band.

[12stringbassist]

My band run a jam night at Bar One Ten in Tyldesley, near Manchester.
This is the blurb we post to get people to turn up:

"Putting the call out to all our musician friends. My band The Three host a jam night most Sundays 6.30 - 9.00pm at Bar One Ten, Elliot Street, Tyldesley, M29 8FJ.
Musicians - please share!

Why not bring your band down to do 3 or 4 songs to a good audience and maybe get a Saturday booking at the venue? Want to get up, but don't have a band? If we know the song, we'll play it with you. We have two folders full of lyrics and if you message me in advance, we can maybe learn some songs to back you on.
Come on down and make yourselves known to the host band and we will get you up, **guaranteed**.

Quality backline amps for 2 guitars and bass are provided, drums and PA for three vocals is in place. We carry spare instruments for use, but you can also bring your own.
Please watch the other performers when you have done your slot - it's only polite to do so.
All we ask is that you have some idea of what you are doing before you go on and don't hold a conference onstage, as it eats into other people's time.
All acts get 3-4 songs, then the next act goes on, and so on, and then we will go around them again. We want everyone to get a turn.
Bar One Ten will not be hosting the jam night on Bank Holiday Sundays."

I hope that we never ever get 'cliquey'. We are reliant on the people who turn up to make it what it is. The host band play for half an hour or so and may do another ten minutes at the end of the night, dependent on how many people have come along to get up and play. Inbetween that, we just want to keep things moving and get people up.

Edited May 10, 2018 by 12stringbassist

[Count Bassy]

12 hours ago, SpondonBassed said:

 A house band at an Open Mic is fine as long as they sit it out for the other players to get on with it.

Unfortunately, sometimes, nobody seems to tell the house bands. An open mike I used to go to  the house band, and sometimes any old band, would get up and play 6 or 7 songs in a row, and even then individual members would just stay on stage all night. Makes it very hard for someone who is a bit less confident to get up and do their thing.

 

Edited to add, one of the problems was that the organisers, who we're both nice people, would go out for fags and who ever was on at the time would carry on until one came back in.

Edited May 10, 2018 by Count Bassy

[SpondonBassed]

12 hours ago, chris_b said:

The Albany, Hob Goblin, Red Lion,  Mulberry Tree, Barmy Arms, Turks Head, The Crown and at least 2 more whose names escape me, all gone as regular gigs.

Are the George or Fox still putting on gigs?

The Cabbage Patch is still active, any I've missed?

The Cabbage Patch huh?

If that's all that's left I am well out of it.  I suppose Twickenham musos have to go to Richmond on Thames now.  Cuh!

[SpondonBassed]

10 hours ago, Les said:

upyourownarseness

May I nominate that for the Basschat Word of the Month award?

I respectfully suggest for those who like to shorten words that the contraction narseness be adopted from this day forward.  Narseness is like niceness only it's applied in an inwardly direction by shoving one's entire head up one's own fundament.

[SpondonBassed]

10 hours ago, Bluewine said:

In my area they have " open mic" nights. Mostly acoustic and primarily for local singer song writers that need a chance to perform live in front of an audience.

Jam sessions are only for the heavy hitters and you have to be invited.

 

Blue

I think that that is a far better way to have it.

There is a clear distinction between the two types of event and everyone knows exactly where they stand.

[SpondonBassed]

5 hours ago, 12stringbassist said:

My band run a jam night at Bar One Ten in Tyldesley, near Manchester.
This is the blurb we post to get people to turn up:

"Putting the call out to all our musician friends. My band The Three host a jam night most Sundays 6.30 - 9.00pm at Bar One Ten, Elliot Street, Tyldesley, M29 8FJ.
Musicians - please share!

Why not bring your band down to do 3 or 4 songs to a good audience and maybe get a Saturday booking at the venue? Want to get up, but don't have a band? If we know the song, we'll play it with you. We have two folders full of lyrics and if you message me in advance, we can maybe learn some songs to back you on.
Come on down and make yourselves known to the host band and we will get you up, **guaranteed**.

Quality backline amps for 2 guitars and bass are provided, drums and PA for three vocals is in place. We carry spare instruments for use, but you can also bring your own.
Please watch the other performers when you have done your slot - it's only polite to do so.
All we ask is that you have some idea of what you are doing before you go on and don't hold a conference onstage, as it eats into other people's time.
All acts get 3-4 songs, then the next act goes on, and so on, and then we will go around them again. We want everyone to get a turn.
Bar One Ten will not be hosting the jam night on Bank Holiday Sundays."

I hope that we never ever get 'cliquey'. We are reliant on the people who turn up to make it what it is. The host band play for half an hour or so and may do another ten minutes at the end of the night, dependent on how many people have come along to get up and play. Inbetween that, we just want to keep things moving and get people up.

So - an Open Mic then.  Just saying.

[Leonard Smalls]

I made the mistake, many years ago, of assuming a Jam Night was actually involving any sort of jam...

So rather than bringing my patent home-made raspberry/blackberry/redcurrant/elderberry concoction I wheeled my 4' high bass cab and rack of amps/effects into the pub.

Where I was confronted by an array of Catweazles clutching penny whistles, bodrums etc, while at the mic was someone gently strumming an acoustic guitar and singing "I'm Leaving (on a jet plane)"  (EEEK!)

The "Jam" leader came up to me and asked what I wanted to play - I said I'd like to have a jam with some free-thinking people who are into making music in order to see where it goes; he said "we normally only have people coming up and doing a couple of folk songs that everybody knows; perhaps you can back one of them?" So I played in the background to a few songs I've never heard, without having been told chords or anything, all the while thinking "perhaps the damson conserve would have gone down a lot better".

Now I know that many people's idea of a jam isn't quite the same as mine; it took me 10 years after this to actually find a band in the area!

[SpondonBassed]

58 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

I'd like to have a jam with some free-thinking people

Here here!

Leave agendas and preconceived notions at home and come jam.  That's the spirit of a jam right there.

An agenda is better suited to an Open Mic event.

[markdavid]

Went to one last night and it was "Interesting", ended up playing bass with a punk guy on guitar and vocals, first couple songs we played some blues numbers, went fine all good, then he decided to play some punk songs,  i've never felt so out of my depth! usually if I haven't heard a song before I can figure it out really quickly but there just seems to be no structure to punk music just a bunch of chords thrown together randomly, lessons learnt  a) Punk is not my thing b) I will mention next time that I really don't want to play punk music

*Apologies to anyone who loves punk music, no offence intended ,is just not my thing at all

Edited May 10, 2018 by markdavid

[12stringbassist]

9 hours ago, SpondonBassed said:

So - an Open Mic then.  Just saying.

An 'open mic' doesn't consist of full backline, drums and PA, but never mind.
We do what we do and everyone enjoys it.
There is collaboration and experimentation at out nights.

[PaulWarning]

Just now, 12stringbassist said:

An 'open mic' doesn't consist of full backline, drums and PA, but never mind.
We do what we do and everyone enjoys it.
There is collaboration and experimentation at out nights.

I think what @SpondonBassed is getting at is that if people who have played together turn up and do songs they've preplanned whether a soloist or a band, then that's an open mic, a jam is where people who are not used to each other get up with nothing planned and play a song on the hoof

[12stringbassist]

Well, the facility is there for people to go all free-form if they want.

A lot of busking it goes on.

 

[Dad3353]

2 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

...and play a song on the hoof

Horses for courses or making an @ss  of oneself..? 

Edited May 10, 2018 by Dad3353

[Luckystrike]

When I worked in the States a couple of local musos ran what they called a live jukebox/all request jam, so they'd take normal requests to just play songs but had a list where anyone could jump on any instrument for any of the songs in their repertoire (200+ songs). Whenever someone got up to play anything they'd also ask the room if anyone else knew the song and pulled people up ad-hoc, so the people on stage were fluid and changing on a song-by-song basis - helped very much by the 'house' players being multi-instrumentalists and highly skilled.

They made a big point of keeping the atmosphere as friendly and open as possible to players of all ages and abilities, which was a big reason for me going back week after week - I was greeted the second I walked in on my first night (as were all newcomers), and nobody minded playing with anybody else. I don't know if the usual crowd were just all humble or the format was particularly good at keeping egos checked at the door, but the atmosphere was relaxed, the music was good and the bar was buzzing every time.

 

By contrast I went to a jam night in an Essex pub after coming back to the UK and it was exclusively bands who were using it as a practice/free gig for a number of songs, and bedroom guitarists who just wanted to show off and then pack up and leave immediately after playing. At no point did it feel like a room of people with a collective interest, which is a strange sensation when you're in a room full of people with something fairly major in common.

[12stringbassist]

If someone gets up, does their spot, then pisses off straight after playing, they will be last up the next time they come.

 

[Luckystrike]

4 minutes ago, 12stringbassist said:

If someone gets up, does their spot, then pisses off straight after playing, they will be last up the next time they come.

 

As they damn well should be, but it wasn't an atmosphere that encouraged me to go back a second time to check.

[EBS_freak]

6 minutes ago, 12stringbassist said:

If someone gets up, does their spot, then pisses off straight after playing, they will be last up the next time they come.

 

I feel the same about the originals scene when the support bands and any audience they brought with them, all vanish before all the other bands have finished.

[PaulWarning]

31 minutes ago, 12stringbassist said:

Well, the facility is there for people to go all free-form if they want.

A lot of busking it goes on.

 

In our area that would probably be advertised as 'Open Mic and Jam session', but hey,  if it's successful why change it? 

[SpondonBassed]

 

53 minutes ago, 12stringbassist said:

An 'open mic' doesn't consist of full backline, drums and PA, but never mind.
We do what we do and everyone enjoys it.
There is collaboration and experimentation at out nights.

 

44 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

I think what @SpondonBassed is getting at is that if people who have played together turn up and do songs they've preplanned whether a soloist or a band, then that's an open mic, a jam is where people who are not used to each other get up with nothing planned and play a song on the hoof

Yes and indeed there used to be an Open Mic night at Derby's Horse and Groom with PA, monitors, backline, bass, guitar, keys and drum kit provided if required, all on stage ready.  It was a hybrid though or misnamed because it was a jam more than owt else.  The Wednesday Open Mic is not on the website any more.  The chap running it dropped out of contact with me some time back.

So there is confusion about what constitutes a jam or an open mic out there even among the organisers.

 

 

[lozkerr]

1 hour ago, markdavid said:

I will mention next time that I really don't want to play punk music

The great thing about punk is that you don't need to play in tune or keep time so you can just do what you want as long as you scowl at the audience. Ask Sid Vicious 

[leschirons]

On 5/9/2018 at 11:31, martthebass said:

Definitely can be.  I'll always give one a chance but if the dreaded clique (usually involving 30 minute renditions of Hey Joe) rears it's head then it's a one-visit thing.

I'm reporting this post to the mods for unacceptable language. Surely "H** J**" should really not be mentioned in a jam night thread. In France, this appears to be the only f*****g song from the f*****g western world that 100% of french f*****g guitarists insist on f*****g playing at every jam night.

Although I'm not bitter about it😂

[chris_b]

Hey Joe? Sheer luxury!

I was in a jam night house band when we had two guitarists in a row get up and play Red House. That's the song I hate the most bloody twice in 15 mins!!!

[nightsun]

11 hours ago, chris_b said:

Hey Joe? Sheer luxury!

I was in a jam night house band when we had two guitarists in a row get up and play Red House. That's the song I hate the most bloody twice in 15 mins!!!

Forgot that on my list, please, PLEASE, don't play something that has already been played....

[Geek99]

knowing a host as I do, he told me it was really hard to balance people. I didn't really believe him but I think I understand it better now @nightsun

He managed to fit me in with the house guitarist and it turnred into a regular spot that we did. It was seamless but I see why now.