What's the closest you've ever come to making the big time...

[Roger2611]

Some twenty five years ago now I was the bass player for a band called Sack The Drummer, we recorded a couple of albums part of which were done at Whitfield Street studios (Sony's studio in London at the time) we recorded the week after the Spice Girls were in......a week's difference and Mr Beckham may not have been so lucky! We were managed by a director of Sony Music and were being touted as Britian's answer to REM...........except REM had already been around for about 3 years and  were already a global success, still we played some good festivals including supporting Peter Green on one of his first comeback gigs....we worked bloody hard for a good few years but eventually fell apart.

Now at just over 50 I am still playing in an originals band we are still courting national radio play and are still getting excellent reviews and I am still playing with the keys player and guitarist of Sack The Drummer 

[louisthebass]

Last originals band I was in back in the very early 1990's - we had a frontman who was very well connected. We did a 30 minute set at "The Rock Garden" in Covent Garden (April 1991 if memory serves), and he invited Then Jericho's manager and Martin Degville from Sigue Sigue Sputnik to the gig, so it was pressure on. We were hoping to get signed, or least get word out about the band (it was only our 4th gig).

Nothing came of it and the band folded a few weeks later - I took a sabbatical from music due to some family stuff and when I got back into things, it was covers bands from then on. Not bitter about the way things turned out though, and feel like I've learned more about being a musician than I had at that time.

[Linus27]

The band I was in, Inter managed to get a record deal. We were part of the post brit-pop scene and worked our rears off playing as much as humanly possible to build up a following. Started to get a name for ourselves and released a song on the Pet Sounds label and then later on our first single, Happy Ending in 1997. This got noticed by John Peel who said it was his favourite single of 1997 and gave us our first John Peel Session. This promoted us even further and it got to the point where Virgin were trying to decide to sign either us or The Stereophonics. They chose the Stereophonics in the end but we still managed to get a half decent record deal. We were all about 28 and got about £36k advance each for 3 years plus £5k to buy gear and then royalties from merchandise, sales etc. Going to the Bass Centre with £5k to go buy whatever I wanted was the best feeling in the world. I bought a Stingray, a Status and a massive top of the range Hartke rig 😊

We recorded our debut album at Loco Studios in South Wales which was where Oasis, The Manics, Stereophonics and many others had recorded stuff. The studio was also owned by Geoff Downes of Buggles fame and John Payne of Asia who both played on the album. We lived at the studio for three months in our own cottage and even had our own chef 😊 Our producer was Mark Wallis who has recorded with everyone but is most famous for recording the IT Bites album, The Primatives album, The Smiths, The Travis album and was the engineer on U2's Joshua Tree. Prior to choosing this producer we came very close to going to Seatle and recording the album with Rick Parasher who recorded Pearl Jam's Ten album but we told the record company no as we wanted to sound English still and not end up sounding like an American band. The album, titled Got My Nine sold 7k copies in the first week and we released 3 singles, National Paranoia, Speed Racer and Radio Finland. All got mainstream radio airplay and led on to a second John Peel Session, a live Virgin Radio Session and an XFM session. Also one of our tracks was used to advertise Casio G Shock watches in an advert for Spanish cinemas. We also did other TV stuff with tracks being used on Eurosport and Rebel TV. Q Magazine gave the album 4 out of 5.

We continued to tour which was amazing with our own crew etc. and were doing really well but then things started to go wrong. We were getting offered some big things like going on tour with Feeder in Germany, film soundtracks, gigs in the States but the record company was saying no to it all. To cut a long story short, we found out we were being ran as a tax loss so initially the record company were happy to pump money in to us (the album alone cost £120k to record etc.) but as we started to get more successful they put the brakes on. We were literally being hung out to dry and missing out on great opportunities which at the time made no sense. Anyway, they breached contracts so we sued them and won and that was the end of it. It was incredibly hard work, constantly recording, touring, song writing, promoting, photo shoots, interviews etc. but I have no regrets as I lived my dream for 4 years, the best time of my life with the most amazing experiences. Plus I still get the odd royalty payment now and again 😊 More details below.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter_(band)

Other things I've done is go on tour with Paul Weller in another band, supporting him for 4 nights at the Roundhouse in Camden and recorded an album at his studio in Ripley. He also played on the album and I had to teach him to play this piano part that we wanted. I've been the Bass player in a video for a charity song that ELO were recording. Played at Brixton Academy using The Levellers back line. Supported Cactus World News and Let Loose and best of all chatted to Andrea Corr whilst making a cup of tea 😍😍

Now I play in an amazing 50s and 60s cover band, doing about 100 gigs a year and totally loving it.

Edited May 11, 2018 by Linus27

[Norris]

I once appeared on ITV's Central News - playing bass trombone in the "Fanfare" big band. We went to the tv studio and everything 

[BrunoBass]

18 minutes ago, Linus27 said:

The band I was in, Inter managed to get a record deal. We were part of the post brit-pop scene and worked our rears off playing as much as humanly possible to build up a following. Started to get a name for ourselves and released a song on the Pet Sounds label and then later on our first single, Happy Ending in 1997. This got noticed by John Peel who said it was his favourite single of 1997 and gave us our first John Peel Session. This promoted us even further and it got to the point where Virgin were trying to decide to sign either us or The Stereophonics. They chose the Stereophonics in the end but we still managed to get a half decent record deal. We were all about 28 and got about £36k advance each for 3 years plus £5k to buy gear and then royalties from merchandise, sales etc. Going to the Bass Centre with £5k to go buy whatever I wanted was the best feeling in the world. I bought a Stingray, a Status and a massive top of the range Hartke rig 😊

We recorded our debut album at Loco Studios in South Wales which was where Oasis, The Manics, Stereophonics and many others had recorded stuff. The studio was also owned by Geoff Downes of Buggles fame and John Payne of Asia who both played on the album. We lived at the studio for three months in our own cottage and even had our own chef 😊 Our producer was Mark Wallis who has recorded with everyone but is most famous for recording the IT Bites album, The Primatives album, The Smiths, The Travis album and was the engineer on U2's Joshua Tree. Prior to choosing this producer we came very close to going to Seatle and recording the album with Rick Parasher who recorded Pearl Jam's Ten album but we told the record company no as we wanted to sound English still and not end up sounding like an American band. The album, titled Got My Nine sold 7k copies in the first week and we released 3 singles, National Paranoia, Speed Racer and Radio Finland. All got mainstream radio airplay and led on to a second John Peel Session, a live Virgin Radio Session and an XFM session. Also one of our tracks was used to advertise Casio G Shock watches in an advert for Spanish cinemas. We also did other TV stuff with tracks being used on Eurosport and Rebel TV. Q Magazine gave the album 4 out of 5.

We continued to tour which was amazing with our own crew etc. and were doing really well but then things started to go wrong. We were getting offered some big things like going on tour with Feeder in Germany, film soundtracks, gigs in the States but the record company was saying no to it all. To cut a long story short, we found out we were being ran as a tax loss so initially the record company were happy to pump money in to us (the album alone cost £120k to record etc.) but as we started to get more successful they put the brakes on. We were literally being hung out to dry and missing out on great opportunities which at the time made no sense. Anyway, they breached contracts so we sued them and won and that was the end of it. It was incredibly hard work, constantly recording, touring, song writing, promoting, photo shoots, interviews etc. but I have no regrets as I lived my dream for 4 years, the best time of my life with the most amazing experiences. Plus I still get the odd royalty payment now and again 😊 More details below.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter_(band)

Other things I've done is go on tour with Paul Weller in another band, supporting him for 4 nights at the Roundhouse in Camden and recorded an album at his studio in Ripley. He also played on the album and I had to teach him to play this piano part that we wanted. I've been the Bass player in a video for a charity song that ELO were recording. Played at Brixton Academy using The Levellers back line. Supported Cactus World News and Let Loose and best of all chatted to Andrea Corr whilst making a cup of tea 😍😍

Now I play in an amazing 50s and 60s cover band, doing about 100 gigs a year and totally loving it.

I don’t know about coming close to making it, it sounds like you did make it! 

That’s a great story, it sounds like you were truly living the dream and if one of my bands had attained the level of success you found I’d have been immensely happy. What an amazing experience. 

By the way, I’m aware of your band. I can’t admit to being familiar with your material but I certainly remember the name. 

[Steve Browning]

This might look quite good on paper:

Played bass with David Gilmour;

Been in the charts;

Headlined the Isle of Wight Festival

All this was done after the age of 30 (to counter the disillusioned youngster earlier on)!

Oh, and I killed a man while playing the Birdies Song (did I mention that before?) - rock'n'roll.

[Linus27]

34 minutes ago, BrunoBass said:

I don’t know about coming close to making it, it sounds like you did make it! 

That’s a great story, it sounds like you were truly living the dream and if one of my bands had attained the level of success you found I’d have been immensely happy. What an amazing experience. 

By the way, I’m aware of your band. I can’t admit to being familiar with your material but I certainly remember the name. 

Ah cool, thank you, certainly an amazing experience and yes, incredibly happy about the whole thing.

Even better you have heard of us. If you fancy a listen to the album then just go here 😊

https://m.soundcloud.com/michael-boylan/sets/inter-got-my-nine

[Adrenochrome]

I was in a band on Casket Music (part of Copro mentioned in an earlier post). It was a real slog, and I've had far more "fame and fortune" in covers bands, or bands playing mainly covers.

[Cat Burrito]

2 hours ago, musicbassman said:

Well, I did play onstage with Robert Plant and John Bonham, but it's a long story.

Just to rival this, John Paul Jones recognised the singer in my band. He did reply, "shouldn't this be the other way around?"

[Bluewine]

Depends on how you define big time  As long as I have consistent work and getting paid I'm in the big time.

Blue

[josie]

Just  to put the very impressive stuff above into humble perspective:

Got to join the late jam at Carlisle Blues Festival last September with Kaz Hawkins, Connie Lush, and Matt Long of Catfish - three of the very best musicians on the current UK blues scene. Well out of my depth but got away with it :-)

 

[Norris]

I once played bass in a scratch band backing Geoff Downes

[chris_b]

I had 5 mins. . . . . I'm still waiting for the other10!!

[EMG456]

85/86 I was writing songs with a guy who was an amazing singer but had difficulties with various addictions which had more or less brick-walled a promising career for him. We were taken under the wing of record producer who was well known up here in Scotland at the time and he bankrolled a proper full scale studio demo. He then hawked the tapes around various record companies and Polydor was the keenest. So he and I went down to London to meet with the record company. In the office, the A&R guy was going crazy about the songs - "This stuff is perfect for the States", "Fantastic Songs", "Great Singing and playing" etc. etc. As we left the meeting with hugely positive vibes, we held it together until the lift arrived and as soon as the doors closed, my producer friend was punching the air with delight. He had a lot of experience in the business and reckoned that a lucrative deal was virtually in the bag. Two days later, Polydor call him up. "It's XXX XXXXXX singing, isn't it?" was the question. Unfortunately, my singer's reputation for drug use and related unreliability cast a large shadow and the idea was dropped instantaneously.

Fast forward about a year and I'm earning a crust playing for various cabaret acts. One is a Drifters tribute act and the promoter/ manager has the habit of bringing to the UK former stars of Motown or whatever who's careers have slid somewhat from the heady days of the 60s. One of these is Ben E King. As we're a Drifters band, we are chosen to back Ben E. for a tour. 

It all kicks off inauspiciously in the usual way for those things at that time with a smashed windscreen in the tour van in the middle of the night driving down from Scotland to the Isle of Wight- the first date of the tour is the end of season party for the staff at some holiday camp. That wild weekend was a story in itself but the tour went on at equally salubrious venues for a while till one day Ben got a call during the soundcheck. No mobiles - he was called away to the telephone. When he reappears, he says that apparently, due to the recent release of the Rob Reiner movie Stand by Me, his song of the same name which we open the set with every night has just gone to No 1 in the Uk charts!

Suddenly, we're part of a 60s revival tour and are playing to packed houses in big venues that you've seen on tour schedules by the big bands - Liverpool Empire, Colston Halls, Bristol, Edinburgh Playhouse etc. Talk about 15 minutes of fame? Then Ben went back to the States and that was that.

These two episodes in their own ways are my nearest misses but what the heck - I've now been playing the bass and gigging regularly since 1973 and I'm still going, still learning and still enjoying it!

[amadeusex]

4 hours ago, Steve Browning said:

Oh, and I killed a man while playing the Birdies Song (did I mention that before?) - rock'n'roll.

Could you elaborate more on that ?

[BreadBin]

4 hours ago, amadeusex said:

Could you elaborate more on that ?

There you go 

[Burns-bass]

Recorded an album with Johnny Burns of Genesis fame (he worked with everyone in the 70s), mastered at Real World, signed a distribution deal in Germany and the record sold about 2 copies I think. I don’t even have one (but I do have a t shirt somewhere). 

Played the Albert Hall and some other big gigs and toured around on the prog scene with the big names for a bit. First ever gig I did was with Wilco Johnson (Norman Wattroy used my rig and we had a chat but I was callow and didn’t really talk to him about how awesome he was), and it got better from there. 

Arthur Brown was good fun, Carl Palmer was mad and the Australian Pink Floyd were thoroughly lovely.

I remember a lot of optimism dashed against the rocks of reality. Nobody really liked what we did apart from the guy who knew the record company I think.

Don’t consider this making it, but it was good fun. Never got paid, band was full of angry men and I knocked it on the head to start writing for a living which is a very similar proposition!

When I was younger I thought I would have loved to tour the world and all that, but I don’t think I would have really. I enjoyed the booze a little too much and I’m sure I was a total (expletive deleted).

[PaulWarning]

I've never been close to 'making it' but a guy I used to work with was in a band that got a £100,000 advance from Warner Bros, recorded an album at the Studio in Wales did a couple of years touring with major acts, living the dream, full time musician. Eventually the advance money ran out, the album didn't sell very well and they got dropped, but the best bit of the story is the Manchester Evening News ran a story on their music page with the headline, "Who's going to be the next big thing, The Steamboat Band or Oasis?" 

[casapete]

8 hours ago, EMG456 said:

85/86 I was writing songs with a guy who was an amazing singer but had difficulties with various addictions which had more or less brick-walled a promising career for him. We were taken under the wing of record producer who was well known up here in Scotland at the time and he bankrolled a proper full scale studio demo. He then hawked the tapes around various record companies and Polydor was the keenest. So he and I went down to London to meet with the record company. In the office, the A&R guy was going crazy about the songs - "This stuff is perfect for the States", "Fantastic Songs", "Great Singing and playing" etc. etc. As we left the meeting with hugely positive vibes, we held it together until the lift arrived and as soon as the doors closed, my producer friend was punching the air with delight. He had a lot of experience in the business and reckoned that a lucrative deal was virtually in the bag. Two days later, Polydor call him up. "It's XXX XXXXXX singing, isn't it?" was the question. Unfortunately, my singer's reputation for drug use and related unreliability cast a large shadow and the idea was dropped instantaneously.

Fast forward about a year and I'm earning a crust playing for various cabaret acts. One is a Drifters tribute act and the promoter/ manager has the habit of bringing to the UK former stars of Motown or whatever who's careers have slid somewhat from the heady days of the 60s. One of these is Ben E King. As we're a Drifters band, we are chosen to back Ben E. for a tour. 

It all kicks off inauspiciously in the usual way for those things at that time with a smashed windscreen in the tour van in the middle of the night driving down from Scotland to the Isle of Wight- the first date of the tour is the end of season party for the staff at some holiday camp. That wild weekend was a story in itself but the tour went on at equally salubrious venues for a while till one day Ben got a call during the soundcheck. No mobiles - he was called away to the telephone. When he reappears, he says that apparently, due to the recent release of the Rob Reiner movie Stand by Me, his song of the same name which we open the set with every night has just gone to No 1 in the Uk charts!

Suddenly, we're part of a 60s revival tour and are playing to packed houses in big venues that you've seen on tour schedules by the big bands - Liverpool Empire, Colston Halls, Bristol, Edinburgh Playhouse etc. Talk about 15 minutes of fame? Then Ben went back to the States and that was that.

These two episodes in their own ways are my nearest misses but what the heck - I've now been playing the bass and gigging regularly since 1973 and I'm still going, still learning and still enjoying it!

Great story!

I had a not dissimilar experience some years ago with my band. We were an 8 piece function band doing pretty well, playing all over the UK and managed by a northern agency. One day we got a call from the office asking if we’d be interested in doing a small tour backing an American soul singer. The dates weren’t massive venues, and included some Butlins weekender type gigs as well as the usual theatres etc. When we enquired as to who the singer was, we were told it was Jimmy Ruffin. I was stunned at the chance to play for a Motown legend ( and THAT intro on ‘What becomes of the broken-hearted etc’ ), but had to explain who he was to some of the band who’d never heard of him!! Apparently we’d been shortlisted as we had a great 3 piece brass section (which wasn’t that common at the time)  and of course because we were probably cheaper than putting together a band of top London session guys too. Needless to say, after a few days of waiting we discovered the tour wasn’t going ahead after all, and we carried on with our usual diet of weddings and corporate gigs. I often wondered how it would have panned out though. Our band went on to do some high end functions, including gigs for royalty and playing at the Albert Hall, but playing some classic Motown lines for a Motown legend would probably have been the high point for me.

 

 

[Burns-bass]

8 minutes ago, casapete said:

Great story!

I had a not dissimilar experience some years ago with my band. We were an 8 piece function band doing pretty well, playing all over the UK and managed by a northern agency. One day we got a call from the office asking if we’d be interested in doing a small tour backing an American soul singer. The dates weren’t massive venues, and included some Butlins weekender type gigs as well as the usual theatres etc. When we enquired as to who the singer was, we were told it was Jimmy Ruffin. I was stunned at the chance to play for a Motown legend ( and THAT intro on ‘What becomes of the broken-hearted etc’ ), but had to explain who he was to some of the band who’d never heard of him!! Apparently we’d been shortlisted as we had a great 3 piece brass section (which wasn’t that common at the time)  and of course because we were probably cheaper than putting together a band of top London session guys too. Needless to say, after a few days of waiting we discovered the tour wasn’t going ahead after all, and we carried on with our usual diet of weddings and corporate gigs. I often wondered how it would have panned out though. Our band went on to do some high end functions, including gigs for royalty and playing at the Albert Hall, but playing some classic Motown lines for a Motown legend would probably have been the high point for me.

 

 

Would have been amazing... shame!

[Cosmo Valdemar]

16 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said:

I was in a band in the early 80s in Leeds...

2 of the members went on to become the Utah Saints, one went and joined the Rollins Band and one - the son of a famous agony aunt - went on to become a famous tv foodie and restaurant critic.

I stayed resolutely unknown.

I sat next to the drummer from the Utah Saints at a wedding once. Lovely chap, we got on very well. He looked like Tintin.

[Leonard Smalls]

3 minutes ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

drummer from the Utah Saints

If it was their live, as opposed to studio, drummer that was Keith; he's still the drummer in the Badass Weeds with me , Andy from New FADS on vox, John from Snapdragons and Andy from Cassandra Complex on guitar.

Aftet nearly 35 years of on-off existence the Weeds may still do as many as 1 gig a year...

[Cosmo Valdemar]

8 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

If it was their live, as opposed to studio, drummer that was Keith; he's still the drummer in the Badass Weeds with me , Andy from New FADS on vox, John from Snapdragons and Andy from Cassandra Complex on guitar.

Aftet nearly 35 years of on-off existence the Weeds may still do as many as 1 gig a year...

I think his name was Jon...

[leftybassman392]

15 hours ago, Roger2611 said:

Some twenty five years ago now I was the bass player for a band called Sack The Drummer, we recorded a couple of albums part of which were done at Whitfield Street studios (Sony's studio in London at the time) we recorded the week after the Spice Girls were in......a week's difference and Mr Beckham may not have been so lucky! We were managed by a director of Sony Music and were being touted as Britian's answer to REM...........except REM had already been around for about 3 years and  were already a global success, still we played some good festivals including supporting Peter Green on one of his first comeback gigs....we worked bloody hard for a good few years but eventually fell apart.

Now at just over 50 I am still playing in an originals band we are still courting national radio play and are still getting excellent reviews and I am still playing with the keys player and guitarist of Sack The Drummer 

I remember Sack The Drummer. At the time I was playing guitar in a covers band called Tango With Dignity, and we followed you onstage at a marquee gig outside the Britannia pub on the Bedford Road. That would have been mid/late '90s.

I can't bring any of your songs to mind, but I do recall being impressed by your performance if it helps...

[Leonard Smalls]

2 hours ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

I think his name was Jon...

There's Tim, who's mainly electronics and I don't know at all, and Jez whose short-scale Gibson bass I used to borrow - he did early drum stuff; Keith was their main live drummer and was also in MDMA with Jez previously.

K's got a great photo of himself standing, sticks held aloft triumphantly in front of a completely full Wembley Stadium when they supported U2...