Worst Audition Ever!!!

[mikel]

27 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

 

Maybe, maybe not.

Unsupportive and/or controlling husband lets wifey audition for the role because obviously she's useless and (i) will never get the gig, (ii) can't possibly manage without hubby there to tell her what to do. Anyway, it'll shut her up for a while.

Then gets all hurt and precious when it turns out that little wifey actually does just fine when he's not there to screw things up for her.

Perhaps.

 

Nail on head I think.

[thebrig]

Just thought I would update you.

I put an ad on Join My Band the following day and had two singers message me almost immediately (Friday), both saying how much they loved the sort of stuff we play and would love to audition with us (their words, not mine), so I replied to both of them straight away with a bit more info about the band, I also said we can set up auditions next week if they are still interested.

It's now Monday and I've not heard a thing from either of them, I know they both read the messages on Friday because you can see on JMB when they read them, I don't mind if they've decided against it, but why could they not spend a minute or two replying to say they are no longer interested, then we can dismiss them as potential candidates and move on?

This has happened so many times over years when seeking musicians, it would seem that courtesy doesn't exist much these days I'm afraid. 😐

 

Edited November 19, 2018 by thebrig

[discreet]

5 minutes ago, thebrig said:

I put an ad on Join My Band the following day and had two singers message me almost immediately (Friday), both saying how much they loved the sort of stuff we play and would love to audition with us (their words, not mine), so I replied to both of them straight away with a bit more info about the band, I also said we can set up auditions next week if they are still interested. It's now Monday and I've not heard a thing from either of them, I know they both read the messages on Friday because you can see on JMB when they read them, I don't mind if they've decided against it, but why could they not spend a minute or two replying to say they are no longer interested, then we can dismiss them as potential candidates and move on? This has happened so many times over years when seeking musicians, it would seem that courtesy doesn't exist much these days I'm afraid.

Deluded flakes. 1) Some will say they want to be in a band then take it no further; 2) some will join a band and take it no further; 3) some will join a band, rehearse, do the occasional gig and take it no further; 4) some will get fairly close (potential deal, touring, sacrifices and commitments looming) before taking it no further; 5) some will wait until they're actually in a successful band, get FOS (Fear Of Success) then take it no further.

You've experienced 1), which at least has the merit of wasting the least amount of time.

[WHUFC BASS]

On 17/11/2018 at 14:34, mikel said:

Auditioned a female singer. She had sent us a list of 6 songs she wanted to sing, so we worked them up at home and had a run through without her to get them right. On the night she was good, not special but she could sing and had good timing. At the end of the night she was asking if she was good enough and we confirmed the gig was hers if she wanted it. She was really keen and gave a list of another 6 songs to work up for the next weeks rehearsal. Result we thought as all the songs were the style we played and we liked. Off she went saying "Looking forward to next week" The night before the next rehearsal, after we had spent the last week working up the 6 new songs, she phoned the guitarist and said " I cant take the gig my husband does not want me singing in a band"  WTF?

Why would anyone do that ? I'd let my missus audtion as a singer for any band she wanted to. The fact that she can't sing a note and her voice would hospitalise small children is neither here nor there. My only wish is that it was a band full of Millwall fans and they'd suffer irrevocable ear damage in the process.

[steantval]

7 hours ago, thebrig said:

Just thought I would update you.

I put an ad on Join My Band the following day and had two singers message me almost immediately (Friday), both saying how much they loved the sort of stuff we play and would love to audition with us (their words, not mine), so I replied to both of them straight away with a bit more info about the band, I also said we can set up auditions next week if they are still interested.

It's now Monday and I've not heard a thing from either of them, I know they both read the messages on Friday because you can see on JMB when they read them, I don't mind if they've decided against it, but why could they not spend a minute or two replying to say they are no longer interested, then we can dismiss them as potential candidates and move on?

This has happened so many times over years when seeking musicians, it would seem that courtesy doesn't exist much these days I'm afraid. 😐

 

My past experiences of trying to recruit new band members using JMB (especially vocalists and guitarists) is a mirror image of yours, the majority are deluded flakes and courtesy is not within their vocabulary.

[Monkey Steve]

To the OP, far too many very similar stories to tell about auditioning singers.  the closest was a 70's hard/classic rock type originals band, with swaggering, melodic vocals, we'd recorded a demo with a name producer, and sent that along with the lyrics to all the candidates.  We'd done the "half hour slot" trick where we said that we definitely had other people coming so they all had to be on time and out the door at the end of their slot, but in practice had a good quarter or half an hour between contestants so that we could extend it if things were going well.

The first person to try out barely spoke - hardly the swaggering frontman we were looking for.  Despite having had the demo for a couple of weeks he had only learned one song.  We played it once and he made a horrible, shouty noise, like he way trying out for a death metal band, and a million miles away from the vocals on the demo, missed his cues and sang over half the solo (actually, he wasn't alone in that).  We played that song again - just as bad - and asked if he wanted to try any of the others on the demo we'd sent.  No, he hadn't learned them.  Er...OK...so that'll be all then, thanks for coming.

On the plus side it only took about ten minutes

On the "my husband objects"...I have seen it before.  In one particular case, where a girl in a mate's band got married.  the band wasn't especially busy so it wasn't a great drain on her time, they'd practice every few weeks, book a couple of gigs a year - mates that had a band rather than musicians.  It became noticeable that she was less and less available for practices (I once helped them out for a couple of rehearsals for a gig that never happened and she only came to one of those) and I was later told that she'd left the band completely because she didn't think he husband appreciated her being in a room with four other blokes for a few hours...now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure that for the one rehearsal I did that she came to she had to leave early because hubby was picking her up at a specific time.

I've seen it work for male band members too - like Blue says, young kids can kill a musical career at the pub band level.  I've also seen the girlfriends who love having a boyfriend in a band that she can go and see turn into the wife who thinks it's time he grew up and stopped trying to be a popstar when he's the wrong side of 30!

[Woodinblack]

On 19/11/2018 at 12:42, thebrig said:

I put an ad on Join My Band the following day and had two singers message me almost immediately (Friday), both saying how much they loved the sort of stuff we play and would love to audition with us (their words, not mine), so I replied to both of them straight away with a bit more info about the band, I also said we can set up auditions next week if they are still interested.

It's now Monday and I've not heard a thing from either of them, I know they both read the messages on Friday because you can see on JMB when they read them, I don't mind if they've decided against it, but why could they not spend a minute or two replying to say they are no longer interested, then we can dismiss them as potential candidates and move on?

 

That is pretty well my experience using join my band. If you get anyone to respond you are half way there!

[Woodinblack]

2 hours ago, Monkey Steve said:

I've seen it work for male band members too - like Blue says, young kids can kill a musical career at the pub band level.  I've also seen the girlfriends who love having a boyfriend in a band that she can go and see turn into the wife who thinks it's time he grew up and stopped trying to be a popstar when he's the wrong side of 30!

Our band had all alternate weekends blocked out after the first year because of the singers wife. Not unreasonable, but that is the problems where I am the oldest in the band.

[oldbass]

Hope u dont mind me mentioning the drummer who at his audition for us....a progressive rock thingy many, many moons ago, played ........4 on the floor disco style to every tune. Nothing wrong at all with disco but.....

aagh! no thks.

[Ricky 4000]

... *turned out he was Tony Thompson* 😁

[Kiwi]

On 16/11/2018 at 22:20, discreet said:

And in the end actually got weird and threatening. Steps had to be taken. I've met some deluded flakes in my time - comes with the territory - but I won't forget this one in a hurry. 

"Music eh...shit business int'it?"

[Deanol]

On 20/11/2018 at 18:03, Woodinblack said:

That is pretty well my experience using join my band. If you get anyone to respond you are half way there!

It can work the other way as well.

I packed in bands twenty years ago, but about eight years ago I noticed on JMB that a local band wanted a singer. Blues and rock stuff they said. ZZ Top, Clapton, SRV etc. Right up my street I thought, and I can sing a bit, so I approached them.

Had a couple of auditions at it was apparent that they wanted to be heavier - Black Sabbath, Metallica and so on. Not my scene at all and I did struggle to learn the material and sing them (I loathe Paranoid to this day! It has too many words per bar).

So if you are going to recruit someone, be honest about the material. I would never have bothered replying to the JMB ad had I known what their true focus was.

[Woodinblack]

2 hours ago, Deanol said:

It can work the other way as well.

...

So if you are going to recruit someone, be honest about the material. I would never have bothered replying to the JMB ad had I known what their true focus was.

That is good - you won, they replied. When I used JMB and someone contacted me with something I wasn't interested in, I would have said 'no thanks, thats not something I am interested in'. I thought it was just polite to reply to people.