Leaving Bands - Happy Endings

[stewblack]

I've been reflecting on the couple of threads from Basschatters unceremoniously or bewilderingly sacked from their bands. 

Lots of solid advice about moving on to better things, which got me thinking. How about we share our stories from when we were sacked or we finally threw up our hands in horror and walked, and this provided the catalyst to much happier times. 

My most recent experience was leaving a band of my own volition. The BL was full of BS, couldn't play in time, but did all the work and gave me the gig when I auditioned. So I hung around. 

I found us a fantastic singer and the drummer unearthed a gem of a keys player. We all knew the BL was the glass ceiling but thought he was a likeable innocent buffoon, possibly on the spectrum too, and so put up with his idiosyncrasies. 

Then I got a friend in to dep for a gig and discovered he was actually quite a nasty piece of work. She blew the gig and showed me the hectoring, pestering messages he'd sent her, which led to her decision. He then treated us to a wholly different version of events, which painted her as the villain. 

Other stuff then blew up between him and the keys guy and I walked. He then, in a fit of pique sacked a singer, drummer and keys player so far above his level he should have been begging them to stay. 

They and I formed a four piece to honour a gig commitment and have subsequently carried on as a band. The new venture is harmonious both on and off stage. Mutual respect all around and damn we sound good. 

So the guy who we all thought was a bit of a four letter word actually brought us together then provided us with the perfect platform to kick start this new project. 

Happy days. 

 

[Monkey Steve]

ooh, good topic!

Here's mine

Me and my oldest musical friend, a drummer that I've been in bands with on and off since we were teenagers, were at a bit of a loose end.  We were notionally in a three piece band, but the guitarist had been, all guitaristy and it wasn't really happening.  

The drummer was in another band at the time, playing rock covers, and he suggested that we might form a heavier version playing metal.  he knew that their lead guitarist loved heavier music, and the rhythm guitarist could be persuaded to come along too.  The lead guitarist being a nice bloke, not a bad guitarist...oddly lacking in the egocentric selfishness, let's call it the C-gene (because what it really is won't get past the swear filter) that all good lead guitarist have got.

Or so we thought...

We find an excellent singer, and everything's coming together...but the guitarists are becoming a problem.  the rhythm guitarist is a really nice guy, but not very good.  However, he was a fixture in the rock covers band, everybody liked him as a person, so as long as we can turn him down a little and he's not making too many obvious mistakes...but he is struggling to learn the songs and it had taken months to get a set together.

But the lead guitarist's C-gene is starting to show.  He won't learn the songs that the rest of us want to learn, he is permanently late - often two or three hours late to a four hour rehearsal  (which is never his fault...until he tells us why he's late and it always sounds like it's his fault) and whenever he makes a mistake it's always somebody else's fault, particularly if he makes it at a gig.  Hissy fits a plenty.  While he's a not bad lead guitarist, his sense of rhythm isn't great and it'd been showing in some of his playing.  If you're going to act like a diva you need to be the best musician in the room.  I'd place him fourth out of five - I'd put myself third, and while he's a better lead guitarist than me, I'm a better bass player than he is a lead guitarist.  Me and the drummer are regularly discussing how to sack him.  Well, the drummer is discussing how to punch him, I'm keeping it limited to dealing with his musical issues.

I've told the story before on other threads, but it came to a head after we recorded a demo.  The lead guitarist had got the data files from the studio on the premise that it was just so he could try mixing it for his own amusement, to see how it compared with a professional, and despite us having paid for it to be mixed, and the rest of us being happy with how it sounded (well, with 2 of the 3 songs, the last one being murdered by the rhythm guitarist having been allowed to play a solo) he spat his dummy out at me wanting to press it up on CD to send out for gigs, because he hasn't finished his re-recording and re-mixing and we should all have the decency to wait for him to finish.  This being some weeks after we'd had the final mixes from the studio, and he'd finished his version of just one track (which was no better than the studio mix).

I got a very rude e-mail from him on the Friday about how ungrateful i am at not appreciating his genius, and I stew on it over the weekend, before sending my reply first thing on Monday morning saying that I'd had enough and he should start looking for a new bass player.  Knowing that the drummer would back me up and quit too (we'd had enough of the band for assorted reasons, mainly him) but genuinely not caring because I was in an originals band by that point and was enjoying that far more and didn't need the covers band.

Little did I know that the rock covers band had played a gig that weekend and he'd tried to blame the drummer for his latest mistake, missing his cue for a very well known solo in a very well known rock song.  Very loudly blaming him in front of everybody else in the band, and very incorrectly.  Unaware that the drummer already hated him, he found himself sacked from both bands before I hit Send on Monday morning's e-mail.

What happened next...

I carried on in my originals band, playing with some musicians who are reasonably well known in extreme metal circles (although that's not what we were playing).  We played around the London circuit for a couple of years, at much bigger and better venues than I'd previously been used to.  This led to me depping with a fairly well known extreme metal band last year, headlining at the Underworld and the Rebellion, and swanning around like a rock star for an excellent weekend of appalling behaviour.  And my current active (not actually very "active") band is playing covers with most of them.

One of my ongoing arguments was that the lead guitarist only liked Iron Maiden and the Cult, and he kept insisting that we should only play Iron Maiden and Cult songs "because the crowd will know all of those and they won't know the songs from those obscure bands you keep wanting to play like Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Motorhead".  The drummer and singer (who both love Maiden) started a Maiden tribute band, and invited the rhythm guitarist along (although, perhaps luckily for them, he dropped out).  Had he not had such a prominent C-gene the lead guitarist could have been in an Iron Maiden tribute act as a side project.

That band broke up after a couple of years, with the drummer going on to join an originals band, playing a lot of shows and recording their well received debut album before life intervened and he moved to his favourite part of the world to do his dream job.

The singer, having previously been in an AC/DC tribute band (and sounding exactly like Brian Johnson) was asked to join Chris Slade's Timeline - that band that Chris Slade runs when he's not on tour with AC/DC.  He's played the main stage at Hellfest, headlined the Underworld a couple of months back, and is loving being a paid semi-pro musician.

That leaves the rhythm guitarist...who joined a new rock/metal covers band with the lead guitarist, with a very familiar sounding set list.  In fairness, he was the one person who didn't fall out with the lead guitarist...although we always wonder why the lead guitarist always wants him around, given that he's the harshest critic (and on a demo for the rock covers band, he'd recorded over the rhythm guitar tracks without telling the rhythm player).  We suspect it's because he likes being the top dog in any band, and keeping the rhythm guitarist around means that there's no debate about who's the best guitarist.

But you can't keep a good C-gene down for too long.  the band play a lot of gigs on the local circuit, and had a few in the diary when the lead guitarist announced that he was quitting with immediate effect and they'd have to find somebody else to play the gigs they had booked in the next few weeks.  I'm not sure I'd have wanted to be at the next one, when the rhythm guitarist played all the solo parts, but they soon found a replacement and have carried on largely as before, still playing a lot of gigs in the local area

I'm not aware that the lead guitarist has been playing in any bands for the last couple of years

[stewblack]

@Monkey Steve - What a tale! And yet again we see the people with the lowest level of C-gene (love that btw) come out best in the long run. Which is exactly why I started this thread, so that those being unfairly treated by C-geners can see that actually all of it may well be for the best in the long run. Thank you.

[DaytonaRik]

59 minutes ago, Monkey Steve said:

The singer, having previously been in an AC/DC tribute band (and sounding exactly like Brian Johnson) was asked to join Chris Slade's Timeline - that band that Chris Slade runs when he's not on tour with AC/DC.  He's played the main stage at Hellfest, headlined the Underworld a couple of months back, and is loving being a paid semi-pro musician.

Would that be Frank Knight?  If so then he's a top bloke and a great voice. I met him backstage at an AC/DC gig a few years ago along with his wife - we were both guests of Chris - and I knew that he had also guested with Accept and I think Krokus at that time.

Edited December 31, 2019 by DaytonaRik

[Monkey Steve]

56 minutes ago, DaytonaRik said:

Would that be Frank Knight?  If so then he's a top bloke and a great voice. I met him backstage at an AC/DC gig a few years ago along with his wife - we were both guests of Chris - and I knew that he had also guested with Accept and I think Krokus at that time.

No, it’s Bun Davis. I think Frank was in the band before Bun.  Another top bloke