Difficulties agreeing on rehearsal precautions

[Beedster]

I'm just relieved to be back in a room with other musicians. We're being careful, but I suspect the benefits outweigh the risks in real terms

[Earbrass]

4 hours ago, Happy Jack said:

My account is correct, but perhaps it is not clear enough?

.....

 

 

Oh dear, I do seem to have touched a nerve, don't I. 😂 Not my intention, I assure you. You, of course, know the personalities and situation, and I do not. Nor is it any of my business. I was merely pointing out that the facts as stated in your original post did not square with the "making rules for others to follow" remark in your subsequent post. I'm not sure where you get the idea that I'm "offended", vicariously or otherwise. If asserting your right not to take a free and harmless test is more important to you than having a band rehearsal, that is, of course, a matter for you and your bandmates. And you got to come on basschat and crow about your successful assertion of such rights, so, well done you!

[Rich]

We agreed unanimously that a lateral flow test before the rehearsal would be a good idea. Especially when you consider there's 12 of us, horns and stuff. 

[chris_b]

We got together about 2 months ago for a video shoot. The drummer asked everyone to take a lateral flow test. He's got some serious illness in his family and needed the reassurance that he wasn't going to complicate the situation. The rest of us thought that was a sensible precaution, took the tests and emailed him the photos.

 

I was happy to comply.  

[paul_c2]

What's interesting is the government has now removed its specific advice on amateur music group rehearsals from its gov.uk website. Not archived, but completely removed the page and now it redirects to a vaguely-related page which has much less info.

So we're left on our own to decide what to do re: testing, rules, social distancing, ventilation, one way system, etc

 

This type of issue is going to come up more and more.

[ezbass]

2 minutes ago, paul_c2 said:

What's interesting is the government has now removed its specific advice on amateur music group rehearsals from its gov.uk website. Not archived, but completely removed the page and now it redirects to a vaguely-related page which has much less info.

So we're left on our own to decide what to do re: testing, rules, social distancing, ventilation, one way system, etc

 

This type of issue is going to come up more and more.

This seems to be BJ & Co’s new guidance, “It’s up to you now, not our problem or fault if it goes tîts up.” 
 

British common sense will prevail apparently. Not holding my breath, but perhaps I should. 

[wateroftyne]

IMO if a band member asks for everyone to take a lateral flow test at short notice before a rehearsal, that's fine. It'll take a couple of minutes. 

 

We're in strange times. It's OK to be inconvenienced a little more to reduce the risk as much as possible.

 

Sometimes you don't know how you'll feel until it comes to the crunch... like most of us, I'm desperate to gig again, and I've been sitting like a coiled spring waiting for the opportunity to come up.

 

A few days ago I was offered a gig for this weekend, but when I thought about it - and the fact that it was indoors - I actually declined. I surprised myself, but it didn't feel right to say yes.

Edited July 25, 2021 by wateroftyne

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, paul_c2 said:

What's interesting is the government has now removed its specific advice on amateur music group rehearsals from its gov.uk website. Not archived, but completely removed the page and now it redirects to a vaguely-related page which has much less info.

 

Yep, it is no longer their fault if it goes bad, it is just down to the public.

 

 

42 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

IMO if a band member asks for everyone to take a lateral flow test at short notice before a rehearsal, that's fine. It'll take a couple of minutes. 

 

We're in strange times. It's OK to be inconvenienced a little more to reduce the risk as much as possible.

 

I would say it is up to the person who is being asked if they want to or not. I would, but I wouldn't critisize anyone for not wanting to and instead waiting if that is what they wanted.

 

We have actually had no problem practicing but our guitarist doesn't want to play indoor venues but he is ok to practice.

 

He decided to leave the band as he didn't want to do indoor venues, fair enough, his choice, so we got some other guitarists to cover him, then it turned out those guitarists had forgotten they had a gig, then he decided he would come back as it was a big airy venue, then the singers son got covid and he has to isolate. 

Then the gig the guitarists forgot they had got cancelled due to covid, so they are playing the gig with their band!

 

Going to be an odd time for gigging for a while.

 

As a result, still no gig. Next weekend there is supposed to be one, outdoors. I have not got excited about the idea as after 3 cancelled gigs in a row, I can't persuade myself that it is going to happen!

[wateroftyne]

1 minute ago, Woodinblack said:

 

I would say it is up to the person who is being asked if they want to or not. I would, but I wouldn't critisize anyone for not wanting to and instead waiting if that is what they wanted.

 

Of course - the alternative would be to bin the rehearsal, so it's just a case of weighing up the options. I know what I would do.

[Woodinblack]

43 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

 

Of course - the alternative would be to bin the rehearsal, so it's just a case of weighing up the options. I know what I would do.

 

Me too, I wouldn't have an issue, but it is up to Happy Jack (or whoever) what they did. Although if I knew how the gigs would be going not sure I would have bothered about the practices so much!

 

[chris_b]

I played my first gig this week. Crossed my fingers and turned up with a big bottle of sanitizer. It was a small venue, with restricted numbers, but after a year and a half isolating and 130,000 deaths I wasn't sure I wanted to be mixing with anyone. We have to start up our lives again and I don't know there will ever be a "best" time.

 

It was a difficult decision to make. I've been desperate to gig for over a year but when the opportunity came I found I really didn't want to take the first step.  I'm jabbed up so, while I expect to get Covid19 at some point, I'm hoping/relying on the vaccine to keep the illness to the level of an annoyance. If a new, more virulent, variant turns up, it's back to hiding under the stairs, but until then I'm happy my diary is seeing gigs again.

[tauzero]

On 24/07/2021 at 17:48, Happy Jack said:

My account is correct, but perhaps it is not clear enough?

 

The drummer suddenly announced that he expected the rest of the band to turn up the next day ready to prove - to him - that we were all 'clean'.

 

I pointed out that, since he was the one with the problem (the other three of us were fine), it would make more sense for us to re-start rehearsals once he no longer had a problem. He was noticeably less fussed by my response that some Basschatters seem to be. Being vicariously offended is a wonderful stance, isn't it? So convenient, and so totally without responsibility.

 

It seems perfectly reasonable to me that everybody in the band should be happy with whatever arrangements there are, and that nobody should try to force an anxious bandmate back into a rehearsal that they're not happy about. It also seems to me that he could have let you know a bit earlier. And, given the poor reliability of LFTs, it might have given him a false sense of security anyway. So it seems to me that you did one of the two best possible things (the other one being to do the LFT).

[lurksalot]

On a health level I would be perfectly happy to blast on with gigs and rehearsals , on a professional level , the risks to my business continuation, with isolation or infection, would absolutely make the decision for me !

[Supernaut]

On 24/07/2021 at 17:48, Happy Jack said:

We've already had one arrogant clown accusing me of being an anti-vaxer - this from a silly billy I've never met, who knows the square root of bugger all about me - apparently for the heinous crimes of not holding the same opinions as him, and of not taking orders from other band members. Let's not go any further down that cess-pit, OK?

 

I said anti masker not anti vaxxer but out of curiosity, have you had a vaccine? 

[Cat Burrito]

We're surprisingly on the same page over this. Interestingly my two main bands have a bit of gentle banter going on re the different vaccinations. The guide tends to be AZ (commoner), Pzifer (fancy) and Moderna (posh). Luckily we are all of an age where we are double jabbed. Those of us that worked through the whole thing financially covered those who struggled a bit more too, which was pretty unspoken. The drummer obviously got paid as he handed over a small wad of cash at the last one to cover the times where he was unable to pay. 

[Steve Browning]

19 hours ago, Cat Burrito said:

We're surprisingly on the same page over this. Interestingly my two main bands have a bit of gentle banter going on re the different vaccinations. The guide tends to be AZ (commoner), Pzifer (fancy) and Moderna (posh). Luckily we are all of an age where we are double jabbed. Those of us that worked through the whole thing financially covered those who struggled a bit more too, which was pretty unspoken. The drummer obviously got paid as he handed over a small wad of cash at the last one to cover the times where he was unable to pay. 

This, to me, is what being in a band is all about.

[fretmeister]

The music trust band I play with is planning to get rehearsals underway again in September. There's a lot of young players both in that and in the other ensembles - under 18s not yet able to get the vaccine.

And most of them are brass and wind players.

 

I am quite nervous about that environment. Kids are plague rats at the best of times. When they are actively blowing wet air all over the place they are even worse.

 

I've not yet decided whether I'm going to attend. I really miss it, but 20+ people in a room where 16 of them are not yet vaxxed and blowing wet air...