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Firing band members

jezzaboy

By jezzaboy,
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SteveXFR Grand Master

SteveXFR

Posted
Posted
  On 18/06/2022 at 16:18, Marky L said:

A few years back, I was in a  four piece covers band - 2 x guitar, bass and drums. One of the guitars was always moaning about something and saying he was going to call it quits. He was just somewhat draining, a real energy vampire. He once more said he was about to quit to the other guitarist a day or two before a gig. On the night of the gig, the good guitarist announced over the mic the "Ladies and gentlemen, sadly this is ******'s last gig. He's decided to hang up his guitar. Let's give him a night to remember!" Suffice to say, he wasn't expecting that and was rather taken aback. I mean all we did was help him make that final step :) We carried on as a three piece after that and were much happier!

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Excellent firing! 

He probably would have kept threatening to leave for the next ten years.

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Count Bassy Grand Master

Count Bassy

Posted
Posted

We had a drummer in a folk dance band who did a similar thing kept saying that he was going to quit. What he really wanted was fro the rest of of us to say "Please don't quit". Eventually he mentioned a date - "I'm not doing anymore after Christmas", so we stopped asking him. Apparenly he was then moaning that!.

 

He was good drummer (in the folk dance idiom) but was a bugger to work with - always turning up to gigs "Just in time", or just too late! 

 

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Max Normal Community Regular

Max Normal

Posted
Posted (edited)

I just got sacked and I feel great about it, what a relief!

 

I started a Zep tribute band with a truly great singer and I recruited all of the members except keys. It was going the be a real pro outfit, and we were going to do proper justice to the material. The guitarist (a wealthy, early retired tory-boy salesman with an ego and a set of golf clubs and a limo as well as his rather expensive Les Paul) was pretty good too. I helped him out in getting all the different Page tones by lending him my Helix etc.

Turned out that he had started "briefing against me" as he though he should be "manager".  I had never thought of myself as manager, I had just recruited the musos, booked the gigs, named the band and photoshopped the logo and posters.

I'm head of a science lab as a day job, so I'm pretty busy, and he convinced the band that he should take over as he could do more as he is retired. Also, I drive a 14-year Corsa, so obviously I'm not very seuccessful!

 

He then recruited a keyboard player who was a 17 year old kid who had done gradings, but basically could just convert dots to finger movements and had an tin ear and no rhythm, had basic gear and no transport. Not content with the note bummery and weird rhythms eminating from the new keyboardist (who never bothered to practice), he started teaching him guitar lessons during rehearsals, which he dutifully scraped away at like any new teenage guitarist, but thought he was excellent.

 

This did cause some friction between us, as most of our rehearsal time was now spent trying to get this keyboard player/rhythm guitarist up to a gigging standard.

 

It also turned out that our new manager still expected me to do all of the design and marketing, he just got to tell me the obvious and take credit for it! In the end I refused, got covid and missed a couple of rehearsals and he sacked me.

 

The moral for me is, if you are in an unhappy band, get out even if you have invested yourself a lot on it, it's not worth it!

 

 

 

 

Edited by Max Normal
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hiram.k.hackenbacker Grand Master

hiram.k.hackenbacker

Posted
Posted
  On 13/07/2022 at 13:17, Max Normal said:

I just got sacked and I feel great bout it, what a relief!

 

I started a Zep tribute band with a great singer and I recruited all of the members except keys. The guitarist (a wealthy, early retired tory-boy salesman with an ego and a set of golf clubs and a limo as well as his rather expensive Les Paul) was pretty good too. I helped him out in getting all the different Page tones by lending him my Helix etc.

Turned out that he had started "briefing against me" as he though he should be "manager".  I had never thought of myself as manager, I had just recruited the musos, booked the gigs, named the band and photoshopped the logo and posters.

I'm head of a science lab as a day job, so I'm pretty busy, and he convinced the band that he should take over as he could do more as he is retired. Also, I drive a 14-year Corsa, so obviously I'm not very seuccessful!

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Not sure how you get sacked from a band you started. I’d take everything with me - cancel gig dates, protect the name and logos, the lot. 

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Max Normal Community Regular

Max Normal

Posted
Posted
  On 13/07/2022 at 13:24, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Not sure how you get sacked from a band you started. I’d take everything with me - cancel gig dates, protect the name and logos, the lot. 

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Sorry I pressed sumbit before I had finished - read the rest too.

 

He is wealthy and has a salesmans mouth, had other band members round to dinner and briefed against me etc. I moaned a LOT about everything, not because he was now "manager", but because I could see my project being driven into the ground, and I thought I could rescue it. In the end, he made me out to be a troublemaker, so when I got Covid he took his chances.

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hiram.k.hackenbacker Grand Master

hiram.k.hackenbacker

Posted
Posted
  On 13/07/2022 at 13:30, Max Normal said:

Sorry I pressed sumbit before I had finished - read the rest too.

 

He is wealthy and has a salesmans mouth, had other band members round to dinner and briefed against me etc. I moaned a LOT about everything, not because he was now "manager", but because I could see my project being driven into the ground, and I thought I could rescue it. In the end, he made me out to be a troublemaker, so when I got Covid he took his chances.

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The least you could do is name the band here so we can all avoid them.

dmccombe7 Grand Master

dmccombe7

Posted
Posted

It wont come to much with that guys attitude. Making a successful gigging tribute band takes a lot of dedication and hard work and by sound of it he isn't really suited to that. 

Rehearsals are for fine tuning the songs and ironing out any little nuances a band has, not to teach a new guitarist / keys player how to play. That annoys the heck out of me when members waste time at rehearsals.

I view rehearsals as work, head down bum up and i'm there to get things done with occasional coffee breaks during a 6hr session.

Sorry to hear this particular band didn't work out for you but you've done it once, best get back into it right away and show those tw**s how its done.

All the best with the next project where i'm sure you'll be happier.

Dave

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zbd1960 Veteran

zbd1960

Posted
Posted

I refer to those types as "The Great I Am"... they think they're marvellous, the centre of the known universe, the life and soul of the party. They often think they're very amusing as well. Their aim is usually to be seen as 'the big cheese' in charge and running things. Usually, they take the credit for other people's work. Because they're usually the 'front person' it can seem that they're doing it all. 

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