Dan Dare Posted January 20, 2023 Share Posted January 20, 2023 Judging from the above, there's a pretty clear demarcation. Band that is a business (exists primarily to get work) - dictatorship. Band that is a bunch of friends who play primarily for enjoyment (with the odd paid job) - democracy. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewblack Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 Either can work, both can fail. I've been in both set ups many times. Dictatorship simply depends on who is running the band, how good they are at their job and whether or not the band members respect them. Democracy depends upon the personalities in the band. How well they tolerate each other and whether they want the same thing 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toneknob Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 Either way decide on the band name before doing anything else - including acquiring bandmates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Krow Posted January 21, 2023 Author Share Posted January 21, 2023 15 hours ago, Mickeyboro said: I have got 90 per cent of my bands gigs, came up with the name and supply the PA. Yet I bend over backwards to give everyone an equal say. I thought I was okay with that... but have just joined a second band where all I do is turn up, play and obey what the BL says… Feel for you on the first situation - it can be disheartening if you're putting in 90% of the effort. But how are you liking the new band set up? Do you feel part of things or feel more like a session musician / hired hand? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimR Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 In my experience there's always two people who get together with an idea and then go looking for band mates. From then on in there will be one person who does the lions share of the work and the other person will claim it's their band. 🤣 I'm not sure any band is run as a pure democracy, as if 3 people want to play a tune and the remaining 1 person doesn't then those 3 are often overruled by the minority. I don't know what you'd call that when all referendums must have unanimous vote result. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickeyboro Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 (edited) … Edited January 21, 2023 by Mickeyboro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickeyboro Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 22 minutes ago, Al Krow said: Feel for you on the first situation - it can be disheartening if you're putting in 90% of the effort. But how are you liking the new band set up? Do you feel part of things or feel more like a session musician / hired hand? Too soon to say, Bas. I suspect I will be a hired hand in band 2, but I am looking to top up my gigs for 2023 so it takes the pressure off having to find them! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waddo Soqable Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 30 minutes ago, TimR said: In my experience there's always two people who get together with an idea and then go looking for band mates. From then on in there will be one person who does the lions share of the work and the other person will claim it's their band. 🤣 An instance of this was a thing I did where pretty much all the music and chord / structure was originated from my bass lines, someone else wrote the words.. Subsequently the wordsmith /singer claimed entire 100% authorship of the whole musical output... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickeyboro Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 51 minutes ago, Waddo Soqable said: An instance of this was a thing I did where pretty much all the music and chord / structure was originated from my bass lines, someone else wrote the words.. Subsequently the wordsmith /singer claimed entire 100% authorship of the whole musical output... Not on… Remember interviewing Andy Summers after his intro to Every Breath You Take was sampled for a rap No 1, and Sting copped the royalties. “Get yourself a good lawyer” was his advice. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_c2 Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 In my experience, most successful bands consist of 1 person who wants to be in charge, and n-1 people who don't want the hassle of running a band and want to leave everything to someone else. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleabag Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 No band is fully 100% democratic, otherwise ( in say a 5 piece ) if there were 5 different decisions for something, it would stall. You either agree at the beginning of the band to have a majority vote to sort those kind of scenarios, or someone will have to make a decison on things. But as long as the band have their say of course. Sometimes its not the leader ( if you have one ) that always makes the best decision, so input fron everyone is paramount. In our crew, it's usually me and our rhyth gitwrist that steer things ( we started the band ) but we all contribute and make a decision on what is best for us all, whenever thats possible. Dictatorships dont work, IMO. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
40hz Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 I've never been in a dictatorship band - I'm not sure I could be. I get the feeling that style is more likely to breed resentment and result (on the whole) in bands that have a lot of friction or don't stay together too long (unless paid/compensated well). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_b Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 2 hours ago, 40hz said: I've never been in a dictatorship band - I'm not sure I could be. I get the feeling that style is more likely to breed resentment and result (on the whole) in bands that have a lot of friction or don't stay together too long (unless paid/compensated well). There are benevolent dictatorships, Stalinist dictatorships and guys who just want to make their vision happen. I've been in all 3 (and a few more). Obviously don't touch band leaders who are crooks and psycho's with a barge pole, but there is no reason why, if you get the trade off's between the pros and cons right, some of the "difficult" people can't be the most rewarding to work with. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingrayPete1977 Posted January 22, 2023 Share Posted January 22, 2023 Most covers bands that do the "let's play what we want and all choose our favourite songs rather than doing sex on fire, it's our band not my band" never get out of the rehearsal studio, I've been in many of them. I like a band leader but they've got to be open minded to everyone's suggestions, I've been in bands where we had a band leader but they wanted to play obscure B sides that no one else knows or really likes. Again they never did a gig. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimR Posted January 22, 2023 Share Posted January 22, 2023 On 20/01/2023 at 19:21, Waddo Soqable said: The couple of things I've been involved with that were dictatorships, were failures, in one case the "fuhrer" was a serial bull5hitter, not interested in any other ideas, and frankly don't think he really wanted the band to go forward anyway, I walked after a few gigs when there were no more in the pipeline, and clearly very little future prospect. The other one was kind of a mate really, he had some good ideas but couldn't keep on one course, we'd record some stuff, then next week he'd totally remixed it,( without any input from me) and it was changed out of all recognition, a completely different direction.. not even that it was bad, but it was impossible, again to take it forward, I get the impression he'd rather just noodle around at home endlessly remixing a few pieces than get out there and do it. Unfortunately that wasted quite a few months of my time too, hey ho.... Yes. Neither of those are benevolent dictatorship. They were just out and out dictatorships. You don't even get that in a workplace without ending up with a high turnover of staff. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wylie Posted January 22, 2023 Share Posted January 22, 2023 On 20/01/2023 at 11:11, TimR said: Benevolent dictatorship. Someone listens to everyone's ideas and makes decisions and leads. I want to be in a band with a leader who has vision and direction. I've been in too many democratic bands where actually you end up with a random bunch of songs and each member doesn't really like many of the songs. I like this idea also. Having said that, our trio has, or at least seems to have, three leaders; each of us leads in his own way due to differing tastes in music, though jazz is home ground. We end up playing material I wouldn't always have chosen, but then, they don't always like my choices, either. This slides into band-ocracy at times, but things work out well quite often. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjones Posted January 22, 2023 Share Posted January 22, 2023 (edited) I prefer there to be a band leader, with talent, who knows what they want and has a good idea how to achieve it. I'm in two bands, one of which is a band-ocracy and the other which is a band-tatorship. The first has been going since before the lockdown and still hasn't managed to get a gig (our first gig was supposed to be last weekend but had to be cancelled as one of the guitarists had the lurgy). The second has been going for over a decade and operates like a well oiled machine. Edited January 23, 2023 by gjones 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldslapper Posted January 22, 2023 Share Posted January 22, 2023 I have 3 “bands/projects” that I am involved with. All have a band leader that makes decisions but is open to band input. All 3 BL’s I respect as musicians and people that I trust and respect. I also feel trusted and respected. Definitely my preference. I’ve just started a new project, inviting 3 other musicians to join. I’ve set out expectations from the start when asking if they’d like to join, they all said yes. I like clarity, it tends to give me more freedom to be creative. Absolute democracy in bands (in my experience) has lead to paralysis and frustration. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JapanAxe Posted January 23, 2023 Share Posted January 23, 2023 On 20/01/2023 at 19:20, yorks5stringer said: The band I was 'asked 'to leave from just before Christmas after 6 years was a dictatorship with non of the benevolence. I found myself getting very frustrated by the sheer lack of ambition which the band leader displayed, from choice of material ( she would not listen to anything sent to her electronically like a YT link, she had to hear it on the radio) to booking gigs ( which she alone insisted on doing) to band clothing ( we had to all wear black of which she wore the shabbist and most washed out black t shirts) to how we sounded. My penultimate gig with them was a festival, she cancelled the rehearsal beforehand to go on holiday and at the gig used half our small 300 watt rehearsal PA as the main rig for a large room in a pub. One speaker was on a pole for the audience, the other she used for her foldback for her vox and Telecaster! Lead guitar, banjo and bass were all our own backlines and the sound was a mess. I noticed the headliners had their 1K each side cabs already in position! Oh, and that's not to mention the studio time we spent in the spring( 4 days) and the money we paid to record new material which mysteriously never got the vox laid down on and the CD's we were going to sell at gigs. Ironically a new venue opened near me and I went in ( as I knew she never would) and did a full PR job for the band and got us a booking 3 weeks ahead. 2 weeks later I got sacked...! The 'crime' I got accused of was suggesting 'if we do what we always do, we get what we always get' and shouldn't we be more adventurous...? That was interpreted as gross treason by the bandleader and I was served my immediate notice! ‘No good deed goes unpunished.’ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boodang Posted January 23, 2023 Share Posted January 23, 2023 Dictatorship or democracy in the end it all comes down to personalities. Mostly it's been democratic and for the most part worked well, except for one band many moons ago, which in retrospect was funny but at the time was a bit wearing. Everyone had an equal say but we all hated each other. Everyone would threaten to quit each week but the sum of the parts sounded so good no one would follow through with the threat. On one occasion we had a new manager and we all decided to meet up in the pub to discuss future plans. Always sounds a good idea to meet up in a pub, but alcohol, discussion, and this band were never a great mix. It soon descended into a slagging match, followed throwing beer mats at each other, then someone launching themselves across the table and knocking the beers over, followed by getting chucked out by the landlord. The new manager said, well I suppose that's the end of the band then, to which I replied, of course not it's like that every week, at which point the manager quit on the spot! Ah, fun times. 1 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scalpy Posted January 23, 2023 Share Posted January 23, 2023 My band all tremble before me as I lay down the law- my way or the highway! We’ve a set up that the two singers and myself are directors of the company, me as MD, and all the other players are hired in a gig by gig basis, invoicing for each performance. I prepare all the musical material, transcribing and arranging charts, backing and guide tracks and as it takes forever each new number we cover (up to 15 minute medleys at times) I want it the way I heard it when doing all the arranging. However, whilst that might sound cold the players who make up our regular band are free to make suggestions or improvements- we’re booking provincial level pros and know what they’re on about so it’s wise for me to listen and deps often mention what a good relationship we all have. It doesn’t always work, we’ve just lost a drummer from the team for instance, but what we’ve found is players come in as deps and gradually become more involved to become the first call. If you’re wondering, the singers roles are respectively manager and sales each. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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