HOW hard is it to find a decent band to play in these days?

[nilorius]

1 hour ago, Lfalex v1.1 said:

File under "Drummer Humour" 🙄

The only thing drummers can do good in the band - bad humour about bass guitarists.

Edited December 13, 2023 by nilorius

[TimR]

6 hours ago, markbunney said:

The photographer has offered to do it for £70 as its local to her (she has shot some pro bands, and one of the guys has used her in an old band, so her work is good), so we are not talking a huge amount of money between 4 of us, its more the principle.

 

I told them I would compromise on agreeing to the photographer if we booked in another gig in the first couple of months of next year!

 

It's still likely to be a morning or a day for the whole band. 

[TimR]

3 hours ago, Paul S said:

 

Been there, done it.  At one point I was in multiple bands (2 x pub covers bands, a Bon Jovi tribute plus this blues/rock trio) but it is not for me any more.  If that works for you, great  

 

I think it's more about building contacts for the future than actually playing with them full time, and realising that while you may well be happy in the band you're in, it only takes one member to decide they're moving to the Isle of Wight and all that work you've all done is on the edge. 

[markbunney]

26 minutes ago, TimR said:

 

It's still likely to be a morning or a day for the whole band. 

The photographer was going to come to our gig and just take pictures there

[rwillett]

I'd love to play in a band, I keep looking but clearly not in the right places.  I have no desire to join a working band, I have a full time job that 1) I like and 2) pays me enough to keep the wolf from the door.

 

I did join a jazz band for two hours a few months ago. I answered a Facebook ad, was told to turn up in the masons hall in a nearby town by the band leader, 7-8 proper musicians and me. People all very polite when I arrived. I nooddled along to jazz songs I've never heard of before. Simple bass lines, four beats to the bar on the chord, thats all he wanted.

 

At the end as we were packing away, one of the other members of the band commented "Could she be told when she'd been fired from the band please". The band leader had fired the bass player, not told anybody about it, recruited me, so when I turned up it was a complete surprise to everybody, but being British, nobody said a word. I felt absolutely awful about it. When the chap phoned me a day later, I told him I wasn't interested. Thats not the way I work and I still feel bad about it now.

 

So all I want is a couple of other players to play rock and blues with. No interest in pretending to be rock gods, I'm a little too old, pretty sure the spandex leotards aren't quite for me. Make some tunes of our own, have a laugh and play a few gigs in places where I won't get stabbed. I'm easy to please.

 

Thanks

Rob

[Lfalex v1.1]

5 minutes ago, rwillett said:

...At the end as we were packing away, one of the other members of the band commented "Could she be told when she'd been fired from the band please". The band leader had fired the bass player, not told anybody about it, recruited me, so when I turned up it was a complete surprise to everybody, but being British, nobody said a word. I felt absolutely awful about it. When the chap phoned me a day later, I told him I wasn't interested. Thats not the way I work and I still feel bad about it now.

 

I've had something similar. 

"Lead" guitarist was a lovely chap. Oodles of tasteful noodles, made the "Rhythm" player (& Songwriter) look a bit "Meh" at times,  but it was never deliberate or malicious. 

"Rhythm's" innate jealousy eventually gets the better of  him,  and he fires "Lead".

I wasn't consulted. Vocals was probably complicit,  Drummer, though super, was a lap-dog.

 

I felt it was unwarranted and unfair and quit as soon as I was told. 

Shame.  The band had potential,  but ultimately completely unraveled due to the personalities involved. 

[MacDaddy]

4 hours ago, rwillett said:

and play a few gigs in places where I won't get stabbed

 

Ooh Mr la-di-da rwillett!

 

😜

[rwillett]

8 hours ago, MacDaddy said:

 

Ooh Mr la-di-da rwillett!

 

😜

 

Thats me down to a 't'

[Paul S]

15 hours ago, TimR said:

 

I think it's more about building contacts for the future than actually playing with them full time, and realising that while you may well be happy in the band you're in, it only takes one member to decide they're moving to the Isle of Wight and all that work you've all done is on the edge. 

 

I am sure your comment is for general consumption but as you quoted me I will reply specifically.  I don't actually want to build contacts for the future because, as I said earlier, whenever this band folds that's me done.  This is my perfect band, anything else would be disappointment.  And to be honest, at 66, I find after emptying the tank in a 2.5hr set and a 1.5hr drive, getting home at 2am is increasingly draining.  Especially as every other night I am asleep by 10.  For this band it is worth the effort, anything else probably not.

[neepheid]

8 minutes ago, Paul S said:

 

I am sure your comment is for general consumption but as you quoted me I will reply specifically.  I don't actually want to build contacts for the future because, as I said earlier, whenever this band folds that's me done.  This is my perfect band, anything else would be disappointment.  And to be honest, at 66, I find after emptying the tank in a 2.5hr set and a 1.5hr drive, getting home at 2am is increasingly draining.  Especially as every other night I am asleep by 10.  For this band it is worth the effort, anything else probably not.

 

 

You don't need to justify yourself or your decisions, to me, at least.

 

[dmccombe7]

13 minutes ago, Paul S said:

 

I am sure your comment is for general consumption but as you quoted me I will reply specifically.  I don't actually want to build contacts for the future because, as I said earlier, whenever this band folds that's me done.  This is my perfect band, anything else would be disappointment.  And to be honest, at 66, I find after emptying the tank in a 2.5hr set and a 1.5hr drive, getting home at 2am is increasingly draining.  Especially as every other night I am asleep by 10.  For this band it is worth the effort, anything else probably not.

Same viewpoint as me. At 62 i'm thinking the same way. I have other hobbies that i can do and packing up at the end of a gig and driving home isn't getting any easier especially when its me that has the large PA cabs in my car. Having to lift 40Kg cabs when i get home is tough.

Dave

[Lozz196]

20 minutes ago, Paul S said:

 

I am sure your comment is for general consumption but as you quoted me I will reply specifically.  I don't actually want to build contacts for the future because, as I said earlier, whenever this band folds that's me done.  This is my perfect band, anything else would be disappointment.  And to be honest, at 66, I find after emptying the tank in a 2.5hr set and a 1.5hr drive, getting home at 2am is increasingly draining.  Especially as every other night I am asleep by 10.  For this band it is worth the effort, anything else probably not.

 

4 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Same viewpoint as me. At 62 i'm thinking the same way. I have other hobbies that i can do and packing up at the end of a gig and driving home isn't getting any easier especially when its me that has the large PA cabs in my car. Having to lift 40Kg cabs when i get home is tough.

Dave

I was pretty much the same with my last band, I absolutely loved it, got to do and see so much but it got to the point where the amount of travelling and carrying gear got too much for me. Being an originals band we didn`t do PA but the endless bags & boxes of merch more than made up for that, virtually living on the motorways at weekends and spending hours in airports, well it was all great fun but I just couldn`t do it any longer. Any thoughts of wanting to do it again were definitely quelled last week when I saw their gigs, Edinburgh on Friday, Leeds on Saturday, no thanks!

[TimR]

1 hour ago, Paul S said:

 

I am sure your comment is for general consumption but as you quoted me I will reply specifically.  I don't actually want to build contacts for the future because, as I said earlier, whenever this band folds that's me done.  This is my perfect band, anything else would be disappointment.  And to be honest, at 66, I find after emptying the tank in a 2.5hr set and a 1.5hr drive, getting home at 2am is increasingly draining.  Especially as every other night I am asleep by 10.  For this band it is worth the effort, anything else probably not.

 

Yes. General.

 

But my dad is 84, still playing, but not the later night gigs a 20 year old plays, the all day function gigs a 40 year old plays or even the moderate pub gigs a 65 year old plays.

 

My Uncle in his 70s is playing guitar with musical mates he has known for years.

 

I'd find it surprising if a lifetime musician gave up playing just because the band they're gigging in, folds. You just find different people and places to play. 

 

 

[Woodinblack]

I must admit that I wouldn't want to do it like you guys do, with the long drives, although I could do without being the one lugging the PA around, if there is another band I go in, I want someone else to be that person. If I could put in as little effort as our guitarist at gigs that would be the ideal for me!

[Jackroadkill]

Surely this is all just about what works for the individual.  There are no rules about what age you can or can't gig to.

[TimR]

Had a singer for years. Would turn up 10minutes before we were due to start. Park as close to the pub as possible, if he blocked someone in - no care. Give me his music stand to put up and mic to plug in. Go to the bar while I put them up and signal checked his mic. Then at the end, leave as soon as he had his money.

17 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

I must admit that I wouldn't want to do it like you guys do, with the long drives, although I could do without being the one lugging the PA around, if there is another band I go in, I want someone else to be that person. If I could put in as little effort as our guitarist at gigs that would be the ideal for me!

 

[TimR]

2 minutes ago, Jackroadkill said:

Surely this is all just about what works for the individual.  There are no rules about what age you can or can't gig to.

 

Sure. I had a break from bands between about 1992 and 1996. I was still doing gigs but just not in a permanant band. That worked really well. But I did come back and have been in 6 or 7 bands over the last 25 years. 

[Paul S]

2 hours ago, TimR said:

 

Yes. General.

 

But my dad is 84, still playing, but not the later night gigs a 20 year old plays, the all day function gigs a 40 year old plays or even the moderate pub gigs a 65 year old plays.

 

My Uncle in his 70s is playing guitar with musical mates he has known for years.

 

I'd find it surprising if a lifetime musician gave up playing just because the band they're gigging in, folds. You just find different people and places to play. 

 

 

 

I expect you find this all the time, Tim.  People are just so disappointing.  

[tauzero]

On 14/12/2023 at 09:26, dmccombe7 said:

Same viewpoint as me. At 62 i'm thinking the same way. I have other hobbies that i can do and packing up at the end of a gig and driving home isn't getting any easier especially when its me that has the large PA cabs in my car. Having to lift 40Kg cabs when i get home is tough.

Dave

 

I've got the large PA cabs and monitors, and my combo, in my car. At under 10kg apiece, I can manage it (it'll be a bit harder this weekend as I've put my back out though). Get shot of the heavy gear.

 

I think part of what keeps me, and possibly the drummer, going is that the other two are 25 years younger than us.

[casapete]

2 hours ago, tauzero said:

I think part of what keeps me, and possibly the drummer, going is that the other two are 25 years younger than us.

Same with my band - ages range from 70 to 25, and it's definitely good to have that mix of experience and

youth! Everyone respects each other, and it works really well. 

 

[PaulWarning]

9 minutes ago, casapete said:

Same with my band - ages range from 70 to 25, and it's definitely good to have that mix of experience and

youth! Everyone respects each other, and it works really well. 

 

nice to know I'm not the only one, ages in our band are 20, 35, 61 and 71, though I'm the one who gets lumbered lugging the PA around 😕

[casapete]

46 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

nice to know I'm not the only one, ages in our band are 20, 35, 61 and 71, though I'm the one who gets lumbered lugging the PA around 😕

You obviously aren’t playing the ‘age card’ well enough then Paul! 😆

[Marvin]

Thank you to you all. It's always good to get something of your chest here 🙂

 

I've told the others in the project/band/whatever that I won't be going any further with it. 

 

I'm meeting up with a friend this week that I used to be in a band with. Maybe we'll be able to get something off the ground that's a bit more focused.

[Lfalex v1.1]

@Marvin

 

Hope that goes well for you. 

[dmccombe7]

All the best @Marvin sure it will all work out in the long run.

Dave