Finding replacement female singers

[Happy Jack]

Specifically on the issue of driving, what I can attest to - certainly in London - is that getting a driving licence is just not a priority for young people. They can't afford a car, they have widespread public transport, they don't see the need.

 

It's NOT a male/female thing as far as I can see; my son's friends are as short on driving as my daughter's.

 

I find it quite bizarre. I steered both my kids (didja see what I did there? huh? didja?) towards learning to drive as early as possible, then bought them each a banger as soon as they passed their tests. Both of them have found car ownership a career essential and extremely valuable socially. Their friends, who for years largely relied on them to provide the transport, never seemed to 'get' just how dependent their lack of a licence made them.

[Lozz196]

I’ve only ever been in one band with a female in it, she was a backing singer. She wasn’t treated any differently than any of the others and didn’t expect or want it any other way. 

[diskwave]

Forty odd years ago they were like hens teeth and I think always have been ...Don't suppose anything much has changed. On point female singers who can sing in tune and who are band orientated and not from... 'Diva Central' are about as rare as it gets. 

Anyway good ole Elkie was always my bench mark, so just for fun...Good luck.

 

 

Edited July 22, 2023 by greavesbass

[BassAdder60]

This post of mine seems to have stirred up an unnecessary hornets nest !! 
 

The good news is we have three contenders for auditions now and we hope to find a good one amongst them 

 

Time to Chill guys😂

Edited July 22, 2023 by BassAdder60

[Jackroadkill]

2 minutes ago, BassAdder60 said:

But maybe you think the likes of Adele are classed as rock ?? 🙄🤣😉

 

Maybe I do, maybe I don't; while we're talking in maybes, maybe if you have such a low opinion of female musicians, maybe you're unlikely to find one who will be willing to be in your band.

[BassAdder60]

1 minute ago, Jackroadkill said:

 

Maybe I do, maybe I don't; while we're talking in maybes, maybe if you have such a low opinion of female musicians, maybe you're unlikely to find one who will be willing to be in your band.

Ha ha .. anyway .. back to chatting with the adults on here 

 

We have found some potential 👍🤟

[Skybone]

4 hours ago, lemmywinks said:

"We'd like you to song these songs by Steven Tyler, Pete Townshend, Ted Nugent, Anthony Keidis and Jimmy Page, do you think you cou....... wait a minute where did she go?"

 

"There's a few AC/DC songs we'd like you to learn too"

[BassAdder60]

And … can you actually look like you’re enjoying it instead of standing like you’re set in concrete as you read the lyrics 🎤😂😳😂

[bassist_lewis]

Do what I did: pivot to instrumental jazz fusion. Problem solved.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You're not trying to make money, right?

[BassAdder60]

2 minutes ago, bassist_lewis said:

Do what I did: pivot to instrumental jazz fusion. Problem solved.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You're not trying to make money, right?

Good plan 👍

[steantval]

On 20/07/2023 at 20:45, Silvia Bluejay said:

There isn't much of a tradition for female-fronted rock bands. Especially in our age group (55+). I'm racking my brain. Debbie Harry? Joan Jett? Suzi Quatro? Pat Benatar? Chrissie Hynde? I'm sure some will say they are all, arguably, pop rather than rock singers. Courtney Love? Hmm. Perhaps Lita Ford, who at least was fronting a hard rock band after the Runaways, but she's not as famous as the others. And even I can't remember the name of the frontwoman in Vixen*, and I was a fan! There are very few, and relatively unsuccessful, female hard rock and rock bands women my age may have wanted to emulate when we were younger.

How about younger potential female rock vocalists? Well, does anyone under the age of 30 like rock or hard rock nowadays?

 

* Janet Gardner - thank you Uncle Google.

You have missed probably one of the best - Ann Wilson of Heart.

[Silvia Bluejay]

27 minutes ago, steantval said:

You have missed probably one of the best - Ann Wilson of Heart.

No, I actually had her in mind too, but in my view she's another more-pop-than-rock singer. She is awesome regardless of how we choose to pigeon-hole the band, obviously.

[Owen]

30 minutes ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

No, I actually had her in mind too, but in my view she's another more-pop-than-rock singer. She is awesome regardless of how we choose to pigeon-hole the band, obviously.

The first Pretenders album is almost perfection. Plenty of rock on there. 

[steantval]

43 minutes ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

No, I actually had her in mind too, but in my view she's another more-pop-than-rock singer. She is awesome regardless of how we choose to pigeon-hole the band, obviously.

Definitely rock, went a bit softer in the 80’s, this is their earlier stuff, it’s certainly not pop.

 

 

[TimR]

We were a dad rock band. 4 50 something blokes playing Hendrix, Zeplin, Stones, Free etc etc

 

We got in a female singer and binned all the dad rock and do Pink, Agilarra, Kelly Clarkson, Freya Harding, Skunk Anansie. All with a rock edge. 

 

We are better for it. 

 

But yes, childcare is a serious issue for single mothers, but then I have the same in another band with a dad who has to look after the kids when his wife is out in the evenings so rehearsals have to fit around his wife. I was the same when I was in my 30s. 

[steantval]

So, it’s basically the kids that are the problem 🤔

[Phil Starr]

On 21/07/2023 at 08:27, Woodinblack said:

When we were going through looking for singers, we found it was easier the older, rather than younger. There was a lot less drama...

This really

 

We have a female front person and most of my bands have been this way. I guess I started with a group of friends and our best singer by a distance was Lorraine and I learned a largely female led set list. Once you've got 50+ songs under your belt changing is a steeper learning curve. One of the factors when I'm looking at a new band is how much of the set list we know in common. If you are going to be gigging within a couple of weeks or so you don't want to learn 30 completely new songs.

 

There are a lot of 'rival' bands playing our sort of repertoire who are a bunch of old blokes and a young female singer. There is no shortage of young people who want to play in bands and who are basically just dreamers. Wanting to front a band comes with a big ego. Youth comes with fewer strategies for coping, higher hormone levels and often more drama and that may be a function of youth not gender. Cynically I can see why bands like an attractive young woman out front. The same group of old blokes would probably think twice about recruiting a young male, would they fit in?

 

Recruiting band members is fraught, they need to play/sing but it's a fairly intimate relationship in most bands, one of the attractions is that in a band it is a bit of ''all for one and one for all', us against the world. You really need someone who has the skills and that you can at least rub along with. I find adding the words 'experienced' and 'gigging' to ads weeds out the dreamers and anyone who doesn't have at least some audio and video to show you isn't likely to be worth seeing

 

 

 

Just as an aside I've been wondering why I've found this an uncomfortable thread and I think it's the implication that any group of people are in some way all the same. It's a bit Henry Higgins.

[Leonard Smalls]

On 20/07/2023 at 15:14, Dan Dare said:

female rock singers are relatively rare beasts in my experience.

There's quite a few! Vice Squad, Plasmatics, Amyl and the Sniffers, Ctl Drp, Ginjer, Choked (my band!) for a start.

And Rolo Tomassi rock a bit!

 

 

[BassAdder60]

21 minutes ago, Phil Starr said:

This really

 

We have a female front person and most of my bands have been this way. I guess I started with a group of friends and our best singer by a distance was Lorraine and I learned a largely female led set list. Once you've got 50+ songs under your belt changing is a steeper learning curve. One of the factors when I'm looking at a new band is how much of the set list we know in common. If you are going to be gigging within a couple of weeks or so you don't want to learn 30 completely new songs.

 

There are a lot of 'rival' bands playing our sort of repertoire who are a bunch of old blokes and a young female singer. There is no shortage of young people who want to play in bands and who are basically just dreamers. Wanting to front a band comes with a big ego. Youth comes with fewer strategies for coping, higher hormone levels and often more drama and that may be a function of youth not gender. Cynically I can see why bands like an attractive young woman out front. The same group of old blokes would probably think twice about recruiting a young male, would they fit in?

 

Recruiting band members is fraught, they need to play/sing but it's a fairly intimate relationship in most bands, one of the attractions is that in a band it is a bit of ''all for one and one for all', us against the world. You really need someone who has the skills and that you can at least rub along with. I find adding the words 'experienced' and 'gigging' to ads weeds out the dreamers and anyone who doesn't have at least some audio and video to show you isn't likely to be worth seeing

 

 

 

Just as an aside I've been wondering why I've found this an uncomfortable thread and I think it's the implication that any group of people are in some way all the same. It's a bit Henry Higgins.

100% agree and we share the same ideas and preferences in having a female front person.

 

Good news we now have four possible contenders who seem like they fit well with us. 
 

Bandmix has found two ( it was worth paying 3 months membership to allow messaging ) and local FB has found two more 

Joinmyband !! Terrible result and mostly YouTube stars of the future !! 
Shame as JMB was the one to use some time back but now it’s full of muppets ! 

[Supernaut]

I've found many good musicians through JMB. 
 

Asking for examples of playing and their band/gigging experience before meeting them is a must. If you don't do this then you're asking for trouble. 

[Happy Jack]

1 hour ago, Phil Starr said:

It's a bit Henry Higgins.

 

Well your tears will come too late ...

 

[BassAdder60]

2 hours ago, Supernaut said:

I've found many good musicians through JMB. 
 

Asking for examples of playing and their band/gigging experience before meeting them is a must. If you don't do this then you're asking for trouble. 

Yep I agree and where we can we have asked to see past live clips to judge their singing, performing style and image etc ( all important in choosing a good fit ) 

 

We have definitely been spoilt for the last two years having one of the best female rock singers in the region but alas she is heading back to the USA 

 

I think JMB is better in large town areas but here in rural Norfolk / Suffolk you really do struggle to find talent 

[Phil Starr]

On the subject of finding band members it would be extraordinary for anyone genuinely experienced to have no video or recordings of themselves at all. I've seen plenty of poor video's of good bands or home made recordings poorly mixed by a band member where no-one had the heart to tell them it wasn't great but nothing at all says either they aren't what they claim or they are incredibly disorganised.

[ricksterphil]

On 21/07/2023 at 09:35, Minininjarob said:

I find female fronted bands - cover bands in particular - work better when they don’t try and copy the original style slavishly. Make it your own style and it can fit the vocalist better and you’re not slaves to every detail the original song had. 
There’s a covers band on YouTube called First To Eleven and I am addicted to their cover of Sum41s Fat lip and they’ve done loads of other great covers. 

First to Eleven are awesome. check out their version of Coldplay's 'Fix You' 

[Russ]

My current band and my previous band were both female-fronted rock/metal. Totally different energy with a girl up front rather than a bloke. I'll agree that good female rock singers (especially if they're prepared to put the work in to write and arrange originals) are rare as rocking horse s**t, so if you get a good one, hold onto her!

 

Video time!

Earthbound AD (current band):

 

Evyltyde (previous band, back in the UK). Acoustic number, but I chose this video because I'm in it.