It's A Dep's Life - Share Your Stories

[stewblack]

I was depping in four piece last night. The set was fairly standard, apart from a couple of originals which were straightforward enough.

The guitarist started 'Ironic' with what sounded like some unusual flourishes and as I joined in (on a song I've never played before btw) it was clear we had a difference of opinion vis-à-vis the key, chord sequence, general song structure - you get the picture.

When we had staggered thorough to a shambling conclusion the singer expressed her surprise at the racket going on behind her for the preceding few minutes.

As I pointed out that it might be helpful in future to let a dep know if you play a song in a different key or play fast and loose with it's structure, she protested that they did play it in the original key.

The guitarist, throughout this exchange, appeared to have become fascinated with a small part of the ceiling off to his right. His awkward, embarrassed look told me he'd never bothered to learn the song and was simply busking his best interpretation.

 

Not a scintillating anecdote I admit. However it got me thinking, those of you who do a lot of stand-in work must have some tales. Why not share them here?

 

[ezbass]

All dep set lists must come with the keys as a minimum and preferably charts, which I once received from a very hard working function band.

[stewblack]

10 minutes ago, ezbass said:

All dep set lists must come with the keys as a minimum and preferably charts, which I once received from a very hard working function band.

Oh yes I've done those dep gigs as well, all very organised. These guys were a bit more, shall we say, relaxed.

[musicbassman]

I’ve done rather a lot of dep gigs, so here are just a few examples of what might happen :-

 

“No problems mate, everything’s played in the original keys” – Err - no, I discover this lie immediately the song starts.

Drummer’s count in for a song may have no relevance to the actual tempo that follows.

Guitarist thinking that the first chord of a song is therefore the ‘key’ of the song.

“We play it just like the record” – apart from the fact you completely missed out the Middle 8.

Guitarist and kbds player are clearly playing different chords at the same time.

Whole band staring at you as if you are some genius because you played the actual main hook bass line from the song, rather than what their regular bass player Billy plays.

Band appear to have taken a vow of silence and all clearly hate each other both on and off stage. And the reason you’re depping is that their regular bass player has already abandoned the sinking ship.

“Can you arrive 7pm, we start playing at 8pm” – so, you’re set up on an empty stage by 7.15, but the rest of the band start arriving half an hour later with no apologies or explanations.

 

Actual fact, I love doing deps, they can be great fun, but equally can be very annoying and frustrating.

You have to be prepared for anything and everything  🙂

 

[chris_b]

I still get songs thrown at me that weren't on the list, but most bands I dep with are pretty good at sticking to the set lists and arrangements. . . .

 

. . . . but there's one bandleader who seems to make up the songs as he goes along! That was a problem on the first couple of gigs. I was unfamiliar with the set, the stage volume was unbalanced (guitarist too loud!!) so I had trouble following. I got an email telling me to learn the songs! If I didn't put in the hours they wouldn't be able to use me in future!! What an a-hole. I know the songs better than he does. No toys out of the pram, I asked the BL to get the guitarist to turn down (he only did it!!) and that fixed everything. I can hear when he's gone off piste and now I'm their favourite bassist.

 

I'm in 3 bands, but regularly dep for about a dozen more. I like playing most of the songs, they are all great players and I like the variety. If there's a good drummer (and there usually is) then I can deal with anything that crops up. I'm usually digging them out of a hole so I'm already in their good books and if I get the gig right I get called back. I also get a fast track into any side projects. Every gig is an audition.

 

Depping is all about keeping the phone ringing, expanding your list of contacts and having fun.

[Lozz196]

I’ve only depped for one band. The bassist sent me the set list, I learnt it, got to rehearsal and half the songs I’d learned were no longer being played. On the other half on two songs I was expected to play rhythm guitar (which as I can was no bother) both of which were played a half step down. I did it but never again, last minute dot com don’t live in this body.

[diskwave]

Im not a bad player, read etc, good ear blah blah but four years ago I got a call from guys I had played with many years ago...anyway they needed a dep for a very well paying posh private party in a flippin grt manor hse in Oxford...two weeks away, only catch, it was 60 odd tunes from the 60's...Tons of tricky old Beatles that type of stuff....No charts, nothing. Probably about the hardest I'd ever worked...Great fun but my old brain was treading water like crazy and I made a few muck ups which the lead didnt miss either...oops.

[chris_b]

Just now, diskwave said:

Im not a bad player, read etc, good ear blah blah but four years ago I got a call from guys I had played with many years ago...anyway they needed a dep for a very well paying posh private party in a flippin grt manor hse in Oxford...two weeks away, only catch, it was 60 odd tunes from the 60's...Tons of tricky old Beatles that type of stuff....No charts, nothing. Probably about the hardest I'd ever worked...Great fun but my old brain was treading water like crazy and I made a few muck ups which the lead didnt miss either...oops.

 

I was asked to do a wedding and the BL sent me a list of 96 songs! I asked if we really were going to play all those songs, and could he list the songs he was likely to play. A new list came back of 80 songs!!

 

There were a lot of classic 60's hits and Elvis and other 12 bars, so I only had to chart about a dozen songs. Not that bad, but when we got to the gig I discovered the guitarist sang half the set and I hadn't been told about him or his songs!!

[diskwave]

Ha.. character building I call it!. Guess Im a cheapskate and prefer to get away with the bare minimum. Thing is you can easily spend 2/3 days charting stuff then what with the 20 hr full day of the gig for me it wasnt really worth the effort, so I'll scribble  down the keys on a fag packet spend a good few hrs  going over the real tricky stuff then hope for the best...it moreless works out...apparently..ha

[uk_lefty]

I've only depped for people I know so there's an amount of comfort with it, but even so I've had surprise set lists, asked the band whether they play certain songs in the original key and been told "don't know, you'll be fine!". If there's a lull with my covers band I might cast my net out a bit wider to do some deps for bands I don't already know but to make it worthwhile financially I think I'd be pricing myself out. There's a dep to replace me at a gig in summer and he's an accomplished musician going for a rate I would want to be taking... Oh well, nothing ventured nothing gained.

[ezbass]

2 hours ago, musicbassman said:

Drummer’s count in for a song may have no relevance to the actual tempo that follows.

I’ve been in that band. Imagine Rhythm Stick being counted in as per the record, only for it to jump up 30bpm or so - I just can’t play that fast and told him so once, in a not very subtle way, which, on reflection, I’m not very proud of.

[Lord Sausage]

9 hours ago, musicbassman said:

I’ve done rather a lot of dep gigs, so here are just a few examples of what might happen :-

 

“No problems mate, everything’s played in the original keys” – Err - no, I discover this lie immediately the song starts.

Drummer’s count in for a song may have no relevance to the actual tempo that follows.

Guitarist thinking that the first chord of a song is therefore the ‘key’ of the song.

“We play it just like the record” – apart from the fact you completely missed out the Middle 8.

Guitarist and kbds player are clearly playing different chords at the same time.

Whole band staring at you as if you are some genius because you played the actual main hook bass line from the song, rather than what their regular bass player Billy plays.

Band appear to have taken a vow of silence and all clearly hate each other both on and off stage. And the reason you’re depping is that their regular bass player has already abandoned the sinking ship.

“Can you arrive 7pm, we start playing at 8pm” – so, you’re set up on an empty stage by 7.15, but the rest of the band start arriving half an hour later with no apologies or explanations.

 

Actual fact, I love doing deps, they can be great fun, but equally can be very annoying and frustrating.

You have to be prepared for anything and everything  🙂

 

Definitely this. I do enjoy it when you've learned 30 songs in a week and you know the set better than the band do. 

 

Also when you play the correct line but they think its wrong as their usual guy has been playing it wrong for years.

 

I once played Alright Now, when it got to the guitar solo and the famous bass line they thought I must be Andy Fraser cos they'd never heard it like that!😂

[Bassfinger]

I've done a couple, one for a band run by an old work mate and a few for a rival band on the local circuit we're friendly with.

 

Each time I get them to nail down the set list, key, any flourishes or changes from standard, that sort of thing. They way I see it I'm helping them out of a tight spot and if a guitarist or the like is going to go off at a tangent and leafe me floundering then I'm not the man for them. Fortunately getting all this out the way beforehand has worked...so far.

[Paul S]

I hate being out of my comfort zone.  I like to know every note that I, and the rest of the band, are about to play.  I'm not a good enough player to be able to wing it and play decently so I choose not to.  However, I did go against my instincts once.  Got a call from a drummer I had been in a band with a few years earlier - just over a week to go her band's bassist had to have a small operation and was unavailable for their Xmas gig.  Could I help?  What sort of stuff, I asked.  Just rock covers, she said.  I agreed and asked for the set list.  This arrived with one week to go before the gig.  I had actually only heard 5 of the songs before - had only played a couple of them some years eearlier.  Oh dear.  I don't read dots, am slow looking at tab - fortunately the songs came with chord charts but I found trying to cram the structure of the unknown songs a bit of a nightmare.  We had one rehearsal - managed to go through a lot of the tunes once but not all of them.  On the night they pulled a couple of the tricky ones and put in 'All Right Now' and 'Can't Get Enough Of Your Love' on the basis that I was more likely to know them.  Some fluffs on the night but not the train wreck I expected.  Not doing that again in a hurry!

 

[3below]

Did a dep gig about a year ago.  40 numbers to get sorted at short notice of which I had played about 3 or 4 before.  Quite a lot of them had distinctive key bass lines e.g. We are family, Let's Dance. Big learning curve and disproportionate for the time and payback.  Keyboard player in the band was a real godsend, the kind of musician you want by your side.  Conclusion, not for me, I admire anyone who can do this well.

[warwickhunt]

20 hours ago, musicbassman said:

I’ve done rather a lot of dep gigs, so here are just a few examples of what might happen :-

 

“No problems mate, everything’s played in the original keys” – Err - no, I discover this lie immediately the song starts.

Drummer’s count in for a song may have no relevance to the actual tempo that follows.

Guitarist thinking that the first chord of a song is therefore the ‘key’ of the song.

“We play it just like the record” – apart from the fact you completely missed out the Middle 8.

Guitarist and kbds player are clearly playing different chords at the same time.

Whole band staring at you as if you are some genius because you played the actual main hook bass line from the song, rather than what their regular bass player Billy plays.

Band appear to have taken a vow of silence and all clearly hate each other both on and off stage. And the reason you’re depping is that their regular bass player has already abandoned the sinking ship.

“Can you arrive 7pm, we start playing at 8pm” – so, you’re set up on an empty stage by 7.15, but the rest of the band start arriving half an hour later with no apologies or explanations.

 

Actual fact, I love doing deps, they can be great fun, but equally can be very annoying and frustrating.

You have to be prepared for anything and everything  🙂

 

 

Yep, pretty much all of these +

 

Me - "Hi.  I'm the dep bass player".  Band - "Eh!"  "What?"  "Nobody told me we were using a dep tonight."

 

Me - "Hello".  Drummer (setting up) - "Hi, I'm your dep tonight and I got here early"  Me - "...no I'm the dep!".  Turns out we were both deps... in a 3 piece!  

 

The best one was turning up for a dep and finding (yet again) that the drummer is also a dep that night, no probs as I know his reputation and I know he is a top player.  We are 5 mins from first song when I asked if the drummer or guitarist would be bringing in the first number.  At this point there is a brief discussion during which we established the vocalist had given the drummer the sets and the guitarist had given me the sets... and the sets did NOT contain the same songs (don't ask)!  We wound our way through the first set avoiding looking like amateurs (compliments at the end of the night from people who had seen the band many times), inc songs where one of us might have had slightly less than 100% knowledge of the number.  Only butt clenching moment was when the guitarist got carried away and segued into a song that neither the drummer or I knew.  We had both at least heard the song so we had an idea but I spent most of the first verse and chorus with my eyes locked on the guitarist's hand for clues for chord progressions.  The 2nd set consisted of many numbers that weren't on EITHER of our lists but all four of us knew and they were busked live!

 

I love depping but I defo pin folk down to minutiae of detail and leave no question unasked and if I get the impression they aren't of a very good calibre, I politely refuse.    

Edited April 8 by warwickhunt

[Rodders]

I dep for a band now and again, the set list never seems to change much (which is handy) and they're all lovely people. 

Fortunately for me the drummer is professional (teaches full time as well as gigging) so I just sit and the back and lock in with him and see what the others do on the night. 

 

The keys player was once part of The Fall, though you won't neccessarily know if you heard her play, at the last gig I did with them, our rendition of The Best by TT was rather more jazzy than usual, especially the melody on the ivories..

[Rich]

I have an occasional dep gig with a busy function band, it's all 'top 40' type stuff and nowt too challenging. They give me plenty of notice and a set list so I have time for practice at home and to make up some crib sheets. I had one 'gig' with them a couple of years back, it was in South Wales at a holiday camp about 90 minutes' drive away... the band leader/frontlady was assured time and again that they had a substantial in-house PA, but we got there to find that substantial actually meant a 2 channel 30w vocal PA with a pair of Radio Shack speakers. The camp ents. manager still expected something from us, so the band leader sang to the backing track tape she always carries Just In Case, and the rest of us went home. She was mortified that I'd had a long pointless drive, was incandescent with fury at the camp and vowed to screw them for the full band fee plus nuisance money, which she got - the band has a good standard contract, and she's a lawyer by trade and very good at getting what she wants - so I was well compensated for my wasted time. But in truth, I didn't mind that much. I'd caught up with my friends in the band, albeit fleetingly, and it was a beautiful evening for a drive, so I took the scenic route home. But it was a good lesson in the band always having a watertight contract!

[pete.young]

I depped on Eb tuba for a championship section brass band once, at a beer night.

 

I arrived as directed about an hour before the start and was handed a pad full of music, each piece had a number, altogether about 130 pieces in numerical order.  I would estimate that I'd played about 10% of them so the rest was a sight-reading job.

 

The twist was that for beer nights, the MD didn't like any gap between the songs. No set list, and no time to put the pieces in order. So while you were playing one song, the MD signalled the number of the next song and you had to find it in the pad, while covering your part. This is fine for Soprano Cornet who usually has at least 50 bars rest, not so much for the Eb bass although there are two of you so you can take it in turns.

 

About half way through the first set - No. 53 . Sir Duke. OMG. Interesting challenge to sightread that bass run on a tuba. At least they didn't do it Nathan-East style with each phrase in a different key.

 

I thought I did OK and so did the other Eb, maybe he was just being polite because I wasn't asked back.

[Franticsmurf]

I depped for a mate's 'band' several times. The band was actually a three piece (guitar/guitar&vocals/vocals) with backing tracks and no bassist or drummer and I was asked to play bass as the guitarist couldn't make it. As the BL also played guitar and shared vocals with the female singer (who played acoustic guitar of a few songs) it all seemed under control, if not a little unusual, but he was a mate so I was happy to help out I used the gigs as a means to try out my new speakers, a new pre-amp and a couple of basses I hadn't used live before. Several songs into the second half of my third gig with them the backing tracks system (a laptop) crashed and we were left on stage with me playing bass and the female singer singing. The BL, strumming away on his Strat and looking cool was revealed to be completely muted with no sound coming from his amp or microphone. Our bass (with some improvised fills and runs) and vocal duo completed the song, the BL realised he had to step up and we finished the set with both of them playing guitar. It was my last gig with them and the trio folded shortly afterwards. The money was good, though!

 

 

[stewblack]

7 hours ago, pete.young said:

I depped on Eb tuba for a championship section brass band once, at a beer night.

 

I arrived as directed about an hour before the start and was handed a pad full of music, each piece had a number, altogether about 130 pieces in numerical order.  I would estimate that I'd played about 10% of them so the rest was a sight-reading job.

 

The twist was that for beer nights, the MD didn't like any gap between the songs. No set list, and no time to put the pieces in order. So while you were playing one song, the MD signalled the number of the next song and you had to find it in the pad, while covering your part. This is fine for Soprano Cornet who usually has at least 50 bars rest, not so much for the Eb bass although there are two of you so you can take it in turns.

 

About half way through the first set - No. 53 . Sir Duke. OMG. Interesting challenge to sightread that bass run on a tuba. At least they didn't do it Nathan-East style with each phrase in a different key.

 

I thought I did OK and so did the other Eb, maybe he was just being polite because I wasn't asked back.

An unimaginable level of musical hell. Hats off for not just filling the tuba with beer and finding a quiet corner 

[Mike Brooks]

On 07/04/2024 at 11:34, stewblack said:

 

Not a scintillating anecdote I admit. However it got me thinking, those of you who do a lot of stand-in work must have some tales. Why not share them here?

 

28 years worth....jeepers, I wouldn't know where to start!

[Rich]

9 hours ago, Mike Brooks said:

28 years worth....jeepers, I wouldn't know where to start!

Please try. You must have some absolute zingers  

[borntohang]

My first paying gig was a once-monthly dep for a guy I knew from a local venue and it was like a checklist of club band horror stories. It was all old-school WMC venues so you were going out to play set one to a room full of stony-faced pensioners waiting for the meat raffle during the intermission, and then them all immediately clearing out so you played set two to nobody. 

 

My main gripe was that I would often turn up to find out the keyboard-playing band leader was the only regular member and the entire lineup was deps. Everyone got a song list (usually the same one too) but if somebody didn't know enough to fill time he'd pull the old "let's do X/Y, everybody knows that!". Turns out that while many people know how to start Sweet Home Alabama, significantly fewer know how to stop playing it. 

 

The band had a house uniform with a costume change (black shirts with white tie set one, white shirts with black tie set two) because that meant you could charge more on the agency. I was warned about this and bought the correct shirts, but told I could borrow the bassist's waistcoat to match the others. Unfortunately he had two feet and six stone on me so I had to belt all the excess fabric in behind my strap. Between all the deps we often looked like a band of kids dressed in their dad's clothes. 

 

I didn't have a completely awful time and getting paid to play as a teenager was a game-changer, but it was a rough education. I saw the BL around town a couple years back and we got to reminiscing about the old days - he was keeping very quiet but about halfway through the conversation suddenly went "wait, you didn't play with us did you??". Turns out he was totally pissed for most of the two years we worked together and had very little memory of any of it. 

[gjones]

Met with band, at their rehearsal room, in the afternoon to go through 30 songs.

Made chord charts and notes on every song.

Got to the gig that night, which was 50 miles away, to find I'd left all the notes in the rehearsal room.

15 minutes before the gig singer frantically writes down the chords of about half the set.

Amazingly, it went really well considering my stupidity.

Band never asked me back.

 

Edited April 9 by gjones