SuperSeagull Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 I'm interested in how those of you in covers band go about selecting new material. My band has an aspiration to refresh our set list but we (I!) keep banging up against our guitarist and band boss who simply dismisses anything by artists he doesn't like eg Fleetwood Mac, Oasis, Killers, or genres he similarly doesn't like eg anything vaguely punky. He is a lovely guy, a very good musician and he works very hard on managing gigs, rehearsals etc but has what I think is a blind spot in this area. I'm of the view we are entertainers, need to give the punters what they want which is stuff they recognise, can sing along to rather than more obscure numbers from 50 or 60 years ago. How do others do it? 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 Who sings the songs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperSeagull Posted July 12 Author Share Posted July 12 4 minutes ago, Happy Jack said: Who sings the songs? The singer 😃 who is not the guitarist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 Well if the singer wants to do a song and the rest of the band agrees with him, Shirley the guitarist is outvoted? What's the band line-up? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mykesbass Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 Are you going too far in one step? If he likes slightly less well known stuff from 50/60 years ago then Oasis and Killers are going to be no-gos for him. Try to match some newer stuff to his 5 or 6 favourite songs (feel free to share those on here and see what others come up with). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 Bash him over the head. We all have to play songs we wouldn't necessarily listen to in order to entertain, it's the job, innit? It's not about him, it's not about what he likes, it's about the punters. Give the punters what they want, simples. He needs to get that through his thick skull, otherwise every time I've played "Don't Stop Believin'" through gritted teeth has been for naught. People have been sacked from bands because of this stick-in-the-mud attitude before, and just because he's BL simply means he could end up bandless. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Edwards69 Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 My band fell into that trap years ago. We'd build up momentum and then lose the audience with a lesser-known, albeit great song, that we put in because we like it. We realised in time our job was to entertain the audience, not educate them. Songs like Sex on Fire and Mr Brightside are seen as something of a cliche amongst the cover band community, but, they always, always work, so we suck it up and play them! Another piece of advice we were given by an agent, from feedback they had received for all of their artists from a number of venues was skip the slow songs. Whilst the singer may love to belt out a power ballad, or the guitarist to get lost in a lengthy pink floyd solo, the audience will get bored. Get them up dancing and keep the energy level up. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassAdder60 Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 This is a tough one as a fellow covers band player Do you offer Sex on Fire, Dakota or Summer of 69 and do the same as 75% pub bands do or be creative and choose well known songs and rock them up We now do Tainted Love as a rock song ( Scorpions Version ) and it sounds awesome!! If years back someone suggested that song I would have laughed and said never !! Well known but different songs is the aim for our band 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 (edited) 4 minutes ago, BassAdder60 said: This is a tough one as a fellow covers band player Do you offer Sex on Fire, Dakota or Summer of 69 and do the same as 75% pub bands do or be creative and choose well known songs and rock them up We now do Tainted Love as a rock song ( Scorpions Version ) and it sounds awesome!! If years back someone suggested that song I would have laughed and said never !! Well known but different songs is the aim for our band There is a cheese pile which we refuse to play, and SoF and Dakota are on it (along with Sweet Child of Mine). Can't kill Summer of 69 though. And why does Bad Moon Rising *always* work? Ditto on the Tainted Love - always goes down well because everyone knows it. We play it at northern soul speed and add nods to the Soft Cell version (chiefly the "*Bam* *Bam* - Get/Run away" bit) Edited July 12 by neepheid 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassintheface Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 (edited) what gigs are you looking to play? Weddings / parties etc - I would suggest potentially a different set of songs from those you might hear at a pub gig.... wedding /parties - you typically need to play stuff people might want or expect to hear at such an event, which might not necessarily what you'd want to play and what you might 'get away with' at a pub gig etc........ Edited July 12 by bassintheface spelling 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassAdder60 Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 (edited) We will probably end up playing Summer 69 but we do Run to You and Can’t stop this thing we started for now I think band members or BL who say no to these songs should go out and see a good covers band on a Saturday night and see what actually works and what doesn’t Slow songs are mostly a no no but perhaps one in the set can add something. We do a Bon Jovi either Dead or Alive or Bed of Roses Edited July 12 by BassAdder60 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 7 minutes ago, Greg Edwards69 said: Another piece of advice we were given by an agent, from feedback they had received for all of their artists from a number of venues was skip the slow songs. Whilst the singer may love to belt out a power ballad, or the guitarist to get lost in a lengthy pink floyd solo, the audience will get bored. Get them up dancing and keep the energy level up. I would add a side to this - we usually play a (slightly) slower number second to last - it's usually Lewis Capaldi's "Someone You Loved", but we do rock it up a bit. Lighters out moment, then play a rocker to finish. One time we got asked to play Someone You Loved again and ended up playing it three times (!) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 (edited) We do a rocked up version of The Weeknd "Blinding Lights" and it always goes down great. I prefer it to the original, honestly! Whenever you're trying to genre shift something, you know it has worked when you get that look on punters' faces that roughly translates into "oh damn, I wasn't expecting you to do that song!" followed by them singing/dancing along. Edited July 12 by neepheid 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EssexBuccaneer Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 It’s a fine line - yes you’re there to entertain, but is there really much fun in playing identikit copy/paste set-lists to every other band? Our setlist is a mix of very well known (zombie, Enter Sandman, Seven Nation Army) and some lesser-spotted bangers like Longview, Self Esteem, Higher). And that’s how we like it. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassintheface Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 I'm playing a couple of parties and weddings over the next few weeks and playing such songs like and having done these sorts of gigs for like 20 years, you end up playing what people expect to hear and what 'works'..... ultimately, they're paying the bills, so 'artistic integrity' doesn't really count for much........ Voulez Vous Cry to me Love Train I'm still standing Call me Al Smooth The Night Dance the Night Away Oh what a night One way or another Le Freak I'm a believer Signed sealed delivered Superstition Uptown Funk Dancing on the ceiling SOF etc etc Then a pub gig might feature some of those, but more likely would play stuff we might want to (maybe self indulgently) play stuff from the likes of the below list, but then the pub gig pays bugger all in comparison...... Hendrix Free Cream Creedence Doors Freddie King Beatles Fleetwood Mac The Band Wilco etc etc 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_b Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 What reaction do you get from your audiences? If it's a good reaction, maybe your guitarist is doing something right. Your problem is you are not suggesting songs the guitarist likes. Find some common ground between him, you and the audience. The last covers band I was in we had 3 rules, personal favourites did not get preference, every song had to have been in the top 40, and any song that did not get a positive audience reaction was out. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 We have played the same things for a while, but recently got a keyboard player which opened stuff up. I think sometimes it is a pain as he will suggest something then the guitarist willl join in and all of a sudden it is a thing that noone else agreed to, and more important noone can sing. We compromised on Call Me 4 semitones down, but not sure how well it goes yet, early days. We have recently added the heat is on and Power of love, which variously work, but the one that was a surprise which I added, then decided it didn't work, then we reworked was You should be dancing - problem is the middle is a bit lost, there isn't much there, so we do the start up to that bit, then speed it up and go straight into does your mother know, and it has gone down a storm each time! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 When I was in a punk covers band some years ago the song criteria was had it been in the Top 30/on Top of The Pops. We did try to add in a few lesser known - but better imo - songs a few times but they just dropped the evening. Doing classic songs in a different way is always worth a go, check out Nine Inch Nails doing Cars with Gary Numan for example. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperSeagull Posted July 12 Author Share Posted July 12 1 hour ago, Happy Jack said: Well if the singer wants to do a song and the rest of the band agrees with him, Shirley the guitarist is outvoted? What's the band line-up? Guitar x 2, me, drums and singer. I think that is the way it might work but the guitarist seems to have always had a veto - its been going 15 years so I'm a relatively newbie at three years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperSeagull Posted July 12 Author Share Posted July 12 1 hour ago, Mykesbass said: Are you going too far in one step? If he likes slightly less well known stuff from 50/60 years ago then Oasis and Killers are going to be no-gos for him. Try to match some newer stuff to his 5 or 6 favourite songs (feel free to share those on here and see what others come up with). We already do Rio, Dakota, Don't You Forget About Me so I think its more he has a blind spot on some bands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperSeagull Posted July 12 Author Share Posted July 12 44 minutes ago, chris_b said: What reaction do you get from your audiences? If it's a good reaction, maybe your guitarist is doing something right. Your problem is you are not suggesting songs the guitarist likes. Find some common ground between him, you and the audience. The last covers band I was in we had 3 rules, personal favourites did not get preference, every song had to have been in the top 40, and any song that did not get a positive audience reaction was out. Liking those rules.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 The current BL has a big 80s thing going on with song selection (and as he's the singist, he gets first suggestion/veto on anything, which is as it should be), and from recent audience responses (which is frankly what it's all about) he's onto something - with notable 'classic' exceptions (SoF, Mr.B, 69, Proud Mary, etc) the majority of our audiences (pubs) these days are happier hearing 80s (and some later 70s) songs than anything. It's an age thing; I've mentioned before, an ex-BL (a talented singer/guitarist) when he was between day jobs got a series of afternoon gigs in old peoples homes, and a lot of his popular set was Beatles songs. The world turns, it's not just the artists who are getting older... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boodang Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 Songs in our band are picked on the basis of what the audience will like.. with two provisos, the singer must be able to do it and can the rest of the band play it well. Set 1; warm up songs, singalongs, building up to a taster of set 2. Set 2; all the banging songs, no let up, ending in our latest obsession which is Boston punk numbers. If it's not total riot by the end we consider it a failure! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 (edited) 6 minutes ago, Muzz said: The current BL has a big 80s thing going on with song selection (and as he's the singist, he gets first suggestion/veto on anything, which is as it should be) Hard disagree on this point! That's maybe how your band works, but it's not universal. Everyone gets an equal say in our band, and everyone has a veto, they're just not d!cks about using it. We're an open minded four piece and are happy to give anything within our collective technical capabilities a go, and let the audience reaction be our ultimate arbiter. Edited July 12 by neepheid 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperSeagull Posted July 12 Author Share Posted July 12 (edited) Setlist from our last gig. We've a desire to get more contemporary and well known stuff into the set - the band started as a blues outfit so it is a bit of a journey. Dakota, Rio, Don't You, Sharp Dressed, Jean Genie are the ones that really get people singing / dancing. Call Me The Breeze Wishing Well All Along Watchtower Sharp Dressed Man / Tush Rockin In Free World Above It All (Original) Help Me Knocking Heavens Door Dakota Downstream (The Rainmakers) Satisfaction Another Brick Creep Stray Cat Strut All Summertime (Original) Roadhouse Blues Keep Your Hands Mollys Chambers Cherry Wine (Original) Take Me To The River Walking By Myself No Tomorrow (Original) Ship to Wreck Shadow Play Californication You Really Got Me Taking Care of Business Learn To Fly Face Card Blues (Original) Johnny B Good / Medley Jean Genie Don’t You Forget Rio Loaded On Gin (Original) Edited July 12 by SuperSeagull Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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