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Choosing Songs In A Covers Band


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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?

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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). 

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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.

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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.

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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 

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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 by neepheid
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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 by bassintheface
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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 by BassAdder60
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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 (!)

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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 by neepheid
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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.

 


 

 

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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

 

 

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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....

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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...

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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!

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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 by neepheid
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Posted (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 by SuperSeagull
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