Starting a covers Band

[tomjackson]

I've always been in original bands but now in the band I've started we want to earn a bit of cash and get into covers.
So any advise from you guys in covers bands

Do you have a set of effects or multi FX to instantly get the right sound?

How many covers do you need, I presume around 2h worth?
What mix of material goes down best?
How much is the going rate for an average pub gig?
Good paying venues in the NW please?
Do you need a sample CD?
Do you have to Play alright now on a LP :D

My current list of covers is

Roxanne
Alright Now
Pinball Wizard
Come Together
Oh Well
Sunshine of your love
I wish
Living for the city
Lucky man
Hey Joe
Brown Sugar
Are you Gonna go my way
Sweet Home Alabama

So obviously mainly 60's /70's Rock/Blues but well up for modern stuff to.

Cheers

[Twinfan]

Here's my experience, for what it's worth...

Do you have a set of effects or multi FX to instantly get the right sound?

I have a pedal board with a range of individual stomp boxes.  Tone quality is important to me, so no multi-FX!  The average punter wouldn't notice the difference though.  Go with whatever you're happiest with, as it's mainly for your benefit!

How many covers do you need, I presume around 2h worth?

Yep

What mix of material goes down best?

Depends on the venue and the audience that night.  Always play for the audience, never yourselves.

How much is the going rate for an average pub gig?

£150-£200 for the band

Do you need a sample CD?

Not for regular pub gigs, no.  Usually you get a first gig in the book, see how you go down, and take it from there.

Do you have to Play alright now on a LP :D

No, the original was done on a Strat  ;)

[hamfist]

THere's no magic formula.

Personally, I do use a modeller (albeit a fairly expensive one), as I have found it the best overall way to get the variety of tones that I want/need. Tone is also important to me, surprisingly 
 I do play it through a power amp and guitar cabs (which are mic'ed), though, so in that way it's quite a traditional setup.  I've also very happily used an amp plus pedals rig.
In all honesty, the punters don't give two hoots what guitar or amp you play, so long as it sounds generally OK, and you look like your enjoying yourself.

As for material, it's always going to be a mixture between what everyone in the band likes, as well as songs which the band generally think are a bit boring but the public tend to like.  Unless it's your main income, though, I think one has to always keep in perspective that you are going to do this for fun, so everyone in the band needs to like the songs to a certain extent. I'd hate to go out and play whilst disliking a load of the songs I was playing. It wouldn't be fun anymore.
  In my current band, if one member says they really don't like a particular song, then we simply don't do it. There are plenty of others to choose from, and we are all fairly flexible.
  However, in the band before that, we had a hell of a time choosing songs because a couple of the members were very, very fussy over which songs they played, and had quite differing tastes. That was a problem.

For money, we don't out for under £200, but we're not looking for loads of gigs, so can pick and choose to a certain extent.  We're also in the South of England so I guess prices are a little higher than up north a bit.

[donovan.x]

Tom, if you are going to go down the route of actually earning money from your playing and you are confident in your skills then get a wedding band together, that's serious cash (and a audience who actually want you there.)

[Twinfan]

That's a very, very good point.  Corporate dos and wedding pay £500 to £1000.

[38thBeatle]

Agree with most of what has been said. Try to get a consensus on the material because it does matter if you like the stuff you are playing. You can't "love" every song of course but if you can generally get enough to make it enjoyable you can live with the lesser songs in the set.

I would agree that about 2 hours worth of stuff is a good idea but you should be able to choose what goes into that 2 hours-in other words what was said about playing to the audience-you can only do that if you have enough spare material to add in if required. My band has been in a situation where we had to play a lot longer than planned-we once went on for 3.5 hours with out repeating anything-even we were surprised.

I think a multi fx is a good idea- Twinfan makes a good point because they are inevitably a compromise but it helps to  approximate the original sound but a point to remember is that whatever track you are doing, the original would probably have been recorded with the best recording equipment available and without spending thousands you are not going to be able to compete and so therefore the boutique route is better. I have gravitated away from a multi to a few decent individual fx. I could go on all day but I'll leave it there for now.

[_tom_]

I dont bother with loads of effects, just a boost for solos and a wah (which you can use to fake a phaser or flanger as well, no one will tell the difference really!). Wouldnt bother with loads of guitars for the "real deal" either, no one really cares!

As for songs, people love stuff like Oasis, Free, GnR, ACDC (depending on the place), Thin Lizzy, then more modern indie stuff like Kaiser Chiefs etc. We got the best cheers from Cigarettes and Alcohol and Summer of 69..

Think our sets were about 2 hours, there are about 40 songs to pick and choose from.

[Ratrod]

Here's my two cents:

Q: Do you have a set of effects or multi FX to instantly get the right sound?

A: No multi FX as little as possible. You need a good clean sound, vintage breakup/crunch and a more modern overdrive/distortion. I get my clean and crunch sounds from the amp itself. I use a pedal for the heavier stuff. It's a bit like an SLP, very versitile overdrive sound. I use a smidge of spring reverb from the amp. I like to use echo on occaision, but I don't think you'll need it. A chorus can come in handy for you but I rarely use it.

Q: How many covers do you need, I presume around 2h worth?

A: Enough to get started, yes.

Q: What mix of material goes down best?

A: Stuff that people recognize, like to sing along to and stuff you can dance to.

Q: How much is the going rate for an average pub gig?

A: Depends on your rep. expect your first gigs to be for free beer. As you build your rep and become better, you can ask more.


Q: Good paying venues in the NW please?

A: Never been there.

Q: Do you need a sample CD?

A: It does come in handy. It's great promotion.

Q: Do you have to Play alright now on a LP

A: No. Anyone who says that is a LP-snob.

Play with your gear, what you think works best. Play it your way, own the music.

[tomjackson]

Great advise cheers, I'm really feeling it now!

FX wise I own:-

Vox Wah
BYOC RAT 2
Small Stone Phaser
Pitch Black Tuner
Headrush Delay

Im thinking of getting

A Chorus
A BYOC Overdive 2
A BYOC Compressor
A Marshall in a box, probably a BYOC Shredmaster

I've done blues gigs with 2 hours of material and been payed okay, even with only a few hours practice and winging it, it's sounded okay.  But I want to be a little more pro, not to make a living, but to do some decent payed quality gigs.  I have my day job as my main income but want to earn enough to buy any gear I want by playing gigs, and playing music I like.

The reason I ask about the multi FX is I saw a wedding band using Line 6 amps.  Now sober playing myself I really dislike them, the feel, the vibe, the look.  I love a simple organic valve amp, the dynamics and feel.  But these guys just hit 1 button and instantly to my seriously drunken self they sounded like the right guitarist for the track, Andy Summers to slash in a click!   I just wandered how people cope with the good stuff, analog effects and valve amps to cope with the versitility required. Or then again would anybody notice?

Play it your way, own the music, I like that :D

[Twinfan]

I just wandered how people cope with the good stuff, analog effects and valve amps to cope with the versitility required. Or then again would anybody notice?

It depends how you define versatile.  With a clean amp and a couple of dirt pedals you can pretty much cover most things.  Add a chorus etc and you're pretty much there for anything.

You don't NEED a Rectifer to play some Nu Metal stuff for example.  A Fender combo and a pedal would be good enough for a pub gig!

[38thBeatle]

Again I'd echo what Twinfan says- keep it as simple as possible. In the band I am in now, we go for interpretation of the song rather than slavish copying. That is not to say we don't learn it but we  try to make it sound close but allowing for the fact that there is just four of us. We have to "be" a whole variety of bands but clearly we cant and so we have to get is as close as we can within reason and then we think about how we do it. I don't copy the solos of the originals note for note, for example. My logic being that the recorded version is how the original was done on that day as opposed to when the band played live and it may(or may not) have been different each time.

[mikeluke]

Been in a covers band for about 2-3 years now and most of what has been said is pretty spot on. Few other observations/thoughts:

If you can get a gig in a pub and play well they are likley to ask you back - we get a lot of repeat gigs

However, getting a gig can be tough - be prepared for a lot of shoe and telephone work to get the gig to start with - we did a demo CD in a local studio to give the pubs an idea and it definitely helped - it doesn't have to cost a fortune.

The classics always go down well - why does everyone like Sweet Home Alabama? - but try to add a few more recent ones too - helps the balance - for example we do All The Small Things - Blink 182 and some Green Day/Killers.

Also appears to be a sign of the times that less pubs are doing gigs at present - at least in our neck of the woods - Hampshire/Surrey

Lastly - the only person who worries about MultiFX or stomp boxes or tone or LP v Strat in a pub is the guitarist - the punters will not notice and could not give a $hit!

Good luck with the band

Mike  - singer - :-)

[Adam.M]

This is all lovely info, I've recently received an email asking me to join a covers band on lead guitar. Hmm!

[38thBeatle]

Again, more useful additions to the thread-Mike especially.  We are really lucky in that we have someone who acts as our manager and who is able to spend time getting us the gigs. She thinks we are all brilliant( which we are not) - we played over 60 gigs last year( plus I did a fair amount with other bands) and this year looks like coming close. The thing is, you just have to keep pressing for gigs but as Mike said, if you get the place moving you will get repeat bookings.  I think also that if you can get say 4 gigs a year out of, say, 8 venues, you have a pretty good core of gigs  ( this is what we do). We have also taken gigs at lower rates where the manager is perhaps a bit unsure-we did one the other week for a pub we used to play 3 or 4 times a year but it changed Management. The regulars kept going on about getting bands in and even named us and so he reluctantly booked us. We picked up two more gigs from him out of it at the rate we used to charge-we were not too proud to take a lower fee to do so however. We also picked up two gigs from another pub because the Manager just happened to be in and loved us.  I would emphasize that we are not a brilliant band( if we were we'd be playing for real money) but we are very good at what we do and are tight( cos we play a lot). Mix that with a good range of songs and you'll always get work.

[dave_mc]

That's a very, very good point.  Corporate dos and wedding pay £500 to £1000.

Complete coincidence, but my sister told me last night that her friend booked a wedding band for her wedding, just a guitarist and keyboard player (i'm guessing one of those two is the singer) for something like 4 grand (which is supposedly the going rate). o_O Apparently a "real" band (bass and drums too) is even more.