Gigs - how much do yet get paid ?

[sgmypod]

In last band 200-250 shared between 5 of us

[Telerocker]

I don't think I'm technically good enough to play in a covers band.. I play my stuff alright though, but even that could do with a brush up.

What I'm saying: its not an easy job being in a covers band.

You have to be a cameleon playing all the different stuff. Some songs are not your natural habitat. It took me by example some time to get Juanes - La Camissa Negra right. And we play sets with (nearly) no pauses, so you have to stay focused and swith pedals/adjust amp/change guitar on the right moments. But I'm not complaining, it's good fun and it pays well.

[AndyR]

I don't think I'm technically good enough to play in a covers band.. I play my stuff alright though, but even that could do with a brush up.

What I'm saying: its not an easy job being in a covers band.

Yeah, I'd agree with this. When we used to play covers (or if I record them now), I always sought to "put my own stamp" on them. In other words, I couldn't be @rsed to figure out how to copy them properly :lol:

Unless it's a blues band playing standards, or some other type of music where "improvisation and interpretation" are valued by the audience, this is not exactly the approach to be taking if you want your covers band to be successful!

I don't think you have to copy everything exactly, but you do have to get the groove and the "hooks" right... and that's a lot harder (do-able, but harder) than most of us improvising "own-material" musicians imagine.

[Twinfan]

It can also be a challenge to find a good volume of covers music that suits everyone in the band, and also your target audience/venues.  That's why tribute bands are popular, they're much easier on everyone concerned.

[Philly Q]

I don't think I'm technically good enough to play in a covers band.. I play my stuff alright though, but even that could do with a brush up.

What I'm saying: its not an easy job being in a covers band.

Yeah, I'd agree with this. When we used to play covers (or if I record them now), I always sought to "put my own stamp" on them. In other words, I couldn't be @rsed to figure out how to copy them properly :lol:

Unless it's a blues band playing standards, or some other type of music where "improvisation and interpretation" are valued by the audience, this is not exactly the approach to be taking if you want your covers band to be successful!

I don't think you have to copy everything exactly, but you do have to get the groove and the "hooks" right... and that's a lot harder (do-able, but harder) than most of us improvising "own-material" musicians imagine.

Presumably it's also a useful educational process, having to learn how various writers have put their songs together rather than slipping into "what comes naturally" writing your own stuff.  And whichever way you approach it, whether it's learning note by note or "adapting" it to you own style, you end up as a better player.

[_tom_]

I played in a cover band for a few years and never really found it that difficult, but i guess our material wasn't that varied, went down well in pubs though.. I'm not sure about cover bands, they can be fun and are easy to get lots of paid gigs but not very satisfying and i always kind of felt like a performing monkey!

[Johnny Mac]

Does anyone find that a lot of covers bands are playing the same songs?
It's just that, I've got yet another opportunity with a bass player and drummer to form another band. Hopefully we can get this one out of the studio and get some gigs. I want us to learn a real varied set to give us the chance to play different types of audience/venues ect which  could hopefully lead to more £notes. Maybe if things go well, party's & weddings ect. That's where the money is for working bands.

Anyway, I havent met the drummer yet but he comes from a rock background. The bass player is someone I've rehearsed with before and he swears he has turned over a new leaf, as he as f*cked me around a lot in the passed. I've told him I'm not doing anything with anyone who smokes puff in the studio. When they're all stoned and talking boll0cks, It's like trying to communicate with a bunch of lobotomised chimpanzees!
We should be in the studio in just over a week.

[Twinfan]

If you're talking rock pub bands, yes - everyone's playing the same songs.

[Philly Q]

If you're talking rock pub bands, yes - everyone's playing the same songs.

Mustang Sally, think you better slow your mustang down.

 :x

[AndyR]

(I'm guessing) it's partly because you have to play what the punters want.

I was only in own-material bands, all of which played the odd "interesting" cover that we felt like working up as our "own" and including (usually) near the end. But I still got asked for stuff like Mustang Sally all the time :lol:

I don't remember doing that one in particular, but we'd try to satisfy requests if we could.

[Philly Q]

Yeah, it makes sense to give the punters what they want.  I suppose it depends on the type of covers band you are. 

If you're a "tribute" band then obviously you'll cover the artists you're, er, paying tribute to. 

If you're a covers band with a bit of a local following then I guess you can pretty much pick your own set, with some consideration of what your punters want to hear.  But on the other hand I suppose you'll mostly have to play relatively well-known songs with some consistency in musical style, in order to build up a following in the first place.

...And if you're playing weddings, bar mitzvahs etc then your audience is much more interested in what you play than who you are - so I guess you have to toe the line and give 'em what they want.... "Mustang Sally", "Brown Eyed Girl", "Let Me Entertain You" and all that bollocks.  :(

[AndyR]

"Mustang Sally", "Brown Eyed Girl", "Let Me Entertain You" and all that bollocks.  :(

I've only performed the last of those three (I assume we mean the Robbie Williams one), and what a pile of "stream-of-consciousness" old tosh the lyrics are :lol:

BUT! Funnily enough, if you're the vocalist, those are quite interesting songs to perform - you wouldn't get that hung up on doing them. But the other band members will get fed up with them because they're "just a blues", "boring and repetitive", or "but it's just one note in my part!!", etc.

Kind of illustrates what I was always trying to get across to other band members - most of the audience are listening to the songs, not the stuff we're playing on our assorted instruments :lol:

There are exceptions, obviously, but if you're playing to audiences that want to hear popular songs, then you probably oughta play popular songs, some of which you might have heard too often yourself, and your vocalist has got to be heard easily (and be capable of delivering popular songs in the first place).

You can ignore these "rules" if you want, but (in cover gigs) you could be seriously reducing your earning abilities.

[Philly Q]

Yeah, the Robbie Williams one - not Queen (unfortunately)!  The two most recent wedding/Christmas party cover bands I've seen both played it.

I went to a wedding last year where the band played "Beat It" and "Play That Funky Music", which was a bit more tolerable.  Pretty sure they also did "Mustang Sally" and at least one V. Morrison "classic" as well, though....

[_tom_]

Thing is with covers that if people don't know the song then they won't dance or stick around and thus the pub will probably not hire you back again! No matter how good the song or how well you cover it, if they don't know it then they probably won't be up having a dance! We used to do a good cover of Richard III by Supergrass and that always went down like a sack of shite so we stopped doing it. We never got asked for Mustang Sally or anything quite that bad though.

[38thBeatle]

In my experience it is exactly as described above-i.e that you get asked to play the "Mustang Sally" type stuff because the punters love it. I, however, loathe it with a passion and we don't have it in the set and only play it when we have to as a last resort. I have a drummer who thinks he is the MD when in fact he is a tosser. If someone asks for a song once and we don't already do it, he will nag and nag until we give in. He also tells us what he thinks "they" will dance to.This from a man who never dances. Fortunately we work on the principle that those who sing 'em get to choose 'em. We try to do well known but not over exposed songs and we try to avoid the obvious but even so, "Sweet Home Alabama" is in the set- as much as I am sick to death of it. I do like to bash out Squeeze and Crowded House songs though and I also get to do one Beatle song. I do enjoy playing and singing songs by Free though.