The woes of starting up a band

[Johnny Mac]

It's harder than finding a job or a decent woman...err that sounds familiar...must have been another post!

[carlaz]

It's harder than finding a job or a decent woman...err that sounds familiar...

Heh, that's true.  I'm employed and married -- and in a band, but while I'll keep the former two, I think I could use a different band! It's noticeably worse than the job and marriage .... ;)

[Johnny Mac]

It's harder than finding a job or a decent woman...err that sounds familiar...

Heh, that's true.  I'm employed and married -- and in a band, but while I'll keep the former two, I think I could use a different band! It's noticeably worse than the job and marriage .... ;)

Carlaz I'd love to be in a band! It's what keeps me up at nights i think!

[CaffeineJunkie]

eh?? i always thought of bands as a way of leaving your jobs and getting women

[Tellboy]

I hear you... 2 years, 5 failed attemps and 3 no starts and I gave up.

I've lost count of the number of musicains over the years who joined/left/didn't bother to turn up for rehearsals etc.

The last permanent bass player in the band I was in was a brilliant musician but had never stuck at a job for more than a month and used to spend most of his day in the pub scrounging drinks off anyone he could find who was gullible enough to buy them. After waiting in an icy cold rehearsal room for over an hour and a half for him to turn up we found him outside a pub. After screaming "Where the f**k have you been?" he calmly explained that he managed to "cadge eight pints of 6X (very strong beer for non-drinkers) during the day and had sh*t himself".
Needless to say I had no wish to check out the accuracy of his claim and decided it was time for me to hang my plectrum up for a while. I still love playing and occassionally 'sit in' with some bands but find it impossible to find any serious musicians in my (senior) age group with my taste in music who are willing to work at it.

[carlaz]

It's harder than finding a job or a decent woman...err that sounds familiar...

Heh, that's true.  I'm employed and married -- and in a band, but while I'll keep the former two, I think I could use a different band! It's noticeably worse than the job and marriage .... ;)

Carlaz I'd love to be in a band! It's what keeps me up at nights i think!

Yeah, I really like playing in a band, playing with other people -- in the end, it's better than cutting guitar solos over your breakfast cereal ;).  But it can get frustrating, sometimes -- too many people who play worse than I do (which is pretty bad) or have inflated "artistic temperments" or are just plain unreliable!  

I guess it's getting greedy, though, to want to play in a good band! (Especially when I'm not about to win any prizes for musician of the year! ;))  For the past 15 years I've been sometimes in a band, sometimes not, and I guess it'll stay that way .... Still, ya gotta stick at it and hope to find the magic!

[Fubar]

I hear you... 2 years, 5 failed attemps and 3 no starts and I gave up.

I've lost count of the number of musicains over the years who joined/left/didn't bother to turn up for rehearsals etc.

The last permanent bass player in the band I was in was a brilliant musician but had never stuck at a job for more than a month and used to spend most of his day in the pub scrounging drinks off anyone he could find who was gullible enough to buy them. After waiting in an icy cold rehearsal room for over an hour and a half for him to turn up we found him outside a pub. After screaming "Where the f**k have you been?" he calmly explained that he managed to "cadge eight pints of 6X (very strong beer for non-drinkers) during the day and had sh*t himself".
Needless to say I had no wish to check out the accuracy of his claim and decided it was time for me to hang my plectrum up for a while. I still love playing and occassionally 'sit in' with some bands but find it impossible to find any serious musicians in my (senior) age group with my taste in music who are willing to work at it.

After 8 6x's? lightweight!  :lol:  He want's to be happy he wasn't on the ESB!  

[Johnny Mac]

I hear you... 2 years, 5 failed attemps and 3 no starts and I gave up.

I've lost count of the number of musicains over the years who joined/left/didn't bother to turn up for rehearsals etc.

The last permanent bass player in the band I was in was a brilliant musician but had never stuck at a job for more than a month and used to spend most of his day in the pub scrounging drinks off anyone he could find who was gullible enough to buy them. After waiting in an icy cold rehearsal room for over an hour and a half for him to turn up we found him outside a pub. After screaming "Where the f**k have you been?" he calmly explained that he managed to "cadge eight pints of 6X (very strong beer for non-drinkers) during the day and had sh*t himself".
Needless to say I had no wish to check out the accuracy of his claim and decided it was time for me to hang my plectrum up for a while. I still love playing and occassionally 'sit in' with some bands but find it impossible to find any serious musicians in my (senior) age group with my taste in music who are willing to work at it.

After 8 6x's? lightweight!  :lol:  He want's to be happy he wasn't on the ESB!  

 :lol: PMSL at both these posts!!! :lol:

[Johnny Mac]

It's harder than finding a job or a decent woman...err that sounds familiar...

Heh, that's true.  I'm employed and married -- and in a band, but while I'll keep the former two, I think I could use a different band! It's noticeably worse than the job and marriage .... ;)

Carlaz I'd love to be in a band! It's what keeps me up at nights i think!

Yeah, I really like playing in a band, playing with other people -- in the end, it's better than cutting guitar solos over your breakfast cereal ;).  But it can get frustrating, sometimes -- too many people who play worse than I do (which is pretty bad) or have inflated "artistic temperments" or are just plain unreliable!  

I guess it's getting greedy, though, to want to play in a good band! (Especially when I'm not about to win any prizes for musician of the year! ;))  For the past 15 years I've been sometimes in a band, sometimes not, and I guess it'll stay that way .... Still, ya gotta stick at it and hope to find the magic!

I know I'd be the same if I was in one. The little projects i did years ago involved my Bruv who didn't learn any of his parts until we had studio time. :roll:  That used to grate on me but  you have to make light of it and the end of the day. :D

[38thBeatle]

It is a real struggle. I am lucky to have been in bands for most of my life with varying degrees of contenment-at the moment I am in a band with a long time drummer mate who I think a lot of as a bloke and I forgive his drumming sins.I have a great co guitarist who is blessed with a professional discipline ( him being an actor and all) that has helped us sound as good as we are.He and I would claim only to be competent but he has a great stage presence and a great voice however he and the bass player are not the best of mates and things do, at times, break into battle.The sparks do fly but they also contribute to the energy-I suppose I am saying that it is never easy even when you are in a band. The tricjk is to find like minded guys in your area who can work together even if they don't actually like each other.

[_tom_]

^Our old singer and the drummer always used to get into fights just before gigs about setting up the equipment :lol: Pretty funny to watch but also quite annoying coz there wasnt a great atmosphere on stage the time when the singer walked out on us haha.. glad he's gone but now we're stuck without a singer, band practises are just cr@p now and I'll probably quit if we dont find someone good soon..

[38thBeatle]

can you sing Tom or maybe one of the others. I started when the band I was in had a singer that quit and we all tried and found we could do it and got better as we did with less mouths to feed, we got more cash at the end of the night.Never played with a front man since- they are dead weight unless they are supremely good and can set up a PA.

[Johnny Mac]

Mr 38th! Cool words man!

What an asset!!  8)

[jt]

:D Yer but a really good singer is worth his weight in gold to `ya if he has one of those voices.

The problem is when you loose `em & Players are forced to sing you find you have to compromise material wise unless you play all the old cheese ie 50`s 60`s etc.


 :D  8)

[_tom_]

Well our drummer can sing but he doesnt really like singing and playing at the same time, apparently theres a female singer who is apparently quite good, but I'm not sure about it, females in rock have always been a big no for me (to listen to, at least).. then again its only a cover band, and she might be something to look at whilst playing boring songs :P