Discussion
Six months of rehearsal, learning songs, going to bed with tinnitus, new gear & a week before the first gig, the singer decides she doesn't want to do it anymore + the bass player joins in.
FFS! It's like having three girlfriends on the go. Keeping one happy is hard enough. Oh well, back to square one.
FFS! It's like having three girlfriends on the go. Keeping one happy is hard enough. Oh well, back to square one.
Our singer left us about 3 weeks ago, but every cloud has a silver lining and turns out our lead guitarist is a much better singer and it has only delayed us about a month before we're out gigging again.
Nothing beats playing in a band on stage imo so persevere find new members and then you'll wonder what all the fuss was when it clicks.
Nothing beats playing in a band on stage imo so persevere find new members and then you'll wonder what all the fuss was when it clicks.
davepoth said:
I do Open Mic nights now on my own. Unfortunately I was always the rhythm guitar player, so I'm not actually any good at playing, singing, or any combination therein. 
It's not whether you're good or not, it's whether you love it. If you put passion in to it - as long as you're in key - people will feel a connection.I've never actually been in a band, sadly. I'm unsure on what I want to do. Do I want to sing? Yes, but the rock stuff I play doesn't suit my soft voice. On the other hand, I like playing lead (like 90% of guitarists) and find it difficult to w
k, I mean, play lead and sing at the same time. Can't have it both ways I suppose. If I could, I'd do everything and not have a band 
Justin Cyder said:
Six months of rehearsal, learning songs, going to bed with tinnitus, new gear & a week before the first gig, the singer decides she doesn't want to do it anymore + the bass player joins in.
FFS! It's like having three girlfriends on the go. Keeping one happy is hard enough. Oh well, back to square one.
Only a week before the gig? You were lucky.FFS! It's like having three girlfriends on the go. Keeping one happy is hard enough. Oh well, back to square one.
I was the sound engineer in a very well known music venue working with local and internation Rock and Metal acts.
I've seen bands split during soundcheck and even onstage during the gig. Sometimes you get lucky and there is a major bustup on stage that then extends to the dressing room, carpark and ultimately the tour bus.
All usually over girls and money (musical differences).
Looking at your own situation. Has your Female vocalist performed live before with a band. Maybe she just got nervous.
I don't feel lucky
We're all in our forties & well seasoned in the toilet circuit. It wasn't a case of nerves, more to do with the daily grind getting in the way. We're nothing special, I'm just letting off steam as we were so close, it was tight & the songs were good.
I just don't like the waste of time that it's now become & the grind of advertising, auditioning & rehearsal that now lies before me before I can get back to that feeling of being ten feet tall after a ripping performance, which is what most of us are in it for I suppose.
It certainly isn't for the money or the girls!
We're all in our forties & well seasoned in the toilet circuit. It wasn't a case of nerves, more to do with the daily grind getting in the way. We're nothing special, I'm just letting off steam as we were so close, it was tight & the songs were good.
I just don't like the waste of time that it's now become & the grind of advertising, auditioning & rehearsal that now lies before me before I can get back to that feeling of being ten feet tall after a ripping performance, which is what most of us are in it for I suppose.
It certainly isn't for the money or the girls!
Yep, been there, done that.
One of the bands I was in a while ago was going well - we ground out our apprenticeship around all the small venues / crappy nights with no punters for about two years.
Then we started to get a bit more well known and get booked for bigger and better gigs. Even had a small fanbase that started to follow us around. But there were still some prestigious venues that you couldn't get into unless you had the right manager etc.
Then somehow our Drummer's Dad, who was in bands himself and knew people, got us onto a gig at a big outdoor Fireworks / Bonfire night thing. He just told us when and where to turn up without any more details.
Turned out when we arrived, that we were the headline act on the Radio 1 Roadshow stage!
There were three acts that night. The first was an indy band I can't remember the name of. Next up was 'Seal' (yes, THAT Seal, the famous black singer), then us last!
Lucky he didn't tell us or we would have been stting our pants for weeks before!
Anyway it went well. I couldn't believe it - the stage was proper massive, we all had cordless Mics and guitar relays, there were about nine million lights, and SMOKE TOO with the sound guy in a box in the middle of the crowd.
And what a crowd. There were hundreds of people - proper 'big gig' arrangement, with barriers at the front of the crowd, about 10 security guys, and them heaving the odd person over the barrier who was getting crushed etc. As a singer with a cordless Mic, well, I was like a pig in st, leaping around this vast space like bloody Bruce Dickinson! There were even proper monitors that A) I could put my foot on and B) I could actually hear myself for a change, lol!
So anyway, after that gig, I got a call from a well known band manager around here. He asked to manage and promote us the following year, and presently started to give us dates for gigs at similar venues to that one. We'd turned a corner! Into the studio to record a proper demo, all sorts.
Then...guess what? Our brilliant lead guitarist decides he's having some kind of personal crisis, leaves the band (and the country) and goes to live in Spain.
Then within two weeks of that, the Bass player (who lived in a massive shared house that we rehearsed in) decided that he was serious about his long-distance girlfriend and so sorry lads, I'm moving to London.
So there we were, down to three from five, with nowhere to rehearse. I guess we could have recruited new people, but we just felt the heart had been torn out of it.
So it all just fell apart. Gutted I was
One of the bands I was in a while ago was going well - we ground out our apprenticeship around all the small venues / crappy nights with no punters for about two years.
Then we started to get a bit more well known and get booked for bigger and better gigs. Even had a small fanbase that started to follow us around. But there were still some prestigious venues that you couldn't get into unless you had the right manager etc.
Then somehow our Drummer's Dad, who was in bands himself and knew people, got us onto a gig at a big outdoor Fireworks / Bonfire night thing. He just told us when and where to turn up without any more details.
Turned out when we arrived, that we were the headline act on the Radio 1 Roadshow stage!
There were three acts that night. The first was an indy band I can't remember the name of. Next up was 'Seal' (yes, THAT Seal, the famous black singer), then us last!
Lucky he didn't tell us or we would have been stting our pants for weeks before!Anyway it went well. I couldn't believe it - the stage was proper massive, we all had cordless Mics and guitar relays, there were about nine million lights, and SMOKE TOO
with the sound guy in a box in the middle of the crowd.And what a crowd. There were hundreds of people - proper 'big gig' arrangement, with barriers at the front of the crowd, about 10 security guys, and them heaving the odd person over the barrier who was getting crushed etc. As a singer with a cordless Mic, well, I was like a pig in s
t, leaping around this vast space like bloody Bruce Dickinson! There were even proper monitors that A) I could put my foot on and B) I could actually hear myself for a change, lol!So anyway, after that gig, I got a call from a well known band manager around here. He asked to manage and promote us the following year, and presently started to give us dates for gigs at similar venues to that one. We'd turned a corner! Into the studio to record a proper demo, all sorts.
Then...guess what? Our brilliant lead guitarist decides he's having some kind of personal crisis, leaves the band (and the country) and goes to live in Spain.
Then within two weeks of that, the Bass player (who lived in a massive shared house that we rehearsed in) decided that he was serious about his long-distance girlfriend and so sorry lads, I'm moving to London.
So there we were, down to three from five, with nowhere to rehearse. I guess we could have recruited new people, but we just felt the heart had been torn out of it.
So it all just fell apart. Gutted I was
Ray Luxury-Yacht said:
Yep, been there, done that.
One of the bands I was in a while ago was going well - we ground out our apprenticeship around all the small venues / crappy nights with no punters for about two years.
Then we started to get a bit more well known and get booked for bigger and better gigs. Even had a small fanbase that started to follow us around. But there were still some prestigious venues that you couldn't get into unless you had the right manager etc.
Then somehow our Drummer's Dad, who was in bands himself and knew people, got us onto a gig at a big outdoor Fireworks / Bonfire night thing. He just told us when and where to turn up without any more details.
Turned out when we arrived, that we were the headline act on the Radio 1 Roadshow stage!
There were three acts that night. The first was an indy band I can't remember the name of. Next up was 'Seal' (yes, THAT Seal, the famous black singer), then us last! Lucky he didn't tell us or we would have been stting our pants for weeks before!
Anyway it went well. I couldn't believe it - the stage was proper massive, we all had cordless Mics and guitar relays, there were about nine million lights, and SMOKE TOO with the sound guy in a box in the middle of the crowd.
And what a crowd. There were hundreds of people - proper 'big gig' arrangement, with barriers at the front of the crowd, about 10 security guys, and them heaving the odd person over the barrier who was getting crushed etc. As a singer with a cordless Mic, well, I was like a pig in st, leaping around this vast space like bloody Bruce Dickinson! There were even proper monitors that A) I could put my foot on and B) I could actually hear myself for a change, lol!
So anyway, after that gig, I got a call from a well known band manager around here. He asked to manage and promote us the following year, and presently started to give us dates for gigs at similar venues to that one. We'd turned a corner! Into the studio to record a proper demo, all sorts.
Then...guess what? Our brilliant lead guitarist decides he's having some kind of personal crisis, leaves the band (and the country) and goes to live in Spain.
Then within two weeks of that, the Bass player (who lived in a massive shared house that we rehearsed in) decided that he was serious about his long-distance girlfriend and so sorry lads, I'm moving to London.
So there we were, down to three from five, with nowhere to rehearse. I guess we could have recruited new people, but we just felt the heart had been torn out of it.
So it all just fell apart. Gutted I was
That's pretty fOne of the bands I was in a while ago was going well - we ground out our apprenticeship around all the small venues / crappy nights with no punters for about two years.
Then we started to get a bit more well known and get booked for bigger and better gigs. Even had a small fanbase that started to follow us around. But there were still some prestigious venues that you couldn't get into unless you had the right manager etc.
Then somehow our Drummer's Dad, who was in bands himself and knew people, got us onto a gig at a big outdoor Fireworks / Bonfire night thing. He just told us when and where to turn up without any more details.
Turned out when we arrived, that we were the headline act on the Radio 1 Roadshow stage!
There were three acts that night. The first was an indy band I can't remember the name of. Next up was 'Seal' (yes, THAT Seal, the famous black singer), then us last!
Lucky he didn't tell us or we would have been stting our pants for weeks before!Anyway it went well. I couldn't believe it - the stage was proper massive, we all had cordless Mics and guitar relays, there were about nine million lights, and SMOKE TOO
with the sound guy in a box in the middle of the crowd.And what a crowd. There were hundreds of people - proper 'big gig' arrangement, with barriers at the front of the crowd, about 10 security guys, and them heaving the odd person over the barrier who was getting crushed etc. As a singer with a cordless Mic, well, I was like a pig in s
t, leaping around this vast space like bloody Bruce Dickinson! There were even proper monitors that A) I could put my foot on and B) I could actually hear myself for a change, lol!So anyway, after that gig, I got a call from a well known band manager around here. He asked to manage and promote us the following year, and presently started to give us dates for gigs at similar venues to that one. We'd turned a corner! Into the studio to record a proper demo, all sorts.
Then...guess what? Our brilliant lead guitarist decides he's having some kind of personal crisis, leaves the band (and the country) and goes to live in Spain.
Then within two weeks of that, the Bass player (who lived in a massive shared house that we rehearsed in) decided that he was serious about his long-distance girlfriend and so sorry lads, I'm moving to London.
So there we were, down to three from five, with nowhere to rehearse. I guess we could have recruited new people, but we just felt the heart had been torn out of it.
So it all just fell apart. Gutted I was
king ace man, sucks that it didn't work out though.It's a vicious circle, really; the more dedicated, enthusiastic and proficient YOU become, the more likely it's going to be that the rest of the band is LESS dedicated, enthusiastic and proficient than you are.
I've had it up to here with the lot of them - it's now over 10 years since I've done a gig and I'll probably never do another. I'd go solo if I could; thing is, at my age do I want to spend hours sitting in a studio recording backing tracks, spending a fortune on PA gear, working out how to fit it in an MX-5, humping the lot to and fro, and contacting venues and agents to try to get the gigs in the first place? Well if I were 20 years younger I might go for it but I wouldn't now.
Instead I've become a guitar collector and just play them at home. Which means - looking on the bright side! - that I can now play what I like, when I like.
I've had it up to here with the lot of them - it's now over 10 years since I've done a gig and I'll probably never do another. I'd go solo if I could; thing is, at my age do I want to spend hours sitting in a studio recording backing tracks, spending a fortune on PA gear, working out how to fit it in an MX-5, humping the lot to and fro, and contacting venues and agents to try to get the gigs in the first place? Well if I were 20 years younger I might go for it but I wouldn't now.
Instead I've become a guitar collector and just play them at home. Which means - looking on the bright side! - that I can now play what I like, when I like.
evil len said:
Yeah, I've used Forming bands. Funny, someone said earlier that there are loads of vocalists around, but when I've put an ad online for me (singer) I've usually had loads of replies in a short space of time and found another band to join pretty quickly.
Every band I've joined has told me that getting a good singer has been the most difficult part of it...who knows??
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