spike

I'll go for River - Joni Mitchell, it sounds Christmassy, it has Christmas in it but it's not about Christmas

I used to love buffets when I played in a function band. Best meal I had was a full sit down Christmas dinner at RAF Benson officers mess, worst buffet ever was just raw vegetables and dips at a 25th anniversary in Luton.

Even if you don't do the 30 minute slot thing, still tell the auditionees that they have a time limit rather than make it open ended. Then if you don't like someone you can get rid of them without any awkwardness. Easier to say we can't carry on because we're out of time rather than we don't want to carry on because you're rubbish. If you do like them, just say the next person has cancelled and ask if they want to stay a bit longer.

I've just recently joined a second band because the number of gigs my first band plays has reduced significantly. Before I had my audition I told the second band I couldn't make all the dates they had in their diary because of my commitments with band one and they told me it wasn't a problem, they have deps they can use. Told band one I would honour all dates already in the diary but after that it would be first come first served, no problem there either. So far it's working out very well, it turns out band two's previous bass player wanted to leave because he couldn't commit to the number of gigs they were doing but he's happy to dep for me when needed.

How many of you in the band?

Absolutely not, I am genuinely remorseful😁

Sorry

The thought did cross my mind, but no, definitely too drunk for sarcasm

Exactly this. My band had a similar problem a couple years ago and with a busy diary we had no problem attracting good drummers.

Last Saturday we'd just finished playing Don't Stop by Fleetwood Mac when a rather drunk punter asked us if we knew any Fleetwood Mac.

One of my favourite albums of all time. 'Song of a Baker' on side 1 is my favourite track.

He did a similar thing with me a few years ago with a faulty combo amp which was less than 12 months old. Although he sorted it out, he always claimed he was helping me out by dealing with the distributor on my behalf rather than taking direct responsibility for what he had sold me.

And I got the gig! Only 30 more songs to learn now

Many years ago in a previous band I refused to talk to the female singer for several months until it became too much effort to keep up so I started talking to her again. Eighteen months ago our main singer and our drummer had a spectacular stand up row in the car park immediately after a gig over who should have signalled the end of a song. It turned out this was the culmination of two years of festering resentment which the rest of us didn't have a clue about. That was the last gig the drummer played with us.

This is what I did in the end and ended up playing all 10 as the person due after me had cancelled. Waiting to hear back now and keeping my fingers crossed.

We do What's Going On - Marvin Gaye and Let's Stay Together - Al Green near the beginning of our first set and they always go down well

Nice looking bass, what are the holes in the back for?

I generally find playing pubs is fun and playing social clubs is work. And meat raffles, why?

Blue makes a good point but if they don't know the songs on their own set list that's me testing them as much as them testing me.

That's what I intend to do, just wondered what other people's thoughts were. I'm also going to wear my Bootsy costume and bring my pedal collection. It'll take a while to connect them all up and I may have to troubleshoot some dodgy patch cables but I know they'll be impressed.

yes, they've told me the keys, all are the same as the original recording and all the same as I play them in.

I have an audition with a band arranged for next week and they've sent me their set list and asked me to pick five songs from it. There are five songs on the list that I know very well because I play them in my present band but I'm thinking of learning five songs that are new to me and keeping the songs I know in reserve. Just wondering what other people would do, would you play it safe and audition with the songs you already knew or learn five new songs just for the challenge?

Our guitarist changed gender last year and I was expecting some negative comments at gigs, but do you know what? no-one's bothered. The only punters who have mentioned anything have been genuinely supportive, and that's with us playing to a mainly older audience. My personal view is that society has become far more tolerant that it was twenty or thirty years ago.

I still end up doing all the adjustments to give them time to send their essential text messages and check their Facebook accounts

We all use our own cars and our two female singers transport and set up the PA between them.