Drummer driving me nuts

[markstuk]

The First Law of Bands..

"No one is indispensible" .

[flyfisher]

[quote name='markstuk' post='1372333' date='Sep 13 2011, 07:04 PM']The First Law of [s]Bands.[/s] Everything.

"No one is indispensible" .[/quote]

Fixed.

[4000]

[quote name='mrtcat' post='1371944' date='Sep 13 2011, 03:12 PM']Hi all,
After some advice rom other band players.

We have a decent drummer in our band. Playing wise he's great, really solid and puts a lot of energy into our sound. The problem is that when we're not playing he's a total headache. Firstly he's got an obsession with money. We are a pub rock band playing classic rock covers. We always get our £250 asking price and I believe that's more than many of our rival bands get. Drummer however is now insisting we charge £300 - £400 a night. If we play O'Neills we can get that much but most of our gigs are regular pubs. I don't think we'll get that much and end up pricing ourselves out of gigs.
Next issue is that he goes on to our online calendar and blanks off masses of dates well in advance. This means we already only have a maximum of 30 gigs a year for 2012. We will fill them but he's blanking off dates that he has no plans for just to control how much we play. He has just announced his wife is pregnant and due in march and has said as a result he'll be unavailable in march April and may.
Finally he complains about where we play. He only wants to practice one a week tops but can't see why we're not playing the O2 every week.
What would you do? He's a bloody good drummer and there's a shortage of them round here.[/quote]

Sounds like virtually all the drummers I've ever known.....

[clarkpegasus4001]

"Hi all,
After some advice rom other band players.

We have a decent drummer in our band. Playing wise he's great, really solid and puts a lot of energy into our sound. The problem is that when we're not playing he's a total headache. Firstly he's got an obsession with money. We are a pub rock band playing classic rock covers. We always get our £250 asking price and I believe that's more than many of our rival bands get".

That's very good money, I wished we could get that every gig!

"Drummer however is now insisting we charge £300 - £400 a night. If we play O'Neills we can get that much but most of our gigs are regular pubs. I don't think we'll get that much and end up pricing ourselves out of gigs"

Yeah good money if you can get it, he does not live in the real world. I take it HE does not book the gigs then? In my old band I booked all the gigs, traveled about, did all the leg work. The drummer and one guitarist started moaning about the money, where we were playing etc..I told them "okay YOU get the gigs then and see how you get on" they never bothered to complain again once they realised how difficult it is to get gigs and venues don't want to pay bugger all if they can get away with it. Why do you think they have open mic nights?
.
"Next issue is that he goes on to our online calendar and blanks off masses of dates well in advance. This means we already only have a maximum of 30 gigs a year for 2012. We will fill them but he's blanking off dates that he has no plans for just to control how much we play."

That sounds very unfair just blanking them off for no reason apart from being a bit of a control freak by the sound of it. 30 gigs a year is quite a lot we do around 20, although both our drummer and guitarist are in another band so fair enough.

"He has just announced his wife is pregnant and due in march and has said as a result he'll be unavailable in march April and may."

Well that sounds fair enough to me, you can't really argue with that.

"Finally he complains about where we play. He only wants to practice one a week tops but can't see why we're not playing the O2 every week"
.
See comments above about getting the gigs himself! The other two in my band never want to practice, never mind once a week!

"What would you do? He's a bloody good drummer and there's a shortage of them round here."

Try hard searching for a dep. Your drummer will then realise that nobody is indispensable. It's easier to find a drummer when you are playing PAID gigs than it is when you are not.
Good luck....

Edited September 13, 2011 by clarkpegasus4001

[daz]

[quote name='mrtcat' post='1371944' date='Sep 13 2011, 03:12 PM']Hi all,
What would you do? He's a bloody good drummer and there's a shortage of them round here.[/quote]


You get a drum machine. You may think im joking but im serious, i have seen two very good bands with drum machines and the human element was not missed.

[rOB]

[quote name='mrtcat' post='1371979' date='Sep 13 2011, 03:39 PM']May be worth a chat with current guy first then approaching him.[/quote]

Big recommendation for talking to the current guy before approaching the other guy or even the rest of the band. Make sure he's ok with it before you go any further otherwise he might feel he's being pushed out.

I had major issues with a guitarist who I suggested we get a dep for when he couldn't make it even though I ran it past him first.

[mrtcat]

Thanks for all the input guys.

Got rehearsals Thurs and it's usually me and the drummer left at the end so will have a chat. I'll ask if he wants us to look into a temporary dep who could pitch in and take the pressure off a bit if he's pressed for time. If we have a willing dep they can also help at gigs current drummer doesnt want.

We totally appreciate that it's going to be tough when his second nipper arrives but at the same time we want to keep gigging. We set up as a band that wanted to gig weekly. Singer has two kids and I have one and we all carried on when they arrived but that's probably more of a testament to our wives.

[uncle psychosis]

[quote name='mrtcat' post='1372528' date='Sep 13 2011, 08:06 PM']Singer has two kids and I have one and we all carried on when they arrived but that's probably more of a testament to our wives.[/quote]

'aint that the truth!

I love my wife dearly but she'd go mad if I came home and said "honey, I'm spending two nights a week out with the band"---doubly so if we had two small children!

[Stingray5]

You mention the drummer "...only wants to practice one a week tops...".
With the amount of gigs the band appears to be doing, unless you're regularly adding or changing material, do you need to rehearse even once a week?
I'm just wondering whether Mr Drummer might feel pressured by this too.

[thepurpleblob]

Yeh - some of this sounds familiar. I *was* that guy in one band I played in. The rest of the band were booking every gig they could get and we were playing between 2 and 5(!) times a week. I just couldn't take that level of effort - I have a proper job too! I was reasonably enough to walk before it got nasty (followed 12 months later by the drummer for the same reason) but I can see that others might hang in there trying to control the situation.

I'd be really happy if we could get £250 for a gig around here. Times are *really* tough on the pub circuit. We don't do it for the money but we are lucky to clear our costs a lot of the time.

[JTUK]

We had a meet and said optimum gigs per month were about 3. Sometimes we go well past that and so these little things creap in.
If you are gigging a lot them you don't need rehearsals so much until you want to change the set... and then we get 4-5 on notice and crash them through once and then decide whether to gig them.

You have to have the homelife, work and social and then gigs balanced between all...but if you are that far apart in your thinking, then someone has to move.

£200 is a starter fee round here and some pubs can't/wont go beyond it. Top rate is £300..AFAIK, but no one is drawing those sorts of figures, IMO, even though one or two bands might get it, that just puts the pressure on the other bands gigging. It becomes like poker but it is pointless killing the goose.