Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

Finding new band members


PaulWarning
 Share

Recommended Posts

anybody got any advice on finding new band members, (and auditioning them) after 10 years our guitarist and drummer have decided to call it a day but me and the Singer have decided to try and carry on, having decided to try for a guitarist first, reasoning that it would take him longer to learn 40 odd songs for our set, I have placed the following ad on partysounds, join my band and Gumtree,

Guitarist required for established Punk covers/originals band, our current guitarist is leaving in June, a deep love of Classic punk rock is needed i.e. Clash Ramones etc, most of gigs are 2 hours, mostly covers with a sprinkling of our songs. Gigs already booked for the second half of the year

anything else I could be doing?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='BurritoBass' timestamp='1421490324' post='2661819']
Open Mic & get yourselves out around local gigs to see who is about.
[/quote]

Would be my suggestion too. You get a much better idea of whether someone will fit from seeing/hearing them play live than on an e-mailed reply to an ad. Plus getting about mixing with other musicians, they may be able to suggest someone suitable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Stick some ads in the local guitar shops and chat with the manager who will know most of your local guitarists. Lemonrock.com is a great place to look as it is a site where gigging pub bands tout there wares, so the ratio of gigging musicians to bedroom players and dreamers is better http://www.lemonrock.com/ads.php.

If you have your own PA etc then it's worth mentioning, semi pro musicians will be looking for hassle free berths rather than multiple problems. If your old players can keep playing for a while that helps as gigging bands will find it easier to recruit than ones who have had a break from gigging. A few weeks won't matter but months off makes you almost a start up band.

My advice is to really stick out for the right person, the band will ultimately change with new members but so many guitarists aren't too flexible and seem to want to play a lot of classic rock. They take on a band out of desperation to keep gigging but then can't resist the pull of their own needs and interests. Make sure they are fully signed up to your classic punk. If they don't already know a big chunk of your set then just chat and find out why?

Keep the auditions business like, give them a list of four or five songs which will test a range of skills and give them your set list and let them choose a couple too. If they haven't bothered to learn the ones you sent then they aren't taking it seriously.

Good luck

Link to comment
Share on other sites

cheers for the advice guys, all good, had no replies from my ads so far, but I'm only testing the water really as we're covered till June, think I'll announce it on our FB page next.
The Lemrock site only seems to cover the south is there an equivalent for the Midland area?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We have been advertising for a new vocalist for 4 months now.

All we seem to get is time wasters, this "music business" does seem to have a lot of them.

We have advertised on Join My Band and clearly state genuine enquiries only - no time wasters.

What really frustrates me is that they respond to the advert and then you waste time chasing them up due to no further response.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lemonrock started in the St Albans area and then joined up with a project in the southwest, it's expanding gradually and if you go on the site statistics there's a map of where the members are http://www.lemonrock.com/statistics.php does look like a bit of a hole in the Midlands at the moment. If it does get established in your area it's a great resource, we get most of our work from it with no need to cold call venues and they email 500+ local music fans each time we gig.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

+1 for Lemonrock.

I have just moved from the St Albans area to Bridgnorth, which is sort of under the west midlands area, but the coverage up here is virtually zero.

I have spoken to Lemonrock about the lack of coverage, and they have asked me to continue my membership so as to try and get things going up here, but it needs more bands and artists to come on board as well, it really is a great site, it advertises gigs, bands, allows you to put ads on there, but the best thing for me is that it is very localized, meaning it includes all the pub bands and pub venues in your area, but it also covers the more prestigious gigs as well, providing the bands and venues sign up to it.

Have a look at Lemonrock in Hertfordshire for instance to see the potential of this site.

http://www.lemonrock.com/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...