Your reasons for quitting bands

[Marvin]

[quote name='Skybone' timestamp='1462018827' post='3039645']
Some/all other members of the band being massive bell-ends, messing about and not getting anything done.
[/quote]

That pretty much sums it up.

People who turn up having not learnt the material, even worse when it's original stuff and they wrote it. Endless excuses why they can't practice, rehearse or gig. Never being available to gig. Not being able to play. 'That'll do' mentality.

Band members have generally turned out to be a major disappointment. It seems that because people play an instrument or sing they feel they have to conform to the stereotype of being a flaky, unreliable bell end.

[TimR]

The first thing to do is ask for a list of booked gigs or a list of dates when everyone is free to gig and practice.

If that list isn't forthcoming in a very short time - one week is my limit. Then it's time to go.

People will string you along so that they can tell their mates that they're in a band. These are people who want to [b]be[/b] in a band but don't want to [b]play[/b] in a band.

[spectoremg]

I can echo anyone else's sentiments about bad drummers having had two superb ones in a row. I had a five year break from bands because of crap drummers - I was once asked why? I cited the above whilst maintaining laser quality eye contact with the drummer.

[Paul S]

Unreliability gets me the most. I remember being about 6 rehearsals into a new heavy rock covers band with a very talented guitar player who was also a really nice fellow but totally flaky when it came to doing what he said he was going to do. Alongside those 6 rehearsals there were 3 cancelled ones, all for silly reasons. The silliest was when the rest of us were all set up in the studio waiting for him to arrive and his daughter turns up to tell us he had to take the family pet rabbit to the vet. Couldn't she have taken it, given that she had been able to drive up and tell us? I never found out.

[discreet]

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1462026539' post='3039740']
People will string you along so that they can tell their mates that they're in a band.
These are people who want to [b]be[/b] in a band but don't want to [b]play[/b] in a band.
[/quote]

So true, I've had my valuable time wasted TWICE in this way by people who had no intention of ever doing any gigs. The second lot were worse as I told them from the off about the first lot and was reassured that it wasn't going to happen again!

The thing about being in a band is that it's not all about 'being in a band'.

[Rich]

[quote name='obbm' timestamp='1462015660' post='3039601']
Finally a start-up that never got off the ground. A dodgy set list, two rehearsals then the singer says that her partner who was going to help obtain gigs was going to get an equal split of the money. Hmmm.
[/quote]
Yes, I had a similar thing in one band. The singer's wife was asked if we could do a gig where she worked, singer then told us that we'd be paying her a "finder's fee". Errm, no we won't. This singer also owned the vocal PA and announced that in future he would be "hiring" it to the band for gigs. He didn't like it much when I said that in that case I would be not only hiring all my kit to the band for gigs too, but also charging my time at standard MU session rates.
Left shortly afterwards

[scalpy]

Being band less for a while I found a pub rock covers band in the deepest darkest depths of the Forest of Dean. They were nice guys and played well but they hadn't completely decided on dropping their friend as a bassist, so he'd come to watch rehearsals whilst they told them that's how it should be done, which made me look a right pratt. And after a few rehearsals conversation was starting to dry up and there wasn't a lot of common ground, so in an effort to keep things moving I pointed to one the guitarists many amplifiers (they rehearsed in his basement) saying 'I used to have an HH amp a bit like that'. He said 'You'll never guess who that belonged to?' I really couldn't think of a band who did, so he told me. 'Fred West'

Did one gig with them.

[Krysbass]

In my case; the 2 bands I've left in the past few years have been for different reasons.

I left a band in late 2014 having been with them for just under 3 years. The problem was that the drummer and to a slightly lesser extent the guitarist were making the same old mistakes at gigs. Yet it became clear that they were both happy with the standard of their playing and that they did not see any need to raise their game. And so, at one particularly bad gig we were asked to leave after the first set! That was the final straw for me, as I take my playing seriously (especially if I'm being paid!) and turn up to gigs well prepared. But at this gig I'd been inwardly cringing as the errors from these two came thick and fast and out of the corner of my eye I could see venue emptying during our set.

I left another band earlier this year - again having been with them for almost 3 years. When I joined, the standard of musicianship and the song choices were both great. We played our first gig at a festival in 2014 and went down a storm with the audience. But sadly; it slowly went downhill from there as a gradual lack of enthusiasm and commitment from certain members of the band crept in. So at rehearsals we were wasting time re-learning stuff that had been nailed at the last session, because one or both of the guitarists clearly hadn't played a note since the last session. Then the guitarists (who started the band) began arbitrarily dropping songs from our set and replacing them with obscure stuff from the 60s and 70s that at gigs; it was clear that few if any of our audiences had heard before.

In summary; I play bass mostly because I enjoy it - it's my escape(though money is of course welcome if its on offer). Because I want to enjoy this, there's little point in me remaining in a project that I'm not happy with. Yes - I do believe in loyalty and sticking at things up to a point, but when it becomes clear that all members of a band are no longer on the same page and that this isn't likely to improve; there's little to be gained from prolonging the agony.

[spectoremg]

[quote name='Rich' timestamp='1462029007' post='3039778']
Yes, I had a similar thing in one band. The singer's wife was asked if we could do a gig where she worked, singer then told us that we'd be paying her a "finder's fee". Errm, no we won't. This singer also owned the vocal PA and announced that in future he would be "hiring" it to the band for gigs. He didn't like it much when I said that in that case I would be not only hiring all my kit to the band for gigs too, but also charging my time at standard MU session rates.
Left shortly afterwards
[/quote]Was that Cheeky B'stard and his wife Necky?

[discreet]

[quote name='scalpy' timestamp='1462029825' post='3039787']
He said 'You'll never guess who that belonged to?' I really couldn't think of a band who did, so he told me. 'Fred West'.
[/quote]

Jesus Christ, that's well creepy! I think I would have been on my way at that point.

[Spike Vincent]

The rest of the band were chronic alcoholics.

[discreet]

[quote name='Spike Vincent' timestamp='1462056568' post='3040031']
The rest of the band were chronic alcoholics.
[/quote]

That's pretty much par for the course. Two or three of the bands I was in during the seventies and early 80s were off their heads most of the time, even the pro bands. What am I saying? [i]Especially [/i]the pro bands

But it was more or less expected of 'musicians' then.

Edited May 1, 2016 by discreet

[phil.c60]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1462035409' post='3039854']
Jesus Christ, that's well creepy! I think I would have been on my way at that point.
[/quote]

What, on your way to the cash point so you could make him an offer for it?

[KevB]

Ultimately I guess it's 'Because I can'. The empowerment of the day job

[4-string-thing]

I used to be in a 6 piece folk-rock band where 3 of us turned up at every rehearsal and the other 3 used to turn up when they felt like it. They always turned up for gigs though and got paid an equal share. Nobody, apart from me, booked any gigs, but the fiddle player was very quick to moan about the quality of the gigs despite never actually looking for any herself.

I left one band because they were sending me deaf, 2 guitarists each with a Blackstar 200w stack and no idea how to use the master volume control....

I left another because the guitarist said that if someone asked us to play Brown Eyed Girl, we should (I don't do requests)

[TimR]

[quote name='4-string-thing' timestamp='1462097846' post='3040193']
...
very quick to moan about the quality of the gigs despite never actually looking for any herself.
...

[/quote]

This is one of my bugbears. One band I was in, I booked all the gigs and all I got was band members 'not going to play there'.

I was them met with blank looks when I asked where they would play.

They won in the end and don't play anywhere.

[zero9]

Lies

[Lord Sausage]

Don't think I've ever quit a band but I have been fired from a band I wasn't in!

[gjones]

I quit a fake band. It had a website, a facebook site, a twitter site, mystery 'band members' (in fact so it had so many 'band members' that I never got to see all of them in the same room together) and it never gigged.

It never rehearsed either, which is irritating when you're paying a standing order, every month for 2 years, for a rehearsal room nobody ever rehearses in.

[JapanAxe]

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1462134562' post='3040575']
I quit a fake band. It had a website, a facebook site, a twitter site, mystery 'band members' (in fact so it had so many 'band members' that I never got to see all of them in the same room together) and it never gigged.

It never rehearsed either, which is irritating when you're paying a standing order, every month for 2 years, for a rehearsal room nobody ever rehearses in.
[/quote]


WTF? Full story!

[FinnDave]

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1462134562' post='3040575']
I quit a fake band. It had a website, a facebook site, a twitter site, mystery 'band members' (in fact so it had so many 'band members' that I never got to see all of them in the same room together) and it never gigged.

It never rehearsed either, which is irritating when you're paying a standing order, every month for 2 years, for a rehearsal room nobody ever rehearses in.
[/quote]

TWO YEARS??? I'd have been out after a month.

[gjones]

[quote name='JapanAxe' timestamp='1462134672' post='3040577']
WTF? Full story!
[/quote]

Never join a band where the majority of members are more interested in the concept of 'being in a band', than the actual reality of 'being in a band' (ie gigging or recording). In the two years I was with the band, 13 members came and went.

I decided it was time to leave after the shambolic recording session, where there was never more than two people in the studio at once and I had to play to a click track, because the drummer hadn't bothered to turn up.

[Patster1969]

Previous band just could never get going. The drummer was actually a guitarist but wanted to drum. However, every rehearsal saw him playing guitar and trying to tell the guitarists how to play the song (he was a good guitarist but he said he didn't want to play it). The singer had too much going on and would never learn the song outside the rehearsal, so he would have to try and learn it then in rehearsal or we would suggest a song and the others would spend the week learning it, only for the drummer to say the day before rehearsal "don't think it will suit the singers voice" and the singer would say "you're probably right" without even trying it - very frustrating

[SICbass]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1461970565' post='3039323']
Three main reasons, in no particular order:[list]
[*]Assholes.
[*]Asshole.
[*]Assholes.
[/list]
[/quote]

Fixed? 😘

Edited May 6, 2016 by SICbass

[discreet]

[quote name='SICbass' timestamp='1462551705' post='3044013']
Fixed?
[/quote]

Yes!