Communications issues in bands

[barneyg42]

We use whatsapp. For example, singer (she who must be obeyed) puts out a message say 10am-ish that we can get a gig on the Saturday but need to confirm quickish! I answer straightaway, guitard is her hubby so they've liaised already, keys is preferred but if we have to do as a 4 piece so be it. Drummer has read the message as shown by the blue tick and read receipt, does he answer??? Does he buggery!!! We can wait all day for an answer, the singer even messages him privately and knows he has read that too!! Strange bloke!! Oh and, he drives a computer all day so no excuse, even just to say if he's not sure!

[EBS_freak]

^ That's the most annoying.

[fleabag]

Our lead git is by far the worst

[Japhet]

We have a Google calendar. Should work well but we're now in a situation where due to previous cock ups I have to ring the singer to confirm if each gig is still on. The answer is often 'Oh, no, that was cancelled weeks ago' to which I reply 'what the f*** is it still on the calendar for then?' Driving me nuts!

[FinnDave]

I thought all bands world the same way, the bass player is complete control of bookings and everyone in the band accepts that

[Les]

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1477570601' post='3163035']
You are JTUK and I claim my £5..!
[/quote]

Nope, I'm proper ruthless.

[steve-bbb]

oh yes the GOOGLE CALENDAR

that worked out well didnt it

unfortunately we are beholden to the vile facebook messenger - group message - its the way to go

hope this helps

otherwise one of these might help

[jezzaboy]

In a previous band, the lead guitarist didn`t have a mobile phone and was murder to get a hold of. I gave him one of my old ones, still a half decent phone and told him to get a PAYG Tesco sim card just so I could contact him.

Did he get a sim card? Did he heck!

And his wife works in a bloomin Tesco shop!! Just a lazy fecker.

Funnily enough, I`m not in a band with him anymore.

[stingrayPete1977]

One problem I do get is this, you get a text with a few possible dates for gigs, you reply right away with the ones you can do but hear nothig back, a few weeks or even months later, "ok I'll be at the venue for about 6.30 on Saturday", venue? Saturday? what's all this? "I did text you"

I can't keep every possible date free just from an enquiry.

Same as "can you send me all your free dates?", err no.

Edited October 27, 2016 by stingrayPete1977

[Lozz196]

In an old band the guitarist was a nightmare for all this. It would take him 3 or 4 days to reply to anything, which if asked on a Tues if we could do a short notice Fri gig, answering on Sat was pretty much a waste of time. He also proudly announced once that he`d updated the website, and indeed he had, for the gig before last, to the gig we`d last played, so only Dr Who would be able to go to it!

And the best, he once sent a text asking if I could do a gig on the 14th.
I asked, the 14th of which month.
The reply was "yeah".
My reply was that the answer to the question, the 14th of which month was not yeah.
The reply was "of course dude".
So my reply was, the 14th of which f*cking month in which f*cking year and at what f*cking venue do you want me to play a f*cking gig?
I got all the details back straightaway. Sometimes it seems you have to be specific.

[tom skool]

I got fed up with the thankless task of organising all the gigs. Told the band if they want gigs they need to help out and get some. Our guitarist unhappy with a quiet year found it easier to answer an ad for another band. We'd been going 12 years. Ah well,I hope they can teach him how to use a calendar!

[sharkboy]

Google Calendar and group texts. Each person is responsible for making sure the calendar up to date with their unavailability. When we get offered dates, whoever gets the message texts the rest to confirm availability. Once confirmed, it goes into the calendar and once it's in, it's sacrosanct.

[mrtcat]

Keys player. If there's paid work involved he responds in seconds. Everything else he's just awol for. He's our biggest critic, wants complete musical control and claims to be the only one creative enough to decide how, where and what we do promo material wise but just never replies to any WhatsApp group discussion. We just pretend like he's not a member, make all the creative decisions without him and just fill him in on stuff at gigs. He still complains that he'd have done it better but we just laugh at him and tell him to pull his finger out if he wants to change stuff.

Edited October 27, 2016 by mrtcat

[Les]

[quote name='sharkboy' timestamp='1477603112' post='3163371']
Google Calendar and group texts. Each person is responsible for making sure the calendar up to date with their unavailability. When we get offered dates, whoever gets the message texts the rest to confirm availability. Once confirmed, it goes into the calendar and once it's in, it's sacrosanct.
[/quote]

Why do you have to txt to confirm availability if "[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Each person is responsible for making sure the calendar up to date with their unavailability." ?[/font][/color]

[Happy Jack]

[quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1477573997' post='3163088']
Well, I guess. I have to hire my tour busses.
[/quote]

Last I heard, JTUK had a Tourbus Hire firm ...

[stingrayPete1977]

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1477635011' post='3163442']


Last I heard, JTUK had a Tourbus Hire firm ...
[/quote]

You should see the fun they have trying to park them all up and then turning them all around come home time in the Tickled Trout car park!

[EBS_freak]

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1477637363' post='3163445']


You should see the fun they have trying to park them all up and then turning them all around come home time in the Tickled Trout car park!
[/quote]

Haven't you seen that the Tickled Trout now has a helipad for the artists to escape quickly before the fans mob them?

[gapiro]

[quote name='Les' timestamp='1477568056' post='3163006']
With us noone needs to get back. If you haven't crossed the date off on the bands Google calendar and something goes in, it's in, and your doing it or being replaced.
[/quote]
We do similar, but its a case of "if you're booked off, the band leader sorts a dep, if you are unavailable after the booking, you get a dep"

The problem now is that with the management team going from 3 to 1 (because apparently I don't contribute enough, and the git is too busy with work atm) the person leading the band wants us to just invite the band calendar to the events on our personal calendar.
Which is just rude and not very respecting fo my privacy. I dont want them to know if i'm booked in some nice hotel somewhere with the mrs, i just want them to know i'm busy. Yes I could create two events on my own calendar, but thats just makes my calendar look a mess.

[ahpook]

At the moment, nobody. Everyone gets back as soon as they can, but we gig less than some so it's not so hard to schedule things.

[spike]

My band gigs most weekends so the assumption is that we are always available unless we tell our bandleader otherwise. Most gigs are booked far enough in advance so we can organize a dep if necessary.

[bassace]

In pre-Internet times I played in a big band. The man had to make a minimum of 54 phone calls per gig. 18x3.

[TimR]

[quote name='bassace' timestamp='1477648296' post='3163523']
In pre-Internet times I played in a big band. The man had to make a minimum of 54 phone calls per gig. 18x3.
[/quote]

We had a chain. The Man called 6 people. They each called 6 people. That's 40+ people covered.

[TimR]

[quote name='gapiro' timestamp='1477646230' post='3163507']

We do similar, but its a case of "if you're booked off, the band leader sorts a dep, if you are unavailable after the booking, you get a dep"

The problem now is that with the management team going from 3 to 1 (because apparently I don't contribute enough, and the git is too busy with work atm) the person leading the band wants us to just invite the band calendar to the events on our personal calendar.
Which is just rude and not very respecting fo my privacy. I dont want them to know if i'm booked in some nice hotel somewhere with the mrs, i just want them to know i'm busy. Yes I could create two events on my own calendar, but thats just makes my calendar look a mess.
[/quote]

I'm sure with the google calendar you can make certain events private and it just shows as busy to everyone else. Useful if you just fancy a night off.

https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/34580?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en

.

Edited October 28, 2016 by TimR

[KevB]

I created a google calendar for the band i was in before current one. From me mentioning upcoming gigs during gear breakdown and being met with vacant stares it became obvious they couldnt be arsed to actually look at it. I left within a year of joining.

[FinnDave]

I put the gigs in our Google calendar, on our Facebook page and our Lemonrock page. I then text the details to the other three in the band and remind them of it the next time I see them. They are good at either putting in days they can't make in the google calendar themselves, or phoning me and telling me the details, so I can pop then in there for them. It's worked out ok so far (3 1/2 years and counting).