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Set List Help Needed


Phil Starr

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I need some Basschat wisdom.

I'm playing in a 'Classic Rock' covers band. Great vocalist, good strong backing vocals, decent keyboard player and competent but not virtuoso lead guitarist, keyboard player plays guitar as well for half the set. It's not really my genre any more, I lost interest in Rock in the mid seventies so my knowledge of it is pretty limited from then on but I'm a musical tart and will play anything. I just want to entertain and get plenty of bookings and appreciative audiences. Core set is below, what would go along with these to make a killer set?

Final Countdown

Jump

Fool For Your Loving  

Hush  

Don't Stop Me Now

Somebody To Love; Queen

Rock And Roll

Pour Some Sugar On Me

All These Things That I Have Done

Sanctuary

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May I offer a suggestion?

* Identify some rock cover bands that work in your area / region

* Check out their web sites and look for setlists

* Copy the setlists into Word. Note songs played by more than one band. Decide whether to (i) adopt them because they're absolute classics or (ii) avoid them because everyone else is playing them

* Keep an eye out for songs that make people say 'I haven't heard that for ages'.

If all else fails, google '100 best classic rock songs ever', print out the results, give copies to your band mates and tell them they can only choose 10 each. 

My suggestion: Bad Girl by ZZ Top. Dead easy guitar part and much less obvious than Legs or Sharp Dressed man

 

Edited by skankdelvar
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Ha ha, there's four of the 'bingo songs' in the set already. They are the fillers I'd like to replace over time. Oh god, I've gigged 14 out of 24 in the last two years.

 

Anyway I'm not looking for the 'usual suspects' we all know those songs. I personally don't mind playing old cover band classics like Long Train Running, Sex On Fire and the likes of Mustang Sally but I didn't bother listing most of them. MY guitarist and singer are the ones who want to do 'classic rock' but they don't really agree on what that is. For the guitarist it's 70's and even 60's stuff with lot's or guitar in it (quelle surprise) For the singer it's the big pomp rock songs, sort of stadium rock. Like I say I stopped listening to rock mid 70's so I suppose I'm looking for songs from the late 70's and 80's. Preferably with strong keyboard parts and some vocal harmonies to play to our strengths.

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Starstruck by Rainbow

There's the obvious Paranoid by Sabbath

Something from AC/DC ?

With keys you could try Stargazer by Rainbow. 

Stormbringer or Burn by Deep Purple

Enter Sandman - Metallica seems to go down well

Something from Thin Lizzy ?

So many to choose from.

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10 hours ago, Phil Starr said:

Anyway I'm not looking for the 'usual suspects' we all know those songs.

Isn't that the point of a classic rock covers band - to play the usual suspects? I've seen soooo many "Classic Rock" bands say "we're not going to do the same old covers every other CR cover band does" who ultimately end up doing all the usual suspects because they eventually realise that that's all that punters who go to see CR bands really want.

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26 minutes ago, mrtcat said:

Isn't that the point of a classic rock covers band - to play the usual suspects? I've seen soooo many "Classic Rock" bands say "we're not going to do the same old covers every other CR cover band does" who ultimately end up doing all the usual suspects because they eventually realise that that's all that punters who go to see CR bands really want.

That wasn't what I meant to say. It's just that we all pretty much know what the usual fare is and will play a fair few of those songs already, we certainly do especially at a function or at the end of a set. I don't need a list of those. Come to that I don't need a list of songs up to about 1980. I was earning a living as a DJ playing a lot of rock music at the time so my knowledge of that period isn't too bad. For me though a band that only plays the usual suspects rarely goes down that well. You'll be playing the same songs the audience heard last week and the week before. Even a covers band needs a bit of personality and there are thousands of great rock songs to choose from. My problem is that once I got to 1980 I switched off into other music so I don't know much about what to look at, a few ideas here that I can go off and listen to and find a way in.

Anyway I appreciate all the suggestions and I'm listening to a lot of them. Keep them coming please.

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On ‎12‎/‎16‎/‎2017 at 23:41, Phil Starr said:

I need some Basschat wisdom.

I'm playing in a 'Classic Rock' covers band. Great vocalist, good strong backing vocals, decent keyboard player and competent but not virtuoso lead guitarist, keyboard player plays guitar as well for half the set. It's not really my genre any more, I lost interest in Rock in the mid seventies so my knowledge of it is pretty limited from then on but I'm a musical tart and will play anything. I just want to entertain and get plenty of bookings and appreciative audiences. Core set is below, what would go along with these to make a killer set?

Final Countdown

Jump

Fool For Your Loving  

Hush  

Don't Stop Me Now

Somebody To Love; Queen

Rock And Roll

Pour Some Sugar On Me

All These Things That I Have Done

Sanctuary

I'd ditch your whole set and start again. Not inspiring at all.

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My classic rock band played most of your core set.  Others we did that always went down well were

Live and Let Die GnR

Rosanna, Toto

Here I Go again, Whitesnake

Feeling Good, Muse version.  Loved playing that!

Don't Want To Miss a Thing, Aerosmith (surprising to see who was singing along with this in the crowd)

Anything by Bon Jovi (we ended up morphing into a Bon Jovi tribute band)

First encore - Sweet Child Of Mine.  Cliche but got a huge roar every time as the ice cream van opening started.

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We changed the arrangement and bunged a load of filthy lyrics in because... well , that's what we do - but without doubt the biggest crowd pleaser we've introduced in recent years is 'Living on a Prayer'. None of us can find a key to sing it properly - which is the only time we've come across that embuggerance because all 3 of us sing - so our drummer said we should not bother trying and let the punters sing the chorus instead. Works every single time.

That's for the ladies - if you want a bloke crowd pleaser try a bit of Oasis like 'Cigarettes and Alcohol'.

Also get some glam in there. Ballroom Blitz is a good one or Cum on Feel the Noize - we did Blockbuster but we wedged it into a medley with Roadhouse Blues and Jene Genie.

Bad Case of Loving You - that goes down well , though I had to drop the bit of 'do you wanna be in my gang' I put in the middle because too many people threatened to kill me.

 

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