No More Pubs - What Next?

[chris_b]

Being "picky" about what you are willing to play is fine, but if you are sitting at home waiting for something "great" to turn up you're also getting rusty and dropping further to the back of other musicians memory banks. When playing you are meeting different players, you're networking, you're keeping match fit. There are possibilities you don't get with something like JMB.

A band might be temporary and not your ultimate aim but IMO most playing is better than not playing at all and better opportunities present themselves when you are "out there" and part of a music "scene".

[Happy Jack]

You could always try a collaboration with this guy:

https://www.joinmyband.co.uk/classifieds/hear-goes-nothing-t1126047.html

Now you be sure to keep us all posted, y'hear?

 

[HazBeen]

Bottomline, if you want to play frequently and earn cash you are doing covers. When I started playing in late 80s it was all about original material. Now everyone wants to sing along (in the instant satisfaction era we are in that is not surprising).

I have been lucky in that I am in an originals band and we do 5 or so gigs per year that are fun, but we pay for our studio by also doing tributes (basically same “originals” guys in all, with some “guests” in some of the tributes). Yesterday’s Nirvana/Pearl Jam gig paid for an entire month of studio rent, keeping it cost neutral

Edited November 25, 2018 by HazBeen

[discreet]

14 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

You could always try a collaboration with this guy:

https://www.joinmyband.co.uk/classifieds/hear-goes-nothing-t1126047.html

Now you be sure to keep us all posted, y'hear?

Deafinately.

[mcnach]

On 25/11/2018 at 19:25, Happy Jack said:

You could always try a collaboration with this guy:

https://www.joinmyband.co.uk/classifieds/hear-goes-nothing-t1126047.html

Now you be sure to keep us all posted, y'hear?

 

 

ugh...

[petebassist]

On 25/11/2018 at 19:25, Happy Jack said:

You could always try a collaboration with this guy:

https://www.joinmyband.co.uk/classifieds/hear-goes-nothing-t1126047.html

Now you be sure to keep us all posted, y'hear?

 

Could be the next David Bowie, you never know. Or could be a David Brent.

As to what next, when my current band fizzles out, I'll look for another one, start my own, write and play instrumental music, accompany singers at open mics, learn new stuff, basically keep on truckin...

 

 

[ricksterphil]

Talking of Mr Bowie, I'm in a Bowie Tribute band and am lovin it.  When we play to an appreciative audience it's brilliant (they know all the words too!) but we don't go down well in a covers type pub - except when we play Starman and Dudes. If it folded I'd look for something else...I might go for a functions band for the money. 

[Monkey Steve]

I get what you're saying Spongebob, and my suggestion is more or less what you seem to be doing - have a chat with some like-minded musicians and see who feels the same.  If you've played in bands over the years then you're likely to know a fair amount of people who might be happy to do something different to just playing in another pub covers band, whether as a main project or as something else to exercise some other musical muscles.  Time to use your contacts, start doing some networking and getting in contact with people.

I say this as someone who isn't a natural BL, and tends to sit back and wait for something to turn up (and in my experience it always does, although sometimes it takes a year or two, sometimes even longer) but when I've made the effort to get something started, it's usually paid off.

Edited November 27, 2018 by Monkey Steve

[jazzmanb]

Went through all the writing songs ,playing for nothing to next to no-one back in the 90s .We wrote good songs and stuck at it then folded.I now do about 25-30 gigs a year in one cover band and it suits me great .Set list pretty much learnt ,turn up,play to a decent crowd get paid .I wouldn't go to see us or any other cover band but i'm happy out there playing and using my gear and talents

[uk_lefty]

I know how you feel. Sometimes the set my band plays bores me. We try to get away from typical pub covers and I am pushing us towards being an "80's mix tape" band. The big 80's tunes go down well and we have now got 45-60 mins of this. But there are others in the band who want to either stay true to their blues roots (you guessed it, guitarist) and others who think we need to play utter tripe like Take That's re-launch songs from the mid-noughties just to get more gigs. I don't really practice because the set is burned in my memory.

I often discuss with the singer doing originals or doing heavier music, but life is busy, sadly. One day!

[PaulWarning]

8 minutes ago, uk_lefty said:

I know how you feel. Sometimes the set my band plays bores me. We try to get away from typical pub covers and I am pushing us towards being an "80's mix tape" band. The big 80's tunes go down well and we have now got 45-60 mins of this. But there are others in the band who want to either stay true to their blues roots (you guessed it, guitarist) and others who think we need to play utter tripe like Take That's re-launch songs from the mid-noughties just to get more gigs. I don't really practice because the set is burned in my memory.

I often discuss with the singer doing originals or doing heavier music, but life is busy, sadly. One day!

I often think some covers bands aren't genre specific  enough, a lot of people who go to gigs regularly are loyal to their genre, Mod, Ska and punk are popular in my area, you can please some of the people all the time, you can't please all the people all the time

[Marc S]

I'm in 2 pub covers bands, one tribute, and an original folk / Americana duo at the moment. 4 bands, while still working, and maintain a family life is pretty damn hard to do.... But I enjoy playing covers and originals, and really enjoy playing different styles. 

I must say, I never really get chance to get bored, doing things this way - there's just no chance to get bored! 

Actually, some years back, I was in 3 bands on the Monday, but by the Thursday, I was in none! All through no fault of mine so I find I "need" at least a couple of projects, just in case one (or more) fold.

For a while, I was playing regularly for a few people at a local folk club, and doing regular slots at open mic nights. I found I could dip in & out of those sort of nights. It all depends what you want to do next - but try a few different bands / projects, that's my advice

[Happy Jack]

9 hours ago, Marc S said:

Actually, some years back, I was in 3 bands on the Monday, but by the Thursday, I was in none! All through no fault of mine so I find I "need" at least a couple of projects, just in case one (or more) fold.

 

Well that's what they told you, anyway ...

[Marc S]

1 minute ago, Happy Jack said:

Well that's what they told you, anyway ...

In one of the bands, the lead guitarist was, shall we say, a bit too familiar with the singer... until their spouses found out.....
That was certainly no fault of mine! lol

[PaulWarning]

I've found being in more than one band can cause problems if not all the members are in other bands when you have to start turning gigs down because people aren't available or "sorry lads can't practice this week I'm with the other band"

[Stylon Pilson]

10 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

I've found being in more than one band can cause problems if not all the members are in other bands when you have to start turning gigs down because people aren't available or "sorry lads can't practice this week I'm with the other band"

I've been in bands with people who are in other bands, and it hasn't significantly impacted their availability for gigs or practice.

I've been in bands with people who aren't in other bands, but are mysteriously almost always unavailable for gigs or practice for other reasons.

S.P.

[Paul S]

28 minutes ago, Marc S said:

In one of the bands, the lead guitarist was, shall we say, a bit too familiar with the singer... until their spouses found out.....
That was certainly no fault of mine! lol

This sounds familiar...   I was in a very short-lived 80s band.  We had male/female singers - both of whom where rather good looking as well as being good singers.  After a few rehearsals it became clear there was something going on, after a few months they left their respective other halves and moved in together- all sorts of domestic chaos ensued as both had young families.  As far as the band were concerned it soon became 'Them and Us' and the whole thing imploded after just 3 gigs.  Shame, really, as the band was pretty good.  We had spent a lot of money getting some good quality recordings done as we all believed the project had legs.  The daft thing is that their relationship fell apart soon afterwards - so giving in to their glands affected so many lives!   .

[mcnach]

15 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

I've found being in more than one band can cause problems if not all the members are in other bands when you have to start turning gigs down because people aren't available or "sorry lads can't practice this week I'm with the other band"

 

Being in multiple bands requires 'an understanding', of course. But it's not hard, unless one of the bands is generally playing every weekend twice.

In my case things are made easier by sharing members. At one point there were 4 bands that shared anything between 2 to 4 members of my main band. I was in 3 of them. The main band would typically play 2-3 gigs a month (more during May-September because of festivals etc), and the other typically only 1 per month. One was a RHCP tribute band, all the others were originals. Everybody understood that bookings were made in a first come first serve basis.

We did, however, have some issues when main band's drummer started playing in a busy function band, playing weddings etc. He did that because it was a good earner. But suddenly he was booked EVERY weekend for months at a time. We had a chat, and he understood that this would not work. So he sorted out a dep for his function band, so that he could still play with the main band. We maybe reduced our gigs to about 80% of our usual (which was no hardship at all, as we all still had other outlets too, and in fact playing fewer gigs meant we actually wrote more together), and he still got his function thing. That went on for over a year, then he quit the function band as it wasn't that much fun, despite the extra cash.

With regards to practices... I've always gone for choosing a specific day of the week. It may not happen every week, it could be every other week, that's fine, but we pick one day. Then I make Thursdays available to Band X. We all did the same. Of course, some people's jobs involve night shifts which may change, but... the point is you find ways to solve your specific circumstances.

I once was approached to join a new band. Then it became clear they were expecting me to give them my nearly full attention and resented when I mentioned I was away next weekend playing with another band. This despite saying out front that weekends are off limits for practices. I do not rehearse on weekends. Weekends are free. If there are gigs, that's what I do. If not, it's my free time. I've got a life outside work and bands too, right? So... that band got dropped very fast. We never gigged once (they had never gigged once!) and were demanding I gave them priority. They'd try to book practices 2 days ahead, and got annoyed some members (me often, but not only) were not free. Book things in advance, guys. I gave you my online calendar details too to help you as well... 

Some people just don't grow up and you just can't work with. 

Others never grow up and play in bands.

[PaulWarning]

if you join a band on the understanding that you are in another band fair enough, but I've seen situations where 2 members of a band go off and join another band, leaving the existing members feeling resentful, when you're all only in one band it's like being in a gang, us against the world sort of thing, sort of destroys that if members go off and join other bands, but all bands are different and if a band is hardly gigging I suppose it works, but I think what's the point of being in a band that's hardly doing anything? ymmv

[Monkey Steve]

19 hours ago, jazzmanb said:

Went through all the writing songs ,playing for nothing to next to no-one back in the 90s .We wrote good songs and stuck at it then folded.I now do about 25-30 gigs a year in one cover band and it suits me great .Set list pretty much learnt ,turn up,play to a decent crowd get paid .I wouldn't go to see us or any other cover band but i'm happy out there playing and using my gear and talents

that's exactly my experience from about ten years ago - wasn't playing in anything else, was a little sniffy about cover bands, then got asked to join one (as a guitarist, never having played guitar in a band before) and loved it - imagine, decent sized crowds, venues paying actual money, giving us beer and asking us back!  Never enough money to make a living (and I wasn't looking for that) but if nothing else, playing a couple of gigs a month and keeping my hand in was great

[Marc S]

2 hours ago, Stylon Pilson said:

I've been in bands with people who are in other bands, and it hasn't significantly impacted their availability for gigs or practice.

I've been in bands with people who aren't in other bands, but are mysteriously almost always unavailable for gigs or practice for other reasons.

S.P.

Yes, it's all about managing your time, and of course, letting other members know, from the outset, that you have other commitments
As I said earlier, one minute I was in 3 bands.... next I was in none. Oddly enough, each time I was in just one band, as were the other members - there seemed to be more "phoning in sick" type stuff going on.

Same re your second point - I've had the same thing. Being in 2 or 3 bands, but others who are only in one, and with few other commitments, being mysteriously unavailable all too often
In one band, where the other 4 of us worked full time, had families and other band projects / commitments. All of us agree to learn 2 songs for next week, and the keyboard player who has no full time job, no kids.... and he says he hadn't had time to learn the songs, as it's simply just too much work! Add to that, he was the only one of us who could actually read music, and couldn't even be bothered to google that!

None of the bands I'm in are playing all the time - they each get busy & quiet periods, and I always work on a first-come-first-served basis, even if the 2nd offer is a higher fee.... It just needs to be an honest and upfront approach, by all involved. In fact, thinking about it, none of my mates bands are so busy with gigs that they couldn't do another project if they wanted (a sign of the times re our local venues, maybe?) But also, just about every musician I know is in more than one band. Those who aren't, tend to be the people doing original stuff only, or originals with just a few covers. Perhaps they're too busy writing songs?

Edited November 28, 2018 by Marc S

[mcnach]

7 hours ago, PaulWarning said:

if you join a band on the understanding that you are in another band fair enough, but I've seen situations where 2 members of a band go off and join another band, leaving the existing members feeling resentful, when you're all only in one band it's like being in a gang, us against the world sort of thing, sort of destroys that if members go off and join other bands, but all bands are different and if a band is hardly gigging I suppose it works, but I think what's the point of being in a band that's hardly doing anything? ymmv

 

You just form a bigger gang, with more bands

 

edit: may not be suitable for those with highly tribal minds

Edited November 28, 2018 by mcnach