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I've signed up for a gig - NO LONGER heebie jeebies


Stub Mandrel

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I'm really keen to start playing again, so I recently signed up for this:

https://abbey-road-music.com/abbey-road-army-registration/

The details have just come though and it looks like enough people have signed up to form five 'bands', including a good number of returners from the previous one (which has to be a good sign!)

There will be a first meeting this month to divvy us up (a bit like the Sorting Hat?) There will be seven rehearsals starting in April and a seven-hour several  bands gig on 19 May.

I'm pretty much the target demographic (50's , haven't played in a band for decades, vaguely competent rather than talented...) and it's a lot cheaper than buying a Lamborghini.

Now I know the timetable all the questions start coming... Who will I be  playing with? What if the music they want is crap or needs a Billy Sheehan/Pino Palladino? What if I suggest a song then find out I can't play it &^£^%$*^!!!!!

Big worry is I know it takes me an hour to settle down my nerves when playing with new folks so at first I will come across as complete crap!

I know the aim (and what I want) is just to enjoy the crack and make some music but what if they all go off note-perfect first time like the Commmitments playing Mustang Sally....

Has anyone on BC done something similar?

All the backline is supplied for practice and performance; for some reason taht's making me worry even more about choosing which bass to play. I suppose I should take the one I find easist first time,but it's tempting to think 'which one will sound best' or worse 'which one will give me the most cred'.

Crikey this is worse than worrying about my first band audition over 30 years ago (which was a miserable disaster - I spent weeks trying to learn all the songs on a tape, then they didn't want to play any of them).

Edited by Stub Mandrel
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There's a strong likelihood that a lot of others will feel exactly the same. Easy for me to say I know, but try not to overthink it. Yes it probably will be crap for the first little while, but patience and a positive attitude will definitely help get you past that stage.

Enjoy! :)

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Sounds like fun, I'm sure they won't force you to do anything you feel uncomfortable with. Good luck with it! Only problem I've got with it is the question on the registration form saying,

 'Any other instruments (Can guitarists fill in on bass if required for example)'

Yeah, cus anyone can play bass, eh? Bah!

Edited by upside downer
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1 hour ago, upside downer said:

Sounds like fun, I'm sure they won't force you to do anything you feel uncomfortable with. Good luck with it! Only problem I've got with it is the question on the registration form saying,

 'Any other instruments (Can guitarists fill in on bass if required for example)'

Yeah, cus anyone can play bass, eh? Bah!

Apparently most people who sign up want to be lead guitarists... they tend to run short of bassists and vocalists.

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3 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I'm really keen to start playing again, so I recently signed up for this:

https://abbey-road-music.com/abbey-road-army-registration/

The details have just come though and it looks like enough people have signed up to form five 'bands', including a good number of returners from the previous one (which has to be a good sign!)

There will be a first meeting this month to divvy us up (a bit like the Sorting Hat?) There will be seven rehearsals starting in April and a seven-hour several  bands gig on 19 May.

I'm pretty much the target demographic (50's , haven't played in a band for decades, vaguely competent rather than talented...) and it's a lot cheaper than buying a Lamborghini.

Now I know the timetable all the questions start coming... Who will I be  playing with? What if the music they want is crap or needs a Billy Sheehan/Pino Palladino? What if I suggest a song then find out I can't play it &^£^%$*^!!!!!

Big worry is I know it takes me an hour to settle down my nerves when playing with new folks so at first I will come across as complete crap!

I know the aim (and what I want) is just to enjoy the crack and make some music but what if they all go off note-perfect first time like the Commmitments playing Mustang Sally....

Has anyone on BC done something similar?

All the backline is supplied for practice and performance; for some reason taht's making me worry even more about choosing which bass to play. I suppose I should take the one I find easist first time,but it's tempting to think 'which one will sound best' or worse 'which one will give me the most cred'.

Crikey this is worse than worrying about my first band audition over 30 years ago (which was a miserable disaster - I spent weeks trying to learn all the songs on a tape, then they didn't want to play any of them).

Sounds exciting mate and try not to worry - the way I think of things nowadays is that in 100 years I won't be about anymore so sod it - go out and have fun.

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1 hour ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

The key to the whole thing is a strong musical director who knows what they are talking about. Ideally you would also want one person within each group answerable to the MD and they should all have a good idea of the capabilities of each musician involved in respect of what will be required of them.

Thanks. It seems each 'band' will have a leader who does all the coms, but I think the choice of songs will be 'democratic' rather than imposed, which is good.

Funnily enough that reminds me one of my brothers (guitarist) did a 'mixed bag' charity gig last year - wasn't keen on the songs he got but he enjoyed it. I think one was Black Night and his attitude was "I just noodled around in a harmonic minor scale".

I honestly hadn't considered the similarity in the situation, although its a long while since I played with anyone other than family.

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This sounds like a "weekend warriors" format type thing. I signed up in Nottingham over 10 years ago. Total strangers. The band we formed, The Terminal Five Experience, is still going strong 10 years and two changes of drummers down the line. The band are now some of my closest friends. The first gig we played was at The Boat Club - imagine playing your first public gig on a stage once graced by the likes of Free, Deep Purple, The Who etc. I was terrified, but one song it all was good and we didn't look back.

You have nothing to lose. Enjoy the whole experience.

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1 hour ago, Marillionred said:

This sounds like a "weekend warriors" format type thing. I signed up in Nottingham over 10 years ago. Total strangers. The band we formed, The Terminal Five Experience, is still going strong 10 years and two changes of drummers down the line. The band are now some of my closest friends. The first gig we played was at The Boat Club - imagine playing your first public gig on a stage once graced by the likes of Free, Deep Purple, The Who etc. I was terrified, but one song it all was good and we didn't look back.

You have nothing to lose. Enjoy the whole experience.

I think the 'Abbey Road Army' is the direct descendant of 'Weekend Warriors'.

Our gig is at the Boat Club too - now I know the history I'm really fillin' my boots 😲

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I used to be a tutor for something similar to this, run by the Music Service in Swindon under the name 'Rock School'. The skill level of the adult students varied widely, but they were all there to enjoy playing together, and especially for the buzz of a live performance.

Come the concert, you will find the audience very supportive of you all. Nobody will mind (if they even notice) the odd mess-up, even if it seems cataclysmic to you. To quote Brian Eno: In music, you can crash and burn, and walk away.

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Thanks for so many positive comments folks.

I'd been looking at the emails and website for months, when I went into the shop without making the connection!

The proprietor seemed to have the gift of the gab and talked me into it and I got home and signed up.

Now it's suddenly very real and I feel it's time to put my money where my mouth is. Ridiculous thing is I reckon I'm a vastly better bass player now than when I was in early '96 when I changed jobs, met the SO and stopped gigging.

I'm pretty sure I can be in  tune and tin time, even if I don't quite nail the details; so i'm just going to play this for the hell of it, and who know in 2029 we might be doing stadiums for Saga Holidays 😉

 

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I think every time in every band ive ever joined - the first hour i managed to muck everything up. Probably struggle to remember my own name, but everything has always worked out fine in the end.

Take a few deep breaths - keep talking as it calms your nerves - and youll soon get into it.

Good luck.

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Never done the weekend warrior thing but have played the boat club a couple of times, though not within last 15 years. Don't get worked up over the venue, they will use it because it's close to West Bridgford. It's more like playing a school hall with a big stage than a modern music venue. Stage is quite high though so you feel you are 'up there' performing which is quite cool.

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In February 2008 I was getting frustrated with never having played an actual gig, despite being in two (so-called) bands for six months. I signed up for Weekend Warriors with ICMP in Kilburn but it turned out I'd missed the deadline. I took the family off for a long weekend in Istanbul in March, and we were strolling between Ayia Sofia and the Blue Mosque when my phone rang ... they were desperately short of bass players and would I join anyway.

It was like the line-up from The Usual Suspects. I was put with four (yes, four) guitarists and - since they'd also run out of drummers - we were assigned one of the ICMP's students as our drummer. The four were:

  • 40s Australian computer programmer with a bad back, into Guns 'n'Roses, could play pretty well, sang pretty well.
  • 40s American project manager with a very bad back (following a life-threatening car crash the previous year) and industrial-strength painkillers, into Aerosmith, could play pretty well when he could think straight but could never remember the words.
  • 50s Brit who spent his life as an ex-pat engineer servicing weapons systems in the Middle East and Far East, liked the blues, reasonable guitarist.
  • 60s Brit who spent his life as a deep-sea diver on off-shore oil-rigs, possibly the worst guitarist in history, but incredibly nice and as enthusiastic as a new puppy.

The drummer was, of course, in his early 20s and was by far the best musician in the room.

They supplied an excellent, really high-class rehearsal space, PA and backline, and we brought our instruments. For the very first session one of their guys helped us set up the PA - the real basics like setting the gain and EQ. Then we were on our own, and the first thing we had to do was work out what "a sound check" was and how to do it. As a crash course in how to be in a band it was bloody wonderful, seriously. No way could I have learned so much, so quickly, by doing endless rehearsals in someone's garage.

We all chucked ideas for songs into the middle and argued about them (we probably went to the pub once or twice) and we ended up with a thoroughly motley selection that no covers band with an ounce of sanity would choose but hey - that's what we wanted to do. Three of us could sing a bit so we split the songs between us to share the load, no actual lead singer as such.

After four rehearsals it was obvious that the diver was a dead weight on the band, utterly clueless, strumming away timelessly in the wrong key on an acoustic guitar, but he was so transparently in love with the project, and such a lovely guy, that the rest of us all felt that we could afford to carry him. Then the weapons engineer had a heart attack and the Yank upped his meds. I'm not making any of this up, really I'm not.

Suddenly the band became the Aussie and me with a student drummer, plus a stoned lead guitarist and a rhythm guitarist who had no rhythm and couldn't play guitar. Oops. 

We played our showcase on 29th May 2008 at The Luminaire in Kilburn High Road. Before the gig, we had a quiet word with the sound guy and explained the problem, and he obligingly turned down the sound on the diver's guitar as soon as we started our set. The remaining 4-piece band actually acquitted itself pretty damn well, and at least as well as any of the other Weekend Warrior bands on the bill. 

I had a truly excellent time, learned a helluva lot about music, about bands, about band politics. Even now, nearly 11 years later, that remains my first-ever live gig. :)

I also learned why you should never let the rest of the band spend time together without you. We hooked up for our first big discussion at The Horniman pub in The Galleria on the South Bank. When the time came to choose a name, it was pretty much inevitable that we'd choose The Hornimen. After I left, the band continued drinking. For some time apparently. The next day I took a very embarrassed phone call from the Aussie. The band had decided to choose another name and we were now ... The Squishy Fish.

You couldn't make it up. Only they did.

 

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