Risky Business, 80s band setup blog

[uk_lefty]

So I thought it would be interesting (decide for yourself how interesting!) to document the setup of a new band... Read on if you want to, or don't if you don't. 

 

I've always wanted to have an 80s covers band. Ideally I would be the lead singer and bassist, alas my vocal chops just aren't there. I tried once in the past to set up a band using people found on joinmyband and other sources and it wasn't a great experience but a valuable one. 

 

Earlier this year my main band, a 2000s covers band, had a hiatus and the drummer and I cooked up a scheme to do something as a side project. This is one of the big lessons I learned a few years back: work with at least one person you already know! Well, that makes bass and drums... I contacted a guitarist I was in a band with four or five years back, I love his style and attitude and we have remained friends loosely keeping in touch, he was excited to join in. 

 

In the middle of August we met up with a handful of songs to bash through. I found it a real struggle to sing and play, my voice was knackered at the end of it, but we agreed we had something that worked and if we had a singer and ideally a keys or sax player we could really have something worth progressing. 

 

I got too excited and advertised for a singer much earlier than I had wanted to. I got a handful of responses: a guy aged 28 who sings modern metal, a classic rock vocalist in a covers band id heard of, a female singer who recently left an indie band, and a lady who only wants to do backing vox as she doesn't want to fully commit. I have not yet met the singers, we want to get the songs tight first. But we have rejected two of them already! Now, the lost of songs we are working on is a handful of "male" songs and two "female" songs. The classic rock singer contacted me to say words to the effect: "you do realise that Holding Out for a Hero is written for a girl??? You know it's about a Man???" That told me all I needed to know about this person. Didn't say "hey I might tweak the words" which I'm happy with, just basically came across a bit old fashioned and hinted he could be difficult to work with. Luckily, the recordings of heard of his vocals weren't great so I was comfortable saying we had better fit singers already. Also, he didn't notice, or at least raise, that "I wanna dance with somebody" is also a female perspective song. I have no issue if a man or woman wants to change the gender perspective of a song, or keep it. But we had not at this point said we want a male singer, or we want a female singer. We just wanted a good singer and to do good songs, so we have a mix.

 

Anyways, onwards and upwards. In the meantime we wanted to get the songs tight but also I kept hearing sax in a lot of the great songs of the decade so I advertised for a sax player. I got a great response from a guy local to where we rehearse who plays sax and keys. I sent him the long-list of possible songs and five mins later got a reply of "f me that's my childhood!" And I just knew he would do for us.

 

This week we met up again and invited our sax and keys player. We also had a friend come along to sing so I could concentrate on bass and arrangements. Magic happened. We did two or three runs through of each song, had a ten minute break for a chat. We instantly bonded with our new multi-instrumentalist: a decent person, a proper musician, and he LOVES the genre. There are still  details to work out such as better transition to solos, proper endings of all these fade out songs, but we were really solid and the keys and or sax just really added something. It felt special.

 

We will meet again in a few weeks' time, now with a handful more songs that really prominently feature the sax. Our best candidate for singer isn't available until mid October so hopefully we can be really tight by then and ready for him. 

 

I'm getting quite excited about this side project! Playing with a drummer and guitarist I know really helps, and striking gold with a chap who plays sax and keys is just sheer good fortune. 

 

More to come soon....

[Lozz196]

Just shows that the best things sometimes need time & perseverance, keep us all up to date on this.

[Homatron]

Sounds like a fun project, and makes for some encouraging reading after browsing through the Auditions in Hell thread!

[Russ]

I must admit, despite being a hairy metal guy who's always played in originals bands, I've considered doing something similar - the 80s were my formative years, and Duran Duran, Thompson Twins, U2, Level 42, Depeche Mode, Queen, Simple Minds, Madness and Gary Numan sat happily in my record collection alongside the likes of Maiden, Motorhead, Rush, Metallica and so on. 

 

I've been watching a lot of videos of an Australian professional cover band based out of Adelaide called Hindley Street Country Club - they have a core of four or five members, bringing extra people in depending on the gig (backing vocalists, horns, etc). They do all the 80s hits from both sides of the pond, and they absolutely nail them. One of their singers does an absolutely uncanny Bowie! Their bass player looks like Lurch from the Addams Family and has a nice range of old Yamaha BBs.  They absolutely nail the tunes - these aren't run-of-the-mill covers, they're note-for-note accurate, and even accurately reproduce the various keyboard and drum sounds. Something about that attention to detail and the sheer level of musicianship really appeals to me. 

 

Best of luck with the band, I hope you get it off the ground! 

 

 

 

[Lozz196]

Another Australian covers band, The Filthy Animals also have a lot on YouTube and similarly are pretty much note perfect.

[police squad]

sounds cool, let's hope the prefered singer has the chops and attitude.

Sax is cool (as Matt Smith's Dr would say)

[ezbass]

The best fun I've had in a band was in one that did '80s covers. I'm just a wee bit envious. Good luck with the project.

[BigRedX]

37 minutes ago, Russ said:

I must admit, despite being a hairy metal guy who's always played in originals bands, I've considered doing something similar - the 80s were my formative years, and Duran Duran, Thompson Twins, U2, Level 42, Depeche Mode, Queen, Simple Minds, Madness and Gary Numan sat happily in my record collection alongside the likes of Maiden, Motorhead, Rush, Metallica and so on. 

 

I've been watching a lot of videos of an Australian professional cover band based out of Adelaide called Hindley Street Country Club - they have a core of four or five members, bringing extra people in depending on the gig (backing vocalists, horns, etc). They do all the 80s hits from both sides of the pond, and they absolutely nail them. One of their singers does an absolutely uncanny Bowie! Their bass player looks like Lurch from the Addams Family and has a nice range of old Yamaha BBs.  They absolutely nail the tunes - these aren't run-of-the-mill covers, they're note-for-note accurate, and even accurately reproduce the various keyboard and drum sounds. Something about that attention to detail and the sheer level of musicianship really appeals to me. 

 

Best of luck with the band, I hope you get it off the ground! 

 

 

 

 

"The 80s" is a very broad church ranging from "New Romantic" and synth-pop via jangly guitar bands all the way through to acid house. Of course most people tend to forget about anything post 1985 unless the band had already had hits before then.

 

The problem I have with bands like the one in the clip above is that for me music in the 80s was as much about the image of the artists as it was about the songs. If the music is going to be performed by a bunch of beardy old blokes in crap shirts then it doesn't matter how well they have nailed the sound, the audience would be better off someone playing the records.

 

I hope the OP is taking note...

[Belka]

29 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

"The 80s" is a very broad church ranging from "New Romantic" and synth-pop via jangly guitar bands all the way through to acid house. Of course most people tend to forget about anything post 1985 unless the band had already had hits before then.

 

 

That's actually quite a good point, although it may be skewed somewhat by genre and geography. I would associate the early '80s a bit more with British pop and rock bands - the second British invasion as MTV might have termed it. In the later '80s British commercial music went into something of decline, and American hard rock/Hip Hop became a lot more popular.

Edited 1 hour ago by Belka

[Geek99]

@Lozz196 I really enjoyed that, (hated the original) with the two singers giving it their all -the guy is hitting most of the same notes as the young lady is. 

 

[BassAdder60]

I joined a 80’s stadium rock covers band last year but I didn’t gel with the singer and his voice didn’t suit rock in my opinion and the lead guitarist was hard work and far too critical of every note played or not played 
 

Consequently I left them but the concept was good and some great songs 

 

Edited 1 hour ago by BassAdder60

[Geek99]

https://youtu.be/DRAGfTLwP6Q?si=DjpfJDwsOJZjDH39

 

boogie wonderland by hscc 

Edited 52 minutes ago by Geek99