Am I wrong for firing my....

selftitled907 · #1 03-13-2011, 07:27 PM

Ok heres my situation. i play in a local cover band and have played with these guys for 2 years live. and i just today decided to fire both my guitar player and drummer. the drummer dosent know yet cause he works nights and sleeps in the day....but he will know this evening. but i feel kinda bad cause well....i like the guys a lot, but they just arent cutting it.

heres the problems we were having i just wanna know if anyone thinks my decision is out of line.

Guitarist- either completly forgets or severly destroys 35-50% of his leads at lesat 90% of the time....every once and a while he actually nails all his leads all night but rarely at best. and on top of that, he cant bring anything to the table besides his sloppy leads.....no vocals (back up or otherwise) and ABSOLUTLY NO stage presence. and even worse....the nights that he seems to nail his leads....he would forget to use a boost to cut through the mix....or his boost just wont cut through the mix. the reason we kept him around so long is the hope that all this would click....at least with the leads. but it hasnt happened yet.

Drummer- besides his horrible attitude (which if he was DECENT i would put up with) cant keep time to save his life. nor does he have the ability to to sing back up. that we decided to overlook being as he can actually sing...just cant find the back ups....so we let him sing....found out that when he sings his drumming goes to all hell....he falls out of time or just stops drumming altogether. and then on top of all of that....he has some seriouse alcohol issues that are affecting his playing badly. we also gave him the 2 yrs with us because unlike the guitarist.....he was showing improvement with his drumming ability. but as of recently we cant even get him to return our phone calls regarding rehearsals or gigs.

all that being said....i feel like i made the right decision in letting them both go....but feel horrible about it at the same time. unfortunatly the guitarist took it badly as im sure the drummer will when he wakes up and we try to contact him. please...help me feel better about my decision. im not one for conflicts and try to avoid them best i can. but i feel horrible for what i feel i have no choice in doing. no one should be afraid of embarassment on stage should they? we did EVERY SINGLE GIG. and it just dosent seem right.

thanks for all the input guys/gals

-gabe

armywalaby · #2 03-13-2011, 07:32 PM

Absolutely. It sucks they were your friends, but if the club owner remembers you bringing in a bad act, they may not want to book you again. It's business.

Depth_Charge · #3 03-13-2011, 07:34 PM

You did the right thing. Good luck finding replacements.

countrybass007 · #4 03-13-2011, 07:38 PM

One of my closest friends is a guitarist I once fired. He understood that he wasn't cutting it, and it was in the band's best interest to move on. Firing somebody has always been a horrible experience for me, but it was a necessary one.

selftitled907 · #5 03-13-2011, 08:08 PM

thank for the responses guys/gals. luckily the bars like the genre of music we play and unless they are ALL to chicken to say we suck....havent had anything really bad to say about our performances....as well as always asked to have us back again. maybe we are lucky that there are enough other crappy bands in alaska that we generally pass over them with ease and the bars are always happier with us than the other bands...who knows....i do know that if i was any of the bar owners i would have told us to do what i have had to do a lot sooner. oh well thats just me i guess.

Stinsok · #6 03-13-2011, 08:13 PM

You should get Sarah Palin to front the band!

bluewine · #7 03-13-2011, 08:19 PM

Sounds like you take this business serious. Bravo

It's a business and sometime you have to make tough calls.

You made the right call, sounds like you had 2 members that didn't get it.

Be very careful of who you bring in as replacements. Come up with some means of testing how serious they take this business and their live performance. If their any good they will or should have some vid clips of themselves in action.

bluewine · #8 03-13-2011, 08:21 PM

Sounds like you take this business serious. Bravo

It's a business and sometime you have to make tough calls.

You made the right call, sounds like you had 2 members that didn't get it.

Be very careful of who you bring in as replacements. Come up with some means of testing how serious they take this business and their live performance. If their any good they will or should have some vid clips of themselves in action.

tekhedd · #9 03-13-2011, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stinsok

You should get Sarah Palin to front the band!

Nah, she'd just quit after a year to go solo and promote herself.

prd004 · #10 03-13-2011, 08:24 PM

It's never easy, but sometimes it has to be done. These guys played their way out of your band.

selftitled907 · #11 03-13-2011, 08:29 PM

Thank you Bluewine. i like to think i take this seriously....however i think the guitarist and drummer are just now realizing how seriouse i do take this. oh well....next time....they should try giving more than 20% effort to make music. and yes we are doing some major adjustments to make sure we dont get low quality musicians like those guys again.

and to stinsok....dont even get me started on Palin....almost NO ONE in alaska likes her haha.

thanks again for the input and helpin me feel secure in my decision guys/gals. been a pleasure being apart of this forum/family =)

selftitled907 · #12 03-13-2011, 08:30 PM

very true Prd004. my wife, who is the other guitarist and lead vocalist is also assuring me that we did the right thing. we gave them MORE than ample time to straighten out there act....and neither of them came through.

Stank56 · #13 03-13-2011, 08:44 PM

I had to do the very same thing a year ago, the drummer couldn't count and the guitar player rehearsed in between sets. It worked out for us because the keyboard player quit as well and we ended up with one that knew when to play!

selftitled907 · #14 03-13-2011, 09:21 PM

its a shame but i think my sig. says it all in this particular case. although.....this might not be common sence to some....*refer to sig. yet again* haha.

cheers to all who took the time to read this thread.

CBRXJ · #15 03-13-2011, 09:22 PM

I might have tried axing them one at a time. Axe the worst one and make an example out of him maybe the other one would shape up...maybe not and you would still let him go. Maybe should have got rid of one a long time ago.... I like Palin...she's hot... Much hotter than Jerry Brown moon beam.

selftitled907 · #16 03-13-2011, 09:30 PM

funny you should say that....we actually just brought the guitar player back to give him another shot after taking 3-4 months off. no improvement what-so-ever. and anyone can look good with a team of make-up and hair artists working on you.

cheers

Plays_For_Dog · #17 03-13-2011, 09:42 PM

Yo Gabe! Just stumbled on your post. I remember about a month ago you had reservations about your guitarist and drummer. This has obviously been an issue for a while. Like a bandaid, it's best to just cut it off clean and fast. If you drag it out, it only amplifies the problem. So, you did the right thing. I know Wasilla is a small town comparative to the rest of the US. You might have to recruit out of Anchorage, and that may present rehearsal and gig issues with the 45 minute or so travel time for the new members. To even that out, I would consider balancing the rehearsals and gigs between Wasilla and Anchorage. That would certainly open up more possibilities for you.

With the challenges you and the Mrs are facing getting the band back on track with new members, avoid the temptation that will come to rehire the drummer and guitarist. You're free of their dead wieght, if you bring that back in the band, it will be worse then before. It would be better to not gig and hold out for better musicians, then to fall back into gigging with sub-par minimalist musicians.

Good luck Gabe! Keep us posted on how things turn out.

Billnc · #18 03-13-2011, 09:58 PM

You were correct. I've been fired (friends with all) and fired others. I fired a drummer, he was not cutting the gig at all, but working his butt off in vain to get it together. That guy thanked me for bailing him out (he was trying to keep me from being drummerless by staying) of a no win situation. We both could move on and remain friendly.

bassinplace · #19 03-13-2011, 10:07 PM

Sounds like a very un-fun project. In my book, for a project to be worthwhile, it has to qualify in at least one of two categories; it has to be fun (which for me is the more important of the two) or it has to make money. This project doesn't sound like it can do either one. Life's too short to spin your wheels forever. You've got *insert your genre here*'n to do! Time to move on.

MysticMichael · #20 03-13-2011, 10:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by selftitled907

Guitarist- either completly forgets or severly destroys 35-50% of his leads at lesat 90% of the time....every once and a while he actually nails all his leads all night but rarely at best. and on top of that, he cant bring anything to the table besides his sloppy leads.....no vocals (back up or otherwise) and ABSOLUTLY NO stage presence. and even worse....the nights that he seems to nail his leads....he would forget to use a boost to cut through the mix....or his boost just wont cut through the mix. the reason we kept him around so long is the hope that all this would click....at least with the leads. but it hasnt happened yet.

Drummer- besides his horrible attitude (which if he was DECENT i would put up with) cant keep time to save his life. nor does he have the ability to to sing back up. that we decided to overlook being as he can actually sing...just cant find the back ups....so we let him sing....found out that when he sings his drumming goes to all hell....he falls out of time or just stops drumming altogether. and then on top of all of that....he has some seriouse alcohol issues that are affecting his playing badly. we also gave him the 2 yrs with us because unlike the guitarist.....he was showing improvement with his drumming ability. but as of recently we cant even get him to return our phone calls regarding rehearsals or gigs.

And yet you kept both of them...for two years??? Dude, if I were in your shoes, these jokers wouldn't have lasted for two weeks. They probably wouldn't even have passed the audition.

This is a complete no-brainer. Only thing that has to change is for you to become more hard-nosed about business...and to keep business separate from friendship...

MM