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Did You Stop Gigging for a While and How Long?

Did You Stop Gigging for a While and How Long?

  • No

    Votes: 11 5.5%

  • Yes - Less than 1 year

    Votes: 11 5.5%

  • Yes - 1 to 3 years

    Votes: 38 18.9%

  • Yes - 4 to 6 years

    Votes: 28 13.9%

  • Yes - 7 to 10 years

    Votes: 34 16.9%

  • Yes - More than 10 years

    Votes: 48 23.9%

  • Yes - I have not gone back yet

    Votes: 31 15.4%
  • Total voters
    201
  • Poll closed .
#41
My ukulele group (I play bass uke), before covid, would meet twice a week, plus play for senior centers, retirement homes, special events like the Culver City Screenland 5k Run, and every couple of months at UCLA/Mattel Children's Hospital. That all stopped March 2021, until mid 2023 when we met on Zoom only. Then we started meeting in person every other Sunday on the patio of a sandwich shop, then moved to the backyard of one member adding every other Wednesday.

We've since added a gig at a the WLA Farmers' market every other month, did this year's Screenland 5K, doing a concert at the Santa Monica Main Branch Library in July, and was recently booked to open the Los Angeles International Ukulele Festival in September. We're also waiting to start scheduling UCLA/Mattel again.
 
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#43
I've taken some intentional multi year breaks. The first one was for a few years because I was changing from a flexible college student schedule to the 8-5 job life, then more recently, due to my kids. I've started gigging some again in the last year, but it's a much more selective schedule than the past. None of us are trying to make a living at it or make a name for ourselves, so we don't have to try and fill every night on the calendar or take the "exposure" gigs.
 
#44
COVID!
Played a clutch of gigs in late 2019 and then went on a long Southern Hemisphere Summer break. By the time we were ready to gig, Sydney went into lockdown. When we started to emerge, gigs were few and far between , and the market was hyper competitive, so we got "crowded out". Things finally got better (for us) late '22.
 
#48
Started in 1965, continued until 1986 - then having 2 kids (eventually 3), all their sports etc., plus my wife's work schedule, made it impossible. In 2008, the same month our youngest left for college, I was back in a band and I've been gigging actively ever since. So - 21 years on, 22 years off, 16 years back on.
 
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#51
I played a couple of thousand gigs 1996-2010

It was a privilege to spend time with so many great musicians I certainly enjoyed the Original Bands the most but the Covers stuff was a reliable extra $ which paid the mortgage off fast

It was tough on Mrs Foal because I was out 3-5 nights a week and we have 5 children

Late 2010 where I live suffered a very large Earthquake
Since then it’s been very limited and selected gigs. My “bands” are more for studio recordings because I have been writing songs since the late 1980’s

The thought of not playing gigs is nothing that bothers me but the concept of not playing any music is terrifying
 
#52
Kinda. I stopped gigging in bands when I was in my late 20's, in order to focus on getting established in an IT career so I could provide for my family (and build for a retirement, which I'm now enjoying). I didn't start gigging with bands again until I was in my mid-50's (I'm 62 now). However, during those intervening years I still played fairly often at churches on Sunday mornings. So that kept me in the game a little bit.
 
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#53
Stopped playing late 80’s to raise family and after band broke up. Started looking 15 years later after I decided I’d rather play music than golf. Played some jazz/psychedelic cocktail music for several years then, added another band because I wasn’t spending enough money on gear. That one, Flat Daddy, has 2 EPs, 3 albums and we’re recording 2 more and play out occasionally. Been together 16 years. The hang and the music are good.
 
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#58
I turned full-time pro around 1989-1990. In 2008 I crossed over to audio full time. Since then I have done a handful of gigs on bass to help people out. Playing with a group is enjoyable for about 5 minutes. After that it starts to feel like work.

I still noodle around on bass, so I could get back into shape if I had to, but performing music no longer brings me intrinsic joy. No one is going to pay me a fortune to play, which is what would be necessary to make it worth my while.

Nobody should feel sorry for me. I would say I had success far beyond my wildest dreams. Although I am no one of note, I played with really great musicians, travelled Europe and the Middle-East, and my total live audience count is in the millions.
 
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#59
Stopped for a couple of years '75-78 when my high school cover bands broke up and my bass was stolen from a New Years Party. Had no bass and no offers to join a band so stopped. To be fair I wasn't really out there promoting myself either. Went into the world of "straight jobs" for awhile. After a slough of dead end jobs my Dad offered to send me thru a Voc Tech school to learn drafting. Upon completion got a nice well paying job at an engineering/design/building firm and with my first paycheck bought a '77 Ripper. Started back up taking bass guitar lessons from a Union guitar player - back then there really wasn't bass guitar teachers per se - usually old Union geetar players in the back rooms of music stores. In'78 went to CWU for a couple of years to study music and have gigged pretty steady through today.
Being strictly a working musician, making a living off of music or as a starving artist, was on and off - I more often was employed at a straight job as well. I moved out of a large metro area and out to the sticks in a very isolated coastal town in '96 and with that have not really been "making a living" at it since moving = weekend bands and now pretty much play for free/tips; but that's OK I'm pretty olde [68] and the tip jars hum pretty dang good - have been fortunate enough to find good rockin' originals bands as well as playing in a jazz trio for about 20 years 'til my elder mates passed away a few years ago. Except as noted in a few other comments no gigs for the two year covid shut down - but was still practicing/playing everyday.

Still have the Ripper! Brand new from Kalamazoo! Gets played daily! :bassist::hyper:

bessie copy 3.JPG
 
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#60
I'm not sure it counts the same as a lot of the rest of y'all:

1. Had to take break during 2020 and the early days of the Covid19 Pandemic. Because I was living in Texas that really just meant that there were no gigs of any kind from mid-March until early July, and then gigs came back (albeit with a lot of restrictions which slowly eased up).

2. Since moving from Austin/San Antonio to Nashville in early 2023 I've been having to rebuild relationships and hustle to get gigs, so it definitely slowed down in 2023 and there were periods of four to eight weeks between individual gigs. 2024 has gotten much better but still not the tempo and pace of my time in Texas (most of the year there was averaging 2-3 shows a week).
 

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