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Drama

#41
Drama is what happens when your world famous but slightly sagging prog band gathers in Paris with somebody else's famous producer to record yet another world famous prog album but you discover that half the band hates the material the other half is presenting and the whole group unravels when the drummer breaks an ankle roller skating in the middle of the night at a nightclub with Richard Branson.
You find yourself without your famous singer and keyboardist so you hire the guys recording next door to record the album and tour much of the world without announcing the lineup changes.
No wait: that was Yes.
Drama (Yes album) - Wikipedia

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#43
GretschWretch said:
It seems to me that the healthiest bands are those who make money having fun. To put all the eggs in the money basket appears to me to be an invitation to become the Ramones.
Click to expand...

+1....although I would also add that the healthiest bands usually contain members who welcome the challenge to reinvent themselves as opposed to travel old worn-out roads.......worn roads leads to complacency....complacency often leads to drama
 
#44
The most drama ever was my first "professional" band. I was 18 and we played 8 or 10 times a month. Drummer and one of the guitarists were brothers. Their mother was booking the band. Their father was a marine doing a tour in Vietnam (1974). The singer wound up homeless so he moved in with them. The singer and their mother start going at it. The brothers found out. Much drug and alcohol fueled drama ensued until daddy came home from Vietnam. He looked like he'd snap your neck if you whistled wrong. Big, strong, and a definite bad a--.

The guitar player and I wound up leaving and starting a new band. Our big rule was NO DRAMA.
 
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#46
Drama is a feature of all animal groups, and Homo Sapiens is no exception. If members are mature and understand the benefits of de-escalation, the inevitable tiny ripples of drama do not grow into DRAMA....otherwise, savage, territorial primates will be savage, territorial primates.
 
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#47
Joe Nerve said:
I'm thankfully, finally, I think for the first time ever - in a band where there's little to no drama. My belief is the reason for that is that we're all mature adults who know how to communicate, but more importantly - we all have the same goal. To make money by playing music. My experience tells me that one person with even a slightly different goal than the rest is the fuse that will ignite it all. Throw a guy into my band who wants to play for fun instead, and well... there ya have it.

What I've also noticed is this:

1. The people who say they hate drama are the ones we must be the most cautious of.

2. Saying, "I won't deal with any drama," translates as, "You are all going to agree with me, or there will be drama."

And I think that about sums it up :) .

What are your thoughts and experiences regarding DRAMA in bands?
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Im really happy for you Joe. It’s a nice place to be. I haven’t had to deal with it in band I’ve been in for over 50 years.

As for drama. When it gets in the way of work flow, gets “personal” and or not business related, sorry for me it’s a deal breaker. Life is wat too short to put up with that nonsense,
 
#48
For me, drama is anything that conflicts with successfully playing music.

It could be significant others, "whoring around", prima donna's, dependency on alcohol or drugs (which affects the band's performance), not knowing the songs at rehearsal, or trying to change the band for the sake of change (if the band has success doing what they're doing). BTW, these are all things I've dealt with as the BL and I've replaced those individuals who can't/won't work towards a common goal... successfully performing music together for an audience.
 
#50
Joe Nerve said:
I'm thankfully, finally, I think for the first time ever - in a band where there's little to no drama. My belief is the reason for that is that we're all mature adults who know how to communicate, but more importantly - we all have the same goal. To make money by playing music. My experience tells me that one person with even a slightly different goal than the rest is the fuse that will ignite it all. Throw a guy into my band who wants to play for fun instead, and well... there ya have it.

What I've also noticed is this:

1. The people who say they hate drama are the ones we must be the most cautious of.

2. Saying, "I won't deal with any drama," translates as, "You are all going to agree with me, or there will be drama."

And I think that about sums it up :) .

What are your thoughts and experiences regarding DRAMA in bands?
Click to expand...

I just avoid people with tender feelings, and the play music. The people with drama in their lives, IME (the tender ones to avoid), are the ones always talking about drama and discussing drama (any kind).
 
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#51
I've been in an acoustic/electric Beatles band since 2012 with a bunch of buddies I've known for decades. The band started off with 8 members, the 8th member being an English guy known by some of my bandmates. I didn't know him at the time, but I had seen him play decades before.

Seven of eight band members were vocalists. When we started the group his thought was that the same members would always sing the same parts - if you sang a John vocal, you and whoever else would always sing John's part in a song and so on. That suggestion was quickly shot down, as the other members did not want it to be that rigid.

Over time it became very apparent that this guy was the only weak link when it came to vocals, and he was also not a great guitar player (this band only gigged 6-8 times a year for the first few years, so we weren't playing all the time.) Most of the guys were in multiple bands, so this group was third or fourth on this of priorities - the goal was to have fun, first and foremost. Everyone else in the band easily fell into their roles and knew which harmonies or lead vocal they could do best, but this guy would not stay in his own lane. On key songs with only a single lead vocal, this guy would try to double the vocal and fail miserably. He was also a pain when it came to his guitar playing, and it came to a point where he wasn't playing guitar much at all. Although it wasn’t major drama, the only drama at all was caused by this one member.

We had a busy year (for us) in 2016. There were several conversations with him throughout the course of the year to get with the program, but he chose to not listen and continued to do his own thing. We let him go in December of that year.

Since then, the band has never sounded better. We also learned that 7 members looks better on stage as well (4 in the front, 3 in the gaps in back.) ;)
 
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#54
Joe Nerve said:
I'm thankfully, finally, I think for the first time ever - in a band where there's little to no drama. My belief is the reason for that is that we're all mature adults who know how to communicate, but more importantly - we all have the same goal. To make money by playing music. My experience tells me that one person with even a slightly different goal than the rest is the fuse that will ignite it all. Throw a guy into my band who wants to play for fun instead, and well... there ya have it.

What I've also noticed is this:

1. The people who say they hate drama are the ones we must be the most cautious of.

2. Saying, "I won't deal with any drama," translates as, "You are all going to agree with me, or there will be drama."

And I think that about sums it up :) .

What are your thoughts and experiences regarding DRAMA in bands?
Click to expand...
Well said, Joe.
 
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#57
Joe Nerve said:
I'm thankfully, finally, I think for the first time ever - in a band where there's little to no drama. My belief is the reason for that is that we're all mature adults who know how to communicate, but more importantly - we all have the same goal. To make money by playing music. My experience tells me that one person with even a slightly different goal than the rest is the fuse that will ignite it all. Throw a guy into my band who wants to play for fun instead, and well... there ya have it.

What I've also noticed is this:

1. The people who say they hate drama are the ones we must be the most cautious of.

2. Saying, "I won't deal with any drama," translates as, "You are all going to agree with me, or there will be drama."

And I think that about sums it up :) .

What are your thoughts and experiences regarding DRAMA in bands?
Click to expand...


There is inter personnel drama and BL drama. Being a BL, I try not to have that. Not crazy about being drawn into inter personnel stuff. Usually tell them to discuss among themselves and work it out.

My feelings on what we are doing and how it is getting done are known entities. The stuff between members.......half the time the people involved, don't know there is even a situation that can turn into a problem.

I'm not the referee, work it out before the next date or plan on leaving.

Amazingly, many years on, everybody is pretty familiar with each other so our own idiosyncrasies are known a nd EVERYBOdy has their opting mechanisms.

Is it perfect NO! But we are putting playing the music first, which makes it far better overall.
 
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#58
never really understood what some people mean by "drama" - I think you nailed it. To some, drama is anytime you have your opinion and disagree with them. That's what control freaks want - everybody to just agree with them. One man's intolerable opinions are another man's legitimate responses and opinions to things he does not like that are going on in the band. are some people too argumentative to work with? Definitely. Do some seem to simply be negative about everything? Yup. but simply having different opinions to me is not "drama" in and of itself.

So when some people write ads that say they are seeking a band with "no drama", it's a red flag.
 
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#59
QORC said:
never really understood what some people mean by "drama" - I think you nailed it. To some, drama is anytime you have your opinion and disagree with them. That's what control freaks want - everybody to just agree with them. One man's intolerable opinions are another man's legitimate responses and opinions to things he does not like that are going on in the band. are some people too argumentative to work with? Definitely. Do some seem to simply be negative about everything? Yup. but simply having different opinions to me is not "drama" in and of itself.

So when some people write ads that say they are seeking a band with "no drama", it's a red flag.
Click to expand...

This.

Merriam-Webster:

drama - "an exciting or emotional situation or event"

I was in a band that fired/let go 3 drummers in one month. One thought he could play again but his arthritis got him at the first gig. The second one decided to leave to try, I'm not making this up, making porn for money with his wife.

The third stormed out because a bar wanted us to delay an hour playing outside due to a rainstorm moving through.

The first two were not stressful or particularly exciting or emotional (well, maybe the porn one, but it was hilarious). The last one? Might be considered drama. Same band, 3 circumstances. Did the band have drama? Did the people experience drama? Don't know, don't care. Went on, found a great drummer, gigs started to flow, etc.

Drama is just a word.
 
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