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Got fired from my church gig...

#384
MysticMichael said:
Sure it is. You're only fooling yourself if you think otherwise... :eyebrow:

All the world's a stage...and that includes churches.

MM
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Try telling that to most church worship teams... good lord... i told one of my guitarists in passing talk about something that she needs to engage the audience more and she FLIPPED on me, telling me that it's not an audience, it's a congregation, and it's totally different. i almost lost it on her.
 
#385
Downunderwonder said:
"Certfiable bandleader in Africa" new thread please.
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Like I said, long story, one I haven't actually thought of in quite a while... trying to block it out I guess. It would take a book to properly detail his shenanigans.

Repeatedly fighting with his long term hooker, refusing to leave the stage at a Jazz festival so we could play a Black Eyed Peas song, lying to and on each member of the band repeatedly, he was literally a person who, if his lips were moving there was a better than 95% chance that he was lying about something. And typically it was incredibly easy to catch him in the lies, without even trying. Completely pissed off the band and the management at the main venue over the most trivial, stupid stuff... no one in their right mind would jeopardize what he did over the things he bugged out about. He really thought he was an international star. Ended up being asked to leave and not return.
 
#386
Brad Johnson said:
Just came across this thread during a wide search. Not long after this all went down I got a call for a three month job playing in Africa. Easily the craziest, most drama filled job I've ever had. The people in Africa were great, the band leader OTOH was likely certifiable. Loooong story.
:D

After I got back home I got a call from a church around 45 miles from my home. I'd been recommended separately by two friends so I was asked if I was interested in working with them. Long story short I went in, did a brief audition and have been playing there for a year this month. Good people, not entirely drama free but it's kept to a relative minimum and the compensation is good. I do at least two services every Sunday and carry myself pretty much the same way I always have. It's a smaller group of musicians and we have a good time with each other. Couldn't ask for more.

One of my best friends is still at the other church. The pastor's antics caught up with him... he's gone. The MM was fired, got a job with another church and was fired from that too.

Again, I don't have hard feelings against either of them, they have to deal with their actions, I don't so I just wish them the best and it's given me another sometimes amusing experience that some folks can relate to.
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Another update: we went through some serious turnover a few months back, mainly self-inflicted by the folks in charge so the church is looking for replacements for the two keys and drums. One of the people who showed up was the MD who fired me from the other church.

Sometimes you don't have to wait very long for karma...
:D

He had actually come to a service the week before, saw me on stage and still decided to go ahead with trying to get hired. It was pretty funny, he came in dropping names as usual and acted like nothing had happened between us. And his two recent firings morphed into him deciding to "take a break from being an MD". No mention that it wasn't his choice:D. And he said that all of the stuff he did with me wasn't his idea, it was the pastor's. Throwing someone else under the bus as usual.

I was asked about my thoughts on the possibility of bringing him in fulltime, I explained what had happened and told them the decision was theirs... I could work with whomever they decided to hire. IOW I didn't tell them not to hire him and I didn't recommend they hire him either.

So he auditioned and noodled around songs vs. playing them because as before, he didn't know the fundamental structures of the songs and couldn't play them consistently when push came to shove. The MM was not impressed... at all.

Still, in a crunch with no one else, they had him do a couple of services, on the second they brought in another keyboard player as the BL and this guy decided he was going to lead the band anyway. He and the sub BL had words, we got through the service and that was pretty much the end of that. It's been about three months and we still don't have anyone solid besides myself and the guitarist. Everyone else is a sub.
:cool:
 

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