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Have you ever been fired from a band?

Have you ever been fired from a band?

  • Yes.

  • No.

  • Carrots.

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#141
Fired from the Johnny Mathis band, most prominently in 1974 after 18 months. It was like being in jail. All my friends were playing in cool bands and I was the blue hair special. Still the money, venues and travel were top shelf. General bored ness led to insubordination...

Fired from the Righteous Brothers backup band about 6 months later. Couldn't sing my backup part. I claim infected throat, they said I was smoking the herb too much. Whatever, abandoned in Anchorage, had to find my own way home.

A few minor intrigues with bar bands, of little consequence in the larger scheme.
 
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#143
I was in a three piece original group at the end of my high school career. This band was two brothers and me. They had another brother who had a girlfriend that I relieved said brother from. Firing was the result.

Luckily, the baselines I played to all of the songs were so zany that the replacement bassist couldn't replicate them, and since there were no recordings, they let me back in.

In the end, there were no hard feelings with any of the family members.
 
#144
Yep. Just a few years ago. It was my first band as a bass player and I was still learning the ropes. My first gig with the band went bad. I wasn't nervous until soundcheck was done and we stepped on stage for the 1st set. The first set went okay, but the 2nd was a disaster. It was like I forgot everything. We would switch between drop tuning and normal tuning song after song and I once forgot to retune. Ugh!! Forgot how songs started. Arrangements. It was a complete cluster-f and mostly my fault.

Then guitar player/band leader starts a song with his capo on the wrong fret and he gives me a sideways look like I was out of tune. He realized his mistake soon enough, stopped the song and we all had a laugh. But the damage was done, my confidence was completely gone.

Subsequent gigs went great and we really locked, but the GP/BL still held onto that first gig. He wanted to get a seasoned player in. He tactics for firing me were effed up, but he was right in looking for a better fit and I can't blame him for that. I garnered a lot of experience from my short time with them and I appreciate that.

I see them every so often (pre-covid) and we get along well.
 
#147
thetaxmiser said:
Please tell me that their lives have turned out poorly...
Click to expand...

as much as we'd like to think that bands that can us quickly fail or become worse, and the offending members suffer horrible things in their lives. That karma reigns

and sometimes this happens.

but probably in as many cases, it doesn't. there is no karma, as much as we'd like to think there is. Sometimes the evil prosper. Sometimes they don't.

and we might not be as honest with ourselves as we should be - we have a point of view that wants to make those that have hurt us out to be simply evil and horrible. Sometimes they are, sometimes however we are not being honest about our role in how things unfolded either. it's human nature.

and music is often a cut-throat business where "Friendship" is a loose and over-used term in most cases. You can't count on your buddies to save you if the BL or the entire band wants "space"...without you in it. that's the business.

pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and move forward
 
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#148
QORC said:
and we might not be as honest with ourselves as we should be - we have a point of view that wants to make those that have hurt us out to be simply evil and horrible. Sometimes they are, sometimes however we are not being honest about our role in how things unfolded either. it's human nature.

and music is often a cut-throat business where "Friendship" is a loose and over-used term in most cases. You can't count on your buddies to save you if the BL or the entire band wants "space"...without you in it. that's the business.

pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and move forward
Click to expand...

This is a great outlook, and believe me in the years after this crap show happened to me I did lots of reflecting on my part. In all honesty, I was used by people I called friends, in fact we were friends first and band mates 2nd. Those roles reversed for the rest of the band in level of importance is what I have come up with.

I honored the financial commitment we agreed to, none of the rest did, I learned my parts as needed and was available for all practices as a committed member. They let one really good gig with a fill in member who I am completely aware was a better player overshine all those other things, and I was out.

I don't believe they set out to screw me over by setting up purchases as they did, but they used it to their advantage when it came time to do that. That band did end badly and the bus and PA were all for sale shortly after because the fill in player they picked quit. So that was a little karma, but overall their lives have gone on and so have mine.

I'll admit I'm no saint and have made decisions that have hurt others too, but I do believe I've always tried to honor financial agreements etc so no one can say they were impacted unfairly. It was a learning experience all around and after a few years of not playing at all, it shaped how I interact with other musicians once I did pick up my bass again.
 
#149
QORC said:
as much as we'd like to think that bands that can us quickly fail or become worse, and the offending members suffer horrible things in their lives.
Click to expand...
Got sacked from one band because I was a control freak. Which means i wrote all the songs except for 3 hook deserts. Got to be a bit of a joke jamming out on intros while no ideas were forthcoming. Only way to avoid that all practice was to turn up with new songs all the time and find the seething funny. After I was fired they trod the well worn path to obscurity and recriminations one could see coming a mile away. People got the flick for talking to me.

and we might not be as honest with ourselves as we should be - we have a point of view that wants to make those that have hurt us out to be simply evil and horrible.
Click to expand...
Other bands let me go because I wasn't good enough. Can't argue, really. Usually bands with mean nasty people in I just walk.
 
#150
Yep, my very first one as a drummer. He was a singer/songwriter trying to get the full band thing going. My availability to gig wasn't enough, even though I told him that up front. Anyway, he went with a younger guy that sounded like was way more skilled than I was. That young kid was fired after only a month or so because he wasn't constantly flaking out on practice, gigs, and way way over played on basic country songs.
 
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#153
QORC said:
as much as we'd like to think that bands that can us quickly fail or become worse, and the offending members suffer horrible things in their lives. That karma reigns

and sometimes this happens.

but probably in as many cases, it doesn't. there is no karma, as much as we'd like to think there is. Sometimes the evil prosper. Sometimes they don't.

and we might not be as honest with ourselves as we should be - we have a point of view that wants to make those that have hurt us out to be simply evil and horrible. Sometimes they are, sometimes however we are not being honest about our role in how things unfolded either. it's human nature.

and music is often a cut-throat business where "Friendship" is a loose and over-used term in most cases. You can't count on your buddies to save you if the BL or the entire band wants "space"...without you in it. that's the business.

pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and move forward
Click to expand...

It's not the firing (just part of the business), it's stealing his stuff. They stole from a man who had them as part of his wedding party. I find karma usually catches up to those types of folks.
 
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#154
thetaxmiser said:
It's not the firing (just part of the business), it's stealing his stuff. They stole from a man who had them as part of his wedding party. I find karma usually catches up to those types of folks.
Click to expand...
I expect it's more like if they keep doing it, sooner or later someone does something about it. Rather than some cosmic accountant making sure it all balances. Doing it 5 times wont prevent you winning lotto. Smarter people than me needed reincarnation to make double entry Karma fit the observable universe.
 
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#155
thetaxmiser said:
It's not the firing (just part of the business), it's stealing his stuff. They stole from a man who had them as part of his wedding party. I find karma usually catches up to those types of folks.
Click to expand...

That was the toughest part indeed. Disagreements could have led to the firing, and there were some differing opinions that could be blamed for that. But they handled it on a phone message and kept all that stuff, in their words not "stolen" because it was in their name. It was a life lesson for sure.
 
#158
Yup. I was in a band with my cousin and his friends. There were issues brewing for a while and I was approached by another band. At the time I could swing both bands and that was my plan. That was until I told them of the other band. My cousin called me and told me to choose one or the other. I didn't get a chance to answer as he said he made a decision for me, I'm out! I was with the new band for years after the old band fell apart so it worked out for me any way. New guys became "brothers" to me and am still in contact with them.
 

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