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How long have you stayed in one band?

mike o

mike o

Supporting Member
Jan 3, 2009
599
1,058
Monroe, GA
#1
Hey folks,

I've always admired bands where the members stuck together for many years or decades. Not talking about headliner touring bands. Just those lower key weekend warriors (like most of us). Personally reflecting at my old age of 58, I'm good for a year, maybe two before I leave or the band implodes. My longest stint was maybe 5 years with a very good band but eventually everyone got tired of the same old show. Shoot, the past ten years I'm lucky to last a year. I also know my tolerance for -you fill in the blank- has gotten much worse which doesn't help.

Let us hear from you long term folks any ideas on how you keep it together. Also love to hear some of those break up/apart reasons.

Thoughts????
 
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#2
Texas-Johnny-Brown.jpg








9 years with this gent until he passed away in 2013.
 
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#3
Note: Results may vary...
Usually for me it seems the less skilled a band has been, the longer it tended to stay together and the absolutely awful bands just never seemed to go away.
The great bands I have been in are generally very fluid and only lasted a short time in comparison.
These bands are usually made up of highly skilled musicians who have lots of irons in the fire and are sought after.
When I get in the great bands, I seize the moment and ride it for all it's worth.

In answer to the question, longest time in a band: 6 years of hard labor and saying every week, "If I don't get paroled soon, I'm bustin' outta this joint" As you surmised, they weren't very talented.
 
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#5
The Nerve lasted 10 years, but I played in many other bands while we were together.

Pretty sure every other band I ever played in lasted only a year or two (some less), though I still play with a Zep tribute, and a solo artist both of whom I've been with for about 6 years.
 
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#7
mwbonsall said:
I have been playing with these guys since the mid 70's on and off. Kenny Skaggs (far right) ran off with the Glen Campbell Band for 23 years, but he is back now. Glad we are still alive and kicking.

View attachment 1183062

Mark
Click to expand...
Whoa, I think we have a winner! Gonna be hard to beat 40 years especially since a lot of TalkBass members aren't even 40 years old.
 
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#8
I'd played guitar for almost 50 years and never was a member of a band, then 4 years ago I took up the ukulele. I joined 2 uke groups knowing I was about to retire, one was a seniors group of about 40-50 members meeting twice a week with gigs almost every month, the other a uke ensemble that meets once every two weeks with gigs every couple of months. I'm still a member of the seniors group, and for the last almost three years play bass uke with them.

The ensemble was much more advanced and for the year I was with them, I always felt that I was struggling to keep up, then the one member who arrogantly considered himself the "pro" called me out for flubs I did during rehearsal, even though everyone flubbed at one time or another that night, which pushed me over the edge and I dropped out. I'm thoroughly enjoying being part of the senior group for the last 4 years.

Just as an aside, in the almost 50 years playing guitar, I accumulated four, a 6 and a 12 string acoustic, an archtop hollow body, and a Fender Telecaster. In the 4 years playing uke and bass uke, I have 7 ukes and 16 bass ukes/mini bass guitars.
 
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#12
7 years, then we disbanded. More because of the changing personal situations and lack of income from the the band than unwillingness to play. In the first one and a half year we went from a 3 piece band to a 5 piece band, that stayed together till the end.
 
#18
I've been with my current band for 6 years, which is the longest that I've stayed in any band. During the time I've been with the band we replaced our front man four years ago, and our drummer about 18 months ago. In both cases, the previous guys left for personal reasons (and entirely amicably, we're still friends) and, happily, they've both been replaced by guys who are better musicians.

In it's various incarnations, the band has been gigging successfully for around 15 years based around our lead/rhythm guitarist who started the band and our rhythm/lead guitarist who has been around since the band was formed (they both play lead - including twin lead stuff - but the first guy is better at it and does all of the more complex solos). I think we're currently on version 6 of the band.

Recently, the second guitarist (who is also my cousin) decided to call it a day and retire from music altogether. We have an agreement that anyone who gives notice stays until a suitable replacement is found so we've been on the hunt for the last few months. It's important to us that everybody's personality fits because we take the music seriously but none of us has a giant, obnoxious ego. We've just found a guy who seems as if he'll fit right in and has a reputation as a really good guitarist, by all accounts better than the guy he'll be replacing. We'll wait and see - we haven't heard him yet but we're trying him out on Monday, so I'm looking forward to seeing if he lives up to his billing.

If he does I have no plans to leave anytime soon, after playing for over forty years and now in my early 60s, this particular weekend warrior band is the best I've ever been in. We're already capable of making a good job of songs that other bands at our level shy away from and this can only improve if our next member is more accomplished than the last.
 
#19
mike o said:
Hey folks,

I've always admired bands where the members stuck together for many years or decades. Not talking about headliner touring bands. Just those lower key weekend warriors (like most of us). Personally reflecting at my old age of 58, I'm good for a year, maybe two before I leave or the band implodes. My longest stint was maybe 5 years with a very good band but eventually everyone got tired of the same old show. Shoot, the past ten years I'm lucky to last a year. I also know my tolerance for -you fill in the blank- has gotten much worse which doesn't help.

Let us hear from you long term folks any ideas on how you keep it together. Also love to hear some of those break up/apart reasons.

Thoughts????
Click to expand...

I, too, have always admired bands that stay together for an eternity, for example, Rush. I expect that our lineup will change over the years, but as long as we all tolerate each other, have chemistry and get gigs, I'll remain.
 
#20
the last band I was in lasted 17 years although it changed drastically- mainly because our lead guitarist passed away 6 years into my tenure. 8 years later our rhythm player had a stroke. so the three of us ( keys, drums & bass) continued. but they wanted to start playing jazz - I kept up for about a year and a half but i'm not really a very good jazz bassists and more importantly, I don't want to be. the drummer was adamant about playing jazz - (quite frankly they were very good and miles above my ability) so I just let them know I was leaving. we did not have any gigs lined up to it was a rather friendly departure and we send each other files of stuff were working on.
 
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