I've had a heavy metal cover band going for about a year now and although every gig goes down really well, it's still so very slow. Mainly because our drummers are all over the place!
Our very first drummer ended up with a tag and a 7pm curfew for 3 months... What gig ends at 6pm? We had to fire him.
Our main issue is with the guy we have now. He's probably the BEST drummer I've ever played with, also he's a great singer and provides some fantastic BVs (the rest of us are either no good or just too shy) and he's also absolutely charming. He tells jokes, the crowd love him, all the band love him (hell, I LIVE with him and the vocalist) and we all just get along so well within the band.
But, like many talented musicians, he can get himself in a right old state. He doesn't have his own kit (not even breakables) he has no transport, and doesn't even have enough money to pay his share at rehearsals, although we still pay him for gigs. A couple of months ago he also got himself a girlfriend who lives pretty far away... He never comes home! He wont practice, he says he can't do the gigs, he wont go to uni anymore, I haven't seen him in about a month and I live with the guy! (We've begun to refer to his girlfriend as 'yoko', he started bringing her to his other band's practice and she sat around complaining the whole time...)
We had a gig christmas eve and unsurprisingly he wouldn't come. We found a guy to fill in on drums, he was very good considering we only had one 4-hour practice all together. He's also a very nice guy, actually reliable and enthusiastic! But he's this kinda dweeby little guy, doesn't really fit a METAL band, no hair to throw around, he's shy, wont do BVs and generally just isn't that drummer we all love! Also then I was the only person doing BVs and I'm really not good enough.
Well after that gig this dep drummer said how much he enjoyed playing with us, and we'd all warmed up the idea of keeping him on (we might recruit a keyboardist who can do BVs).
But I get home and there's a message from our current drummer saying how he wished he could have been there and how he can't wait to get back to playing with us... I just don't know what to do! He says he's turning over a new leaf this year and sorting himself out but should I risk it? Four of us have uni assessments riding on this band and are actually serious about making money, we can't give up on it! I also don't want to ruin friendships by firing him, he used to make rehearsals so much fun!
Our very first drummer ended up with a tag and a 7pm curfew for 3 months... What gig ends at 6pm? We had to fire him.
Our main issue is with the guy we have now. He's probably the BEST drummer I've ever played with, also he's a great singer and provides some fantastic BVs (the rest of us are either no good or just too shy) and he's also absolutely charming. He tells jokes, the crowd love him, all the band love him (hell, I LIVE with him and the vocalist) and we all just get along so well within the band.
But, like many talented musicians, he can get himself in a right old state. He doesn't have his own kit (not even breakables) he has no transport, and doesn't even have enough money to pay his share at rehearsals, although we still pay him for gigs. A couple of months ago he also got himself a girlfriend who lives pretty far away... He never comes home! He wont practice, he says he can't do the gigs, he wont go to uni anymore, I haven't seen him in about a month and I live with the guy! (We've begun to refer to his girlfriend as 'yoko', he started bringing her to his other band's practice and she sat around complaining the whole time...)
We had a gig christmas eve and unsurprisingly he wouldn't come. We found a guy to fill in on drums, he was very good considering we only had one 4-hour practice all together. He's also a very nice guy, actually reliable and enthusiastic! But he's this kinda dweeby little guy, doesn't really fit a METAL band, no hair to throw around, he's shy, wont do BVs and generally just isn't that drummer we all love! Also then I was the only person doing BVs and I'm really not good enough.
Well after that gig this dep drummer said how much he enjoyed playing with us, and we'd all warmed up the idea of keeping him on (we might recruit a keyboardist who can do BVs).
But I get home and there's a message from our current drummer saying how he wished he could have been there and how he can't wait to get back to playing with us... I just don't know what to do! He says he's turning over a new leaf this year and sorting himself out but should I risk it? Four of us have uni assessments riding on this band and are actually serious about making money, we can't give up on it! I also don't want to ruin friendships by firing him, he used to make rehearsals so much fun!
