Just when your band is going well !!

[skwee]

My current band is going on 7 years with the same three guys. 7 years thats like 57 in band years.

This just completely destroyed me.

 

[robbotbass]

This just completely destroyed me.

The longest running band I was in before this one was only like 2 years. So we always joke when we do the math.

 

[jimc]

Anytime you want somebody to quit your band just schedule a pro photo shoot. It works nearly every time but, if it doesn't, an expensive video shoot will do the trick (of course it's never the person you actually want to quit).

 

[Monsterbass74]

Not to sound pompous, but when I was a member of any band I was in I was the "X-factor". When I quit, sub-par replacements came and killed their vibe. The amount of bands that broke apart after I quit are countless. I even had one guitarist come crying on my doorstep begging me back while jealous singers tried to spread vicious rumors because they knew I sang better, wrote complimentary parts and sometimes better material.

I dropped out of the "original circuit" nearly a decade ago. You find MUCH better adjusted people in cover bands.

 

[IncX]

Anytime you want somebody to quit your band just schedule a pro photo shoot. It works nearly every time but, if it doesn't, an expensive video shoot will do the trick (of course it's never the person you actually want to quit).

this is so funny because it happened to me!

 

[BananaKing]

I've had bands break up after the first hint of serious recording was suggested.

In one band I was in years ago, the singer recorded three tracks at a proper studio and then decided that this band was not for her. It would have been fine, except that every time we tried to cover the songs with another vocalist, the old vocalist would make life really hard by badmouthing us or doing something to make us look as bad as possible. They weren't even her songs, either. We eventually decided to end it when the drummer got a cruise ship gig and I and the guitarist went back to school.

Luckily, I'm in a band that I love now. I play in a few projects that I do fill-in gigs for or jam onstage with, but I have a couple projects that I love. We decided early on to try to find where there might be issues in the future and deal with working on them now. For money, we have a bank account for the funds we make from gigs where half of the money gets split up between the 4 of us and the other half goes into a bank account for gear, printing, cost covering, etc....

I don't see it ending anytime soon.

 

[stingraysvt]

Last road band I played in the Guitar player and the drummer were ready to quit, the lead singer wanted to start playing 5 nights a week an I just wanted to play our measly 2-3 gigs per week

We had about 7 or more really good paying gigs to finish out the year, and the Lead singer was determined to have a new band in place by then, so over Thanksgiving break she finds a Bass player and Guitar player, sends them a songlist blah blah blah.

We play our "last show" even though we had more booked.. and she tells us (me really, I wasn't in the loop) that the new guitarist and bassists would sit in an ENTIRE set on what would be my last time on stage with a band that I helped form, I was ultimately pissed so I didn't talk to any of the jerks all night... as the night progresses she keeps getting texts that they are late leaving, and they'll be there around 10, then 10 turn to 11, 11 to 12 and this bar cuts bands off at 12:30 so I keep waiting for these two nutjobs to walk through the door and they never do, Jesus must have heard my prayers because if there is one thing you don't do, it's upstage your former band with the new one at the farewell show!!!

She proceeds to cancel dates that we had booked that would have been about $2k in my pocket around Christmas time, and when the new guitar player and drummer bounce on some dates she had booked for the new year, low and behold the old drummer and old guitar player are there, playing a gig that was a regular booking that we played!



Some people aren't worth the trouble, needless to say they all cried at the last show and I was sitting there smiling. What's to cry about when I played with a bunch of little __________ fill in the blank's

 

[stingraysvt]

Anytime you want somebody to quit your band just schedule a pro photo shoot. It works nearly every time but, if it doesn't, an expensive video shoot will do the trick (of course it's never the person you actually want to quit).

this is so funny because it happened to me!

My dad had pictures of his old band that played for years and lookin at the pro pics, he told me that these never were used, after taking them the band split up, he said it happened every time they took pictures back in the day!

 

[GRAHAM SG1]

Not to sound pompous, but when I was a member of any band I was in I was the "X-factor".

Not pompous, just vain

I know what you mean, being incredibly handsome myself LOL

In any organisation there is often one person who stands out, whether by looks, personality or whatever, many bass players dont come into this category as they seem to stand in the background concentrating, frontmen have to have the personality or the band seems dull, it requires quick wit and humour or drop dead gorgeous looks, I am not being pompous but I am the perfect frontman and have both
I am our bands frontman and bass player and its a bloody hard job to do, sometimes too much to handle

Back to my bands situation, I have had two enquiries about new guitarists, one worries me though, he sounds great for the job but he sent me a photo of his gear, the amps look like a Motorhead backline and we are just a pub/small club band, will he turn down when asked or will it develop into agruments about volume, I hope I am wrong but I can see it happening
I remain positive as we have a very solid friendship and the additional guitar is the icing on the cake, we have played as a trio before .

 

[powmetalbassist]

Got the same problem as the OP. Over the past 2 1/2 year everytime we seem to be on the verge of something someone quits, or disappears. Just recently lost a guitarist.

 

[nobodysfool]

It happens to every band at some point. I fronted a band (that I helped to start) for 5 years. It was a trio, and the guitarist owned the PA system. He fell and broke his left wrist and we limped through with another guitarist for a few months until he could come back, then a year later, he announced he was going to quit, but let us continue to use the PA. The replacement lasted for 2 gigs and I had to fire him because of his drinking (getting trashed to the point of not being able to play is something I won't tolerate). I talked the original guy into coming back, and a year later, he pulled the plug entirely, PA and all, which effectively killed the band. I didn't have the finances or income to be able to go out and buy an entire PA system. I learned a valuable lesson from that, which is to not front and run a band where you don't own the key essential equipment (PA).

In the band I'm in now, I'm the "new guy" (7 years ago) in a band that has been together for nearly 34 years, with very few personnel changes. And, I occasionally sit in with other bands, which gives me a chance to stretch a little, and challenge my chops.

 

[jaywa]

As others have said, it usually happens right after you spend a lot of money on band photos.

In a lot of cases I think it comes down to what each band member defines as "going well". In my band's case, we lost our chick singer earlier this year when she looked at our (extremely full) summer gigging calendar and decided she didn't want to spend almost every weekend of the summer making music. She was also getting hassled a lot about the band by her D-bag boyfriend. To me, playing a lot of gigs in the summer is a GOOD thing, but she saw it otherwise. No big loss though, we got through the summer without her just fine, and were happy to split what would have been her cut of the pay among the rest of us.