On a less than serious note... Have you ever booked a gig and been told what not to play?
Tomorrow nights venue is a "No Simple Man" zone.
Tomorrow nights venue is a "No Simple Man" zone.
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Please do not play "x"
- Thread starter Runnerman
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Sort of.
After reviewing a list of 1,000+ tunes in our performance repertoire, a bride-to-be's mother advised our bandleader that we would be sued – jointly and severally – if we performed Alanis Morissette's "You Oughta Know" (1995), Shania Twain's "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under" (1995) or Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" (2005) on her daughter's special day.
After reviewing a list of 1,000+ tunes in our performance repertoire, a bride-to-be's mother advised our bandleader that we would be sued – jointly and severally – if we performed Alanis Morissette's "You Oughta Know" (1995), Shania Twain's "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under" (1995) or Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" (2005) on her daughter's special day.
At weddings, we've been told not to play "chicken dance." Good thing we mainly play jazz standards that nobody recognizes, such as "Love For Sale." 
Happens at wedding gigs all the time.
There's almost always a short list of "banned songs" you'll be given. And there's invariably going to be some extremely drunk member of the wedding party that will loudly and repeatedly call for at least one of them before the reception ends. Count on it.
Goes with the turf.
There's almost always a short list of "banned songs" you'll be given. And there's invariably going to be some extremely drunk member of the wedding party that will loudly and repeatedly call for at least one of them before the reception ends. Count on it.
Goes with the turf.
I hate Simple Man. We play it at every gig because people love it. We added it to the song list at my suggestion. I don't get club owners that ban songs their patrons want to hear. It's just stupid.
My band learned simple man because somebody (a band mates friend) wanted to sit in and sing it with us. I'm not a fan of the song, but I do like Leon as a player, and like his line on this one, so I was OK with it.
That was of course, before the gig. Come time for the big moment and.......guest singer was singing while reading lyrics from an iPhone the whole time, and even then, blew transitions and whatnot.
***? Ask to sit in, we spend time learning a tune for you, and then you come unprepared? What a chump. Lessons learned, never again.
On the wedding band thing, yeah, my wife told the bandleader if they played Celebration by Cool and the Gang, we wouldn't pay them. He was a personal friend, so it was an idle threat, but, it was clear to him to take it off the list.
She told the DJ for both our kids bar/bat Mitzvahs the same. She has a thing about that song.
That was of course, before the gig. Come time for the big moment and.......guest singer was singing while reading lyrics from an iPhone the whole time, and even then, blew transitions and whatnot.
***? Ask to sit in, we spend time learning a tune for you, and then you come unprepared? What a chump. Lessons learned, never again.
On the wedding band thing, yeah, my wife told the bandleader if they played Celebration by Cool and the Gang, we wouldn't pay them. He was a personal friend, so it was an idle threat, but, it was clear to him to take it off the list.
She told the DJ for both our kids bar/bat Mitzvahs the same. She has a thing about that song.
You are right people love it so its pretty lame to outlaw it. But I guess we want to get paid. I don't mind the intro and verse lines but it is repetitive...it's not the worst of the worst though.
That would seem pretty normal for a wedding or other specific event. Some songs would just not be in good taste for some occasions or might have bad vibes for some people. A bar/club doing that is odd, but they're paying you so roll with it.Not like there isn't a thousand other songs you can play.
Worse? You must mean Wagon Wheel. I hate that song too. I tried to add it but the drummer refused to play it. We fired him last week so we'll add it with our new drummer.
I normally don't take to being censored too well, but we have some songs we do that we police ourselves on, like a particular Supersuckers song called " Pretty F'd Up.". Have to know your crowd.
If youre in a cover band and want chicks on the dance floor, refusing to play wagon wheel would be like a fast food hamburger restaurant refusing to serve fries.
I feel your pain because this somewhat happened to me. We were playing a charity gig for a Kindergarten fundraiser, and the plan was to have a good friend of the drummer sit in and sing U2's "With or without you". He picked the song because he was known to be a decent singer and this was one of his favorite songs.
So we prepare the thing, the band was tight but the guest singer was never available for rehearsal. Fine, he's got a reputation and he knows the song by heart, it'll work out.
Except it didn't - the guy got lost a lot, forgot the lyrics at some parts, and generally his voice sounded really strained and he could barely hold a note. Luckily, he didn't need a phone, at least!
The audience was really forgiving, but his friend, our drummer, was angry and embarrassed that he even invited him.
Celebration is massively played-out on so many levels, but slap September on the turntable and you know it's a good party.
Exactly. That's one of the reasons we fired him. When I got in the band I said I was only interested in playing tunes that the audience knows and likes. In eight months I don't think he suggested more than two tunes that I'd ever heard. And the ones he did suggest were obscure versions of the tunes that nobody knew.
- Oct 7, 2000
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The Osprey, a fairly well known place in NJ, forbids the playing of Shout. It's posted in the dressing room, on the stage, and elsewhere. It's impossible to miss, and says bands will be permanently banned if they play it.
Played another place at a ski lodge recently where Shipping Up To Boston and Killing in the Name Of were banned. We didn't know, played Killing In the Name Of, and took some sheit for it. We may have blown the gig, but it was more trouble than it was worth anyhow.
Played another place at a ski lodge recently where Shipping Up To Boston and Killing in the Name Of were banned. We didn't know, played Killing In the Name Of, and took some sheit for it. We may have blown the gig, but it was more trouble than it was worth anyhow.
Yeah, 'Your Cheating Heart' is not a good call for a wedding gig.
