Very first band...........

[overit]

15 years old around early 90s with high school buddies between freshman and sophomore year. The guitarist was excellent and grew up playing Clapton, the drummer was a senior, kept good time and drove. We had a rhythm guitarist that could hang and I was on a G&L fretless bass because that's what I had - picked it off the wall because I thought an unlined fingerboard looked cool. It was white with the black crinkly hardware and and I put some black Fender tapewounds on it. I didn't know who Jaco was. We played standard blues and classic rock covers and our first gig was at a bar, the guitar player's father got us in I think or maybe someone older the drummer knew. I clearly remember that gig because as a shy kid, a patron called attention to me somewhere mid-set saying "Give a hand to the kid in the back playing a fretless bass". I think that day was the day I learned that playing live is more about playing the music, it's also about performing.

 

[FlyingPigSound]

10 years ago I started playing bass, and in a matter of months I was playing my Hofner in an acoustic Beatles band called "Liverpool Acoustic" in the Chicago burbs. We were pretty good. The band broke up (Yoko situation actually), and I moved on to playing in rock cover bands. The band reformed recently, and I now do sound for them often.

 

[TheReceder]

Ha! They couldn't do that to me. MY M.O. was that I already knew all the top songs. That's why I kept getting calls to join bands. All I did was sit by the radio and learn songs. The bass players I replaced never knew any of the songs or barely played them correctly. As for my very first real gig, on stage, in front of 100's.......I was nervous until the first note hit. Was hooked!

Top songs would have been easy. This was mostly obscure stuff, and a fair amount of Beatles. To this day... I hate the Beatles. Why couldn't they just write just 1 4 5 songs like every other simpleton.

 

[DWBass]

Top songs would have been easy. This was mostly obscure stuff, and a fair amount of Beatles. To this day... I hate the Beatles. Why couldn't they just write just 1 4 5 songs like every other simpleton.

This is why I refuse to be in a band that plays obscure tunes. Gotta be Top40 only for me.

 

[fretter]

After futzing around on guitar for a number of years, I finally joined my first band at 24. Guitarist, drummer, and me on bass. Finally, we got a vocalist. We played one bar gig to an empty house. After about 6 months, I joined my second band. They grew up together, had been playing for a while and had a demo. I was the replacement bassist. With that one I remained about 2 years. We practiced constantly. We did a couple of performances in a music store during a car show, and one club gig to a sparse crowd. After I left the second band, I returned to the first one. They had a new singer. We did one gig at a large haunted house. The audience tolerated us. At that point, I decided to hang it up and focus on my future.

While I can't find a recording of the first band right now, here's the second:

 

[Flashback Bass]

My first "band" was with my older brother on drums and middle sister on clarinet!

My first "real" band was when I was in my late 20's/early 30's. As you can see our name was Physical Insult. This photo is from the only gig we ever played which was in the sunken den of the lead guitarist girlfriend's parents house while they were on vacation. It ended badly when some drunk dude who wanted to blow harp with us caught me turning off his mic on the PA. The tirade ended with him throwing the keg through the kitchen window! Yeah, good times!

I'm on bass.

 

[Ron Berenato]

I was 16. I met some guys who needed a bass player. They were heavily into prog. First practice I had to learn 21st Century Schizoid Man (King Crimson) and then Xanadu from Rush. I totally annoyed the lead singer who was helping me learn the songs. It was quite a stretch from my buddies and our constant jamming of the 3 chord ending to Freebird.

 

[micguy]

10 years ago I started playing bass, and in a matter of months I was playing my Hofner in an acoustic Beatles band called "Liverpool Acoustic" in the Chicago burbs. We were pretty good. The band broke up (Yoko situation actually)

Nice of you to be so true to their music that you even broke up the same way. Good job!

 

[FrenchBassQC]

Very first band, I was thirteen and we were wearing white pants with a red shirt (I have no pictures of it and I am very happy about it).

 

[Ric5]

My first band

1968 my older brother played drums, his friend played guitar and they asked me to play bass. I didn't know what bass was but I said yes, My first bass was a 6 string guitar with fat flatwound strings, I removed the high b and high e strings.

 

[kesslari]

I was 16 for both first band and first gig, but they were different. Band - only rehearsed a couple of times, I barely remember it. But then, it was the 70's and there's a lot I don't remember.
But I did a duo with a really great female singer and we gigged a few times. Then I left for California, which has been good for me.

 

[JRA]

How old were you when you joined your very first band?

i was 12. it was 1962.

And how good was that band?

i think we sounded a lot like 12 year-olds, in their first band. but we played for the 'look-at-me' thrill of it all, and i think we were highly successful at that!

the experience did not dissuade me from becoming a life-long musician --- most of that full-time, in one aspect of music or another. i have always been a musician.

 

[Denis F C]

First band? It need to happen. I’m too much of a control freak to be in a band, I prefer to be THE band.

 

[Auspuff]

I was 15-years old, when we formed the "Purple Helmet Band," in high school.

I was fortunate enough to play with some very, naturally talented, people. The two guitarists were brothers (I knew them since first-grade), and both were pretty much virtuoso musicians, by the time they graduated. The drummer was a complete animal, swearing, drinking, and coked-out (true story). I think he worshiped Keith Moon. Then, there was me. I was the least musical of them all, yet they all had the patience to bring me up to speed, and, thank the Lord, I picked the bass up very quickly (plus I could sing).

We did parties, lunch time entertainment, talent shows, school dances, and even we filled in for one hired band, at a school dance, when the hired band took breaks. That was an honor.

It was all a hoot!

Oh, and the school administration never figured out what Purple Helmet was - Except for one Language Teacher. He laughed his ass off!

 

[Riddim Jr]

2006 or 2007, I had picked up bass only a few months before. An acquaintance of mine at high school, a real artsy kind of kid, played drums and had a practice space in the furnished attic area of his parents house. He found out I played and invited me over for a jam. Another acquaintance played guitar and joined in with his Epi flying V. Every Saturday for half a year we met up, played, and sometimes just hung out being dumb. Occasionally the drummer would strum on an out of tune 12-string acoustic, sometimes we would take parts of the drum kit and play it like bongos in a drumming circle.

We never played any shows, it was all for ourselves. I brought an old boombox cassette player and recorded what we played, the mish mash of nonsense and noise. It isn't good, but I found that drummer friend again a decade later and gave him digitized and CD burned copies (at least 4 volumes) of our nonsense. I even made an album cover featuring a photo of our practice space.

Lethargica was the drummer's name for the group. It has always stuck with me and I do enjoy those memories!

 

[Lowbrow]

Probably age 13 ... my awful Heit bass and a cramped bedroom full of kids who would call out a song, not discuss the chords (nor know that there should be some agreement) and just bash away. Awful.
Later I joined up with 'Riff Raff' (isn't there a kid band with this name in every town?) who were a little bummed that I was only 15 and would cramp their chances of getting club gigs (fat chance: they agreed on chord changes, but overestimated their entertainment value). We DID have a recurring gig ... a monthly residency at a local MENTAL HOSPITAL before the Cramps made it cool! We held a dance contest there once - not a good idea.
Below is our third-place performance at a 1977 HS battle of the bands - me on my Mustang!

 

[Seashore]

The first time I tried to put something together with other people was shortly after I got my first electric guitar. I was thirteen, so late 1992 or 93. Can't even remember what it was called. I started writing "songs" right away, was always much more interested in coming up with my own ideas than anything else. I went through a bunch of different lineups and jams throughout high school, did a few recording projects with friends, and finally got a "real band" with a stable lineup together for shows at college. That was all on guitar and vocals, which I still do -- played bass on recordings but didn't start being "the bass player" in bands until about 15 years ago.

 

[Jimmy4string]

I created a band called "The Federation of loose musicians" The main idea was to get so many people in list someone would want to practice with me. ( always wanted to play my bass back then)
What ended up happening is the same group all got together. Drummer in this pic was ridiculously good. My bass playing was less than steller. A comment on this backyard gig. We rehearsed relentlessly indoors and when we transferred everything outdoor of course nothing worked. HA HA! Nothing like standing in front of the audience for an hour while PA issues are getting fixed. Oh well!
The girl singer was pretty and pretty good

PS this was hot August and everyone made fun of me because i dressed up for the gig.

 

[rtslinger]

How old were you when you joined your very first band? And how good was that band?

1973. I was 14. The band REALLY sucked. Drummer was a beginner. Guitarist consistently played the wrong chords and would get mad when I would point it out to him. Keyboardist just wasn't really interested. He had potential but wasn't interested in being a musician. Go figure. I was WAY ahead of them skill wise but I had no other outlet........until I got the call for band #2.....a real band. Only played 2 gigs before I got the call for band #3.....an even better band that lasted 2 years.

11 years old my cousin and I an a friend from the town put together a original band.
We were into horror movies and the song writing was in that vein some.
Titles I can't forget were Screaming Lawn mowers in the cellar, Walking Dead lyric ( she was the walking dead she didn't have a head but she was still walking around) Clockwerk Cranium which was also the name of the band ( got a clock cranium Henry's never been late, got a clock cranium his boss would engrave it in slate) Skyway to Mars yeah I know but 11 back then was a lot more naive than 11 today . That band actually was my first live gig as well played we a place called Jerry Roaster tail lounge I was 13 1971 it started the whole ball rolling for me. by 1975 we changed the name to Storm and we had already recorded 4 song ep in a recording studio again no big deal by today's standard's but back then you had to pay to record your stuff. no picture of the first band but here is Storm 1975

 

[funkinbottom]

First real band was '70, 16 years old. Was actually a descent sounding band. Everyone had 3 to 5 years on their instruments. Mostly blues. John Mayall, Very early Fleetwood Mac, and even a couple originals. Our first gig was at Dartmouth Jr. High. The band name was Salty Zebra Queen. Who know where the **** that came from, but that is what we went by.

I was 16 for both first band and first gig, but they were different. Band - only rehearsed a couple of times, I barely remember it. But then, it was the 70's and there's a lot I don't remember.
But I did a duo with a really great female singer and we gigged a few times. Then I left for California, which has been good for me.

And now Fusion Cats. Tell Richard Kip says hello.