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Why did you quit your last band?

#221
I resigned from my country band of two years last week. We were a good solid working band and for the most part got along well.
Our singer left right before the Covid crisis and we were unable to get her replacement going properly with the shutdowns. We also lost all the fun festival gigs I loved and now were looking at basic bar gigs till 2am which I started to hate.
There were few issues but one was the drummers we rotated in and out due to schedules that got to me. I will miss them but not the late night gigs, I'm just not wanting them and did not miss them in the time we were off.
I will focus on my blues band which is local and never plays late shows. They are great guys and exceptional players and we have a great time, although we don't gig as much as my former country band did.
 
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#222
last band I quit...well frankly the BL was not very good either on guitar or backing vocals. Nor was he willing to invest in an adequate PA to support the sorts of shows he wanted (or had the vehicle to carry it anyway). The BL was a nice guy who simply was not as good as he thought he was and he was killing our sound. And gigs were becoming fewer and fewer, with less and less money. No gigs will drive people off.

but in the end, I saw little possibility that this band was going anywhere. the pieces were simply not there and there was no way to replace the BL on guitar - it was his band!!

The 2 original members however have kept going, while members are hired and soon quit...over and over. To me it was simply a waste of time even if everyone were basically nice guys
 
#223
The drummer who I started the band with was a raging drunk and a bully. Finally back in March we all had it with his crappy attitude and lack of team work. I set everything up early for the gig, as usual, he was late to load in. We do sound check without him, he's too busy getting hammered. So I left a sign not to power up the main stage power, there was additional lights for load in purposes. The moron rips down the sign cranks on the main power and starts messing with the board (which I just bought) and blows the fuse on the board. Fast forward to Show time, no sound from the board. I finally figure out what happened and fix it. The whole while he's bitching about his monitor mix and how he can't hear anything. He's also double fisting drinks like a champ. During the show he's screwing up every song. During the 2nd break the manager takes me to his office and shows me the video camera footage of him messing around with everything. I ask him if he touched anything, nope not me. During the 3rd set he's insulting the crowd and all of us. He's so drunk he can't even keep time. So, we all quit that night and reformed a new band with an amazing drummer!
 
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#224
adk teleman said:
The drummer who I started the band with was a raging drunk and a bully. Finally back in March we all had it with his crappy attitude and lack of team work. I set everything up early for the gig, as usual, he was late to load in. We do sound check without him, he's too busy getting hammered. So I left a sign not to power up the main stage power, there was additional lights for load in purposes. The moron rips down the sign cranks on the main power and starts messing with the board (which I just bought) and blows the fuse on the board. Fast forward to Show time, no sound from the board. I finally figure out what happened and fix it. The whole while he's bitching about his monitor mix and how he can't hear anything. He's also double fisting drinks like a champ. During the show he's screwing up every song. During the 2nd break the manager takes me to his office and shows me the video camera footage of him messing around with everything. I ask him if he touched anything, nope not me. During the 3rd set he's insulting the crowd and all of us. He's so drunk he can't even keep time. So, we all quit that night and reformed a new band with an amazing drummer!
Click to expand...

IME the drummer is usually one of the first guys to show up at a gig.

Are you setting up the drum kit as part of your set up? How can you do a sound check without the drummer?
 
#226
adk teleman said:
The drummer who I started the band with was a raging drunk and a bully. Finally back in March we all had it with his crappy attitude and lack of team work. I set everything up early for the gig, as usual, he was late to load in. We do sound check without him, he's too busy getting hammered. So I left a sign not to power up the main stage power, there was additional lights for load in purposes. The moron rips down the sign cranks on the main power and starts messing with the board (which I just bought) and blows the fuse on the board. Fast forward to Show time, no sound from the board. I finally figure out what happened and fix it. The whole while he's bitching about his monitor mix and how he can't hear anything. He's also double fisting drinks like a champ. During the show he's screwing up every song. During the 2nd break the manager takes me to his office and shows me the video camera footage of him messing around with everything. I ask him if he touched anything, nope not me. During the 3rd set he's insulting the crowd and all of us. He's so drunk he can't even keep time. So, we all quit that night and reformed a new band with an amazing drummer!
Click to expand...
I used to have a drummer like that. Emphasis on used to.
 
#228
I really enjoy reading these threads but all of my band splits have been amicable.

-Last band broke up because a member was going away for school.
-Left one before that because I was about to have my first kid and the band seemed to be winding down anyway.
-Left the one before that because I thought they were going places -they really didn't- and I didn't have time to commit to a bigger band.
 
#229
It was a few years ago but I quit for a couple reasons. First was because we had a drummer that refused to practice even though the practice space was at his house so his kit was always set up.

The other major reason was because of the singer, he didn't play anything. He was a good frontman when it came to working the crowd and an OK singer but that was it. He was lazy and drank too much. This was bad for me because he was also my neighbor and a friend before he was in the group. In light of our history outside the band and that our families were close I opted out of the group without having discussions that would lead to hard feelings.

Have a great couple folks to work with now, and enjoying music. The reasons given above for leaving the previous band do not exist in this group.
 
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#234
Hey, I remember this thread :)

Kind of a sad update, I found out about a year ago that the one good guitarist from the band passed away due to cardiac issues. He was a really good guy. Massive in size. I didn't know how he managed to play guitar because they were so tiny on him lol.

I also have another band that I have left since then. Similar problem as with the first group - a decently long commute and the group stopped making progress when it came to learning and writing new material. This time the drummer was the one not coming in prepared. Oh well. I've basically been playing guitar since leaving this band.
 
#235
I "unvolunteered" at one of the churches I used to play at - when a new worship leader arrived, after a while it became obvious the band was there to serve the worship leader, which is not the reason I play in churches. Basically an ego problem - I'm sure none of you playing in other settings never experience that kind of thing. ;-)
 
#236
Started a classic rock cover band at the end of 2016. Two guitars and a drummer, then added a female singer in mid-2017. Made decent progress with putting together about half of a setlist, and we did a few open mic appearances in 2017 and it was looking good for us to be gigging actively in 2018.

Then the setbacks started: the singer involuntarily "left" the band (and that's a whole 'nother story right there..) at the beginning of 2018, the drummer was traveling so much we couldn't string together more than 1-2 practices in a row with 3-4 weeks in between (it sucks trying to practice without drums), and one guitar player was very inexperienced and was having trouble learning and retaining a lot of the material. At the end of 2018 we added a singer who was in a previous band with drummer and the more experienced guitar player, and I organized a meeting with everyone (even distributed a written agenda) so we could set realistic goals and come up with a plan for 2019. The final thing I said at the meeting was that my hard deadline was that we needed to be gig-ready by the middle of 2019, which was a totally realistic goal if we could get regular practices in and figure out how to work the singer into our setlist.

Sure enough, drummer kept traveling, guitar player was getting overwhelmed by the material even though he should have been able to handle it, and the singer was doing a good job with the vocals but was clearly more interested in the hang at practice rather than actually working and making progress towards gigging. By the end of June we were not only no closer to gigging but had actually taken a step or two backwards, so I made the calls to let them know that I was done with it. Funny thing was, everyone in the band was so surprised when I quit, even though I gave it to them in writing that I was done if we didn't have a gig-ready set list together.

I wouldn't call it a total waste of time, as I learned a bunch of covers, improved my playing and drastically improved my singing, and truly enjoyed hanging out with those guys, but it certainly was discouraging. I will gladly join an established band with a ready set list, but I'm never going to try and put together a act from scratch again.

-Y
 
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#240
An inflexible BL and boy/girl drama between said BL and the singer. This was a typical bar band with a typical bar band set. The BL, however, wasn't really interested in any
suggestions for what to cover. There are a handful of songs I can sing and play, all of which fit this kind of band. We didn't argue or anything. It just didn't sit well with me.
The BL and the singer were a couple and they seemed to get along like oil and water. There was always some kind of tension, which doesn't make for a comfortable arrangement.

And to be totally honest, gigging just wasn't fun anymore. I quit and I don't gig anymore. I'm much happier and I don't miss it one bit. I do miss playing with other people in person,
but since covid came to town that really isn't an option.
 

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