I've been kicked out of my band!!! :-(

[MickM]

@teletail

We never liked you anyway.

But your girlfriend is smokin' hawt.

xoxo,
Tha Band

Would that be signed "Da Band" in Chicago?

 

[bromdenlong]

Funny story. I've been with this band for about a year. When I joined them I told them about my other band and that gigs were first come, first serve and they said no problem. Well, my other band booked more gigs this year than I anticipated and the new band was unhappy about it. We had a few discussions and I basically said, "I can't turn down gigs and keep my calendar open in case you book a gig." We kind of left it at that, but I was starting to feel some pressure and meanwhile, the bloom was off the rose and the other guitarist was really starting to grate on my nerves. He sometimes started songs out of tune, had some settings on his electronic gizmo that were just muddy, didn't learn the songs right (everyone else did), and has no tact (I think he may have mild Aspergers). On top of that, we had a long discussion before I joined about picking up some challenging material, and we've been doing the same I, IV, V (ish) material and when we did learn some of the harder stuff, the other guitarist didn't learn it right. He said, "Your playing the fancy chords." I felt like saying, "I'm playing the RIGHT chords." Anyway I could see where this was headed and had decided that I was going to give them notice after the New Years gig.

So I'm on my way to a gig with the other band and I'm accidently copied on an email from the new band talking about how to divide the songs I sing up with the new guy.

View attachment 1059893

That's followed by a phone call, which I didn't take because I was in a car with the first band, and then another email apologizing and explaining that it just wasn't working out, but making sure I would honor the commitments to the gigs on the books.

Anyway, I assured them that there were no hard feelings and that I would honor any gigs I had agreed to and would be glad to sit in if their new guy was out (as long as I wasn't booked).

I think everyone is relieved!

My dad realized he was retiring from his last job when he read about it in his company newsletter.

 

[bromdenlong]

I’m going to paraphrase Ecclesiastes
There is a time for putting bands together and a time for breaking bands apart.

That time is when the seasons turn.

 

[bromdenlong]

No, those are just Rumours….

…rumors from a Tragic Kingdom.

 

[bromdenlong]

I thought that was The Beatles.

No, the Beatles didn’t know ANY rock and roll chords. I have that on good authority from many posts on this very website.

 

[teletail]

My dad realized he was retiring from his last job when he read about it in his company newsletter.

That’s cold!

My last job, my manager called me and asked me if I was available for a conference call. I said sure and a woman from Human Resources joined and said the company was restructuring and my position was being eliminated. I asked when and she said effective immediately. I had just enough time to download the few personal items from my computer and my account was locked within five minutes of hanging up.

These are the same companies that expect people to swear loyalty, work uncompensated overtime and be available 24/7 and call it quiet quitting when we just work our 8 hours.

 

[cometazzi]

No, the Beatles didn’t know ANY rock and roll chords. I have that on good authority from many posts on this very website.

Guess they really were just a skiffle band, eh?

 

[richiek65]

A fellow musician once told me that being in a band was like being married to 3 or 4 people at the same time.

I heard a similar version: Being in a band is like trying to find 5 wives

 

[mixmkr 2023]

And no one.has mentioned church bands ;-)

 

[loudboy]

The whole premise is incomprehensible to me now -

Band with a lot of gigs ?

Where ?

They pay enough that you can decide between which band is gonna make more money ?

Who is paying for bands ?!

Who wants live musicians in their establishment ?

Did you guys find a time machine back to 67/77/87?

We've averaged 80+ gigs a year, since I joined in March of 2020.

We're a 3-piece kind of primitive bluesy band, mixture of originals and mainly obscure covers. Breaks every rule of successful band rules, but we get more work than we want.

Wineries and breweries mainly. Built-in crowds, easy hours, slightly better pay than average bar bands - we average a little more than $100/member. Usually also comped food and drink.

We have a small PA, we get there a half hour before downbeat, and have ten minutes to spare.

 

[Crafty Fox]

Sounds like you dodged a bullet. I don't really know you, but my impression is, you're a lot more serious than this band that 'dumped' you. They need to get rid of Mr. Fancy Chords.

(I'm on the spectrum myself. It's a reason - not an excuse.)

I learned at an advanced age that I'm Aspergers.......I prefer to say that I am 'fashionably' on the spectrum.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Omigosh. Never put anything in an email you wouldn't want to see on the front page of the New York Times the next day. People lose jobs and spouses that way every day.

 

[Cyberi4n]

We've averaged 80+ gigs a year, since I joined in March of 2020.

We're a 3-piece kind of primitive bluesy band, mixture of originals and mainly obscure covers. Breaks every rule of successful band rules, but we get more work than we want.

Wineries and breweries mainly. Built-in crowds, easy hours, slightly better pay than average bar bands - we average a little more than $100/member. Usually also comped food and drink.

We have a small PA, we get there a half hour before downbeat, and have ten minutes to spare.

This would be my ideal, but it’s hard to get anything like that going in North Wales

 

[teletail]

We've averaged 80+ gigs a year, since I joined in March of 2020.

We're a 3-piece kind of primitive bluesy band, mixture of originals and mainly obscure covers. Breaks every rule of successful band rules, but we get more work than we want.

Wineries and breweries mainly. Built-in crowds, easy hours, slightly better pay than average bar bands - we average a little more than $100/member. Usually also comped food and drink.

We have a small PA, we get there a half hour before downbeat, and have ten minutes to spare.

You are my hero!

 

[metalicaster]

It sounds like a tale of crossed wires from the outset. Glad you could go your own ways amicably.

 

[bromdenlong]

Guess they really were just a skiffle band, eh?

Wow! Good memory!

 

[bromdenlong]

No, wait! Wasn’t I arguing that point about the Stones?

 

[Fiesta Red]

I was invited to join a band with my cousin; I should have known better, because the two previous times we were in bands together it didn’t go well—his control-freak ego, OCD and insecurity about having anyone else get attention in his band had made me quit both times previously.

He had a (passable/good) bassist and a terrible drummer…I was a better drummer and I am a lousy drummer…so I brought a drummer I’d just starting jamming with. Everything clicked.

Originally we were supposed to be an “Arc Angels” type band, two lead singers who both played lead instruments, but backed the other one up—each of us singing, him on guitar, me on mostly rhythm/occasional lead guitar, slide guitar and harp.

Lotsa SRV and Fabulous Thunderbirds, Texas Blues/Rock and an occasional Red Dirt/Outlaw Country tune we all liked…and I brought about 15-20 originals that I knew would fit in the band (Texas Blues-style stuff).

Started rehearsing. And rehearsing. And rehearsing. And rehearsing. For eleven months we rehearsed every weekend so he could be “comfortable” with the songs.

“Comfortable” is defined as “everyone is paying attention to him and giving him sole credit for the success of the band.”

Everyone who’d come to the rehearsals agreed that the originals sounded great—so much so that it upset him that I was getting attention for the songs I wrote, even though he was singing several of them…this is when I decided to copyright my songs, because something told me he’d try to pull a stunt.

It was upsetting to him when I got applause or attention for playing the occasional lead guitar (on the songs I wrote), slide guitar (which he couldn’t do at the time) and harp/harmonica (my best instrument).

So he “adjusted” the set list by removing most of the songs I sang or played lead on, and adding other songs that he would sing instead. The songs I did take the lead on were sped up or changed to where they became messy and untenable to play live. We made some rudimentary recordings (Tascam cassette unit) and he would remove or obscure my guitar parts as much as possible, which made the songs sound empty.

This went on until I finally asked him if he’d just like me to stand behind him on-stage and wave a big feather fan, since he was the freaking Pharoah of Blues.

After three or four gigs/performances (we only got paid for one, since he refused to let anyone else hustle a gig—both the drummer and I got paying gigs for us m, but he didn’t want to play them), I had enough and I quit. They didn’t replace me. The drummer told me several of the songs fell apart without the rhythm guitar or slide lead, and that the Pharoah got mad if anyone asked where I was. He (Pharoah) started booking gigs regularly (because he was now “comfortable”—see definition above), but every gig had a major catastrophe, from PA problems (I brought—and took away—the PA) to songs falling flat and sounding empty to low-attendance or low-energy audiences to promoters not promoting to…well, anybody who’s ever been in a band understands the challenges.

These were things that were my fault when I was in the band.…but since I was gone, there was nobody to blame except himself...and we can’t do that, because he’s perfect!

The drummer did double duty and joined my new band (which started playing gigs two weeks after we formed) while still playing with the old one. That made the Pharoah mad, so the drummer quit.

The drummer and I are still playing together—in fact, we are recording this afternoon—while the Pharoah eventually became a solo artist—a kick drum at his feet, harmonica rack on his neck—so that way nobody could take attention away from him.

I forgot to finish one part of this story;

I mentioned that I copyrighted my songs because he might try to pull a stunt…a few months into the eleven-month-long rehearsals, Pharoah said, “You know, we need to copyright [Song X]…it’s really good!”
I replied, “Yep, it *is* good. It was good when I wrote it in 1990,” (this occurred in 2001) “It was also good when I played it with [a different band] in 1992, [yet another band] in 1996, and even [the band] you and I were playing together in 1998…it’s a dang good song, which is why I copyrighted it.”

Pharoah: “But…I should get songwriting credit…I sang it and wrote the lead guitar part!”

Me: “No, you *played* the lead guitar part and sang some words that I wrote. I wrote the lyrics, the rhythm, the melody, the bridge and I even played the lead guitar part in the previous three bands I mentioned…I also sang it in those previous bands…you just happened to play a solo over an existing song.”

Pharoah: “But I played the solo. I changed the song.”

Me: “Yeah, you changed the song from a concise little 3-minute blues-flavored rockabilly ditty to an overblown, over-long, indulgent mess that sounds like crap. I copyrighted the song *I* wrote when *I* was twenty and *you* were eleven and still sawing on your fiddle in all those bluegrass contests. If you want some credit for a song you wrote, go write a frickin’ song. You didn’t write this one and you don’t get songwriting credit for playing a solo and singing someone else’s words.”

We had a similar “discussion” [read: argument] over a song the drummer and I co-wrote (he wrote the raw lyrics, I arranged the lyrics and wrote the music)…Pharoah wanted songwriting credit because he played the solo and because he *demanded* to sing it…I originally sang the song, but I didn’t argue when he decided he wanted to sing it, because it gave me a chance to cut loose on a more complicated and funkier rhythm; eventually I was able to play the more complicated part and sing simultaneously, and the song has been a staple of my band’s set list for over twenty years.

 

[Marc Morfei]

That’s cold!

My last job, my manager called me and asked me if I was available for a conference call. I said sure and a woman from Human Resources joined and said the company was restructuring and my position was being eliminated. I asked when and she said effective immediately. I had just enough time to download the few personal items from my computer and my account was locked within five minutes of hanging up.

These are the same companies that expect people to swear loyalty, work uncompensated overtime and be available 24/7 and call it quiet quitting when we just work our 8 hours.

Yeah, I imagine few of us actually do it, but sometimes I am reminded that if there are things you want to take with you when you leave, make copies now, don’t wait til it’s too late.

The bigger the company, the more serious they are about protecting intellectual property, etc.

 

[teletail]

Yeah, I imagine few of us actually do it, but sometimes I am reminded that if there are things you want to take with you when you leave, make copies now, don’t wait til it’s too late.

The bigger the company, the more serious they are about protecting intellectual property, etc.

Yes, I’m very careful to only take personal items that actually belong to me. You never know when Big Brother is watching you!