There are a few things to consider when you are in a band, not least of all what happens to everything when you get to the point of being big enough to tour, but not really big enough to make a good living at it yet. It’s a tricky stage in any musicians career and unless you just got signed up off the X Factor, you will most likely have this dilemma at some point.
Generally at the stage when you form the group you don’t really tend to consider the different character types involved and commitments which the members may have as it’s hard enough work trying to find a group of committed musicians who all want to play a similar style of music, even more so a group of musicians who will still like working together in a years time let alone 5 or 10 years later.
The excitement and enthusiasm levels are usually high at this stage, typically the members are quite young and have very little responsibility in day to day life. I remember my first band, who we were then and where we have got to now and it’s no wonder we didn’t last, me well I was the bass player and lived in a rented house on benefits, so we used to have rehearsals round my house all the time, the singer was also out of work and he too was keen to practice all the time, however we has two guitarists, both of them with a full time job, so they were unable to practice until the evening and had to leave at a reasonable time to get to bed, so they could get up in the morning, but all in all it wasn’t too bad. Even when my girlfriend of the time moved in, she was pretty chilled out and didn’t mind the noise, unlike the neighbours, who later managed to have us kicked out of the house by our landlord, but that’s a story for another time!
I was in a few bands over the years, some good, some not so good and one which was basically a bit of a rhythmic noise, however only one of them was big enough that we ever got past the stage of playing gigs at relatively small local venues, don’t get me wrong, I loved playing in a smoky bar and it was much easier too, but that’s not what we are talking about here, and when I say we, I of course mean me as you are reading.
Anyway, one band in particular got bigger and we were asked to do a support tour with a reasonably well known band, someone you would certainly recognise their songs if you heard them, if not the name. We accepted and even had our own tour bus, albeit a rather old and small one, but that is possibly where the problems start, as spending 24/7 living and working in the company of your bandmates can put a bit of stress on the relationship, especially when your are cramped into the smallest tour bus in the world,, Oh didn’t I mention it was that small
So, eventually something has to give, fortunately for us it was the singer, who had been a right pain ever since we started to get a following, he thought he was becoming a rock star and would turn up to rehearsals late and ill prepared, and sauntered around like a right diva, so we were probably best shot of him, not the ideal time, right in the middle of our first tour, but hey, we managed, I sung a few, the other guitarist did and we got by absolutely fine as a four piece.
So what was the point of this little story then? To be totally honest I’ve completely forgotten, but it has been nice sitting here reminiscing about the good old days when I had hair on the top of my head and looked good holding a bass guitar.
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