With the exception of 8th April, we have no gigs from 24th Feb until 5th May!
Not that this is a long term issue, come May we are manic busy until the end of the year, pretty much.
However, with no gigs to rehearse for and a rehearal studio already booked, we decided to use the 3 hours for our first official Annual General Meeting - we have only been together for 10 years.
No instruments were allowed in and we all sat on the floor and got through a hell of a lot of stuff - We did minutes of the meeting which ran to three whole pages.
It was the best thing we ever did. We are all married men with families and are in our late 30's or just 40, but we realise, sometimes we can be as bad as our kids. It was a great opportunity for everyone to voice concerns and suggestions and a number of things that were brewing under for a few years were spoken about and cleared up.
We came away really positive with loads of suggestions to make us function even better as a semi-pro covers band. Everything from arriving at the gig to set up dressed in polo shirts with the band name embroidered on them - so that the Bride is not horrified about 5 scruffy louts arriving into her wedding reception.
For that matter, also agreeing we should always have wing collared formal shirts in our clothes bag, because you never know when the real snooty ones might pull you up for being underdressed at their black tie do.
Not letting venue staff/owners stress you out into setting up in under five minutes when the wedding is running 90 mins behind - they don't pay you the bride and groom do and the contract says we need an hour. - Polite but firm wins
If the venue owner tells you that you have to finish at 12, but the contract says 1am, tell him to go tell the bride and groom and they can tell us if that is OK by them, they're paying us.
Turn off the reverb on the desk if you are talking to the audience in between songs - that way you might get a response because they can actually understand what you are saying to them.
And so on and so on. It amazing what you can come up with to make life easier, pay better and reputation increased by putting away the noise making instruments once in a while and getting down to some good old fashioned banter. Might stop some of the posts which say "I've left my band" "My band have sacked me"
As BT used to say "It's good to talk"
Not that this is a long term issue, come May we are manic busy until the end of the year, pretty much.
However, with no gigs to rehearse for and a rehearal studio already booked, we decided to use the 3 hours for our first official Annual General Meeting - we have only been together for 10 years.
No instruments were allowed in and we all sat on the floor and got through a hell of a lot of stuff - We did minutes of the meeting which ran to three whole pages.
It was the best thing we ever did. We are all married men with families and are in our late 30's or just 40, but we realise, sometimes we can be as bad as our kids. It was a great opportunity for everyone to voice concerns and suggestions and a number of things that were brewing under for a few years were spoken about and cleared up.
We came away really positive with loads of suggestions to make us function even better as a semi-pro covers band. Everything from arriving at the gig to set up dressed in polo shirts with the band name embroidered on them - so that the Bride is not horrified about 5 scruffy louts arriving into her wedding reception.
For that matter, also agreeing we should always have wing collared formal shirts in our clothes bag, because you never know when the real snooty ones might pull you up for being underdressed at their black tie do.
Not letting venue staff/owners stress you out into setting up in under five minutes when the wedding is running 90 mins behind - they don't pay you the bride and groom do and the contract says we need an hour. - Polite but firm wins
If the venue owner tells you that you have to finish at 12, but the contract says 1am, tell him to go tell the bride and groom and they can tell us if that is OK by them, they're paying us.
Turn off the reverb on the desk if you are talking to the audience in between songs - that way you might get a response because they can actually understand what you are saying to them.
And so on and so on. It amazing what you can come up with to make life easier, pay better and reputation increased by putting away the noise making instruments once in a while and getting down to some good old fashioned banter. Might stop some of the posts which say "I've left my band" "My band have sacked me"
As BT used to say "It's good to talk"
