Tuesday 6 October 2009

No piss-up in this brewery

Why is it that it's such a bloody nightmare organising regular rehearsals? We - part-time rockers extrordinaire - Pocket effing Rocket, have already cut band practice back to once a fortnight, for a combination of people's financial, family and social reasons. Might as well be once in a bluemoon - in line with the gigs. There's always something. Always someone. It's a pain. It's a nuisance. It's a hindrance to progress. No effing wonder were pretty much still playing the same effing songs we were playing last year.

How's a band meant to maintain a musical tightness? Or put new songs together? I'm tired of organising and un-organising these rehearsals. You tell 'em the dates, and they forget 'em, or they don't write 'em down right. You ring 'em, you text 'em, you pay for them to come, and they still don't get there.

I know most other 'mature' bands have this problem, I hear it from them all the time. But that don't make it any easier to bear when it keeps happening to you.

With our equipment in a lock-up at the studio, we are clocking up a 43 quid monthly bill, whether we rehearse or not. So, not rehearsing for a month costs 43 quid, plus the odd cancellation fee, which amounts to 50 quid, if it's at the eleventh hour, or after minus seventy-two hours to be precise. Whinge, whinge whinge.

You can understand why people, musical people, rock-musician-type people, just knock it after a while. It's just an effing hassle to keep it going.

Sorry. Had to get that off my chest.

5 comments:

Axe Victim said...

Oh don't get me fookin' started. My old lot would never turn up after a gig - as if by some form of diety they were blessed by having 'perfomed' the week before and would be tarnished by having to play the same old numbers at rehersal. Pah!

Furtheron said...

Commitments... the problem is that there is a ton of other shit that is in everyones lives. Tryiing to then get that all lined up is a nightmare. I know I'm right in the middle of all this myself. And I'm only trying to get together with one or two guys for a jam to think about a band!!!

Istvanski said...

It's bollocks alright!
I had to forfit seeing Palace beat Blackpool 4 - 1 'cos one of our band members booked rehearsal on a Saturday afternoon.
Still, it's worth it if it's with the best punk band in London...

Unknown said...

Istvanski, I must intro you to my RTYD DJ, Steve, ge's a Palace fan too. Lovely guy, just wrong team. x

Mal Kiely [Lancelots Pram] said...

It's a pain, but it's just the joys of being 'our age'. Hell, we aint 25 anymore, young footloose and free, you know? Of course it's a pain in the @44, but we just have to work with it. I spent over 18+ months trying to put a band together, and it couldn't work for simply that reason - twas almost impossible to get four or five people together at the same place at the same time. Bah!

it's one of the reasons why I've gone solo - but I ache to play in a working band again.

Cyalayta
Mal [aka Lancelot's Pram]