Have you been in a band that has split up in dramatic fashion?
I was out with friend and RTYD member John Rigby the other night and we got to exchanging stories about how the bands we were in as younger men split up in dramatic fashion.
I'll let you tell his story. But here's mine:
My band in the early 90s split up following a gig at small venue in Camden that is no longer there, called the Laurel Tree. My memory is a little hazy, but I remember my bass player chose to wear a balaclava that night - he was prone to odd choices of stage-wear like this - and looking like a member of the IRA he upset our drummer's girlfriend, who was also our manger at the time, and who had a thing about balaclavas. She wasn't Irish, but maybe some of her family was. Either way, she thought it was in bad taste.
She started shouting at our bass player to take it off, and he wouldn't. Our drummer - her boyfriend - then threw a drumstick at her to shut her up, and she threw it back. There were further angry verbal exchanges, and if I recall correctly we hadn't even started playing. It was so childish and embarrassing. I remember thinking 'that's it - I've had it with this'. And that was the last gig we played together. We were all 28, and we had been friends and in a band together since sixth-form college.
How about you, have you been in a band that has split up in dramatic fashion?
Responses to This Article
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Vox/GuitarPermalink Reply by stephenmcaines on -
That's pretty good, Toby, I can't beat that - at the opposite end of the spectrum, I was in a band that just petered out after a few rehearsals - it wasn't dramatic, just depressing, the way everybody went their separate ways without even needing to say "our hearts aren't in it...".
And there was the time I had an argument with a very good friend of mine, and took the unique CD copy of our demo off to the gents and left it there - we survived that one, though.
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Vox/GuitarPermalink Reply by Toby Burton on -
I like it! Thanks for reading, Michael. I hope all is good with you and the family. Have a great Christmas, man, and I hope to see you soon in 2012. Toby
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BassPermalink Reply by Matt Russell on -
Most bands I've been in have ended in apathy rather than anger but 2 spring to mind...
The first band I was in, around 1982, called The Inside Minds, was a garage band, we didn't realise it at the time but in hindsight? Yep we were, we played House of the Rising Sun in 2 minutes 30 with all the verses, with the singer barely able to keep up. We ruined White Rabbit and countless great 60's songs by playing them too fast and too badly. It was obvious that the end had come (after 2 gigs in 18 months of constant rehearsals, probably caused by being too stoned to remember any of the arrangements) when at a band meeting in the pub, the guitarist turned to us all and said "Drew, you're just the drummer, Matt, you're just the bass player, Soner, you're just the singer but I am the sound" Soner and I promptly told him that we were in another band called Sudden Afternoon and he could be the sound all on his own!
In the late '90's I was half of an electronic noodle duo called Modulus, we weren't getting on very well. The last gig we did finished with me playing a sample of the phrase 'I told you but you didn't listen' looped over and over again (I had control of the mixing desk!) The other guy got the hint and we gigged no more.
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Vox/GuitarPermalink Reply by Toby Burton on -
Modulus! Sounds noodley! Good stuff, thanks, Matt. Toby
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Guitar/VoxPermalink Reply by Timothy Jones on -
Like stephenmcaines most of the previous bands fizzled out. Some due to monumental egos, which reading Matts' doesn't seem too uncommon. The band member with the "It's all about me" syndrome doesn't appear to have the intellect to understand what a band is. Had this problem before with a band member and bet him £50 he couldn't survive doing 2 solo gigs in whatever fashion he chose. The bands drummer decided he wanted some of the action too ... £100 on the table and still waiting. I see the colour yellow when I think about this.
Would I do a solo slot ... no I wouldn't 'cos it's not all about me!
Perhaps stories of monumental egos and how they manifest themselves in the music scene could be an entertaining topic here.
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