So, in a cover band situation, how do you deal with ...

bertie

close2u said:

We have not gigged (I've already said this) yet our aim is to be a party / function / wedding band so we said at the outset what our 'style' will be so we are marketing ourelves quite spcifically rather than as a general purpose covers band.

then you need to open "yourselves" up to all suggestions. 

 In its bluntest form,  you are a juke box, and need to have a huge repertoire at your disposal,  yes have pre-arragned/agreed set-lists, but the ability to "adapt" to any situation is what will differentiate you from "run of the mill chancers"    KEY if you want to keep working, and earning £££  rather than the "enjoyment" being your main driver

That usually involves playing largely stuff you "wouldnt buy"   

Oli hits the nail on the head,   the dancefloor is your judge and jury,  no matter how well you think you've played or how many  "great riff mate" comments you get,       if it aint full, you have failed. You wont work, you wont earn ££

ICBM

Handsome_Chris said:

ICBM said:

There are millions of popular songs, you don't have to play the blindingly obvious ones if you hate them.

Yeeeeaaaaahhh.  I remember refusing to play Wonderwall, but the crowd were not taking no for an answer, so we ended up playing Wonderwall.

That was one of the songs in question… I wouldn't play it, end of. The singer ended up doing it as a solo acoustic number while I went out of earshot .

But you really don't have to. There are actually good Oasis songs (well, one I can think of anyway ).

Grunfeld said:

ICBM said:

That's one of the biggest things that turns me off cover bands, both as a player (I've left a band over this exact issue) and as an audience member. I don't want to hear yet another band playing the same clichéd covers that every other one does.

But that's cos you are a muso, and you've got taste.

Really? Have you seen my CD collection?

You don't have to educate your audience, you just don't have to play exactly the same songs every other cover band plays. Why not play something popular but *different*? As I said, there are if not millions then literally thousands of well-known, popular songs you can dance to - why repeat the same old clichéd fifty or so, just because every other band does?

Or if you really insist on having to pander to the Sex On Fire demands, play it in a totally different style so it's at least interesting.

koneguitarist

ICBM said:

ICBM said:

I really disagree with the idea that just because a song is popular, you have to play it. I would always allow any band member an absolute veto over playing any song if they can't stand it.

There are millions of popular songs, you don't have to play the blindingly obvious ones if you hate them.

That's one of the biggest things that turns me off cover bands, both as a player (I've left a band over this exact issue) and as an audience member. I don't want to hear yet another band playing the same clichéd covers that every other one does.

Total agreement, we do a reggae version of Its all over now, Rolling stones song. Get the feel of a song and gig it, change it about a bit as well if you want. We are a boogie woogie style cover band, yet we do songs we like. There are millions of songs of every genre, why is it so many bands pick the same ones ? If it's because that's what the audience wants, question yourself why you are playing ?

monquixote

ICBM said:

Or if you really insist on having to pander to the Sex On Fire demands, play it in a totally different style so it's at least interesting.

The kind of dickends who spend the whole gig shouting "Plaaaaayyy Sheeeexxxxx ooorrnn fiiiiireee" for the whole gig don't want an imaginative version, they want something as close to the original as possible and then three songs later they start shouting for it again.

drwiddly

Why is that f*cking song so popular with drunken nob heads? WHY?

monquixote

drwiddly said:

Why is that f*cking song so popular with drunken nob heads? WHY?

It baffles me. I don't even think it's the best Kings of Leon Song. 

It's the same with Mustang Sally.

Handsome_Chris

@Monquixote, I don't want to get into a row about this, but I don't think Mustang Sally is a Kings of Leon song.

:P

Grunfeld

drwiddly said:

Why is that f*cking song so popular with drunken nob heads? WHY?

1)  cos it has a chorus that goes, "Woooooooahhhhhhhhh!"   -- this is guaranteed sing along.

2)  cos it mentions sex.  Sex + Drunk go together, not exactly "well" but at least "often"

Sex +  "Woooooooahhhhhhhhh!"  = eternal popularity for the drunken choirs of Friday and Saturday nights.

ICBM

monquixote said:

The kind of dickends who spend the whole gig shouting "Plaaaaayyy Sheeeexxxxx ooorrnn fiiiiireee" for the whole gig don't want an imaginative version, they want something as close to the original as possible and then three songs later they start shouting for it again.

Then either just ignore them, or play it in the style of Ace Of Spades . At double speed .

monquixote

ICBM said:

monquixote said:

The kind of dickends who spend the whole gig shouting "Plaaaaayyy Sheeeexxxxx ooorrnn fiiiiireee" for the whole gig don't want an imaginative version, they want something as close to the original as possible and then three songs later they start shouting for it again.

Then either just ignore them, or play it in the style of Ace Of Spades . At double speed .

I once played it in a huge completely packed bar on a bank holiday. I realised at the end I'd been playing the last chorus in completely the wrong key, but no one (including me) had noticed because I had been completely drowned out by screaming piss heads. 

ICBM

Reminds me of The Beatles at Shea Stadium, where Lennon starts goofing around on the piano while the others all just look lost and start laughing - none of them could hear a thing they were playing over the din from the fans...

monquixote

ICBM said:

Reminds me of The Beatles at Shea Stadium, where Lennon starts goofing around on the piano while the others all just look lost and start laughing - none of them could hear a thing they were playing over the din from the fans...

It's was exactly that if you imagine it being about one thousandth the size and if macca was continually getting pints of lager spilled over him.

Handsome_Chris

Grunfeld said:

drwiddly said:

Why is that f*cking song so popular with drunken nob heads? WHY?

1)  cos it has a chorus that goes, "Woooooooahhhhhhhhh!"   -- this is guaranteed sing along.

2)  cos it mentions sex.  Sex + Drunk go together, not exactly "well" but at least "often"

Sex +  "Woooooooahhhhhhhhh!"  = eternal popularity for the drunken choirs of Friday and Saturday nights.

Boozed punters do love a 'good sing-a-long'.  Is that why Noel Gallagher is minted?

EricTheWeary

So, had a meeting last night to try to revive the ongoing cover band thing that has never got very far. There were some new song suggestions and this discussion crossed my mind.

One of the new suggestions was a Jeff Beck thing.

'Can you play that?' asks the singer.

'No. If I could play like that I wouldn't be sat here with you talentless f*****s.' :x

Okay, I said that bit in my head and said out loud it was probably a bit obscure for an audience.

RocknRollDave

I've learned to let my feelings about song choices go, for the most part, so long as I feel a song is going down well enough I don't worry too much about whether i like it or not.

Some songs that I really enjoyed playing have come and gone by the wayside, others have stuck around longer, and ditto with songs I don't like.

As part of a band you can always dig your heels in and refuse to play something, but in that case you need to be damn well sure you can offer a replacement song that will go down at least as well as the one you are proposing to scrap.
There's no fun in being the miserable old sod in the band who always goes "Don't like that song...don't like this song...don't wanna play that one, too cheesy...don't want to play that one, too trendy..." etc etc if all you are creating is negativity. Of course, sometimes you will have a valid point - we all have to fight against our personal tastes clouding our judgement of what will work for the band, so we all need reminding sometimes - but it's all about compromise.
We all have to compromise in our day jobs, same in our bands...only you will know the line where "compromise" turns into "being dictated to".

not_the_dj

We play all sorts of crap, but if it goes down well I'm happy (apart from a bloody Robbie Williams song we tried once, however it stunk live so we dropped it right away).

"Sex on Fire" is still great fun, and last week we had a whole pub singing (loose term) along to it. A saturday night pub crowd want a sing-along version of that not a clever reworking. We go from that straight into "Summer of '69", get's 'em every time.

 

mudslide73

We do Last Night by the Strokes, I bet you look good on the dancefloor, SoF and Chelsea Dagger in that order. I only really like the Strokes one but I do like the drunk girls dancing at us. Simple as that really.

Handsome_Chris

PSA:  Dust off your Word Up.  It's the new Sport Relief song so it'll be current again and the young 'uns will think you've learnt a new song.

Handsome_Chris

This kinda parallels my attempt at not doing Wonderwall.

ICBM

If I remember an old interview with Pete Townshend, the reason The Who wanted Jim Marshall to build 100W amps for them - bearing in mind they weren't yet big stars, they were still playing small bars and clubs - was so they wouldn't have to listen to drunken idiots asking for Strangers In The Night or whatever the equivalent of Wonderwall was back then. Crank… strum... "sorry, can't hear you, this is our next song"...