Why bands bust

Hey i'm wonderin' what your opinions are on how bands usually break up and if you could share an experience that'd be cool too.

My neighbours band kicked their guitarist out because he was always, ALWAYS late. Like 1 or 2 hours for practice, once he showed up just before they went on stage.

Eric Clapton left the Yardbirds because he wanted to persue a more blues career.

Bands break up or people leave for lots of reasons. Different musical tastes, not getting along with members, all kinds of reasons.

With me it was usually the same thing.
6 months looking for members...most of it trying to find a keyboard player and a vocalist with their own p.a.
6 months of practicing in somebody's basement, maybe twice a week cause that's all anybody could manage.
6 months of looking to book gigs and not being able to find any and not being able to get a booking agent.
6 months to realize that all the band really knows what to play are cover tunes and nobody can write after all.
Then somewhere about 2 years into it either somebody gets discouraged and quits or personality conflicts cause a huge blowup.
Then the whole process starts over again with the next band.
After about 25 years of this you finally resign yourself to the fact that even though you can play better than van halen, you're never going to get signed, or hear yourself on the radio or even play live in front of more than 300 people and you yell at your kids, kick the dog and crawl back into bed with your fat wife.

ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Originally posted by Hootayah
... and you yell at your kids, kick the dog and crawl back into bed with your fat wife.

Hey you could'a done worse. I'm still single, and I share my digs with two cats!

WELL look on the bright side...
At least you got some pussy running around your house :)

hmm... seems like some peeps dont learn from their faults *LOL*

i guess that almost every musician has to go trough the process of enhusiastically forming a band to conquer the world only to see that it breaks apart after a few yearsof unproductiveness.

the sad thing about this is, that i´ve seen alot of talented musicians getting extremely discouraged by such an event. extreme enough not to enthusiastically forming a band again. i say NEVER GIVE UP! nobody said its easy - it takes some balls to make it to the "top" (whatever that means for you).

Ive been in around 30 bands. Main reason for me quitting is that I actually have the attention span of a gnat. Boredom usually sets in around the 5th take on any song after which Im gagging to go to the pub.

Other reasons for band break ups are usually because there's an egomaniac who either wants to grab the limelight on stage and/or who only wants to play his own songs. It's also pretty depressing hawking tapes around record companies, venues etc only to be told youre too old, they only want covers bands etc etc.

Surely not THE Fruitbat!!

Multiple takes in rehearsal are the bain of the band member's life. They are the interval between cans of beer.
If a song doesn't work after two takes I'll generally suggest playing an Anti Nowhere League song and then going to the pub.

Noise is for heroes...

well, i enthusiastically formed my band and we were over-productive, we could not get to record all the stuff we had all of the song were brand new - no covers (!!).
so, basically, we were on the glory road but could not find a bassist for 2 yrs (and a worthy vocalist. i had to sing and sounded real bad...:)).
the package finally broke up when the other members went to the army and me to studying... we didnt have time to practice and after 6 mnth with not a single take we decided that it's the end...

the simplest wa to find a working band: go record all the tunes you have on your own - make it a demo - ask someone to sing for you just for that demo in order to have a decent voice on it. then go and search for gigs with that demo - once you have like 10 gigs fixed, you´ll find the peeps you need.

Originally posted by Azrael
... once you have like 10 gigs fixed, you´ll find the peeps you need.

Or you'll have to learn some rill nass footwork on the controllers for a bunch of samplers!

I've been in one 'successful' band, and two little short lived bands that failed for two reasons. Lazyness and a huge ego. It seems to me there are lots of people who say they want to be in a band, but then dont set up rehearsals, dont practice their tunes, argue with everyone, or try to wrench the controll of things soley into their hands.
Not everyone is like this, but in my experience there has been one in every band I've been in. Anyway, I've tried to learn from experience, (I have repeated a bunch of mistakes though, thinking I could change people, silly me :rolleyes: ) so my advice to anyone would be to do just that, be very carefull not to repeat your mistakes, otherwise you'll be going in circles, which sucks. :(

Originally posted by LCD
Surely not THE Fruitbat!!

Multiple takes in rehearsal are the bain of the band member's life. They are the interval between cans of beer.
If a song doesn't work after two takes I'll generally suggest playing an Anti Nowhere League song and then going to the pub.

Noise is for heroes...

No..a sheer coincidence. It's my nickname going back to schooldays. Why? because I had and still have a tendency to snack on fruits like others do on sweets, burgers. I go through around a couple of pounds of lychees a week.

Ithink it is primarily because of ego. I had two leads in one of my old bands, and after the initial Maiden, Priest and Skynyrd covers they couldn,t find another common ground, so they went separate ways.

I might quit my band because on the guys aren't showing up/aren't committed but i'm afraid he might steal my songs.
Can anyone help me?

Just look at it this way. If your band doesn't have the drive to go to meetings, how could they ever steal your songs and rehearse them again with another band? That would take too much effort. :rolleyes:
Besides, you could write down or record your songs and send them to yourself through registered mail. I'm not sure about the legalities of that in the music biz, but its a good way to make sure people know you wrote the song first.

Check out Pink Floyd's history... If both of you had a share in writing the songs (e.g. You wrote the music, he wrote the lyrics, vice versa), it may be that you will both leave the band with the same songs.

Sure, it sucks, but it's better than staying in a band where everyone hates each other (e.g. Pink Floyd - Roger Waters vs. everyone else).

Why do bands bust? I usually find that drummers are jerks and usually the cause of breakups. Honestly, I've only met one drummer in my life that I can stand. I don't know what it is, but when drummers start giving me a hard time, I don't feel so jolly.

Originally posted by Jolly McJollyson
Why do bands bust? I usually find that drummers are jerks and usually the cause of breakups. Honestly, I've only met one drummer in my life that I can stand. I don't know what it is, but when drummers start giving me a hard time, I don't feel so jolly.

I'd have to agree, one of the reasons that my band was on the edge for awhile was because of the drummer.