We had convened a 'practice session' at my place to try out Vicky, a lady singer keyboard player for a role in the band. She presented well, looks the part and has a nice personality. In summary she is properly musically educated, done stints in London musical theatre, been musical director for Hairspray at Norwich, sings in a 40's trio and currently depping for function band Galaxy. She wants to leave her school music teaching job and generate enough income to get by from performance and private teaching - and saw our band as one of several outlets for that. We played through a few numbers e.g. "Dancing Queen, Love is All Around, Sam Smith's Stay With Me, Summer of 69". She handled all of these with ease and it was clear she has a fine voice with a wide range. I switched on the piano and found she can play keys effortlessly and professionally. I found I could harmonise with her easily trying out lines under and over and even a bit of harmoniser. She seemed to like the band and the discussion moved onto how it might work. Given the gig circuit we are currently on, it suggests a sort of function band repertoire to include Abba, Soul, Pop (ancient and modern) as well as some of the 60s 70's and rock n roll at the root of the band. A typical function band name would be needed.
She would not be available all the time but believed in the principle that once a gig was committed she would honour it. In the end we agreed to exchange song proposals.
After she left we chewed it over some more. I made the point that this time I wanted to avoid the Paul Kent situation of working her in on a few songs gig by gig. I urged that the tasks of sorting out repertoire and arrangements are completed before rehearsal and, only after some rehearsal, would we agree a target debut. My guess was that we would need to work up around 30 numbers to make the new show effective. Some of that material would be buskable but there would be some newness and complexity we would need to take on board to make the show impressive as well.
The best spin was obvious: she would fit in easily and it wouldn't take long to work up a reasonable show. We could manage the diary complexity between all of us to work the circuit as a 4 piece versatile show/function band. Initially she would work the gigs we have priced as they are but, on rebooking we could look to pitch the price minimum to say £320 a night and the gates would open for weddings etc.
I played devils advocate illustrating the worse case that: yes lovely personality, extremely talented and clearly easy to work with; but a lot of work and commitment from all of us needed to work up the objective show. The main risk in the worse case scenario is that she moves on. She has the talent to get a pro role in theatre or similar and her 40's band 'The Apple Blossom Trio' could take off or she could simply move from the area; having recently come through a divorce and in the process of giving up her school teaching job - she is not tied to the area or even country.
I didn't enjoy playing the 'wet blanket' card over Chris's obvious excitement that it would be a brilliant future. Ian I think, understood the risks but would be less involved in whipping the new band into shape.
Normally I would relish the challenge of working up the new and expect that we could fall back to the trio if it all fell apart. But, on this occasion, I still had mixed feelings. Once again I slept on it!
Next day I concluded that Vicky joining would not work commercially because I doubted we would hold her for long. So not really worth the effort in working the show up. The other two arrived at the same conclusion a couple of days later and wanted to try out another of Ian's male vocalist contacts. I found I just wasn't keen on doing that. Basically I still wanted to sing a bit but there is little scope when you have a main male singer. Moreover, after Vicky, I began to feel that this band had gone as far as it could musically. I agonised over the weekend but ended up handing in my notice to the band citing 'all getting too much for a chap in his 60s' but offering help to achieve their transition. This went as well as it could have and I did help them audition Steve on the next Thursday. A nice chap but, in my opinion, a rock band voice. It worked well on numbers like "Alright Now and Can't Get Enough" but less well on the pop and ballads. Probably could have worked out with them on the current circuit but he was committed to a rock band who play a couple of times a month - so only really available for deps. I wasn't surprised a couple of days later when Chris asked if I minded him bringing along another chap to try out on a few numbers on the next gig at Felixstowe - no problem I said. They are looking for a guitarist as well so I am hoping to be released from my duties by July August timescales.
She would not be available all the time but believed in the principle that once a gig was committed she would honour it. In the end we agreed to exchange song proposals.
After she left we chewed it over some more. I made the point that this time I wanted to avoid the Paul Kent situation of working her in on a few songs gig by gig. I urged that the tasks of sorting out repertoire and arrangements are completed before rehearsal and, only after some rehearsal, would we agree a target debut. My guess was that we would need to work up around 30 numbers to make the new show effective. Some of that material would be buskable but there would be some newness and complexity we would need to take on board to make the show impressive as well.
The best spin was obvious: she would fit in easily and it wouldn't take long to work up a reasonable show. We could manage the diary complexity between all of us to work the circuit as a 4 piece versatile show/function band. Initially she would work the gigs we have priced as they are but, on rebooking we could look to pitch the price minimum to say £320 a night and the gates would open for weddings etc.
I played devils advocate illustrating the worse case that: yes lovely personality, extremely talented and clearly easy to work with; but a lot of work and commitment from all of us needed to work up the objective show. The main risk in the worse case scenario is that she moves on. She has the talent to get a pro role in theatre or similar and her 40's band 'The Apple Blossom Trio' could take off or she could simply move from the area; having recently come through a divorce and in the process of giving up her school teaching job - she is not tied to the area or even country.
I didn't enjoy playing the 'wet blanket' card over Chris's obvious excitement that it would be a brilliant future. Ian I think, understood the risks but would be less involved in whipping the new band into shape.
Normally I would relish the challenge of working up the new and expect that we could fall back to the trio if it all fell apart. But, on this occasion, I still had mixed feelings. Once again I slept on it!
Next day I concluded that Vicky joining would not work commercially because I doubted we would hold her for long. So not really worth the effort in working the show up. The other two arrived at the same conclusion a couple of days later and wanted to try out another of Ian's male vocalist contacts. I found I just wasn't keen on doing that. Basically I still wanted to sing a bit but there is little scope when you have a main male singer. Moreover, after Vicky, I began to feel that this band had gone as far as it could musically. I agonised over the weekend but ended up handing in my notice to the band citing 'all getting too much for a chap in his 60s' but offering help to achieve their transition. This went as well as it could have and I did help them audition Steve on the next Thursday. A nice chap but, in my opinion, a rock band voice. It worked well on numbers like "Alright Now and Can't Get Enough" but less well on the pop and ballads. Probably could have worked out with them on the current circuit but he was committed to a rock band who play a couple of times a month - so only really available for deps. I wasn't surprised a couple of days later when Chris asked if I minded him bringing along another chap to try out on a few numbers on the next gig at Felixstowe - no problem I said. They are looking for a guitarist as well so I am hoping to be released from my duties by July August timescales.
No comments:
Post a Comment