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Are There Many People Here Who've Been on the Road Full-Time?


Crazyfoo

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My friend and I were sharing road stories from the 80's, and some of those memories were great.

 

When I think about back then, it makes me realize how lucky I was to been able to have those experiences because the music scene is so different today compared to back then.

 

For example, back in the 80's you could join a full-time band and play 6 nights a week. Mon to Wed you would play a club, then pack up and drive to another town to play Thu-Fri-Sat.

 

Saturday night you would tear down, load up the truck and Sunday mmorning leave for the next town, every 3 or 4 days you were driving to a new city to play.

 

Unless I'm mistaken, that type of scenario doesnt exist anymore, everyone plays one-nighters now and it seems that unless you're a recording act, the days of being on the road full-time are a thing of the past and will never return.

 

Are there many people here who were on the road in those days?

The thing I liked about it was how much experience you got in such a short time.

For example, if you look at today, the average band might play 1 gig a week in a local setting, you know, people who have jobs, wives, kids etc, and a lot of people are in more than one band, so its not always easy co-ordinating to play every week to begin with.

 

Back in the old days, you were playing 6 nights a week for 51 weeks a year.

Thats over 300 gigs condensed into one year.

 

The average band around here plays 3x a month, so you would need to play over 8 years part-time to get the same experience as a guy who was full-time.

 

The cool thing about it was because you were playing so often, you knew your parts stone cold, no reference sheets, no cheat notes, no nothing, and you could be half asleep, sick as a dog, it didnt matter, you knew your parts so well, it was second nature.

 

Today I have to use cheat sheets all over the place with patch settings, and various notes for music tabs just to keep track of everything.

 

Plus im older so I cant remember {censored} anymore. :lol:

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You hit it on the nose.

 

I missed the 80's road and local gravy train, but did travel the country in the mid 90's 4-5 nights a week but it included playing the weekend.

 

I think the guys who made their living that way are older now.

 

Also DUI laws are much stricter it makes a difference in turnout at clubs

 

The night club has gave way to the honky tonk, sport bar, and bar and grill.

 

Most trendy clubs love DJ's now.

 

Bands who record their own music in their personal studios flooded the scene in the late 90's and early 2000's and have never gone away. I mean Hipsters and kids of the computer age who record their own material and gig it for free which made way for the underground clubs and small concerts featuring 6 local bands in one night.

 

These are just a few thoughts I have.

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Hipsters and kids of the computer age who record their own material and gig it for free

 

 

That pretty much changed the live music scene.

In a sense you cant blame the clubs, why would they want to pay a band $1500 for the back haklf of the week when they get kids coming in to play for free or $100 a few drink tickets.

 

I also dont blame the kids either because they want to play too.

 

It's one of those things that isnt anyones fault per se, but it just happened because of your perfect example, and of course technological change.

 

The only winners today are the club owners because they get live entertainment for really cheap.

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17 years, 6 nights a week. Learned more than a thousand hits. Once played in Chicago til 3am, packed up, drove to Ft.Lauderdale and played Monday night. Agents took 15%, but we had management which was 20%, with 44 weeks guaranteed. Once stayed in flop apartments for three weeks (paid) to learn an entire new list, never to play the others again. Hundreds of great memories. Original bands were mostly scorned because they learned their 10-20 songs but never had a good knowledge of playing hundreds of songs live (its still the same). Saw the Talking Heads & Ramones together at CBGB's and nobody could play or sing well enough to play in an agency band in D.C. or Baltimore. Actually, they were terrible. Richard

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17 years, 6 nights a week. Learned more than a thousand hits. Once played in Chicago til 3am, packed up, drove to Ft.Lauderdale and played Monday night. Agents took 15%, but we had management which was 20%, with 44 weeks guaranteed. Once stayed in flop apartments for three weeks (paid) to learn an entire new list, never to play the others again. Hundreds of great memories. Original bands were mostly scorned because they learned their 10-20 songs but never had a good knowledge of playing hundreds of songs live (its still the same). Saw the Talking Heads & Ramones together at CBGB's and nobody could play or sing well enough to play in an agency band in D.C. or Baltimore. Actually, they were terrible. Richard

 

 

I have noticed this. If you want to form a cover band, 8 out 0f 10 times, you probably have to hire cover band musicians or you are in trouble.

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17 years, 6 nights a week. Learned more than a thousand hits. Once played in Chicago til 3am, packed up, drove to Ft.Lauderdale and played Monday night. Agents took 15%, but we had management which was 20%, with 44 weeks guaranteed. Once stayed in flop apartments for three weeks (paid) to learn an entire new list, never to play the others again. Hundreds of great memories. Original bands were mostly scorned because they learned their 10-20 songs but never had a good knowledge of playing hundreds of songs live (its still the same). Saw the Talking Heads & Ramones together at CBGB's and nobody could play or sing well enough to play in an agency band in D.C. or Baltimore. Actually, they were terrible. Richard

 

 

I bet you have some great stories Richard.

When I think back, it really was some of the best memories of my life, and since I was so young when I went, it really was a fast way to make a young kid grow up.

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I was on the road full time from 1973 until 1981, with the odd couple of years in the middle playing full time but actually having a home. Everything from one nighters to weeks in the same club, Maryland to Tahoe, Michigan to Florida.

 

 

You were right into the showband era, I missed that, my time was 83 to 89.

4 years playing 3 nights a week and 2 years playing 6 nights a week.

 

I remember one gig, they booked us for 2 weeks straight in a club in Bai Commeau, Quebec, that was a treat, not having to move gear or sit inside a cramped cube van for 2 solid weeks.

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I played in a band that would play in and around Denver in the late 70s and early 80s. There were plenty of venues back then and no RIAA lawyers harassing club owners. We didn't make much - between $40 and $200 per gig for the whole band, but we had fun. Did a few parties too, but mainly 3.2 bars (beer bars that you could legally drink at age 18.)

 

We did have the opportunity to play a circuit, but passed as a couple of the guys were making good money with their day jobs.

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It's my dream to get to just go on the road. Just play a different city every couple of days. I'm lucky if I can find a place in-town every couple of weeks. ANd you guys said it, the internet has killed music. And not just live music. Every kind, really. Talk is dirt cheap and there's no value to a song when you can just listen to it on demand on YouTube and if you like it enough, just snag it for free. I wish I had really lived in an age where you heard a song on the radio and bought their record the next day. Or if you didn't have money for that cool underground band's CD that night, you'd have to catch them again. No Bandcamp, no CD Baby but merch tables. I miss it and I never knew it.

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Can't say I've ever been a professional road musician, per se, but I DID spent a fair portion of the 90's (what I remember, that is) traveling the professional whiskey drinking circuit with a team of professional whiskey drinkers. By some freak coincidence all of us played a musical instrument, however, and sometimes music accidentally broke out. And it usually seemed to be country music, for some reason...go figure:idk:

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It's my dream to get to just go on the road. Just play a different city every couple of days. I'm lucky if I can find a place in-town every couple of weeks. ANd you guys said it, the internet has killed music. And not just live music. Every kind, really. Talk is dirt cheap and there's no value to a song when you can just listen to it on demand on YouTube and if you like it enough, just snag it for free. I wish I had really lived in an age where you heard a song on the radio and bought their record the next day. Or if you didn't have money for that cool underground band's CD that night, you'd have to catch them again. No Bandcamp, no CD Baby but merch tables. I miss it and I never knew it.

 

 

Stop being so depressing.

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It's my dream to get to just go on the road. Just play a different city every couple of days. ...

 

 

Ya know, I wouldn't do that if you paid me. My twenties adventures were different; though I had chances to tour, I made different choices. Lived in a log cabin in the Yukon for a year, was a camp counsellor for 'way too long.

 

I have a fantasy of how exciting and fun it would be to cross Canada in a rental van with 7 tons of equipment on icy roads playing for strangers every night and sleeping in motels for months. But then I think of my own toasty bed, my family and my friends at home and then I heat up a heating pad and have a nice little nap.

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Been playing out for 50 years, the '60's and the '80s were the best, full time on the road til I turned 40, my wife passed, had to get a blue collar gig and raise kids, still played out, remarried, just retired, STILL lugging gear and playing out, loving every minute (P.S. I was in a group that OPENED CBGBs back in the early '70s when Hilly envisioned a folk club, played the reunion in the '90s, we were supposed to be the last band out when they shut it down but Patti Smith didn't want to share the bill with a bunch of unknowns :>)

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Or if you didn't have money for that cool underground band's CD that night, you'd have to catch them again. No Bandcamp, no CD Baby but merch tables. I miss it and I never knew it.

 

I kind of miss a lot of it too, althought not the bit where the only way you could get the CD was to write to an address in another country and had to pay to change your currency to their local, which came in about twice as much on a small deal by the time you paid for registered post, and then hope that they could read english, didn;t rip you off, or that your letter didn;t mysteriously go missing, which happened a bit too often.

 

Rather strangely, in the late 90s I sent off to Saviour Machine in Germany for a couple of CDs, and they send me back 3 Cd's, a T-shirt and my money back 'cos I'd said I was up to doing some flyering for them! :lol:

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Five-piece bands in the 70's, seven-pieces in the early 80's, then three, then two, then by the 90's i was solo. Been solo ever since. And the truth is that I actually accomplished more and made more money solo. But i do miss the fun and fellowship of wasting my life traveling around playing {censored}ty music.

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I do miss the fun and fellowship of wasting my life traveling around playing {censored}ty music.

 

Never full time but I've done plenty of weekend microtouring, just enough to see how dreary it can get :poke:

 

The social aspect of roadwork is one of the plusses for me, it's like being in a cult but drinking the KoolAid isn't fatal :rawk:

 

It's awesome to see how people develop special skills, one guy is great at packing the van, another can drive 24 hours without even a piss break, another knows where all the cheap but healthy eateries are in the entire country :thu:

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I played music full time for about 8 years. It started out in the SF Bay Area on a "vertical schedule", where we would play Tuesdays in one place every week, wednesdays in another, etc. This was for about two years. When the band broke up, I formed another band that was together for six years, and we played all over the Pacific Northwest, Canada, and Hawaii. All I had was a Yamaha CP-70 and a Prophet 5, later selling the Yamaha and buying a DX-7 when they were new. I spent my days programming sounds, it was fun. I think I did 8 years total, about 250 dates per year playing classic rock. We were a show band and had costume changes, stunts, bits, etc. When people started getting married and having kids, we devolved into a local Top40 band and that was the kiss of death, being a live jukebox instead of the center of attention. It was a great period of my life, however, and I have tons of cherished memories.

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Five-piece bands in the 70's, seven-pieces in the early 80's, then three, then two, then by the 90's i was solo. Been solo ever since. And the truth is that I actually accomplished more and made more money solo. But i do miss the fun and fellowship of wasting my life traveling around playing {censored}ty music.

 

Similar to me. I spent the 1980s on the road, mostly in the South East. Early 1990s was a house band gig, 6 nights a week, and 2 overseas tours per year. Started doing a solo in 1996 when another Japanese tour coincided with my wife's due date, and I have done much better financially and creatively as a single act. The #1 reason is I don't have to get anyone else to agree to learn a song, or refuse to learn a song.

 

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I was on the road full time playing keys in a Big Hair band for most of the 80s. covered most of the western half of the US. 5-6 days a week, 50 weeks a year. Great stories from the time period. A great way to spend my 20s. I wouldn't have exchanged those experiences for the world.

 

Hi Dave,

 

I just checked out your bands video demo, great band man!

I didnt hear the blonde singing too much but the girl with the short hair, she has a fantastic voice.

Do you guys play every week? If so, how many nights would you average a week with such a high-end cover band?

:thu:

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Hi Dave,


I just checked out your bands video demo, great band man!

I didnt hear the blonde singing too much but the girl with the short hair, she has a fantastic voice.

Do you guys play every week? If so, how many nights would you average a week with such a high-end cover band?

:thu:

 

Thanks! The blonde girl is new to the band so we've got to do some new demo stuff so we can show her off more.

 

We did about 35 shows last year. I think about 2-3 times a month is all anybody really wants to work right now. And I don't know how much more we could fill the schedule for the type of band we are/rates we charge anyway. The winter months are slow, but the rest of the year is pretty hectic. Hoping to figure out the best way to resolve that. Always a work in progress. Thanks for the interest!

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I was on the road with Morcheeba playing keys from 1999 to 2006..amazing times. Documented most of it on video too. So glad i had that opportunity but the desire to do my own thing was always pulling me back to my own studio hence no more big stints away again. I do miss it and it was like one big family but after almost 7 years touring takes its toll on even the hardiest of folks! Now i just gotta get my own JD73 band on the road and take the fam with. That would make my day!

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I was on the road with Morcheeba playing keys from 1999 to 2006..amazing times. Documented most of it on video too. So glad i had that opportunity but the desire to do my own thing was always pulling me back to my own studio hence no more big stints away again. I do miss it and it was like one big family but after almost 7 years touring takes its toll on even the hardiest of folks! Now i just gotta get my own JD73 band on the road and take the fam with. That would make my day!

 

 

Wow! That's pretty cool - Morcheeba. Good luck on getting the family out with you. I know Paul McCartney always did it.

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