Should I be annoyed?

I have a solution. MY Keyboard has percussion sounds. If the keyboard player is going to be so quick to offer up percussion, let the person play it on his keys. See how the keyboard guy feels when all his presets are changed.
 
I have a solution. MY Keyboard has percussion sounds. If the keyboard player is going to be so quick to offer up percussion, let the person play it on his keys. See how the keyboard guy feels when all his presets are changed.
You are a clever one, aren't you?
 
I would be suuuuuper annoyed!

I would also give that little S**t head my go to speech about playing someone else gear before he sat down:

"Don't play this kit as your own. Play it as someone else's who will break every finger on you hand if you damage it"
 
And that's perfectly fine if you don't want to play at the subsequent weddings of his other two daughters. There are a bunch of DJ's sitting in the wings just waiting for bands to lose their shit over such trivial matters. I'll happily continue this conversation in the "Where did all the good gigs go?" thread.

Don't do weddings do you? Let me explain how the gig booking works.

99.9% of the gigs you do are to people you'll never see again in your life. The majority of the gigs come through booking agents because the vast majority of people getting married aren't musicians and by christ it shows when you're out there and the way people speak to you. The only problem with agents is you don't get as much control as you'd like with the booking.

Personally after a bad wedding I wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire, come back when you've had someone try and duck out of paying you £1000 at the end of a night. I could reel off other bad ones I've done and when people have taken the piss but the way you're posting it's probably our fault for not having our bellies tickled and not being walked over. Service the customers request, must be like gigging with Bill Lumbergh in your band.

If I get an enquiry that's not worth my time some other poor sod can do it and there's thousands of bands out there that will bend over backwards and get shat on because they think that's the way to go and they're broke because they don't play for what they're worth.

Where did all the good gigs go? Weddings are weddings, it's a job you do it for cold hard cash that's it. If it's a good wedding it's nothing to do with the band, you've stumbled across a good group of people.
 
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This

Never trusted keyboard players mesen, am 40 now and started playing in bands at 15. Only had 1 keyboard player in that time, and that was enough.

...

They asked me if he could use my kit and I said yes if I could use his girlfriend because it amounts to the same thing!

Wow. Seriously? That's borderline sociopathic.

What's next? Pulling out a gun on anyone who goes within 1 meter of your kit?

Here's an idea: don't bring gear that you can't replace to a gig. Add a clause in your contract that specifies that the client will pay for any damaged gear due to accidents or misuse that can be attributed to anyone who's not part of the band, or hire some kind of insurance and add the cost of the insurance to the band's fee. I'm sure there are other solutions that don't involve being an asshole to customers or guests.
 
Wow. Seriously? That's borderline sociopathic.

I'm sure there are other solutions that don't involve being an asshole to customers or guests.

Being an arsehole is a 2 way street. The customer is never right in this situation.

Golden rule for your wedding day folks and these are the rules I went by is be grateful that people are working their arses off for your big day (Not just the band!). A thank you goes a long way, a pint at the end of the night goes even further.

You'd be amazed how many people forget this.

Some of you self righteous we always share our kit types should spend a year doing weddings and functions. Might open your eyes a bit!
 
Some of you self righteous we always share our kit types should spend a year doing weddings and functions. Might open your eyes a bit!

I'm not talking about sharing the kit. You can either refuse politely, or, as suggested before, you can agree for an extra cost.

But telling people they can use the kit if you can use their girlfriend is downright insulting and will get you knocked the hell out as soon as you tell that to the wrong dude.

As someone else already put it, the problem is that the people with money often treat entertainers as things. No matter what, that doesn't give you the right to also treat anyone's girlfriend as a thing. If the only language these people speak is money, the best you can do is play ball and have a clause where you can demand more money if a customer asks you to use your gear.

And don't bring any irreplaceable gear to gigs because even if you never lend your gear, you never know what can happen to it.

Also, if you ever lend your gear, stay as close as you can. If someone borrows my kit, I'm always standing behind him, often clapping and cheering him up if he's a rookie, or making an approval face if he's experienced... because being friendly will increase the probability that he won't deliberately f**k up.. but either way, he knows I'm watching.
 
Folks get back on topic and end the mocking or some of you will win free vacations.
 
Don't do weddings do you? Let me explain how the gig booking works.

Thanks for explaining this. After decades of being a booking agent, and professional musician, club owner, producer, and independent label owner, I had NO IDEA that it worked like this.

;-)


Now allow me to explain how a wedding gig booking works....

Your agency books a gig via a wedding planner. You play and do a fantastic job. You are super nice and go out of your way to make certain everyone has a great time and loves you and your band. You hand out business cards and make friends. No drinking, no sweating brides-maids. If you cause any drama, it's going to be the only thing people remember about your band. Stay in line, and You'll end up seeing everyone again and again as more and more people get married and want the same experience.

At the end of the night, you get some leftover chicken (or fish) and a cash tip (sometimes), and your band gets paid "by your booking agent" several days later, not the people at the wedding. If you're spending your time chasing down a check at the end of the night instead of creating subsequent business via networking & promotion, you're doing it wrong.

We have all of these opportunities to promote our disciplines and arts, but we squander them due to our lack of business sense and autistic-tortured-artist demeanor. Worse yet, we pollute the well and make it more difficult for the next generation of musicians by souring the public's perception of us and eliminating paying venues.

Weddings (and similar events, including band stands) used to be the lifeblood of professional musicians. It saddens me to see that we're still pissing it away.

Sorry Grunt ;-). Couldn't resist.
 
I think the point of the OP was that the Drummer's gear was loaned out without his permission.

Like I said, I would have had the keyboard player set up the "percussion voices" on his keys and let they guy use those. No one has the right to loan out my stuff.

And I don't have several sets of drums, or 5 guitar amps. I have ONE of everything I NEED. Some moron blows up my amp or drops my best vocal mic and "sorry" will not help me at the next gig.

And yes, let's stay civil. let the infants go to Facebook and Youtube where they belong. ;)

ALL WE AARE SAAAAYYYYIIIINNGGG...IS GIVE PEACE A CHAAAAANCE!!!
 
Wow. Seriously? That's borderline sociopathic.

What's next? Pulling out a gun on anyone who goes within 1 meter of your kit?

Here's an idea: don't bring gear that you can't replace to a gig. Add a clause in your contract that specifies that the client will pay for any damaged gear due to accidents or misuse that can be attributed to anyone who's not part of the band, or hire some kind of insurance and add the cost of the insurance to the band's fee. I'm sure there are other solutions that don't involve being an asshole to customers or guests.

That's all well and good if you are in a situation where you actually have contracts. In our bar scene around here (and admittedly, I would think that a wedding band would have to have a contract) there are no contracts. So someone manipulating the situation last minute won't have any contracts to be in conflict with. So it's up to the guy who owns the equipment, the drummer, to make sure nothing happens with someone he doesn't even know.

Like some others on here have noted, I don't have fancy gear, but its what I can afford. What I can't afford is to have to replace some of it because of someone else's indifference to its care and usage. I've never refused anyone yet, and have offered my kit for backlining a few times, cymbals and pedals included. But I'll be darned if I'm gonna be forced into it by someone else.

If you're in the type of band that gets bookings like Kamak is describing, I suppose you can afford to have good stuff and not-so-good stuff with you at all times, for these scenarios. (I'm a bit of a hoarder, so if I ever get the fancy new higher end cymbals, I'll likely still have my current older stuff, and having those in the trailer or car won't be a tax on carrying stuff around.) Probably those gigs are paying a lot more than I'll get paid in a month or more's gigs. I'm pretty sure we aren't putting ourselves in other folks possible scenarios...
 
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