Working as a musician most of my adult life, I’ve had an opportunity to play with some amazingly talented people. There’s also been a fair share of strange ones; here’s a few examples… Lola: A petite, twenty-five year old fiery-haired backup singer with a four octave range and a fondness for opiates, Lola decided to … More Working With Weirdos
So my music career is not officially kaput. I continue to get an occasional call or email , but I usually am not into the gig. I ran into a buddy of mine who told me how his band was using Craigslist to find a singer for quite some time. He convinced me to join … More Looking for a gig in Eddie Van Hamsterland
AT LAST!! A NAME ACT! I was on a roll … I had never heard of this band but since they officially had a top 10 hit (from the sixties), I was going somewhere. Sort of. There were parts to learn – medleys, dance steps, costume changes – COSTUMES, for pete’s sake!! At least I … More So how long have you been playing with the orchestra?
On and on, we got the jobs. Work was steady – every week. Wednesday through Saturday gigs: 9pm to 1am… Thursday thru Saturday, 9pm to 1am … Fridays and Saturdays 10pm to 2 am … Exclusive one niters… The painful ‘five niter’ Tuesday through Saturday… By Saturday night, everyone was hoarse and tired… One five … More Walking On Sunshine
Being the lead singer in a rock band was my dream, but there were a couple of things missing: fame and fortune. The circuit was not what I expected. It had started to turn into a grind – the clubs were getting weirder and so were the people. I was getting bored. Not good. The … More Rock Star Trek
When I heard we finally scored a gig at ‘the Civic Center’, I was in rock and roll heaven … imagining throngs of adoring fans surrounding our humongous stage setup. We couldn’t wait – it was to be a teen dance – the core audience for our repertoire. We most definitely would have our entire … More Civic Doody
Finally, I was on top of the world: all that practicing and rehearsing paid off — I was the lead singer in a rock band, working the circuit and doing a lot of gigs – some up to five nights a week. I was singing Pat Benatar stuff, Heart, Pretenders, Joan Jett, Quarterflash (remember them?) … More I’m Tired and So Are You
Our band was officially ‘working the circuit’. After that marathon six hour event at the Emerald Lounge, the word spread that we were a good band – club owners started contacting Buddy, our agent, for dates. We were feeling pretty good about ourselves – the guys looked to add even more equipment to the astonishing … More Boffing the Light Fantastic
We played loud rock music for SIX HOURS that night … starting at 11pm, our last set BEGAN at 5am… we may have been in our early twenties, but we weren’t robots: we were drained. From the extreme volume, the crowd, and the threat of worrying we could get canned by a crazy club owner … More The Nightclub Tornado
Weeks turned into months and the only gigs we were getting were little bars. Small stages, bad lighting, dreadful bathrooms, the money was terrible… we were definitely paying our dues. I was enjoying every minute of it, though: the band had developed a following and I had a small cadre of fans already! Other than … More Getta your equipment offah the stage-ah right now and getta the hell outta here – you’re ah fired!
theclubsinger 