Quitting a Band

Voxman

I quit my band after 3 yrs a couple of weeks back. The drummer wasn't the easiest person to get on with and could be an asshole with stupid acerbic remarks. He started doing some exercise class a few months back and whilst we'd be there for 8 he'd not turn up until 9 or later.   His wife left him several months back and I know hes not had an easy time of it but the latitude I was giving him had reached its limit. Couple of weeks ago he started with the smart ass remarks and it got to me, I lost my rag, and we had a big barney, and I thought 'I'm not enjoying this any more' so at the end of the practice I called it a day and quit the band. 

 The band was pretty decent, and the bass player and vocalist were good guys, but it hadn't been fun for a while now, there was no direction, we weren't gigging much, and I'd had enough.  If I'm going to put the practice time in to learn new songs, have to rush to get to the rehearsal room after working in the city, and pay for rehearsals, I want it to be enjoyable and have some reasonably regular paying gigs...sadly the others were just happy to practice and weren't much motivated to gig. 

I have no regrets whatsoever and I'm actually relieved its now done with.  

prlgmnr

I sort of casually tried to quit my band last November but got persuaded to stick around, now the bassist's wife has had a baby so he's disappeared off the radar, and as far as I can tell our singer/2nd guitar has joined/formed another band and recorded an entire album in the couple of months since we last had a practise, though he would never actually come up with any lyrics for any of our songs.

wowiezowie

I was in a band for 10 years in the 90's, released a few singles and an album in the UK and got Radio 1 airplay a few times. We were friends first, band mates later. It was all going well until the singer took it upon himself to make major decisions without consulting anyone else, eg recording the B side to a single on his own without telling anyone else, changing the songwriting credits so he would be the sole writer even though the music was 100% collaborative, writing sleeve-notes on his own without asking for anyone else's input, even naming our releases without telling anyone else, I found out the name of our album by reading it on the record label's website!
I was the only one to speak up and the atmosphere got so bad I quit, best thing I ever did.

darthed1981

wowiezowie said:

I was in a band for 10 years in the 90's, released a few singles and an album in the UK and got Radio 1 airplay a few times. We were friends first, band mates later. It was all going well until the singer took it upon himself to make major decisions without consulting anyone else, eg recording the B side to a single on his own without telling anyone else, changing the songwriting credits so he would be the sole writer even though the music was 100% collaborative, writing sleeve-notes on his own without asking for anyone else's input, even naming our releases without telling anyone else, I found out the name of our album by reading it on the record label's website!
I was the only one to speak up and the atmosphere got so bad I quit, best thing I ever did.

That's the kind of story that sometimes ends with "but then his brother Noel joined the band..."

SlopeSoarer

Just started watching a programme on BBC iPlayer, "Biggest Bands Breakups and Make Ups". There might be some tips in there: )

midlifecrisis

my current band, which ive been in 3 years now im feeling is a bit shaky. Nice guys, and gal. but the drummer, a great bloke, cant do many of our gigs so we,ve recruited a sort of semi-permanent dept. Although not great, i thought he'd improve with time as he learnt our songs (all covers) but i think he's getting worse, in that he doesnt learn the songs, and when i politely tell him if something isnt quite right he gets the hump.  at the most recent gig after we had a bit of a row.  Ive told the rest of the band im not happy playing with him anymore and i will find another dep. There not to keen on this as he has ingratiated himself with them by offering to fix their cars/ do the odd building job of which by accounts he doesnt really know much about. It probably will come to a head at the end of the week when we have a rehearsal and quite an important gig the following week of which i have told them if our regular drummer isnt playing or a different dep, I will cancel the gig, as i have booked it and subsequent ones.