Cancelling gigs due to illness

BahHumbug

Hi, the following may look like a sob story, but it's not meant to be, I'm just interested in opinions. I'm in an amateur band and one of the other guys in the band has lung cancer in one lung, the kind that's related to asbestos exposure. If we're lucky he'll be ok for this year, but his general state is very up and down. He's just started chemo, so he's currently feeling pretty grotty indeed. Anyway his biggest wish is to carry on playing for as long as possible. He's an excellent musician and a lovely chap and we all love him to bits and want to support him in that wish. The slight problem is that we can book up gigs, but we don't know that on any given night, he'll be fit enough to play. So we're faced with the possibility of having to cancel gigs at short notice, although this hasn't happened yet. My own opinion is to just see how we go for now. Most of our paid gigs are in pubs and I don't have any qualms about cancelling at the last minute 'due to a sudden illness'. I've had plenty of pub gigs cancelled because they messed up their bookings. Obviously it's not something we can do time and time time again though. It's a bit of an open ended question, but does anyone else have any opinions on how to deal with this? Ta.

Danny1969

The drummer in one of my bands had a heart attack last summer. We cancelled one gig and then got a dep in for the next six months. I would see if you can find a dep who can stand in at short notice if needed. If he's fit to play then great, if not use a dep

EricTheWeary

Our drummer had a heart attack during a rehearsal, we did our remaining gigs with a dep and kept the space open for him and he is back with us now. Can be difficult to get a dep if you don't play for money or reasonable money is all but worth casting round.

John_P

I'd agree with looking for someone to cover -  I'd certainly do this type of gig, knowing that if he can play then great and if not the dep plays - or possibly both play.      What does he play?    If he's the other guitarist then have an alternative set.  If it's the drummer or bassist then it's a little more tricky.

EricTheWeary

John_P said:

I'd agree with looking for someone to cover -  I'd certainly do this type of gig, knowing that if he can play then great and if not the dep plays - or possibly both play.      What does he play?    If he's the other guitarist then have an alternative set.  If it's the drummer or bassist then it's a little more tricky.

Depends what kind of stuff you play as well, but altering the set to include more stuff that's well known and/ or simpler to pick up probably isn't a bad idea. 

BahHumbug

Thanks guys. TBH a dep isn't an option. We're a close knit bunch, so we wouldn't want to dep him. Plus his Mrs is in the band too. We like to swap instruments so he variously plays acoustic and electric guitars, bass, lead vocal on some songs, and backing vocal on most of the others. Plus he's our harmonies guru.

EricTheWeary

Maybe try making links with other bands who do roughly similar stuff. ' Sorry, I'm having to cancel our gig this Saturday due to illness but I've spoken to The Armpostwizzles and they are available and can do the gig on the same terms' might go down better?

lloyd

EricTheWeary said:

Maybe try making links with other bands who do roughly similar stuff. ' Sorry, I'm having to cancel our gig this Saturday due to illness but I've spoken to The Armpostwizzles and they are available and can do the gig on the same terms' might go down better?

If a deep isn't an option this is a good idea-if you could get a few bands on board it should work, I'm sure there would be plenty of bands sympathetic to the situation and be up for short notice gigs. Where you based, might be some on here?

BahHumbug

Thanks again. We have been looking at the idea of backup bands and we are going to pursue it with our friends and the musicians that we know locally. We're in the Cirencester area, our style is Middle,of the road rock and pop leaning towards folk, two women and two blokes all singing, quite a bit of vocal harmony. Stuff like Fleetwood Mac, Fleet Foxes, Sheryl crow, First Aid Kit.....

DulcetJones

EricTheWeary said:

Maybe try making links with other bands who do roughly similar stuff. ' Sorry, I'm having to cancel our gig this Saturday due to illness but I've spoken to The Armpostwizzles and they are available and can do the gig on the same terms' might go down better?

This kind of thing worked well for me in the past, when I was doing solo guitar gigs.  A local solo piano player had a problem keeping dates and handed a lot of them off to me.

p90fool

EricTheWeary said:

Maybe try making links with other bands who do roughly similar stuff. ' Sorry, I'm having to cancel our gig this Saturday due to illness but I've spoken to The Armpostwizzles and they are available and can do the gig on the same terms' might go down better?

I'm the tuba player in The Armpostwizzles and we're most definitely not available on Saturday.

It's a good suggestion though, I have a good working relationship with two other local bands who I trust to do a good job - we all recommend each other when we're offered bookings we can't do.