Never meet your heroes.. [rant, sorry]

[djmuskateer]

Its great that there are so many positive stories of people here meeting Vinnie and him being attentive and courteous and generally living up to your hopes and expectations.

Last night, however, I had an unhappy experience with another drummer and the band he is in. I won't name names, but basically my band play a style of music in which the band we supported always wins awards for being the best live exponents of, and the name of the drummer is always put about as being the leading player of the genre (he isn't, but thats another story). I'm a big fan of the band, been looking forward to the gig for weeks.

We turn up, and the other nameless band didn't expect another band to play, so are annoyed about having to shift equipment. Okay they aren't used to it, but sometimes gigs are like that - they must remember that from before they were big stars, right? So I get told I by the promoter that I have to use the other drummer's kit, as it is. I explain this isn't really possible as I have a very specific, one tom three snare set up and small hi-hats etc, so he says okay sort it out with the drummer. So I go over, shake hands, explain the situation, he's really reluctant to change much so, defering to his and the band's reputation, I offer to just put on my snares and otherwise leave his stuff where it is. So I leave his toms which I don't use, and his hats which I don't like, and even his ride and crashes, setting mine up on my own stands around his. During the soundcheck I pull muscles in BOTH my arms trying to reach the damn things!

Anyway, the gig goes okay, I play pretty well considering but can't do all my parts cos I don't have my own setup, but the headline band aren't particularly nice to us which is a shame. Then today I email the leader of the band, who is an influential man in this particular genre and runs a record label, and say did you catch our set? He says, and I'm actually stunned - I really had to read it three or four times to make sure I wasn't hallucinating, something to the effect that: I need to work on my diplomacy skills becasue I 'wound up' their drummer before the gig, and whilst they did catch some of our set their perception was influenced by the soundcheck events and first impressions run deep.

What?! I tried SO hard to be diplomatic and accomadting, made sacrifices to my set up I would never oridinaryly make, and they think I need to work my diplomacy skills! They actually didn't like my band (which went down nearly as well as theirs - it was amazing) because of it! I just can't belive it.

So the morale is, Vinnie rules! Sorry for the rant, thanks for listening.

[DPFRD]

Now we can play who is it.

[Klemme]

Considering it's 3 snares and one Tom music.

I bet it's that bald guy from Coldplay [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]wink.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/beer.gif[/img]

On a serious note though, sorry to hear about your experience.

The worst thing is that your "Reputation" within that band is damaged of some sort, but if they're jerks like you described them, then there's no point in hanging out with them anyway. Just don't do Support gigs for them anymore.

[matricks]

We're all down for the gossip, you are commanded to drop names (it will only make the conversation more interesting!). [img]wink.gif[/img]

[Andy Edwards]

i was surprised when I really got involved in 'the business' how many pecking orders there were.

The main commodity within the music business is not how good you are (nobody is sure what is good so they have to check what everyone else thinks before they can have an opinion)No, the main commodity is how many records you have sold or who you have played with. This creates a 'status league' and people will tend to suck up to the league above them and dump on the league below.

I think the thing to remember is that it doesn't matter how much status someone has, if they don't like you and/or don't appreciate your worth they are no use to you.

I must add though, if a support band wanted to use my kit and alter my set up I would try to stop that happening at all costs. But I would try and be nice about it...

[djmuskateer]

Oh belive me I had no wish AT ALL to use his kit, I had my own with me and hate using other people's. The promoter said we had to due to change ovfer times, size of stage etc. The way I see it, if your band is too big to share kits (not literally your band, Andy, you know what I mean), then it should be too big for venues that can only fit one kit on stage, too.

He didn't want me to use any of my stuff, just use his kit without even adjusting the stool height!

The trouble with the 'who you've played with status thing' is that you can't enforce it if they don't already know! I've played with more successful artists than the band we were supporting, in this genre and a related genre, as in I've been their drummer rather than in the support band, but I can't really say "how dare you make me sacrifice my set up - I've played with x y and z" can I?

Never mind, like you say, who needs'em anyway..

[Andy Edwards]

yes I agree.

I've had this so many times. I am not justifying any of this just commenting on it.

My band (IQ) won't have support band's full stop.
If one had been booked and we didn't know about it we would be very nasty! But we wouldn't be nasty to the support band, it's not their fault.

I've done supports with a lot of big name drummers and they have all been kind and supportive to me. That's just because they are nice guys and I have been lucky. I try and be nice to everyone. If they have a problem then they should voice it but not get upset with you. But this happens in the business all the time and I guess you have to learn to roll with it to get on...

(Hopefully they will be supporting you one day and then you can have some fun...)

[cjbdrm]

Reply back to the guy and say his issue should be with the promoter- not you. Don't kiss his ass, either. He's one person. There will be others that can help you.

[djmuskateer]

yeah I did reply without kissing ass - I explained the situation (very diplomaticaly..) as I saw it, and made it clear I didn't agree with his view. He didn't reply.

The rest of the band are all for printing his email in full on the website next to (positive) quotes from other people we've played with, because it is stunning in its patronising tone and is actually very funny. But I think we'd just be establishing a reputation as trouble makers, so I diplomatically tried to stop them..