I wasn't able to post over the weekend but I've been musing about the future, specifically: I know a lot of us are or were in bands, and although I wasn't, I did at least get asked to join one once, and have hung around with a few. Plus, my son Matt has been in bands ever since he was at school, and certainly did and does think he might make it some day in the music biz.
Look at the picture: do you think that the Crickets, who came together in the mid-50s, ever thought they'd be playing the Floral Hall in Southport when they were old and grey? (Sonny Lewis, on the left, wasn't a Cricket originally but was associated with them and Buddy Holly back in the day; JI Allison and Joe B Mauldin are yeractual Crickets.)
So...did any of you anticipate a future in showbiz? And what happened?
14 comments:
Never gave it a second thought.
Bottled out of my only band before ever having to sing in front of other people.
Around the same time, the one school play I did appear in (as Bungabine in Unman, Wittering & Zigo - talk about playing to type!!) convinced me that it wasn't something I wanted to do.
I would have loved to have been able to make a living in music but got into supporting a family instead. (Which I didn't regret at the time....)
As in most walks of life, to succeed you need a good combination of talent, luck, confidence and contacts. I didn't have enough of all those things and so, whilst I enjoyed being on stage and trying to create something, the plain mechanics of being in the right place at the right time with the right people just never happened.
Although it is a little disturbing to see The Crickets still playing at their age, you have to wish 'em luck. But would they still be able to do it without having been Buddy's band? I doubt it.
I used to know Martin Hannett a long time ago, when he was a bass player in someone else's band. Martin became a famous 'genius' producer and dead junkie. The band's frontman is still playing local gigs in south Manchester for pin money.
So it goes, as has been said before by someone.
I played in bands throughout my teenage years (saxophone (badly) and keyboards (not quite so badly)) and despite some promising moments, none of them even got close to 'making it'. Then, when I was in my mid-20s, I got to know some people in a local band who were four or five years younger than me and they asked me to help them by playing the piano on some recordings they were doing. For a while it looked like they were really getting somewhere (a few John Peel plays, number 29 in the NME indie chart) and then it all fell apart - I've never been quite sure why.
Anyway, that was as close as I got to fame and fortune ...
None of the bands I played with ever had the slightest hope of making it professionally - all utterly unoriginal, content to churn out cover versions and just have a bit of fun, with the greatest ambition being to play student May Balls.
I did, briefly and occasionally, have thoughts that maybe some of my own songs were good enough - it's still my (now utterly obsolete) ambition to release a 'proper record' rather than just self-recorded cassettes. But I never had the self-confidence to get a band together and order them to play my songs, and they weren't really suited to solo performance (and in my only solo gig, I was too worried about the technical aspects, like singing and playing the guitar at the same time, let alone trying to get the drum machine cues right) that I couldn't present the songs effectively. Maybe if the internet had existed then things would have been different...
I suppose I should throw my hat in the ring here as an actor, rather than a musician. Never really had any musical talent, but I always was a good actor (maybe still am, couldn't tell you).
But, for reasons similar to Chris above, without quite ever havingn the right combination of luck, skill, drive and timing I ended up never quite gettin there. I never got paid for going on a stage in my life, which will always be a regret, but I did quite a few short films and, in spite of myself, even made it onto proper telly once. But just once.
Then, suddenly, I reached the point where a decision had to be taken and it was the easiest (and best) I ever made: give it up, be happy for what you did and try to support those you love instead. I'm not saying the two are ever mutually exclusive but, in my situation at least, I think they were.
If anyone wants to see my five star review from the Edinburgh festvial I can probably dig it out? Or my awards? Anyone? Come back...
I chickened out of saying this earlier as it is offensive but a blog about musicians being narcissistic has appeared over at the Graun and my confidence has increased enough to say it now. The prime attribute for anyone wanting to succeed in the music business is to be a c*nt. A combination of oversized ego and cynical ruthlessness trumps talent anyday (there are a few exceptions, obviously). So it's quite understandable that great success has not found many folks around here, as there's an abundance of niceness.
Never had any musical talent - can't play an instrument and never had the confidence to be a front man (singing voice fine...). However trod the boards a bit at Uni and had 2 great roles :
1. MC in "Cabaret" fantastic part with plenty of great songs, dancing and naughtiness on stage...
2. Duke Ferdinand in "Duchess of Malfi" - unlike Joel Grey / MC he is prone to violent outbursts and rage and is a great role as he descends into madness...
Agree with Chris to great extent - met some right twats including Bowie who was the most arrogant s**t i've ever met...but have also got to know some great musicians(though admittedly not that famous...)
I agree with Chris and gremlin to an extent - but I suspect that quite a lot of the arrogance and downright nastiness comes with the success rather than leading to it. Discuss. I'm sure you will ...
OK - the grammar in that sentence didn't quite make sense - some of the parts of speech were all to fuck (as Dickens once famously put it). What I meant to say was:
quite a lot of the arrogance and downright nastiness comes with the success rather than leads to it.
Welcome back TFD, but I can't find the other 4 questions?
My professional acting career was over by age 15 - needed to find more steady income to pay for music and other habits. Regrets? I've had a few. But then again.....
I wish I'd had the b*lls to do something about it when I was younger - I would have loved to have been a backing singer, doing all the bop shee wops and that kind of thing - or to have a voice like (say) Annie Lennox or Sam Brown ... but I'll stick to whistling Radiohead songs in the bath.
This is sort of embarrassing, but part of the reason that I'm sad about being the age I am is that it occurred to me that I can never be a rock/pop star any more. But I never really wanted to. Very very strange moods that impending birthdays bring on.
I can still be an old blues guy though!! Try and stop me!!!!!!!
It's not just the age thing, it's the fact that they've taken away all the traditional markers of success: I can now never appear on Top of the Pops...
ah but now we have Britain's Got Talent to shoot for.
Wonder if Piers would buzz me for donding while flower arranging.
I can also juggle two kids' school schedules.
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