When Your New band Member Cancels First Gig

An email from an exasperated guitarist in an Indie band this week. Four months on from trying to recruit their new drummer they finally managed it. After the new guys impressive initial audition they arranged to meet up again to discuss working practises for the band.

The idea was to make sure there was more to this drummer than simply his rhythm. To try and check out they'd really got the right man..

They worked out beforehand what items they needed to talk through to make sure the new member understood and "signed up" to the band expectations.

Areas they covered were in this New Band Member Gigging post

Everything on the list was gone through and agreed with the new guy and the First Gig duly confirmed with a new venue.

Then came the first full rehearsal. Disaster. The drummer had done absolutely no work learning prior to the rehearsal and was using the full band practise to familiarise himself with the songs themselves never mind his own parts. The result was the first gig cancelled and one skin-beater exiting stage left - before shooting a single rim at a band gig.


The band felt they'd taken all the precautions to make sure they'd got the right person, so what went wrong? When I checked some of the detail, in fact the warning signs were there from the start. Besides turning up for his audition with a girlfriend he was significantly late for both the audition and the follow-up discussion. He had later postponed the first full rehearsal for "Personal Reasons".

Ultimately though, anyone new band member can say they agree to operate the way the others suggest. Action is all that counts.

The band have since decided that there needs to be a stage in between initial auditions and appointing the new person. Namely, agreeing some new unfamiliar material for the person to learn by a set date and checking he can do that for himself ahead of the rehearsal.

Until then any candidate still "being auditioned". It might take them longer but it should help them weed out more time wasters. Oh, and they've resolved to heed warning signs like habitual lateness....