A band to remember, both positive and negative.. Part Two

@slobberchops put me to the idea of this post with posts of his 'candit recollection of his memories' This is a memory of me which I often still think of or talk about, so I guess it impressed me :) This is the second part.

You can read part one here

While after the first gig I was all exited with the band. They had it all, played great music, were great musicians and already a fully booked agenda with nice venues to play. While rehearsing after the first gig I noticed quite some tension between the male singer and the rest of the band but did not know exactly what it was about. I obviously could not interfere because it wasn't something concerning me...

I had played in some bands before I joined Six strings but I never experienced the routine they were in to. They really loved the 'rock and Roll' life, even in the rehearsal room. That meant that the smoked weed often and drunk a lot of alcohol (except the drummer) . for me no problem, as long they didn't expect that I join them with that (which they didn't).

After some weeks I got a call from the guitarist, he told me that they 'fired' the male snger because of his excessive alcohol abuse. First I thought 'isn't that something you all do" but I didn't said that to him. But it turned out that the singer already had caused problems during gig's (before my time) caused by excessive drinking... So I though "Well, we have two female singers left" so no problem....

We continued playing and rehearsing untill one day Michel (the guitarist) called me if I was able to go with him to a music store in a other city, he didn't own a car and needed to pick up a speaker for the PA system. So I drove him to the store and while we're driving he asked me why I didn't arrange that I would medical disapproval to work. (which means you can't work cause of "a medical cause" and you get paid by the government without working). His argument was that I was then able to play music all day..... I didn't believe what I heard, I was a bit flabbergasted and asked him why I would do that, and who is going to pay my bills (the 'salary' from the government is just the minimal).. He laughed a little but stopped talking about it. It turned out that he and his girlfriend both where medical disapproved for reasons I still don't know and can't understand but it does put things in perspective later on...

Although I couldn't relate to the life they lived I did had a blast playing gig's with them because the band was musicaly so good. I really enjoyed playing. Some time later we got a new male singer (an interim one, just for the big gigs). It was Jako Kreukniet. A great singer who was very exeprienced and have played with some great bands like the american Rich Wyman. Jako and I could get along very well, we had a kind of the same morals and values so we bonded quite quick. When we were talking a bit before a gig Jako told me he got paid by the gig, something I didn't thought was strange because he was no real band member, just hired for bigger gig's. But when he told me the ammount he got paid I was kind a suprised because all the time I already played I didn't received and penny. Of course that's also my own fault because I never discussed that and to be honest I was never in for the money, it was and still is my hobby. But is was kind a strange that he got paid very well and that the band (I found out later) also was paying for the babysitter of the guitarist and female singer. I think that when there is money involved you have to be integer and divided it by the amount of bandmembers. But for that, I was what it was and I never made a problem out of that because the only thing I wanted to do was making music.

Source

Then one time we had a gig at a motor gang in the north of Holland. It was a two hour drive, cars packed with instruments we arrived at the location. It was a meadow in the middle of nowhere, but it was well organised. The organisation had a tent for us musicians packed with food and drinks ( never seen it before, so many bottles of liqour, beer etc.) . When we played our gig we were getting our stuff together to leave.Then I saw something happening I just couldn't believe... Both Michel and Saskia (guitarist and singer) were filling up their bags with new bottles of liqour. The said, laughing, "O, they probably won't even notice".... I was shocked, they just stolen bottles of boose from the people who treated us so well and nice...

I decided not to say anything about it at that moment cause I only would have made troubles not knowing if the organisation got a hold on it,... Didn't knew what would happen than... But I did decided that this wasn't my cup of tea. I couldn't identify myself with these people. No matter how much I loved playing in the band because of the music and gig's, I just couldn't accept their way of living and acting... I have much different morals and values...

So after that incident I quited the band, I thanked them for their believe but told them that I was seeking somewhat different in musicians and a band...

So that was the end of my Six Strings career :)...

Every now and then I still see them on festivals (with other bands, six strings quited eventually). The drummer and guitarist are the only ones still making music. The guitarist is amazing but cause of his attitude he won't ever going to succeed better than what he is doing now I guess..

The female singer has gone into depression, terrible disease, but she is on dope and made a complete mess of her life... Sad story......

On the end I did learned a lot, no matter how great things look never give in on your own morals and values, not matter what.. And bands concering, I played a lot of bands after them and one of the thing's that (for me) is most important, you have to feel comfortable with the people you play with. It sounds obvious, but as I noticed that is not always the case :)

Source

Have a great day and keep up that music !!

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