45 replies to this topic

[Red Momma]

I am so glad you made this post, after the short sighted  comments made in the earlier post.

[Xander Hough]

I definitely agree with most of the points raised here.  While I was at university I conducted a research paper about musicians working in the West End which involved me conducting interviews with musicians working on several West End shows and pro regional tours.  They came across as thoroughly committed "doing it for the love" types who were very friendly and on most occasions bought this (at the time) university student a drink as well as spend time to help him with his final year work.

To add a few things...

4) No one is given an easy ride in a pit band given the competitive nature of the industry.  If you're not good enough, you won't last long... so it's unlikely that anyone who does get drunk and subsequently underperforms will be sacked pretty quick.  A big drink/drugs problem was alluded to by many of those I interviewed, but it has to be said, that this was never discussed in relation to standard of performance.  What was discussed was the increasing pressure that musicians feel working in these conditions/environments and the lack of support they feel they experience from fixers, company managers and so on.  Not least the actual demands of performing and the close knit family of West End professionals resulting in rumours or comments being circulated like wildfire if you do ever make a mess of things.  

5)  Again due to the competitive nature, deps will normally be pretty good and as a trained musician and avid theatre fan, I have never been able to tell from a band who was a dep and who was "full time" apart from changes in tone and stylistically on instruments with which I'm very familiar with in the score - i.e. I could tell it was not the person who usually played, but that wasn't because they made mistakes, they just sound different.  Also on this point, it is true that theatre revamps are often great for the audience, but that's because all the money is spent on FOH.  Bandrooms and backstage are as bad as ever in some theatres.

6) Very true.  For example, regular West End flautist Andy Findon has an impressive list of professional credits across many genres, two albums to his names and a list of film credits (including things like Harry Potter) to him name.   Doubtless the same is true of many others.

I think it is also important to recognise that while audience members may go and see a show once (or even twice), for the band, they do this 8 times a week and it gets pretty boring, pretty quickly to play the same music.  Some musicians have been on shows up to 2 years at a time.  That's approximately 834 performances of the same music, which as my study revealed, is not particularly taxing to begin with.  Despite the tedium, musicians on shows manage to produce great live music.

And my final thought - with the rise of Sinfonia and other "musician-replacing technologies" I would wholeheartedly rather listen to a professional who had a larger shandy at lunch but then played live than listen to any virtual orchestra work (which is saying something considering I do virtual orchestra work!!) and rather than complaining about what they do in their personal break time, support musicians who are bringing to life the work of talented MT composers and orchestrators.

PS. I'd love to be "sad" and to talk to West End musos at the Stage Door, but I'm far too shy! hehe.

[operabitch]

One could argue that you need to be drunk to work in the West End.

OB

[Matthew Winn]

And your  so lame  to  try and justify it by having go at people taking pics etc,that  is not comparing likes and in shows like Chicago this is stopped if people do it anyway,shame the management dont stop muso's going to the pub even if drinking ribena! as that is a joke and wouldnt be tolerated in any other industry and just makes showbiz looks as sleazy and unprofessional.

People in many lines of work have a drink at the pub during their breaks. Socialising with colleagues is a good way of building the kind of relationships that strengthen a business, and to most managers it's not a problem so long as it doesn't interfere with someone's ability to do their job. It's a different matter if they come back to work falling down drunk, chatting to the furniture and vomiting in the corridors, but people who get too drunk to do their work do get sacked very quickly.

On the other hand, I once knew a stage manager who'd pop out of the building for a smoke whenever he could during the show, sometimes missing cues as a result. A couple of times people managed to get locked out of the building that way. (The theatre had electric doors that, after 20:30, would only open to let people out of the unattended foyer but not to let them in. Anyone going out for a smoke who didn't keep track of the time would have to stand outside until someone missed them, guessed what had happened, and came down to let them back into the building.)