From Aces to Angels

Co-Ops, Unions and Wayward Musicians

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As well as one man controlled bands,there was also another business arrangement, the 'Co-Op' band. The concept of Co-Op bands came about due to the on-going conflict between band leaders and band members and was usually over money (what else?). This state of affairs inevitably led to a lot of bands being in a permanent state of flux with members constantly coming and going. You may have already noticed that fact by the number of changes that took place in the Golden Seven, and as you will see again when I get around to my experiences in the next band I joined.
  Now I'm not suggesting for a moment that all of these 'bandhoppers' were in any way rebelling against their capitalist masters, for there were lots of different reasons for leaving a band. Before I joined certain bands,  and after I left, there were other musicians involved, so it's difficult to arrive at an accurate tally of exactly how many musicians played with any given band. I'm sure in some cases it could be hundreds, or even thousands. Still, despite all this to-ing and fro-ing there was a handful of bands who seemed to retain the same members forever.
  A lot of musicians didn't feel they were being treated fairly so decided to form Co-operative bands where everybody shared the responsibility and the profits equally (at least that was the theory of it).
  This feeling of inequality, in my opinion, was often justified, because there were individuals (both within Derry and without) who, because they ran the band, thought they could treat their members like shit and pay them buttons. As a matter of fact I knew one man whose warcry when referring to his band as they carried in the gear while he sat on his arse was, 'What's the point in having a dog if you're going to do the barking yourself?'
  The selfishness and greed of these men inevitably led to the bust up of many's a good band. I must stress here that not all bandleaders were in the above category and many tried to treat their members fairly.
  There was one time of the year when a lot of bands broke up and others formed, and that was the six weeks of lent. During this period the bulk of the dancehalls, especially the ones where the clergy had an input, closed down, and this inevitably led to frustration and boredom as well as empty pockets. Some bands were able to get around this state of affairs by pre-arranging tours of England, Scotland and Outer Mongolia if necessary.
  The dancing season usually commenced once more on Easter Sunday. This was a big night financially for the bands, or to be more precise, the bandleaders, as in many cases the ordinary workers didn't profit a lot. The same state of affairs pertained on other holiday nights like Christmas Night and New Year's Eve. Personally speaking, I didn't mind playing on these nights and as a matter of fact I even looked forward to them. But there were other musicians who did mind but unfortunately they didn't have much choice. It often was the case that if you decided to take these nights off then you could say goodbye to your job.
  The Co-op idea was sound in theory, but unfortunately a lot of the time it didn't work out in practise. Much of the blame for this lay with a minority of the musicians themselves who just couldn't seem to settle down in any band (co-op or otherwise) for more than a couple of weeks. They didn't appear to want any of the responsibility and seemed to spend most of their lives going from one band to another. They considered themselves indispensable and sometimes  didn't bother to show up at practices or even at the gig. Understandably, and rightly, there came a time when nobody would utilise their services.
  Unfortunately, this minority of musical nomads were inclined to get the rest of us an undeserved bad reputation. Many's a time I heard the irritating generalization, 'Ye couldn't depend on youse Derrymen,' and it made me see red. More so because the remarks not infrequently came from promoters and bandleaders outside the town (and sometimes inside) who were a bit less than scrupulous themselves. There were other factors involved which contributed to the partial failure of co-op outfits including differences about musical policy and disputes with the Musicians' Union (a lot of whose committee members were bandleaders and naturally weren't enamoured by the idea of co-op bands).
  Now a word or two about the Northern Irleand Musicians' Association itself. During the showband era, being a member of the musicians' union was a prerequisite to getting a job in a band. Well that was fair enough because I'm a firm believer in the principle of unions. Unfortunately there was a perception among many musicians that the N.I.M.A. was 'f...in' useless' and was only strong against its own members. It wasn't the first time that a band was pulled off the stage because one of its members was way behind in his subscriptions and was now considered a non-member. To some committee personnel, members playing with non-members was strictly for the birds.
  The view was widely held that when it came to getting unpaid monies from rogue promoters or bandleaders the union was a toothless tiger. Whether this perception was justified I honestly can't say because when I started playing in professional bands I was too young to understand these things. To be truthful, I was just too interested in the glamour of band life and worried about when the next pimple was going to appear on my face, to care. I was too naive to come to any conclusion as to the truth or other of these assertions so I just paid my weekly dues, marched up and down with a placard now and again, and kept my mouth shut.
  There was one issue that seemed to split the union down the middle, and that was the 'closed shop' affair. This was a three way conflict between the bands coming up from the South, the northern promoters, and the N.I.M.A. The northern union stipulated that when southern bands played the north they must have a northern band playing 'relief.' This caused friction between the parties and subsequently involved The Irish Federation of Musicians, the Republic of Ireland equivalent of N.I.M.A.
  The northern union insisted that if the southern bands and the promoters didn't comply, they would endeavour to make Northern Ireland a closed shop to southern bands. A lot of the members agreed with this course of action, but a substantial number disagreed on the grounds that the 'Fed' would retaliate with a tit-for-tat measure, which meant that the northern bands would forfeit a lot of work across the border.
  I remember going to a crucial meeting in the union premises which were in Ferryquay Street at the time. There was a very heated debate in progress, with Paddy Canney and other committee members arguing strenuously for the motion, whilst others argued against. To be honest I didn't know which side I was on but I think I eventually voted for the motion.
  The matter was eventually brought to a conclusion when after a bit of militant protest from the Derry members (I distinctly remember picketing ouside the Guildhall with a little placard), all the parties concerned came to an amicable and mutually acceptable arrangement. My old memory let's me down here, for what exactly this agreement was isn't clear. While people I've interviewed can recall the incident, none can remember the solution either. I can only presume that the promoters agreed to use northern bands. I'm sure somebody out there knows.
  There was also tension between the Derry branch and the head office in Belfast, because the Derry members weren't happy with the percentage of subscriptions that Belfast was taking. They just couldn't understand why this was so because Belfast didn't seem to give a shit about Derry and they reckoned it was controlled by a bunch of 'Wee Hitlers.' In later years the Derry branch closed down altogether. Sadly, after a long life in the music business, Paddy Canney died in November 1997.
  Now while I'm in a hyper-critical mood, there's a couple of other things I would like to say;
(1) I'd like to take issue with those musicians who joined a band (fully aware of it's musical policy) and then did nothing but moan and gern about the shitty music they had to play. I think we all accept that we did have to play some rubbish in bands and that we all complained about it from time to time. In addition, we all engaged in a bit of tomfoolery by poking fun at certain songs occasionally (who can forget 'There's a hole in the Bucket' and 'Deck of Cards'), but the people I'm talking about took this a stage further.
  They considered that playing certain types of music was beneath them and actually adopted disruptive tactics (like deliberately playing bum notes all the time) to show their distaste. In doing so they made life difficult for all around them and even caused conflict in the band.
  Now my philosophy is simple. If you decide to join a band then you're either in or out, there's no half measures. If you're in, then you've got to give some kind of commitment to try and make the band work. If you just feel unable to play the music required then have the courage of your convictions, leave and find a band more suited to your musical tastes.
(2) Here I take issue with two types of musician, the 'musical elite' and the 'musical mercenaries.' Now the former seemed to take great delight in slagging off any musician they considered inferior to themselves. Usually (but not always) they came from a very musical background and their elitism not only permeated their music but also their general philosophy. I suppose to put it crudely, they were snobs. But worse, frequently this attitude was passed down to their offspring.
  I must point out that this criticism didn't apply to all musically educated folk but was usually confined to an obnoxious minority. This didn't mean that some musicians didn't deserve to be criticised and that's where the latter type come in.
  There is one group of musicians that I have no time at all for, and that's the group that I call the 'musical mercenaries' with their 'laughing all the way to the bank' mentality. This lot make no attempt to try and reach a decent level of musicianship at all, but learn just enough to get them by and are entirely driven by the desire to make money. In spite of all my ramblings I'm a realist, and am aware that living in a capitalist society we have to earn some bread to enable us to live, but that's a different matter altogether. Thankfully most of them are eventually found out for the fakes they are and usually disappear into oblivion.
(3) This concerns what I call the 'Dead March Brigade.' They were the musicians who indulged in the obnoxious practise of playing the 'Dead March' when the audience were a bit reluctant to get up on the floor, and usually occured at the beginning of the dance. Again it must be admitted that there were halls where the audience were a bit slow to dance no matter how good the band, but on a lot of occasions it was the band's own fault because they just were incapable of inducing the urge to dance in the audience, or else they played the wrong numbers. One way or the other it was an insult to the audience (who after all were paying our wages) and a practise with which I totally disagreed.
  I found in my experience that showband musicians, as far as musical taste was concerned, were divided into three basic categories, the jazz heads, the country heads, and the pop heads. Now the country heads wouldn't  (or more likely, couldn't) play jazz or pop, the jazz heads didn't want to play pop or country, and the ones in the third category like me, while pop orientated and no experts on either jazz or country, were willing to attempt a little bit of all three.
  As far as my own musical tastes were concerned, well like I mentioned earlier, my convictions lay outside the three just mentioned. While I enjoyed playing mostly anything that was going, I still had this hankering to be a blues musician and have my own band someday. The showbands themselves, as far as musical policy was concerned, fell mainly into two tribes but I'll say a wee bit more about that later.

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