projectjetfire
Guitar Addict
I'm posting this in what I believe to be a reasonably safe space, where ever possible I will make anonymous some people. However, it's quite a lengthy story full of shithousery....
So, recently I have joined a female fronted, 5 piece original band. We have two guitarist (and I'm currently one of them), a female bassist, a drummer and a female vocalist. The band itself have been going for a few years, but went silent after COVID so they are restarting everything. The singer and guitarist are original members, everyone else is "new". They have a FB page going back to 2017, a fair few gigs, photos,videos etc.
The bassist was up until recently in this band and another band but has recently left the other band to work solely in this new band that I'm in. The lead singer of the bassists previous band has been accused of r@pe and has gone to court awaiting trial. Ergo, since May they have been looking for a singer, no gigs obviously. The guitarist (who I will called Doug) of this band, runs a number of local promotions companies putting shows on etc. He has his own one and another he is jointly running along with what I believe to be a couple of fake profiles, proclaiming to be promoters. Before the bassist left, there was quite a stink about her not being able to go to two practises but it appeared ok for the drummer to not to be able to attend the next 5. She felt this was the final straw and said she was leaving. Doug then said he was leaving after an epic length message in the WhatsApp chat and bounced.
A week or so before this, Doug and the singer of my band had been messaging, saying they were looking forward to working with us etc etc. After Doug announced his department, my singer gets a message saying that "Due to having a band member who has a connection with a potential criminal, we won't be able to work with you as a band, venues don't like that type of thing etc". This was last Sunday so we discussed it as band and agreed it was all good, lots of other promoters etc. we set up new social media accounts, started posting teasers in FB of a return etc. The bassist had previously said that Doug was checking her LinkedIn account on a nearly daily basis, which was a red flag even before he said he couldn't work with us.
A few days later, we have a unknown social media account comment on one of our Instagram accounts basically tagging someone and saying "this is them, there's allegations about one of the members previous bands, they are causing trouble for venues etc". So I Snapshot it and deleted it. The tagged account had replied saying thanks for the warningthe profile didnt have any content really etc etc
Today (while I'm on holiday), I get a message from the bassist saying three people.had left negative reviews on the band FB page saying pretty much as the other account had, all vile stuff. One of Doug's promotion companies (,his joint own one) replying to a comment saying thanks for the warning. The band has now shut down the FB page, closed all social media and three of us have deactivated our FB accounts. We have tried to speak to the other business own but no reply. (update, he doesnt care, and has said the bassist shouldnt be "telling tales" and its nothing to do with him...)
I literally don't know what to say but I'd dare say that Doug is behind it all. I'm furious for so many reasons but mostly as this will probably finish any chance of the band doing anything.
What do you even do in these circumstances?
So, recently I have joined a female fronted, 5 piece original band. We have two guitarist (and I'm currently one of them), a female bassist, a drummer and a female vocalist. The band itself have been going for a few years, but went silent after COVID so they are restarting everything. The singer and guitarist are original members, everyone else is "new". They have a FB page going back to 2017, a fair few gigs, photos,videos etc.
The bassist was up until recently in this band and another band but has recently left the other band to work solely in this new band that I'm in. The lead singer of the bassists previous band has been accused of r@pe and has gone to court awaiting trial. Ergo, since May they have been looking for a singer, no gigs obviously. The guitarist (who I will called Doug) of this band, runs a number of local promotions companies putting shows on etc. He has his own one and another he is jointly running along with what I believe to be a couple of fake profiles, proclaiming to be promoters. Before the bassist left, there was quite a stink about her not being able to go to two practises but it appeared ok for the drummer to not to be able to attend the next 5. She felt this was the final straw and said she was leaving. Doug then said he was leaving after an epic length message in the WhatsApp chat and bounced.
A week or so before this, Doug and the singer of my band had been messaging, saying they were looking forward to working with us etc etc. After Doug announced his department, my singer gets a message saying that "Due to having a band member who has a connection with a potential criminal, we won't be able to work with you as a band, venues don't like that type of thing etc". This was last Sunday so we discussed it as band and agreed it was all good, lots of other promoters etc. we set up new social media accounts, started posting teasers in FB of a return etc. The bassist had previously said that Doug was checking her LinkedIn account on a nearly daily basis, which was a red flag even before he said he couldn't work with us.
A few days later, we have a unknown social media account comment on one of our Instagram accounts basically tagging someone and saying "this is them, there's allegations about one of the members previous bands, they are causing trouble for venues etc". So I Snapshot it and deleted it. The tagged account had replied saying thanks for the warningthe profile didnt have any content really etc etc
Today (while I'm on holiday), I get a message from the bassist saying three people.had left negative reviews on the band FB page saying pretty much as the other account had, all vile stuff. One of Doug's promotion companies (,his joint own one) replying to a comment saying thanks for the warning. The band has now shut down the FB page, closed all social media and three of us have deactivated our FB accounts. We have tried to speak to the other business own but no reply. (update, he doesnt care, and has said the bassist shouldnt be "telling tales" and its nothing to do with him...)
I literally don't know what to say but I'd dare say that Doug is behind it all. I'm furious for so many reasons but mostly as this will probably finish any chance of the band doing anything.
What do you even do in these circumstances?
