So we had a potential singer sit in yesterday.  Not sing, just listen at practice.  We are gonna try out the vocals next week.

Now here is the problem: we have no leader.  As this band gets bigger, I can see things getting out of hand with regard to goofing off and such.  It was a bit of a problem yesterday.

I'm usually the one that turns into the disciplinarian, "one more run through and then you may go to the bar"

So I'm thinking it may be time to define our roles in the band.  
Which brings me to my quandry:

How do you go about selecting a leader for a band?
Who is your band leader and why?
Does every band have a 'leader'?

This is a first band for all of us and none of us has any musical experience either.  The potential singer has participated in a choir before, that's the extent of our musical resume.    

I always thought it was Mona, but then again Angela seemed likely, too.

Oh, you mean in the band?  

We just kind of break up certain tasks.  Our singer usually gets the gigs: he's great at networking, plus he owns a restauraunt, so he talks to a lot of people. Our lead guitarist is sort of the taskmaster during practice, to get us perfect. I do the technical stuff, like the recordings, web stuff, etc; and the bass player kind of just goes with it.

It was to get a feel of the band.  We really don't do any covers and I don't know any of the lyrics.  I had supplied a low quality audio tape about 3 days before, but nothing that I would expect someone to be able to jump in off.  We are not pros & have crap for recording equipment - literally a 5 & 10 (five and dime) tape deck.  Besides, potential singer is a friend of ours anyway.  So it was cool to play with an 'audience'.

i guess it depends what being the leader means. i always thought of our guitarist as the leader b/c he wrote all the music. but he didn't perceive it that way.

i consider whoever's coming up with the music [and setting the musical direction] to be the leader. someone who's booking gigs [ie, me] isn't a leader, but the main contact.

i guess it depends how people want to be lead or followed. but i think responsbilities should offset one another. so if one person is mainly writing, other people can get involved with particulars like booking gigs and rehearsals.

it's helpful if the leader is someone who has a fair amount of experience and is respected by the bulk of other players.

controlling the goof-off stuff shouldn't be the leader's responsibilty, though. every one should be able to control themselves, or why bother?

Even the truest democracy must have a leader when the chips are down!

True democracy works with my band.   Maybe its because there are only 3 of us, but it works.  No leaders.   We all opt for initiative in our respective strengths, but nothing gets done without group concensus.   Just the way I like it.  

There are 5 of us.  I do the PR and run the rehearsals.  Another guy does all the booking, and is kind of the front man (he does most of the chatting on stage).  He also is kind of the goto guy from an over all band direction.  I know that's kind of vague.  One of the guitar players is the musical director on stage.  Songs that have long vamps, and need to be conducted in some fashion are driven by him.

So, the leader of the band is situational.