Not sure if this is the best place or if this would be considered Off-Topic:

Reading the thread about drummers going back on their word to subs about gigs, I had the idea to see which band members tend to be the most unreliable.  Not trying to hurt anyone's feelings, but I've noticed that lead singers seem to be the most unreliable when it comes to communicating with the band, showing up on time to gigs, etc.

Who have you found, in your experience, to be the most unreliable?

Have fun and vent a little, and Bart, if you find this poll too inappropriate, I wouldn't be offended if this thread was pulled.

Boy, is that a tough question.....I've had the worst time over the years with bass players who cancel practice or swap bands. Drummers have been accused of being unreliable for years. But not me, I've been told I'm rare because I'm a totally reliable person. An unreliable musician is someone I won't work with, no matter what the instrument. Come to think of it, I've known lead guitarists and keyboards with the same problems.... You should have had a spot for "all" of them. It takes me a while to trust musicians. Or maybe I should change that to "people in general"? It all comes back to "your standards", and how YOU were brought up. I haven't had a much of a problem with "lead singers" being unreliable. Most of the time it's "their band" I've played with.... It all comes back to your own experiences. In my case bass players may lead by a very small margin.       Come to think of it, I've done my share of filling in for drummers who've quit or cancelled at the last minute.        I've never had that reputation and don't want to. Maybe that's why I'm still getting gigs after all these years.   

I've added a couple more options.  I think I'll leave it at that because if I added options for every combination, the poll options will go on forever.

My regular band members are very reliable but when it is necessary to hire a sub and he leaves me hanging, he goes into my little black book of people never to call again.

Roger

Singers, singers, and singers.

If I had the chops, I'd be in an instrumental band.

Don't take this as a sweeping generalization about all guitarists, I've worked with some pretty amazing, down-to-earth players with great big ears and tons of taste and chops.

But I've also worked with some pretty flaky guitarists over the years.  The bands I've been in have gone through more guitarists than any other player.  Its usually ego, attitude, inability to listen, inability to find a volume setting lower than 11. . .  essentially the inability to be a professional, that gets them fired.

Just my humble opinion here, but I really can't put any certain musician in the "unreliable" category.

Heck, in my 40 + years of playing, I'd like to think that I've seen and experienced just about all types of "unreliable" personnel, ranging from singers to guitarists to keyboard players to bass players.......and so on, you get the idea.

Does it really matter what instrument a person plays in the first place?  I don't think so.  What really matters is if the so-called "unreliable" person has his or her head on straight.  It's no different than the sound tech who says that he will have everything set up and ready to check at a certain time, only to run late and, if you are lucky, give you a quick dial-in thirty minutes before showtime, and God help you if the mix isn't right.

A person's instrument does not dictate his or her professional attitude.  It's the personal commitment to the job that really matters.  You cannot categorize it any other way.  I'm a drummer, and I take the gig in a deadly serious manner, but if I were a guitarist or a keyboard player, my attitude would be the very same.

I practice my parts and get them down cold before the gig, show up on time, have my ears open during the gig, and keep my eyes trained on the lead singer or artist.

Does it matter that I'm a drummer?  Or could I be anyone else in the band? 

Again, it's only my opinion, but you are either a responsible person, or you're not.  I don't care what instrument you play - what I care about is your attitude, period, end of story.

IMO,
drumz1

I'm with drumz...it's not the instrument, it's the person. I've been lucky to have played by and large, with people who showed up, knew their parts, and were not a liability. Those that were a problem did'nt last long and that's probably why they take up so small a space in my memory. 

Guitarists, in my experience, can be on the flakier side.  If the person in question is a lead singer/guitarist, it's 50 times as bad.  I'm not really sure why.  It's really on a case-by-case basis, though---I've known knuckleheads of many kinds, including string players. 



Dan