United Kingdom

I studied the profile of a lady vocalist for some time unable to contact as I was not a "Paid" member, Finaly bit the bullet and paid up! and to get my monies worth also on the same day tried to contact another 28 musicians and the result NOT A SINGLE REPLY!! and the reason is this...
THEY DON`T GIVE YOU A PHONE NUMBER OR AN EMAIL ADDRESS all they do is send a response via the internal mail system that means IF THE PERSON CONCERNED DOES NOT SIGN IN AND CHECK THEIR MAIL THEY ARE NEVER GOING TO KNOW THAT SOMEONE IS TRYING TO CONTACT THEM. Well think about it! how often do we come in here to look? after months of nothing,nothing nothing people get despondant I have now taken to looking about once every two or three months.
Those of you that are a bit sharper and include a contact number in your profile,Well Done!! I for one will never pay again for something that does`ent seem to work. I could be wrong about this, it is only my humble opinion..... but the proof of the pudding...etc etc
WHY CAN`T WE HAVE DIRECT CONTACT VIA EMAIL OR PHONE!! surely thats what we pay for?? If we did`ent want to be contacted we would not be on here....... END OF RANT!!!!

I would have to disagree with you.while you are right about people not responding back thats due to them not bandmix,the same thing happened to me it got to a point where I contacted another member here on the forum just to make sure it worked.in saying that people are either not the musicians they claim to be or you are not what they are looking for, while they should at least respond some people are just Aholes.but again that is not bandmixes fault.you also have to remember this sight is mostly free that means anyone can get on here,lest see what you get for free you get to know about musicians in your town or city without even walking out the door saving valuable time. how much would it cost you to put an ad in a paper? last if someones not willing to pay a few bucks to check you out ,how serious of a musician do you think they are.It took 6mths before I got what I was looking for ,be patient then when you get what you want dont pay no more.remember too that you might come across someone on the forum that your lookin for so keep checking that out (thats free ) also there is craigs list,I dont know if they have that across the pond or not but im sure theres something like it ,thats free.Good luck and keep trying

Hi Ghost thanks for the response, you are entitled to your opinion but if I try to contact 29 muso`s in one day and do not get a polite acknowledgement from any one of them that tells me they have not been emailed and will only learn of my interest in them IF they log in and check their message box. That is not what I thought I was getting when I paid my money!!! I need to be able to contact people!!! WHY CAN`T WE HAVE AN EMAIL ADDRESS OR A PHONE NUMBER???? THEN THIS THING WOULD REALLY WORK!!

I can understand your frustration. I am not a paid member, yet I have answered every single replay that's been sent to me, even when the responder obviously didn't even read my profile & was looking for something completely different from what I am.

Sorry about your troubles, but the site is not at fault. I would not reccommend advertising a personal email on a site, myself, & I like the fact that BM filters out spammers & such for me while I search for musicians.

I have met ppl from this site, even out here in the wilds of WV. Must be the luck of the draw, my man. All I can say is quitcher bitchin & stay patient & it MIGHT happen for you, if your expectations aren't too high for anyone to meet.

Good luck.

Well my sign in does not work any more and I can no longer access my inbox for replies I guess I should expect that., I also expect this topic will very soon disappear ......we can`t have discontent and complaint from the customers can we????

OK, I will not shout any more, but when you say the BM is not at fault I think you are missing the point.
Once you pay your money you expect to be given the means to contact your fellow muso`s this I would expect to be a phone number or an email address you get neither! Why?..........

Why are you still here? Just to complain? If it does not work for you, find something that does. When I pick up a tool that does not work I discard it.
Find what works for you. Best of luck to ya.

ON the plus side John, I've been chilling out to your playing this morning

Hello John,
From Sussex England,
I have never been a fan of steel guitar, but you play it so nicely; I guess it ties you a bit to things like Country and Hawian as the sound is so strongly styalised, but very nice nevertheless.
Mark D Phillips...............

Hi Mark, thanks for the nice comment, Re. being tied to Country/Hawian,Not so some of the best Jazz you could ever hear has been played on steel by Buddy Emmons, I myself love to play the old dance band standards but will play any style if its good. the trouble is there are not enough competant players in the UK so people get a false impression of what the instument can do...... I would love to see more players out there.......jd

Hello again John.
And a fair comment I am sure... I know nothing of the real bredth of use for steel guitar; I guess we hear it used in Holywood films with American airmen on a sandy beach somewhere with chics with floral necklaces.

What perhaps I mean is though, that I can't imagine writing a song and using a steel guitar to acompany it, unless it was a very certain sort of a song.
That seems a huge shame to me because what the instrument does, in the hands of a musician like you, is beautifully lyrical and complex, like the violin in Irish music, or the short guitar intros of many of Jimi Hendix's songs; but I suspect steel guitar gets treated a bit as just "the sound we need here" in a recording or a film... a bit of a carachature of itself in some ways... like Barry Manilow perhaps: but now I am going off at a tangent!

Have you got any recordings, or can you do me a song! Where it is just voice and steel guitar, and some bits like where Hendrix is playing lead and starts to warmble along with his guitar; I would love something like that!
Cheers,
Mark.................

Mark, you would be amazed at how many recordings contain steel guitar, I am talking about chart material... people don`t always know what they are hearing on a lot of these records but they like the sound...
Thats a nice family you have there in your pics, I have an 11year old Daughter myself so I know what a proud Dad looks like!! and the sidecar looks like something from outta space....
That reminds me,gotta get the Bonneville mot`d

Hello John,
I suppose you were about the age I am now when your daughter arrived... and my wife keeps trying to tell me we are too old to have a second one! She is forty now.
Keep going I say!

My bike is a BMW K100, and I built the outfit in 2000... I based it very loosely on the cockpit of an ME109 German fighter; I keep hoping the bike will die so I can replace it with an R100 like the first outfit I built had, but the K100 is too reliable and reckoned to go easily for 300,000 miles, and mine has only done a bit less than 60,000 while I have had it, and 58,000 before I bought it, so I am stuck with it for a while... or till I feel rich enough to replace it anyway!
Trouble is it goes so well... zipped twice up to John O' Groats and round Ireland, and took me eight times to Cornwall in the first year I was running it, though only another seven times since then... but it sounds and feels like a car to me with so many cylinders.

It must be quite frustrating for you having to explain the steel guitar to people... a bit like I have to quite often explain why I love my motorbike and sidecar!
Steel guitar clearly deserves more mainstream recognition, and I hope you produce more material with it that shows what it can do.
Can you do me a version of my song 'They Came' with voice and steel guitar... or 'Sailing to Alabat' perhaps.
I would love to hear one of my songs in an entirely new style.
Cheers John,
Mark....................

Errrr... I put my personal email on my profile page a couple months ago, and it hasnt been zapped.
Put contact info in your description if you like, and use the freebie account.

John: I'm sure there's session work out there for you. Your playing is pretty good.