OMG band troubles here.

[Sceptile_Master]

OK for 6 months me and my mate have been playing together as a band and looking for some other people, in other words a bassist and a drummer. He was rythm guitar and I was lead guitar and vocals. But today on the phone he said that he had been asked by another band to play for them and he accepted. The weird thing is, it was for him to do the vocals. I mean he doesn't know anything about vocals. Nothing about singing in different keys and stuff. Hey just puts on a sarcastic weirdly pitched voice. So this meaning after all this time he is in another band.

I now have no idea what to do but I'm not giving up on doing my band. So does anyone have any suggestions on this. I mean I'm going to college in starting in september mabye I'll find some band mates there. Also I'm afraid he might use some of the songs written for my band in their band. I wrote ALL of the lyrics for those songs and most of the guitar parts. Any suggestions on that too?

[Heald]

1) Has he stolen the lyrics and notes from you in actual paper form? If not, keep hold of them. If he has and you didn't copyright them...tough shit. Most you can do is ask him not to use the material.

2) College is probably your best bet for finding band mates. Most colleges have some kind of community notice board or something where people will advertise their talents. Either look there or put up 'Guitarist/Vocalist looking for band, male, 15, GSOH' or something to that effect. Another thing to do is make friends quick at college and drop into conversations that you're a guitarist/vocalist looking for a band and if you're in luck your new friends may point you in the right direction.

[Sceptile_Master]

Hopefully they have some sort of musicians club. How do I copyright any material? I suppose I could add tabs and vocals to a site and then they would be automatically copyrighted.

[Heald]

Don't ask me, I'm not a lawyer.

[Chris 2.1]

If he's as bad at vocals as you say he is, he wont be able to pull off your work better than you. If it comes to the worst, start writing new material. It sounds a bit unfair but hey, sometimes it just is. Don't assume, however, that he'll be all "Omgz I h8 yuuuu u r competition at the talent show" because chances are your new band (assuming you form one) and his new one are very different in terms of style so you won't need to become his enemy or rival. If you're good mates, he probably won't steal your songs.

Keep us posted on what happens.

[Sceptile_Master]

OK now I find out my band name (iron clad) is taken. Now I have put alot of thought into this (and it's not taken ) but I think I might name the band after a song of an artist I admire, so what do you think of me calling the band 'stairway to heaven'. I mean it's such a beautiful name.

[APC]

stairway to heaven isn't a bad name, but i doubt led zeppelin would allow you use to one of their songs as your band's new name since zep are pretty protective of anything they made. As for finding other band mates, if you're going to college that's the ideal place to find musicians, just look around or listen and see what you can find. I'm also in a band called independent progress and i found my band mates at my college, so just keep your hopes up and keep on rocking.

[Sceptile_Master]

Loads of bands are named after songs of artists that inspired them according to the BBC. I just can't think of a name.

[RedStarWarrior]

Sounds like your friend sucks.

[Sceptile_Master]

Man I'm still trying to think of a name. Any help there?

[Kirei]

You don't need to do anything to copyright material. Once you have written it down you own the right to it. It's best if you can publish it somewhere because then there can't be any argument about who came up with something first, etc, or you could have done something like photograph your sheet music or lyrics next to that day's newspaper, or publish it yourself online, or have a solicitor sign and date it to show the date you came up with it is true, that sort of thing. You do live in the UK, right? If you do, you can ask me anything you like about copyright as I've studied it and specialised in it for my law degree.
You are right about lots of bands being named after songs - I found this list while searching the web - I didn't know some of those were named after songs before I saw that! Basically, Led Zeppellin don't own the rights to the words "Stairway to Heaven" so you're right that in theory you could use it. They own the rights to a song called that but not the words themselves. Copyright is very rarely given to something so small as three words especially where none of them are original words (like brand names or something). They could have trademarked it though, writing it in a certain way, or its use as a song title, in theory, but I don't think there would be any problem with calling a band that. Are you sure no other band has done that? Only wondered as it's such a popular song... I like the name Iron Clad - what a shame it's taken. You could always do like Hurricane #1 did (anyone remember them?) and just add something on the end making it distinguishable (another band was called Hurricane, or a rapper or something, so they added #1 on the end and that was fine). Have you thought about that?

[Sceptile_Master]

I could call the band the name of one of the songs we wrote. It's called Distraphicus. It meant something a little bit too evil though. Can't remember quite what though. I'll try and think since it's a rock/blues band (you know AC-DC and Led Zepplin type band)Iron Clad was a good name. I need a name like that. It was named after my uncle's band Iron Claw. They never got a record contract offer (a big one too) but they had band troubles and broke up. it was kind of a tribute name. I'm annoyed that it's taken as it meant much to me that name.

[Heald]

Band name suggestions?

The Raging Hard-Ons
The Dog's Bollocks
The Sex Pirates
The Gangsterhood
Beelzebub's Brigands
Holy Moses
Zach's Gone AWOL

[Dark Scizor]

Iron Clad was a good name.

Iron Clad just makes me think of bondage and other things to do with S&M for some reason.

If I were in your place and to take one of Heald's suggestions, I'd pick one of these two:

The Dog's Bollocks
The Sex Pirates

I'm stumped for suggestions though.

[The Muffin Man]

Loads of bands are named after songs of artists that inspired them according to the BBC. I just can't think of a name.

Cover bands. I.e Back in Black, an AC/DC cover band.

Also, try Christ Punchers.