Those were the days!
I remember how impressed I was baaack then when I realised the amount of live gigging the Beatles and the kinds did. 3-6 hour gigs week after week. No wonder they could then later perform on stadions without hearing the monitors/eachother. Those bands at their best were like one living creature.
Where can a starting band nowadays find regular gigs to create a routine like that? Rehearsing in the cellar isn't quite the same, though if it has to do then it has to do.
Well, like it is in Finland, many (most??) of the rock/entertainment musicians, the ones that are not stars or in the band of a star, play in 2-4 bands, one performing classic heavy, one rock'n'roll, one dance hall music, jazz...whatever. (I doubt if there are more than 20 rockbands in the whole country that actually make a decent living doing gigs and records, curse of a small country). That way you do get routine and gig hours, but it also means that you need to be a well educated musician to be able to do that: Learning new stuff of different genres reading sheet music and listening to MP3s in a touring van and then jumping on the stage with a different band. That kind of bands mostly play with skills and memory, not with a gut feeling of a die cast team that creates unique moments.