TimR

Dancers and acrobats have been wearing leotards for centuries. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leotard

As everyone has alluded to: There's at least three reasons why it's done. It varies depending on circumstances. It's art, not science. Just use your ears and retune your bass. .

No not old fashioned. Some people have always been like that. You just have a different set of values. Probably best you don't try and start a business.

This isn't new. It's always been the case. He even had the grace to come back to you and ask if you wanted to make a better offer. No money had changed hands and you didn't have a contract with penalties attached for non-delivery. Someone else needed the pedal more urgently than you did. He may have had a gig this Saturday and his had failed. Who knows. He's paid a premium for it, for whatever reason. Next time make it very clear that you want it taken off the market, you consider it a binding contract and you require it urgently. That might make the seller think a bit more carefully. Whether you can enforce it would be another matter. Alternatively he may have just been fishing for a higher price. As a previous poster said, it's not uncommon when selling a house to say you have other buyers interested willing to pay the asking price.

Kick it out into the garden.

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1504445748' post='3364885'] Certainly 'do-able', I towed a trailer with my Renault Espace for a couple of years. Seven seated and the whole caboodle (drums, PA, backline...) in the trailer. The OP, however, was hoping to reduce ferry costs; I believe a trailer would scupper that, as there's be a supplement (could be wrong...). [/quote] Just trying to work out if he's just putting gear in the vehicle or people as well. If it's just gear, the people will need separate transport. I don't know the vehicle in question, it's not clear to me.

I had to move some paving slabs. I weighed them at 15kg each. 5 of them is the equivalent of one person. I reckoned just 40 of them would put me into 'overloading' territory. Might be worth weighing the kit before you wedge it all in, 6 people plus gear could get you into trouble.

Hire a trailer?

As far as the audience are concerned I suspect changing the singer is the only seriously tonal and visual difference that would impact a video or music recording. Guitar, bass and drums are just filling the music in.

[quote name='lurksalot' timestamp='1504134362' post='3362969'] Our singer has had the idea of putting the logo jpeg on a memory stick , with a lot of the modern TVs that seem to be stuck on the wall behind most stages , he thought it might plug and play , yet to try it mind [/quote] We were thinking of doing this too. Only on some kind of looping MPEG.

[quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1504119245' post='3362849'] ... I never leave the gear unsupervised. It's just not worth it. [/quote] Not just the damage people can do to the gear but the damage they can do to themselves. And blame you.

This has fairly serious implications for car insurance too then. If you're driving to a gig and have an accident and don't have business cover you're screwed. Given the cost of business insurance it's beginning to look unviable to do once a month pub gigs.

If you're the insurance company and you win the claim, what's the point if the defendant has no insurance. You still have to pay the person you insured and you won't get your £1m back.

In a 4 piece band you're looking at another £120 a year. Not a great deal I suppose. The thing is, it does make you easier to sue and it give some the venue an opportunity to side step its responsibilities. No doubt the request that you have insurance is from the venues insurer who realise that a bunch of penniless musicians is going to be impossible to recover money from or even if they have money but no insurance will end up in a protracted legal battle where they can only recover £200k at most.

[quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1504101123' post='3362690'] Nope. That's not negligent. It's criminal, but not negligent. [/quote] I'd still be interested to know if the band can be legally considered a partnership if they're not in it to make a profit.

[quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1504093975' post='3362617'] ... [/quote] So when the drummer punches someone, you're all responsible? Where is the line?

It's at that point you realise you didn't actually make any money doing the gig either.

My concern when leaving an originals band would be to have some form of written contract regarding material I had a hand in writing. All it takes is for someone to come along in 10 years time and nick a sample off whatever website you've used, and use it to make a recording that makes millions and you're left high and dry. It's a slim chance but could always happen. Videos of the band are tricky, they're harder to re-shoot, but getting a photographer to the next gig the band does should be simple, and produce loads of promo material to replace the old stuff. Bands should be keeping websites updated with recent photos anyway so old gig pictures will slowly slide down and out.

Interesting comment in last night's Evening Standard about London's historic statues. https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/comment/simon-jenkins-it-s-time-to-have-the-argument-about-london-s-historic-statues-a3622161.html

Yes. That's definitely more than a hobby.

[quote name='FinnDave' timestamp='1504033503' post='3362270'] My home insurers are very helpful, but insist that playing gigs for money makes it professional use and therefore not covered under home insurance. I get a good deal from our local insurer as my wife works there, but they still couldn't bend the rules that far. [/quote] How many gigs and what types of gigs are you doing? Did they not even suggest an additional premium?

Every album has been different. Some people (like me) like that. I don't think they've made a bad album. Some I don't particularly enjoy or listen to as much as others. It depends on my mood mostly. I guess a lot of people get nostalgic about the good old power trio, screamy band. Moving Pictures is obviously the biggest success and as such speaks to most people, there's not a bad song in that whole album and in contrast Signals had a lot to live up to and didn't really deliver for me.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1504023924' post='3362184'] Unless it was a free charity gig I can't see them covering you, I'd actually agree with them too. Typical four piece band is less than £15 a year per member with Ampband, job done all legit. [/quote] My brother has done this. They agreed that the number of gigs he does and the amount he gets paid for the gigs meant no additional premium. However, they wanted extra to cover his bicycle when out of the house. People tend to take out lots of little 'specialist' insurance policies to cover their hobbies instead of talking to the company that handles insurance they already have. There's a clause in my home insurance that excludes paying out on anything that already has insurance. Hence you are paying for your musical instruments to be covered separately at home, when they're already covered under your house insurance and the house insurance won't pay out if they're stolen from home. So part of your 'specialist' insurance is being wasted.

Most home insurance will cover PLI as long as it's not for your business, trade or profession. So it's worth talking to you insurers exactly what that means if you are not technically running a business. Then get it in writing.

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1504012932' post='3362106'] I had my MacBook knocked off a table at a gig in Bournemouth earlier this year. I wouldn't gamble again ever. [/quote] If you're taking £7k+ worth of gear to a gig, that's a different question entirely. Especially when your cheapest single item is worth more than all my gear put together. You really have all your eggs in one basket. My gear isn't even a 5th of yours.