TimR

Just to clarify "Pay to Play" is a specific setup that promotors used to do and may still do. The band would pay a set fee and would be promised that they'd get a return of the door money dependant on how many of their fans came to watch. There was usually a sting as the person on the door wouldn't ask which band the guest was going to see and would then not tick your sheet. Sometimes they'd be told but not tick the sheet anyway. Often you could bring 100 people to the gig, which was enough to guarantee that you should have been paid some money back. But would be left at the end arguing with the promoter who would have maybe 15 people on your list. It was a scam of the highest order. Putting on your own show and controlling the door yourself isn't "Pay to Play", it's financing a gig upfront and hopefully making money, it's how most proper gigs should be run. If you're an originals band and want to create a buzz, charging form the door shouldn't turn people away, especially not your friends if you explain to them you have to pay to put on the gig and you price it right and sell tickets beforehand.

Charge £3 on the door. It's nothing. People will think they're getting a deal.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1449178329' post='2921400'] Well the thread as usual went all over the place and that's fine. I really just wanted to hear people's overall thoughts. I am not sure If I had a specific question, other than are musicians moving more toward the rehearse once a week and gig once a month model as opposed to maybe the few bands with the let's gig as much as possible model. The guys that want to play Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I don't think one model is any better than the other, depends on what or where we think we fit as a musician. Blue [/quote]r No room for something in between? I know bands that have taken breaks Jan-March and October/November and not gigged every weekend between.

I think it's more about how seriously you take being in a band, or any other hobby where other people are affected by your choices. Being in a band means everyone should be on the same page. There's nothing wrong with treating it as a 'boys night out', as long as the whole band are in agreement.

[quote name='2 left thumbs' timestamp='1449128509' post='2920896'] practice every other week, we only do the gigs we want to do. none of that "can you turn down they can't hear coronation street in the back room" bullshit for me gig count way down this year, due to unfortunate circumstances 4 months of nothing only 11 gigs this year, lowest payers £50 biggest £250 averages out at about £77 per gig according to google the average uk salary is £26,500 per year. to make that at £77 per gig i would have to do 344 gigs per year to make an average living in the uk to make the same money doing 75 gigs a year, the gigs would have to pay an average of £353.33 seeing as thats not going to happen any time soon, think i'll stick to the day job have a decent standard of living, and enjoy my boys nights out. is it any wonder that bands are so keen to make it in america [/quote] You're not comparing like to like though. How many of those gigs are 11 hours door to door? If you took an 8 hour day with an hour for lunch and an hour each way travel gives you £9.26 an hour pro-rata or £12.75 an hour if you just count the actual hours. Even if you play solid for 3 hours that's an average of £25.66 an hour. So it depends on how you value your time. Also £26,500 is average. The median (what most people get paid) is quite a bit lower.

I joined a 'Boys night out band' after leaving a 'Boys night out band' because the new band had gigs lined up and the old band were being more and more selective over which gigs they wanted to do. It was also becoming obvious that the old band was also pretty much made up of people who just wanted to be able to say to their mates that they were in a band. The gigs for the new band dried up pretty quickly and after many conversations about getting out at least once a month it became pretty obvious that they weren't interested in even one a month. Meeting once a week to run over old tunes away from home was pretty much all they wanted to do. I'm more careful about which bands I play with now. .

Jesus. He's had more bass players than the Kinks!

I grew up in the 80s. It was wall to wall crap for 10years, with the occasional brilliant long lasting tune. Any greatest hits of the 80s will have the same old numbers, go see a band they'll play those numbers. Music is, and always has been, prolific. Out of every thousand tunes written only a handful really stand out. And they stand out to different people for different reasons. .

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1448020288' post='2912326'] You've been listening to [i]my [/i]stuff again, haven't you..? ... ... [/quote] Or smoking it.

[quote name='SteveK' timestamp='1447250306' post='2906123'] So, the owner/perpetrator is in on it! What's in it for him? Do you think more people will visit his pub knowing that he is not averse to assaulting young women? [/quote] No one said it was a particularly clever publicity stunt

Maybe someone should message her and get her to join BassChat. (As long as she doesn't start taking about how great Kanye West is. ) It would be good to hear her side.

Some of the Totenham gig is on YouTube. http://youtu.be/L_axLqBnIic

[quote name='sharkboy' timestamp='1447194612' post='2905778'] You might find this handy if it was described as sold as seen- eBay's own advice on this and similar situations: [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/gds/Sold-as-seen-as-is-no-returns-/10000000002394120/g.html"]http://www.ebay.co.u...02394120/g.html[/url] Having said all that, if the seller argues that it was a latent defect that he was unaware of, then its unlikely that you'll have any success in pursuing a refund [/quote] The only recourse you have is if it's 'not as described'. Small claims court. A magistrate will decide and unfortunately it'll be down to who is the best speaker and who presents the best evidence, not what the law says. Hopefully the guy will take it back and return the cash. Certainly if you start mentioning Small Claims Court... .

[quote name='BILL POSTERS' timestamp='1447193042' post='2905762'] OK. Cobblers is such a lawyerly word. [/quote] 50kg is 0.98cwt Speakers should be at ear height which is about 5ft Wobbly stands shouldn't be used. "Reasonably Practicable" has a specific legal meaning within H&S. But as we have less than 5 employees I don't think we're bound by the HSE and H&S at work. The landlord or hotel owner may well be. I agree with 'cobblers'.

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1447112786' post='2905059'] This. ^^^ In fitter times I would often go out with a buddy, helping out with his PA/lighting business. We took great pains to make sure that nothing untoward could happen in even pretty extreme probabilities, including crash barriers and limiting public access to delicate zones, even when those delicate zones were, themselves, made very secure. Lashing down, wire guys, double fixture slings, protected or buried cable runs... The list is long. We never had an incident of any kind, partly due to the care taken in avoidance. Not easy in crowded pub situations, but being lucky because it's only a bent stand isn't an option. Next time it could be far, far worse, but it's too late then, isn't it..? Insurance will only cover if all due care and attention has been carried out. Tops on a tripod accessible by the public would definitely not count as 'due care and attention'. Just sayin'. [/quote] It's a case of what is practical. Tops on tripod stands is a standard way of setting up. What additional steps you take for a temporary three hour gig has got to be proportionate. You're not going to spend an hour lashing down speakers that are going to be in place for three hours max. Positioning them in front of the band where people wouldn't be expected to be is good enough. If people are going to get drunk and fall over then there's insurance to argue that for you.

Buy a new neck.

I tend to avoid all celebrity culture. To the point where people are saying names to me and I'm just thinking 'never heard of them' to myself while looking at them blankly hoping they'll talk about something interesting. Unless they're in the national papers I have no idea who is in what band, football team, soap or all three. If Bono etc are sounding off, it all becomes just a lot of white noise. The Celebrity Jungle thing starts this week, I'll have to put up with the office talking about people I've never heard of doing things on a TV program I didn't watch. There are only a very few celebrities I would recognise in the street. My brain is full of more important stuff. Probably.

Oh God - it's the female equivalent of JedWard! They're obviously upset enough about it that they've using a photo of it on their FaceBook page. Warning: some pictures of half naked girls: https://m.facebook.com/TheSoapGirls/

Excellent. Glad to be of help.

From memory there are buttons probably labelled 1-8,9-15, 16-23 etc or something. I'll check. Edit: page A and B toggles between 1-8 and 9-16 for each scanner. Each scanner is 16 channels.

Assuming you have the right DMX address set in the controller and the KAM. Mode. Then A. http://www.kam.co.uk/media/file/product/manual/Kam%20LED%20Powerbar%20Manual%20v1%2023-03-10_web.pdf

Set Chanel 1 to 0 Chanel 2 is your master fade Chanel 3 is strobe - set to 0 Chanel 4,5,6 is RGB for spot 1 Chanel 7,8,9 is RGB for spot 2 Chanel 10,11,12 RGB for spot 3 Chanel 13,14,15 RGB for spot 4

Another nightclub fire with insufficient/blocked fire exits.

[quote name='gary mac' timestamp='1399971695' post='2449387'] May be some of them are hoping to get spotted by people/bands looking for a bassist. [/quote] This is why I would do it. Not in the hope, but as a promo video to point people to. Maybe link to it via bandmix. If that's possible. We have band clips for landlords to watch (a lot of them are requesting them now) so why not personal promos?

[quote name='ubit' timestamp='1445774591' post='2893992'] I used to laugh at people's faces when I wheeled the 9 stone monster into small pubs. They see big speakers and they think, f***! They are gonna be loud! They don't realise that you don't have to crank it all the way. [/quote] You don't have to but it's very hard to fine tune the volume at low levels on a big powerful setup. I tend to set my rig at 4, the difference between 3.5 and 4.5 is huge.