Would you...?

[3V17C]

Had a text from guitarist/band leader the other day saying we've got a short notice gig this coming Thursday am i free?.. so, yep, i'm free no prob...whats the gig? says I...

Turns out though that apparently its a charity do with lots of bands on..but.. its an hour and a half drive away and they only want us to play 3 songs! Originally the guitarist said that he himself wasn't bothered about doing it - what do the rest of the band think?...so I spoke to the keyboard player and he agreed with me that it seemed a bit of a waste of time and money (i'm snowed under with work at the mo and could really use the time more constructively staying here doing some work!) plus i don't think it'd really be doing the band any favours.

I replied saying that I would do it if push came to shove but would really prefer not to... but now it seems that its a big deal and the guitarist seems to have got the hump big time! grrrr.

i don't think i'm being unreasonable... what do you think? seems alot of effort for 3 songs!!!



peace

C

[Jase]

Stay home mate, do your work

[thisnameistaken]

Our drummer did this last summer. We were supposed to do 30 minutes but bands on before us overran and we ended up with closer to 10 minutes. The organiser didn't seem particularly bothered about it either.

We did get paid though.

[Bidd]

you're not being unreasonable at all.

All you need to do is take what you've written here, and repeat that to the band leader/guitarist and the band.

[markstuk]

Bandmates.. Can't live with them, not allowed to kill them either :-))

[MIJ-VI]

Perhaps knowing more gig details would be helpful. Cause? Expected crowd size? Media presence?

It could be a good opportunity for networking. Go for the tunes, stay for the shmooze.

[TimR]

It depends very much on what else I was going to be doing there.

Networking and making useful contacts?

Are you going to drive there, get out of the car, walk onto stage, play then get in your car and drive home?

Are you going to have to turn up at mid-day and wait until 11pm to play?

How productively can you use the time you are not playing?

Would you have time to visit local venues and check the area for other gigs?

Stay overnight and do a bigger gig the next night?

No I wouldn't drive for 3 hours to play 3 songs unless it was for TV or similar. Although when I used to compete in a brass band we would drive to France, Germany and Holland and spend hundreds of pounds effectively just to play for 15 minutes. However, that was never the total aim of the trip, we would add practices in and concerts and it was a generally good week of socialising and meeting new people .

[risingson]

I've travelled over a thousand miles to get to Sweden to play that amount of tunes. But I did get paid, and unless you are as well I'd strongly suggest not bothering.

[Musicman20]

I wouldnt bother...

[JTUK]

Reastically, what do you get out of it for a 4 hr drive...good deed aside..??

Our drummer flatly refuses to do 'charity' gigs IF the other people are getting paid/earning...like the bar staff, vendors etc etc, which is a POV..!!

In this circumstance I REALLY would have to be convinced and since you aren't then it is a NO.

[purpleblob]

I once turned up to do a "charity gig". The gig was about 50/60 minutes from where I lived (so not as far as yours). I was unemployed at the time but was just happy to get to play. Well, we were last on and all the preceeding acts overran so much that we didn't even get on stage in the end.

To say we were not happy was an understatement. But I suppose those are the pitfulls when people don't have to pay you. Had I sent the charity a tenner, I'd have still saved more money by not going to the gig and probably had more fun (as it was a pretty crappy working men's club with some goddamn awful acts - us included ).

I think for 3 songs, unless I was quite committed to helping the charity out, had the money and time to waste or felt it would be a good move from the exposure point of view (etc.) I wouldn't bother. But hey, I'm old and lazy now, so take my view with a pinch of salt

[lojo]

3 (or maybe less songs) but how long hanging around before / after

sometimes we do have to honor a YES we have said stupidly

othertimes we have to say NO when someone is expecting us to do something we have not agreed to

[MIJ-VI]

[url="http://www.woodstockstory.com/passingperformersbands.html"]http://www.woodstockstory.com/passingperformersbands.html[/url]

[WalMan]

[quote name='JTUK' post='1024565' date='Nov 15 2010, 01:08 PM']Reastically, what do you get out of it for a 4 hr drive...good deed aside..??

Our drummer flatly refuses to do 'charity' gigs IF the other people are getting paid/earning...like the bar staff, vendors etc etc, which is a POV..!![/quote]
Rick Wakeman had a similar rant in his Classic Rock Prog mag column a couple of months along the lines of getting a call and the organiser being surprised when he asked about fee to cover roadies etc thinking he'd do it for the love and being miffed when Rick asked if the venue, venue staff, PA, lights, etc, etc were all doing it for free.

The year of Live Aid my band of the time did at least 4, none of which, with one possible exception, led to anything more than sitting around for hours waiting to go on. And frankly the exception was Worthing, and only so because
[list]
[*]it was really well run,
[*]only 6 bands,
[*]everyone stuck to their alloted time so it didn't over run,
[*]we drew the penultimate slot
[*]it was a big hall with probably the biggest crowd we ever played to who were all well up for it, so I remember it as one of the best gigs ever alongside the BoB final in the big top at the Brighton Festival
[/list]
and yet still we played Worthing a week later to two men & a dog, so as a means of getting on it was a complete waste of time. That and the video bus had gremlins so the vid of our set is not the greatest

So I'd be inclined to stick to your guns and say no unless the guitard can come up with a [i][b]REEEEEEEALLY[/b][/i] good reason as to why it could be worth your while

[Lozz196]

You mention that the guitarist is getting the hump over the objection - is the charity particularly close to the guitarist, as in, any close family or friends die of cancer, and it turns out the gig is for Cancer Research?

This seems a bit strange to me - originally not fussed, then getting very annoyed about it - I think there may be more to it than has been said.

Re the actual question would I do it - if it were for a charity that was close to one of my bandmates, then, providing it was neither politically or religiously affiliated then I would. So far though, I`ve not seen any reasons for you to do it, and a fair few that scream stay away from this.

[dave_bass5]

[quote name='Lozz196' post='1024668' date='Nov 15 2010, 02:26 PM']originally not fussed,[/quote]

This normally means not wanting to sound like you want to do it (for whatever reason but normally because you know there wont be a lot of enthusiasm) but hoping someone else will say yes for you. At least, thats my experience.

Personally i would do the gig if i was getting paid (a nominal fee as its for Charity, but a realistic one considering the distance), it was well organised, and i was guaranteed 99% a time slot to be on stage and wouldn't need to be getting there too early.

I dont think many of the above applies to this thread though, so i would say no to this gig.

I wonder if the guitarist has promised the loan of any gear.

[bassbloke]

Mid Week slot? check
Charity Gig? check
Loads of bands? Check
Very short set? Check

Your 'nightmare gig' detector should be on overdrive. It has all of the classic hallmarks of a total disaster and, what's worse, it being a charity gig means you can't kick off about the poor planning as it will be regarded as not in the spirit of things.

Realistically, how much of a difference would your presence make to the gig? Would they make that much more money if you turned up and played three songs or another band played for another 15-20 minutes - more in fact as you wouldn't waste time with the changeovers.

Why don't you all pledge £15 to the charity and send that instead and settle for a nice evening in.

[bumnote]

In your case, I would say the answer is no.

I have seen this situation before when I have played for a charity, but seen loads of freeloaders enjoying pay or free drinks and food or whatever.

My attitude now is you give me a cheque for our normal fee made out the charity and I will do it. Otherwise I will stay at home thanks.

[icastle]

These multiband things can be a nightmare.
Prior to you going on you can near enough guarantee that there will be bands who are unable, either through egotism (I'm a star and am going to play longer than everyone else) or lack of experience (we've never played on a stage before - where does this wire go?), to stick to their alloted timeslot. We play one of these every summer and every summer it happens!

We do play a few charity gigs each year though and, as a minimum, end up with a wedding gig and a couple of pub gigs from them.

As a band though, we always sit down and talk openly about the "freebie request" and weigh up the pro's and cons before commiting, none of this "I'm not bothered" followed by a major huff if people decide "no thanks".

For the sake of peace, I'd say ask the guitarist privately "why the sudden change of heart?" and judge the request from that point instead of the original conversation - there might be more going on than he's comfortable talking about with the whole band.

[3V17C]

cheers for the replies.... normally i will drop everything to do gigs as band has always come first and i have put myself out for it in the past on several occasions but at the moment i'm so busy i really do need to keep working and not take a few hours out of my day to do this. and yes, i imagine there will be lots of unneccesary hanging around once there too. i cant see that it'll be good exposure or anything for us either - its not been done through our manager.

the charity is not particularly close to the guitarist or anything, i think its more the fact that his friend is organising it - originally he was going to go along by himself and just jam with said friends band on a few songs - not sure why this changed to wanting the whole band there - all seems to be a bit of an afterthough and just squeezing us in the bill for the sake of it.

ah well.... see what happens i guess!... i know the guitarist has tried getting a dep in but had no luck so far - should have asked on here maybe!!


cheers

c

[dave_bass5]

[quote name='3V17C' post='1024754' date='Nov 15 2010, 03:45 PM']the charity is not particularly close to the guitarist or anything, i think its more the fact that his friend is organising it - originally he was going to go along by himself and just jam with said friends band on a few songs - not sure why this changed to wanting the whole band there - all seems to be a bit of an afterthough and just squeezing us in the bill for the sake of it.

ah well.... see what happens i guess!... i know the guitarist has tried getting a dep in but had no luck so far - should have asked on here maybe!!


cheers

c[/quote]

Yeah, it sounds like he has been put on the spot. Probably promised to get the band there and now has to let his mate down.

[JTUK]

If you are travelling for 80 odd miles or so then I would maybe do it IF they gave you a decent time slot.
Play for an hour, make a event of it...but not for 3 songs. This sounds such an after thought that they aren't likely to miss your band one way or another anyway.

We are a very democratic band and if anyone says they can't do something, that is it..no arguments etc and it works ok..altho
I was annoyed a drummer pulled 2 gigs on us over a weekend which cost me/us £350 each as he was out with another band..who then cocked the bookings up anyway... and it was too late to retrieve these gigs. One of them would have done us a big favour exposure wise alone..!!

[krispn]

Our guitarist convinced us to do a charity give for Amnesty that his dad runs every year. It turned out it was at the opposite side of the country which included a train ride, car journey and finished off with ferry ride all with gear in tow.

We kinda knew it would be a road trip and had free accommodation and food for doing the show but we played to a very unappreciative crowd ( we didnt care if they thought we sucked but the hall emptied as the band before us were playing trad music, played longer than they were supposed to and the crowd were knackered and all went outside to get air, drink, cool down and get stoned.

The killer was all the food was gone when we arrived, two of the band had to sleep in a converted bus that was baltic and we were all up again at 5.30am to catch the early ferry home and I had to work a 8 hour shift that afternoon. Oh yeah it cost me an annual leave day too

It will take a lot of convincing for me to do another charity show that isn't a local bus ride away

[Bilbo]

Three works for me.

If its Close To The Edge, Supper's Ready and The Ring Of The Nibelung

[Lfalex v1.1]

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1025680' date='Nov 16 2010, 11:44 AM']Three works for me.

If its Close To The Edge, Supper's Ready and The Ring Of The Nibelung [/quote]

As soon as I saw "3 songs", I thought;
Tubular Bells 1 (side a)
Tubular Bells 1 (side
Rime of the Ancient Mariner

That's a good 65 minutes' worth.

Think Bilbo's might be longer!