What's it like down your way for gigs?

[Marvin]

A singer I know - she has two bands, a full band and is part of an acoustic duo - was saying to my wife the other day that pub gigs are getting difficult to get.

Her next gig isn't until April

I must say I looked in the local press recently and there seem very few bands being booked and very few places left to play. As an example in the town I live in when I was in my teens there were 9 pubs and 2 clubs. This is now down to 4 pubs and there are always rumours regarding the clubs closing.

What's it like where you are? Have you noticed any downturn in available gigs?

[EssentialTension]

In my experience, it's definitely got tougher in the last twelve months.

[WalMan]

There's a fair few, but less than there were in recent years, and the usual problem of getting through the door at places that have finite gig nights and book a year in advance with their regular bands.

Not helped by a few bands that seem to have a consistent core of musicians but go out in slightl different line ups under a variety of names

[warwickhunt]

If we are talking pub gigs with covers bands, then it has been tough over the last couple years and tougher still this last 12mths. Used to be where we could pick and choose gigs and do as many or as few as we wanted... not so much now, though to be honest we just need a handful of gigs to please ourselves so we can be selective. Worst thing is the number of bands having gigs cancelled at short notice (sometimes when they turn up to the venue) or being paid off after one set and yes I am talking about pub gigs by decent bands; added to which in real terms fees are down on what they were 5-10 years ago, in fact my last band were getting £200 17 years ago, same venues are now paying £150-£180!

[icastle]

We do mostly weddings, clubs and functions so haven't really been affected by the downturn in pub gigs.
We have 6 regular pubs and work our way round those on a 2 to 3 month basis so we're doing a pub gig somewhere most months.

Rather than wait for the work to dry up, we've been proactive and found new clients.

We've just done a deal as a 'house band' with a local(ish) hotel so they can offer an 'all in one' wedding reception/corporate event service.
We're also in discussion with a company who organises weddings and a retail operation that rents out wedding clothing.

An offshoot of the main band has been the formation of a folk\roots trio and we're getting a lot of interest and some pretty good reviews there, so am expecting a bit of work to come out of that as well.

[Soliloquy]

It's funny, but I was thinking tonight that things were picking up around here.

I went to see a friends band play at local pub. I don't drink, but I walked down to the venue anyway. Three of the pubs I passed had bands playing. I know that others that I passed have bands playing too, albeit on other nights of the week.

So for a small town, on the edge of a large city, I think we do very well for live music.

[thisnameistaken]

We're mostly opening for touring bands but we also get calls about local gigs and festivals, other stuff in relation to a local arts project, lots of stuff really. We've turned down half a dozen gigs in the last two months just to avoid over-exposing ourselves and to make time for recording.

Get friendly with like-minded bands and promoters and you will keep busy. Up here around York/Leeds anyway.

Edited February 7, 2011 by thisnameistaken

[JTUK]

Not too bad... but harder than it was.

We do about 2 a month in the winter and the summer gets better.
I have a few guys that put things together so it wouldn't be hard for me to blag a gig here and there
if I wanted to. This sort of thing requires foresight as well...it is less easy to pick up a gig for next week
but once you become 'available' again..this will work through and you'll get work. But you can't turn on and off
in this mode. You stop being available and the calls dry up.

As for pub gigs with the regular band..we have a good name but not such a well known one as yet as only been going for just over a year. I find it hard to get through on the phone to some landlords but I am not pushy, talk them round and can back up
mostly what I tell them we will do. As a new band, I say we may not have a local following but they can have any references from any venue we have played. We aren't 20 anymore and know that a full venue is a good gig for the owner..he doesn't care how great you are, he needs to sell off you. That said, when the chips are down, I say give us a chance..we are cheap for a starting gig at £200 and I'll back us against his top drawer playing-wise. That sounds arrogant but I am backing ourselves as well.... most business people don't see this as cocky, they see it as confident. We have managed to get into the better pubs that way. By the same token, we have to be cheaper to get the 1st in..as I admit we aren't a local draw as yet. I tell them if they have passing trade, we will keep them...
I know what and who we are up against so I am trying to be straight with them. I don't want to play to an empty pub anymore that they do so a straight talking approach seems to work.
What we have found is that if we time the enquiry right..most landlords book for the year..so you can get 4 gigs in one call.
They may INSIST on you not playing any local competition pubs though so if you go down this route you need to get into that town's best venue. I have been happy with this approach by and large.

We only use one agent and they specialise in Originals, so that set will probably have to be subsidised by the cover's gigs but we aren't interested in playing for nothing so will again have to see how that approach works.

Pubs around here pay from £150-300. We start at £200 but for a very decent sounding place make take a little hit on that but mostly I tell then thanks, but no thanks. We aren't chancers IMV, and try to put that across. The last time we did that in the early days of gigs, we made sure the landlord was straight enough to pay us a bonus. They are taking a chance on you as well...

When all is said and done... you are only as good as the beers you sell in a pub..and pubs round here see a nightly turn over of £2000 plus as very good. One or two boast £6000 ( VVVG ) so you can see that there is money about and every pub and his dog now is doing a beer festival. The best events turn over £15000 plus after exes so we go for a min of £500 on these.

So, yes...in difficult times, there are gigs out there around here and more pubs taking a chance ..not like the heyday though, but if you can do a decent turn there is work.

I have heard the better pubs round here have a potential roster of 900 bands for 250 odd slots per year. Breaking into that can be hard but it should help raise your game..

As a newish band, this year is already looking much better and we will push the prices up a tad...or ask for a bonus for a good night.

Our area is East Kent from the coast to the Medway so we don't factor in miles driven as we only drive for 30mins or so... as yet.

[bobbytodd]

its not too bad out in west cumbria mind thats if your in a covers band.we get between 3 and 500 per gig plus we do weddings and other functions to.

[Cat Burrito]

We play all over too. A bit of a lull in attendance after Xmas which is always the case in January but the promoters were happy & said we were their busiest night in weeks. No problems with bookings old & new although struggling to get on the festivals

[howdoesitgoagain]

Played to a packed pub on Saturday, about 200 through the door, we got paid bugger all but the it was the last music night at the Lamb in West Malvern, the best pub venue in the area, sold by Punch Taverns to we don't know who, at least it is not going to be pulled down,,,,. yet ... we stopped the last attempt.
.

There are other smaller pub venues around here and a few social clubs that are happy to have music events, lots of open mic and jam nights in pubs, they realise it gets punters in.
.
The Theatres [ used to be Malvern Winter Gardens ] was on the band circuit but the management stopped it a few years back, corporate image and all that.
Best bet if you can't get gigs in pubs is to hire a church hall or youth centre and put on a music event of your own, publicity is really, really important though.

[bartelby]

It's a bit crap in Newport these days.
4 or 5 years ago there were 7 or 8 venues that regularly had live band nights. Now there's 2 or 3, the others have closed down.
Back when there were lots of venues they seemed to manage to not have nights of somilar music clashing, or some would have bands early in the evening and others later, so people would go to both places.

Now you'll get all the bands trying to play Friday or Saturday night leading to each venue having about 30 people in.

Not many, nonlocal, bands play here anymore so the chance of supporting bigger bands it pretty much nonexistent. Plus playing in an originals band pays bugger all, but there's no call for covers only bands.

[Soliloquy]

[quote name='howdoesitgoagain' post='1118703' date='Feb 7 2011, 11:07 AM']Played to a packed pub on Saturday, about 200 through the door, we got paid bugger all but the it was the last music night at the Lamb in West Malvern, the best pub venue in the area, sold by Punch Taverns to we don't know who, at least it is not going to be pulled down,,,,. yet ... we stopped the last attempt.
.

There are other smaller pub venues around here and a few social clubs that are happy to have music events, lots of open mic and jam nights in pubs, they realise it gets punters in.
.
The Theatres [ used to be Malvern Winter Gardens ] was on the band circuit but the management stopped it a few years back, corporate image and all that.
Best bet if you can't get gigs in pubs is to hire a church hall or youth centre and put on a music event of your own, publicity is really, really important though.[/quote]

My Mom's friend owns a pub in Malvern (don't know what it's called), he tried having music nights, but stopped due to lack of interest from the public.

[jezzaboy]

I mentioned this is another thread. Some guys I have spoken have found it hard to get gigs in the Glasgow area but they are playing rock covers stuff whereas we will play anything to get punters going.

Sell out? Where do I sign?

We play about 5 or 6 different places and always get asked back and get repeat bookings. I think a lot of it is down to your attitude. We turn up on time, paly for a decent amount of time, make a point of being nice to the bar manager and staff especially the bouncers, don`t play too loud, get the punters involved and play music that women want to dance too which is very important and pleasing on the eye in most cases.

Money wise, we make between 200-240 between the 4 of us, which is enough for me as I would be doing it for nowt if I had too.

Jez

[amnesia]

Certainly more difficult than it used to be - for an unsigned original rock band anyway.
Locally it seems that promoters don't actually do any promotion. They are the middle men that hand over tickets for the band to sell a minimum quantity of, then they take a cut for not putting up any posters, flyers or any other form of advertising. Facebook and myspace posts don't count as advertising in my eyes and don't work effectively anyway because they only reach the already converted.

The advent of tribute bands* has definately had an affect too. When I was a lad, we would go every thursday to a local live music venue because it was a rock night. We had no idea who was on, but we would take a risk and pay our couple of quid to get in. We saw some real gems too.

The onset of tributes and people's naturally lazy nature means that less people are willing to take a risk and see a band they haven't heard of. They just want the safe option. Its a pity really, but with finite cash what are people going to do?


*Tribute bands are a different thread...don't get me started....

[martthebass]

Definitely getting harder in the South Yorkshire area but to some extent it depends what you do, your management/agency, how far you're prepared to travel, what payback you want etc.....

Down at about 1-2 gigs/month now and that's playing in 2 bands and taking a little dep work when its available. To keep the gig volume up now going out for less than 4 years ago but thats better than endlessly playing at open mic nights and practises. Some bands I now are going out for beer money or a 'share' of the till (risky).......all I can say is, I'm glad I don't do this for a living.

[JPJ]

To add to what Warwickhunt said.....

Up here in the wild North East, its a bit of a revolving door with established venues going under and new venues giving live music a go. As a result, the circuit for pub rock covers remains ok. As WH says the fees arnt great, but you aint ever going to make your living playing pubs. Some of the bigger local gigs continue to go from strength to strength (The Office, the Three Tuns (Gateshead), Houghton Buffs, Sunderland Steels to name a few) and some of the newer venues are building a following quickly (the Station Killingworth, and the new Blyth and Tyne). Its much harder for original bands, but there are a couple of local promoters who put original acts on, and love them or loathe them, many of the bigger venues also run battle of the bands type events for original bands.

All in all, I'd say it was no better or no worse than a couple of years ago. If you want to, and you have a good reputation, you can gig every weekend within a radius of about twenty five miles of Newcastle. We prefer to do one or two gigs a month, and apart from the January and August 'dead' months, we've managed to fill our diary for 2011. Mind you, that assumes that all the venues are still in business!

[Mog]

Theres gigs in the local bars but the major venues are quiet. Our next confirmed (major) gig is in April. Shocking quiet. Its at the point where we're thinking about selling the transport to keep the kitty in the black.

[farmer61]

Not too bad down here, if you have a rep for being decent and reliable it's ok.

We do travel mind you, up to an hour and 1/4 so we do clock upi the miles. We'll do about 40 gigs this year, which is pretty much the same as last and the fees are holding up.

But there are certainly less people out and about watching that's for sure.

[Raggy]

[quote name='farmer61' post='1118966' date='Feb 7 2011, 03:02 PM']But there are certainly less people out and about watching that's for sure.[/quote]

Very true

[Low End Bee]

Two venues I played this year have now closed. One's a Tesco Metro and one is being refurbished as a gastro pub ('cause we're running short of them in West London).
Some of the venues on the mainly originals circuit I do are being booked up with a lot more tribute and covers bands. Understandable as it's a financially safer night but it doesn't do me any good.

[Lozz196]

Its not too bad in Herts/Beds/Bucks. We`ve got abt 18 gigs booked this year, and a couple are at venues where instead of giving you say 3 or 4 at once, they book as they go, so prob knock it up to 22 for the year. Still the same amount of people out, tho at some of the venues, if you go there on a non-band night, you`re lucky to see more than 10 people.

[BottomE]

It depends.

For cover bands its great and there are as many gigs as ever if not more. We have found that though there are fewer possible venues there are actually more of them that will put live music on. I think the reason is that the smoking ban has hit a lot of places and they are trying to offer something different other than Sky or a guy putting on records. We are also in a holiday destination town and so there are a shed load of hotels running functions/wedding etc.

On the other hand for bands playing originals its horrific. An exception is the usual "Battle of the Bands" events and support slots at the larger venues.

My band play both original and covers sets and think that cos we do a lot of cover gigs (about 80 a year) it keeps up the interest in the originals project. We're still going strong after 4 years which is a long time in this business as you guys probably know.

[deepbass5]

I have asked around and the general consensus is someone mentions recession and the phone stops ringing.
I'm lucky to have always been in function bands so the money is better, but the corporate Market has dried up. This is affecting the Pro end of the market as well as the semi pro. So the knock on effect is we all get squeezed, the pro's are aggressively seeking dep work and forming multi band web sites offering Agency style portfolios when they are all the same faces from the west end or music academies. I know good guys who are scraping a living at the moment and good Jazzers taking £50 pub gigs.
Last year started the same then picked up; this year seems to be going the same way. We have eleven confirmed so far but have done two of them. We have also lost alot of enquiries to price, despite being 5-10% lower than two years ago.
Still It will make us all get better at what we do and give the customer what they want, there is work out there but you need to work harder for it off stage than when youre playing on it.
still mustn't grumble

Note, we are a four piece, how the hell are you 7 - 9 piece soul bands getting on.

Edited February 7, 2011 by deepbass5

[Michaelg]

busy