For Those Who Love To Gig

[blue]

Actually my thread title should have read "For Those Who Like To Gig A lot"

I really think, based on BC data we're the minority.

At the local bar band level in the States the most we can hope for are 4 gig weekends.

Most bass player wanted ads on Milwaukee Rocks make it clear, that the opportunity is a once a month or once a week goal for gigs.

It's a hobby for most, most have full time traditional jobs and families. Some are just indifferent to gigging.

I don't think there's a thing guys like me can do unless you can go regional or national with Musicians that make their living from gigging.

How do guys like me, I can't be the only one, deal with this overall lack of interest or compassion for the 4 gig a week lifestyle?

Not happy.

Blue

Edited September 28, 2017 by blue

[Steve Browning]

I dare say it's a hobby to many, as they have stated, but for many of us it's far more than that. I would return to full time gigging if there was an opportunity. However, that would mean playing in a function band or similar.

You seem to be doing pretty well in that you appear to be in a good place to achieve what you want. I wouldn't want to be just a hired hand and have no interest (vested or otherwise) in the workings of the band. I get the impression that the scene over there is quite different and that the gigs you do involve more hours and more pay. A bar band here will get around £250 a night (roughly). 4 gigs over 4 weekends generates an income of £4,000. Just a straight split (with 4 in a band) gives £1k a month, 12k a year. That's not enough to live on (although many have to try).

You have the reverse of the options available to most of us. In the UK a bar band wouldn't enable anyone to earn a living. The choice is weddings or a job to pay the bills and gig when opportunities arise (and they're diminishing rapidly).

How do you deal with it? I guess you could either accept it or go on a site populated by people who envy your opportunity and moan about it.

[TimR]

Being a musician is just like any other job. Gigging in bars is just one aspect of the job and one way of making money. If you limit yourself to just gigging in bars you're limiting your income stream.

An electrician doesn't limit himself to just changing light bulbs in a few local houses.

Blue, I'd say you're limiting your own options by refusing to play in a 'start up' band and looking for a band who fit your criteria. Time to start your own band with musicians who share your passion. Network with the bars and venues you already play at and get second gigs there with your new band.

[T-Bay]

Why play four gigs with one band? You could perhaps play four gigs with two or three different ones. I appreciate there are difficulties with booking clashes but it could be possible.

[FinnDave]

My aim is two gigs each weekend, but I rarely achieve it. Any more than that and it becomes an exercise in humping gear in and out the cars and the pubs we play in, with a lot of driving on busy roads between. As an example, I am playing tonight in Melksham, that's about an hour and half away for me but half an hour less for the others, and tomorrow night a village up near Bicester, only about 40 mins drive for me, but add another 30 mins for the rest of the band coming from Swindon.

We have done back to back gigs, slept in the cars between gigs, etc, but none of us is getting any younger and the bodies start to object to that kind of living.

[Norris]

Around here most gigs are on a Saturday. A few Fridays and Sundays. There are very few bars that have bands on the other nights of the week. It would be difficult to get four gigs a week for a covers band let alone an originals band. Maybe once in a blue moon, but not week after week. Then as has already been mentioned, even four bar gigs a week will not pay the bills.

Lack of opportunity and fairly low pay rates means that most musicians do it as a hobby. Then if you have a day job you probably don't want to be out that often either - it hurts too much after only 4 hours sleep

[Delberthot]

I'm not sure I understand what is wrong with playing in a function band?

I've been playing in function bands since 1995 and most of the time I've had a rock band running along side as well.

When I was younger we would play 4 or 5 times a week which was great and at the time I was still living at home so I didn't have to worry about getting a proper day job.

Personally I would love to be playing every Friday and Saturday with maybe one weekend off in 6. In the height of the wedding season we are out 2 nights most weekends but add a Sunday night into that and you have to prepare yourself physically and mentally.

I'm always hyper when I get in from a gig and it can be 5am before I can go to bed which over a 2 gig weekend has never been a problem but with the addition of a Sunday and/or a distant gig on one of the nights then you need to make sure that you are well rested and physically fit to cope with working 40+ hours during the week then potentially another 30 hours away from the house at the weekend. It doesn't leave a lot of time to rest and recuperate.

We did a 3 night weekend a few weeks back and from leaving work on the Friday to getting back into work on the Monday I had 15 hours sleep and it took a good week or so to recover

If I seriously wanted to play 4 nights a week now I would have to go part time which doesn't make sense to me as I am in a good job and it would be crazy to have to lose money that I would be making during the day to make it at night.

I love playing and I am in the best band I have ever been in but I'm still 8 years away from paying off my mortgage plus all of the usual outgoings plus I want to retire early so my job takes priority and any money I make with the band is a bonus.

Edited September 29, 2017 by Delberthot

[ivansc]

Most of the guys I know who are still in the minors but good players are working for a lot of bands in order to make the money up.

The days of lots of gigs without much travelling are long gone in the UK.

If I were doing it nowadays I would be working solo, as you generally get paid as much as a duo trio or even a four or five piece band in the smaller venues round here.
Sad but true.

Now I am just fooling around for my own amusement, I am in the £50 a night per man bracket but at least they are all local and easy gigs.
But there is still plenty of work, especially on Fridays and Sundays, for a solo which pay £100 and up provided you can put (drinking) bums on seats.

Edited September 29, 2017 by ivansc

[ead]

I think if I were gigging at that frequency I'd want to be playing my/the band's original music and trying to build a career. At my time of life I doubt that I would have the stamina to do this given we have kids (albeit now living and working away from home) plus at the moment, some pretty serious health issues with Mrs ead.

I think you have a couple of years on me Blue and hats off to you for doing what you do, but I think I'm in roughly the right place with my work / life / music balance now. In my youth I did tour Europe playing violin in an orchestra to a pretty decent standard, but a symphony orchestra is a whole different thing to a rock band!

[RockfordStone]

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1506639912' post='3380175']
Actually my thread title should have read "For Those Who Like To Gig A lot"

I really think, based on BC data we're the minority.
It's a hobby for most, most have full time traditional jobs and families. Some are just indifferent to gigging.


[/quote]

i have a full time traditional job, but would gig every night if i could.
having other things doesn't always mean we become indifferent to gigging.

i crave the stage, but i haven't played live for 3 years because i haven't found a band i considered to be anywhere near a gigging band (and in all cases i turned out to be correct).

[ahpook]

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1506639912' post='3380175']
.....go regional or national with Musicians that make their living from gigging.
[/quote]

It seems you've answered your own question.


[quote name='Steve Browning' timestamp='1506659783' post='3380194']
How do you deal with it? I guess you could either accept it or go on a site populated by people who envy your opportunity and moan about it.
[/quote]

Oh, what [i]are[/i] you like ?

Edited September 29, 2017 by ahpook

[lowdown]

[quote name='ivansc' timestamp='1506669148' post='3380229']
The days of lots of gigs without much travelling are long gone in the UK.
[/quote]

I don't think a lot of younger musicians realise or believe how much work used to be around (up until about the 90's).
In London and the South East you could be out working seven nights and a couple of lunch times a week. This would be pubs, functions and small clubs, not Mecca or shows or any extra from recording dates, that all became the next stop after overseas hotels and Cruises. All you had to do was just own a Bass. Dep work was big business as well if you didn't want to be tied down.For most of us, this was a good period when all the contacts were made, and in a way made it easier for guys and girls to go on and sustain a long career as a musician. In short, there was plenty of money about.

This to me, seems to be what Blue is looking for, but it's a different era, that side of the business has vanished. In a way it was an apprenticeship for getting your ears, reading and chops together, because it was constant playing and gaining experience.

Edited September 29, 2017 by lowdown

[Lozz196]

Being in a band & gigging is my hobby, but I like to gig every weekend, every now & then maybe have a whole weekend clear but one gig at least per weekend. If it were my job, well as not many bands seem to gig all the time I think being in at least 2 bands would have to be the way to approach it. I do have mates in bands that gig 4, 5 times a year and are happy with that, but it would drive me crackers, I like be in a gigging band.

[Cat Burrito]

We tour occasionally which is obviously busier but I tend to average a few times a month. This is something I'm happy with. On one level I'd like it to be more but work and family have to factor too. I have 6 shows in 9 days coming up which means both me taking time off work and being away from home. The balance is right as a lot of the gigs are quality. I could book some of the high paying venues with apathetic audiences but this seems pretty pointless.

[chris_b]

Show me a gig and I'll do it. I wouldn't be picking up a bass if I didn't play regularly in a band. I've just had to turn down a couple of gigs (family commitments) and it hurt!

In the early 70's I was one of the many gigging 7 nights a week, mostly in the South East but you went where the gigs were, and the hours we put in on the US airbases in Germany were brutal. Then you'd go and sit in with the bands in the local clubs who were still playing after we finished.

We once drove from London to Sunderland for a gig. It was a good gig. Getting caught in the rush hour coming back into London the next morning was a pain and finally getting dropped off by the van at lunchtime the day after the gig happened more than once. It never occurred to any of us that there was anything else we wanted to do.
It was great to be a part of that world while it lasted, but sadly the days of wall to wall gigs have long gone.

I think the 300 gigs a year guys like BB King did would have been too much even for me, but 5 years a go I was doing 3 gigs a week, 150 gigs a year. Times change. I did 3 last month! A band I dep with has just driven up from Surrey to play in the Orkney Blues Festival. If they'd asked me I'd have done it. Never turn down a good gig.

[Tony p]

I think, as has already been said, if you want to play every night you need to join other bands, dep etc and basically become a working musician.
For the majority of folk I know, we couldn't earn enough money from gigging to compare with a weekly wage from other work.
I gig most weekends in an originals band and if I put that extra time (travel, fuel, hanging about, playing, drinking) into my regular job I'd be minted
personally I'm concentrating on trying to write a Xmas number one, that'll set me up for life....

[JapanAxe]

I love gigging, and the mix that suits me best is to belong to one regular band (around 25 gigs per year) and then fill in the gaps with depping (see link in signature). As I play skinny-string too, this gives me a lot of variety. In order to maintain cordial relations with Mrs Axe I try to leave one weekend per month gig-free.

My day job is Monday to Thursday, which I opted for as soon as we could afford it. I would love to make my living from music, but that would require
(1) Wall-to-wall function gigs - I don't dislike function gigs, it's just that it's hard to achieve this level of work;
(2) Teaching - tried it, didn't like it; and/or
(3) Busking - haven't ruled this out!

[PaulWarning]

yeah once a weekend is about right for me, we did 3 in a weekend the other week, took me 3 days to get over it, but we do put a lot into it 2 hours of high energy punk, it's not just the playing though, the travelling and setting up and taking down all take there toll, would hate to stop enjoying it and it becomes just a job

[fretmeister]

I think there is probably a lot of people who would like to gig more, but if they have established jobs already then giving that up is a huge risk, particularly if there are other family members to support.

A friend has a very good band and he asked me to join. I would love to - they gig a lot and they are well organised - getting shows arranged months in advance. But I often travel with work, and sometimes only get a few days notice. I can't gig in my home town if I have an all day appointment in London - I wouldn't be back in time.

So I do really want the gig - but I refuse to be the unreliable member. It's not fair on them.

And the average pub / bar gig round here pays £200 to £250 split between the entire band, so quitting my day job and playing for a living is just not an option.
Even 7 nights a week for a 4 piece band round here would be £437.50 each per show before expenses and tax.

Pubs in the East Midlands generally do not host gigs on Monday's to Wednesdays anyway.

[Dropzone]

We have one guy locally who plays six nights a week and lives off it. This does include running jam nights and being someone for people to jam with (if that makes sense). Personally I think he is well over exposed and there may be some jealousy in there as well.

[BigRedX]

The lack of mid-week gigs now is simply down to the lack of audiences IME. It doesn't matter if you are playing covers or originals.

Fridays and Saturdays are fine. Thursdays and Sundays might be do-able given the right venue and/or line up of bands. The rest of the week forget it unless you are a big name band with a following large enough to be doing a tour of 500+ sized venues (or supporting someone who is).

When I started gigging in the early 80s, there was only one opportunity here in Nottingham for a weekend gig if you were playing your own music which was a support to Pinski Zoo who had a Friday night residency at The Hearty Goodfellow. Want a gig on Saturday Night? Forget it. Most venues didn't even put on live music at the weekends, and those that did were strictly for covers bands. Therefore we played mid-week and there were plenty of bands doing it and audiences going to see them. Most weeks there was at least one local band playing that was worth going to see.

By the time we reach the 2000s that had all changed. While there were gigs available mid-week most were so poorly attended that all but the most desperate bands stopped doing them. What had changed was that there were plenty of weekend opportunities for bands playing their own music to gig and even more if you were prepared to travel.

I don't mind what day I play on provided that either the band are getting properly paid for the gig or there is a decent sized appreciative audience ready and willing to buy merch after the gig.

[stingrayPete1977]

Is it so bad to only want to gig once or twice a month?

[Happy Jack]

I'm lucky on two counts. I live in West London, with plenty of venues either nearby or at least reachable, and I retire next year so I don't need an alarm clock.

My plan is to play every gig I get.

My main band isn't up for playing 8 - 10 gigs a month (I'd struggle to get them to play four!) so I'll just play in as many bands as I have to in order to get the gigs I want.

[peteb]

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1506676029' post='3380296']
A band I dep with has just driven up from Surrey to play in the Orkney Blues Festival. If they'd asked me I'd have done it. Never turn down a good gig.
[/quote]
I've played the Orkney Blues Festival. If you ever get the chance, do it - great fun...!

[bassjim]

I get at least one gig a week. Occasionally I see 4 in a week but that is rare these days. This weekend I have 2 but one is with the regular band and one is backing a tribute act. When ever I get a 3 or a 4 weekender it will be playing with 2-3 different bands. Even then its not a give up the day job earner but does help with the weekly shop and holidays.

My last regular cover band did 3 a week most weeks however it had more of a star appeal? right image? about it and a personality that just seamed to gel with each other and with audiences. It was a popular band that just worked. I have never been in or likely to be in since, a band of this quality (although I do live in hope) again. Great intelligent and mature musicianship all round. I think the fact all 4 members put everything into that band on every level had a lasting effect. None of the members were interested in other projects or gigs outside of that band. Full on commitment. I don't think you can go out and manufacture this kind of band as its all down to luck that 4-5 of exactly the right guys/girls happen to come together at the same time.

If I was to tell our existing drummer we now have 4 or even 3 gigs a week for the next 6 months and we need to have the following extra material sorted as homework to play unrehearsed but expected to be on it, like my last band did, he'd be gone due to family commitments.

I think there is a volume of work that the individual has to put in to make 2-4 gigs a week work that most either dont have the time for or lack the self discipline or dont have the musical skills to pull off. Even if theses gigs were as plentyfull as they were in the good old days can you get the staff?

I love gigging but I find myself putting up with compromise after compromise in order to do it even at the limited level that is currently available. At least when it was good , I was there and took full advantage.