New Years Eve Fees

[dazza14]

Been offered a New Years Eve gig in a (busy) village pub and they've offered to pay the 'typical Saturday night gig' fee.

I think/know that NYE gigs pay more so what would be a good figure to throw back for a good old fashioned negotiation?

Double the usual fee??

[charic]

Another option would be an agreement that you'll play that date for 3 or 4 guaranteed dates in the next year

[dazza14]

Just now, charic said:

Another option would be an agreement that you'll play that date for 3 or 4 guaranteed dates in the next year

That's a good idea, we've played there in the past a few times and I reckon we'll get gigs for next year but it's not a bad angle.

I would suggest they throw in drinks but that's bad news for the car drivers among us.

[PaulWarning]

we charge £500 double our normal fee, but we're cheap and we know it 

[geoffbyrne]

I subbed for a 6 piece at a hotel NY gig a few years ago & got £150 in my pocket.  Reckon the charged £1000.  I knew a band from the Notts area that used to charge £2500 and overnight room.  And usually got it.

 

G.

Edited November 23, 2017 by geoffbyrne

[Mudpup]

We're usually £800 - 1000 for a pub NYE gig but we're doing this year for £600 because we really like the place and they've been good to us with gigs for the last couple of years. We'll have a great night there so i don't mind doing it cheap - it'll be fun.

[geoff90guitar]

Nice if you can get it!

Gigabite'

[yorks5stringer]

Just had a similar quandary with our local pub that has recently re-opened. I popped in for a meal and mentioned I played ( I know the landlord from his last restaurant) and he asked if we were free on NYE. I contacted the rest of the Band asking if they were free and their fee expectations. Drummer ( who used to run a pub but went bankrupt) would not shift from £2000 so ruled himself out. As luck would have it(!), it's a tiny playing space so we will run as a 4 piece. I went up to the pub, discussed what sort of sets they wanted ( and we are not a party band) and settled on £500. Next day he offered us a staff Christmas party gig too so we're doing them, both for £750. Now frantically learning some more up-tempo material as we are a bit laid-back and do weird american mid-west stuff that no-one has ever heard of!

[Nicko]

We did one last year which was £500 for a two hour set (double our usual fee), but none of us are particularly bothered about doing the usual NYE thing so we were happy enough with it..

[FinnDave]

We charged double our normal fee for my local pub last year. We were re-booked for this year, but had to cancel as our guitarist is away for the whole of December and half of January. I offered the LL another band I work with, but she has decided not to have a band for NYE this year.

[mep]

Double your usual fee is about right for some pubs. That's what we do with our regular NYE pub, although I'm trying to get a bit more for 2018 as they want us yeast again!

[fleabag]

They want us yeast again ?   Are you not self raising ?

 

[FuNkShUi]

£300 each.

2 X 1 hour sets

Helps that the owner of the pub saw us at a wedding 3 years ago and loved us.

We don't play too many pubs, so i'm actually really looking forward to it.

Much better than what i'd otherwise be doing on NYE (absolutely nothing)

 

[Bluewine]

3 hours ago, charic said:

Another option would be an agreement that you'll play that date for 3 or 4 guaranteed dates in the next year

Good idea.

Blue

[Bluewine]

We play the same bar every NYE. It's always a fun gig, great hours too 2:00-7:00pm. We always pack the place, were friends with the owner (very nice lady)  we play this club several times a year.

The cash register is always burning up on NYE. We get our regular fee, but the tips are fantastic and the owner always pays us an extra $100 00. So it's always at least $150.00 a man gig. It pays my month condo association fee.

Blue

Edited November 23, 2017 by Bluewine
Correction

[Dan Dare]

Stories of enormous fees for NYE are usually exaggerated. I remember a lot of musicians holding on for big bucks for NYE 1999/2000 and plenty ended up not working. Unless it's a one-off, out of the blue booking from a place you've never dealt with/heard of, I'd start double your usual fee at most. However, if it's a place you play regularly (and which looks after you and pays you happily even if the audience is thin on the ground), surely it makes sense to quote the usual, plus a tip if takings are good. The suggestion above of the usual, on the understanding that you get regular bookings during the year is a good one. No sense in getting one well-paid job and nothing more for the rest of the year.

[ivansc]

I took millenium NYE at £500 for a solo gig  - but included food drink  and overnight accommodation for myself and no less than 7 guests. We had a great night & got to listen to all the folks "holding out  for 2 grand" moaning about their gigs getting cancelled at the last minute due to poor ticket sales for the next week!  Decided I am to old and feeble to last through a typical NYE gig this year so I will be... er... not sure, actually.

[Les]

Spookily just this morning I knocked a grand back off our agent cos' the gaff was upstairs.

Fee was fine but we're not really bothered about working NYE anyway and we certainly won't carry gear

upstairs for any gig.

Les

[lowdown]

Anyone remember playing millennium NYE ?

A bit special that one. I bagged £1300 for myself on a function in the West End (long gig though, playing through dinner & 2:00am finish - Twelve piece band).

My wife had a good one as well, £1550 on a cabaret gig.

We went to Barbados in January for ten days....

 

 

Edited November 23, 2017 by lowdown

[musicbassman]

I remember quite a few local bands/musos coming unstuck at the millenium, including myself - we'd agreed a massive fee provisionally with an upmarket country club but then they hardly sold any tickets - I think they'd assumed that people would pay £200 per head without really thinking it through - so they kept delaying signing a contract (we'd played there before and this was a direct booking, no agent) and then the whole show ended up being cancelled early December. So instead of earning serious money we ended up with nothing................  a bad way to start the new century!  This was one situation where an agency gig would have made good sense.

[Bluewine]

I won't complain. I know a few guys that don't have a NYE gig and wish they had.

Blue

[FinnDave]

5 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

I won't complain. I know a few guys that don't have a NYE gig and wish they had.

Blue

Yeah, me for example!

[Lozz196]

A few years back our punk covers band were paid £800 for NYE. The pub held 160 people, the landlord charged a tenner to get in, split equally between the band & the bar staff, the pub getting the bar sales. If a pub is paying regular Sat night fees then I`d also expect that pub to not be charging entry - unless they always do and that isn`t changing either. But of suddenly a free to get in pub is now a tenner to get in, well why should the fee for the band stay the same.

[steantval]

If it's just a pub gig, I would be happy to take away £100 per band member plus free drinks.

[Bluewine]

35 minutes ago, FinnDave said:

Yeah, me for example!

I'm thinking that's by design. I thought The Wirebirds we're always wor.king.

Blue