We Don't Play There Anymore

[Woodinblack]

10 hours ago, leschirons said:

I love small venues. Encourages us to reign back the volume and not hide behind a wall of noise.

Doesn't work with us, just changes us from 'way too loud' to 'deafening'.

[Guest MoJo]

A very local pub (gear in wheelbarrow distance). Landlord gets rat-ar*ed every night then short-changes the band. 

[EliasMooseblaster]

15 hours ago, Bluewine said:

One thing that had a significant impact on live bands started way back in the 70s when we raised the legal drinking age from 18 to 21.

What's the legal drinking age in the UK?

Blue

Officially, 18. Though most of us start a few years before that, depending on how confident we are that we can pass for 18.

Does make me curious, though: what was the rationale behind raising it to 21 in the '70s? I always assumed that the US legal drinking age was set at 21 as a hangover from the Prohibition era, but clearly I was wrong!

[HengistPod]

Pub on the south side of Aberdeen, first time I'd ever played there a few weeks ago. Waited a good half an hour on arrival before anyone would stop serving beer long enough to speak to us. One double power socket in the setting up area. Less fee than usual, and further away from home for us - we were treating it as a loss leader to get more bookings.

World Cup 1/4 final left on on the TV just past stage left. Pool table left set up and active just past stage right. Full of the sort of people who wear white T-shirts, knee length shorts and no socks. One guy in particular shouted "You're Stinky Poo" all night, and even went on the FB page afterwards to reiterate his opinion. Punters (with a couple of exceptions, as always) ignored us completely. Then, when we were finished and packing up for a swift getaway, some bint advised us that the juke box was broken and could we leave the PA set up so she could play her Spotify through it?

One of those off nights that's no fun at all, happens to us all. At least we know not to go back.

[Bluewine]

12 hours ago, christhammer666 said:

defo never the st moritz club. as has been mentioned, an absolute dive, not advertised anything. we was told well be on at 930 and had 10 mates coming to see us so they turned up at 915 as another band is setting up. I say to soundguy "whats going on"  his reply was "oh weve slotted in another band last minute, your on at 1030 now". he then had the cheek to cut our set early as he said we ran over time 

I've noticed a lot reference to multi bill shows. Is that common in the UK for bands?

Blue

Edited July 20, 2018 by Bluewine

[Bluewine]

7 hours ago, HengistPod said:

Pub on the south side of Aberdeen, first time I'd ever played there a few weeks ago. Waited a good half an hour on arrival before anyone would stop serving beer long enough to speak to us. One double power socket in the setting up area. Less fee than usual, and further away from home for us - we were treating it as a loss leader to get more bookings.

World Cup 1/4 final left on on the TV just past stage left. Pool table left set up and active just past stage right. Full of the sort of people who wear white T-shirts, knee length shorts and no socks. One guy in particular shouted "You're Stinky Poo" all night, and even went on the FB page afterwards to reiterate his opinion. Punters (with a couple of exceptions, as always) ignored us completely. Then, when we were finished and packing up for a swift getaway, some bint advised us that the juke box was broken and could we leave the PA set up so she could play her Spotify through it?

One of those off nights that's no fun at all, happens to us all. At least we know not to go back.

Yes, it happens to all bands that are gigging consistently at the local level, bars, pubs and clubs.

Blue

[Bluewine]

8 hours ago, EliasMooseblaster said:

Officially, 18. Though most of us start a few years before that, depending on how confident we are that we can pass for 18.

Does make me curious, though: what was the rationale behind raising it to 21 in the '70s? I always assumed that the US legal drinking age was set at 21 as a hangover from the Prohibition era, but clearly I was wrong!

No, I believe it was raised to 21 due to the amount of fatal car accidents caused by alcohol for those under 21.

Blue

[MacDaddy]

18 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

I've noticed a lot reference to multi bill shows. Is that common in the UK for bands?

Blue

More so for originals bands. 

[Bluewine]

2 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

More so for originals bands. 

Ok, makes sense, same here in the USA.

Blue

[Bluewine]

We recently played a functions/ corporate gig. We're not a functions band. 

The guests had no interest in the band other than constantly telling us to turn down.

We call these "take the money and run" gigs.

Blue

[MacDaddy]

30 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

We recently played a functions/ corporate gig. We're not a functions band. 

The guests had no interest in the band other than constantly telling us to turn down.

We call these "take the money and run" gigs.

Blue

We call them 'paid rehearsals'

[NancyJohnson]

27 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

We call them 'paid rehearsals'

You saw the Johnsons...nearly every gig prior to my departure was quantified as being an extra rehearsal.  

There's really not a thriving live music scene in London, especially where original material is concerned.

[Maude]

We're playing a place I'd be happy to drop right now, on our break in the middle. There's a really nice outdoor seating area, a really nice bar and a room between the two where we're playing. Just people passing through from bar to outside. The reason we play is the owners own another venue which is always epic, so if we turn this one down we risk losing the good one. 

Oh well, tomorrows is a good venue so tonight is just a dress rehearsal

[josie]

Different story... we briefly had a Sunday afternoon residency in the beer garden at a fun local community-run pub - never many people there, but we enjoyed it and so did they. No money, but excellent free food and beer. Sadly they started getting hassled for noise, so we could only play (literally) unplugged - so no keys, no mics, acoustic guitar, acoustic bass, and the harp player blew out an expensive harp trying to play loud enough to be heard. And then the woman who was organising everything had to quit with health problems 😞

We're still in close touch and they definitely want us back sometime. I really hope they sort out the problems with the neighbours, they're a great community centre and we'd love to play there again. 

http://www.theoldabbeytaphouse.co.uk/

[Bluewine]

4 hours ago, josie said:

Different story... we briefly had a Sunday afternoon residency in the beer garden at a fun local community-run pub - never many people there, but we enjoyed it and so did they. No money, but excellent free food and beer. Sadly they started getting hassled for noise, so we could only play (literally) unplugged - so no keys, no mics, acoustic guitar, acoustic bass, and the harp player blew out an expensive harp trying to play loud enough to be heard. And then the woman who was organising everything had to quit with health problems 😞

We're still in close touch and they definitely want us back sometime. I really hope they sort out the problems with the neighbours, they're a great community centre and we'd love to play there again. 

http://www.theoldabbeytaphouse.co.uk/

Set hours or play as long as you like?

 

Blue

[Maude]

Following on from my post from last night's gig, we've just taken a wedding booking off the back of it. Even the bad venues have their positives

[Bluewine]

There was a county fair we use to play every year. Nice faiir lots of nice stages for bands, however we did not have a connection for any of the nice stages. We played in some sort of large barn where there were a few food and drink vendors. We could never draw a decent crowd on that stage. And it was a 4 hour gig. Since we couldn't get booked on the nicer stages we stopped playing this fair 2 years ago.

Blue

[Bluewine]

We use to play the Wisconsin State Fair 5 nights in a row. Mon- Fri.

Tiny stage and not the best location on the grounds. The fair ground is huge several miles and getting bands back and  forth to the stage was awful, very problematic.

With other band members having day jobs it was too much of a grind. We stopped playing there.

Blue

[christhammer666]

17 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

You saw the Johnsons...nearly every gig prior to my departure was quantified as being an extra rehearsal.  

There's really not a thriving live music scene in London, especially where original material is concerned.

its bloody terrible. venues and promoters think one share of a facebook post is promoting

[josie]

14 hours ago, Bluewine said:

Set hours or play as long as you like?

Roughly 2-5pm with a couple of breaks, but whatever we felt like really. 

[12stringbassist]

We stopped playing one place near Rochdale because we decided that the cart in was torture (down a side alley, down some steep steps) to pile our gear on a really tiny stage and then play facing a disinterested bunch of smokers, who just ignore the UK smoking ban and have to try to perform to a more engaged crowd way off to our right. The venue has been taken over by the management from the brewery and the first thing they wanted to do was cut our fee.

[Bluewine]

8 hours ago, 12stringbassist said:

We stopped playing one place near Rochdale because we decided that the cart in was torture (down a side alley, down some steep steps) to pile our gear on a really tiny stage and then play facing a disinterested bunch of smokers, who just ignore the UK smoking ban and have to try to perform to a more engaged crowd way off to our right. The venue has been taken over by the management from the brewery and the first thing they wanted to do was cut our fee.

I've seen new management come in and stop paying bands their fee and move to a questionable percentage of the bar.

Keep in mind bands have the option to say, " no thanks"

Blue

Edited July 22, 2018 by Bluewine

[bobbytodd]

we stopped playing at a pub in Appleby after one of our gigs.as we finished our last set the landlord came over I cant pay you any more but ill have a whip round.so off he went round the crowd with a large sweet jar collecting extra cash for us to continue.so we played another 7 songs and by the time we finished he had disappeared with the all the extra cash he had raised.

[12stringbassist]

@blue

We just didn't ask them for any dates this year at the lower fee. They wanted to cut our usual fee by £50.
It's a really long drive for one of our band members. Just not worth it.
I keep friendly with the place in case they need a band and are prepared to pay our going rate.

[Bluewine]

Interesting stories about owners that have questionable policies regarding pay.

We are usually paid our fee prior to playing.

Blue

 

Edited July 23, 2018 by Bluewine