Band Splits

[chris_b]

35 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

. . . . But I'd expect a dep to get more as they are filling in, often at short notice to save a gig.

 

If only. . . . I've never experienced that.

 

An equal share is the best I've seen and, back in the day, I know of a few high charging function bands who used to give the deps less than equal share.

[Al Krow]

21 minutes ago, chris_b said:

 

If only. . . . I've never experienced that.

 

An equal share is the best I've seen and, back in the day, I know of a few high charging function bands who used to give the deps less than equal share.

That makes much better commercial sense to me.

 

Surely the point is what would a dep be happy to do a dep gig for i.e. what's their going rate? It will vary depending on the gig (pub or function) and travel involved and how good they are. If they can get their target rate, then it's a win for them and a decent night's work. It shouldn't matter at all to them what the band they're depping for get paid. 

 

Deps we use for our covers bands don't need to put a lot of time at all into learning new material - we usually tailor our sets to what they already know and the ones who regularly dep for us are pretty experienced and have a pretty wide rep, anyway. 

 

Generally speaking, we usually know quite a way in advance when we will need a dep, my bandmates know when they're likely to be away a couple of months ahead and put it on our shared band calendar, and I guess we've been fortunate in rarely having the last minute panic of someone dropping out, but obviously that can and does happen to any regularly gigging band. 

Edited March 10, 2023 by Al Krow

[Phil Starr]

I'm going to play devils advocate here and argue for the guys who run things. I think the first example of the band you left is open and closed. The only exception would be if they made clear up front that you were employed as a session player in which case rehearsals would have to be paid by negotiation but if  everything is upfront and open then that's pretty much OK by me, I've only ever done fair shares though.

 

The open mic is different though and I've had experience of this. I ran an open mic night/jam session with a mate and frankly it's an organisational nightmare. You set up the PA on your own and take it down on your own, you need more and different stuff because people turn up without amp or with gear they won't share. some weeks you have too many players and people are grumpy because they only get three songs other times you don't get enough people and you have to spend the day before ringing around begging favours, you run the PA and FOH and you'll be amazed how often you say 'you're on next for the whole band to decide they need the loo/a drink/a smoke or that they've lost the drummer etc. On top of that if no-one turns up or you are quiet you have to be prepared to play all evening if necessary.

 

I know the landlord/lady so offered to do it for free as they were just starting out, they offered expenses which I thought would be petrol money but turned out to be £150. That was a pain in the butt. I started out with £50ea for me and my partner in crime and £50 for expenses which included extra leads and a guitar amp. Then for a few weeks I had a settled house band and split the money 4 ways. then guitaris and drummer decided it was an optional extra and I had regulars who were more reliable than them so that seemed unfair. In the end it was such a pain that I took the £150 and put it behind the bar so anyone who played could get a drink. I can honestly say that the organisation was 90% of the work, if we'd run for longer then we would have built up a community of decent musicians and it would have been easier but I'd still be setting up and paying for the PA and back line. I don't think any pub could afford to pay more than £150 for an open mic night round here and frankly I don't want to have to decide who gets paid what and certainly not on the basis of deciding who is the better musician. An open mic night/jam session is meant to be fun and no-one has to be there. It was fun to be fair but bloody hard graft to get there.

 

As to the band; I've always been part of an even split. However we've had some illnesses and have started using deps. We're paying them 25% of the cut (we are a 4-piece)but are getting prepared to pay a flat fee if this builds up. i've also got a mate who is a decent singer, he's depped for Jools Holland and other name bands. We've tried to set up bands locally but had problems with the musicians we've recruited. We are now talking about going out with just deps, people who are competent enough to just sit in with a set with little or no rehearsal. We will have to pay them a fee and for a while take the financial hit with the hope that when the better gigs come in we'll recoup enough to make it financially viable. I don't think anything is unreasonable so long as everyone knows.

[DTB]

This exact thing happened with one of my dad’s bands in the 90s. 
Dad never got involved in the admin/money side of stuff he left that to those whose job it was. There were rumours that all 4 of the musicians were getting ripped off by the band leader and they were assured that everything was equal. 
A few months later the BL had a heart attack and handed over duties to my dad and sure enough they were all getting short changed. The BL told dad to stick the extra in his pocket and keep quiet as it was for doing the extra duties but dad told the rest of the band and split the money equally. 
Not sure what happened when the BL recovered and came back, but I never liked him, he was a horrible snidey little man.