Weekend Warriors. How Much For A Gig?

[Chienmortbb]

My main band is a 60/70s covers band, playing pubs and clubs mainly. We charge £250 if we want to get in somewhere and £300 for rebooking. In the New Year we intend to increase this by £50 to £300 and £350 respectively.

 

We are based in the greater Dorset Area and one of our gigs pays £400.

 

Has anyone else tried to increase their fee recently, and what response did you get?

[Dad3353]

As we play for free, I think we'll be going for a 100% increase next year, and see how it goes down. 

[MacDaddy]

5 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

As we play for free, I think we'll be going for a 100% increase next year, and see how it goes down. 

 

I'm sure you're worth every penny 😉

[uk_lefty]

43 minutes ago, Chienmortbb said:

My main band is a 60/70s covers band, playing pubs and clubs mainly. We charge £250 if we want to get in somewhere and £300 for rebooking. In the New Year we intend to increase this by £50 to £300 and £350 respectively.

 

We are based in the greater Dorset Area and one of our gigs pays £400.

 

Has anyone else tried to increase their fee recently, and what response did you get?

Yes but it's pot luck. Some places tell us we are too expensive and decline, that's ok we don't want to undervalue ourselves, and others say Yes without hesitation. It's rare that there's much conversation about it though, it seems to be a one-shot thing. We try to charge similar types of establishments the same for the same type of gig... If we supply PA and lights etc we charge more than going to a venue with lights and a sound guy, if we do a function we charge more because we play longer and usually have a much earlier set up and lots of waiting around. Pubs tend to have a set budget and they can either afford us or not, we are trying to move away from playing pubs though.

[EssexBuccaneer]

Pubs round this way pay 300-400, we’ve played a charity event for free, and had a couple of ‘cheaper’ nights as a favour to a friend of the singer (around 150 per night) so we could get some good footage for social media.

 

Moving forwards we’ll be asking the going rate with the exception of charity events. It’s not about the money as much as it is not undercutting anyone else in the area. Musicians deserve to get paid adequately for their labour.

[asingardenof]

We've been trying to ask for more but times are hard so not had much luck so far. A lot of existing gigs only want to pay us what they've paid us previously, which is fair enough, and a lot of new places I've approached recently haven't even been willing/able to meet the lower end of our asking price range.

Edited October 30, 2023 by asingardenof

[Newfoundfreedom]

You get paid? 

 

😳

[TimR]

A 'pub band' can get a lot more for New Year's eve if you go to an agent. Those gigs are in high demand so don't settle for a pub gig if all your members are available. 

 

Unfortunately getting my lot out on New Year's eve is impossible.

[Lozz196]

Problem is that at the same time as petrol etc has gone up so it costs us more to do gigs, everything else has gone up so it costs venues more to run them. Coupled with less punters this makes getting more for gigs a challenge to say the least.

[TimR]

4 of us try and get £320. Gives us £80 each which is an easier sell. Otherwise push it to £280. 

 

Depends how many in your band as to how you can justify it. £300 for a 3 piece playing 2 hours of music is £50ph* as far as any onlooker is concerned.

 

*yes I know, travel, set up etc...

[JohnDaBass]

My  60s/70s covers 5 piece band achieve £300 for pub gigs locally. 

So £60 per man. That's up from £40 per man before Covid.

NY EVE we target  £750 to £850. (double time + extra for travel)

Really can't see any increase in the coming 12 months. 

[Muzz]

The main gigging band (4 piece) do pubs for £300 minimum, and I'd expect 2.5 - 3x that for New Years...unfortunately, for various complicated reasons, it looks like this New Years might be the first one in the last 15 or so I'll be in the house and missing out...still, the Boy's home from Uni, so that'll be nice...

[bassbiscuits]

Depends - for solo covers work in pubs I’ll try to get £100-£150 a go. 

 

The only other pub gigs I’m doing at the moment is a blues trio of originals and covers, and opening for other visiting bands etc, so money isn’t really a thing - if we get a small amount to make it worth our while then brilliant. We’re just glad to be playing and road-testing our songs really. 
 

Other gigs are the clubs/functions/weddings etc which are always the better payers, but also the ones involving setting up early, playing after the buffet/bingo/raffle etc. 

[Paul S]

My 3 piece blues/rock oufit get £300 for our monthly residency - guaranteed 12 gigs this year and we've been booked for all of 2024, too.  I am pleased with that.  We do go out for £250-£270 if it is a new place we want to try out but ask for £300 for a repeat.  We got door money at a blues club a couple of weeks ago and walked away with £500, which was a pleasant surprise.  Conversely we get support gigs and music festival gigs that barely cover expenses but we consider to be worth doing for the old 'raising our profile' thing - which has actually happened so we continue to do them.  Plus we have got some great media showing us playing bigger stages by doing that - which is priceless.

 

What other hobby does this?!  At the end of the night you have a smile on your face and some cash in your wallet.  Long may it continue.  

[casapete]

1 hour ago, TimR said:

Unfortunately getting my lot out on New Year's eve is impossible.

I can never understand why some bands won’t work NYE. One of the few days you can make

a reasonable amount, kinda makes up for all the other ‘cheap’ gigs you inevitably end up doing 

during the rest of the year. Find a gig that suits your band and make a good job of it, and they’ll

hopefully want you back every time. I’ve done hotel gigs in Scarborough with the same people

for years and we’ve always had good comments from the management ( who’ve had feedback

from their customers.) 

I think I’ve had maybe one NYE at home in the last 30 or 40 years, and that was when I took some

time off when my daughter was born.

[neepheid]

£300 for a regular gig.

[JapanAxe]

I work a fair bit around the Bristol area with a rock'n'roll band and they get £280-£320 on pub gigs, maybe £360 for a social club. It makes no difference to the venue how many are in the band so it's ok for a 3-piece, bearable for a 4-piece, and after that the pickings become decidedly slim.

Edited October 30, 2023 by JapanAxe

[EssexBuccaneer]

What do you guys do with the cash? Do you split it for pocket money? 
 

We stick it in the band kitty, currently saving for the PA, but broken strings and stuff all comes from the ‘band money’

[SteveXFR]

I play in a stoner/sludge metal band. Getting gigs can be tricky so we'll play just with the hope someone might buy us a pint, preferably one each

[JohnDaBass]

12 minutes ago, EssexBuccaneer said:

What do you guys do with the cash? Do you split it for pocket money? 
 

We stick it in the band kitty, currently saving for the PA, but broken strings and stuff all comes from the ‘band money’

Equal share out at each gig.

[Dad3353]

What is this 'cash' of which you speak..? 

 

...

 

 

[Dad3353]

No, I exaggerate slightly. At the last-but-one outing, the bar owner sent us an envelope with 100€ in notes. He had no need to; we had not asked for anything. I invested in a soft case for the singer's floor tom and an additional four LED lights, and a pair of tripod stands for them. In all, more than the 100€, but it helped, of course. It's the thought that meant more to us than the sum itself, so pleased, in all. 

[NJE]

I have probably been gigging less than a lot of seasoned players on here, but it feels like bands are asking for/venues are paying the same as they were when I started gigging 22 years ago!

 

I started out in my dads 5 piece, and we did pub gigs and functions, and were frequently picking £60-£100 a night for pubs and a lot more for weddings and functions. New Year’s Eve was always a decent earner, £200 a head or it wasn’t worth it to us.

 

I struggle to get that now. Pubs don’t pay that much but I guess you have to factor in the cost of beer, number of punters etc, and not everyone turns out for live music like they used to.

 

We get around £55-£65 a head by there are seven of us. Again functions would be more but only equivalent of what I would get 20 years ago.

 

A friend of mine runs a wedding venue and they have bands coming from all over. The bands have been getting 2k for a three piece and one soul band was charging 5k for the night but travelled about 3 hours each way. So some bands are getting good money but not mine 😄.

[Gasman]

£300 for 2x1 hour sets in a pub or club, £4-500 for one off special events such as birthday parties. Our NYE gig has just evaporated because the pub has gone broke, but it would have been £650.

[mep]

£250 is the usual payment for pub cover bands down our way in South Devon.