Turning gigs down…

[SuperSeagull]

I’ve just put my foot down re an annual charity gig - done it for the last three years on the promise of a paid gig which has never materialised, two hours travel time for what should be 45 mins but always get shortened to 30 mins because everyone else overruns, in a pub that is packed, raking in the money for the owner without even a free glass of water for the band. Taking the proverbial.

[casapete]

6 hours ago, SuperSeagull said:

I’ve just put my foot down re an annual charity gig - done it for the last three years on the promise of a paid gig which has never materialised, two hours travel time for what should be 45 mins but always get shortened to 30 mins because everyone else overruns, in a pub that is packed, raking in the money for the owner without even a free glass of water for the band. Taking the proverbial.

You have made the right call on this.
An old clubland agent around here used to get bands to do these kind of gigs, using the ‘sprat to catch

a mackerel’ analogy. All we ever got was sprats. 
 

[Norris]

No

 

Venues like that don't deserve to survive. You'll be doing yourselves a disservice, and every other band that plays there

 

Unless you need a free rehearsal session...

 

Edit: £40 per person for a gig?! I wouldn't put the kit in the car for that! Have some self-respect please

Edited November 24, 2023 by Norris

[Supernaut]

Beehive pub? 

[bass_dinger]

On 24/11/2023 at 16:39, SuperSeagull said:

annual charity gig

The organisers don't seem to understand the division of labour here.

 

1. They are doing it for charity.

2. The band are doing a gig.

 

Putting the words "charity" and "gig" in the same sentence does not automatically mean that all participants will want to give their services for free.

[peteb]

On 23/11/2023 at 10:08, Greg Edwards69 said:

The other problem we have is if a number of bands keep doing the same, it doesn't just undervalue their services, it undervalue the pub cover band circuit for everyone. This is one of the reasons pubs are paying bands the same rates they did 30 years ago.

 

It's also part of the reason why crowds are not as good as they used to be - audiences have stopped going out to gigs as there are too many cr*p bands playing at these places 

[fleabag]

This is our band's philosophy. 

 

We dont play out of the county we all live in.  We dont haul our own gear and band PA up any stairs.

We dont do weddings. We dont do pay to play.

We dont play for less than £250 for our 5 piece.   Unless it's a Green King pub,  ( our agent deals with those monkeys ),  we get paid on the night. End of.

 

We're happy to play a gig per month, because that's what we want.  On a rare occasion, like 2 weeks ago, we had back to back gigs on a Friday and Saturday.  But it's rare, and that's ok, but we dont make a point in doing  such double gigs.

 

We're not bothered if if we get a small crowd, because our fee is still the same.  No one can really predict such things anyways.  It happens. We still get paid.

 

Our agent has had great feedback from venues, and we get repeat bookings. Our diary is ok upto April 2024.

We stick to what we want.  That's it in a nutshell. We wont be hassled into this or that. 

 

Thing is, we have fun, first and foremost. No one gets rich playing in a pub / covers band, so gigging is for fun only, but with some small reward.

If we get a sniff that some venue would be a disaster, we say NO. Period.

 

Our band is made up of 5 non egotisical blokes, who all get on. Even rehearsals are a laugh.  That's rare in itself .

 

Life is good

 

 

 

 

 

[MacDaddy]

14 hours ago, bass_dinger said:

The organisers don't seem to understand the division of labour here.

 

1. They are doing it for charity.

2. The band are doing a gig.

 

Putting the words "charity" and "gig" in the same sentence does not automatically mean that all participants will want to give their services for free.

 

My first question is "will the bar staff be working for free?".

[Dankology]

I meant to repoly to this thread a few days ago.

 

A few months back, during a period of absolute gig famine, we booked a Thursday night at a small bar in a small town about half an hour away - given our semi-rural location this may as well have been an intercontinental flight away in terms of getting our usual audience out but we figured a gig was a gig and we might gain a new fan or two.

 

The date finally came up last week but two of the three of us were full of colds, including our drummer/singer who has changed jobs this year and now has a long daily communte and no longer has the flexibility of self-employment. Needless to say, there was a great deal of negativity as we piled a slightly reduced set of gear into one vehicle and set off down the windy, unlit country roads.

 

BUT IT WAS ACE. The bar has built up a regular Thursday night crowd for original music, the staff were friendly, the sound was as good as we might have reasonably expected, the audience was engaged, appreciative and even tried singing along in places. We got £150 (not to be sniffed at considering some of the fees we've had recently), a load of nice comments, videos on the venue's social media and two further gigs - one of which is at a small multi-venue "festival" that we've wanted to get into for a couple of years.

 

Which is a long way of saying that what might appear to be a less than sparkling gig might turn out to be reinvigorating or door-opening or both. And it turns out that there are lively original music scenes in the most unlikely of places.