Have you ever paid to play a gig?

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

We did.

 

My covers band played a gig at a local pub.

The night went very well and after we finished, the pub emptied and we started breaking down our gear.

I was aware the drummer and guitarist were talking to one of the staff and I presumed it was regarding a re-booking.

I carried on packing and then went to get my car which a 5 minute walk away. There’s nowhere to leave a car at this pub.

Upon my return I discover that one of the staff had paid the guys in cash, which had been divided into four. The keys player was given his share and headed home.

The manager then appeared asking for the cash back as the pub is owned by Greene King and that we have to invoice for the band fee rather than take cash which was offered in error. We handed back what we had left and the drummer had to go to the cash point and get cash out to repay them. You couldn’t make it up.

 

Probably sounds like I’m moaning, but I’m not as they are actually very nice people and mistakes do happen.

We had a laugh about it and joked that none of has heard of anything similar happening….but I’m sure it has….hasn’t it?

[Elfrasho]

Weird. Invoice could've been paid in cash surely. Write up the invoice. Keep the cash. Move on. 

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

1 minute ago, Elfrasho said:

Weird. Invoice could've been paid in cash surely. Write up the invoice. Keep the cash. Move on. 

No, they don’t pay in cash.

[Lozz196]

I’ve not personally paid, but a band I was in years ago bought onto a tour (the record company stumped up the costs).

[neepheid]

Some places we play have some electronic system that you have to do some bollox with to get paid direct to a bank account.  I don't know a lot about it, the guitarist takes care of it then sees we get our share of the loot when it finally deigns to arrive in his bank account.

[Rich]

Pay To Play was very much a thing in the 80s. If you wanted to play gigs in That London, you inevitably had to pay for some of them. It was the price we paid in our search for stardom. 

[Burns-bass]

We’ve done Greene King pubs a lot and it’s always invoice (and a month wait!)

 

This is a brilliant story.

 

 

[Steve Browning]

We play a couple of pubs where you invoice and payment follows. Bit of a hassle first time around but dead easy now. In one of them we actually got the payment before we even played. 

 

I've not paid to play, that I recall. Bands paying for support slots certainly was the norm once. 

[meterman]

3 minutes ago, Rich said:

Pay To Play was very much a thing in the 80s. If you wanted to play gigs in That London, you inevitably had to pay for some of them. It was the price we paid in our search for stardom. 

Somewhere in Covent Garden springs to mind, was it called the Rock Garden? I remember in the late 80's our label at the time getting a promo mailout from them saying we could play in their actual central London șhïthole if we bought £35 worth of tickets and could guarantee a 150 punters on the night. 
 

I think the label replied but with the caveat that a champagne and 7 course meal rider would be provided otherwise the venue would have to pay them £5000 or something daft like that.

 

Still waiting to hear back from them 🤔

[DGBass]

Pay to play was rife in Central Scotland back in the 80s, 90s and early nougties. The Glasgow scene for originals bands was particularly bad. All the good venues like The Cathouse and King Tuts were stitched up tighter than a gnat's chuff if you wanted to play there. The format was usually three band nights, and sell a minimum amount of tickets before each band made anything. Tut's for example was pretty well organised though, and each band got a complimentary rider in the deal and a cool corner of The Blue Room to chill in pre and post gig, and to hang with the headline bands. A band I was in played with some interesting headliners. American rockers 3D House Of Beef was one band, and Swedish metallers Psycore were another. No idea what it is like these days since I've moved to covers bands that always get paid.

[tauzero]

For several years, after a first festival featuring four or five bands, there was a rock festival in Tamworth which was free entry and which the bands collectively paid for PA, insurance, and a couple of flat-bed trailers for a stage. We also got some money in from food van concessions. I think it was around £5 a member (the bands paid per member rather than per band).

 

http://www.tamworthbands.com/rockfestival/index.htm

[JazzyJ]

I recall playing at some corporate 'do' about six years ago with the function band. It took 3 months to prise the money out of their accounts department.

[chris_b]

A lot of gigs pay into a bank account on receipt of an invoice.

 

Nothing unusual about that.

[Rich]

13 hours ago, meterman said:

Somewhere in Covent Garden springs to mind, was it called the Rock Garden? I remember in the late 80's our label at the time getting a promo mailout from them saying we could play in their actual central London șhïthole if we bought £35 worth of tickets and could guarantee a 150 punters on the night. 
 

I think the label replied but with the caveat that a champagne and 7 course meal rider would be provided otherwise the venue would have to pay them £5000 or something daft like that.

 

Still waiting to hear back from them 🤔

Yes, that was indeed one, in fact here is my band playing said salubrious establishment in 1987.

I'm behind the keys player on the left, you can just see my left hand and the neck of my Wal, and the SH-09 I used for synth basslines. The stage was microscopic.

[martthebass]

Never paid to play but I have given my fee back a few times on gigs where there was a charity involved and there was a payment involved.

Being a Yorkshireman I think it's illegal for me to pay to play.......almost a hanging offence, at the very least I'd expect to have my black pudding ration halved.

[BigRedX]

No. Never.

 

One of the reasons why The Terrortones only once played in Manchester, because every other venue we contacted wanted us to guarantee the sales of x number of tickets. We always told them that they're not London in the 80s anymore and even London venues now were paying us as well as supplying food and drink. If Manchester didn't want us that was their loss and we'd play Liverpool instead where again we'd be paid and treated properly.

[Cato]

When I first started out in the early 90s there were a couple of times in my first band where we were offered support slots with older, more estaished local bands only to be told after we turned up on the night and starting setting up that we owed them £20 for 'PA hire'.

 

We knew we weren't going to get any kind of fee for the night but that was a bit of a kick in the teeth.

 

Left a bad taste in the mouth just because of the way it was sprung on us on the night, but not knowing any  better, we paid up.

 

 

Edited September 18 by Cato

[TimR]

Yes. Twice at Covent Garden and once at Park Royal. 

 

Packed the places out each time - but somehow "no one had come to see us", despite everyone being given "tickets" outside to give in as they entered forthe vunue to assign numbers to.

 

So we lost our pay and our deposit. Properly ripped off. 

 

After that we hired our own venues and sold tickets ourselves. 

[TimR]

The Greene King thing is well known and there's at least one thread here on the "Concur" expenses system or whatever they use. 

 

We lost a nights pay because the drummer threw a strop about not getting cash, got involved and gave them his email (we already had the singer dealing with it all) and then deleted all the following emails.

[Lozz196]

Aside from the tour I mentioned above as far as I`m aware - I have to admit I didn`t take that much notice of things in my earlier bands - that I`ve never paid to play. As others have mentioned it was particularly prevalent in London in the late 80s and the venues I know that did it - Rock Garden, Mean Fiddler as a couple - I`ve never played so think the band leaders of the time did the same as @BigRedX and said no we`ll play somewhere else instead. And back then we would have filled the places anyway so their loss not ours.

[Dan Dare]

1 hour ago, Cato said:

When I first started out in the early 90s there were a couple of times in my first band where we were offered support slots with older, more estaished local bands only to be told after we turned up on the night and starting setting up that we owed them £20 for 'PA hire'.

 

We knew we weren't going to get any kind of fee for the night but that was a bit of a kick in the teeth.

 

Left a bad taste in the mouth just because of the way it was sprung on us on the night, but not knowing any  better, we paid up.

 

This used to be a common occurrence. Many of the venues often didn't own the PA, lights, etc. They'd get someone in to provide it and engineer and his/her pay was what he/she charged the bands on the night. A pal of mine used to provide PA in several of the London music pubs. I never minded paying someone 20 or 30 quid to do sound/provide the gear because it worked out cheaper and was less hassle than taking our own PA (which would have meant taking an extra vehicle, plus all the setting up/tearing down and carrying it).

[Leonard Smalls]

Back in the late 80s we started off playing the Kings Head in Fulham. The deal there was we had to get 15 people in after which we'd get 1/3 of the door take... If we didn't get that many we'd have to cover PA costs of £25.

Luckily we managed it every time we played there, sometimes only just!

But that was the only place we played that had that sort of deal. Later, we played all the Mean Fiddler venues and the Rock Garden quite a few times and never had to pay, though we didn't make much...

[martthebass]

1 hour ago, TimR said:

The Greene King thing is well known and there's at least one thread here on the "Concur" expenses system or whatever they use. 

 

We lost a nights pay because the drummer threw a strop about not getting cash, got involved and gave them his email (we already had the singer dealing with it all) and then deleted all the following emails.

We don't play GK venues due to this.

To be honest we generally don't play a venue unless it's cash at the end of the night though we do make exceptions if the booking was via an agent we know (less than 20% of our gigs) in which case we'll take bank transfer.  We have had venues look to push their terms but we just agree to disagree and look to part on pleasant terms.  Many venues believe they hold all the cards and are quite taken back when the answer is 'thanks but no thanks'. 

[Norris]

We do play GK venues, but only because the guitarist is pro and there are few enough of them to not make a lot of difference to his tax returns.

 

We have been offered gigs "for the exposure" in the past and have always politely declined those. We have certainly never paid to play! (Dog & Duck covers band btw)

 

The guitarist being pro is actually a good excuse to ensure that the pay is worth our while. Otherwise he may as well get a better paying solo gig. No pay, no play.

[jezzaboy]

Never paid to play as I have always done covers but we are doing a support act in December where we aren`t actually getting any money up front but we are being given some tickets to sell. Luckily we have sold 90% of the tickets already and the last few are being given to family. It will work out roughly the same cash as being paid for the gig and it`s a good gig for us to play as the main band has a nationwide following so getting the band name out there is a bonus.