How was your gig last night?

[taunton-hobbit]

I'm 78 (sound system) & three hours is average (I do need a roadie!)

 

😎

[Bluewine]

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

I'd be ok with it if i was getting the 3 extended breaks but it does become a long day especially when you add travel time and gear set / dismantle time but yes i'd do it.

Dave

 

If I was brokering the deal I think I would have opted for more money.

 

Daryl

[Angelus]

The good thing about doing backing band for a panto is…… home for 11:00. 😁 Had a great laugh after the pyro flashes set the fire alarm off and not one person moved. 😳 Twice. 😳 But still looking forward to tomorrow night though. 👍

[Bluewine]

2 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

When i joined BC playing in bands was purely a hobby for me. That was quite a few yrs back.

Since retiring early i started playing more seriously with the bands i was part off. When i finally got the Glam covers band going i was kinda hooked into playing both for enjoyment and the income was certainly useful. 

Now i'm quite annoyed if the fee isn't what i'm used to.

The number of gigs i'm doing in a year doubled in 2023 and has tripled for this year but it still feels more like a busy hobby for me and i'm happy with that.

I have a lot more respect for musicians like Daryl  @Bluewine who earn a living from playing. Its not an easy job to take on making sure the gigs are there every weekend. I can see it being quite stressful in that respect so all credit to all the guys earning a fulltime living from gigging. My respect to you all.

Dave 

 

Dave,

 

It's really a busy hobby for me too. I draw a pension the gig money is extra but like you said,  it's helpful. It became more serious for me when I started to find myself with months where gigs were netting me an extra $500.00 a month. That's a mortgage payment. 

 

Anyway, so there's no confusion,  I'm not a professional musician.  I'm a lucky guy with a busy hobby and I make a little money 

 

Daryl

[Bluewine]

2 hours ago, Clarky said:

Fair do's Bluewine. I mistakenly took your first reply to me as somewhat high handed and apologise if I came back as somewhat snarky. As @Mickeyboro rightly pointed out, different strokes for different folks. For me, music is a fun sideshow from my main day job(s) and consequently the money side is less important.

 

I didn't take your comment as Snarky. I think it's great hearing how we're all experiencing different aspects of being a musician. 

 

Daryl

[Bluewine]

4 hours ago, Franticsmurf said:

it ended up just under 4 hrs. Last year's festival gig (my third with them) was 4.5hrs with a 15 minute break (one of the things I brought to the party). 

 

 

 

4.5 hours, I might have been able to pull off a gig that long 10 years ago.

 

4 hours use to be the standard for US bar gigs. Now its seems like it's mostly a 3 hour standard. 

 

Daryl

[Bluewine]

5 hours ago, stewblack said:

Daryl, you are an absolute inspiration to me. I too value the work I've put in over many decades and the money I've invested and I don't work without I get paid.  Not only are you living proof that age doesn't have to stop us working but you're so damn cool as well

 

Thanks Stewblack,

 

I'm not sure I've ever been cool. These days it's all about staying healthy.  Without it nothing else matters 

 

Daryl

[Franticsmurf]

5 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

4.5 hours, I might have been able to pull off a gig that long 10 years ago.

 

4 hours use to be the standard for US bar gigs. Now its seems like it's mostly a 3 hour standard. 

 

Daryl

I think, from my experience and from comments made on this site, that the standard UK bar/pub gig is moving towards 2hrs+. When I started playing live, we were using an agent and the contracts were mostly on the working men's club circuit. Usually there were two acts (most of the time I played it was a band and a solo singer) and they'd share the bill with the bingo. Each act would have 2x45 minutes and often it would be Act 1, Act 2, break, Act 1, Act 2. The mid set break was to allow several games of bingo to be played.

 

I don't know what the equivalent venue in the US would be, but in South Wales these places were clubs for the coal miners and other industrial workers set up as mini theatres. A village might have grown up around a mine and the only entertainment to be had would be in the club. As a result, some of these places were really well equipped with a proper stage, decent dressing rooms and subsidised bars. In the early 90s when I started, there were even rules that banned women from the bar (!) and that no one could dance during the first half of the act.

[police squad]

my gig last night is actually tonight.

Turned up a day early, this is the first time I've ever done this in 38 years of gigging.

Luckily the gig was very local to me, 5 minutes in the car

DOH!!

[Franticsmurf]

5 minutes ago, police squad said:

my gig last night is actually tonight.

Turned up a day early, this is the first time I've ever done this in 38 years of gigging.

Luckily the gig was very local to me, 5 minutes in the car

DOH!!

So it was quite quiet and poorly attended but the bass solo was great? 😂

[police squad]

18 minutes ago, Franticsmurf said:

So it was quite quiet and poorly attended but the bass solo was great? 😂

red nose day, it would have been dead.

Stupidly I didnt check their FB page (which I usually do), they were very surprised.

It was a duo gig, keys was half way there, so I phoned him and he turned round and went home

 

Still, will give us a laugh tonight

[MacDaddy]

9 hours ago, Angelus said:

The good thing about doing backing band for a panto is…… home for 11:00. 😁

 

Oh no it isn't!

[Obrienp]

As usual I’m about 10 posts behind the game here but on the topic of being paid for gigs: I came back to playing guitar and then bass in my mid 50s, after a break caused by life, kids, work, etc. Strictly speaking I don’t need to be paid because I do it mainly for enjoyment and to keep active in retirement but apart from charity gigs, I insist on being paid. Why? Because there are people who do this for a living. If amateur bands play for nothing, it further devalues live music and musicians. Heaven knows, music is already ridiculously undervalued these days and we mustn’t encourage venues to believe they can pay little, or nothing for live acts. Obviously we shouldn’t charge so much that small venues don’t make a profit from putting on live music but we should charge something, even if it is just £50 per person (seems to be about the average for music pubs around my neck of the woods).
 

 

[BigRedX]

17 hours ago, Clarky said:

I don't have the opportunity to make money, playing in an originals goth/post-punk band (very niche audience).

 

Goth/Post-punk is a niche genre, but IME it's a very we'll supported niche genre, and it's not just people in their 50s and older trying to re-live the glory days of the mid to late 80s. Certainly both bands that I'm in at the very worst break even when gigging. It may help that here in Nottingham we are better placed to take advantage of all the gigs happening further north and as we all know "It's Goth Up North". Hopefully at some point one of my bands will be doing a gig with The InSect and we'll be able to catch up.

[msb]

Recently turned 72 and still gigging. One local mentor has some years on me , and is still going strong. My barometer , if he can still manage some dignity and grace on the gig I feel there’s still some hope for me. 
He still nails it.

I remain optimistic.

[Stub Mandrel]

19 hours ago, Bluewine said:

Getting paid to have fun is awesome in my opinion. 

 

Am I off base ?

 

Spot on, I'd say.

[Stub Mandrel]

3 hours ago, police squad said:

red nose day, it would have been dead.

Stupidly I didnt check their FB page (which I usually do), they were very surprised.

It was a duo gig, keys was half way there, so I phoned him and he turned round and went home

 

Still, will give us a laugh tonight

 

Went to a local gig last night, was expecting it to be very quiet.

 

A friend's new venture Nearly Steely (nine piece + new guitarist, guess what they play),  their fourth gig, and it was packed at half eight. Usually the club has only half a dozen or so before 9. By the end of the night it was totally rammed.

 

 

[martthebass]

After a few weeks off we were back to the fore last night at a local charity event in a social club. Went for the set up in the afternoon as I’d agreed to let the band on before us use my bass rig, we were last on so that was fine. The soundcheck seemed to take forever, I guess I’m just used to us being quick and tidy on that at our own gigs….and of course as we were last on there were sound glitches when we started - no monitor feed, but we got through it. I was happy with our set considering our little lay off and the packed house loved it. In all the event raised over £2200 for blood wise and Weston Park cancer charities in the name of the bassist who died of leukaemia in a band our guitarist and drummer were in over 20 years ago.

Things like this make it all worthwhile.

 

I decided to use my EBMM Sterling on the gig, haven’t used it in years and it didn’t disappoint, made me wonder why I’m selling it.

 

 

[casapete]

We did a Butlins 70’s weekender at Minehead last night. 
We nearly didn’t due to our singer all but losing his voice, but the gig was saved by bringing

along a possible future replacement for him. He did very well considering the circumstances

and at such short notice, so they shared the vocal duties along with me doing a bit too.

Had the use of an SVT rig which I’d been looking forward to.  Unfortunately it seemed to

have a problem during soundcheck so ended up using my GK set up. We got through the

gig okay - great audience of around 2000 mostly in 70’s themed fancy dress and up for

 a good time. After we’d finished some of us caught Bootleg Blondie on another stage

who were really good. Plenty of beers afterwards and a good night’s kip in surprisingly nice

lakeside accommodation.  Dreadful journey home today though due to an accident on the 

main road in and out of Minehead, necessitating a massive diversion using very narrow 

roads into Devon! Took us over 5 hours to get home so absolutely knackered now, looking

forward to a night in etc. 

( Got a break of 3 weeks now before our next gig in Milton Keynes, one of the 5 left before

I leave the band. )

[Paddy777]

34 minutes ago, casapete said:

We did a Butlins 70’s weekender at Minehead last night. 
We nearly didn’t due to our singer all but losing his voice, but the gig was saved by bringing

along a possible future replacement for him. He did very well considering the circumstances

and at such short notice, so they shared the vocal duties along with me doing a bit too.

Had the use of an SVT rig which I’d been looking forward to.  Unfortunately it seemed to

have a problem during soundcheck so ended up using my GK set up. We got through the

gig okay - great audience of around 2000 mostly in 70’s themed fancy dress and up for

 a good time. After we’d finished some of us caught Bootleg Blondie on another stage

who were really good. Plenty of beers afterwards and a good night’s kip in surprisingly nice

lakeside accommodation.  Dreadful journey home today though due to an accident on the 

main road in and out of Minehead, necessitating a massive diversion using very narrow 

roads into Devon! Took us over 5 hours to get home so absolutely knackered now, looking

forward to a night in etc. 

( Got a break of 3 weeks now before our next gig in Milton Keynes, one of the 5 left before

I leave the band. )

I’ve played on a few Butlin’s big weekenders, booked in for a couple more in Skegness and one in Bognor Regis this year - they’re really good gigs. There’s always a big crowd who get right into the swing of things and theres

usually some other really good acts on to watch as well 

[dmccombe7]

18 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

If I was brokering the deal I think I would have opted for more money.

 

Daryl

You didn't mention the money side of it but we would price appropriately. We always quote 2 x 1hr sets as our typical show but we are always prepared to accommodate the venue. If venue is ok with it we will do 2.5hr show with one 15-20min break.

Dave 

[dmccombe7]

18 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Dave,

 

It's really a busy hobby for me too. I draw a pension the gig money is extra but like you said,  it's helpful. It became more serious for me when I started to find myself with months where gigs were netting me an extra $500.00 a month. That's a mortgage payment. 

 

Anyway, so there's no confusion,  I'm not a professional musician.  I'm a lucky guy with a busy hobby and I make a little money 

 

Daryl

I think we are in very similar situation with our bands Daryl altho i wasn't to begin with when i started on BC but how things change 

Once you get used to the income its harder to walk away from it.

Dave

[dmccombe7]

4 hours ago, martthebass said:

After a few weeks off we were back to the fore last night at a local charity event in a social club. Went for the set up in the afternoon as I’d agreed to let the band on before us use my bass rig, we were last on so that was fine. The soundcheck seemed to take forever, I guess I’m just used to us being quick and tidy on that at our own gigs….and of course as we were last on there were sound glitches when we started - no monitor feed, but we got through it. I was happy with our set considering our little lay off and the packed house loved it. In all the event raised over £2200 for blood wise and Weston Park cancer charities in the name of the bassist who died of leukaemia in a band our guitarist and drummer were in over 20 years ago.

Things like this make it all worthwhile.

 

I decided to use my EBMM Sterling on the gig, haven’t used it in years and it didn’t disappoint, made me wonder why I’m selling it.

 

 

Loving the outfits there guys. That's more like my style of Glam outfit.

Nice one.

Dave

[dmccombe7]

14 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Thanks Stewblack,

 

I'm not sure I've ever been cool. These days it's all about staying healthy.  Without it nothing else matters 

 

Daryl

Oh yes you are a cool dude on stage Daryl. Sure i've mentioned it to you over the years plus i hope i look that good at your age.

Nice one

Dave 

[tvickey]

I'd pay myself just for the opportunity to play with some of the headliners at the shows that we've got lined up this year...  but don't tell the promoter that!