Split with the house

[Ou7shined]

We've been offered a gig in Barfly - Glasgow (which would be a 300 mile round trip for us) but they are asking for a what I consider to be a pretty hefty split of the door.
excerpt from email - "Howz about we do £6 adv / £7 door? [b]Can we do a [color="#FF0000"]50/50 [/color]split with you guys[/b]?"
This is a new one on me, we either work a set fee or take [b]all[/b] the door (minus the support's cut if we've laid them on). Is this normal or are we expected to haggle?

Laughingly I told our manager that they can have 50% of the door if we get 50% of the bar.

[NJW]

Is this upstairs or downstairs at the Barfly?

I've dealt with them many times and have mixed experiences, but I have definitely seen bands getting deliberately screwed over by them.

[Ou7shined]

I'm not sure the only hard info I have is the attached .doc - our "manager" is the one that's been in contact with them.

What's the diff between up/downstairs?

[Ou7shined]

Just spoke to Suz (our manager) and she says it's downstairs.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='98126' date='Dec 3 2007, 02:05 PM']What's the diff between up/downstairs?[/quote]
the direction of the stairs?

[Ou7shined]

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='98245' date='Dec 3 2007, 04:45 PM']the direction of the stairs? [/quote]
B-doom-doom-tschhh! Haay thankyah!



C'mon guys is this 50/50 malarkey standard practice or are they trying to put one over on the tcheuchters[color="#FF0000"]*[/color]?

[color="#FF0000"]*[/color]scottish for bumpkins (chyoo[color="#FF0000"]ch[/color]ters - '[color="#FF0000"]ch[/color]' as in lo[color="#FF0000"]ch[/color])

[Paul Cooke]

simple question, what's the official capacity of the venue? ie. what's on the fire certificate for the function room you'll be playing in... that times the ticket price, then divide it by two gives you the maximum possible that you'll be getting off them... and it's unlikely they'll be maxed out...

that place doesn't look very big... it's only 30 feet from the stage to the bar and appears to be about 45 feet wide...... the stage is only about 10 feet across

do you really want to go to this trouble for what could be peanuts each after deducting petrol and food costs...

[16Again]

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='98109' date='Dec 3 2007, 01:50 PM']We've been offered a gig in Barfly - Glasgow (which would be a 300 mile round trip for us) but they are asking for a what I consider to be a pretty hefty split of the door.
excerpt from email - "Howz about we do £6 adv / £7 door? [b]Can we do a [color="#FF0000"]50/50 [/color]split with you guys[/b]?"
This is a new one on me, we either work a set fee or take [b]all[/b] the door (minus the support's cut if we've laid them on). Is this normal or are we expected to haggle?

Laughingly I told our manager that they can have 50% of the door if we get 50% of the bar. [/quote]

What night is your gig on?
personally i'd do it for that if it's a thurs/friday/saturday night ....but then again i was in a band that went down to perth on a tuesday night for door money and got £20.

[Ou7shined]

[quote name='Paul Cooke' post='98292' date='Dec 3 2007, 05:55 PM']simple question, what's the official capacity of the venue? ie. what's on the fire certificate for the function room you'll be playing in... that times the ticket price, then divide it by two gives you the maximum possible that you'll be getting off them... and it's unlikely they'll be maxed out...

that place doesn't look very big... it's only 30 feet from the stage to the bar and appears to be about 45 feet wide...... the stage is only about 10 feet across

do you really want to go to this trouble for what could be peanuts each after deducting petrol and food costs...[/quote]

The best we ever did was just over 500 quid on the door once (£2 a ticket) and we have a venue that always pays us 400 a set because we take along a good crowd - on the other hand we did a mates launch party for nowt and we're doing a 2 hour acoustic set in Jan for free too so I don't think that we really care if it's for peanuts or not (as long as we can cover the overheads) but I do care if it's [b]not fair[/b]. I know nothing about Barfly but the guys in the band reckon it's a good venue and a we are looking to get our foot in the door in Glasgow. What they'll take over the bar will be many times more than what we take at the door so I don't know why they want to dip into our bit. If they'd asked for 15% or something to cover advertising then fair enough but to take half seems to be pushing it. I've been gigging for years and have never come across this arrangement before but I might just have been lucky.

[Ou7shined]

[quote name='16Again' post='98325' date='Dec 3 2007, 06:40 PM']What night is your gig on?
personally i'd do it for that if it's a thurs/friday/saturday night ....but then again i was in a band that went down to perth on a tuesday night for door money and got £20.[/quote]

It's for Saturday 2nd of Feb.
LOL We had an experience similar to your Perth job (only it was a Saturday night in Rosyth) but the afterparty more than made up for it.

[16Again]

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='98397' date='Dec 3 2007, 08:16 PM']It's for Saturday 2nd of Feb.
LOL We had an experience similar to your Perth job (only it was a Saturday night in Rosyth) but the afterparty more than made up for it. [/quote]

Have you had a gig at strathclyde uni? it is/was a cracking gig, dont know if they still do it but it a good way to get yer foot in the glasgow scene. Or the Renfrew ferry, it's a great place!
money wise i've always found glasgow to be slightly different to aberdeen, ie glasgow is more grippy and less willing to take a risk with an unknown

Whats the name of your band?

d.

[thedontcarebear]

Getting half the door sounds fair to me.

[Ou7shined]

[quote name='thedontcarebear' post='98617' date='Dec 4 2007, 09:24 AM']Getting half the door sounds fair to me.[/quote]

Thanks for your reply. Is this a system you have worked before? Why do you feel it is fair?

[cetera]

Sounds a bad deal to me. I never do a door split for less than 70%band/30% venue. If you can't get that, then take a guarantee.

[Ou7shined]

[quote name='16Again' post='98602' date='Dec 4 2007, 08:46 AM']Have you had a gig at strathclyde uni? it is/was a cracking gig, dont know if they still do it but it a good way to get yer foot in the glasgow scene. Or the Renfrew ferry, it's a great place![/quote]
No we've not tried these places but we will look into them for deffo, thanks for the tips man.

[quote name='16Again' post='98602' date='Dec 4 2007, 08:46 AM']money wise i've always found glasgow to be slightly different to aberdeen, ie glasgow is more grippy and less willing to take a risk with an unknown[/quote]
That's interesting. I wonder why. Is it that good bands are rare up here (although I can think of tons - yourselves included - Pete is a mate of mine from way back - Were you guys practising London's Burning a couple o weeks back in Musical Vision? I could hear it through the walls ) and they are 10 a penny in Glasgow.

[quote name='16Again' post='98602' date='Dec 4 2007, 08:46 AM']Whats the name of your band?[/quote]
[url="http://www.bebo.com/pearl-jammin"]Pearl jammin[/url]

[Ou7shined]

[quote name='cetera' post='98654' date='Dec 4 2007, 10:37 AM']Sounds a bad deal to me. I never do a door split for less than 70%band/30% venue. If you can't get that, then take a guarantee.[/quote]

Ah so you've heard of this set up then. Cheers.
On the other hand you're the first person to say so after nearly 250 thread views so maybe it is a rarity. Bring it on guys how do you usually work it?

[16Again]

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='98656' date='Dec 4 2007, 10:43 AM']That's interesting. I wonder why. Is it that good bands are rare up here (although I can think of tons - yourselves included - Pete is a mate of mine from way back - Were you guys practising London's Burning a couple o weeks back in Musical Vision? I could hear it through the walls ) and they are 10 a penny in Glasgow.


[url="http://www.bebo.com/pearl-jammin"]Pearl jammin[/url][/quote]

aye that was us playing London Calling , i've seen your band in drummonds, really good!

we only get an average of £50 for playing drummonds or anywhere else in aberdeen, so if you need a cheap support band gie's a shout, ha ha.

[Ou7shined]

[quote name='16Again' post='98662' date='Dec 4 2007, 11:03 AM']aye that was us playing London Calling , i've seen your band in drummonds, really good![/quote]
you played like SLF too or something of that ilk from my yoof - it was ace.

[quote name='16Again' post='98662' date='Dec 4 2007, 11:03 AM']we only get an average of £50 for playing drummonds or anywhere else in aberdeen, so if you need a cheap support band gie's a shout, ha ha. [/quote]

Aye nae probs... as long as I can get a shot o yer Rick

Drummond's has been good for us. I think we gave our last support in there 130 (and they only played about 5 songs - 8 if you include the restarts coz the drummer kept starting different songs to the rest of the band ) admittedly that was the night we scooped over 500 though so we could afford it - they only expected about 60, you shoulda seen their wee faces.

[theosd]

A pub local to us take 20% of the door. That's fair. 50/50 is steep, especially if there's other bands.

I expect they're just using their name to bully you.

[thedontcarebear]

I really hope that I never get to the point of being in a covers band where I am doing it all for the money and worry about the pay, the day that happens is the day I never play an instrument again.

[Ou7shined]

[quote name='thedontcarebear' post='99359' date='Dec 5 2007, 09:05 AM']I really hope that I never get to the point of being in a covers band where I am doing it all for the money and worry about the pay, the day that happens is the day I never play an instrument again.[/quote]

Dude it's not about the money. It's about fairness and not getting shafted by the man.
I feel that talking money has a certain vulgarity but this in essence is what this thread is about and as such is unavoidable.

[G-bitch]

Barfly venues are all piss-taking bastards like that if I understand it. They claim to support unsigned local bands but then do things like this and do no promotion. The one in Birmingham is sh*te, they have the cheek to get bands to sell tickets etc. requiring a minimum, offer nothing in terms of payment and they're located outside the city centre so fail to pull in any 'passing trade' punters and make no effort to change this.

[Musky]

I can't really comment on the Glasgow scene but in London, for this type of venue, that doesn't seem too bad (I'm assuming there are other bands on the bill as well). Sure you're looking at a fraction of what you'd get at a pub gig, but it isn't a pub gig and for an unknown band in that neck of the woods different rules apply. I guess you've got to figure out how many people you could realistically get in and how much the gig is worth to you.

Then again, I'm in London - I'm used to getting screwed over!

[colda]

Our standard split is 40% for us, 40% headline, 20% support and the opener plays for free, if it's a low turn out then we don't take anything to ensure that the travel costs of the headline are addressed.

We charge £3 on the door, the venue takes the bar and provides door staff, we promote and we covered the cost of setting up the PA system (we don't look to cover the costs of this - just to cover maintenance, new leads, stands etc) - we came to the conclusion very quickly that we needed to be in it for the love of it, certainly not the money

[outsider70]

[quote name='thedontcarebear' post='99359' date='Dec 5 2007, 09:05 AM']I really hope that I never get to the point of being in a covers band where I am doing it all for the money and worry about the pay, the day that happens is the day I never play an instrument again.[/quote]

Ha Ha, we all say that at some point!
Now I earn my living playing in a covers band. We have a great time at gigs, and it feels great to be able to earn a living doing something I still love doing after 25 years!