Increasing our gigging revenues - private parties and festivals

nickp

Our band is getting good (IMHO etc).  Our new singer is an actor and pro performer and has improved our performance 100%.  We get between £150 and £200 for a pub gig.  I'd like to get booked for more private functions and or festvals (such as biker festivals etc) to get the odd £500 gig; principally to make sure that the singer is kept interested as I'm conscious that although he does this for fun, performing is also how he earns a living.  We aren't looking at playing loads and loads of gigs either - just make the ones that we do worthwhile (ie either enjoyable/fun or financially).

we are a 5 piece rock covers band - doing the usual songs I guess plus a few others picked out from the "woodwork".

Does anyone have any pointers how we get a few better paid gigs?  I'm not looking for a shitload, just enough to keep the interest up.

just done a "draft" website vinyl-generation.weebly.com  FYI.  sound clips are of the live "mike in the reheasal room" variety

ta

Nick

Danny1969

The more people you can pack in a pub or club, the more money you can ask for. But first you gotta build up a good following which can take a couple of years. I'm in 4 bands, the one with the biggest following gets between £550 and £700 for a pub gig or up to 2K for corp stuff. In one of the other bands I'm in same boat as you, £200 to £250 tops at the mo but it's getting better.

The key to getting a good following (IMHO) is to be entertaining as well as being musically tight and proficient, you gotta make people want to come to the same venues month after month

not_the_dj

In my experience biker festivals don't pay that well. I've played a few in the past (not headlining though, so maybe that's where the money is).

Weddings and parties certainly pay better than pub gigs, but those gigs can be quite different (although they usually include a buffet!)

monquixote

I found pub gigs are the best advertising for private parties. 

If you play a really shit hot pub gig then make sure you get out in the crowd with some cards you can pick up a couple of 40ths and weddings which will pay double what the pub gig made you.

viz

If you have young children, do music stuff with the school. All the 39 and 49 year old parents will get to know you and ask if you can play their parties. You'll get 500 quid easy.

not_the_dj

viz said:

If you have young children, do music stuff with the school. All the 39 and 49 year old parents will get to know you and ask if you can play their parties. You'll get 500 quid easy.

Cracking idea....duly noted.

Roland

monquixote said:

I found pub gigs are the best advertising for private parties. 

Putting on an entertaining performance and mixing with the punters are the best way.  It's easy to spend the break reviewing the first set, and packing up immediately the last chord dies away.  Last week our singers talked with the crowd whilst the rest of us were coiling cables. It's easy to think "lazy bastards".  Actually they were selling hard, and we got two more gigs out of it.

ESBlonde

Viz and Monq have the right idea, but to get into the professional league you must appear professional. So dress code, lights, clean gear (really)! attitude.
Have the right images on the website and a video/gallery that will appeal to those party bookers.
Agents are an occasional source of corporate work and you can charge the 'being fukked around' money for those as long as you smile all the time (think toward double your ideal).
I've said it before, act professional and charge accordingly, you will be treated with the respect you deserve.
40th Parties are often a hoot. ;-)

EricTheWeary

I think the well paid gigs we ever got came out of people seeing us play grotty pubs and then booking us (although about 90% of people who tell you they love you after a gig and want to book you for a party are never heard of again). We also had regular gigs through an agent, which were the better paid pub gigs. She took 10% but overall we were paid more than most of the pub gigs we booked ourselves. Some venues will only book via an agency so for stuff like hotels it can be worth speaking to the venue, ask who they book through and then contacting the agency.

Generally speaking I wasn't keen on playing parties/ weddings. Not sure I can explain why very well but someone thinking they are the boss of me because they can put £100 in my hand when I've had a week of people being the boss of me - well, picking up a guitar and putting on a funny hat is supposed to be my escape, not another form of employment.
Of course,when I get the sack from the day job for farting around on the internet too much any paid gig will be welcome... 

ElectroDan

Agencies are definitely the way to boost your gig count, and don't rely so much on having a following. You usually need good photo's and some audio or preferably a video for them to promote you on their site. Most take 15% plus VAT, but as stated earlier some smaller outfits will take 10%. You should have no problems asking a bit more than your making now for classic rock stuff if you have your shit together.

Doesn't sound like you want to go this far, but most of the busiest bands play showcases too. Which sometimes you have to pay to attend. You medley 10-12 minutes of your finest numbers together and play directly to agents and booking managers. Keeping it Live is one of the bigger ones (held in Blackpool and Coventry).

As some of the other guys have said, private bookings mostly come from being seen. You can be proactive in that area by getting out and speaking to the punters after playing, always having business cards on you and having a regularly updated Facebook page, amongst other things.

RocknRollDave

I am afraid you might be in a "cake and eat it" situation whereby you want to play Rock covers, but you want to play well-paying gigs..
Depends entirely on what you mean by "Rock covers", but I suspect that if you want to go down the Functions/ Weddings route, you may need to make some drastic changes to the music you play and possibly also the way you present it/ yourselves.

That's not to say you have to be uber-cheesy, but there's a reason why most wedding bands all play the same songs - it's cos that's what people want them to play.

nickp

@rocknrolldave - I agree re weddings I guess as our bass player and other guitarist are in a pure "functions" band and don't rock out at all.  we go from caroline by quo, via some who and aerosmith with a hint of metallica to my private parts are aflame and chelsea dagger etc

so i guess a bit rocky for some functions

EricTheWeary

Danny1969 said:

The more people you can pack in a pub or club, the more money you can ask for. But first you gotta build up a good following which can take a couple of years. I'm in 4 bands, the one with the biggest following gets between £550 and £700 for a pub gig or up to 2K for corp stuff. In one of the other bands I'm in same boat as you, £200 to £250 tops at the mo but it's getting better.

The key to getting a good following (IMHO) is to be entertaining as well as being musically tight and proficient, you gotta make people want to come to the same venues month after month

If you can find any of Danny's stuff on line ( The Superheroes, IIRC) it is rock covers like the OP but at a very high standard ( obviously I don't know at what standard @nickp plays!). Just a cut above many rock covers bands you would see down the local boozer on a Friday night. From his posts he has also made it very business like and a full show with good PA, lights,etc.

So, if Danny's band are well paid for a rock covers band you could start asking yourself if you are as consistantly musically as tight as that; do you have the right gear ( PA and lights much more than boutique guitar amps) and know how to use it; are you reliable; do you have a business like approach;can you entertain people or do you all stand still looking down at your feet;etc?

Where the answer is No what do you need to do to make that into a Yes?

BTW - I think for any band I was ever in the answers would mostly have been No and I always thought it was f*****g ridiculous if the bass player wasn't happy we weren't getting paid £150 a night each.

Danny1969

I'm not so sure you have to do the norm thing, all the wedding stuff we do is RadioHead, U2, Muse, Stereophonics, I mean we have got stuff like Sweet Home Alabama in there but we mainly play harder rock at weddings. We tend to get booked by people who saw us at pub and club gigs and they seek us out because they want a rockier band who play the music they like I think. That obviously can lead to Aunty Mavis having a WTF look on her face during Stockholm Syndrome but it's been pretty successful. 

Another point regarding getting more money is to invest more. You need a high quality PA manned by someone who can mix preferably. We generally have 5 band members and at least 2 crew. All the other guys I know who do well money wise have someone front of house at the very least. Basically you want to sound polished and well produced, like a loud record rather than a rough edged pub sound. 

johnnyurq

monquixote;212636" said:

I found pub gigs are the best advertising for private parties. 

If you play a really shit hot pub gig then make sure you get out in the crowd with some cards you can pick up a couple of 40ths and weddings which will pay double what the pub gig made you.

This here is good wisdom, we found the same over the years.

nickp

thanks guys.  will be upping the "self promotion" at the next series of gigs

we are a good band.  got an "average" PA and pretty crap lighting so would have to borrow a PA for a bigger gig.  We probably should invest in some better lights and a backdrop next which will improve our audience ratings as well

cheers

N

viz

Good second hand PAs are cheap and you can upgrade them (eg getting bass bins later).