How much are you getting paid?

Bellycaster

There are 4 of us in my gigging band.

Pub Gigs £200 - £250(with venues P.A), £250 - £300(with our P.A). We've got one Night Club Venue for £300(with their P.A)

We are doing a Festival on Sunday for £350 for 1 hour set, so I think that has been our best payday. We did a pub on New Years Eve last year for £400, which wasn't enough IMO.

It also depends how far we have to travel.

thomasross20

Bidley said:

Duo - £200-£250 for a full night in pubs. Petrol money for half-hour festival slot.

How long is a full night? How many hours (and equivalent number of songs) does that involve? 

thomasross20

Jimbro66 said:

So, a great six-piece band with thousands of pounds worth of gear getting less than fifty quid a head? (Does that meet minimum wage?). Thank goodness it's not just about the money....

Agree!!
Man, I'd better get learning more acoustic tunes... 

John_P

thomasross20 said:

Bidley said:

Duo - £200-£250 for a full night in pubs. Petrol money for half-hour festival slot.

How long is a full night? How many hours (and equivalent number of songs) does that involve? 

Nearly all my gigs involve arriving around 7 (I try to be earlier) and then playing approx two 1 hour sets from around 9.30 til midnight, pack up and leave around 1.  
Sometimes play a bit longer - especially the second set and if it's a function/wedding etc then maybe set up earlier and play earlier depending what is needed.   

Bidley

John_P said:

thomasross20 said:

Bidley said:

Duo - £200-£250 for a full night in pubs. Petrol money for half-hour festival slot.

How long is a full night? How many hours (and equivalent number of songs) does that involve? 

Nearly all my gigs involve arriving around 7 (I try to be earlier) and then playing approx two 1 hour sets from around 9.30 til midnight, pack up and leave around 1.  
Sometimes play a bit longer - especially the second set and if it's a function/wedding etc then maybe set up earlier and play earlier depending what is needed.   

Pretty much exactly this. Around 20-25 songs, depending on chat etc. If it's a tough crowd we'll thrash through everything we know, if they're loving it we'll have to cut a couple and add an encore.

thomasross20

That sounds a decent amount. 
At one point I personally knew 110 songs or so. Band-wise it was 65 tops. 
Now it's down to about 45 (refinement!) and we can maybe spread it out over 2.5-3 hours if we really wanted to. 

It's a lot for me to remember, though - it's such a memory game. 
And I'm considering doing acoustic stuff on the side - my brain can't take it!

Bidley

I know a lot of people frown on it, but that's when having a tablet with chords and lyrics helps, just as a prompt. I'm prone to the odd brain fart, so sometimes I need something to keep me on track. You can sometimes bodge something if you're in a full band, but in a duo it's more difficult to cover mistakes up.

EricTheWeary

Jimbro66 said:

Interesting thread. Firstly, the rates quoted by @roland are barely higher than those paid in the south-east in the 1980s, like-for-like. i.e. they've not kept pace with inflation.

Also, it's clear that if making money is your driving force, or necessity, you'll do better as a solo act or duo. If I go to a venue that advertises live music and find it's one or two guys with pre-recorded backings I feel disappointed (and will quite likely leave) but the venue owner probably doesn't give a toss about that as long as drinking punters come in. And they don't care either.

So, a great six-piece band with thousands of pounds worth of gear getting less than fifty quid a head? (Does that meet minimum wage?). Thank goodness it's not just about the money....

There was somebody advertising a new live venue on Facebook. Excellent,  sent off band details, etc. Couple of weeks later they post a video  clip 'Great to have live music here at last .'  I open up the clip - bloke singing and strumming to a backing tape of Whiskey in the Jar. I'm still thinking about the range of sarcastic comments I could have put. 

Back to my comments about not liking playing weddings -  I don't like audiences who don't understand live music: that it isn't exactly like the record,  things go wrong, you don't know every song ever written, etc, etc,  

Danny1969

I play a lot of weddings but they tend to be weddings of people who love live music and have booked us pacifically because they like what we do.
If you get asked to quote for a wedding the first thing you need to do is charge accordingly. If you only want £500 to do a wedding then your no more important than the DJ or the flowers. If you don't value yourself then why should they ?
Charge £1500 or more, tell them you need a certain amount of space, you need to load in at a particular time, people might have to work around the band ..................  If they are willing to pay that (and lets be honest that's cheap for 4 or 5 skilled muso's working all evening) then they will generally make sure the band is treated as valued entertainment rather than a nuisance 

@thomasross20 I'm gigging over 200 songs at the moment across 6 bands, it is getting to the point though where I'm sure learning something new is erasing something that's already there. 

thomasross20

That's a lot to remember, crikey. I'm just tiring of it - maybe due to lack of gigs! What's the point..

sw67

The £40 i get per gig just about covers rehearsal fees and diesel between gigs. Not remotely interested in weddings or functions. 100% hobby only 

Danny1969

I was talking to some friends about the whole gig'ing for money thing the other day and we all agreed there's a difference between playing for the money and being paid to play. I mean I enjoy a bacon sandwich and will happily eat one if you pay me to or not .... but given the choice I would prefer being paid to eat it. We actually used blow jobs though as an analogy rather than bacon sandwiches, that probably works better

hotpickups

Danny1969 said:

I was talking to some friends about the whole gig'ing for money thing the other day and we all agreed there's a difference between playing for the money and being paid to play. I mean I enjoy a bacon sandwich and will happily eat one if you pay me to or not .... but given the choice I would prefer being paid to eat it. We actually used blow jobs though as an analogy rather than bacon sandwiches, that probably works better

Depends on who's giving the blowjob I guess LOL

Jimbro66

hotpickups said:

Danny1969 said:

I was talking to some friends about the whole gig'ing for money thing the other day and we all agreed there's a difference between playing for the money and being paid to play. I mean I enjoy a bacon sandwich and will happily eat one if you pay me to or not .... but given the choice I would prefer being paid to eat it. We actually used blow jobs though as an analogy rather than bacon sandwiches, that probably works better

Depends on who's giving the blowjob I guess LOL

Could it @RocknRollDave? >

RocknRollDave said:

.........The kind of gig that makes me wonder if blowing old men for money would be more dignified.

RocknRollDave

Jimbro66 said:

hotpickups said:

Danny1969 said:

I was talking to some friends about the whole gig'ing for money thing the other day and we all agreed there's a difference between playing for the money and being paid to play. I mean I enjoy a bacon sandwich and will happily eat one if you pay me to or not .... but given the choice I would prefer being paid to eat it. We actually used blow jobs though as an analogy rather than bacon sandwiches, that probably works better

Depends on who's giving the blowjob I guess LOL

Could it @RocknRollDave? >

RocknRollDave said:

.........The kind of gig that makes me wonder if blowing old men for money would be more dignified.

Never knowingly undersold.