This has probably been discussed a few times before but I had two gigs with two bands over the weekend and it got me thinking, is this the norm?
Gig 1. Saturday night, pub with a beer festival. My covers band. We’re not an amazing band by any means, just a bunch of mates playing songs we love for a bit of fun and getting paid for it from time to time. We had agreed a price of £350 but actually got paid £450. The night had gone well, we played longer than we expected and the place was full and jumping right to the end. I didn’t think we played particularly well to be honest, but it didn’t seem to matter.
Gig 2. Sunday late afternoon. A pub that does live music several times a week and Sunday afternoon gigs regularly. Original material band with a few covers (less than 30% of the set). Probably 15 or 20 of the bands friends and family, another 30 or 40 unknown (possibly local regulars) punters. Musically and creatively another league up from the previous nights band. Played really well, loads of good feedback from the none entourage audience members. 7 piece band, £220.
So, is that fairly typical? Can bands that play just original material actually make any money until they’ve built a large following?
Comments
The last 3 originals gigs I did though were all for free beer and expenses. It is a hard slog for pure originals so sometimes it;s better to play a mix of originals and covers. When I started out 30 years ago that's what we all did anyway and that's what The Beatles, Van Halen and just about every other band did back in the day.
We could do weddings, and I’ve done them before, but we don’t need the money, and prefer to be the main attraction rather than the wallpaper.
I generally do around 3 gigs a week so 80 % of my income comes from playing covers
Anyway, pub gigs between about £200 and £350; my previous band did a couple of shared gigs with original bands and we got paid in out of date beer bottles.
I quite dislike playing weddings; as a way to make a living it wouldn’t be terrible but as a hobby hanging around for hours to be treated like the hired help isn’t my idea of fun (although why anyone would hire us to play a wedding - and they have - God knows). I think we got about £600.
Just interested in playing stuff I enjoy (covers or original material) and if I can get paid as well then that’s a bonus. Sounds like we did okay pay wise on both gigs at the weekend then!
My most recent short-lived experience in another (not very good) originals band was being paid 35-50 quid - but that’s what you get when your singer is shit but thinks he’s a musical genius
There are considerably fewer venues here now though. Many of the places we played are closed or not doing live music anymore.