Anyone played cruise ships?

DannyP

I'm doing this for the first time next week, any tips and pointers?

The exchange of information with the Ents agency has been pretty one-sided in the run-up. They've had my pet's mother's maiden name's national insurance number and birth certificate blah blah blah, but they can't even tell us what the backline is or what type of electrical sockets are on-board.

Any experiences?

Kittyfrisk

Is that like playing Battleships?











* Sorry, couldn't resist.

fastonebaz

Not directly no but a friend of mine has been playing in bands on them constantly for past 10 years.  Seems to enjoy it alot - looks like they've been on holiday constantly. 

fastonebaz

Thinking about it, I've no idea about the money side of it.  I assume you get food and board provided and a daily fee for playing.  I often wonder what that is equivalent to an annual salary.

You only get 1 life.  Who's to say that travelling the world playing music every day until you drop at 75 isn't a good way to spend it  

DannyP

It's $4,500 net split 4 ways. Flying to Tangiers on Good Friday, back from Rome on Easter Monday, all expenses paid.

It's only the same 45min set played twice over the journey! Honestly, once we're there with all the gear set up, I don't care if we play 2hrs a day, but there you go...

We all have day jobs, so if we get offered more of these that aren't around Bank Holidays, it's going to be a discussion about how much annual leave we want to spend earning versus resting and spending time with our families etc.

Woodandwires

The last cruise I was on the electric guitarist in the house band used anIbanez and a modelling amp and the busker used a Fender Acoustasonic and the house pa. The sound techs are very good on board and they have very good and reliable equipment from what I saw.

DannyP

Thanks @Woodandwires this is what I suspected. I'm taking gear to cover going into a) generic backline amp b) backline cab of any impedance and c) straight into the desk, so should be fine.

mudslide73

I’ve got a couple of friends who worked on cruises, one as crew and the other in retail, and it sounded like a good life when you’ve got no real responsibilities. I'd love to be doing what you're doing, though!

Alex Gold from the Word In Your Ear podcast works as mainly John and George on the cruise ships - he often talks about joining up with random Pauls and Ringos then playing without any rehearsal. 

DannyP

 Aye @mudslide73 depping and using deps is par for the course. I used to do more depping than I do nowadays, but you just turn up and it's 'which harmony do you take on x, how do you end y' and on you go!

Danny1969

In my experience as a regular cruiser, there's different tiers of live music venue on a ship. On a P&O boat you could be in the headliners theatre backing an artist(s) who have flown in to do 3 shows .. or you could be in the space between the 2 pools on the lido deck .. or with the pulse party band in the club  .. or you could be by the stairs in the main hall desk 6 or 7 etc. 

From a live music lovers perspective it's all generally soulless and bland. All drum shields and Helix playing inoffensive bits of live music to BT's 

DannyP

We've actually prepared some BTs in case it all goes tits, but we'll keep that to ourselves unless it's desperately needed!

SGLPPRS

Any questions on this subject feel free to fire over, I own one of the UKs larger cruise musician agencies.

ESBlonde

From what I've gathered you can expect a lengthy safety lecture/training session as you are considered "crew" in an emergency. That may not apply on such a short trip. 

DannyP

SGLPPRS said:

Any questions on this subject feel free to fire over, I own one of the UKs larger cruise musician agencies.

Amazing thanks! Actually setting off tonight.

We still have very scant info about what stage set up we can expect, but I'm happy we're taking a responsible inventory of kit for most eventualities.

topdog91

SGLPPRS said:

Any questions on this subject feel free to fire over, I own one of the UKs larger cruise musician agencies.

Is sight reading of standard notation a must? Is chord chart reading ever acceptable?

SGLPPRS

topdog91 said:

SGLPPRS said:

Any questions on this subject feel free to fire over, I own one of the UKs larger cruise musician agencies.

Is sight reading of standard notation a must? Is chord chart reading ever acceptable?

It very much depends on the contract, 90% of ours are reading so notation reading a must. We have non reading gigs, but you have to be an exceptional player and busker (mostly high end jazzers). To give you a reference we look after the UKs largest cruise company, we have usually around 120 musicians out with them, 7 of those are guitar vocalists which is non reading, for band positions we only have 2 non reading guitar gigs! 

SGLPPRS

DannyP said:

SGLPPRS said:

Any questions on this subject feel free to fire over, I own one of the UKs larger cruise musician agencies.

Amazing thanks! Actually setting off tonight.

We still have very scant info about what stage set up we can expect, but I'm happy we're taking a responsible inventory of kit for most eventualities.

What line/gig are you heading out on? can likely give you a heads up

DannyP

Home safe and sound. Quite the experience!

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17a5rSmGU9/

stickyfiddle

This is fab!!! 

DannyP

SGLPPRS said:

topdog91 said:

SGLPPRS said:

Any questions on this subject feel free to fire over, I own one of the UKs larger cruise musician agencies.

Is sight reading of standard notation a must? Is chord chart reading ever acceptable?

It very much depends on the contract, 90% of ours are reading so notation reading a must. We have non reading gigs, but you have to be an exceptional player and busker (mostly high end jazzers). To give you a reference we look after the UKs largest cruise company, we have usually around 120 musicians out with them, 7 of those are guitar vocalists which is non reading, for band positions we only have 2 non reading guitar gigs! 

What @SGLPPRS ;  has to say is certainly borne out by my brief experience.

I didn’t actually see any guitar players sightreading during performances, it tended to be bass and keys who might be following charts on an iPad. However, these put-together bands definitely all had their reading and theory together.

We made friends with a few of the house musicians on long contracts and often they’re playing with new people, playing with musicians from all over the world, hastily creating arrangements, transposing on the fly etc. so they need that common language of notation etc to get by.

There’s definitely a big difference between those house band type cats and the stage show acts hopping on and off the boats.

House band cats are session level players for sure. They live more like crew, live on crew decks, eat in crew canteens and drink in the crew bar. They’re employees right down to having performance appraisals etc.

Stage show people like us spend short spells onboard and are treated like guests in terms of cabins and food.

@topdog91 If you fancy cruise work, I’d recommend either brushing up on the reading or getting a rehearsed stage show together with your own personnel - probably something retro themed.

SGLPPRS

DannyP said:

SGLPPRS said:

topdog91 said:

SGLPPRS said:

Any questions on this subject feel free to fire over, I own one of the UKs larger cruise musician agencies.

Is sight reading of standard notation a must? Is chord chart reading ever acceptable?

It very much depends on the contract, 90% of ours are reading so notation reading a must. We have non reading gigs, but you have to be an exceptional player and busker (mostly high end jazzers). To give you a reference we look after the UKs largest cruise company, we have usually around 120 musicians out with them, 7 of those are guitar vocalists which is non reading, for band positions we only have 2 non reading guitar gigs! 

What @SGLPPRS ;  has to say is certainly borne out by my brief experience.

I didn’t actually see any guitar players sightreading during performances, it tended to be bass and keys who might be following charts on an iPad. However, these put-together bands definitely all had their reading and theory together.

We made friends with a few of the house musicians on long contracts and often they’re playing with new people, playing with musicians from all over the world, hastily creating arrangements, transposing on the fly etc. so they need that common language of notation etc to get by.

There’s definitely a big difference between those house band type cats and the stage show acts hopping on and off the boats.

House band cats are session level players for sure. They live more like crew, live on crew decks, eat in crew canteens and drink in the crew bar. They’re employees right down to having performance appraisals etc.

Stage show people like us spend short spells onboard and are treated like guests in terms of cabins and food.

@topdog91 If you fancy cruise work, I’d recommend either brushing up on the reading or getting a rehearsed stage show together with your own personnel - probably something retro themed.

Danny P, all great points, Guest Entertainer and crew status are very different things. I will say though breaking into the guest entertainer scene is very tricky, and none of the lines we work with (which is most) will allow you to bring your own musicians. They expect you to have scores and use the house players. Being a guest entertainer is the goal for most, but bear in mind you need to be 1, exceptional, 2, have a great concept or some celebrity cred, 3, most likely already had some crew experience.