topheteatwo

[quote name='dannybuoy' timestamp='1398271250' post='2432327'] Here's a group for London promoters/venues on Facebook: [url="https://www.facebook.com/pages/London-Live-Blacklist-Good-n-bad-London-Promoters-Bands-Venues/187959254586136"]https://www.facebook...187959254586136[/url] This was the norm when I was gigging around London with other unknown originals bands. In fact we were lucky to get any money, most would pay £1 per head after the first 10 or 20 people came in to see you. But living in the outskirts and working in central London, I already had a travelcard so it was free to get around town, and there was usually a house amp or cab available. When there wasn't, I had a Promethean combo just about light enough to lug on the tube, as long as the head was removed and put in the bass bag. I didn't mind so much as I didn't know any different, and took the viewpoint that most of the gigs were like a free rehearsal. [/quote] I have one promoter in London I'll use until he stops promoting, Michael Patterson, he's from back here and lives in London, one of the nicest men I've ever had the pleasure of meeting and a truly fantastic promoter, although I'm not sure if he promotes full time, maybe just for bands that come from NI but if you can seek him out, he'll put you on and if you're a far way from home, offer you everything he can to make you comfortable. When our van got towed in London, he gathered up as much extra cash as he could from his friends and emptied his wallet for us because the fine had left us broke. Need more people like him!

We have a venue called Voodoo that doesn't ask you for room hire at all, it's simply £80 for a sound man and you can put on whatever want, provided that you make a poster, the room is yours for free, just have to call and ask for a spare date and if you want a weekend, make sure it's far in advance. Whatever you make at the door, minus the £80 you owe the sound man (who's in house) and the amount you owe to the support acts is yours to keep!

[quote name='Norm' timestamp='1398266090' post='2432244'] Pound per head gigs are the norm for playing the "name" venues in Bristol. Usually midweek multi band bills of aspiring local bands tagged together into a facebook event. If all 5 acts bring a dozen people it can be a good night & the venue will shift some beer & the bands will get a quid for each punter who has bought an advance ticket (from the bands, promoter gives 20-30 tickets to each band to sell or return) or walk INS on the night who mention your name at the door. Promoter wants all unsold tickets returned or will charge bands per ticket for forgetting them! So get advertising event & promote it & you might get some money to cover petrol but thats about it. You get to play at the "name" venue with stage, lights & big pa & maybe if you bring people & go down well you might get invited back on a better night or to support a touring act there? We do them occasionally for exposure in amongst paying gigs on our own. Most young bands of nippers seem to use them as a free live rehearsal ime. Cheers, Norm [/quote] This is another thing that I just can't understand, these tickets things. It happened to me once in Belfast in my 5th gig ever in a venue called The Black Box (quite an arty venue) in quite a buzzing part Belfast. Long story short, the promoter forgot the mention that the venue was over 18s and the bands were all about 17 including the punters, he made people pay for tickets that the bands held at a staggering £15 for 6 bands no-one had heard of. He caused a small riot in the venue which caused the gig to be cancelled half way through. While I'm on the story of band promoters, let me share my story of the Belfast legend that is Chris Shaw. Chris Shaw (or Vito as he liked to be called) was a promoter in Belfast that ran from around 2010-2012, we played our first gig for him, actually went well except for him leaving shortly after arriving. Chris did some of the most amazingly stupid mistakes in terms of pay, he lived in Larne (about 15 miles out of Belfast via train) and continually told bands that he couldn't pay them because he had to pay for his train home and, now prepare to laugh, he refused to pay a set of bands because he had "internet fees" to pay and poster design to pay for (he made them in MS paint).

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1398238819' post='2431855'] This, I'm afraid.... and this is why there is a persistant argument for not paying for silly money. Don't want to derail the thread but if a constant stream of bands break this 'ethic' then why will people change the habit. Don't be kidded that they are interested in bands or what they play when they treat them like this. It may not always be the promoters fault as such as the venue probably rents them the venue so this is all part of how people get paid. I sympathise with you getting ripped off, but you are perpetuating the state of affairs....as will the next band and the next band.. bla bla......... But...FF's 'lesson' is valid.... get it in writing and don't delete the audit trail... [/quote] I have lived and I have learned hence a quite nastily worded e-mail to the promoter in Sheffield. I always ask for money now and I keep the documents, it was a dumb mistake made by a very young band, we were only 6 months old when we did our first tour and we were still ironing out the creases.

[quote name='rogerstodge' timestamp='1398201442' post='2431693'] won't the email still be in "trash" ? [/quote] I checked, it's gone!

[quote name='JamesBass' timestamp='1398200527' post='2431674'] No worries, where are you trying for in Southampton? I'll drop you a PM with my email address in it [/quote] Legend, e-mail sent!

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1398199294' post='2431647'] Well, it's never a good idea to destroy legal documents when they are your only protection against sharp practice - but I guess you know that now. [/quote] Learn and live on!

[quote name='uncle psychosis' timestamp='1398198611' post='2431636'] That kind of BS does exist in Scotland as well, thankfully I've only ever encountered it a couple of times. [/quote] From where I've been and played in Scotland, everyone has been hospitable to the point of making us want to hug every Scottish person we came in contact with. Lovely country. lovely people and from the experience I've gathered from other NI bands touring, Scotland is the gigging promised land of the UK compared to England, sorry England. Although, I've got loads of things to say about Huddersfield for example, we were booked for a venue that I can't remember the name of and last minute we managed to ring up The Zephyr Bar and they put us on, gave us 2 free pints each, paid us directly out of the bar till and 2 of the bar staff bought a CD and shirt.

Like I said, we cleared our inbox and the e-mail got deleted so the agreement was gone but yes, I can remember asking for petrol money and they had said yes. I've named and shamed before and it's come back to me in a bad way, but that just comes from living in a tiny city with a lot of bands and music, it comes back to you, I forgot to realise that it's Manchester in question. Just a force of habit.

[quote name='JamesBass' timestamp='1398196611' post='2431595'] Please tell me at least one of you or your band mates have looked in to the Musician's Union? They are the people to contact to help sort any and all problems presented by gigging live. If you have it in writing then you can, if you're a member refer the matter to them to try and sort out. As for the venues on the naming and shaming, I'd love to know the Sheffield venue? Sheffield is traditionally meant to be a great music city?! Also, if you're planning on coming as far south as Portsmouth, PM me and I'll try and sort you out with some advice on who and where to avoid! [/quote] Unfortunately I've since deleted the e-mail to clear space and I don't wanna go into so much fuss for it. Once again, I'm looking for a gig in Southampton and it's proving difficult at the moment, but if the e-mails I've sent don't work then I'll get onto you for Portsmouth! Cheers!

[quote name='Wooks79' timestamp='1398195739' post='2431579'] Cheers man, if you end up popping over again, lemme know and I will get something sorted out for you in Middlesbrough. [/quote] Cheers dude If our gigs in Workington doesn't work out, I'll send you a message!

And also due to peer pressure It's The Roadhouse in Manchester.

Lovely support bands And Wooks79 Bar Bloc - Glasgow, free pizza and a pint too 20 Rocks - Dundee, don't go in summer, no students to fill the place Bannermans - Edinburgh, they give you an entire apartment with about 9 beds and a stacked fridge The Bungalow - Paisley, got £150 here

Hello all, I have some opinions to gather up from you all. As you'll see, I'm from Belfast which is an awkward area of the world considering that we're attached to one country but are part of another country and naturally, we want to tour the UK, even though we're separated from it, a ferry can cost the upwards of £400 for 4 people and a van which for young bands with no money, that is a lot. So we gathered the cash and went on tour back in July, it went well apart from a few scrapes (bands pulling out last minute, van getting towed in London) but we had the last date in Manchester, I'm not gonna name and shame. The venue was great, lovely basement type venue, nice and big with a good bar (Guinness on tap too, extra points) and the gig was good, people seemed to really enjoy it. Prior to the gig we had agreed to a £20 petrol fee in order to get us from Manchester to Liverpool for the ferry to Dublin and right back up to Belfast and they had humbly agreed to this. After the show I approached the promoter to get our pay after she had praised us for being one of the best bands of the night, we even had a nice chat about the venue, who had played and why she loves putting on bands, it was really quite touching to hear passion from someone. That passion was short lived, when I asked her for our pay she pulled out a sheet of paper and consulted this paper for a good 5 minutes and turned and said "Only 3 people said that they came to see you, you'll be getting £3 tonight, we hope to see you again". At first I thought she was joking and I asked "What about the £20 we had agreed on in e-mail" She said that it was the venues policy to only pay the bands who had people to come and see them. In a fit of rage and I kind of caused a ruckus in the venue, saying some things I'm not exactly proud of and ended up being ejected by the bouncers, they wouldn't even let our drummer to go in and collect his drum stool, so that was about £50 lost. We were furious and I was shocked that this policy even existed, thankfully due to the generosity of the local support bands, we got £10 from their pay. This has happened again today trying to book a venue for Sheffield and we were told that we couldn't even get our petrol paid and that they had the same policy. I'm writing this because I know that a majority of Basschat is based in England and I'm just asking, is this normal? We played Scotland and we got paid £50-£100 a night and a place to crash. Why in England does this policy exist, or am I naive in my little Belfast bubble that is this of the norm?

Looking for a replacement for my Orange SP212 I love the cab, it's done me well for the past 4 years, but I'm looking for something that'll push a little more air, I'm looking for a 2x12 cab that I don't have to perch up on a table to hear it better. I'd love a Barefaced 2x12 but they're a little out of my price range (£500-£550). I've looked at Zilla cabs, I know a friend of mine got a pretty lovely 2x12 done by them but I'm interested in what's out there that would be good, used or new. Cheers guys

[quote name='Prime_BASS' timestamp='1397371477' post='2423191'] I think Sibob beat you to it haha. I think I just don't like octave as an effect, I think it sounds crap. [/quote] Thank you I thought I was the only one.

Excellent pickup, make everything just sound better

Hey guys My Ampeg SVT 3 is good but I'm just wondering what I could maybe replace it with? I like the Ampeg but I can find it to be a bit thin at times and makes my distortion just a little bit too thin (could have something to do with the mid focus on Ampegs), it also can be a bit temperamental in how it sounds. Looking for something that's just a little bit bigger in sound and better to run distortion through, I've been looking at the SVT 7, the Streamliner 900, the Tone Hammer 500 and the PF500 but I'm open to any suggestions, just needs to be a reasonable pricey, portable and decent sounding! Cheers!

If you want cheap, the Mooer Shimverb isn't bad for it's price and I find it works well on bass too

Guy who plays in our practise space nabbed one of these for £50, had no idea it was as rare as it is!