PTB

I bought a strap off Joel today, our 3rd transaction at least. He’s a top BC’er and very easy to deal with.

I just bought a bass off John, one I’d sold to him a few years ago in fact. As before, it was a textbook deal, smooth and clear comms all the way.

Thanks for this. I don’t think I have tried them before so will try and get a quote from them.

Thanks Pete, hope you don’t mind if I PM you some questions.

I joined a tribute band a couple of years ago. We do about 40 gigs a year all over the country - Scotland to Cornwall - and we get decent pay per gig. I’m the sort who likes to be open and honest so I called my car insurer to tell them I had taken a part-time role as a musician and needed to amend my policy for business miles. I had heard of a friend’s friend who had difficulty claiming when his car was smashed up on the way home from a gig as he hadn’t mentioned his gigging so I wanted to avoid any such hassle and was prepared to pay a bit extra to avoid it. My insurer’s reaction to my call was to establish whether this was really work or a hobby. Their cut-off seemed to be no more than two gigs a month and little or no overall profit would be a hobby. I confirmed it was a bit more than that but I wouldn’t be getting rich. They then asked when my next gig was and told me they would cancel my policy from the day before as they didn’t insure musicians or entertainers! It was very difficult to get new insurance at short notice. All the household names refused to insure me as a musician but eventually, through a specialist broker, I got some at twice the price of the previous policy. The broker specializes in entertainment clients but could only find one obscure company willing to insure me. This policy is now coming up for renewal in a few months and I am considering my options. Clearly, many people will be within the hobby definition and that’s fine. Some others may be making a profit but not telling their insurance company. You guys and gals don’t need to reply to this. My question is to those of you who are making a living/profit of some sorts from gigging, especially other tribute band members, and have declared this to your car insurers: Who insures you? If you are feeling especially helpful, a DM with some idea of the cost of your policy plus the car you have, annual & business mileage would be appreciated. I’ll happily share my details with you. I understand not everyone will want to make this public and I will keep all such data confidential. I’m guessing there must be more than one company out there insuring working musicians so I’m hoping you can help me find them. Thanks in advance!

Ha ha - already taken. I am their 2nd rate John McVie! 😎

We use BandMule in the tribute band. Never used anything similar before and I like it. It's been very reliable for us. Our Manager updates the gigs section so there's no double counting/confusion and band members just enter our dates when we are unavailable.