How much should we charge?

[Evil Undead]

My band (rock covers) plays in pubs, and the occasional social club or mini-festival. We are quite popular, draw in a good crowd (regulars and new folk) and always have folks up dancing. EDIT - forgot to mention we are a 5 piece and do our own sound.

Personally I think that we're not charging enough and that we're selling ourselves short, but I also don't want to risk pricing ourselves out of gigs.

Bear in mind that none of us are pro or earn a living through this.

I won't reveal what our current fee is yet as I don't want to influence anyone's answer.

Edited August 31, 2012 by Evil Undead

[Roland Rock]

Last time I was in a covers band, the going pub rate was around £250-£300

[derrenleepoole]

It's bloody difficult isn't it? I'm in the same situation, playing in a covers band for pocket money. If it's a very local gig we'll go out for £30 per head plus travel expenses. It then goes up from there to about usually £50 per head depending on distances etc. Occasionally we do charge more, but that's only for gigs that are way off the radar, and that's rare for us. The band ranges in size from a four piece to a seven piece.

[SlapbassSteve]

Playing in pubs there's a bit of a ceiling to what you can earn, even if you do your own sound(which is normally expected by the venue as standard anyway. Not to mention when a venue does have a pa it's rarely worth using...). Number of people doesn't usually make a difference to price either, although as you'll be priced the same as say a three piece there's a good chance you'll be more likely to be chosen. Going rate in my area is about £200-300 for a band, though for Soc clubs/fezzies you can sometimes expect more or less depending on the event. Harsh as it sounds, if you're looking for more money per gig on the pub circuit the only thing you can really do is cut costs by being a smaller ensemble.

[Chrismanbass]

same here really standard pub rate is about £250 - £350 depending on the venue if you want to make more money then your probably going to have to break into function and wedding work which ime can pay anything from £100 - £250 per head (£250 each was for a very large company) The reality of a pub band is that you are there to draw people into the pub so that the landlord can sell them more booze, and so in business terms they can't lay out more on a band than they think they can make back in a night a way to gauge this would be to propose to the venue that they pay you nothing up front but you take a percentage of the bar earnings you'll find out very quickly how much you are worth

[chrismuzz]

My 5 piece metal cover band is less than a year old. We havent got our own PA or sound tech. We did our first gig free, second one for £50, and now we ask for £200, but will settle for £150. If its a charity do we obviously do it for free but at the last one we did we got free food and drink in return

[charic]

I think you should ask for £1,000,000 that way if you land one gig you can do the rest for free if you like

[gub]

Yep £250 for a pub seems to be about the rate , we are only getting £450 on new years eve in a pub local to us in Cornwall and we are a five piece so come away with less than £100 pp

[Adrenochrome]

About £200 here, including any bucket collection. There are quite a few pubs that will only pay £150 which we avoid. There a couple of very local gigs that we'll do for £180 and some further away ones that are £220-300 depending on distance/inconvenience etc.

[TimR]

I think if you are drawing a good crowd you can go on an estimated £2/punter. So if you're playing to 200 in a pub at least £400. If you've only got 50 people in the audience and you're asking £250 you have to try to justify why/how the landlord can pay you £5 a head. If you can justify that on the strength of what they are spending then charge it.

[davehux]

We're a 5 piece, with our own PA and lights, who so far only play pubs. We will do a first gig in a place for £150, just to get the booking, but after that it's a very firm £200. We only play places that are within 20 miles max of our base. If we were trekking to either end of Cornwall, we'd ask for more.

We don't do it for the money (obviously) but we're not going to get into a pricing war with other bands. If others want to play for buttons, good luck to them. We won't.

[pietruszka]

We get £250 for a pub gig, the popular nightclubs in the town pay band members between £50-£60 each, which isn't that good considering one of them is playing until 1:30am. However they are notoriously stingy.

We've also learnt the going rate for weddings seems to have dropped slightly. Though for pubs £200-£250 is about right, if you can get more bonus! Even though you are only doing this for pocket money, don't be afraid to ask about the money, especially if you ask for more. It's just money, and they'll either say yes or no! Yes you're doing it for fun but you don't want to be a walk over either.



Dan

[Evil Undead]

[quote name='Adrenochrome' timestamp='1346421462' post='1789055']
About £200 here, including any bucket collection. There are quite a few pubs that will only pay £150 which we avoid. There a couple of very local gigs that we'll do for £180 and some further away ones that are £220-300 depending on distance/inconvenience etc.
[/quote]

Bucket collection? You mean like a tip jar?

I suggest that to my band mates but I think they assumed I was joking (I wasn't!)

[Adrenochrome]

[quote name='Evil Undead' timestamp='1346423543' post='1789098']
Bucket collection? You mean like a tip jar?

I suggest that to my band mates but I think they assumed I was joking (I wasn't!)
[/quote]

Exactly - there's a pub near us that provides basic PA and lights and pays around £150 - but they also have a whip round. A decent band will make £50+ in tips as well. We actually take our own PA but it's still a good deal. There were a few other pubs that did the bucket but don't seem to be many left.

[TimR]

Maybe you should get some strippers in too.

[lojo]

I did a few bucket pubs last year, it's only ok if there's a crowd

[gub]

So what's your current fee as I think you have a fair few answers of similar figures ?

[icastle]

I tend to be rather pragmatic about performance fees.

If a pub can only offer £150 for a 5 piece band then I need a sweetener before it happens.
Could be repeat bookings at a higher rate, perhaps a deal to play at a more heavily attended function or even a way of expanding the audience we play to (leading to more frequent and higher paying gigs in that area).

Best 'cr*p' paying gig we ever did was at one of those local wedding shows that appear all over the place.
We got about a dozen direct bookings from that plus about the same again every year since from the hotel function manager.

It's that old 'speculate to accumulate' thing...

[Lozz196]

With my covers band, our fee is a minimum £200. Some places pay more, depending on bar-sales, but that is the minimum we play for.

We usually say we will do the first for £200, then talk business afterwards. The majority of places now pay us more, as we generate the bar-sales - nothing like a couple of hours of classic punk covers to get large 40+ year old blokes out, drinking plenty of beer on a Friday night.

[lurksalot]

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1346456212' post='1789608']
With my covers band, our fee is a minimum £200. Some places pay more, depending on bar-sales, but that is the minimum we play for.

We usually say we will do the first for £200, then talk business afterwards. The majority of places now pay us more, as we generate the bar-sales - nothing like a couple of hours of classic punk covers to get large 40+ year old blokes out, drinking plenty of beer on a Friday night.
[/quote]
+ me
though sometimes some of the guys see the dollar signs a little early for the parties , and while they do pay a bit better they are often the most enjoyable gigs

[shizznit]

Most pubs (large pub chains or managed houses) will have a cap for the amount of money they pay out to 'entertainment acts' no matter how many punters come in through the doors and how much money is taken over the bar. I can't remember the last time I got paid more than £400 for a pub gig (public holidays, Christmas Eve and New Years Eve excluded). Normal rate around these parts...roughly £200-£350. Tenanted houses can pretty much pay you want they want or what you have agreed to. If you think the fee is a tad cheeky you can always ask to sweeten the deal with a couple of free drinks for the band members or even a meal on the house. Don't be afraid to ask. It's worked for me on loads of occasions!

[barneyg42]

Quite varied in Surrey too, last weekend I had three gigs, my main classic rock band on Friday, pub gig booked a bit last minute and we got £300 (5 piece), Saturday I depped in for a friends band (disco dance covers, 5 piece) for a 50th party in a back garden marquee and we got £400+ all the food and beer we could drink. Sunday back to the classic rock and a wedding which we got £550 + a bar tab and all the food again. The bride and groom were so impressed they gave us an extra £50 on top, we supplied the disco and lights too. It was hard work mind you, 100yrd walk to the door and then up two flights of stairs to the function room! Next Friday it's a £250 pub gig and Saturday we play a small pub that only pays £180, we call the landlord Mr Tight, he even charges the band for soda water.....but we started out playing here and have a nice little following and have generated other gigs from it. Also we use it as a showcase for new songs, paid rehearsal as they say. Did a Friday night hat band gig a while back, landlord pays you £50 and you put the hat round to generate some extra, managed to get another £100 on top and the landlord immediately booked us for a normal Saturday night on £250, so sometimes it's worth going for a loss leader to generate the better gigs, although you must get in as many as possible, we pulled in a fair few of our own crowd for that one so the landlord could see we were worth it.

[mrtcat]

I firmly believe there's a right price for each gig. It all depends on the venue, the band and various other factors. To some venues on some days you will be worth £x and at another venue on another day you will be worth £y. The thing is the money / enjoyment you get has to make the effort worthwhile for you and your bandmates. So when the venue and band agree a price which works for both parties then that is the right price. This may be £200 or it may be £1000 but I guess what I'm saying is all gigs should be looked at individually. I always make people's financial expectations one of my first questions when auditioning musicians or joining bands. Money doesn't really bother me but I've been in a band where we rarely gigged as drummer wanted £100 before he'd pick up sticks. Likewise I wouldn't want to be playing week in week out for a tenner each.
The thing that really annoys me tho is venues who expect every band to bring in tons of punters. Bands and venues both have a responsibility for promotion and if run well a venue will have regulars because the venue will be paying the right money to the right bands every week so people would know its worth visiting the venue.

[sime17]

Blimey - my part time blues band gig are getting £150 to £180 for pub gigs, that's apparently the going rate round our way. It's fascinating seeing how this differs round the country.

[dand666]

We like to say our minimum is £200, if it's a new pub where we havent played before we charge between £150-£200 on the deal that we get asked back.

Sometimes we do the odd free gig, but only if we get something out of it, advertising e.t.c