Band fee

[bassjim]

[quote name='HengistPod' timestamp='1481026134' post='3189033']
We agree a fee of £75 each wherever we play. Perhaps pubs up here are a bit more willing to pay that because we're much more rural and bands have to drive further to get there. Leaving home at 6-7pm, getting home at anywhere between 2-4am, that's between £7.50 - £10 an hour for your evening's work. To say nothing of gear expenses.

We don't have a gig that's local to all of us - so if a venue won't cough, we don't go. None of us are desperate for the cash, and we've found that venues that haggle over 50 quid usually come complete with a bad attitude and/or bad punters.
[/quote]
fair enough you dont play for less than £75.00 each . Do you gig a lot as a result? If yes did the pubs all say " why yes. £75.00 each. No prob" without seeing you first or did it lead up to that? Are you more than a three piece? If you gig less due to the lack of decent lolly do you end up doing one gig every other month? I'm only asking these questions in order to put into perspective what the pub is paying per band member vrs size of band.

"Tracy an her amazing backing tracks" plus 4 lights on a stand ( thats sound to light by the way!) might get £150-170.00 all to her self so for her its no big deal to get home 4 am. Probably more often is back by midnight. ( I know cause Tracy only lives a few doors down from me. Going to her wedding next week! No she doesnt want a band....)

Past bands I've been in have "worked their way up" to it (decent lolly) but from the OPs point of view is £210.00 between three a fair whack for a typical pub? I think its ok. It also gives the OP the upper hand on any bands needing to feed 5 or so players.

Edited December 6, 2016 by bassjim

[chrisd783]

[quote name='leemarseillebass' timestamp='1480783237' post='3187126']
Excellent bunch of answers! It's exactly what I wanted and a big yes to 210 being absolutely fine, my only, well, main query was I had thoughts that we were accepting too little, it's a work in progress I guess. We're doing a promo vid very soon so I'll post it here, and tell us what you all think. We have lights, backdrop and PA, it's a full thing we take. Cheers everyone:)
[/quote]

If there's three of you, the most you could push it to is probably £240 for a pub covers band anyway. Offset that against any potential gigs you lose through venues not being able to afford it and it hardly seems worth it for an extra tenner each.

I play in two 4-piece covers bands and we get £200-£240 a gig with an even split. £50 - £60 quid will do me fine.

I really feel for the venues in south Wales. They're trying their best to pull the punters in, but with Tesco selling 10 cans for a fiver it's hard to get people out. I try and bear this in mind when negotiating a fee as well.If we all drew too much water the well would dry up

[leemarseillebass]

[quote name='HengistPod' timestamp='1481026134' post='3189033']
We agree a fee of £75 each wherever we play. Perhaps pubs up here are a bit more willing to pay that because we're much more rural and bands have to drive further to get there. Leaving home at 6-7pm, getting home at anywhere between 2-4am, that's between £7.50 - £10 an hour for your evening's work. To say nothing of gear expenses.

We don't have a gig that's local to all of us - so if a venue won't cough, we don't go. None of us are desperate for the cash, and we've found that venues that haggle over 50 quid usually come complete with a bad attitude and/or bad punters.
[/quote]

I agree. If there's a faff or an issue about this kinda thing I go straight to 'no'

[JPJ]

My experience here in the NE is £250 is the going rate for a 4/5 piece, hauling own PA, lights etc. Some landlords might boost this if they have a really good take from the gig, but these are rare. If the venue is providing PA or lights or both, expect less. I've been back into regular gigging for about five years and the fee has remained the same throughout.

[stef030]

here in east sussex £250 is average,
and we are a five piece
so this is what happened to us,
a pub asked us to play for a lower fee,given as we had never played in this pub before
we all agreed on the proviso that there would be full paying gigs to follow,
that's is not a problem she says
we played the gig,pub was busy,people drinking and dancing and a good time was
had by all
guvner left at the end saying good job yadda yadda yadda
nothing not a peep,for a few weeks
always not there or busy ect ect,
then right out off the blue last week
I get a message
would we like to play on boxing day,
nice I thought,200 I am told
only to find out later that day its 200 for the band
so I automaticly say no way the drummer is the same
the other guys say why not
really I said are you that desperate,I for one wont be there,
absolute insult
then this big thing kicks off,
about no budget ect ect,and they would not see that it is a piss take,
the pub had a band cancel ect ect
big band meeting me I am the bad guy,ut no I aint doing it they can if they want to,
I have said get a dep in,
they then said don't I know how much that will cost
rest my case
enjoy the gig guys
funnily enough not heard anything since
hey ho

Edited December 10, 2016 by stef030

[mrtcat]

We don't usually play pubs and generally stick to function work. We have an agent that occasionally contacts us to see if we are available for the odd short notice pub gig. They know that, if we do it, we will only be the 4 core members and that £400 is minimum fee. We replace keys with backing tracks on some songs and we all sing. So far we've had 26 of these gigs this year. Most are Thursday or the odd Friday nights and are just at regular pubs. We get £400 - £500 a time. There's no way the pub covers costs but they just keep coming. Whenever we've asked the landlords how they make it pay they just say that the brewery subsidises. Can't understand the business logic myself but is nice to have these little low pressure bookings to supplement our other work.

[stingrayPete1977]

[quote name='stef030' timestamp='1481388448' post='3191994']
here in east sussex £250 is average,
and we are a five piece
so this is what happened to us,
a pub asked us to play for a lower fee,given as we had never played in this pub before
we all agreed on the proviso that there would be full paying gigs to follow,
that's is not a problem she says
we played the gig,pub was busy,people drinking and dancing and a good time was
had by all
guvner left at the end saying good job yadda yadda yadda
nothing not a peep,for a few weeks
always not there or busy ect ect,
then right out off the blue last week
I get a message
would we like to play on boxing day,
nice I thought,200 I am told
only to find out later that day its 200 for the band
so I automaticly say no way the drummer is the same
the other guys say why not
really I said are you that desperate,I for one wont be there,
absolute insult
then this big thing kicks off,
about no budget ect ect,and they would not see that it is a piss take,
the pub had a band cancel ect ect
big band meeting me I am the bad guy,ut no I aint doing it they can if they want to,
I have said get a dep in,
they then said don't I know how much that will cost
rest my case
enjoy the gig guys
funnily enough not heard anything since
hey ho
[/quote]

I think you did the right thing.

[stef030]

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1481465902' post='3192451']
I think you did the right thing.
[/quote]


thank you sir
still not heard a thing,not really that fussed
its their loss

[stingrayPete1977]

How many punters does the pub in question hold?

[TimR]

[quote name='mrtcat' timestamp='1481465467' post='3192447']
We don't usually play pubs and generally stick to function work. We have an agent that occasionally contacts us to see if we are available for the odd short notice pub gig. They know that, if we do it, we will only be the 4 core members and that £400 is minimum fee. We replace keys with backing tracks on some songs and we all sing. So far we've had 26 of these gigs this year. Most are Thursday or the odd Friday nights and are just at regular pubs. We get £400 - £500 a time. There's no way the pub covers costs but they just keep coming. Whenever we've asked the landlords how they make it pay they just say that the brewery subsidises. Can't understand the business logic myself but is nice to have these little low pressure bookings to supplement our other work.
[/quote]

Greene King announced pre-tax profits of £189m in May this year with £2.1bn revenue.

That's just one brewer.

Make your own conclusions but my theory is they don't trust landlords very much. Kids and sweetshops. There's lots of money there, it's just kept out of the reach of certain people

[stingrayPete1977]

How much profit has been made by paying a band more than the extra bottom line has increased compared to a Saturday night without a band?

[Muzz]

We can go out as a three piece for smaller (usually pub) gigs. It's less money than the function work, but it's closer, and it's shorter hours. And I don't have to dress up Anywhere around £250 is usual, we'll go for less for the right gig, and some pubs are more.

I take my gear (Dingwall, Shuker, Bergs, Mesa, etc) to all the gigs, regardless. If it's lairy, I stay closer, but as someone mentioned, I've had more mither at posh weddings than skanky pubs.

[LewisK1975]

[quote name='Muzz' timestamp='1481536944' post='3192948']
.........I take my gear (Dingwall, Shuker, Bergs, Mesa, etc) to all the gigs, regardless. If it's lairy, I stay closer, but as someone mentioned, I've had more mither at posh weddings than skanky pubs.
[/quote]

This!. Pub crowds are usually OK, it's when you do the private functions, there tend to be more people pushing the employer / employee angle, and thinking that they've a right to access the stage, grab mics, complain about volume / song choice etc. But, they do usually pay more, so you deal with it..or don't do those type of gigs. YMMV!

Edited December 12, 2016 by LewisK1975

[stingrayPete1977]

Exactly, we've seen my "they're playing your guitars in there" thread!

[IainS]

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1480799501' post='3187271']


Top and bottom of a pub's business model isn't it?
[/quote]

Absolutely. I played a gig last week where we were paid £250 and only ten people turned up. I say turned up; they were already there and they didn't leave.

I don't imagine the pub made too much money that night.

[stingrayPete1977]

[quote name='IainS' timestamp='1481564730' post='3193336']
Absolutely. I played a gig last week where we were paid £250 and only ten people turned up. I say turned up; they were already there and they didn't leave.

I don't imagine the pub made too much money that night.
[/quote]

Yep, we've got one on Saturday, we will have a few regulars of our own as they don't get to see us at the function/wedding stuff (I have just been informed by text as I am typing that loads of our people are coming?), the rest of the people will be people that were going there to eat anyway, the idea is that we keep them in there after to spend a few quid.

I think it is a £400 gig, if the pub makes 50p on each drink sold after bar staff wages electric bill, cleaners etc etc then they will need to sell 800 EXTRA drinks on top of what they would sell without a band on, I would imagine it will hold 100 people maybe a few more if it was rammed, that's 8 drinks each. I know why I have no interest in running a pub!

[TimR]

Don't worry about what the individual pubs make for the landlord. Look at the what the breweries are making and realise why they sub the landlord for the band.

[stingrayPete1977]

I suspect most of their profit was made on bottled drinks sold via the big super markets anyway?

[TimR]

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1481569116' post='3193367']
I suspect most of their profit was made on bottled drinks sold via the big super markets anyway?
[/quote]

No. Bottled drinks are expensive to produce and transport. They can brew beer at pennies a pint.

[PaulWarning]

[quote name='IainS' timestamp='1481564730' post='3193336']
Absolutely. I played a gig last week where we were paid £250 and only ten people turned up. I say turned up; they were already there and they didn't leave.

I don't imagine the pub made too much money that night.
[/quote]this is the rub isn't it? if the pub pays out more for the band than the take in extra drinks they aren't going to book bands for very long and why should they?it is a business not a charity, as for Pub Companies making loads of money I'll wager it's not through putting live bands, in my area at least very few pub chains put live entertainment on, its usually about selling food. The thing that annoys me is when the people that run the pubs book the wrong bands (through ignorance and lazyness) then say live music doesn't pay

[Shylock]

A publican once told me that they have sell three times as much extra pints on the night for each £ the band charges to make it pay. This does seem rather high but is plausible and so the bands that bring in the crowds can charge more notwithstanding their musical talents or the equipment they use.

[blue]

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1481465902' post='3192451']


I think you did the right thing.
[/quote]

Agreed

Blue

[leemarseillebass]

[quote name='stef030' timestamp='1481388448' post='3191994']
here in east sussex £250 is average,
and we are a five piece
so this is what happened to us,
a pub asked us to play for a lower fee,given as we had never played in this pub before
we all agreed on the proviso that there would be full paying gigs to follow,
that's is not a problem she says
we played the gig,pub was busy,people drinking and dancing and a good time was
had by all
guvner left at the end saying good job yadda yadda yadda
nothing not a peep,for a few weeks
always not there or busy ect ect,
then right out off the blue last week
I get a message
would we like to play on boxing day,
nice I thought,200 I am told
only to find out later that day its 200 for the band
so I automaticly say no way the drummer is the same
the other guys say why not
really I said are you that desperate,I for one wont be there,
absolute insult
then this big thing kicks off,
about no budget ect ect,and they would not see that it is a piss take,
the pub had a band cancel ect ect
big band meeting me I am the bad guy,ut no I aint doing it they can if they want to,
I have said get a dep in,
they then said don't I know how much that will cost
rest my case
enjoy the gig guys
funnily enough not heard anything since
hey ho
[/quote]

I'd have done the exact same. Yes a gig is still a gig and I'm grateful to play to people but you definitely did the right thing here.

[stef030]

thanks
a few people here have heard and they have all said the same thing
I absolutely love playing and would play at the opening of a letter
but what is right is right
funnily enough some one said does that mean you refuse to play for charity then
no I reply but when was a tight money grabbing landlord charity
oh and I also found out they were turned down by a couple of bands
and to add insult to injury
they were offered more than us
just makes you wonder what goes on in peoples heads

cheers
stef

[leemarseillebass]

Kinda nauseating isn't it? I'd do it for free but that's my choice, I'm not having it decided for me very much like yourself. I go to work to get paid, I'm not doing that for charity either. I just think there should be a bit more justification when someone expects a lot for very little, I may end up saying 'well if you want more people here, charge 90p a pint.' Or something.