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We Don't Play There Anymore


Bluewine

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Auctions and raffles.......We played a fund raiser a couple of weeks ago at a hospital social club. We were the last of four acts on but had to endure an interminable raffle before we could get going. Two bottles of the cheapest, nastiest wine were (sensibly) left unclaimed. So we started and it was a good gig, people had had a few drinks, lots of friends in the crowd, all good. Then, just as we went to start a run of the last three numbers and everyone is having a good time the raffle lady grabs the mic from our singer and announces an auction for the unclaimed bottles of wine. We tried to get the mic back but she was off. The first bottle took an age to sell for a grand total of £4. All the energy went out of the room, people started chatting, some decided it was time to leave. I was ready to throttle her so when she offered up the second bottle I shouted “£20” thinking that will be a quick end to this nonsense and money well spent so that we can get back on with set. Nobody wanted to outbid me it seemed but just as she turned to me to take my money a voice from the back of the room piped up “21” and off we went again for another goodness knows how long. Argggg........

Edited by SuperSeagull
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5 hours ago, Bluewine said:

We're you paid anything for the gig?

Blue

No Blue. The deal was direct transfer of funds to our account within 7 days. We got knocked for the whole amount. 

When I was in the UK, we'd  ask for a 50% deposit for the private function gigs but that doesn't happen here in France. Having said that, I should add that this was a British owned venue and NOT french.

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55 minutes ago, leschirons said:

No Blue. The deal was direct transfer of funds to our account within 7 days. We got knocked for the whole amount. 

When I was in the UK, we'd  ask for a 50% deposit for the private function gigs but that doesn't happen here in France. Having said that, I should add that this was a British owned venue and NOT french.

Understood, If there's one thing that really angers me it's when someone "stiffs" a band.

Blue

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4 hours ago, SICbass said:

May their next turd be a hedgehog.

I am seriously going to steal that phrase, I now have everybody in the office looking at me wondering why I just laughed to loud they can hear me in the next building!

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I can only remember refusing to go back to one place

My old punk covers band, and we would play fairly regularly in a couple of pubs in the middle of Woking and get a good turn out.  The singer gets us a gig at the Cricketers, a pub that's a couple of miles outside the town.  We played a couple of places in the area that had a good crowd regardless of who we brought so we were hoping it was one of those. 

It wasn't.

What it was was an awful place to play - big pub divided up into small rooms and long, thin bars with alcoves, no space for bands (after we'd set up in one alcove - the only spot big enough to fit the drum kit - you couldn't walk past us to get to the rest of the bar...though that turned out not to be a big consideration) or entertainment, no promotion, just a magical belief that if they put bands on, people will come.  But nobody would ever come the two miles out of town to go there , and nobody did.  We played to one empty bar, with two old fellers sat nattering to each other in one of the other bars, and only one barmaid and a couple of our mates actually watching us.  We were awful - one of the worst gigs I've ever played, mainly because of the complete lack of any atmosphere that got to the whole band - we just didn't want to be there and played like it.

The landlord apologised, said something about being a bit disappointed by the turn out, and would we like to come back again in a few weeks?  OK, we weren't very keen but figured we'd give it another go and if they're paying us, why not?  Not that we were getting a lot, we didn't need the money and were playing for fun, but a few quid to cover petrol and beer was always appreciated.

We go back and it's exactly the same - a couple of regular punters who stick to another bar because they have no interest in the music, a couple of our mates who've made the effort.  the only difference was that we played pretty well.  The landlord, clearly with an entertainment budget from the brewery that was to be spent no matter what, asked us back.  We politely declined.

I moved round the corner from there a couple of years ago - it's now a chinese restaurant, and seems to be much busier than the pub ever was.

 

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Overall, at least for my band the bars that book bands every week and have a good reputation for live music are the most fun to play. The patrons come there specifically to see bands. To me that's key.

I'll never understand the landlords that occasionally book bands when they know their clientele has no interest.

Blue

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19 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

One thing that had a significant impact on live bands started way back in the 70s when we raised the legal drinking age from 18 to 21.

What's the legal drinking age in the UK?

Blue

18 here in the UK. 

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1 hour ago, Bluewine said:

Space is an issue for all of us that play bars and pubs. If there's a cool atmosphere with a crowd familiar with a band and supportive I can deal with small space.

Blue

I love small venues. Encourages us to reign back the volume and not hide behind a wall of noise.

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1 hour ago, leschirons said:

I love small venues. Encourages us to reign back the volume and not hide behind a wall of noise.

I get that and definitely some truth to it. However I love " loud " and I believe some bands can sound fantastic at loud volunes.

Blue

 

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defo never the st moritz club. as has been mentioned, an absolute dive, not advertised anything. we was told well be on at 930 and had 10 mates coming to see us so they turned up at 915 as another band is setting up. I say to soundguy "whats going on"  his reply was "oh weve slotted in another band last minute, your on at 1030 now". he then had the cheek to cut our set early as he said we ran over time 

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