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Beginning of the end?


Al Krow

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I just turned down a well paid gig.

Suggested to my bandmates that they offer it to our dep instead.

We've got a few mid-week function bookings coming up - I just turned down one in Reading mid-week in a few week's time. It would have been 5 to 6 hours of travel there and back plus 2 hours of setting up / putting away and 45 mins of loading / unloading the car. And that's on top of the gig itself and they want to make use of the PA for some party set lists in between so another 3 to 4 hours at the venue. It's a decent pay day at £175 per head, but 9 or so hours faff for 2 hours of actual playing on a school night? Ugh! 

I absolutely love playing and can happily put up with a few hours travel / setting up but this doesn't appeal at all. The dep lives in NW London so will be an hour or so each way travel for her and I don't have to deny my bandmates the opportunity of a gig.

Slippery slope / beginning of the end? Would you have done the gig?

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10 minutes ago, FinnDave said:

I refuse to play in Reading these days - impossible to park and 'bus lanes' everywhere with cameras all over the place. Whatever you make on the gig is likely to be taken away by traffic infringement fines. 

Yeah we got stung with 5 x £60 = £300 (!!) of parking fines at Wembley BoxPark over two gigs. Managed to get them all waived on appeal fortunately, although the non driving band members were pushing back on the fines coming out of the gig monies...quickly changed their tunes when we said we'd get Ubers going forward then! 

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6 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Yeah we got stung with 5 x £60 = £300 (!!) of parking fines at Wembley BoxPark over two gigs. Managed to get them all waived on appeal fortunately, although the non driving band members were pushing back on the fines coming out of the gig monies...quickly changed their tunes when we said we'd get Ubers going forward then! 

I got the same thing from Boxpark Wembley, bastards! Got mine waived too thankfully :)

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8 minutes ago, krispn said:

In what sense?

Well I wouldn't have really dreamt of turning down gigs before.

Tbf I'm the last band member we've found a 'regular' dep for but having finally done so (I guess there had been no need previously as I've not missed any of our gigs, or if I had we simply hadn't done them). But this is the second "not sure I can make that one, guys" in two months. The previous was in the Isle of Wight, which would have written off two full days, albeit for an even better payout. But my dep is a pro, half my age, and more than happy to take on well paid gigs, so it kinda feels like a win win. She also sings (which I don't), has a PA (which the band have relied on me to provide) and drives, so basically I've written my own P45...😁

Edited by Al Krow
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A bit dramatic no? If the rest of the band 'need' to take gigs which are three hours away and you don't and there's a dep willing then that's cool.Win win as someone said. Not everyone can do every gig and if it's circumstance (working/holidays/ not worth the 10 hours for a two hour gig on a Tuesday then I'd not worry.

 

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Sometimes the time away doesn`t justify the pay.

Earlier this year, we were asked to do a small festival in Fraserburgh as someone had let them down with little notice. We had played there last year and got £500 and free lodgings as it`s a 4 hour drive away. This time due to a budget problem (no cash!) they wanted us to do it for £250!

I was the only one to knock it back and luckily we don`t have deps so we didn`t do the gig but the rest were all for it which made no sense as the week before we knocked back a gig in Stranraer, 2 hours away for £300!

Sometimes it just doesnt make sense either time wise or money wise to do a gig. So I`m with you all the way Al.

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1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

I just turned down a well paid gig.

Suggested to my bandmates that they offer it to our dep instead.

We've got a few mid-week function bookings coming up - I just turned down one in Reading mid-week in a few week's time. It would have been 5 to 6 hours of travel there and back plus 2 hours of setting up / putting away and 45 mins of loading / unloading the car. And that's on top of the gig itself and they want to make use of the PA for some party set lists in between so another 3 to 4 hours at the venue. It's a decent pay day at £175 per head, but 9 or so hours faff for 2 hours of actual playing on a school night? Ugh! 

I absolutely love playing and can happily put up with a few hours travel / setting up but this doesn't appeal at all. The dep lives in NW London so will be an hour or so each way travel for her and I don't have to deny my bandmates the opportunity of a gig.

Slippery slope / beginning of the end? Would you have done the gig?

 

Nah, you're just getting more... discerning ;)

The cash is attractive. That's one nice pedal there, or half of a very interesting one 😛 but... it sounds like a lot of *work* for little fun, so I think I'd pass too if I could use a dep.

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If it’s originals you’re signing your own marching orders - but as far as I’m aware Al you’re doing covers where Dep stuff is the norm.

Just make sure you offer more to the band than the Dep and your gig is safe.

Generally my attitude within bands is what lets me down. And that’s why covers never work for me. I do a lot of the writing for our lot and as much as they hate me, they’re stuck with me 😉

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2 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Well I wouldn't have really dreamt of turning down gigs before.

Tbf I'm the last band member we've found a 'regular' dep for but having finally done so (I guess there had been no need previously as I've not missed any of our gigs, or if I had we simply hadn't done them). But this is the second "not sure I can make that one, guys" in two months. The previous was in the Isle of Wight, which would have written off two full days, albeit for an even better payout. But my dep is a pro, half my age, and more than happy to take on well paid gigs, so it kinda feels like a win win. She also sings (which I don't), has a PA (which the band have relied on me to provide) and drives, so basically I've written my own P45...😁

Where was that one? Holiday Park? I could've put you up! 

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26 minutes ago, M@23 said:

Where was that one? Holiday Park? I could've put you up! 

Yeah I did think of you Mark - and that would have been most kind. But losing Friday and Saturday to travel for 2 x 45 sets even though it was very well paid just didn't appeal. I think it was at one of the hotels - some annual dinner thing.

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11 hours ago, AndyTravis said:

If it’s originals you’re signing your own marching orders - but as far as I’m aware Al you’re doing covers where Dep stuff is the norm.

Just make sure you offer more to the band than the Dep and your gig is safe.

Generally my attitude within bands is what lets me down. And that’s why covers never work for me. I do a lot of the writing for our lot and as much as they hate me, they’re stuck with me 😉

Well it's an interesting one Andy - I'm a founder member of my main covers band and it's got to a stage where we're getting regular and well paid bookings with three of the five band members connected up either to agents or other contacts. None of the main line up have left in the last 3 years, so it's a pretty stable crew. We've only had a bass dep in for a couple of months. She's actually not been playing bass that long (3 years) but she is a full time musician and whilst I'd consider myself the better bass player having heard her, the band almost certainly won't notice (lol!), and she does have a lot to offer.

But now that I have the chance to step back, I'm kinda making the most of it! I hate driving across central London in rush hour at 4mph and I will be putting my foot down (obviously not while driving at 4mph) and getting an Uber or offer for them to dep me going forward for gigs on the other side of London, certainly for mid week gigs. These should be are easy for the dep to get to as she's in a different part of London to me. If it means my band mates avoiding Uber fares I suspect they'll be tempted to go with the dep for those. So it could well be the start of a slippery slope.

Edited by Al Krow
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6 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Well I wouldn't have really dreamt of turning down gigs before.

Having your (full-time musician) dep do the Reading gig sounds like a win for everyone.  I'm perhaps in a similar position in that I work full time in an office and generally don't want to do mid-week function gigs.  Really, the best thing I ever did in terms of my life balance was learning to turn down gigs!

Edited by jrixn1
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I used to be a pro bass player and would take any job I was offered.

But I ended up having to get a proper job to pay the bills.

I've had to cancel my participation in tours with my band, twice, because of work commitments.

The second time it happened, my band were backing a well respected blues singer from the USA, and I was gutted, because I was really looking forward to it.

In the end he turned out to be a total curmudgeonly, old, cnut, so I'm glad I body swerved that one :)

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