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Not as question to ask of ladies but..


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While it's not a question you're not meant to ask ladies, it doesn't really matter viz blokes 😁, so, Covid-19 restrictions notwithstanding, who's gigged at the age of 55 plus?  If yes you have, what's the general profile of the crowds you play to? I ask this as I miss gigging but as I've now pushed past 50 I'm deciding whether to persevere or knock any notion of ever playing live again on the head.

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Less now, but I passed 70 last year, and we're planning an open-air (free...) gig for end of May. Demographic of our 'fan base'..? Anyone that wants a decent night out listening to our repertoire, which is quite varied..! All ages, mixed gender, mostly French (but we don't ask for identity anyway, so could be anyone...).
We have a couple of mini-festivals and bars that invite us to play occasionally, so it's whoever happens to be there that evening. We play for our pleasure, and don't 'target' anything, really. We just want everyone, including ourselves, to have a good evening, s'all.
Age..? I can't see it mattering much, and 50-odd is no age at all. :friends:

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pre-Covid there tended be a more mature crowd at the start of the set, so we would do more of the 60's/70's stuff. Towards the end of the night the age range tended to be younger, so we would do some of the more modern stuff.

But finishing with Johnny B. Goode, was pretty much guaranteed to get all ages  dancing.

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I'm now in my 60s. I currently play in 2 post-punk/goth influenced bands, one with a reasonably long pedigree and the other fairly new although both bands have members who are "known" on the scene from their musical endeavours. I'm the oldest in both bands although my age has never been an issue. Before that I was in The Terrortones (Garage Rock/Pyschobilly) from just before my 50th birthday until I was 56. The rest of the band (we had many guitarists and drummers over those 7 years) varied in age from about 10 years younger than me to being in their late teens. Again age was never an issue.

As for audiences give that all the bands mentioned have their musical roots in the 80s and earlier the ages of the audiences were extremely varied, although there are a fair number of people around the same age as me who come to the gigs, and apart from those who were on the scene "back in the day" there really is no set demographic. There are/were in all cases a healthy number of people in their 20s who come to see the bands.

As others have said, it does very much depend on the type of music played and the overall age range of the rest of the band. IME for originals bands in particular there are no hard and fast rules on audience ages.

EDIT: One of the bands had a large number of high-profile gigs including a European support tour booked for last year before the pandemic wiped all of that out. The UK gigs are slowly getting re-organised - we have revised dates from October this year onwards. However the tour has become a victim of Brexit regulations and although the tour will probably be going ahead we won't be the support band.

Edited by BigRedX
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Last gig was  in between lockdowns last year, me then aged 65. Demographic with this Americana Band was anyone who wanted to escape from their 4 walls!  Earlier last year was just before lockdown with arranged jam band, audience more mature as venue and demogrphic from the small town is quite a lot of retired couples, but not exclusively. Dunno if I'll do any gigs aged 66 this year however...

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Well, I have never gigged past 55, as I reached 55 in may of last year and we were locked down. But I gigged a lot at 54 and hope to gig a lot at 56.

The audience is whatever, generally speaking 20 - 60, depending on where you are playing. We don't do many 'oldie' things, apart from one place, but it is the general crowd of the night time. We also don't seemed to get booked for many kids paries, although we did a charity thing for a religious school locally (where unfortunately I we connected the drummers mic before mentioning it to him, he has a bit of a potty mouth) - good gig, opened with highway to hell.

I don't see age as that relevant if you are just doing local circuits. Obviously if you want to do young teen pop group you might have missed the boat.

 

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I started playing guitar when I was 10, bass guitar when I was 15, I'm now 66 and have no plans to stop. I play in a Prog band and also a Jazz quartet and over the years have also been in a Country band plus various Rock/Pop/Funk/Soul covers and originals bands. Gig-wise I have a Prog gig still due to go ahead in July, a couple of possible Jazz gigs (tbc) and a one-off wedding gig in August. Audience ages tend to be across the board though I can probably measure ages at the end of a gig as much by who's still standing (or even awake!). :) 

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5 hours ago, Barking Spiders said:

I ask this as I miss gigging but as I've now pushed past 50 ...

Bwahahahahahaaaaaaa!!!

I picked up a bass guitar for the first time in my life on my 49th birthday. I started gigging at 51 and that was 13 years ago. I have no plans to stop any time soon.

I play any style of music that will have me (always excluding any form of metal, and anything that ain't really music, like rap and sampled R&B). I've played country to people suffering from cerebral palsy and Dad-rock to teenagers, singer/songwriter stuff to hipsters and rockabilly to afficianadoes. 

Any way the wind blows, doesn't really matter to me. 

To me.

 

 

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From age 48 to 54 was the most intensive gigging period of my life, in an originals band, including my first experience of overseas tours and festivals. Fairly lucky in that the punk/Oi scene is largely made up of people of a similar age. So don’t let age be a barrier.

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You chose an interesting age threshold , as the first lockdown happened a week or so before my 55th Birthday (It's tomorrow if anyone cares!).

I missed my first gig with my new band and a few in the diary for my continuing band.

We are punk/new wave and normally play to people are own age. Our drummer is much younger and sometimes we get some of his crowd along. And his mum/dad!

Our guitarist gets us gigs at beer festivals where there is a more mixed age range. We normally go down OK, but best with the oldies!

 

I fully intend to gig after 55 though.

 

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In both of of my bands I'm considered a mere slip of a boy at 48. All members of both bands are roughly ten years older than me. 

One band plays Mod, Northern Soul & Ska and play to audiences from that scene, so generally around the age that the late 70s/early 80s revival scene was relevant to them, some older from the original 60s era but plenty that are younger. 

The other band is amped up acoustic covers of pop songs done our own way. We happily play Dua Lipa, Girls Aloud, Britney Spears, Katy Perry, etc to a 20s to 70s age range. We also play an assortment from any era but the above shows if 60 year olds can play 'girl group pop' to young audience members then anything goes. 

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I only learned bass at the age of 53, so pretty much all my gigging career has been post 55. The first band I was in were all in their 30's, so punters tended to be similar age or younger (we mostly did 90's/00's covers) I never felt out of place being 20 years older. You can get away with a lot in dim lighting, haha! 

But when I started playing more classic rock and blues the bands and the audience aged accordingly. Although having said that, there are a fair few younger people who enjoy playing and watching it as well 

I remember talking to a young bloke (20's) one time who said he had heard us play 'The Weight' and really enjoyed it. He hasn't heard it before and it had inspired him to look up more of The Band's back catalogue. I like to think we provide an education, haha.

I'd love to get back gigging again if the opportunity arises, although I fear that one of my bands will not survive this period of inactivity. The leader of my other band (who's well into his sixties) is keen to get going asap, so here's hoping!

Edited by seashell
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5 hours ago, geoffbyrne said:

Last time I gigged I was 73, a year ago.  I'll keep going as long as I can.

G.

I'll be 75 in May, last gig was a year ago due to Covid shutdown. I've been gigging for about 60 years and the two bands I'm in now are a jazz standards quartet and a seven piece band that plays swing and a set of Dixieland and between the two we do 2-5 gigs a month and two rehearsals a week. I play double bass and switch to tenor banjo for the Dixie.

As you have probably guessed most of our audiences are of a certain age(old!) but we do have some younger fans as well.

We had some work booked for this year  but basically no live music here now at all and no info re when things might open up. At my age I want to play for a good while yet and am very anxious to get back to rehearsing and gigging.

Edited by Staggering on
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73 this July. 1st picked up a bass at 50. Retired as a weekend warrior at 65 from a 50s/60s/70s cover band.

I now help run the Quarry Bank Music Club at the community centre with the remnants of the band. Club members are all ages though mostly has-beens amongst a few wannabes. We have been zooming since Feb 2020. Club members perform locally and have done local charity gigs. Some would regularly entertain around the old folks homes in the Black Country. The youngsters just starting out get encouragement and advice from us oldies.

People come and go but in the main it serves as a focal point and keeps folk in touch providing valued friendship and a bit of fun for many of us in our dotage. Most are lovely people from the local amateur music circuit which we can't wait to get up and running again hopefully later this year. 

At 65 I joined a Jazz quartet + female singer. Practice once a week before lockdown. Not a busy band regarding gigs. Audiences can be all ages at clubs, pubs, functions, fetes, etc. 

As an amateur I enjoy my music more than ever. 

Edited by grandad
sense
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