Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

Who on here is make a living out of gigging


Guest BassAdder27

Recommended Posts

  • Guest changed the title to Who on here is make a living out of gigging

In moving to France, for some years my sole income was from playing drums, in a variety band, depping and functions. Then I married, bought a (ruined...) cottage and got a real job (technicien in a music shop...). I kept on with the gigs, but now had a salary as well. Happy daze. B|

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not me. That said, we're all in our 50's and despite me and our drummer being retired were so busy were turn a helluva lot of gigs down due to availability (t we urned down two offers between 8 and 9pm last night alone). 

 

That being the case, I reckon I could earn a living at if availability weren't an issue. The demand if there. It wouldn't be the living i earned when I was working, but I reckon I could average North of the minimum wage for a notional 40 hour week.

 

Conversely, I wouldn't want to - it only takes a pandemic to kick you in the balls.

 

 

Edited by Bassfinger
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In my 20s I was living in London on a graduate salary which just about covered the essentials and debt repayment I did quite a lot of depping and function band work which essentially paid for having my lifestyle. From my 30s i did less and less partly as I was then on a decent salary and partly because I became more picky about what gigs I did.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Making a decent living must be pretty tough, but I have met a couple of people over the years who make it work. 
 

Finding decent paid gigs must be the big challenge unless you are part of a touring act. I used to pick up around £200-£300 for wedding gigs but I’d need to be doing at least 8 of those a month to come close.

 

My oldest friend has been full time for over ten years now and he makes a very good living from recording library music for tv/radio and doing scoring and sessions, so it is possible. He does absolutely no live stuff.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm currently not gigging, but yes, certainly pre-covid I was earning a considerable percentage of my income from performing. Currently my focus is in teaching and producing video and written content freelance for two major bass mags. I'll be back on the gigging horse when I get a new band together.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used to, along with studio work. Sometimes it was a bit stressful if there were lean times, but I’d got into the habit of putting earnings away to tide myself over.

 

The pandemic saw off all my 2020 live work, then emigration and health issues seem to finished off my gigging for good. Never say never and all that, but I’d be surprised if I got back into it again now. But from 1984 till xmas 2019 wasn’t a bad run, and I reckon I was pretty lucky to have fluked it for as long as I did. 

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd hate to turn gigging into a job, it would definitely suck the fun out of it for me.  The band I'm currently in is the the most active band I've been in for years; it manages to cover all my gigging expenses and GAS and that's good enough for me.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

I've been in a band where the money we made from gigging, selling merch and performance royalties pretty much covered all the running costs of the band. That's the best I've been ablate do in 45+ years of playing in bands.

Same here, everything went back into the band so we never made any money, but this way the band paid for all hotels/flights/ferries/recordings/new merch etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do enough gigs to make the 'hobby' pay for itself, and have decent gear and great memories as a result. I've always done band stuff in parallel with a full time job.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

I've never gigged with making a living out of it in mind, nor would I ever want to.

It's an enjoyable hobby which has the added bonus of generating some GAS funds.

This ☝🏻

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...