It's "for charity"

[Dan Dare]

1 hour ago, fretmeister said:

on a few occasions I was asked a few massive companies for free shows and clearly those companies were just doing it for the advertising for them and not the charity. That included Tesco and Pizza Hut. Tesco tried to change my mind by offering me a sandwich Meal Deal and some free coffee.

 

Tell me about it. Those donation boxes in Tesco and others, where you are asked to deposit food you've paid for to be given to charity, always annoy me.

 

So Tesco et al get paid full price, including their mark-up, for stuff, which they then pass on to local charities. Do they offer you stuff at cost if you put it in the charity box? Do they say "Thank you to our generous customers" (or even name-check them) when passing on stuff they've sold at full price/a profit? Er, no. So they get extra sales, plus a pat on the back and publicity for their "generosity". Makes you sick.

[martthebass]

3 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

 

I can think of a couple of occasions where that has definitely been the case. On one, we played well, on a decently equipped stage, but the folk sitting around the tables were there for the 'turning to stone' little fellow for whom the event was planned. They had no interest in 'whooping it up' at all. A 'lead ballon' event; they needn't have booked a band at all. 

Maybe we’ve been lucky Doug, but we aren’t a typical covers band.

[SteveXFR]

My band mates used to have a grunge covers band but played the interesting, great songs rather than the popular classics. It didn't go well,  everyone just wanted Smells Like Teen Spirit, Alive, Black Hole Sun and Man In The Box while they were playing Sweet Young Thing by Mudhoney and Greasebox by Tad and Love Buzz by Nirvana. 

This is why I won't do covers. I don't want to play the standard classics.

[Dad3353]

22 minutes ago, martthebass said:

Maybe we’ve been lucky Doug, but we aren’t a typical covers band.

 

Not so sure that we're 'typical', either, or even if that term means much in the French venues we've played. 

[SimonK]

Bizarre to come across this thread this evening as I am weighing up whether to accept a charity gig in February where they are charging £25/head to come in. When I provisionally said yes I wasn't expecting to be asked to pay £25 myself as the email I got this evening has just requested.... hopefully it was a misunderstanding and they had just added me to the list of their attendees and bulk sent...

[Piers_Williamson]

3 hours ago, Dan Dare said:

 

Tell me about it. Those donation boxes in Tesco and others, where you are asked to deposit food you've paid for to be given to charity, always annoy me.

 

So Tesco et al get paid full price, including their mark-up, for stuff, which they then pass on to local charities. Do they offer you stuff at cost if you put it in the charity box? Do they say "Thank you to our generous customers" (or even name-check them) when passing on stuff they've sold at full price/a profit? Er, no. So they get extra sales, plus a pat on the back and publicity for their "generosity". Makes you sick.

Not sticking up for Tesco, or any other particular supermarket, but there is a lot of near date food that gets donated by supermarkets to homeless shelters et al.  You could say that it would go to waste otherwise, but my experience is that much tastier food gets prepared in the shelters as a consequence.

[Misdee]

A few years ago I was in a Tesco supermarket in a fairly typical economically deprived town up north.  Near the entrance amongst the fresh produce they had baskets of free fruit for children to help themselves to.

 

Both parents and children were walking past this generous offer, despite looking exactly like the kind of socially disadvantaged stereotypes this gesture was obviously aimed at. I don't think they knew what fruit was, or if they did it definitely wasn't something they contemplate eating except as a flavour of Haribo.

[MacDaddy]

7 hours ago, neepheid said:

I think it's a free choice, and it's none of my business what any of you choose.  I don't really feel like sharing my personal opinion on this, because someone will likely come along to tell me how wrong I am, as is always the case in threads like this.

 

No, I disagree and think you are wrong about that...

[Dad3353]

3 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

No, I disagree and think you are wrong about that...

 

Not at all; he's right. It's you that's got it wrong. Best offer an apology. 

 

...

 

 

[Sean]

44 minutes ago, Piers_Williamson said:

Not sticking up for Tesco, or any other particular supermarket, but there is a lot of near date food that gets donated by supermarkets to homeless shelters et al.  You could say that it would go to waste otherwise, but my experience is that much tastier food gets prepared in the shelters as a consequence.

Tesco?

Is that the place that used to secretly put horsemeat in its products and not tell the customers? 

 

[Burns-bass]

39 minutes ago, Misdee said:

A few years ago I was in a Tesco supermarket in a fairly typical economically deprived town up north.  Near the entrance amongst the fresh produce they had baskets of free fruit for children to help themselves to.

 

Both parents and children were walking past this generous offer, despite looking exactly like the kind of socially disadvantaged stereotypes this gesture was obviously aimed at. I don't think they knew what fruit was, or if they did it definitely wasn't something they contemplate eating except as a flavour of Haribo.

This sort of post should end up on the dustbin. You should be ashamed of stuff like this. 

[Misdee]

3 hours ago, Burns-bass said:

This sort of post should end up on the dustbin. You should be ashamed of stuff like this. 

 Why's that then? Because you want to pretend that situation didn't happen and people like that don't exist? It did, they do, and there's lots of them. I make no apologies for noticing. 

 

Don't take it out on me just because it doesn't fit with what you like to think certain people are like, or your patronising ideas of how they should be portrayed. You should bin your own self-righteous indignation and virtue signalling.

 

 

 

 

[SteveXFR]

Thats not just what would happen in relatively poor northern towns. Here in this middle class south West town the same would happen except little Jemima and Sebastian will be expecting Percy Pigs instead of Haribo. 

[Ben Jamin]

Right.

 

I work with our local Foodbank and Community Grocery (pay a few quid for a week's worth of food and toiletries etc).

 

First of all, if folk are wandering past free fruit, it's about dignity, not a preference for haribo. A lot of people feel ashamed to take free help, especially publicly. This is why the Community Grocery model has worked really well, alongside Foodbanks, as people have the dignity of paying a small amount.

 

Almost all of the food and supplies for the Community Grocery is donated by supermarkets.

 

Supermarkets also sponsor and make regular large donations of food to Foodbanks, which also saves a lot of food going to waste.

 

They leave baskets out at their stores to make it easier for you to donate food too, if you'd like to. I don't understand why anyone would be angry about that.

 

Frankly this is a problem that shouldn't exist. More people need and use these services then you would think, or stereotype.

 

On the wider issue of charity events, it's not a gig for you, it's a fundraiser. That's the whole point. Don't expect to be paid, but donate your time if you support their cause. Or don't. It's pretty simple.

Edited 3 hours ago by Ben Jamin

[Beedster]

54 minutes ago, Ben Jamin said:

Right.

 

I work with our local Foodbank and Community Grocery (pay a few quid for a week's worth of food and toiletries etc).

 

First of all, if folk are wandering past free fruit, it's about dignity, not a preference for haribo. A lot of people feel ashamed to take free help, especially publicly. This is why the Community Grocery model has worked really well, alongside Foodbanks, as people have the dignity of paying a small amount.

 

Almost all of the food and supplies for the Community Grocery is donated by supermarkets.

 

Supermarkets also sponsor and make regular large donations of food to Foodbanks, which also saves a lot of food going to waste.

 

They leave baskets out at their stores to make it easier for you to donate food too, if you'd like to. I don't understand why anyone would be angry about that.

 

Frankly this is a problem that shouldn't exist. More people need and use these services then you would think, or stereotype.

 

On the wider issue of charity events, it's not a gig for you, it's a fundraiser. That's the whole point. Don't expect to be paid, but donate your time if you support their cause. Or don't. It's pretty simple.

Very good post in every respect Ben, thanks 🙏

[Jakester]

1 hour ago, Ben Jamin said:

On the wider issue of charity events, it's not a gig for you, it's a fundraiser. That's the whole point. Don't expect to be paid, but donate your time if you support their cause. Or don't. It's pretty simple.

 

I love your post, thanks for posting Ben. 

 

I did just want to draw a distinction in relation to your last sentence, however (and I suspect that distinction could be part of the reason this keeps coming up and is such a contentious issue). 

 

At least round here, there are some pubs that call bands, saying they're putting on a 'charity' gig; but very often, the identity of the charity isn't entirely clear, what happens to the proceeds isn't clear, and realistically the only person benefitting from others' charity is the landlord. It's incredibly unscrupulous but happens quite often. My view is that if the organiser can't immediately say a) who the charity is and b) if not the entirety of money made, what proportion of the money is going to charity, then it's probably one of those. I/we turn those down flat. 

 

Conversely, as you say, if it's all above board, and you want to support the charity, you do so by playing. Or not if you don't. 

[Misdee]

1 hour ago, Ben Jamin said:

Right.

 

I work with our local Foodbank and Community Grocery (pay a few quid for a week's worth of food and toiletries etc).

 

First of all, if folk are wandering past free fruit, it's about dignity, not a preference for haribo. A lot of people feel ashamed to take free help, especially publicly. This is why the Community Grocery model has worked really well, alongside Foodbanks, as people have the dignity of paying a small amount.

 

Almost all of the food and supplies for the Community Grocery is donated by supermarkets.

 

Supermarkets also sponsor and make regular large donations of food to Foodbanks, which also saves a lot of food going to waste.

 

They leave baskets out at their stores to make it easier for you to donate food too, if you'd like to. I don't understand why anyone would be angry about that.

 

Frankly this is a problem that shouldn't exist.

 

On the wider issue of charity events, it's not a gig for you, it's a fundraiser. That's the whole point. Don't expect to be paid, but donate your time if you support their cause. Or don't. It's pretty simple.

I agree with a lot of what you have to say, but in my instance  I would venture that people weren't wandering past free fruit to  preserve their pride or dignity. It was more because they didn't equate fresh fruit with something they would want to eat as a snack.

 

Distinct groups in society have different priorities and preferences when it comes to food. It doesn't necessarily come down to money and what people can afford, either, although that's part of it. It's more about what people think is important, and why. 

 

And on the subject of charity and food banks, yes they shouldn't exist. The fact that they are increasingly necessary and have become an accepted part of normal life in this country is a phenomena I never expected to see in this day and age. It's part of a wider trend to blame poor and unfortunate people for their own predicament, and the revival of Victorian ideas distinguishing between  the deserving and undeserving poor.

Edited 2 hours ago by Misdee

[neepheid]

I'm pretty sure even my privileged and well enough off self doesn't eat enough fruit.

[Kev]

For me the charity gig rule is really simple.  MORE than happy to donate my time for free to raise money, but absolutely on the basis that the bar staff, sound engineers, promoters and doormen are all also donating their time, with all food and drink profits also going to the charity.  If my band performing is helping fund wages for them rather than the charity in question, I'm not interested.  I daresay in the vast majority of situations, bands are working at a much greater loss than any of the other staff would be.

[Burns-bass]

8 hours ago, Misdee said:

 Why's that then? Because you want to pretend that situation didn't happen and people like that don't exist? It did, they do, and there's lots of them. I make no apologies for noticing. 

 

Don't take it out on me just because it doesn't fit with what you like to think certain people are like, or your patronising ideas of how they should be portrayed. You should bin your own self-righteous indignation and virtue signalling.

 

 

 

 

Because you’re peddling stereotypes with no evidence to support your assertions.

 

It’s sad, lazy and pathetic and as an adult you should know better.

 

It wasn’t even funny.
 

You can sit there and poke fun at the stupid impoverished Northerner, but it says a huge amount about who you are and your value system.

[Ben Jamin]

25 minutes ago, Jakester said:

At least round here, there are some pubs that call bands, saying they're putting on a 'charity' gig; but very often, the identity of the charity isn't entirely clear, what happens to the proceeds isn't clear, and realistically the only person benefitting from others' charity is the landlord. It's incredibly unscrupulous but happens quite often. My view is that if the organiser can't immediately say a) who the charity is and b) if not the entirety of money made, what proportion of the money is going to charity, then it's probably one of those. I/we turn those down flat. 

 

Conversely, as you say, if it's all above board, and you want to support the charity, you do so by playing. Or not if you don't. 

Ah okay, thanks that helps me see what's going on, that is unscrupulous! Using the term 'charity' in bad faith is pretty low, and that should be 100% called out!

 

[Misdee]

15 minutes ago, neepheid said:

I'm pretty sure even my privileged and well enough off self doesn't eat enough fruit.

I've  known plenty of people for whom eating fruit is something between taking an unpleasant medicine and a punishment.

 

 What I will say is that fruit is expensive. Good quality fruit is very expensive. 

[martthebass]

Maybe a move back to the original topic of 'playing for charity' which was both useful and informative......

[Sean]

1 minute ago, Misdee said:

I've  known plenty of people for whom eating fruit is something between taking an unpleasant medicine and a punishment.

 

 What I will say is that fruit is expensive. Good quality fruit is very expensive. 

We grow our own apples, pears, plums, strawberries, rasberries and gooseberries and we also go blackberry picking. Most of it gets preserved as chutneys, relishes and jam except the strawberries which get eaten immediately. Other than that I don't think we ever buy or eat commercially available fruit. 

[Misdee]

1 hour ago, Burns-bass said:

Because you’re peddling stereotypes with no evidence to support your assertions.

 

It’s sad, lazy and pathetic and as an adult you should know better.

 

It wasn’t even funny.
 

You can sit there and poke fun at the stupid impoverished Northerner, but it says a huge amount about who you are and your value system.

You're at it again aren't you? Lecturing me on how to be an adult and telling me off for not fitting in with your world-view. Value system? I don't have one. Not least of all because neither know or care what one is.

 

I'm not pedalling stereotypes, I'm telling you what happened. Evidence to support my assertions? Should I have filmed it on my phone and then conducted interviews with those concerned? I was doing my shopping, not making a feature for Newsnight. 

 

And as for Northern stereotypes, I am a Northerner, born and bred. I come from  generations of Northerners. That's why I know what I'm looking at when I see it. I don't take lectures from the likes of you on being Northern.

Edited 38 minutes ago by Misdee