Pubs charging when bands on

[Classic Rock]

Originally posted by carcrash

.

With the classic rock bar going it has left a big hole in the Sheffield gigging scene.

 

Going, but hopefully not for too long....!

[MuteWitness]

classic rock bar never charged to get in, the band is what attracts people and the pubs normally are making money from the people the band have attracted, so why should theband have to pay to play at pubs?

[THCAyle]

the good thing about the grapes is the gigs are upstairs so you can still sit downstairs n just have a drink without having to pay to get in

[Monroe]

Hey thanks guys. Don't mind paying the £3 - it's neither here nor there really - did't realise all the equipment is so expensive tho. Carcrash, let me know when you're putting a band on, i'd love to come down to see them, can't beat live music! xxx

[muddycoffee]

Here's a story of the life of a PA man, for anybody who's interested.

 

for about 4 years I operated a portable band pa system and had several residences a week. It was a 1kw main pa with lots of mics and monitors, lights and smoke machine, and I used to do one off gigs for £100- £120 and weekly residencys for £60 appx.

Out of this I paid my assistant 1/3rd of the fee and I had 1/3 and 1/3 went to pay for equipment. Boy was it hard work.

 

After 2 years I had paid for the equipment, which cost about £3000. Soon after I packed it in because It was too hard with a normal day job as well and my health was starting to suffer. Especially my hearing!

 

What you may not realise is that you have to be there for the band early so they can have a run through and sound check,

[soundcheck = making the guitars turn down so everyone can hear the singer]

this means at the very latest 7.30pm, takes a very fast 15 minutes to get everything set up, then you put pre gig music on like a dj and possibly do announcements, show starts at 9ish, finishes 11ish, then you have to wait for all the bloody encores and get all the equipment wrapped up and when the crowd has gone get it into the van, then you drive to the lock up and put away the speakers, then you drop the assistant at home, then you get home at 12.30 and take all the wires mics, cd players amps etc. into the house, and finally done at 12. 40.

round about 5 hours work with lots of heavy lifting.

 

I am happy to pay up to £5 for a small gig in a pub room, any less is peanuts. Ideally it should be the price of a pint of guinness, that's my ideal.

[Ousetunes]

My old group spent a lot of money on PA gear and even a huge van to gig around in, but I decided I'd had enough when in 1989 it was obvious that I needed a new drumkit (guess what? I used to be the drummer). I was 20 then, owed nearly £1000 as it was without splashing out another £700 on a new kit. I decided I couldn't afford it and so called it a day (ay, at such a tender age too. But we'd conquered West Street so that was like cracking America!!!!).

 

Actually, I'm still sure it's the staircase at the Hallamshire, West Street that finally put me off. I'm sure half my hands are still on those walls, I suffered terrible knuckle skin loss struggling with gear up and down those steps!

 

And I'm not lying when in some instances, our group would play a gig and end up with £2.50 each for what was, an entire afternoon's effort.

 

These days it's me, my guitars and a small but adequate PA system - when I feel like it!

 

I think muddycoffee's comment that getting into a gig should cost the price of a pint of Guinness sounds very reasonable.

[muddycoffee]

Just thought I'd add how the residencies used to work for money.

 

Pub manager had an entertainment allowance of £120

 

£10 to the promoter, £60 for the PA,

and we always used to get given instructions about how to split the remaining £50 between the 2 or 3 bands. Sometimes the 3rd band would only get £10 which is frankly embarrasing.

[muddycoffee]

Originally posted by Ousetunes

Actually, I'm still sure it's the staircase at the Hallamshire, West Street that finally put me off. I'm sure half my hands are still on those walls, I suffered terrible knuckle skin loss struggling with gear up and down those steps!

for me it was the Speakeasy. under the Abbeydale cinema.. My ****** up mate dropped a huge speaker down the stairs once! Nearly killed himself.

[carcrash]

Whinging promotor time.

The cost of the PA and equiptment does add up. This year up to now I have spent £400 on a new 24 channel xlr input desk. £250 on a 16 channel multicore, £250 on some top end cabs as a couple got nicked by some theiving *****.

I spend £45 for 100 metres of cable from Bardwells and make my own cables as It saves me about 100 quid.

I should hopefully have 2 different PA's set up in the next couple of months so I can do stuff in 2 different venues at the same time

[Tony]

I'm quite happy to pay the £3 to see a band because then at least I know what I am letting myself in for.

 

What I hate is going out for a drink only to have to listen to a band that I didn't pay to see and quite frankly wouldn't pay to see. 'Jazz duo's' are usually the main culprits and it's usually a cue for an early exit.

 

Don't get me onto pub quizzes!