#11

True that, and doubt it will ever change. Venues are under pressure too of course.

Personally, we don’t have an audience, so getting anything, to play in our home town, whilst bringing no one, but having a great time always seems like a good deal to me.

#13

True, and if anything, the amount for supports etc has gone down (even aside from inflation) - more of an expectation that you’re lucky to be on the bill, or that we need to cover the costs of the main band but we’ll try and give you some petrol costs. The worst being when a promoter just pockets it. Its fucking bullshit - i’ve really noticed it over the past few years. Of course there are still good diy promoters doing it right, but many many who aren’t.

Seems to be a lot of promoters who think DIY gigs are a way fo making money.

#14

A friend of a friend told me about a reputable promoter who was putting on a very reputable performer in a venue with a capacity of about 1,700. It sold out well ahead of time with the cheapest tickets selling at £35. They put on a local support act who were paid £10.

A tenner. I mean, that just seems insulting.

#15

Was in a band that did weddings every now and then. One really posh one where we got £500 each plus as much as we could eat and drink and a hotel room for the night. Plus loads of posh boys and girls throwing themselves at us all day/night. Was a lot of work - played background jazz for 2 hours during canapes and then 2x 1.5hr sets in the evening, but was v cool.

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#16

I’d like to do this if there was a way for it to happen without posh people being there

#17

Any money we ever make from either gigs, album sales or syncs etc either covers costs or goes straight back into the band so it can self sustain itself. We’ve never once used any of this to take home for ourselves which is what I assume the majority of bands at our level do. It will either fund our next record or our next tour so it all goes straight back into the industry, it makes sense for smaller bands to be paid more than they currently do.

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#18

they were alright as far as poshos go. don’t think you end up booking a band like ours if you want a standard posho wedding. Some things were pretty cringeworthy tho - eg each of the tables at dinner was named after a stage at Glastonbury

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#19

:grimacing:

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#21

even more cringeworthy was the fact that the head table was the Other Stage instead of the Pyramid Stage.

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#22

:’D

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#23

A couple of years ago I offered to form a scratch band to play at my friends’ wedding. They were on a tight budget and had essentially run out of money for the wedding reception.

I formed a pretty decent covers band with a few friends of mine. I specifically learnt a bunch of songs that they’d requested especially, many of which were quite technically complicated. I put in hours of practice getting the band together, rehearsing, setting up on the day, getting home in the early hours of the morning. And it went down really well: lots of dancing, lots of positive comments, everyone seemed happy.

Anyway, the reward we got was a thank-you card. No money, no token gift voucher or anything. I’m not sure why this irked me so much - after all, I had offered to be their evening entertainment and hadn’t asked for anything in return. I guess it would have just been nice to receive some token of thanks more than a fairly brief card a few weeks later.

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#24

m9, I would have completely flipped.

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#25

amps in the fucking river angry

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#26

I genuinely don’t think they had any insight into how much work it took me. Essentially I formed a band and performed for about two hours (plus doing all of the songs and hymns at their wedding) for almost nothing.

I didn’t say anything to them as I hadn’t asked for any money up-front and so they were perfectly within their rights. But they’re lucky I’m such a doormat so accommodating.

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#27

We played four gigs and made enough to cover about five of our practice sessions (maybe £120 total.)

#28

You remain one of the true heroes of DiS! :joy::+1:

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#29

they ran out of money though. Bit heartless to be mad at them I think

#30

Surely the Pyramid Stage table was occupied by the couple’s grandparents and other ageing relatives, in order to stick to the theme accurately.

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#31

I’d say you could very easily do some mildly posh weddings if you learned a load of carpenters, Coldplay and Mumford and sons tunes on guitar and sang with your nice voice.

Cash money, my dude

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#32

One that sticks out: when I was 15/16 my band agreed to play a gig for a church garden party near Seaburn, on the same weekend as the Sunderland Airshow. They were taking donations on the door to cover our costs, but because our set time was due to be right in the middle of the show we didn’t expect a huge crowd so said the church could keep everything after our petrol and train fares were covered (about £30-40 in total).

Airshow ended up being cancelled at the last-minute and a few hundred people descended on the tent we were playing in. The church ended up with hundreds of pounds in donations and thanked us very much for being so generous :frowning:

Opposite end of the scale: another band I was in played in Bristol a few years ago, all we were offered was a bowl of noodles each and something like £10 in pound coins. We’d driven all the way from Sheffield, fuck that.

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