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Author Topic: Gigs - how much do yet get paid ?  (Read 63220 times)

Twinfan

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Re: Gigs - how much do yet get paid ?
« Reply #15 on: May 13, 2012, 07:31:20 PM »
I played with lots of unbelievable musicians, many of them very good friends. But the people that hire wedding and function bands, as a general rule, want you to play rubbish music.

I find they want to hear popular music they can sing along with or dance to!  :)

nfe

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Re: Gigs - how much do yet get paid ?
« Reply #16 on: May 13, 2012, 08:56:38 PM »
They always want to hear Wonderful Tonight and Just Wanna Dance The Night Away. Well, the folks that are game for paying £1200+ do.

I mean Just Wanna Dance The Night Away. What's wrong with people? Five minutes of E and A and a rubbish solo and stupid horns. Weirdos.

tomjackson

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Re: Gigs - how much do yet get paid ?
« Reply #17 on: May 13, 2012, 10:05:42 PM »

I got £20 for the last gig, and 2 beers.  We did a few covers but mainly original.
That's the downside of playing in a 10 piece band.

I'd play anything anybody asked me to for £1200.  Even Abba.  Mustang Sally is painful to play though, but I would.

I think playing covers can really open new doors with your playing, especially the more popular show tunes and Jazz standards.  Even Beatles, I know lots of folk hate them but it always surprises me learning some Beatles songs how many interesting chords and time signatures they used.  I really don't like Abba but doing a cover once it was an eye opener the complexity of the music.

I like doing original stuff mostly but I'm currently building a repertoire to do solo acoustic cover gigs, no singing just the full tunes fingerstyle so I can do weddings etc.  I'm enjoying this more than playing covers with a band tbh.

Twinfan

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Re: Gigs - how much do yet get paid ?
« Reply #18 on: May 13, 2012, 10:20:54 PM »
I really don't like Abba but doing a cover once it was an eye opener the complexity of the music.

Agreed - clever guys, and the best pop group ever because of it.  Unlike you Tom I really like them - they're my guilty pleasure  :oops:

nfe

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Re: Gigs - how much do yet get paid ?
« Reply #19 on: May 13, 2012, 10:26:58 PM »
I bloody love ABBA. And there's nowt guilty about it.

tomjackson

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Re: Gigs - how much do yet get paid ?
« Reply #20 on: May 13, 2012, 11:54:43 PM »


Best pop group ever????

Each to their own fellas!!!

Bob Gnarly

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Re: Gigs - how much do yet get paid ?
« Reply #21 on: May 14, 2012, 12:10:50 AM »
Each to their own fellas!!!
What a difference a comma, or lack of one, makes.

itamar101

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Re: Gigs - how much do yet get paid ?
« Reply #22 on: May 14, 2012, 04:14:10 AM »
Each to their own fellas!!!
What a difference a comma, or lack of one, makes.


Lol.

hunter

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Re: Gigs - how much do yet get paid ?
« Reply #23 on: May 14, 2012, 08:08:00 AM »
Better don't do it for the money.

Once I bought an amp of a guy who has been in a pro top40 band for 20 years, it was his job plus giving guitar lessons, he was 40 and living with his parents, looked tired and exhausted. They did mainly weddings and stuff. He was a GIT graduate. It made me sad.
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AndyR

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Re: Gigs - how much do yet get paid ?
« Reply #24 on: May 14, 2012, 11:24:13 AM »
Paid? You're lucky if you see anything *at all* in Oxford.

That's cos...
...oh, I haven't got the heart, I can't do it! :lol: (beatles songs/telecasters/traffic wardens/mashed potato, delete as appropriate)


Seriously though, it's years since I played out, and apart from the Roo and Toe Knee stories, it sounds like there's a lot more money to be had nowadays!

It always was "covers get you more money". You had to be decent at doing them though. Like TF says, folks paying money want music that they or their punters know and can dance/snog/whatever to. The folks who liked and supported the home-grown-material bands I was in always wanted to get in on the guest-list, the venues/promoters know this.

Even if it isn't for us, it's a business for the guys trying to run music in a pub/club.

And on "covers/cover-gigs are rubbish", it is all of course personal taste in music, but they're far from rubbish for most people. If you're playing out, you're in the entertainment industry - you need to be entertaining or you won't get the work or paid much for it. In the right venue with the right audience, a decent cover band is a mighty powerful and enjoyable night out - at least you know they'll be playing decent songs!! :lol:
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tomjackson

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Re: Gigs - how much do yet get paid ?
« Reply #25 on: May 14, 2012, 11:38:09 AM »
Each to their own fellas!!!
What a difference a comma, or lack of one, makes.


We are talking about Abba fans, no comma required :D

MrBump

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Re: Gigs - how much do yet get paid ?
« Reply #26 on: May 14, 2012, 12:40:39 PM »
I HATE ABBA.  I was actually in an ABBA covers band, and I agree re the complexity of the music.

But I do feel physically ill when I hear their songs.

When I was gigging with the Poets, we never got paid, or maybe 20-50 quid between the 4 of us.  An originals band with no real following to speak of, I think that we were lucky just to play.
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AndyR

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Re: Gigs - how much do yet get paid ?
« Reply #27 on: May 14, 2012, 01:57:51 PM »
I will happily acknowledge that I'm a big ABBA fan as well, possibly more so than my missus and her various mates who like Mamma Mia (stage or film). They try to disagree, but I fail to see how someone who would prefer to listen to the Mamma Mia soundtrack album can claim bigger ABBA-fandom than someone who regularly listens to the albums made by ABBA themselves :lol:

Not sure whether they're the best pop group ever, though?

That's probably quantifiable (with a few punch-ups over the sources of and the validity of statistics) - the group with the most units shifted, radio/media plays, concert tickets, etc, so far, probably qualifies as the best pop group ever - it's a popularity contest. So if it turns out to be U2, for example, I shall probably be sick, but I won't be able to argue with it.

If you take the word "pop" off the front, then we're into a whole different ballgame and most folks (on here, anyway) will agree you can't really say who is "best" out of different acts who are pretty much chalk and cheese.
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38thBeatle

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Re: Gigs - how much do yet get paid ?
« Reply #28 on: May 14, 2012, 07:12:51 PM »
I am in a covers band and feel no shame whatsoever. It means that I get to play a lot plus we do three of my songs in the band- we sneak them in. I also play original material either on my own or with a few select mates. For the latter I generally get hardly a bean and the message I get is that I should be grateful that they let me play. I don't need to do it for the sake of my ego though. I don't get anything like the same volume of gigs for my original material because the venues don't particularly encourage it ( and I can't blame them when times are hard for a lot of them). If I were younger I'd do what I used to do-play nearly every night and build up a following but those days are behind me.I am lucky because I have a small group of folks who turn up when I do play my own songs-mainly because they have seen the band and know that I am going to be playing. When I was in my teens and twenties I wouldn't have been seen dead in a covers band. These days I don't give a toss- I enjoy it and apart from a moron sitting behind the drum kit, I have a bit of a laugh with a bunch of mates. Some of you younger guys might change your views when you get a bit older- maybe not. Each to his own.
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richard

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Re: Gigs - how much do yet get paid ?
« Reply #29 on: May 14, 2012, 08:30:59 PM »
I started this thread with particular reference to covers bands because I appreciate that playing your own stuff is a completely different ballgame. I spent a couple of years not so long ago playing with a guy who wrote all his own stuff and very good it was too. The problem for a mature gent like me is that we played all over the country and, if I'd stayed  in the band, could have gone to USA, Germany and many other places but I'm not in a position to do this sort of thing. These days it's a maximum 45 minute drive.

I have no problem playing covers because I get to play songs by people that are much better songwriters than I am. I don't learn solos though as I just love improvising. I'm pretty happy with about 25/30 gigs a year and enough cash to cover my thirst for Guinness, a set of strings per gig and a bit left over.

38th - we may have exchanged this information before because I'm sure we play some of the same places but:

The Elms (Worthing), Duke of Welly (Shoreham), Hampden Arms (Newhaven), Swan (Crawley), Hove Park Tavern (errr... Hove), Malt Shovel (Horsham), The Volunteer (Lewes). All reasonable places, let me know if you want contact info.
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