Gig start times - wish they were all the same time!

CaseOfAce

We're playing a local club here tonight - and the start time is 8pm - which has thrown rest of the band - we generally start at 8.30pm or 9pm. 
Our drummer (who is not on the WhatsApp group since he refuses to have a smart phone) is going to find out how fast he can assemble his kit. 
I could of course phone him on his landline but where's the fun in that?! 

thecolourbox

CaseOfAce said:

We're playing a local club here tonight - and the start time is 8pm - which has thrown rest of the band - we generally start at 8.30pm or 9pm. 
Our drummer (who is not on the WhatsApp group since he refuses to have a smart phone) is going to find out how fast he can assemble his kit. 
I could of course phone him on his landline but where's the fun in that?! 

It's normally the bassist who comes in late isn't it?

Stratavarious

Text him at 8

EricTheWeary

Pretty much any gig I ever played we couldn't set everything else up until the drums were set up. 

One gig our bassist was very late, arrived pretty much as we were due to go on. He'd clocked the name of the pub but not the town it was in. So had driven twenty miles in the wrong direction and was wandering around a pub of the same name wondering where the rest of us were until he rechecked his emails. 

Roland

thecolourbox said:

CaseOfAce said:

We're playing a local club here tonight - and the start time is 8pm - which has thrown rest of the band - we generally start at 8.30pm or 9pm. 
Our drummer (who is not on the WhatsApp group since he refuses to have a smart phone) is going to find out how fast he can assemble his kit. 
I could of course phone him on his landline but where's the fun in that?! 

It's normally the bassist who comes in late isn't it?

Nice joke, but in my experience it’s always the singer who arrives late.

maltingsaudio

I’m a sound engineer so always at the gig at least 4hours before start time…… and leave at least two hours after gig ends

digitalscream

I was supposed to be playing a gig tonight that had been booked for a couple of months. We found out at the beginning of the week that we were expected to be there to load in at 4:30pm, for a soundcheck at 6pm, to go on stage at 7:15pm.

Battling through Friday traffic, in Nottingham, when we're travelling from Peterborough, without enough notice to book an afternoon off work.

Promoters' expectations are often...unrealistic, and they rarely consider that if four bands are playing then that's ~16-20 people who have to book the afternoon off work to be able to meet their schedule. I sometimes wonder if they even realise that people in bands actually have jobs, in order to support playing gigs that promoters don't pay them for.

I'm somewhat thankful that it was cancelled, although not for the reasons it was (our drummer's son, my nephew, has symptomatic COVID, and then a member of the headline band had severe appendicitis which needed immediate surgery).

maltingsaudio

digitalscream said:

I was supposed to be playing a gig tonight that had been booked for a couple of months. We found out at the beginning of the week that we were expected to be there to load in at 4:30pm, for a soundcheck at 6pm, to go on stage at 7:15pm.

Battling through Friday traffic, in Nottingham, when we're travelling from Peterborough, without enough notice to book an afternoon off work.

Promoters' expectations are often...unrealistic, and they rarely consider that if four bands are playing then that's ~16-20 people who have to book the afternoon off work to be able to meet their schedule. I sometimes wonder if they even realise that people in bands actually have jobs, in order to support playing gigs that promoters don't pay them for.

I'm somewhat thankful that it was cancelled, although not for the reasons it was (our drummer's son, my nephew, has symptomatic COVID, and then a member of the headline band had severe appendicitis which needed immediate surgery).

Not wishing to upset anyone, but have to pass comment on this. I’m firmly on the promotors side on this one. Your band and the others took the gig and asking for a 4.30 load in is perfectly reasonable based on the timings. The fact you have another job is really irrelevant to this situation. 

Danny1969

Most of our load ins are 3 to 5pm with soundcheck an hour later and doors 2 hours later than that. So pretty standard. When you're travelling up north from Portsmouth though this can go completely wrong, no matter how early you set off. Loaded in 1 hour before doors last week in Liverpool. Luckily we are self contained and setting up just means plugging in 2 looms into the venue stage box and giving FOH a channel list and some prompts. 
Well I say luckily, there's no luck it's just experience that made me create the easiest solution to setting up at different venues. 

We can actually virtual soundcheck the keys, bass, and all vocals is someone is going to be very late, as can anyone using a digital desk with some kind of multi tracking. Just record one show and then if need be you can send any channel back out an aux send. 

digitalscream

maltingsaudio said:

digitalscream said:

I was supposed to be playing a gig tonight that had been booked for a couple of months. We found out at the beginning of the week that we were expected to be there to load in at 4:30pm, for a soundcheck at 6pm, to go on stage at 7:15pm.

Battling through Friday traffic, in Nottingham, when we're travelling from Peterborough, without enough notice to book an afternoon off work.

Promoters' expectations are often...unrealistic, and they rarely consider that if four bands are playing then that's ~16-20 people who have to book the afternoon off work to be able to meet their schedule. I sometimes wonder if they even realise that people in bands actually have jobs, in order to support playing gigs that promoters don't pay them for.

I'm somewhat thankful that it was cancelled, although not for the reasons it was (our drummer's son, my nephew, has symptomatic COVID, and then a member of the headline band had severe appendicitis which needed immediate surgery).

Not wishing to upset anyone, but have to pass comment on this. I’m firmly on the promotors side on this one. Your band and the others took the gig and asking for a 4.30 load in is perfectly reasonable based on the timings. The fact you have another job is really irrelevant to this situation. 

We took the gig on the understanding that it would be the same as other shows we've done with them - load in from 6-7, soundcheck between 7 and 8 (depending on the position in the bill) and doors at 8:30. That would have been perfectly do-able. However, they've literally never done a show that opens at 7:15pm.

There was no warning about the earliness of it until a few days before. That's patently unreasonable, unless you think it's reasonable to expect us to be telepathic and/or clairvoyant.

maltingsaudio

Mdigitalscream said:

maltingsaudio said:

digitalscream said:

I was supposed to be playing a gig tonight that had been booked for a couple of months. We found out at the beginning of the week that we were expected to be there to load in at 4:30pm, for a soundcheck at 6pm, to go on stage at 7:15pm.

Battling through Friday traffic, in Nottingham, when we're travelling from Peterborough, without enough notice to book an afternoon off work.

Promoters' expectations are often...unrealistic, and they rarely consider that if four bands are playing then that's ~16-20 people who have to book the afternoon off work to be able to meet their schedule. I sometimes wonder if they even realise that people in bands actually have jobs, in order to support playing gigs that promoters don't pay them for.

I'm somewhat thankful that it was cancelled, although not for the reasons it was (our drummer's son, my nephew, has symptomatic COVID, and then a member of the headline band had severe appendicitis which needed immediate surgery).

Not wishing to upset anyone, but have to pass comment on this. I’m firmly on the promotors side on this one. Your band and the others took the gig and asking for a 4.30 load in is perfectly reasonable based on the timings. The fact you have another job is really irrelevant to this situation. 

We took the gig on the understanding that it would be the same as other shows we've done with them - load in from 6-7, soundcheck between 7 and 8 (depending on the position in the bill) and doors at 8:30. That would have been perfectly do-able. However, they've literally never done a show that opens at 7:15pm.

There was no warning about the earliness of it until a few days before. That's patently unreasonable, unless you think it's reasonable to expect us to be telepathic and/or clairvoyant.

I’m sorry but I think you were professional  and booked as such

maltingsaudio

@digitalscream this is the difference between people who wantto succeed as pro musicians and hobbyists

digitalscream

maltingsaudio said:

Mdigitalscream said:

maltingsaudio said:

digitalscream said:

I was supposed to be playing a gig tonight that had been booked for a couple of months. We found out at the beginning of the week that we were expected to be there to load in at 4:30pm, for a soundcheck at 6pm, to go on stage at 7:15pm.

Battling through Friday traffic, in Nottingham, when we're travelling from Peterborough, without enough notice to book an afternoon off work.

Promoters' expectations are often...unrealistic, and they rarely consider that if four bands are playing then that's ~16-20 people who have to book the afternoon off work to be able to meet their schedule. I sometimes wonder if they even realise that people in bands actually have jobs, in order to support playing gigs that promoters don't pay them for.

I'm somewhat thankful that it was cancelled, although not for the reasons it was (our drummer's son, my nephew, has symptomatic COVID, and then a member of the headline band had severe appendicitis which needed immediate surgery).

Not wishing to upset anyone, but have to pass comment on this. I’m firmly on the promotors side on this one. Your band and the others took the gig and asking for a 4.30 load in is perfectly reasonable based on the timings. The fact you have another job is really irrelevant to this situation. 

We took the gig on the understanding that it would be the same as other shows we've done with them - load in from 6-7, soundcheck between 7 and 8 (depending on the position in the bill) and doors at 8:30. That would have been perfectly do-able. However, they've literally never done a show that opens at 7:15pm.

There was no warning about the earliness of it until a few days before. That's patently unreasonable, unless you think it's reasonable to expect us to be telepathic and/or clairvoyant.

I’m sorry but I think you were professional  and booked as such

OK, so at what point would it become unreasonable? To expect us to make arrangements to leave at...4pm/2:30pm/1:30pm/11am on a few days' notice? Booking us for a gig doesn't mean that half of our day should be dedicated to it.

Or...could it be that being "professional" might be telling us the start times would be different to the standard arrangement when we were booked (which is when the times were apparently known)?

To be clear: I'm not complaining about the start time. I'm complaining about the late notice of it, which was honestly pretty damn rude given that we weren't being paid for it. So not only were we paying to get there (which we already knew), he expected us to contribute half a day's wages each in annual leave to the cause of making his show work too.

Honestly not sure how you'd come to the conclusion that we're the ones who were unprofessional in this case.

EricTheWeary

maltingsaudio said:

@digitalscream this is the difference between people who wantto succeed as pro musicians and hobbyists

If they weren’t being paid for the gig it seems a bit of a leap for anyone to assume they are full time professional musicians? 

I’ve just been offered £600 for a band to play a gig that doesn’t even exist anymore. I might jump through some hoops for that. Not for an unpaid multi band gig. 

maltingsaudio

Ok they weren’t being paid for it, and I understand there are those who do it as a profitable hobby, or just for fun. I do it to pay my mortgage. Yes the late notice was a faux pas but if they knew the show they were on it surely shouldn’t have been unexpected and factored in?

i make no judgements about anyone who posts on here so I assume a certain degree of professionalism from everyone, and assume playing music live,or facilitating this, or the production of music, is the single most important thing to them.

Reverend

Generally for club gigs I would expect a load in from around 2 or so. if touring in in a nightliner probably 12 if possible. Ideally you'd want all soundchecks done at least an hour before doors. 
cover nad gigs in a pub are very different though.

digitalscream

maltingsaudio said:

Ok they weren’t being paid for it, and I understand there are those who do it as a profitable hobby, or just for fun. I do it to pay my mortgage. Yes the late notice was a faux pas but if they knew the show they were on it surely shouldn’t have been unexpected and factored in?

i make no judgements about anyone who posts on here so I assume a certain degree of professionalism from everyone, and assume playing music live,or facilitating this, or the production of music, is the single most important thing to them.

See, therein lies the problem - when you're talking about "professionalism", which takes precedence? Professionalism in their job, which actually pays money, or professionalism in their band, which doesn't? Or should people who have jobs just not be in originals bands, because they can't drop it at late notice in the name of being "professional" towards the promoter?

We go out of our way to be professional when it comes to gigs - we're always there on time (usually early), our setup/breakdown time is practiced and on the order of 2-3 minutes, we have stage plans and set list notes for the sound engineer sent well ahead of time (which they almost always lose or ignore, and complain that they haven't seen on the night), we're usually the ones sorting out kit share between the bands because nobody else bothers and we generally go out of our way to make our involvement in the proceedings to be as frictionless as possible for everybody.

I'd say those things are by far the most important parts of "being professional" when it comes to gigs on the circuit.

Yet, because we a bit miffed at the expectation that we cancel our jobs and rearrange childcare to account for an unannounced late change (we didn't even find out until we happened to see the timings on a Facebook post!), you're saying we're "unprofessional".

It's a bit insulting, that.

maltingsaudio

@digitalscream I have no wish to insult you, and apologise but still on the side of the promoter

Snags

I'll put my hand up to being ignorant off how these things work, but it would seem that at the very least there has been some extremely poor comms in that situation. 

If I was promoting an event, I'd want to be sure that all parties involved in delivering it were fully up to speed on timings and expectations, not just trust to fate. 

You can get flaky bands, caterers, sound engineers and ... promoters.

mudslide73

That's way too early man. I'm glad I don't do multi band gigs any more as they always feel so out of control imo. We usually go on at 9.30 at the earliest now we're only doing covers.

PolarityMan

I think promoters also have experience working with musicians (who arent always paragons of reliablility) so they always tell the band an earlier time than necessary. Its very normal to turn up at the arranged time and not even be able to load in yet..