Going rate for a NYE pub gig?

Panama_Jack666

EricTheWeary;920776" said:

Panama_Jack666 said:

There must be loads of places in Edinbrough. paying good money - you're just not finding them.



If there all shite paying then there would be no semi or pro musicians up there and I bet there are loads.



Do you have an agent? Have your tried marketing yourself for weddings by attending wedding fairs and stuff? What are you pro actively doing to compete with other bands in the area?



As much as I hate playing them, Working Mens Clubs tend to pay the best where I live. Minimum we go out for is 50 quid per member but it's been more like double that recently.





Looking at gig guides and music venues is only part of the live music market, there's a whole world of less obvious gigs doing weddings, parties, hotel theme nights, pubs that have one band a month,etc. If you want to do original material or are heavily invested in your own sense of what's cool then you'll be sticking to the same three places. However, if you want to do popular covers (ooh, like Thomas' band do...) and get paid better then those gigs exist. There is effort in chasing them and you might be dealing with agents who also book magicians and Lady Gaga tributes but I'm pretty sure they exist. It's not a world entirely for me, TBH, but it is there. 

This is absolutely true. All of my December gigs were big Christmas parties/staff do's doing popular music.

With music, ALL musicians have a picture what it's going to be like in their head when they play their first gig or start playing live. Big stages, adoring audiences and a rock star mansion. The fact of the matter is this isn't the case.

It is a business and if money is important to you forget what you want to play and start playing what people wanna hear (which I know you're already doing Tommy!).

The next thing is forget being just a guitarist if money is important. It's probably 20% of the role. If money means something, start being the owner of a business marketing a product. You!

Start thinking of extra ways to make income and marketing yourself more than the next player. There are a reasons agents exist. To do this!

Being a musician is more than playing one gig a week down the dog and duck which will pay a weeks wages.

I'm not addressing you here, Tommy or any of the forum! Just general comments! There is loadsa money out there for good musicians. It's just loads of people don't want to work for it on a daily basis like most people do with a full time job (in my experience).

EricTheWeary

p90fool said:

Panama_Jack666 said:

There must be loads of places in Edinbrough. paying good money - you're just not finding them.

If there all shite paying then there would be no semi or pro musicians up there and I bet there are loads.

I totally agree. I gig at least once a week for £80-£100 per person in rural mid Wales, rarely travelling more than 20 minutes from my home, usually less than 10 minutes. If Thomas can't get regular paid work based in a capital city then he needs to take a step back and look at why, especially since he's a much more accomplished guitarist than I am.

I may have said this before, but start by accompanying a great singer, then other quality musicians will want a piece of the action.

Regarding the plumbing thing, I think it probably takes about the same amount of time to become an experienced, in-demand plumber OR guitar player. If you do either for 9 hours per day, 5 days per week you will be good enough to make a living after 18 months or so.

You'll never get to be a decent plumber by fiddling about with your tools for an hour on a Wednesday night, yet a lot of guitar owners do just that then tell everyone they've been playing for decades without getting anywhere.

Fairly sure I've employed that kind of plumber   

FarleyUK

....we got £400 for a 4-piece, playing 3.5 hours.

*ahem*

John_P

^ that's a long set,    It's pretty rare that I get asked to do a pub gig that isn't 2 x 45mins (which usually turns into 2 1hr sets or thereabouts),  what was the gig?

Catthan

The pre Xmas pub gig we did on the 19th of Dec we got £60 a man which is what we get every other time of the year we play that pub.

(The exposure was phenomenal from a quantitative POV but I doubt we'll get any function work from that audience tho..) 

Functions are between £180 to £200 a man regularly during the year. 

I know people who went out for at least £350 a man on Xmas and NY eve. 

This could go up to £500 a man but I'd imagine for nowt more than a 4-piece at this rate.

All this in Newcastle-Durham- Northumberland area.

Majorscale

John_P;921101" said:

^ that's a long set,    It's pretty rare that I get asked to do a pub gig that isn't 2 x 45mins (which usually turns into 2 1hr sets or thereabouts),  what was the gig?

Really? Our two sets combined totalled a little over 3.5 hours and we played a total of 54 songs! Started at 8:50, finished on the dot of 1am with a break in the middle and the obligatory 5 mins set aside for Big Ben / Auld Lang Syne. NYE can be a long night!

We always do a minimum of two one-hour sets plus encores whether a pub or more upscale function... maybe we work too hard? :-)

thomasross20

I've suggested the agent thing before. 

TBH if I'm going to keep up the effort I'm going to look for something different at some point. 

We might be getting a good drummer soon (hopefully the ex-session player who has written to me) so will try to learn from him as he'll have lots of experience.