The Peel Venue in Kingston, Pay2Play?

Responses to This Article

Vox/GuitarPermalink Reply by Graham Hunt on June 29, 2010 at 15:04

So you don't pay to play... you just pay them £60... out of the tickets you sell to get people into their pub to put their cash over the bar. I see... Not!

• ▶ Reply

BassPermalink Reply by Phil Nicol on June 29, 2010 at 15:39

I can understand your reservations entirely mate, they are giving risk to the band in a way but if you think about spec. to accumulate it could be an earner.

• ▶ Reply

BassPermalink Reply by Matt Russell on June 29, 2010 at 16:02

I've spent hard earned money on equipment, I've spent ages getting my band together, we've practiced our set in rehearsal studios at a cost to get tight and we now put on a bloody good show (if I may say so myself). I do not feel that I should also become a ticket tout.

If i wanted to be able to guarantee to get 30 people in a given place at a given time I'd have gone into the business of transporting illegal immigrants not playing bass in a punk band ;o)

In this case the venue puts on 4 bands a night, pocketing £240 before they've sold an alcopop, there is no incentive for them to promote the evening or the venue if they have a steady stream of gullible bands happy to do their job for them

Having said that, if I could get 30 punters to come and see us in Kingston, I'd be a happy man in a successful band not the whinging git that I am!!

• ▶ Reply

Bass/VoxPermalink Reply by Trisha Macnair on June 29, 2010 at 22:38

I don't understand why buying tickets in advance is more expensive (£5) than on the door (£4) just to see you play. Maybe I have misunderstood the above. My band doesn't have a problem with not being paid anything (we do get the fun of playing) but our supporters aren't dedicated enough to pay money just to hear us when they know that they are also going to be shelling out for a few drinks. Surely the venue makes its money through the drinks it sells to the people we bring along ?

• ▶ Reply

Bass/VoxPermalink Reply by Trisha Macnair on June 29, 2010 at 22:43

oh and this is the payment plan that The Wooden Bridge in Guildford offer. As they explain, at least the ticket price covers a drink but it is STILL Pay2Play (and it hurts my brain) :
"The Wooden Bridge has a strict payment structure which is fair for the venue, the bands and their followers. The Wooden Bridge does not have a separate function room or secluded area where guests can come in exclusively for a gig which means that anyone from the street can come into the pub and enjoy the nights entertainment, however ultimately it’s the band who should bring followers to watch them if they want to get paid.

The Wooden Bridge issues tickets to the bands and the band can sell those tickets to their fans; however the tickets are not for entry they are for a free drink. We advise that the band sells their tickets between £2.50 and £3, this way the follower of the band gets a good deal, I.e. one pint of Stella costs £3.19 so the follower would get their drink cheaper in buying the ticket from the band, all funds raised from the ticket sales go directly to the band. In additional to this the band will get paid cash for reaching a number of fans on the night, one ticket can be used per person. Below is an explanation of the payments:

Number of Tickets Sold Additional Cash From The Venue
00-29 £0
30-39 £50
40-49 £60
50-75 £80
76-100 £100
Over £100 £150


So if the band sells the tickets to their fans for £2.50 each and they sold 25 tickets, the band would still make £62.50. If they sold 45 at £2.50 they would make £112.50 plus the additional £60 from the venue which would make a total of £172.50. If they sold 90 tickets they would make £225 from ticket sales plus an additional £100 from the venue making the total income for the band £325.

We find this the fairest way for all parties involved and this ensures that everyone can get the best out of the night,

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by matt jones on June 30, 2010 at 8:37

a) the sort of 'policy' only a complete idiot would try and dress up as something that's 'fair'
b) unbelievably patronising, "£90 before the band has played a note" - clearly aimed at kiddies
c) I'd boycott them completely and hope they go bust

W*nkers

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kirsty Pollock on November 19, 2010 at 20:35

Well that's a change at the Wooden Bridge. Last time we were there, we just straight got paid. £120 or the like. I don't much like the sound of that 'deal'.

The Wooden Bridge do NOT advertise or promote in any way - despite having possibly THE best placed frontage in Guildford, visible from the A3 (where people are often in a traffic jam) and the railway line. Not even a sign outside the pub. You would not know that pub did bands at all. I live just across the road, and I can vouch that they just do not do ANYTHING to draw attention to the fact that they do bands.

I'd like to get paid more, and paid more often, but you can't get your mates to come to every gig, and *some* promotion by the pub seems only fair - even if it's just a few posters up the week or so before and a chalkboard outside!!!! In the ideal world, once a pub gets known for music, people come in on band nights, takes go up, bands get paid. You'd think they'd be willing to put in some effort (I must say that several other pubs in the local area are much better at this!)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Hiram K Hackenbacker on November 20, 2010 at 10:51

As an aside to this thread, yesterday I made an enquiry about booking a local venue for a gig in December. I was told that their regulations stated that all bands equipment would have to be PAT tested and labelled and the band would need to have £5million of public liability insurance in place. I've never come across this before, anyone else heard of it? Suffice to say we won't be using their facilities.

• ▶ Reply

BassPermalink Reply by Matt Russell on November 20, 2010 at 11:50

I've heard similar things from a friend who runs a rehearsal studio, he told me a couple of month ago that he'd heard that all PA equipment will need to be xlrs not jack or phono or bare twists soon, i looked into it a bit at work (i work for a firm of solicitors) but couldn't find anything, any chance you can find out from them which regulations they were referring to?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Hiram K Hackenbacker on November 20, 2010 at 12:16

I got the impression that it was their own cover their arses regulations, i.e.pass the buck of responsibility to someone else as seems to be the culture these days. But I would have thought any venue should have it's own insurance to cover public liability. And as for PAT testing, well that's a complete load of bollocks and just an excuse for someone to earn a fast buck, as is most of the HSE nanny state crap we have to endure. Too many people trying to blame someone else for their own stupidity, that's the trouble.

Rant over.....

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by dave on November 25, 2010 at 20:11

most important thing if you are doing the pub s is that you have a decent size following to fill the pub .you have to sell a lot of beer to cover e few hundred quid for a band.i prefer duo work even for bigger venues .get a regular circuit and build up a rapore with your regular followers that are genuinly interested in your music most weddings and functions spin off these people.if your kit is not pat tested your public liability is not valid further to that if the hotel or venue has not checked your certificates thier own insurance is not valid.100% behind matt about cost of equiptment and years of hard work, its an insult not to get fair payment this is why i am dead against jam nights that dont pay .some dont even give the jammers free beers.i would never pay for food or beer at a gig its just not done .i would never get up and do it for nothing ,if you do that you are not a musician, you are a performing monkey.if you do charity you still draw a wage but if you feel generous you dont make a profit above your fair payment.bloody hate scroungers .

• ▶ Reply

VenuePermalink Reply by Peel on February 12, 2012 at 12:05

Hi Matt

well you'll be glad to know that this is no longer the case at The Peel. The venue has been making some huge changes over the last month or two in order to try and get things right.

We no longer run the old "sell tickets in advance" policy and have completely changed it for a newer system.

Obviously in very difficult financial times both venues and bands want to make some money at the shows, so we have changed it to the following.

Based on a door price of £7 (this price is obviously flexible as some bands prefer to do £6 or £5 depending)

Each band now gets:

Pull 100+, you get £5 per head

Pull between 50-99, you get £4.50 per head

Pull less than 50, you get £4 per head

Pull less than 30, you get £3.50 per head

(Take of 50p per head for £6 price and 75p for £5 price)

so if you pull 200 people at £7 your walking away with £1000, but if you only pull say 22 people your at least getting £77.

we think this is a bit fairer and no longer making you pay in advance to play.

In reply to your other post, yes we agree bands do spend a lot of time and money buying equipment, rehearsing etc, so therefore shouldn't have to keep on paying to play their music...but you must understand that some venues (not all by any means) have also spent a huge amount of money too on equipment etc to make the venue great for bands to play.

With the amount of bloody taxation and with rising costs on everything, just to open the doors to put a gig on costs us almost £400 a day and that's just the costs of bar staff,rent, rates, gas, electricity, VAT, tax, buying stock..the list goes on.

So basically if between 3 bands the total crowd is 30 people, that's a door take of £210, the bands get £105 of that, we get £105 of that...out of our £105 we then have to pay £70 to the sound engineer and £20 to the door person, leaving us with £15. If those 30 people then buy an average of 3 drinks each at £3.50, thats £315 over the bar......total day earnings for the venue £330....daily loss £70. And that's not even taking into account that being a venue on a main road with a parade of shops next door, some of the crowd are just simply buggering off to the off license and downing cans down the road between bands.

We are making the effort to improve things for the bands, the crowd and ourselves, so cut us a bit of slack and feel free to call us if you do want a gig.

Cheers

The Peel

• ▶ Reply

▶ Reply to Discussion

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page