Kernewek Den
Member
The summer season is now with us - what does your band charge for the average gig.
How much do you charge?
- Thread starter Kernewek Den
- Start date
JessopSmythe
Active Member
No idea. I turn up when my diary says we've got a job, play & go home. I've managed to successfully avoid any committe duty for most of my banding career.
As a Salvation Army band, we don't make a formal charge. If we are visiting another Salvation Army Corps then arangements will be made for expenses. As such visits are often done on the basis of an exchange, we often pay our own expenses and then they will pay theirs for the return visit, although we have been caught out on occasion when the return trip hasn't taken place.
If we are asked to play elsewhere, it is normally arranged as expenses plus a donation, although for a lot of local events expenses will be minimal as we often travel by car and have a van available for the percussion etc. We have also done concerts where we have either received all the proceeds or they have been split between ourselves and the organisers, although on those occasions any money received would tend to go into general corps funds or for a specific project rather than into the band's own funds.
If we are asked to play elsewhere, it is normally arranged as expenses plus a donation, although for a lot of local events expenses will be minimal as we often travel by car and have a van available for the percussion etc. We have also done concerts where we have either received all the proceeds or they have been split between ourselves and the organisers, although on those occasions any money received would tend to go into general corps funds or for a specific project rather than into the band's own funds.
Naomi McFadyen
New Member
bands get as much as they can or as much as they are given 
Jo Elson
Member
No idea. I turn up when my diary says we've got a job, play & go home
Same for me too. Never been on the comittee but seeing as I am sure I have many banding years ahead of me it will more than likely happen at some point.
With so many people being on holiday during the summer it's hard to ever have a full band, so we don't tend to do many concerts or engagements in the summer.
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Jo Elson
Flugel Horn
Wem Jubilee Band
Same for me too. Never been on the comittee but seeing as I am sure I have many banding years ahead of me it will more than likely happen at some point.
With so many people being on holiday during the summer it's hard to ever have a full band, so we don't tend to do many concerts or engagements in the summer.
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Jo Elson
Flugel Horn
Wem Jubilee Band
Mike Saville
Member
I have seen some of the amounts our band go out for. Having played professionaly I know that my Quintet did not go out for less than double the kind of money the band charges.
I believe there is some reticence in the band world to charging what would be perceived as expensive. The fear is that they will not be asked again. I reckon bands should just go for it and then negotiate down at a later point instead of quoting the small fees they do.
As an example professional players would go out for around £80 (at the bottom end) your average brass band charges £250 (which would buy you a professional brass trio!!!).
I believe there is some reticence in the band world to charging what would be perceived as expensive. The fear is that they will not be asked again. I reckon bands should just go for it and then negotiate down at a later point instead of quoting the small fees they do.
As an example professional players would go out for around £80 (at the bottom end) your average brass band charges £250 (which would buy you a professional brass trio!!!).
horn1
Member
To be honest it depends on the type of job. As a local band we do get some poorly paid and totally bizare jobs. On the other hand as we get better we are attracting a better class of job which we get fairly well paid for. Despite being on the committee I haven't a clue as to actual figures though!
Pythagoras
Active Member
This is a big bone of contention in our band. At the moment we have a summer program that is too crammed. It means we don't get a full enough band. Many members feel that we should go for less jobs next year at a higher fee. This will price us out of the range of some jobs that we have done for a long time, but we need to lose some anyway. The only danger is that we need to be careful not to thin down too much as we could end up with no jobs and egg on our faces.
aimee_euph
Member
i'm lucky, my band don't really do many summer jobs 'cause we're quite rich, but we do one main concert at the end of the summer term-ish but the tickets are £8 with no ocncessions which i think is quite expensive. but i dont know how much my band charge.
Our band does quite alot of concerts but it mainly with the our ten piece group. They do charge between £200 and £300 but you do get your moneys worth. Is a could ensemble and we play music which everybody knows and to a good standard. They play music from the Spice Girls ( okay abit iffy), Elvis and Manic Street Preachers. Although MeatLoaf could be out very soon 8) 8)
the octet I play with go out for no less than £800. this is because we travel from so far to get together that anything less isnt viable...however we get a fair number of gigs a year and in fact this year have been so busy we have turned a couple down. You have to make a decision as a group/band whether you want the highly paid gigs that you might have to chase and organise yourself, or are willing to take anything you are offered. i realise its difficult when you rely on the gigs to pay for the band music/practise room etc, but the big gigs are out there if you can put in the effort. We wrote over 200 letters and got 30 concerts out of it in the 2 years we have been playing together.
I posted earlier regarding Hadleigh Temple Band, so perhaps I should add something about the Salvation Army Wind Ensemble. We currently make a charge of £150 when we visit a venue (usually three times a year), which has to cover all of our costs, music etc.
We are currently looking at increasing that, as we have lately paid out more in expenses and costs are constantly rising - most players meet their own expenses, but we have a number of students in the group, and some are travelling long distances to come and play. Also, whilst much of the music we play is generated from within the group, it is important that the composers are not left out of pocket when they write for us.
We are currently looking at increasing that, as we have lately paid out more in expenses and costs are constantly rising - most players meet their own expenses, but we have a number of students in the group, and some are travelling long distances to come and play. Also, whilst much of the music we play is generated from within the group, it is important that the composers are not left out of pocket when they write for us.
floral_dance
Member
We do a few jobs for the local council who pay us, not sure how much but we just had a summer concert when we charged £4 a ticket £2 for children and we managed to raise a wee bit, we do some concerts throughout the year in the local and surroinding churches where we half the proceeds, as our band does not have any sponsorship we have to work quite hard to keep afloat, probably like most other lower section bands. :cry:
