Most insulting pay offer to play

[vonbraig]

Just got offered a gig, three hours, for get this: $30.00 and all the Lebanese food I can eat.

I think I'll pass.

[Grumps]

30.00 and all the Lebanese food I can eat.

That's almost something I'd do to teach a club owner a lesson. Ever see Man v. Food on the Travel Channel???

[Agent27]

2 rehearsals and a gig, all in a town 70 miles away. $50 total.

[eugeneherman]

I could insult you 'way' better... You gotta drive to pickup the drummer and take him home and his wife needs some groceries!

[vonbraig]

Ha I used to pick up a great guitar player but of course he was legally BLIND!

[saxphil]

Just got offered a gig, three hours, for get this: $30.00 and all the Lebanese food I can eat.

I think I'll pass.

In '85 at a club we played, we got $50 a man, plus gratis scotch & beer all night
every Thurs. night, for a year and a half.

What a great gig.

[OttoVanFrankenLink]

I was approached for a trio gig for a theatre company fundraiser. When payment was introduced into the conversation she said, "It doesn't pay - Don't you want to support the arts?"

[Timelord]

Just got offered a gig, three hours, for get this: $30.00 and all the Lebanese food I can eat.

Surely that was the starting point for the haggle......how about a couple of camels as well

[marton]

Lebanese food is great. I would've taken the gig.

[Swampcabbage]

My favorite is when they tell you it's good "exposure." Don't they know that people can die from exposure? That's like saying - hey, we can't pay you but we might give you ebola!

[curly]

Our band got $50 each and free beer (90's) to play a gig in a small bar in the city.(Sydney). One night the place was full of suits, and the bar manager told us to go and wait in the corner and drink his free beer until the suits left. They never left the pub...we got smashed...and he gave us our $50 each as we stumbled out the door. (....those were the daze....)

[Michael Ward]

Three cans of Red Stripe recently. When I got off stage all the free beer had been drunk by our hangers on so I had to pay three and a half quid for a small bottle of Sol.

[Face Ache Mike]

Band leader: "They`ll discuss it at the next committee meeting and let us know how much we`re worth".... and that was after the gig.

[A Greene]

In college, I spent a week on the road over break with a 'up and coming' band. The deal was that all the money from the mini-tour would be used to pay off the new CD BUT we would be provided with food and places to sleep. Once I realized that 'places to sleep' meant in the van my dreams of stardom faded.

THEN the lead singer complained that I ate to much.

[Stephen Howard]

I once got asked to play in a local pub for free. I suspect this happens quite a lot with new bands looking to make a name on the circuit, but the band I was in at the time was relatively well-known locally - but the leader reckoned the pub was a noted venue and it would be worth 'getting an in'.

So we turned up and did a couple of sets - and brought our followers with us.
The place was packed to the gills. At one point in the evening I spotted one of the bartenders having trouble getting the till drawer to close...it was so stuffed up with notes.
At half time the bari player got a round of drinks in, which arrived just before we were counted in for the second set...so he had no time to pay.
At the end of the gig the landlord approached him and asked for the money for the round.

We were speechless.
To put it in some kind of perspective, the pub was so busy that getting to the loo was practically impossible (Mind yer back mate, s'cuse me, coming through, can I just squeeze through...) and most of us settled for 'holding it in'.
The guy was paid, with particularly bad grace, and I swore I'd never play the venue again...and I haven't.

Regards,

[toughtenor]

yeah, that happens quite a bit. sometimes when you're from around the neighbourhood it only gets worse. A local jazzclub from the town where one of my band members lived offered a bus ticket and a meal.
And that was a band which played on quite a big festival ( the Hague jazz) a month later...for normal wages.

[Bloo Dog]

We were invited to play at musicians' benefit FOR FREE in '79 or so. Band members were expected to pay the $10.00 admission fee.

Buh-bye.

[Milt Hathaway]

"...but it's for a good cause..."

"...We're a non-profit organization..."

I'm not.

[nachoman]

... You'll be providing the PA (.....and will be expected to man the desk for about 5 other bands, let a bunch over overexcited and loud kids use/abuse your amps and drum kit and end the night having to derig the enitre show....)

[rsclosson]

I once got called and asked to play Flamenco guitar for a restaraunt that was having a wine tasting featuring wines from Spain. He told me I could have a bottle of wine if I played. I told him I would not be available that evening. He said, "I haven't even told you the date!" Then he said he was having a hard time finding someone to play. I wonder why...