Howlin' Gaels

[clash67]

After a rip roarer of a weekend the Gaels are all set to have a great night this coming Sat. (31st March) at the Y- Knot Bar n' Grill previously known as the Redwood. We are looking forward to hearing The Dead Greartful too who will be supporting us, hope to see you all there. Oh by the way entry is only £6.

[K dragon]

Only!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gleber2]

Only!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

£7or £8 for a disco in Skinnandi's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! £6 is not a lot for two live bands after all, musicians have to eat just like publicans.

[K dragon]

aye but i didnt see you chargin that much.

fair enough the bar pays the fee but the public? i thought the drinks were enough.

its not like its a major event.

[moncur]

aye but i didnt see you chargin that much.

fair enough the bar pays the fee but the public? i thought the drinks were enough.

its not like its a major event.

Hey, u can always get a return bus ticket to Wick (£3 approx) and come see Duress that night! lol sorry to be hi-jacking the thread, couldnt resist!

[The Pepsi Challenge]

As Frank Zappa said many moons ago: "What musicians tend to eat is usually brown and lumpy." What he meant by this is that musicians don't get paid enough for what they do and can only afford to eat crud. And he was right. Musicians make the music industry billions and billions of pounds - and in the end, often owe the industry money back. Wrong? You betcha.

On a base level, however, it's businessmen running pubs who are renowned for ripping off musicians (in the Scottish capital anyway), underpaying them, and in some cases, making them pay for the privilege of paying. Therefore £6 to see two reputable live bands is, not to put too much of a pun on it, small beer. That's about the price of two pints. I'm sure those who 'appreciate' live music would be willing to sacrifice two ales in order to enjoy some fine music. No? K Dragon?

Furthermore, it's also the bands who are part of the problem. They do themselves no favours when it comes to getting paid. As I said, (in Edinburgh at least) bands are all too willing to play gigs for next to nothing. Some even pay-to-play. Fools. Publicans like this attitude, though. If bands refuse to take what's offered to them, they know there's another 100 bands waiting to take their place. So we, the musicians, need to start charging what we believe we're worth.

And K - regards Gleber2 not having an entry charge to his gigs. Maybe the Gaels get the door money, whereas Gleber2 maybe gets paid a fee? Either way, both are worth their weight am sure.

[moncur]

As Frank Zappa said many moons ago: "What musicians tend to eat is usually brown and lumpy." What he meant by this is that musicians don't get paid enough for what they do and can only afford to eat crud. And he was right. Musicians make the music industry billions and billions of pounds - and in the end, often owe the industry money back. Wrong? You betcha.

On a base level, however, it's businessmen running pubs who are renowned for ripping off musicians (in the Scottish capital anyway), underpaying them, and in some cases, making them pay for the privilege of paying. Therefore £6 to see two reputable live bands is, not to put too much of a pun on it, small beer. That's about the price of two pints. I'm sure those who 'appreciate' live music would be willing to sacrifice two ales in order to enjoy some fine music. No? K Dragon?

Furthermore, it's also the bands who are part of the problem. They do themselves no favours when it comes to getting paid. As I said, (in Edinburgh at least) bands are all too willing to play gigs for next to nothing. Some even pay-to-play. Fools. Publicans like this attitude, though. If bands refuse to take what's offered to them, they know there's another 100 bands waiting to take their place. So we, the musicians, need to start charging what we believe we're worth.

And K - regards Gleber2 not having an entry charge to his gigs. Maybe the Gaels get the door money, whereas Gleber2 maybe gets paid a fee? Either way, both are worth their weight am sure.

Totally agree with Pepsi. As everyone who plays in a band with me knows, Im the tight one when it comes to playing. First thing i do when arranging gigs is arrange the fee (and throw a strop if some-one else arranges it and doesnt find out what we're getting paid!). I personnaly would rather have the security of just getting paid a fee by the landlord than run the risk of charging £x.xx to get in and have no-one turn up.

Usually with the Red-Y-Wood-Not Bar and Grille the bands take the door money, the landlord gets the bar takings.

[Jeemag_USA]

aye but i didnt see you chargin that much.

fair enough the bar pays the fee but the public? i thought the drinks were enough.

its not like its a major event.

it is a major event, its probably the Gaels first public gig in Thurso in around 4 years and Joe paterson's local debut with the Gaels. Plus if I am right there will be 4 sets, two from each band. Some people will pay that much for a taxi to get to Skinandi's and then have to pay to get in and then drink 40 quid. I guess if you don't want to pay you don't have to go? I'd pay a tenner, but I am biased, I know how good they are

Nobody likes cover charges, but don't blame the band, if the establishment says thats how its going to be, what else can they do except make it an extremely worthwhile 6 pound for everyone who comes along.

[day old blues]

im with k dragon on this 1 £6 to get into a public bar when you could go watch duress on the same night for free (ok extra for thurso folk) but still ive never seen a band charge to get in to watch them in a public bar

[TazHowlinGael]

I've gone threw all the threads and well i'm seeing a lot of complaints about the entrance fee, well fair enough! But to be honest i have no idea why because it is absolute buttons!

At the end of the day the Gales are not going to be begging people to turn up. It is a band that has a reasonably good reputation up down and around Scotland and has and continue to do there bit for local charity.

And if all you can come up with for not going well apart from the fact that you all seem to think £6 is to much??? is that you are not getting an extra hours drinking time and for god sake burgers!!! I mean come people that is a poor show! All the Gaels are trying to do as a band and have always strived to do is put on a good night of music for people! but what is coming across clearly from people on this forum is that the mentality towards music in this county is ridiculous.

The Howlin Gaels have been a pub band for years and what we are going to be doing now is targeting different kinds of venues as in concert halls and just basically bigger venues, we are also going to be doing most of our shows with another act so most of our shows are going to be done as a pay at the door event or a ticketed event, but that is not saying that we are never going to do another pub gig!

All the Howlin Gaels are offering the music loving public of Caithness "god rest there souls" this weekend is a quality night of music and that should be enough!

[The Pepsi Challenge]

Concert Halls? Bigger venues than a pub? What's in the pipeline, then? I'm all ears now. Tell all.

[clash67]

Concert Halls? Bigger venues than a pub? What's in the pipeline, then? I'm all ears now. Tell all.

The Gaels have quite often played the bigger venues and headlined many festivals there is no change other than the fact that we decided not to do so many gigs in smaller venues this time round, we musta played in thousands of them up and down the country but because fees offered by the smaller venues don't always meet the costs involved, we sometimes didn't even break even although we were filling places, and often when I was handed our fee at the end of the night I knew full well that it didn't even cover the damage sustained during the gig by well meaning drunk people falling all over it.
But before anyone gets on their high horse let me just say that as a touring band with all the costs that that incurs such as travel, promotional material, wear and tear on eqiupment etc there is no business sense in spending half the day sound checking then all the night performing and how ever many hours travelling for fees like £150 or £200 which simply doesn't cover costs let alone pay any sort of wage to the musicians who after all has provided entertainment all night, I spend around £50 - £70 pound per month when gigging regularly on harmonicas alone.
I'm not saying that we are charging extortoinate fees we are simply charging the going rate for an established four piece band.

[swavey]

tommorow night will be ace!end of!!

[Cazaa]

Don't know if anyone is a member of the Musician's Union but this is on their web-site:

SCOTLAND & NORTHERN IRELAND GIG RATE

EFFECTIVE 1ST APRIL 2007

Engagements before midnight:

Engagements up to 2 hours duration, a minimum payment of £65.00

Engagements over 2 hours and up to 3 hours, a minimum payment of £80.00

For all engagements over 3 hours, an additional minimum of £13.00 per 1?2 hour or part thereof to be added to the 3 hour minimum of £80.00.

After midnight the additional minimum of £17.00 per 1?2 hour or part thereof to be added.

Engagements commencing at midnight or after:

A minimum amount of £65.00 to be added to the agreed fee for performing.

I would think that £6 per customer would be a fair price to pay. Best of luck to you for the gig. Hope it all goes well (I remember seeing you in Wick about 10 years ago - it was cracking)