How Much? That's Far Too Expensive

 

Often, people with limited experience of booking a live music act will recoil in horror when musicians ask for a reasonable fee for their services.  Now fees can vary depending on the area of the country, the type of band, length of set or indeed the type of venue involved.

Top professional musicians will charge venues a five-figure sum, and expect a portion of ticket sales.  To hire musicians at a more modest level, fees are much more affordable.  For example, a Wedding band, playing for 3-4 hours might expect to charge in the region of £1000 or more.  A solo artist playing a short 30-minute set in an afternoon in a pub would be around £100 mark.  

So, it is surprising then, when a four-piece rock and roll covers band, asked to play for 2 hours at say a party in a village hall, get told that's far too expensive when they ask for £250.  Actually, it's a massive bargain.  Let me explain why.

In our example there are 4 members of the band and they will split their fee between them, so £62.50 each.  Sounds generous doesn't it?  However, they won't just be at the venue for 2 hours though, they will spend at least couple of hours setting up, and at least an hour packing up afterwards.  So, from an initial generous rate of £31.25 per hour its now down to £10.42, not quite so generous.

But wait there's more.  They will have travelled, and taken time to load and unload their cars at home. If we say it takes an hour in total we're now at an hourly rate of £7.81 per musician.  

If you also consider the band will practice for say 3 hours a week, fitting that around their work and family commitments, that £250 works out at £6.94 per hour per band member.

Added to this there is the cost of the equipment that they use.  A decent PA may be in the region of £500 to £1000.  Decent instruments and amplifiers cost £300 plus each.  They may also bring stage lights as many venues don't provide a dedicated stage area.

Bear in mind also that the UK minimum wage is £9.50 per hour.  The band should be charging you £342 just to earn the minimum wage, and that's without considering the expense of travel and equipment.

So next time you want some live music, and let’s be clear you absolutely should book a live act, remember the band you hire aren't doing it for the money.  They certainly won't be getting rich whatever they charge you.

Why Can't We Write Our Own?

 

So many rock and roll songs are written about journeys across America.  This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, after all the music and the pioneering artists were all from the United States.  Being in a band in North Yorkshire is quite a long way from Memphis Tennessee, so there has always been a temptation to write a rock and roll song that captures the essence of America with a feel a little closer to home.

The trouble with this is that America is such a huge country compared to the UK.  The USA is forty times the size of little old England.  In the UK you are never more than 70 miles from the coast.  In the US the most central point is Belle Fourche in South Dakota.  This town of approximately 5000 people is over 1000 miles to the nearest coast.  That distance alone gives the songwriter plenty of acreage to reference on any particular journey. 

Take Route 66 for example perhaps the most famous of 'road' songs.  Chicago to Los Angeles is a journey of 2000 miles with big cities on the way.  Plenty of possible places to get your kicks on Route 66.

By contrast Helen Wheels by Wings, arguably the best known UK road song is about a drive from Glasgow to London via the M6, just over 400 miles.  Not a journey with the same number of highlights.  Places such as Kendal, Liverpool and Birmingham charming as they are don't stir the emotions in the same way as St. Louis or San Bernadino. 

When our drummer asked why couldn't we have our own Yorkshire rock and roll song, I had to go away and think very carefully about how we could.  I mean North Yorkshire has some spectacular driving roads, but it isn't exactly Oklahoma City.

So with a faithful 12-bar blues pattern in A, I went away and wrote Settle Rocks, about a journey along the A65 from Skipton to Settle.

This is a frequent journey that folk around here make.  Skipton is the nearest main town to Settle, so most will travel along the winding single carriageway road, often choked with farm or holiday traffic to get their weekly shop done.

References include the dodgy weather, it is Yorkshire after all, The Leeds Liverpool Canal, Tractors, Caravans, The Flying Scotsman on the Settle - Carlisle Railway and the famous Dales Three Peaks: Ingleborough, Whernside and Pen-Y-Ghent.

Ok so it might not be as romantic as driving an open topped Ford Mustang through the wide open spaces of Arizona or New Mexico, but its our own bit of Yorkshire rock and roll.

Look It's Just a 12-bar in A

"Now son if you're going to be in a rock and roll covers band, you need to be able to understand the mechanics of a 12-bar blues."

If you learnt to play guitar in the dim and distant past as I did,  your usual first port of call was playing an open A string and, on the D string an E at the second fret alternating with an F# at the 4th fret.  The hours of dum-de-dum achieved made you feel like Robert Johnson.  Progress was achieved when you discovered that moving your fretted notes down to the G and playing an open D gave you what is referred to as the IV chord.  Bliss was then ensured by moving your fretted notes to the A string and playing the open E to achieve the V Chord.  In other words, the A, D and E of the 12-bar blues in A.

This of course opens all kinds of doors.  You can be a Delta Blues Man, or start tackling most of the 1950's rock and roll of Elvis, Buddy Holly and Bill Hailey et al.

Of course as your playing improves you begin to tackle more complicated songs and maybe even write your own.

So after playing in a few bands over the years, I am now firmly back in the clutches of the 12-bar rock and roll song, usually in the key of A.

My band Revival of the Fittest is often described as a boyband.  However at 48 years old I am the youngest by almost 20 years.  This means that even a gentle Shadows walk causes much consternation and the need to apply Voltarol.  

The main issue is our repertoire is generally governed by what the other lads have heard of, and whilst I'm not necessarily on the cutting edge of musical taste, anything in this century is a foreign land for me, getting the lads to tackle say Oasis or Sleeper is a tricky business.  Thus we are often falling back on the rock and roll songs of the 50's and early 60's.

So when my youngest son began to take an interest in playing guitar I suggested he come to rehearsals and join in.  Now my lad is already far better than me, he has the advantage of better quality affordable guitars and the accessibility of YouTube instructional videos.  He is playing the solo from Sultans of Swing and studying Hendrix intently.  By contrast when I started out I was listening to my parents vinyl and trying to work out the chords to Buddy Holly.  Having to keep moving the needle back and forwards was an absolute pain in the proverbial, but as we would read in the NME its how Eric Clapton and The Beatles did it, so it had to be good enough for us.

Imagine then his frustration that almost every song we play is a 12-bar.  Where's Oasis?  Where's Hendrix?  What about CCR?

Cue Dad with a sigh: "Look it's just in 12-bar in A."