Has anyone ever booked a known band for a birthday

[Josepipe]

When The Cribs were starting off , they would play your house for a few beers and some petrol money , which considering they lived two miles away , would not have broke the bank.

Someone asked me the other year if I could have a word with one of them , because their management would

not return calls about em playing Wakey.

I thought " I ain't surprised they are not returning your calls mate ! "

[danger-man]

I guess a lot depends on the whim of the band. If there is one guy and he is in the area so basically has no incidental costs or other people to pay then you could get a good deal as he's taking to the bank 90% of what you pay him. A band with a lot of gear who have to travel out of their way are going to take a lot less profit.

Seasick Steve seems a great bloke, there was some footage of him just turning up to a Blues night in Soho and playing to a tiny pub. Even so he's quite big now, I'd be shocked if he'd do a birthday for less than £10k.

[Steve P]

When we were looking for a band for our wedding we came across rick waller. We thought it would be funny to have him play so emailed him and said he'd play with his big swing band for £1,500 plus travel and accomodation. This was a long time after he was on the telly so wasn't exactly in the public eye either. We told him to f@ck right off.

I have no idea if we were supposed to feed him on top of his fee as well.

[fullfathom5]

Jon McClure's new band are on about doing houseparties: http://www.facebook.com/thetruerss

[joe1990]

twisted wheel would be a good band for a party, cheap most likey - just give them a few pork pies.

[jameshunt]

Hi All

Im hoping to get some advice from this forum, cutting to the chase ive missed out on tickets this year so far for 2011, its birthday number (cough) 40 in February and a big bash is being held, im looking to create a real festival feel to the place.

So i got a little carried away the other night, being a big fan I took the plunge and sent a mail to Seasick Steves agent wanting to know what it would cost to have him sing for an hour.

Received a reply saying exactly this:

Thanks for your email and glad to hear your are a fan! In this instance you would need to make us an offer; I cannot give out a fee.

Now in a dream world I would like to think that Steve being the humble guy he is would not be looking for a huge fee to play a gig for 50 friends and family for an hour, but in reality is he likely to know about this request?

So has anyone ever found themselves in this situation or have any idea what a realistic offer would be please ?

[jameshunt]

Another thought is Hayseed Dixie. A fantastic live band and they still play some sets for free beer. If they are in the country around that time you might be onto a winner.

[Sawdusty surfer]

Catch Seasick steve at the right time and he's yours for a grand or two.

.............Jan Feb March are the doldrums. Anything is better than nothing.

[grumpyhack]

Another thought is Hayseed Dixie. A fantastic live band and they still play some sets for free beer. If they are in the country around that time you might be onto a winner.

[austrian_zeppelin]

offer him £ 1k and £ 500 for his favorite charity. something like that might swing it.

[Ed209]

If you cant get seasick steve Bodger and Badger (amongst others) are available for booking here!

[kev1664]

Appearance fee for the Futureheads is around 25k so that may help you in your search/eliminate the idea from your head.

How do I know this, the bass player David Craig plays for the cricket club which I play for the same clubs football team.

When the cricket club was organising a festival of local bands to play on the cricket pitch, the club chairman who was organising said will you play for £500, and Jaff said try more like £25k.

Edited November 10, 2010 by kev1664

[fullfathom5]

^ Greedy bast##d.

[eggyrocks]

I imagine he was doing it slighty in jest.

Futureheads in 2010/11 would maybe get 200/400 people at shows outside of Newcastle / London. That's not generating 25k is it.

Edited November 10, 2010 by eggyrocks

[kev1664]

I imagine he was doing it slighty in jest.

Futureheads in 2010/11 would maybe get 200/400 people at shows outside of Newcastle / London. That's not generating 25k is it.

[russycarps]

I think people in this thread have absolutely no idea of the value of money.

Offering £1,000 or £1,500 is completely and utterly laughable. That is a microscopic sum of money. Do you really think a household name like seasick steve would play for that? You are living in a complete dream world.

[tylerdurden]

25k for the Futureheads is hilarious, I may just be being musically ignorant, but I don't think I could name one song by them. At the end of the day, it comes down to want more than necessity, someone above mentioned slightly-known bands playing for free beer, I'm sure you could find a fair few like that, willing to play at no cost to themselves (travel, gear, set-up etc.) and a small fee. Some of the sums mentioned are mental

[eggyrocks]

Exactly that, Tyler (though I can name a few songs). If the Futureheads made 25k off their last full tour I'd eat my hat.

I'm going to put on a night for my 30th in 2012, I'll be offering a couple of bands I like free beer, travel and maybe a couple of hundred quid.

Seasick Steve is different because he is a name (not quite sure he's household) but he's not above theatre level now so I'd be surprised if he makes more than 3-5k a night on a tour after paying for everything.

A birthday-do for a fan he might do it cheaper, some artists would, some see private gigs as a chance to get some proper money in for a change. Let's face it most of them are for rich snobs who aren't fussed about the music so it's probably pretty hard going doing them.

The fact his agent got in touch in this respect is enough to me to show he's not going to be wanting silly, silly money. Unless in the original email you made it sound like you won the pools.

[beodeejay]

I spend my working day paying bands, and sit in an office where deals are done all day long - the OP should stick with it - be reasonable and you may be surprised.

BUT...out of respect, if you do strike a deal, suggest you don't post the amount here....just whether or not your doing it. This would be unfair/unprofessional.

As a guide, Seasick Steve will probably want accommodation for 2/3 - plus meals and some "hospitality". He will probably consider an offer below some of the £££'s mentioned above - If he isn't busy that week, and if your proposal appeals.

Bear in mind to play a one off gig, even for a solo performer (outside a tour schedule) is actually 2 or 3 days "work" - for 2 or maybe 3 people (artist,tech guy and maybe also a driver/manager). Even though you only see "work" of a 90 minute set.

So it isn't £1500 for an hours work, as someone said earlier - there is travel time & costs, kit to get ready/setup/play the gig/remove kit/return travel.

A schedule for an artist like S S would be :

Day before gig -Get kit out of storage & check(maybe 2 or 3 guitars, a couple of amps, pedals, leads etc etc). Pack clothing etc

Day of Gig - travel to location, Could be 1,2,3,....5 hours in a car?? Arrive, find hotel/unpack, find venue, unpack & set up & soundcheck. Eat. Wait around...perform...wait around. Break down and pack up kit. Travel to back to hotel.

Day after gig...reverse of the day before the gig.

So...work out the "man hours" .....even for 2 people, it's not a mega-rate if its £2 or £3k. if it's three people - which is entirely possible, that 9 working days. So pro-rata, the time is costing you less than most accountants charge.

Real example - recently (in last 3 years) I booked a fairly big internationally renowned "name" solo guitarist/singer to play in a hifi shop as part of a customer event/promo. He had just won a BIG award (televised by the bbc) and played a full set at the Royal Albert Hall just 6 weeks later.

Came in at a very reasonable amount. A true gentleman, he was interested to do the gig, and we had a date the filled a spare few days...so everyone was happy.

If you don't ask, you don't get.

That said, anyone actually paying multiple thousands to the Saturdays or any of those orange wannabees is just getting what they deserve...

Edited November 10, 2010 by beodeejay

[jameshunt]

I think people in this thread have absolutely no idea of the value of money.

Offering £1,000 or £1,500 is completely and utterly laughable. That is a microscopic sum of money. Do you really think a household name like seasick steve would play for that? You are living in a complete dream world.

[4AssedMonkey]

I have no insight or experience of this but would expect certain artists to be reasonable about private performance fees, but surely they all have, ahem "professional" representation (by which I mean leech agents taking a cut and forcing prices up) that you have to go through. That being the case I think that you'd be hard pushed. However Beodeejay clearly seems to be in the know and there's no harm in trying. Offer what you can afford and see what happens.

[Mark Pooler]

I had The Complete Beatles for my wedding and they were awesome. You can't go wrong with a Beatles tribute act, something for everyone. They were about a grand.

[whatmidlifecrisis?]

I spend my working day paying bands, and sit in an office where deals are done all day long - the OP should stick with it - be reasonable and you may.....

[fullfathom5]

the Saturdays

[Greenish]

any news? do you have a great act playing a birthday bash?