Anyone been to that place back of West Street, Tripetts?

Used to go a while back but moved away. Now i'm back, went in and they are charging now when the bands are on, but I don't think the bands are as good as they used to be. What do you think?

When I put gigs on at either the Cricketers, The Earl or the Grapes I charge £3. Things have to be paid for. I have spent the best part of 3 grand on my PA system over the last year. The Sound engineer needs to get paid, hopefully the bands will get paid as well.
I charge between 60 and a hundred quid for a gig for PA hire and the sound engineering after that the bands keep the rest of the money.

Venues also have to get a separate licence if they have more than 2 people performing music (or is it 1??)
they cost a **** load apparently

I'm with carcrash on this one. I don't think Joe Public appreciates how much gigging equipment costs. I too play the odd live gig and whilst my PA didn't quite cost as much as carcrash's did, it - along with the cost of my guitars, leads, amp, microphone and numerous sundry items - does add up to quite a bit.

Also, £3 sounds a fair deal to me. Be fair to musicians! Whilst an audience can come and go as they wish, the musician's day might have started mid-afternoon (loading up, getting to the venue and setting up) and it could finish long after you've taken your bleary head to bed (setting down, loading up and getting home etc).

No musician should do this for a pittance (like I did in the early 1990s, getting paid £2 for one gig!!!!!!)

Some places can do it for free and deserve all the credit they get for it but they make their money over the bar. I have to find a place with a full PEL and take my own lights and PA in and I dont get any of the bar takings. I provide everything except the instruments although I do keep a spare amp and guitar around just in case.
Somebody put up a thread a couple of days ago about a young band wanting to play a gig. Some venues are loath to do that because they know they won't make as much over the bar.
With the classic rock bar going it has left a big hole in the Sheffield gigging scene.
A few other places are springing up, I've been to a fair few gigs recently that bands have held in their practice rooms.

3 pound is definately fair enough,its what me and my band charged at most bars/pubs we gigged at,the boardwalk and the grapes etc..

at the grapes though the bands have to charge really,with a 50 squid fee for using the place

I think it has gone up to 70 at The Grapes or it is doing at some point soon.

that doesnt sound good.

I think it's fair enough to charge if a band is on... as long as it's not silly prices. £2-£3 is ok, but I wouldn't be happy paying a fiver for example, especially if I was just out for a drink rather than going to see the band specifically.

Would you still have to pay if you turned up for the last hour? What about if the band has finished?

It's not bad I think. 3 bands need to bring 23 people to break even

Originally posted by carcrash
.
With the classic rock bar going it has left a big hole in the Sheffield gigging scene.


Going, but hopefully not for too long....!

classic rock bar never charged to get in, the band is what attracts people and the pubs normally are making money from the people the band have attracted, so why should theband have to pay to play at pubs?

the good thing about the grapes is the gigs are upstairs so you can still sit downstairs n just have a drink without having to pay to get in

Hey thanks guys. Don't mind paying the £3 - it's neither here nor there really - did't realise all the equipment is so expensive tho. Carcrash, let me know when you're putting a band on, i'd love to come down to see them, can't beat live music! xxx

Here's a story of the life of a PA man, for anybody who's interested.

for about 4 years I operated a portable band pa system and had several residences a week. It was a 1kw main pa with lots of mics and monitors, lights and smoke machine, and I used to do one off gigs for £100- £120 and weekly residencys for £60 appx.
Out of this I paid my assistant 1/3rd of the fee and I had 1/3 and 1/3 went to pay for equipment. Boy was it hard work.

After 2 years I had paid for the equipment, which cost about £3000. Soon after I packed it in because It was too hard with a normal day job as well and my health was starting to suffer. Especially my hearing!

What you may not realise is that you have to be there for the band early so they can have a run through and sound check,
[soundcheck = making the guitars turn down so everyone can hear the singer]
this means at the very latest 7.30pm, takes a very fast 15 minutes to get everything set up, then you put pre gig music on like a dj and possibly do announcements, show starts at 9ish, finishes 11ish, then you have to wait for all the bloody encores and get all the equipment wrapped up and when the crowd has gone get it into the van, then you drive to the lock up and put away the speakers, then you drop the assistant at home, then you get home at 12.30 and take all the wires mics, cd players amps etc. into the house, and finally done at 12. 40.
round about 5 hours work with lots of heavy lifting.

I am happy to pay up to £5 for a small gig in a pub room, any less is peanuts. Ideally it should be the price of a pint of guinness, that's my ideal.

My old group spent a lot of money on PA gear and even a huge van to gig around in, but I decided I'd had enough when in 1989 it was obvious that I needed a new drumkit (guess what? I used to be the drummer). I was 20 then, owed nearly £1000 as it was without splashing out another £700 on a new kit. I decided I couldn't afford it and so called it a day (ay, at such a tender age too. But we'd conquered West Street so that was like cracking America!!!!).

Actually, I'm still sure it's the staircase at the Hallamshire, West Street that finally put me off. I'm sure half my hands are still on those walls, I suffered terrible knuckle skin loss struggling with gear up and down those steps!

And I'm not lying when in some instances, our group would play a gig and end up with £2.50 each for what was, an entire afternoon's effort.

These days it's me, my guitars and a small but adequate PA system - when I feel like it!

I think muddycoffee's comment that getting into a gig should cost the price of a pint of Guinness sounds very reasonable.

Just thought I'd add how the residencies used to work for money.

Pub manager had an entertainment allowance of £120

£10 to the promoter, £60 for the PA,
and we always used to get given instructions about how to split the remaining £50 between the 2 or 3 bands. Sometimes the 3rd band would only get £10 which is frankly embarrasing.

Originally posted by Ousetunes
Actually, I'm still sure it's the staircase at the Hallamshire, West Street that finally put me off. I'm sure half my hands are still on those walls, I suffered terrible knuckle skin loss struggling with gear up and down those steps!
for me it was the Speakeasy. under the Abbeydale cinema.. My ****** up mate dropped a huge speaker down the stairs once! Nearly killed himself.

Whinging promotor time.
The cost of the PA and equiptment does add up. This year up to now I have spent £400 on a new 24 channel xlr input desk. £250 on a 16 channel multicore, £250 on some top end cabs as a couple got nicked by some theiving *****.
I spend £45 for 100 metres of cable from Bardwells and make my own cables as It saves me about 100 quid.
I should hopefully have 2 different PA's set up in the next couple of months so I can do stuff in 2 different venues at the same time

I'm quite happy to pay the £3 to see a band because then at least I know what I am letting myself in for.

What I hate is going out for a drink only to have to listen to a band that I didn't pay to see and quite frankly wouldn't pay to see. 'Jazz duo's' are usually the main culprits and it's usually a cue for an early exit.

Don't get me onto pub quizzes! :P

Originally posted by carcrash
Whinging promotor time.
The cost of the PA and equiptment does add up. This year up to now I have spent £400 on a new 24 channel xlr input desk. £250 on a 16 channel multicore, £250 on some top end cabs as a couple got nicked by some theiving *****.
I spend £45 for 100 metres of cable from Bardwells and make my own cables as It saves me about 100 quid.
I should hopefully have 2 different PA's set up in the next couple of months so I can do stuff in 2 different venues at the same time


carcrash, you forgot to add 'but hey, that's rock n roll!':thumbsup:

starting my own system now,gonna cost a bomb,but mainly for big events,estimating over 10 grand :(

me and my band made 147 squid at our first ever gig at the boardwalk,all profit aswell,made me smile

3quid is fine for a band I've never heard of and I'll gladly wander in to see almost anyone for that. But occasionally I've paid 5quid to see such a band in a pub back room and after finding out they weren't my cuppa tea after about 1 minute I felt it was too much and it put me off doing the same thing again. I suppose it's the banknote as opposed to loose change thing which can put off the casual punter.

By the way, why doesn't the Deep End have proper gigs on more often? Is it too dear for bands to play there? It's a great venue - potentially - but seems a bit rudderless and not really punching its weight on the local circuit

Well, we played at the Classic Rock Bar, it was free entry, and a week last Thursday we played at the Cricketers, free again, and both times we went down a storm (well we would do, we're a fantastic classic rock band!).

But my point is this - there are good bands, who's members have other jobs, who will happily play for nowt (if the landlord want's to buy us a couple of beers that's great, and a bonus).

They do it because their livelihood doesn't depend on it and so they can do it purely for the fun (and in our case the ROCK!). There's plenty of 'em out there.

I recently saw Charlie Don't Surf at the Birley Hotel, and Stormbringer at the Silver Fox - all free entry - and bloody good rock bands. I know it depends on the landlord/promoter, and the kind of music you're into, but there are pubs putting bands on and not charging anything - it's just finding them I suppose.

Having said that, we're playing at the Malin for a £2 door charge - but that's the way they do things there (and we're worth it!).

Which reminds me... I must get down to The Earl - and I must arrange another night at The Crickers - that was a banger that was.

i loved playing at the rock bar,free beer and what not,but we got barred for being 'to rowdy'......just because we kicked over some tables and caused mayhed,but a punk band at the rock bar,what could you expect!

Originally posted by THCAyle
i loved playing at the rock bar,free beer and what not,but we got barred for being 'to rowdy'......just because we kicked over some tables and caused mayhed,but a punk band at the rock bar,what could you expect!

I don't recall barring anyone for kicking over tables. Which band were you in? Through the 4000 different performances we've had we've only told one band that they cannot play again due to the underage audience that they brought who grafittied the toilets and smashed their pop glasses everywhere.

We've never barred a band from playing because they were rowdy. That's the spirit of rock.

Kicking over tables? There shouldn't have been any on the stage - are you sure you are on about the Classic Rock Bar?

Buffy (landlady, Classic Rock Bar)

definately the rock bar,but i dont think it was the usual room,we were on ground level with the crowd

band was called riot van,we were meant to play again the same week but all i heard was we couldnt cuz we were barred for being to rowdy,maybe just rumours,but oh well,sorry about the tables n glasses on them ;)