[matilda] Re: Re[2]: gig costs vs party costs - was - proposal for wed 'events' meeting

[gavin at cyber-rights.net]

steve>Coming more from the free party scene rather than punk gig I 
steve>have to say I don't really understand what the costs are. In 
steve>free parties there is a minor amount for fuel to run the 
gennies steve>and very rarely a hat goes round to help with sound 
system costs steve>(blown speakers etc.)

I'm sure nick and helen are more experienced with this than me, but 
in my experience of putting on bands/artists...

Sound systems tend to be local, not usually travelling too far and 
playing different records each time they play. Punk bands only have 
one set of songs to play, so they travel around a lot more. Often 
in other countries, so they have a van to hire (unless like most 
soundsystems they own one), long-distance fuel to pay for, an 
evening meal and a place to stay for the band members (from 3 
people up in each band..) can sometimes be provided free, but not 
always. So, for example, the infernal noise brigade, with 25 
members, travelling in a bus together from the US, asked for a 
guarantee of £200 when they played at Matilda. This was real low 
for so many people. I fed them all myself on pasta and veg salad 
and they were able to sleep for free in our building. I sent them 
on their way with £300 as they'd not got even close to their 
guarantee at any other shows in the UK.

And if you're travelling you're not working - some people who work 
can treat a tour as a holiday, or take work with them, some people 
who maybe don't work might need a bit of cash from each gig to make 
the tour viable so they can buy day to day things like breakfast 
and lunch, toilet paper, toothpaste and so on as they go.

There's the cost of hiring the PA, usually, too. This is usually 
about £100-£200 quid. I think it cost about £170 for the PA that 
Ceephax and Vex'd used on Saturday.

Covering costs like this is necesarry, even for benefit gigs. You 
still have to pay for the PA, and if a band have travelled a long 
way to play and bring the kids in, or maybe aren't really breaking 
even on their tour or something, it'd be fairly common in the 
spirit of DIY cooperation to make sure they break even with their 
costs, too. This is why for benefit gigs you usually only get local 
bands playing, unless a touring band is in town anyway for another 
gig.

If you're putting on shows regularly, you also sometimes make a 
real bad loss. Ask Kath about the show she put on for an American 
touring band two weeks ago, where a whole three people turned up. 
Some promoters hold onto some of the extra they make on those RARE 
(trust me, RARE - you almost always lose money) occasions when they 
more than cover costs so that when things do run at a big loss, 
there's something in the kitty so you can still give that band some 
fuel money to get them to the next show.

Then of course, there's the more minor cost of flyers and posters. 
Some free parties use these, but most work by the internet and word 
of mouth. People mostly already 'know' where to go or who to call. 
There's more of an established community who attend, and a set few 
soundsystems who people know what to expect from. There's some of 
this in DIY, with people going to shows by particular promoters (in 
Leeds, 'chinchilla' promoters usually means expect difficult, 
angular hardcore and experimental punk, and 'collective aka' means 
melodic pop punk and emo, 'team catmobile' means the harsh breaks 
and electronica type artists that 'c90' put on in sheffield.. there 
are others who tend to put on quirky indie, or riot grrl bands, and 
so on) but with gigs, it's really a new band each time that 
probably not many people will have even heard of, and each time 
you've got to pull people in. And you're usually dealing with a 
MUCH wider range of music than you get at free parties, so you're 
looking at a varied and ever changing crowd of people to attend 
each time. So to make a show work, you need to put the word out 
with flyers and posters, which can cost money.

And yes, we have provided costs for benefit parties, where we've 
had to hire a soundsystem. C90 managed to blag us a soundsystem for 
£20, so we covered that cost and they played at the no borders 
party.

These are different 'anti-capitalist' solutions to different 
situations. A gig does have higher costs, usually, than a free 
party. I hope this gives an idea of what some of the more common 
costs are there.



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