Re: [Harp-L] Bands are too expensive?

[MundHarp@xxxxxxx]

It has always been hard for bands with harmonica players to get work.Or for 
 ANY bands to get work, for that matter.
When I started as a "pro" musician, back in the 60's, my band got paid  
about the same money per gig, as a middle level "executive" in business,  would 
make at work, per week.
30 years later,  in 1997, I had a GREAT six piece blues band  based in 
London England. I'm not bragging, It was simply WORLD CLASS!  Our minimum fee 
back then was only £300 per gig. That was just  £50 per musician, I didn't get 
any extra as the "MD". Allowing for inflation,  the money was VERY much 
less than my bands were paid back in the 1960s.
Most of our venues ... Pubs in the London area, during the 1990s,  simply 
had a maximum budget of only £150.  They could not afford  to pay any more 
than that.
They would pay just £150, as a  MAXIMUM !  For a  DJ,  for Karaoke, for a 
"one man band", or for a 50 piece orchestra. Or  even for a sports event 
broadcast on satellite TV!
So what did I do? I started working as a duo, with a keyboard player.  £75 
each isn't "riches beyond the dreams of avarice" but it is...  BARELY... A 
living.
Jason Ricci said, relating to being a "pro".... "Learn to eat  ramen"... 
Jason is certainly a wonderful entertainer and harp player... And can  only 
afford to eat noodles?
In desperation my fantastic sax player Ricardo Guerrero, started  working 
restaurants with backing tracks, on his own!
The only gigs that mostly DO still pay "good money", are weddings. And  
most weddings simply want "cover" bands playing music to dance to!  Rarely 
blues bands...
Over the past few years, pub venues have been closing down in  England, in 
their THOUSANDS... So there are fewer and fewer places for blues  bands to 
work in.
These days some venues even take a fee from the BAND just to play at  their 
"prestige venue". That certainly is the case at some of the clubs  in 
London's west end.
In my opinion, that is a disgrace! 
It's called:  "Pay to Play".
 
But, such is life!
 
John "Whiteboy" Walden,
British harmonica player,
just now in:
Cebu City,
Philippines.