Liverpool’s Crumbling Scene: Reader’s Views (p1)
- Joe Colburn: The scene in liverpool is all up in the air. Most bands are more than happy to just be playing and maybe scoring a coupla free drinks. Other bands want ‘what they’ve earnt’. 9 times out of ten attendance of gigs in liverpool is poor. This is for one reason alone. Venues and bars are taking the piss, so promoters have to step expectations up and spread themselves thinner, bands have to cope with the worry of, what if we don’t get enough people…How will we get home with all our gear? And the people Who are paying to come see bands are then saying no, prices are to high and its dead in there. Most lads I know in bands, myself included thrive of their next gig, regardless of money for playing it. It’d be nice to have a 3 way split between venue, band and promoter, but that’s never always going to work because the venues call the shots, promotors call second. And the whole fucking point of anyone even being in that situation on the first place are people wanting to come and watch bands. Some of the best bands I’ve ever seen have been in free gigs In liverpool, they’ve played an amaazing set, had a free beer and then shipped off to the next gig to do covers in a pub to get a wage. The point is, the music industry is exactly what it says, an industry. The liverpool music scene is struggling for the simple reason being, there are too many people tryna make a quick few quid out of it. With the exception of a very small handful of promoters on merseyside, (yourself obviously being included joe ;) ) most all promotors couldn’t give a fuck how hard that band has worked, or don’t care whether or not the bands/artists/poets/rappers etc even get anything out of it. As long as they have broke even and made enough profit to give them some uni pocket money. Pay to play is wrong. Bring back the good ole glory days…
- Chris Bayley: Very true Joe. The likes of me and you, who play to entertain and for there love of music, are a dying breed. It angers me to think some people do it for money and nothing else. I’m not saying that in all cases this is true. It is nice to receive a few pennies for the time, effort and skill it takes to perform. It’s great to see young bands enjoying themselves and getting paid for doing something they love. But the majority of venues exploit the acts because in this modern climate we live in, with times being hard and all, they know artists will take it rather than leave it. Which is wrong. I do however agree on paying artists and I can’t stress that enough but to believe that “we deserve more” attitude is ludicrous if these artists don’t like the wage they receive then they shouldn’t play at that particular venue but in my eyes any money that we get is a bonus. And should be respected so. The question these artists have to ask themselves is “why are they playing? ” whether it’s for the entertainment it brings or for the money. Because I feel that the latter is wrong. Not to seem hypocritical with what I’ve expressed, but in some circumstances yes if you have a talent and have to use it to create an income then good luck to these people. It’s a difficult way to make some money because for the actual you are going to perform there are a hundred people lined up ready to do the same thing. Unless you find a gap in the market, so to speak. So to be honest I’m starting to contradict my self, we can’t change people on why the perform but it’s alot to think about. I do however, dispite my own feelings, think that venues should pay their artists a fair wage and not beer money.
- Joe Colburn: Fair point mate. Where’s as it is entirely possible for a musician too make a weekly wage gigging, take myself for example, I’d pay a fiver taxi fair to a pub gig play for two hours and get 100 quid. That’s 50 an hour, take away strings, equipment upkeep, travel expenses and beer money, that averages about 40 quid an hour. Enterprising young musicians are lucky in that respect.On the other hand, when I gig with my band I find myself 30 or 40 quid out of pocket as I’m paying travel to liverpool and back, more equipment costs, beer money, a bite to eat and losing money on ticket or door sales to bring people to a gig. Its swings and roundabouts mate.
- Chris Bayley: It is mate. The system is fubar. Very few full bands mange to make alot of money out of it. Some do. Kudos to them. They’re lucky. It’s a controversial topic because no one sees the right points, mine haha, in all seriousness though it’s down to venues to treat their acts as an employee and not Fuck them around.
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