You might want to sign this Petition...

[goodisonpark]

Signed

The world is your oyster but the future's a clam

[Seismic Anamoly]

I see ya there, bro!!

[Seismic Anamoly]

HERE IF YOU ALREADY HAVEN'T...



Sad to have to pay to play your own stuff...

[debbie mannas]

bloody thieves.

[Seismic Anamoly]

They truly are....

[questionnaire]

Swindling b******* The live venue scene has never changed in this country. A band I was in once broke the bartake record in a venue in Newcastle 12 weeks running ....... they didn't give us a penny above the door take, didn't give us free drink and didn't even buy us a drink at Christmas ........

[bbchris]

Signed! I've heard many bad stories. The bands need to find sympathetic clubs if poss and creating new business plans... Change the way of doing business and it will change how these money-grabbing pubs act. TAKE ACTION!

|Blah Blah|Thinking Out Loud|Jane Eliz||Talk Soup |

[debbie mannas]

create a band union. Establish standards below which no one will work.



Trouble is bar managers know when bands are desperate, both to play their music, and the cash, and they take advantage of that. Sorry state of affairs.

[questionnaire]

Debbie, we had a very strong Musician's Union in the North East of England until the mid-1980s. Then the bands themselves started refusing to join. Some would rather pay to play - anything to get on the stage and impress their mommas. The bar owners started to employ cheap bands, people stopped going because the bands couldn't do the job and the whole thing went into free-fall. Now only about 20% of the venues are still going (in a place that has one of the strongest music traditions in Europe - Hank Marvin, The Animals, John Mclaughlin, Lindisfarne, Bryan Ferry, Sting, Mark Knopfler, AC/DC's Brian Johnson, The Lighthouse Family etc.), and most prefer solo singers with pre-recorded backing tracks (another thing the the MU tried to stop), but then again it's musicians themselves who are making them. Sure, the attitude of most of the bar owners stinks (a minority were real music fans and cut a good deal), but sometimes we dig our own grave ....



Steve H

[LarreeMP3]

Pay to play is a fact of life in Hollywood. If you want to play the Sunset Strip, you have to buy your tickets in advance and sell them yourself. I have always hated the concept. However, living in Hollywood, I totally understand. Every A$$hole in the universe who THINKS they are hot comes here to "make it" and the club owners can do what they want. They know that they can pick and choose and set whatever rules they want to set, and the lame-a$$ed wannabes will kiss their a$$es.

[droolymutt]

Like Larree, I also understand the pay to play concept. Even though I disagree with it.





Montreal is leaning that way lately.



It weeds out a lot of people who are not serious about their music.



The downside is that it means bands with money can get exposure, even if they sound like crap.



But from a Club owner's perspective, I understand.





If Club owners were Charities, set up purely for the benefit of talented musicians, things would be different.





People start businesses to make money. That's a simple Fact of life.

[rod steel global]

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