the academy in manchester now sends this to support bands....



Your full name:
band name:
address:
postcode:
tel no landline:
mobile:
how many band members
email:

And all of above info for 2nd band member .

Ticket selling terms;
You will be required to sell tickets in advance, the venue will issue
you with these once you confirm the gig, we will send you a confirmation
letter authorising you to collect 25 tickets per band member, you then
take this to the Academy, and they issue the tickets.

Tickets are priced @

Not uncommon at all these days sadly, but in many ways they could actually be commended for cutting to the chase so early on instead of avoiding the issue.
I allways fought a battle against this saying it was the promoters and agents job, but lost big time.
I agree heartily that the band have to try 100% as well in selling themselves but in many cases in can overtake creativity which I allways felt was dangerous.

THE opening salvo of catch 22ism a new act faces.
I can`t see it changing for a while.

My band are a three piece - costs equally split. 2 members were students and I'm on benefits. Funding equipment hire and rehearsals is just possible. We got ready to play live so sought some exposure and signed up for a gig with similar terms... not that we knew about any of it until we agreed a deal.

This was our first gig and that considered, I thought such terms were unfair. To get an audience, you have to play live, but in order to do so, we had to pay a ridiculous amount - on top of more hire expenses etc and it bankrupted us. I was not happy but told my fellow members that sadly this is increasingly common practise.

The REAL rub was a hidden clause whereby the band were forbidden from doing any other gigs in the area - our local area - for 3 weeks each side of the gig date. We had to turn down 2 offers because of that so lost extra possible promotion on smaller gigs that did not operate "pay to play".

How the hell then are new bands, low on money expected to cope and survive and become a regular gigging band with such terms? (Don't forget also that most youngsters under 21 are on stupidly low income thanks to the "minimum wage" and its the younger bands that matter and get noticed...) I've been doing music in various forms for 20 years and done loads of gigs but never before had I had to "pay to play".

The worst of it was it was on an all day event - no headlining band - on a Sunday afternoon and less than 10 people saw us. Whilst I was there I saw 4 other bands so they were unable to fulfil the criteria and ended up losing out just like us... who the hell goes to watch gigs on Sunday afternoon anyway? The promoters expect the bands to do all promotion too - they did absolutely NOTHING and were impossible to deal with... the conditions were murky and unfair and they didn't reply to enquiries.

We kept asking for tickets - earlier you get them, better chance of shifting them, right? 2 dates for tickets were given... didn't arrive and eventually they didn't become available until 2 weeks BEFORE the gig. One tiny snag - another clause - you had to give 3 weeks notice if you were to pull out, otherwise you get fined! So, it was impossible to pull out because to do so would had cost us the same as performing the beastly gig! No band sold enough to get paid and the promoters trousered a tidy

If you don't the deal that's offered say "No thank you".

There you go, problem solved.

Nicely finalised there Elliot, however there is one point missed in all three posts, that I can point out with hindsite if I may.

Original bands own the rights to their material.

How many cover bands declare their works to the PRS,PPL etc(which I beleive the venues are liable for) and how much do the venues potentially save by employing original bands, who it is presumed take care of their own fees artisticly and financially?

Small beans, it may seem, but on the grand scale it is not.

In theory, new talent should be saving a fortune in entertainment values in that, what has become grey area.

The best value in using pay to play, to your advantage, as it will not go away, is fix your own bill, and present the whole package to the venues.

It wasn`t so long ago, we run a Mean Fiddler night, totally independently.