I agree with you to a certain extent. That's the kind of stuff we've been doing in this country. We've been playing gigs for free in the hope of some kind of publicity or further opportunity. I just don't see why we haven't got very far with it in this time. Fair enough, in Portugal we have contacts, but the people don't know that. They still come to the gigs so our music can't be crap. Making it big can also be a false economy. It's usually record companies that control the big budget publicity and gigs. Most of the time, the bands don't see all that much of the money unless they get an uncommonly good deal.
We're at the stage where we can go abroad and charge decent money for playing gigs. It's just irritating that we have to go to Europe if we want to make a living from this at the moment.
I'm not sure how hard we chased Whistle Binkies. If we wanted to, we could have a go at them cos they sent us e-mails with this deal written on it. There's nothing stopping them from getting back to us and saying that we didn't do well enough. Maybe they wanted 50 people dancing and drinking on a Tuesday night. It's not something that's quantifiable. If they can find someone that will play for free on a Saturday night when they charge to get in, they are in profit. If a singer-songwriter will play for 50 quid, they will go for that over us. They don't give a shit about the quality of the music or the amount of effort bands put into rehearsing and recording their stuff. They care about having some kind of act on the stage between certain hours, because they are a "Live Music" venue. It's about ticking boxes for the least money possible, not about art.
(Not saying singer-songwriters are bad, just that they're more economical for a cheapskate venue and when acts like that happen every night in every bar, it gets a wee bit samey)
We're at the stage where we can go abroad and charge decent money for playing gigs. It's just irritating that we have to go to Europe if we want to make a living from this at the moment.
I'm not sure how hard we chased Whistle Binkies. If we wanted to, we could have a go at them cos they sent us e-mails with this deal written on it. There's nothing stopping them from getting back to us and saying that we didn't do well enough. Maybe they wanted 50 people dancing and drinking on a Tuesday night. It's not something that's quantifiable. If they can find someone that will play for free on a Saturday night when they charge to get in, they are in profit. If a singer-songwriter will play for 50 quid, they will go for that over us. They don't give a shit about the quality of the music or the amount of effort bands put into rehearsing and recording their stuff. They care about having some kind of act on the stage between certain hours, because they are a "Live Music" venue. It's about ticking boxes for the least money possible, not about art.
(Not saying singer-songwriters are bad, just that they're more economical for a cheapskate venue and when acts like that happen every night in every bar, it gets a wee bit samey)
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