Shhhh.... Touring musician pay

[Shamanzarek]

For his first tour Stevie landed the opening slot with The Moody Blues which put him in front of large audiences all across the country. I saw him in 1983 at a Moody Blues show in southern California. I had already heard of him from his work on Bowie's Let's Dance album which was all over the radio around that time.

[Baldwin Funster]

1 hour ago, AnotherScott said:

...worth keeping in mind that that's the equivalent of about $1k per gig today.

Also wort keeping in mind  that the pay rate hasn't gone up since then and the buying power of a nights work, maybe the only money a musician will make all week, might buy a couple bags of groceries and half a tank of petrol. But I'm repeating the obvious point.

[jerrythek]

28 minutes ago, Baldwin Funster said:

Also wort keeping in mind  that the pay rate hasn't gone up since then and the buying power of a nights work, maybe the only money a musician will make all week, might buy a couple bags of groceries and half a tank of petrol. But I'm repeating the obvious point.

But that’s a different point. AnotherScott’s is that it was better pay back then than it seems due to lower cost of living. But I’m not defending that price - it does seem cheap for such a major artist/tour when he was at his most successful. 

[D. Gauss]

On 5/8/2024 at 8:54 PM, jazzpiano88 said:

 

That's lightning striking twice.   The probability is approximately 1e-12 x 1e-12 = 1e-24.    And that doesn't even take into account that he's a drummer playing a guitar and singing.   That's another 1e-4  1e-3 and 1e-5  factors of unlikeliness.

 

So it's a probability of 1e-37.    Someone like him will never happen again until after the next extinction. 

 

  Steve Winwood begs to differ.   Spencer Davis, Traffic, Blind Faith, Solo Albums. Big hits with multiple bands on multiple instruments over multiple decades.

[Synthaholic]

On 5/7/2024 at 11:19 AM, HammondDave said:

‘true.. but you also don’t have to sleep on a crappy bus with a bunch of smelly musicians…

Seems better than sleeping on a smelly bus with a bunch of crappy musicians.  🤷‍♀️ 😉

[Baldwin Funster]

26 minutes ago, Synthaholic said:

Seems better than sleeping on a smelly bus with a bunch of crappy musicians.  🤷‍♀️ 😉

Pay them more and maybe they'll smell better. Nah, probably not. 

[sherry]

Well, I'll comment on this, but I probably shouldn't.  Anyways, I have a friend I've known for 40 years, we've played together in a couple bands.  He was called up to play in a national act.  I won't say, but believe me, you've all heard of them.  He's been with them probably 8 years now and he's making easily quarter million a year.  There's no smelly busses.  Most gigs are fly-in, long weekend trips.  No dumpy hotels.  He spends more time in airports than anything else.  He has the perfect gig, because he's home more than on the road.  I know he's an exception, but when I first met him, I immediately knew he was going to make it in the music business, plus he's a hell of a nice guy.  No ego, just a complete professional.  Moral of my story, there are exceptions and sometimes, the dream comes true.

[CEB]

Rule 1.  Don’t shit on the bus.  

[Docbop]

28 minutes ago, CEB said:

Rule 1.  Don’t shit on the bus.  

Same applies to first weekend with a new girl don't use the toilet in the hotel room go down and use the restroom in the lobby.    Learned that one the hard way.  LOL   

[J.F.N.]

Air Wick comes in all sizes and flavours these days...

 

 

[D. Gauss]

8 hours ago, sherry said:

 Anyways, I have a friend I've known for 40 years, we've played together in a couple bands.  He was called up to play in a national act.  I won't say, but believe me, you've all heard of them.  He's been with them probably 8 years now and he's making easily quarter million a year.  There's no smelly busses.  Most gigs are fly-in, long weekend trips.  No dumpy hotels. 

 

Agree.  I know two friends who were associated with the "greatest rock and roll band in the world."  One had the gig in the late 80's and the other was on the short list but didn't get it in the 90's. For the 90's gig, the pay offered was salary....10k per week, gig or not. 4 star hotels, private jet. no buses at all.

[Baldwin Funster]

I d

6 hours ago, D. Gauss said:

 

Agree.  I know two friends who were associated with the "greatest rock and roll band in the world."  One had the gig in the late 80's and the other was on the short list but didn't get it in the 90's. For the 90's gig, the pay offered was salary....10k per week, gig or not. 4 star hotels, private jet. no buses at all.

I don't know of were talking about the same band but in the 2000's I worked with 2 guys that were carpenters (the hammer kind not the singing kind) on a stones tour. Standard pay for every tour $100,000. But it would be years in-between tours.

[Reezekeys]

Some timely posts here as I am currently on a bus tour of the UK - and of course we follow the cardinal rule of bus travel. Our bus is more of a regular coach as we do no overnights. Sherry's post describes my situation except for the "making easily quarter million a year" part. 🙂 Nice hotels, mostly weekend trips we fly to (the current tour being the exception), and decent venues - theatres and concert halls on this trip (just played Royal Albert Hall in London - second time with the band!). Really wish I could get a little closer to the "easy quarter million" level... maybe in another life!

[Bill H.]

On 5/8/2024 at 9:13 AM, Baldwin Funster said:

There are longer term considerations that main artists don't recognize until it's too late. Bowie lost Ronson over money. To me he lost a big chunk of his bowieness. I'm sure we all can mourn the break up of our favorite acts because the main guy didn't pay his band enough to keep them devoted. The consequences don't appear until the next album but the loss is real. Back to the OT, yeah a hired sideman for a tour can be replaced without the artist losing his overall sound so his value is limited.  But when the band has chemistry, you never know what you're going to lose by replacing someone.

 

I  witnessed the Station to Station tour at the Seattle Coliseum - an absolutely packed house. They were not there for Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. They were there for the Thin White Duke.

 

Bowie moved on, and successfully I believe. It's hard to imagine subsequent hits like Fame and Golden Years with without Carlos Alomar's propulsive guitar riffs.