"Once upon a time, musicians actually got paid!"
Well, now that you asked...
Back in the early 70's I worked at my first job fixing amps in a music store in Stoney Creek, Ontario. Since the owner had a problem getting out of bed I was usually working the storefront too, at least until noon or so.
Bands like Moxy, Mara Loves, Old Sailor, Vehicle, Copper Penny - it seemed everybody was in a band and gigging all over the province, if not the country. Moxy was doing great opening in Texas for ZZ Top. They were Canada's answer to Led Zeppelin, until Buzz the lead singer wiped out on his motorcycle. Crying shame, that. Their stuff still stands up well today.
Anyhow, one day one of the bands comes in, moaning that their soundman/roadie had just quit to go back to Matawa, Ontario and feed mosquitoes for a living. They got the bright idea that having me as a replacement would be perfect so the con job started.
"Free beer! Loose women! 5 star hotels and the time of your life!"
Being young and therefore even more gullible than I am today I agreed, and off we went.
The first gig was in Wallaceburg, Ontario at the "Wallaceburg Inn". The band was 5 pc and the hotel had both a real stage and a dance floor. I sat out front at the end of a 75 foot snake to my mixing board and light controls, which gives you an idea of how big the club was. It sat maybe 350 people. No chicken wings, no pool tables. You came there to dance and drink beer! I couldn't mix sound and dance at the same time but I did the best I could with the beer!
First song, first set I feel something thunk against the heels of my platform shoes and the denim on my back was soaked with what smelled obviously as beer. I looked back and there was a 6'4" native warrior on the floor, it being his head that hit my shoes. There was a 5'6" bouncer sitting on his chest, rabbit punching him in the face like a machine gun. I watched in shock and awe as the little guy picked up the bigger one and literally threw him down the aisle and then kicked him out the door!
Being just a wimpy kid whose only claim to fame was sniffing solder fumes I was rather rattled! At the end of the set the band gathered round, reassuring me that such things were virtually unknown to happen and that this was a one in a million fluke.
I won't tell you what the band rooms looked like...
I swallowed this line just like the earlier ones and stayed with them for about a year. We were a "C" circuit band in that we weren't good enough to play big halls or the better Toronto clubs so we toured from Wallaceburg to Tillsonburg, St. Thomas to Woodstock, London, Collingwood and then work our way up north to play back to back high school dances in Hearst and Kapuskasing. After reaching this apogee we'd start our way back down province to get home.
Even a band such as us, playing covers of Deep Purple and Captain Beyond, Ziggy Stardust, Robin Trower, James Gang and lots of Foghat would tour for months playing 3 and 6 nighters every week, with the occasional high school dance as a filler. 3 nights got us $1600-$1800 dollars. 6 nighters paid at least $2400. High schools paid maybe $800 in Hamilton and $1400 for the Hearst folks, who had to fork over more to get a band to drive all that way.
You must understand that this was 1972 dollars, when a gallon of gas was less than 30 cents, a pack of cigarettes cost .45 and your buddy's old man had just bought a brand new Duster car for $1900. My first rent payment was $65 a month!
Can you imagine what the "B" and "A" bands were making?
People were not nearly as poor as they are today. At least not in terms of what they could spend on entertainment. Clubs booked us for 6 nights because people filled the place for 6 nights! People worked all day and after they paid the necessities they could still afford to go drinking and dancing.
Things started to decline as the 80's began and by the 90's the scene really sucked. Still lots of clubs to play but the money was getting tighter. Smoking rules were only the last straw. People feared blowing over .07 and no longer would drive 20 miles or more to see a band they followed. When Mulroney/Campbell fell we had a deep recession and many clubs closed up or went to strippers. They became part music, part pool hall, part restaurant and no longer paid enough for 5 and 6 pc bands. 4 pc even became rare as you'd have to be 3 pc to get more than $150 each in your pocket at the end of the one night gig. Now lots of bands take $150 total for the night. With travel time, setup and teardown included you're playing for less than minimum wage.
This "We offer everything!" approach worked about as well on each individual feature as a POD pedal, that is not very well compared to the real thing. The loss of the old owners and the ignorance of the new ones meant even basic factors were lost. Such as having no stage or dance floor! The band played in one corner, facing not the audience but the bar. They often were lucky to have one plug available for the entire band! The servers couldn't hear their orders and the audience couldn't see the performance. Ladies would drink and want to dance. Since they had nowhere to dance they often would't stay as long. So the owner sold a few more chicken wings but wondered why he didn't sell more beer!
Does anybody know of a high school that still has dances with live bands? Or even still have dances? My daughter's school gave them up years ago. The word is the teachers wouldn't come out after hours to chaperone. I've also heard excuses about insurance but frankly they didn't ring true. It sounded more like Ned Flanders from the Simpsons was in control.
Things did start to adjust and even improve a bit. Then the smoking rules kicked in and so much for that. True, the owners could have done a more imaginative marketing job. Then again, who else was under the same sort of attack? Especially when we were being told that there would be no negative impact on patronage at all...
That was the old scene! Would anyone like to chip in and say how today things are better? It's obviously much harder to make a living professionally, unless you're a young chick who can sing and pole dance at the same time.
There are a few bright lights. The Trews, Jet, White Stripes and the Darkness are some. My point is that bars and cover bands were a great entry path for someone to make a living while honing their chops. 6 months on the road makes a band really tight. Playing a set at the local "cookie monster metal club" that you have to sell enough tickets yourself to be ALLOWED to play is just not the same!
If I were 18 again I'd try something quite different. First, I'd give up on clubs entirely. Why flog a dead horse? I'd be looking for private appearances, renting our own halls and badgering civil "serpents" to get to play at civic festivals and the like.
I wouldn't bother with a label, either. I'd try to set up my own tour of repeat gigs at park bandshells in any town that could offer a crowd of at least a few thousand people. Then I'd flog all the self-produced promo off the side of the stage I could. Tshirts, CDs, buttons or whatever. Your label sells your cd in HMV and you get maybe a dollar. Sell that same CD off the stage yourself and you get maybe $14 out of a $15 sale price!
Maybe us older guys could start a thread about "road" stories. Who else remembers the cigarette machine in the only restaurant in Wawa, Ontario? The one where when the package hit the chute the plastic wrap cracked and fell off? Or the 300 lb, 5'2" waitress with a deformity in the diner beside the Sebringville Villa?
I wonder what she's doing now...