[Dixielandjazz] fees and unions

[norrie.thomson]

Hi All
 I run a jazz club in Edinburgh.  The venue is the function suite of a pub.
The room is licensed to hold 120 people.

The club does not pay for the room and charge an annual subsriptionsof £10
to members ( We currently have 170 members).  There is also a weekly
admission charge. The charge is levied according to how much the band costs.
Normally, £3 per member for local bands (£4 for visitors) and anything from
£4 - £10 for visiting bands.  A weekly raffle is also held and the profit
from this is usually the balancing figure between break-even and loss.

Everyone seems to happy with this arrangement - the publican gets the profit
from the bar and sells a fair number of meals in his restauarant and basket
suppers in the jazz club.  If we opertade as in the past, with the publican
paying the band we would never have got started.  Incidentally, the publican
allows local bands to use the function suite during the e=week for
rehearsals and as a recording studio - free of charge.

I think, however, that we have been quite fortunate over the past two and a
half years to get the use of the pub on a Friday night.

In that time the Club has managed to buy a real piano (regularly tuned to
concert pitch) and  quite a good PA system - 4 speakers and 6 mikes.

Some of you on the list have played the Club.

Norrie


Norrie Thomson
Edinburgh
Scotland
----- Original Message -----
From: "jazzfact" <jazzfact at ozemail.com.au>
To: "Djml" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2003 10:37 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] fees and unions


> Hi All,
>
> There is no active musicians union in Australia that I know of so we get
> no help or hinderance from them. Fees here are a matter of commercial
> reality.
>
> How can a venue support a five or six piece band with say 140 customers.
>
>
> Drinks, The margin on food and drinks is 300% gross, if each audient
> pays say $10 for drinks = $1400 = $800 gross
>
> Food, say 100 of those in the room eat a $14 meal= $1400 Gross $800
>
> Total gross profit for the night $1600 subtract staff, rent, light,
> licences superannuation, holiday pay, tax etc and you see what I mean.
> Our long running jobs are all based on commercial reality. Bums on
> seats, we promote our own gigs and work the crowd for the repeat
> business. We have a list of our fans and send flyers promoting our
> upcoming gigs.
>
> How do others on this list work?
>
>
> regards,
> Richard Stevens
> http://members.ozemail.com.au/~jazzfact/
>
>
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