Have you ever been to see a band on the first night of thier tour, or when they are playing close to home? I have. This is the most awesome performance you will ever see out of them. They are energetic and at thier best. Often they are quite happy and excited about what they are doing.

Now, have you seen that same band playing near the end of thier tour, or far from home? I have.
They usually look and move less enthusiastically, they are somewhat sickly; often they are exhausted and starving. Some of what you also don't see is also occuring behind the scenes as well. They become very stressed out and sometimes they will start fighting among each other because of how frustrated they are with how some things are going. Sadly some fall to the temptation of drugs in order to keep up the same energy they had at the beginning of a tour.

I thought I might make a few suggestions for how a live entertainment venue can help a band survive. Many people are under the false assumption that the bands of today still get the same supports that bands had years ago, guess what; it's WAY different now then it was ten or so years ago. Just because a band is popular or famous does not mean that the band is rolling in dough. Often these poor kids are literally starving to death and ready to drop from exhaustion just because they love thier art so much, these guys are usually also holding jobs elsewhere to make a living and then putting thier own paychecks into thier band. Some musicians come back from a tour to find they have lost thier jobs because they are touring so much.

Musicians of today pay for thier own gas to get to your venue, pay for thier own insurance, pay for thier own promotion, pay for thier own merchandise, pay for thier own CD pressing etc. After everything is paid for and planned out there is no cash left for luxeries such as food or hotel rooms. I have heard of bands that come back with nothing but a little bit of change in thier pockets. They simply do not have the same support from labels that they used to get years ago.

I will be adding to this as more people give me ideas. You may even want to ask the bands themselves what they might require. They may also have too much pride to ask for food so tell them thier eating anyway.

Crash Space

The musician of today who is on tour lives in his/her van or car. Try and picture a group of people crammed together trying to sleep after a long trip, or even better; go and see if you can find where they parked and go look for yourself. They can't afford to rent a hotel/motel room for them all to sleep in. Let the poor buggers crash for a few hours in your house and get a nice shower. Or if there is a nice quiet back room in your venue let them crash in there. The key thing is let them get some rest somewhere more comfortable then thier vehicles, your front lawn or the nearest parking lot.

If neither option is good for you, maybe you can rent them a hotel room. A sneaky way to do this is go in and say the room is just for you. This way you will only be charged for one person. In case you didn't know, hotels/motels charge per person even if you're only renting one room!

Another idea may be that if you know a fan of that band that has appropriate crash space. This has to be someone that you know you can trust and that will let them sleep as soon as they get there.

Feed The Animals

Anything you can think of, feed them! Even if it's just a cheap pizza, it's better than nothing. Go through your supplies at home and see if there is food you want to get rid of. Fresh fruit and vegetables too if you can provide them.

Do not take no for an answer, feed them! If you're a mom or perhaps know a woman who can do this send her in on a mission, women are best at making people eat. A starving person will not be able to eat much at first because thier stomache shrinks. If they arrived early enough, say around lunch time; you can really get going on it. They should be able to eat properly by dinner if you fed them at lunch, works even better if you were able to catch them for breakfast too.

You'd be amazed at how much food a group of young men can eat in one sitting, especialy the drummer because he/she is playing the most physical instrument. Just keep stuffing them with food until they can't move anymore, also make sure that you do this a couple of hours before they are to perform. This gives the food time to settle and digest a little. They'll be happily jumping all over the stage and entertaining your customers!

Just a quick note on why I think this is important. Myself and several others have witnessed perfectly healthy looking young musicians coming back from even just a short tour looking like concentration camp victims. They were very sickly looking, lost alot of weight; one young fellow in particular went from 180 pounds to 126 pounds from poor nutrition. Because he's six feet tall you can only imagine how awful he looked. He also ended up with several other serious health complaints because of the lack of food and sleep on his tour, he also required hospitalisation. Wouldn't you want your child to be looked after and not become this sick?

Adoration

Well there is no cut and clear way to deal with that if a band falls in love with you because you fed them and let them have a nap somewhere nice for once. If you feed a starving animal it will keep coming back to you, and that band is going to love you if you treat them right.

Ideas For What To Pay A Band

Okay, so you've fed them and gave them somewhere to crash for a bit. It's time now to give them what they worked for, cash. You may want to work out a standard method for paying all of your entertainers.

Even put together a sheet detailing what each thing is that you are paying them for. This will make it easier for them to figure out what to pay each other in regards to gas money etc.

Here are some other ideas.

Gas Money

This is something to consider seriously. Especially with what the price of gas is nowadays. You may want to work something out per kilometer travelled if they are coming from somewhere an hour or more away.

Payment For Service Rendered

The average I have seen paid by a bar for a decent band is $150.00 per band member. The average band has 4 members so that works out to $600.00. That band plays all night and takes breaks between sets. Your going to make most of your money from liquor and food sales anyway, especially if you have promoted the live entertainment properly.

If you're a bar in Durham don't do a cover charge. You will kill your bar, this is usually a slow and painful death for your bar! There are several other bars that are doing very well with thier live entertainment in Durham Region and they do not charge a cover fee. They know they will make thier money on selling alcohol to happy entertained customers.

In a venue that provides entertainment for all ages I would reccommend a minimum of $10.00 cover charge. You also have things way more complicated in regards to payment for your bands. If it's just one band playing that night it will be very simple to figure out. That band may have also done it's own promotion to attract the clientele for you as well.

In this case give them a percentage of what was paid at the door along with any other fees/excuses you can come up with to give them more money. Your going to want to pay your headliner a little more than the other bands.