This letter to Graham Parkes, who I presume was the Ents officer of Queen’s College Oxford from 1969 has a rather interesting list of bands and prices, free on the 24th June. So what bands would you book for the 24th?
Me, I like the popsters so it would be Timebox, Bonzos, Vanity Fare and definitely the Flirtations featuring Pearly Gates. So my bill would be £750, which is about £10500 in today’s money.
Incidentally this is the Ents officer now, a retired Philosophy Professor. Cool guy.
To avoid confusion, he is probably on the left.
Doubtful that Fairport Convention would have been available in June ’69, since only a month before they’d had their fatal van crash on the M1, returning from a gig in Birmingham.
Taste would have been a good £150 worth. And Jethro Tull for £350.
A rockin’ double bill for £500.
A night of Rory Gallagher and Mick Abrahams’ guitars for 500 – marvellous . I’d also have paid money to see the previous incarnation of Tull, the John Evan Smash.
Wow, what a fascinating document. Thanks for posting it.
John Hisemans Colosseum for a mere £125. Absolute bargain. In January 69 they were probably just finishing recording their cracking debut album “Those Who Are About to Die Salute You”.
Amongst the lower lights further down the list are one hit wonders Gun with Adrian Gurvitz on lead, who, on the strength of this fine tune which had just gone top ten in the UK in October 1968, are considered to be worth a fair bit more than no-hopers Deep Purple!
Colosseum for me too!
Nice to see a young Gary Moore on drums.
Saw Jon Hiseman’s Colosseum at the Wake Arms Epping around this time, as well as Taste in various pubs and clubs – the prices probably explain why the Tremeloes never got booked….that and them being a bit crap, of course…
Those wondering whatever became of the last minute bargain basement addition Carley Hill (a blues rock band named after their local area near Sunderland, rather than the doe-eyed brunette female singer-songwriter in a big floppy hat that you were probably imagining), the answer is… (spooky voice) nobody knows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGF39OWLj9k
@slug Great minds! See below…
I like how they added it in biro. From that song on youtube, I’d have enjoyed them.
Whatever happened to Carley Hill, I wonder? Google would have you believe Carley Hill is either a hairdresser in Framlingham or a suburb of Sunderland, but if you persevere you discover that they were actually the Carley Hill Blues Band, formerly Cellophane Cloud, which suggests a fairly drastic change of musical direction.
Slightly relevant: in 1967 the Warwick U band I was in played the Hertford College Oxford summer ball (my mate was Ents Officer). Also on the bill were Bonzo Dog, Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers, The Action and HHSH The Swingin’ Blue Jeans. Remarkably, we got £60, and the SBJ got £40. A while since their last top 10 hit, but even so…they were staying up all night for 10 quid a head.
That’s another trip booked for the time machine, when they finally invent it. I’d love to have seen that gig. What was your band called?
The New Economic Model…one of our twin Sam ‘n’ Dave-style singers was an economist. Slimmed down from The Keynesian Fixed Price Economic Model by popular demand, ie everyone else in the band. We were the support act at all the uni gigs, the one I remember most vividly was The Move. There’s documentary evidence that was supported Pink Floyd, but I have no memory of that at all. Our drummer was Guy Evans, gearing up to spending the rest of his life thumping the tubs in Van der Graf Generator.
Great original name, great shortened name, and maybe if you’d continued into the 70s as a progressive band, perhaps you’d have been called NEM, emerging in 1980 as post-punk The New Economic Model?
Never going to happen as far as I was concerned, I got kicked out at the end of the first year…I like to say sex, drugs ‘n’ rock ‘n roll, but in reality not doing any work. I went back to see them the following year, and they’d got a little prog, and I seem to think they’d shortened the name again. Probably not Coventry Economic though… 😉
Coventry Economic – being a Cov lad, I still have my bank book with lots of entries in biro – there’s a fiver in there I’ll never see again.
Prob worth a million quid now…my son-in-law’s a Cov lad, understandably distressed about suspension of football. I, as a Southend U supporter, not so much.
In the 51 years since, performer’s fees haven’t changed much. The promoter I do sound for regularly pays less than £500 for a headline act in a 150-seater venue.
That’s depressing. I’ve had to do too many “open mike” nights in London, where the only audience is the other participants. Even bands having to pay to play. Contrast that with my mate saying he used to see Hendrix, Cream, Geno Washington etc at the Manor House pub for shillings.
Equipment charges don’t change much either. 34 years ago, a pair of Bose 802s cost about £25 per day/£75 per week. Today, I can rent you a pair of very good 12″ unprocessed speakers for £40/£120. The only way hire charges ever go up is when equipment is replaced with something newer. The investment required by the large companies is huge and constant with clients on larger events always wanting the latest thing. Some of them won’t be able to meet their finance, staff and buildings commitments soon.
I think the only thing which has increased, in my limited experience, is venue hire fees. Possibly because insurance costs have gone up. My wages certainly have halved over the last 10 years. I do it for fun rather than renumeration, but it would be nice to make minimum wage for my 10+ hour day and buy myself something nice.
Daily rate has only just doubled to what it was in 1996 when I went freelance although I discovered a lighting guy I know is still working for almost the 1996 rate. God knows what he was charging then.
The halving of your wages is an all too familiar tale. I’m pretty cheap on equipment but there’s always someone who’ll do it cheaper. I drew a line in the sand last summer with someone who wanted to take £20k worth of screens to Paris for a week and only pay half of what I would charge for a single day. (“They’ll be on a truck for most of it Dave”) As he’d already stitched me up on the previous hire, I declined, especially as his client was one of the big accountancy firms and he would, obviously, make an unknown amount on the deal. He got something to meet his needs from a guy who’s semi retired and is just working his hire stock until it all packs up and doesn’t really care what it goes out for. His client either doesn’t care what it looks like or doesn’t notice and he thinks that any money is worth it compared to the gear sitting on the shelf is ok. I disagree, as over time, the price just gets forced down. OOAA
Now compare those prices to the fees received by bands at the 1972 Reading Rock Festival.
Nazerath played for 20 quid, while the Faces pulled in £4k
http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/reading-72.html
(down near the bottom of the page)