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The Be-Bop Club The Bear, Hotwell Road, Bristol. BS8 4SF |
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Gig Seekers FAQs for bands and soloists |
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How much does it pay? At present the Be-Bop Club receives no funding and operates purely as a door-take venue.
Why don’t you get some funding then? In the past we have received funding from the MU and the Arts Council, but both sources dried up some years ago. Write to your MP to ask where all your tax and lottery money is going.
Can I have a gig on Wed 7th August 2014? No, we only do gigs on Fridays, and close for the summer from mid-June to mid-September.
So how much is the door-take likely to be? It’s a small venue which can hold an audience of about 40, and we charge about £5 - £9 on the door depending on the size of the band and who’s playing. It’s surprisingly hard to get 40 people to turn up every week, and often we only get about 20.
Why are loads of famous people playing there? Despite the above we still manage to put on a programme of very high quality, which presumably means we have a chronic national shortage of decent venues paying sensible fees.
Most of the non-Bristol bands we put on have Jazz Services funding to top up the money - it is very unlikely to be worth your while travelling far to play here without this.
We also put on some gigs with visiting soloists performing with a house trio or quartet. Guests generally seem to find Bristol players not too dreadful, and we’ve had some great gigs in this format. Unfortunately only players who already have a high national profile seem to really guarantee a full house, how you get to the point where suddenly everybody seems to know who you are is a mystery I have been trying to solve for years.
This all sounds great, how can I get a gig? Congratulations, you must either be an established soloist, have funding for your band tour or be a person of outstanding moral fibre not to be feeling thoroughly depressed. Use the Contact form and we’ll see what we can do.
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