This is how much it cost to book Pink Floyd in 1969
A ready identifying himself as dav./ found this intriguing piece of paper from Commercial Entertainments, which I assume was a booking agency working out of London. They had a long list of clients including The Small Faces, Joe Cocker, and Jethro Tull. For promoters looking to book acts, they had this handy price list.
The most expensive band to book was The Small Faces who had an asking price of £450. Accounting for inflation, that’s the equivalent of CAD$13,000 a today. That would have been a pretty good payday back then.
Joe Cockers fee of £350 equates to about CAD$6,000. Jethro Tull and The Moody Blues could have been had for the same amount.
Scrolling down a little further, the name Pink Floyd comes up. Their cost was just £250. That’s CAD$7,200 today.
Enjoy the full list.
You missed Fleetwood Mac at 500.
Stuff like this is one of the most interesting topics in music to me. I always wonder what a band makes per show and how that all works out. I get how bands like the Stones or even Green Day do it. They are huge bands playing huge places with high ticket prices. Combine that with thousands of people in the building buying shirts and other stuff, that can make sense even if they have big crews etc.
I always wondered what a band like say The Trews, Tea Party, Interpol and bands like that do it. They play a to few thousand in small to medium sized places so obviously they are getting less, but how much do they get, and what can that sustain? With no albums being sold and most money coming from touring and/or merch sales, do they have side jobs, or is playing to those sized crowds enough?
I know there are different classes, like class a/b/c bands that play to specific sizes but not sure how any of that works.
If only there was a person who may be in the know that has a blog that he posts to each day and maybe could write something up about that topic?
Rory Gallagher’s Taste at 150!
have you ever lived in Missouri?
£450=13,000CAD
£350=6000CAD
Someone needs to check the math…
350/450 is not equal to 6000/13000
Most expensive was not Small Faces at L450, but Fleetwood Mac at L500!
Most expensive was not Small Faces at L450, but Fleetwood Mac at L500! Proofreading is still important!
Interesting to see Jethro Tull and the Moody Blues lumped in with a couple of nobody bands at L350.
Also of note… Deep Purple could have been booked for L125.