So there I was watching my last chance to recoup any cash fade away while my touring act was getting stretched out and taken to hospital. People were lining up to get their money refunded, and one of the supports asked me if there was any money that he could take away. It was my inexperience and poor choices that made me commit to that tour going ahead, but my poor choices are not the fault of the artist.
Obviously every show is unique when budgeting tours, and knowing how much to pay supports. This week I’ve talked to a few bands at different levels to see what they think is fair. One promoter/band member was adamant that the role of a support band was to do just that – support. “As far as support slots go, unfortunately there is no guaranteed or set payment amount because every tour is different. Most punk tours are breakeven ventures or often run at a loss,” he said. Considering that every tour costs around $35,000, even at a DIY level, once you factor in flights, Visas, accommodation and the many other touring costs involved, he is right.
Now it could then be argued that you’re not on the ground as much in that particular city, which means promotion might not be up to the full potential. But to be honest, I’ve sold out enough shows via word of mouth to know that if it’s going to sell out, it’s going to sell out.
Sometimes I think promoters don’t pay enough for supports, but they’re also the promoters who are consistently putting on great shows and successfully touring bands. So financially it’s not a wise option to pay more than $150 – $300 for an opening band, especially if they’re not really adding anything to the tour.
Some might argue that if you’re a local band and you’re selling out 500 tickets a night then you should be able to pay the supports more – and I agree. Having said that, the band is probably more well-known due to spending money on touring extensively and high quality recordings. If your bands make $2000 on an awesome headline night, and split the costs evenly between four bands, it doesn’t really leave much money for recording, touring and printing your merch. But if you’re happy playing a show here and there and have better things to do than sweat in a tour van for hours and eat shitty servo food, then that’s more than fair enough.
If you’re faced with a promoter paying you peanuts you have to decide as a group whether you think the tour is worth it. You’re most likely not adding any ticket sales to the tour, so if you don’t want to play there’s going to be another band ready to pounce on that slot. And unfortunately with the amount of bands these days, support slots are getting harder to jump on. But if a tour can’t afford to give the local support a little something for those minimal costs of petrol, sticks and strings, then that tour should not be happening.
I can understand why the band wouldn’t want to play a show for well under the award wage, but I can also relate to a promoter not being able to spend too much money on support bands as it can throw a tour budget way off and not really spike any ticket sales. So while I think there are so many varying cases – I can relate to both sides of the fence.
By Glenn Stewart
