Can we make a living from prog?

Funny CSTAK3 mentions The Musical Box from my hometown, Montréal. I've seen them twice and concur that I would rather see these guys rather than the real Genesis. I saw them do Foxtrot & Trick Of The Tail and the guy who did Philly was very convincing. Philly even sat in with them once and said afterwards that they played the material better than Genesis were playing it. I think hackett also played Firth Of Fifth with them at The Royal Albert Hall once. What's so great about these re-enactments is that they often play at venues that are more intimate. Genesis' early shows were presented in small theatres so this is something you won't see the real Genesis do ever again. I sawthem at the big O in front of 60,000 people and the whole thing was a monumental catastrophe. Atrocious.

Ohhhh!! Justin Bieber don't insult our national hero. Just kidding . What a git is right. sh*t like that really undermines art.

 Liked Saga' s early material but they were sort of overshadowed by Rush with albums like Moving Pictures and Farewell To Kings here. They made a name for themselves in Europe though. I think Tthey then based themselves in California. Will have to check it out. Got to check out Fragile. I like these bands who keep the fire of the past alive but there's nothing worse than a crappy cover version. Should check out Parrallells Yes cover band do Perpetual Change with a chick vocalist complete with drum solo.I think she has since left the band but these guys actually blow Yes away. Seriously. I think the drummer is even better than Alan White. seriously.


Edited by Vibrationbaby - February 18 2011 at 10:09

I can hear a lot of Saga influence in Beiber's music. He is very Saga-like.

AllP0werToSlaves wrote: It's really tricky trying to make money from the actual MUSIC beyond live shows and selling merch, but if you play out a lot and have a decent sized following, you can make quite a bit (if no one is taking a cut, that is!).

...but can you live off those earnings without supplementing it with secondary income (a full-time/part-time non music job)?

moshkito wrote: AtomicCrimsonRush wrote: Space Ritual the ex members of Hawkwind would probably fill a stadium but it is not Hawkwind.   It's not quite cheating ... it's Nik Turner as far as I know.   Curved Air played the 100 Club in London but no new albums on the way...   Anyone got an apartment in London and a job, so I can move? I might see a few more of the goodies that we can't get in Portland, Or ... this area is the absolute stink'o for music!   ... Gong are still going and proved it with a new album too as we know, but are they playing their Flying Teapot trilogy? I would bet they are.   I would prefer that they also played other material. Somehow, some of the old material just doesn't sound good without Pierre, Stiv, Bloomdido, Gilly, Mike ...   And someone mentioned Babe Ruth? Is Janita still with them?   Saw them at the Whiskey a Go Go opening for Iggy and the Stooges ... and she made Iggy look  stupid and like a kid throwing himself around to get attention! They were so over blown that one third of the way into the show all 4 of us walked out ... after Babe Ruth we didn't need crap! We went down the street to see 2001 at the Cinerama Dome stoned immaculate, of course!

Nik Turner's Space Ritual cannot fill a stadium - I've seen them, 500-1000 people at most. Neither can Dave Brock's Hawkwind.

Edited by Dean - February 18 2011 at 13:30

For some reason Babe Ruth  were HUGE in Montréal when First Base came out. All my friend's big brother's had it. It's more of a hard rock album but a killer hard rock album that could make you forget about Led Zeppelin. The original lineup is still touring. Janita still can belt it out think she's 57 or 58. I always said she was Janis Joplin's evil twin. 

Dean wrote: AllP0werToSlaves wrote: It's really tricky trying to make money from the actual MUSIC beyond live shows and selling merch, but if you play out a lot and have a decent sized following, you can make quite a bit (if no one is taking a cut, that is!). ...but can you live off those earnings without supplementing it with secondary income (a full-time/part-time non music job)?   i.e. can it support a band of five members like the calculation Gerinski showed on page 1? (€2,000 is $2700) - even with four members I think not - that would be $2700 a week or $10,800 a month - which is a lot of gigs and a lot of merchandise. As has already been noted in other threads, no one is living in a Prog happy town or city - even here in the UK where distances between towns are shorter and the towns themselves are larger than the USA, 100-200 people at a Prog gig is pretty average.

Edited by AllP0werToSlaves - February 18 2011 at 16:57

Even if I could make a living off of what I play I wouldn't want to.  Too much work and much more fun as a hobby.

You couldn't get away with playing Revealing Science Of God in a bar in Montréal. It would be empty. Seriously. There's only crappy Indie bands metal bands as far as bars go Only saw Yes once on the 90125 tour. Almost saw them in Calgary Alberta but the promoter cancelled the show because of sales. I actually called the guy to find out why. He told me that he had just lost his shirt on an ELP concert where he had to comp a few hundered tickets to make it look like there were people in the audience and wasn't about to lose it again !. I think it was the Black Moon tour.

I'm not a big fan of Genesis but I thought The Musical Box were great because they were recreating what Genesis used to be. The performances of older songs during the actual '07 Genesis concert at the Olympic Stadium were dissapointing and it seemed that all they wanted to do was the newer crap. When Musical Box start doing And Then There Were Three that's when I stop going. It would be a cover band selling out ! I'll actually go and see Trick Of The Tail again. They have a smaller more intimate theatre in The Bell Centre which is where Musical Box always play.