Stairway To London

"pay to play - no way!" - the slogan of the Musicians Union

WHY THIS VIDEO IS IMPORTANT

This video is a humorous take on the unscrupulous practice of "pay to play" which has blighted the music industry since we can remember. We refused to play many venues in the end after we were persistantly asked to buy tickets in advance or provide receipts from coach firms that we had booked to bring our people to these gigz. It is a sad fact that many of them were in London - built on the premise that that illusive A&R man would be in the crowd that night. It was made all the more aggravating for us - when we knew that we could go out on a Saturday night with our covers band & make a good living. We decided the best way forward was to take our music to the people - and so began our endless tour of the village pubs - where we received a fair wage, sold stack loads of albums & met some interesting characters along the way.

But it's not just London - last year we were asked to play at a major music festival - we were delighted - until we were told how many tickets we had to buy - needless to say I told them where they could stick it!

Now watch the video ...