Unearthed: Price list for UK's biggest bands that shows it cost just £500 to book Fleetwood Mac for a gig in 1969... and half that for Pink Floyd!
They are the supergroup who have sold more than 120 million records with pop rock classics such as Go Your Own Way and Dreams.
But before fame and fortune caught up with Fleetwood Mac, you could have hired them to perform for just £500 a night.
The bargain fee – £8,640 in today’s money – was revealed in a newly uncovered booking agent’s price list from 1969.
You could have hired Fleetwood Mac to perform for just £500 a night. The bargain fee – £8,640 in today’s money – was revealed in a newly uncovered booking agent’s price list from 1969
Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood in 2018
It shows that rock band Pink Floyd, who have sold more than 250 million records, could be snapped up for only £250 per show – the equivalent to £4,320 today – while the late singer Joe Cocker would appear for £350, or just over £6,000.
It is a far cry from the multi-million pound deals supergroups can now command. In September, US businessman Robert Kraft reportedly paid The Rolling Stones £8 million to play at a private dinner thrown in Boston.
Music industry insiders claim that Fleetwood Mac, whose members include singer Stevie Nicks and drummer Mick Fleetwood, would today cost upwards of £250,000 per gig and could even charge into the millions because they are not currently touring.
Even Rumours of Fleetwood Mac, one of hundreds of tribute bands who make a living by playing cover versions of the group’s most popular hits, charge venues at least £7,000 per performance.
The price list was revealed in a 1969 letter sent to Queen’s College, Oxford University, by Central London music promoter Commercial Entertainments, and posted on Twitter last week.
It is addressed to Mr G. R. Parkes – thought to be the then entertainments officer at Queen’s – who had wanted to know which acts could perform at the college’s Commemoration Ball on June 24 that year.
Pictured: Fleetwood Mac stood together in 1969
Among the 38 available acts were the Essex beat group The Tremeloes for £375 (£6,480 today), Scottish rock band Marmalade for £350 (£6,050) and soul stars Jimmy James and the Vagabonds for £200 – £3,450 in today’s money.
Signing off the one-page letter, the booker at Soho-based Commercial Entertainments wrote: ‘I trust you will find some groups of interest in our list.’
The college later decided on rockers Pink Floyd, who thrilled the students with a 17-song set list, which began with Grantchester Meadows and finished with Celestial Voices and Set The Controls for The Heart Of The Sun.
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