supplied by Pete Fisher original source unknown
Pete Fisher… What one agency charged for bands back in 1969…how much the bands saw of the fee is another matter…average weekly wage in the UK would have been around thirty pounds…correct me if I’m way off…
Alan Esdaile… not sure about the adult average wages then but looking at the year I was on £6. 6shillings a week with £2 of this going to my parents for keep.
Chris Meachen… I was on £4.10s part time.. First full time job a couple of years later paid £7.10 in new money…
Harry Randall… Joined the Army in 68 on about £8.25 a week
Terry Corder… KB (ITT) paid me £10 a week to turn up and make tvs for them in 1968/9.
Pete Fisher… Average wage is pretty meaningless – most people earn a lot less. Interesting to hear what everyone was earning back then, and that puts the band fees into perspective. Not a bad living if you had enough gigs and your agent/management wasn’t too greedy.
Tim Mosse Bruce… Scroll on to 1976. My 1st Job, aged not quite 16 was as a trainee maintanence engineer at Buss Foods on £20 a week basic wage.
Andre Martin…. Worked in the Civil Service as an EO at the time and my pay was something like £60.00 per month, GROSS so take off Tax, Insurance, I was lucky to clear £50.00 – so going out and doing a disco and picking up perhaps £8.00 was good money, even after paying for records etc . But as you say taken as a figure this is really difficult to compare, because you have to get back into the time frame of what were your average costs – food, fuel, transport, clothing etc. We managed and were no doubt happier, not the pressure of today.
Dave Nattress… Really interesting to see the list of rates for the bands! I started working in an Architects and Surveyors office in Bexhill for £5.00 a week in August 1969. I carried on doing a daily paper round for about another £1.50 a week for a few months. But…my Father being a builder with lots of builder friends was fortunate. Not only did he get me the job in the Architects office but as soon as you learn a bit more about construction/planning/building regs. you get asked to do drawings/plans for extensions/porches/loft conversions/garages/flats conversions – and getting planning permission and building regulations approvals even improvement grant stuff back then for builders and customers, you name it. After a few months I was working most nights doing PJ’s – private jobs, at home in my bedroom listening to rock music or overtime in the office when we were busy which was quite lucrative. I was never rich but never out of money and paid for my “keep” at home. Never didn’t have dosh for records/gigs/clothes/car – good days looking back, really good!! Of course I paid tax on the PJ’s!!
Lyn Humphrey… £1 a week (paper round)!
Mike Raxworthy… Ha – I’m in that list ! We were £40…the Stack!!! Workwise I was relatively well off as I was working with The Beatles in 1964 – My dear old Dad was an accountant and his take home was £17 a week…mine was £20. He had a Morris Minor – I had an Austin Healey 2.6. He never said much about it – but he was proud I had such a brilliant job.
Jan Warren… Interesting to see this, I reckon you could add a few “00000” to those salaries nowadays?!
Rowland Clarke… Didn’t see anything for 50p Mike! Lmao 😂 would definitely book that Pink Floyd lot for £250, reckon they might drop to £230 if I ask them nicely? I’ll put Fleetwood Mac on the week after, but £395 is my top offer!
Conan Howard… As a self employed plumber working on call for 24hours ,I was earning over a hundred pounds a week . had an E type jag 4.2 convertible in 69
Martyn Baker… Loadsa money!
Colin Gibson… In 1966 I worked in Woolworth’s as a shelf stacker in the confectionery department. I was on £100k a week plus bonuses, and I was running a Nimitz class aircraft carrier modified for road use, with two DC9s on board. Of course petrol was much cheaper in those days.
Sophie Ash… That’s Pick-‘n-Mix-tastic! – Aye, them were the days.
Conan Howard… Colin Gibson , you were lucky, we lived in a shoe box in the middle of the motorway
Chris Jolly… Monty who…
Really interesting to see the list of rates for the bands!
I started working in an Architects and Surveyors office in Bexhill for £5.00 a week in August 1969. I carried on doing a daily paper round for about another £1.50 a week for a few months. But…my Father being a builder with lots of builder friends was fortunate. Not only did he get me the job in the Architects office but as soon as you learn a bit more about construction/planning/building regs. you get asked to do drawings/plans for extensions/porches/loft conversions/garages/flats conversions – and getting planning permission and building regulations approvals even improvement grant stuff back then for builders and customers, you name it. After a few months I was working most nights doing PJ’s – private jobs, at home in my bedroom listening to rock music or overtime in the offce when we were busy which was quite lucrative. I was never rich but never out of money and paid for my “keep” at home. Never didn’t have dosh for records/gigs/clothes/car – good days looking back, really good!!
Of course I paid tax on the PJ’s!!
£1 a week (paper round)!
As a self employed plumber working on call for 24hours ,I was earning over a hundred pounds a week . had an E type jag 4.2 convertible in 69
Colin Gibson ,I you were lucky,we lived int a shoe box int middle of motorway