David Lock

The band have been offered a gig at a posh hotel but they have asked for sight of Public Liability Insurance Certificate (and PAT stuff for electrics).

Now my boy is a member of the MU and has a personal cover for PLI for £10m for his kit but not for the rest of the band who are not MU members. The MU told me that cover in the band's name is really quite expensive and it would be much cheaper if the other band members joined the MU, at £149 a throw, which would give them cover as individuals.

As for PAT I arranged all this a couple of years ago but I think Certificates are only valid for a year and no one ever asked to see them So I guess we'll have to fork out again. Does new equipment still have to be done and what is going rate per item for testing please? £10-ish?

So what do other bands on SN do about this PLI question please? David

pinchers

iTrader: (1)

guy in my old work was able to do pat testing, we used to charge like 50p an item, there really is nothing to it so long you have the right kit and are certified, who does all the pat testing at your work? can they not do it.
could always be really cheaky and just buy the lables out of the RS catalogue and blag it.

David Lock

Cheers. I work at home on my own so no sparks around

Aside from the cost it's just a pain carting all the gear to a shop. Need to try and find someone who will come to a band practice when all the gear is in one place. d

MikeCardiff

iTrader: (2)

We never had PLI or PAT testing, and were never asked about it in any of the venues we played - I suppose things are different now with all the H&S rules and compensation culture though.

What we did always use were RCD's on all the amps due to playing lots of venues with dodgy wiring and getting more than one shock from mics !

David Lock

The odd thing is that they have played in quite a few schools and council owned premises who I thought would be hot on these things but they don't seem to be worried. Good idea about the RCDs although the vocalist does need a wake up call every now and again Would a few of those chunky plugs with a trip on, at the end of extension leads, do the job? d

MikeCardiff

iTrader: (2)

They should be fine, we used to use that sort and never had any problems with them, and never got any shocks after starting to use them. We mostly used large valve amps, and the voltages and currents in them can be pretty lethal.

Singers are all like that ;0) - they think 'unpacking the gear' means them carrying their little case with their mic in it, then heading straight for the bar.

The worst place we used to play was a club that had the main room up 3 flights of rickety fire escape stairs - carrying big amps up that in the rain wasnt the most fun. Was worth it though as they had an awesome in house PA and really good engineers, and the sound was always really good in there. ( We played there with Stereophonics when they did their record company showcase, and were all taking the p155 out of Kelly Jones as he had this tiny Peavey guitar amp that was set up on a chair and looked like a toy. Funnily enough, when we saw them a year or so later once they were getting quite big and were playing a festival, he had the same amp, on a chair, only with an identical one next to it as a spare ! ).

David Lock

Where they pull out some dog eared bits of paper from a back pocket that had been sent to them weeks ago and try and learn the lyrics at the last moment........... d