The Price of a Live Band in 1969

The booking agency Commercial Entertainments was founded in 1964 in London and they are still going strong. Back in 1969, if you wanted to hire a band in England, they would send you a roster of their best acts available, with prices. Looking at who you could have hired back then, you might wish for a time machine, as long as you could take your wallet with you. Imagine hiring Fleetwood Mac to play at your party for £500! Of course, the exchange rate was different then, so you'd have to pay around $1200 American. And that was years before Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham joined the band. Besides, they were the most expensive band on the list. You could settle for Pink Floyd at only £250, or if you were really strapped for cash, Deep Purple for £125. They most likely wouldn't have performed "Smoke on the Water" as it was recorded three years later, but they would certainly have ended the show with "Hush," which was a hit the year before, but not in the UK. -via Nag on the Lake