Eddies got it right.

In my act (duo) we sell the night. We always arrive at 7pm unless informed otherwise. Time required to play is up to the payer. If that means 3 hours or just 2 half hours, its up to them.

We try to increase cost if late finish or distance, if we think the hirers can take the hit! All figures are adjustable based on how upset the hirer sounds on first quote, and what we know about hirer and location.

For our duo we figure 1 hour to set, one hour to take down (yes I know thats a lot but its keys / drums / vocals with bass and top speakers)(we can do it in 30 minutes but somethings bound to go wrong!). Add in 1 hour each way travel and we are "working" from 6pm to 2am for a midnight finish. Thats a normalish working day! So if you get grumbles you can ask the grumbler how much they get paid for a days work..... and remember there's two of you .... and you have serious expenses (I'm crying already) .... if that doesnt give them a shock factor in rehearsal time as well!