Every time Donny fires up this topic, he gets the same response from mostly the same individuals. This is not the first time this type of post has appeared here on the Synthzone.

What I find amazing is that he is always talking about playing for the "younger crowds", when in reality, when you look at the photos and videos he posts, everyone seems to be older than me - and I'm really an old fart!

Now, I talked with my son about this and he put it in perspective. His old band gets together once or twice a year, plays one of the more popular Baltimore club venues, draw crowds of 400 to 500 people in their late 30s to late 40s, and his band rocks the place for three hours without taking more than 10-minutes break each hour. It's a high energy heavy-metal rock band and all of these individuals are extremely talented musicians.

At the clubs where he performs, there's a cover charge, usually $8 to $10 per person, and that's what the club owner uses to pay the band. The band never gets the entire amount, but usually about $400 to $500 for the night - big deal! That works out to about $100 to $125 per band member for three hectic, high level hours, dealing with druggies and drunks, and hoping to get out of Baltimore alive and well. That's one of the reasons he only does this once a year. Donny, you are not going to do this kind of stuff, regardless of what new gear you purchase.

Most of us, at least on this particular forum, are not performers or entertainers. Most are home players and really have no reservations about the limitations of their arranger keyboards. So lets take a good look at the future. This should be fairly easy. Our audiences, primarily, are our age, or up to a decade older. They want to hear and dance to the music they enjoyed when they were 15 to 35 years of age, which is what we play best with our arranger keyboards. I'm playing primarily for folks that are my age, which will be 74 in two months, and individuals ranging to 80 years of age. They tend to enjoy the same music I enjoyed when I was young. Donny is just over a decade younger than myself, so if he comes up a decade with his music selection, he will have all the work he can handle, and at wages far superior to those currently paid in the clubs - even the high end clubs. And, those high-end clubs rarely hire OMB entertainers - they tend to hire full bands, thus translating to lower pay. Hell, everyone knows that - we've all been there and done that. We've all come home with barely enough money to cover the travel expenses to and from the job - is that REALLY what you want to do?

Now, if there were a lot of young people out there clamoring for bands to play for them, don't you think there were be a deluge of clubs around catering exclusively to those individuals? We don't have them in my neck of the woods. What we do have is places that cater to the folks that have money to spend on food and entertainment - the kind of food and entertainment they enjoy. Guess what? That's the same folks that our current arranger keyboards seem to be best suited for.

Now, I only play two restaurant jobs, both of which I do for a friend who is having worse health problems than myself. I pack the house every night I perform, and the owner(s) have tried all the younger crowd groups in hopes of increasing business by attracting the younger set. They have told me that the only thing the younger, rock bands did was cause them more trouble, headaches and expenses than they could have ever anticipated. Now, the older crowds don't spend loads of money on booze, which is a big money maker for the clubs, but they will buy the more expensive meals and stay around the entire time there is music playing. Consequently, the owners claim their bottom line is far better with the older folks and they never cause problems.

Now, I don't know a damned thing about Central New Jersey's club business, but other than the Jersey Shore, I don't think it's any different than any other part of the U.S.. Maybe Donny knows something that will make him a small fortune in the entertainment biz. Maybe he should sell me his PSR-S950 to me for half what he paid for it - I'll make good use of it. Maybe Donny will become a big-buck DJ or KJ and never talk to us again. You know, the ones I keep hearing about with the light shows, a truck load of big speakers, fireworks, etc... For some strange reason, we don't seem to have those in my part of the world. They must all be working north of the Mason/Dixon Line.

Personally, I sincerely believe arranger keyboards will be around longer than we will, and I for one, love all the features I have on my S-950. It does more than I could ever have dreamed and then some.

Bill, I started out playing bars and clubs with a 6-string guitar, a pawn shop amp and mic, and later on, a Roland drum machine. Then I switched to a Yamaha 12-string guitar, mainly because of the fuller sound it provided. It was an incredible guitar. Then I ran across a duo, Norm & Carlos. Norm played the PSR-500 and Carlos played a six-string electric guitar. They really sounded great, and both of them were outstanding singers and entertainers. They made $150 for a 4-hour job. Yep, $75 each and they had to pay all their expenses out of that. They were booked solid, performed every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then went to work Monday through Friday at their day jobs so they could make enough money to support their families.

I see Norm once in a while - he and I play the same NH circuit north of Baltimore. Norm said he really loved playing the clubs, but he never made enough money to support his family. Now that he works the NH and senior center circuits, he can support them and has money to spare.

So, maybe Donny has a lot of younger venues in his part of the world, places where he can haul in much more money as he does on the NH circuit and work the same number of hours. I've never encountered those venues, personally, so I guess I'll have to continue along the same OLD track that I have traveled for all these years, playing for those OLD FOLKS.

Sorry about the rant guys and gals, but I'm old and cantankerous so please forgive me for not accepting the younger generation stuff as gospel - it just doesn't fly!

Gary