The easiest way to make a living singing in the hotels in sunny(!) Blackpool is as a solo act playing the cabaret slot at two or three hotels a night with your banking tracks / lyrics on a iPad, small mixer with fx, your own radio mic. All in a small briefcase, one powerblock, one output to the house p.a. 10 minute setup, posh shirt / dress under the overcoat and off you go.

My friend and I (keys / drums / vocals) are usually the band stood at the bar!

Some of the acts really are worth the money, can read and work an audience and react to the environment well. Others really are no better than well rehearsed karaoke.

It's the nature of the game. Some of the smaller hotels cannot afford anything else these days.