No - the point is that I do NOT know the rough location, etc. These emails are literally - or figuratively, anyway - out of the blue - that is to say, they are in response to an ad or some kind of noise I have made on-line. So, more often than not, the question DOES come "with no context whatsoever", asking me how much I charge "to play a gig at a completely unknown location". That is why I came on here, because it makes me wonder if other musicians actually do respond quoting a standard fee, or if, like me, they respond with questions of their own.

"Hey, at least you're being offered paid gigs! Good place to start..."

I agree! Trouble is - I started forty years ago ... !