Dear Guest, A lot less than the club organisers FORCED to use the agencies to get the acts they want. I do remember booking a well-known act into the Burnley Mechanics. I offered an extra fee to allow them to be recorded and broadcast by the BBC. The agent started squealing like a pig. I then went direct to the act and they were only too pleased. The agent started banging on about M.U. rates. The act was generally jarred off with the agent, and I ended up subcontracting to my own record label to circumvent the nonsense, I gave the recordings to the act on top of the payment, the Beeb paid me and I paid them. I did not make a penny other than my regular wage, but the tax burden fell upon me. I then had to sort out an expense release from the beeb and took a couple of Asprin and lay down in a darkened room. No, I do not like some agents when they have the I.Q. of a brick. Before anyone starts about M.U. rates, they were not geared toward self-employed musicians at that time and were understandably protecting their members against exploitation but have since learned that one size does not fit all. A well-known Folk promoter was given the job of attracting Folk musicians to the union and failed miserably despite being a well liked and respected man.