"ie. if a band books a monday night, and brings no-one the venue is gonna lose cash by hiring the staff to work that night... so therefore they require somesort of deposit ie. pay to play" This isn't pay to play. Pay to play is where the band is obliged to pay money to the venue/promoter to play the gig without any hope of making any money back. Renting a staffed venue for a night is a different thing altogether. I have yet to hear of concrete eveidence of pay-to-play being prevalent in Dublin or anywhere in Ireland. I would hate to be in TBMC with 600 people (actually, I have been, once, when the Streokes played there - it stank). Realistically, it can hold about half that many comfortably. If it had 600 in, half of them wouldn't be able to see anything cos they'd be trapped in the bar or in the hall!