Surface Unsigned festival starts next week in London, Birmingham and Bristol.

At the Birmingham first round gigs, there are seven bands per gig, tickets cost a minimum of £6.00.

If a band sells fewer that 25 tickets they get paid nothing and lose their £25.00 deposit. If they sell 25-49 tickets they get a pound per ticket, 50-74 tickets £1.50 per ticket and so on, the first £25.00 of which is the return of their deposit.

So, some examples:

1) All bands sell fewer than twenty, say 15.

Then each band PAYS £25.00 to play the gig, and Surface Unsigned pocket (15(tickets) x 7(bands) x 6(ticket cost)) + (25(deposit) x 7(bands)) = £805.

2) All bands sell just over 25 tickets, say 30.

Then each band gets paid £30.00 minus the deposit, so £5.00 each band, and Surface Unsigned pocket (30 x 7 x 5) + (25 x 7) = £1225.

3) Four bands sell 15 tickets, three sell 30 tickets.

Four bands PAY £25.00 to play the gig, the others receive £5.00 each, and Surface Unsigned pocket (15 x 4 x 6) + (30 x 3 x 5) + (25 x 7) = £985.

Try other combinations - the results are similar.

Also, the Flapper, where the Birmingham first round gigs are held, has a capacity of less than 200.

There are 42 first round gigs at Flapper, and a similar number at the other venues in London and Bristol.

Cheaper than printing money, and absolutely useless.