7 replies to this topic

[vigo]

Wondered what people thought about how to choose which gigs to play. I've recently had debates and seen stuff written on twitter and the like about this and there are two main schools of thought.

1: Play any and every gig you can as it will always be a useful exercise and you'll be better for whatever lessons you learn from it.

2: You should carefully choose what gigs you play, making sure that the gig is big enough or important enough with the "right" audience and will get you the "right" exposure for whatever level you / your band is at.

There are obviously gigs that I personally believe nobody should take on - those where the promoter tries to get you to over reach what is possible at a particular time for you (stuff like "you buy 50 tickets off of us for a discounted price and sell on to your fans / mates / work colleagues and i'll do a group e-mail to gig listings and not actually put though or effort into booking an appropriate line-up, promoting the gig at all and i'll come away with a nice profit for not actually doing anything!) eg http://www.shutupban...promoter-maths/

I've also spoken to people who say that they will never play another pub gig again and will only play for a fee at a "proper" club/venue even though, in my opinio, they are not of a status that warrants that. and they don't play many gigs. I've also known bands who play anything they're offered with the result that they get lots of gigs, some are great, some are awful but they get to play regularly to different people who might not be interested in what they're playing.

There are so many people who give advice on this. Does it depend on where you are? My most recent gig activity has been in London where there are so many gigs, not enough punters to go round and too many dodgy promoters. We have turned down gigs on a couple of occassions because of the type of money grabbing "promoters" i mentioned earlier.

So what do you think? What do you DO?

[Paul Brown]

Personally, i can see both sides of this. I personally, always want paid for a show (even if it's for my taxi cost to / from) because otherwise the promoters are just going to line their own pockets. In Derry, there are a number of promoters i refuse to play for because they've cleared without payment on previous occasions.

I also played a bar in Derry during Summer for a 2 hour set (which i was paid £50 for), i was required to bring my own PA and soundman (which i got a friend to do for free) but not many young bands would be able to get that, right? I will never play in that venue unless the conditions are changed again.

I think it's good to get experience for young artists to play where they can, but a lot of promoters are out to use them to fund themselves solely. It's a good experience in itself bartering over payment with promoters.

I don't like certain bars, but i love playing others for the atmosphere

[This is Savage Sound]

Promoters can generally piss off. There are a few sound ones out there too though. This may be a naive and immature attitude but it feels right. Bars have to make money too, which I understand, but for example, our band won't play the boundforboston in derry because we have a general dislike of the management's history with treatment of bands etc....including a couple of us.....

We're currently gigging around derry which is great but we're looking to expand once we have a solid 45-50 minute set and are really tightened up. I think it's important to take "nearly any gig going" when starting out, just to get road ready mentally and musically as a unit. We're nearly there but not quite......although in saying that, when people ask us to play for free (other than a charity event) and someone is taking door money, we usually tell them they can find another band. Any gigs we've organised we split the door money more or less equally between bands (we take maybe 20% more than the other bands because we sorted the posters, doorman, organised sound, organised backline and that, and go with our guts on who should be paid what....in a way that feels fair) once sound is paid for.

we also generally disagree with 'battle of the bands' type competitions because the concept is ridiculous and usually the bars or venue are making far more money than anyone else. however, the odd one of these is run well (bands all being guaranteed a fee for playing etc) and so long as the competitive aspect is taken with a total lack of seriousness, it feels ok.


So more or less, for me, it's all about gut feeling. Do what feels right at the time.......sometimes you'll play gigs you regret, sometimes you'll regret not taking gigs......at the end of the day, it's only a gig, life's about so much more...and all that...

[Paul Brown]

The bar i mentioned - was the Bound for Boston, just saying people - I refuse to play there.

[This is Savage Sound]

aye, big lezzo can do wan

[vigo]

verring off topic a bit:
No bar / club can call itself a venue if they don't at least have a PA. I don't know of many bands (apart from covers/function bands) who have any PA gear. A couple of years ago I was almost talked into a gig at a great potential venue but would have had to source the PA myself. was very tempted to buy one with the intention of getting a regular night going but there was no way i'd ever make the money back unless the bar gave me a cut from the extra customers i'd have brought in. that particular place now has a sound system but unfortunately don't seem to put on many gigs.

[Craig]

I always accepted gigs unless It was blatantly a stupid idea.

Me and Exit Wound travelled to England using our own money, travelled around and played a few gigs (Went to alton towers though, badass) and had a general laugh. The money we made was enough to fill the car once, which we filled maybe four times in the whole week.

We drove to Templemore in Tipperary to play a festival for free and the same in Limerick, we drove to belfast regularly to play as well. All of the gigs we played were usually free unless I decided I needed money for fuel. In which case I'd demand/Threaten a tenner or twenty note off the promoter.

I was always happy to do this, I love playing. I don't care about making a few quid, though it comes in handy for a cheeky burger after the gig, I just loved meeting new people and artists and having an excellent time. It was very rare for us to play a concert and leave without the rest of the bands contact details wrote down and any gigs we organised or had support slots for we would throw their way.

I know alot of people expect to be paid. But personally I just love playing. I love the thrill of playing In front of others and I don't expect money unless I'm filling out a mighty venue. More often than not we had the car filled with everything travelling to concerts, Pa, Mics, Drums, Amps, Guitars and anything else that we could cram in.

On the plus side we rarely went a week without someone calling us asking us to play. Sometimes we couldn't due to life commitments but we were never stuck for slots. Picking and choosing? Surely if you are writing the music you just want people to hear it. If you want to get somewhere I believe you just whore yourself out, gig anywhere and as often as you can. Learn from the experience, gather a following. And make the world bow at your feet.

[vigo]

I really see your side of it Craig. And I don't find anything wrong with your approach - I wanted to play as much as possible but I became very aware very quickly of so-called promoters who take the piss, putting in little or no work and taking all of cash off the door / ticket sales without so much as a thought that the bands pay for petrol, parking, road tolls etc, bringing equipment, resulting in nobody coming apart from a few people who have come to see their mate's band play. it is great to get paid a little to contribute towards that stuff but too often I've seen promoters exploit bands and their fans/punters with thrown together bills that are not really promoted, then walk away with a tidy sum for themselves. I even had one promoter demand that if you bring your own gear then you MUST let the other bands use it (not normally a problem but i've seen a lot of kit get wrecked by bands who didn't own it) as there was the possibility that the venue would not have enough space in the corner for a couple of amps and drum bits (on a monday night, i hardly think space would have been an issue). if you didn't want to share then nobody could bring any gear and each band would have to HIRE the house backline of him.