This might take a while!
Playing live is incredibly important to bands at every level. If your band is unsigned, then playing gigs will help you to build up your fan base and attract the attention of press and media. Maybe, if you do the job properly, it’ll even draw interest in your direction from record labels and all the other potential suitors that are being drawn to music and bands these days.
Signed and established bands use gigs to help them continue to keep building audiences and promote their new releases. These bands are also more than likely to have an agent to book their gigs and so won’t have to worry about that side of things.
However, if you’re just starting out, and don’t have an agent, then booking a gig can seem like a scary business as you’ll most likely be doing all of the booking yourselves. If you’re in this position and need a bit of help then we’ve tried to provide the basics for you here – so read on…
Getting the Gig
Before you can even think about booking a gig, there are a few things you’ll need to have in place. The first thing is a demo/finished CD, or a website/MySpace on which people can listen to your music. It is, after all, your music that you are trying to promote, so without this you have no hope of getting anything.
The second thing is a press pack. This should include information about your band and clippings of any press coverage you may have had, if any at all. If you’ve had no press so far then, don’t worry, but it is wise to provide one page of information about your band, so the promoter/venue know what they’re dealing with. This info should include who you are, how long you’ve been together, and your influences/what you sound like. Do this without overly hyping yourselves. Local promoters know the score and can easily find out from people they know if you are overcooking it!
It’s just as easy to do this on a part of your website as it is on paper. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that 9 out of 10 promoters at this level will now book gigs from a MySpace or website link rather than a physical CD.
Ideally you should also have an idea of when you want to play a show. You should have discussed this with your band members beforehand and come up with a window of preferred dates to make sure everyone in the band has their calendar clear for those days. Promoters hate filling a slot and then being asked to move it!
I also like to tell promoters that a band are good for a certain amount of fans wherever they go – the promoter is in business to fill his venue and sell drinks, so knowing that you’re coming mob-handed helps him or her settle on you. Again, don’t overdo it.
Once you have these ready to go you will need to send them to the right people, either electronically or through the post. Who these people are, and which method they prefer for contact, will change depending on the venue you choose, but essentially there are two ways you can go about booking a gig:
- You choose the venue you want to play in and book your gig directly with them. This is the riskier option as you as a band then take on the costs and responsibilities of promoting the show.
- You book your show through a promoter, who takes on responsibilities for costs and promotions and acts as a buffer between you and the venue. This option is recommended for new bands looking for early gigs.
Most venues work with a handful of outside promoters unless they are big enough to do everything themselves, so at start-out level, you’re most likely going to be dealing with promoters. If there is somewhere in particular that you’d like to play then give them a ring and see how they work, if they do work with promoters then ask them for advice on who best to contact. You can also ask around other bands to get the names of other promoters to send packages to, so you can keep your options open.
Being a music fan and gigging musician you ought to know all the places that are suitable for your band in your locality. If not, get out and about in your scene and get networking and asking. Check all the places that list gigs locally – record stores, if you have any left, college and school notice boards (physical and internet) – and look at the websites and MySpace profiles of all the bands in your area – see where they’re playing. If you’ve ever done this before, you’re going to know that often times, other bands will help you out with info and contact details. In reality, this shouldn’t be the hard part!
Of course, as soon as you build just a little bit of buzz, some promoters and venues are going to come to you and ask you to play!
Before The Gig
It may take a while for you to get a show, especially if you’re a brand new band with no track record. However, once you’ve been offered a show, there are a couple of things that you can expect.
Lots of gigs lose money, so if you’re just getting started you should be prepared to not make any money and rather see the show solely as a promotional opportunity. However, on the off-chance that the show does make money, your deal should detail how any income for the show will be divided, as well as confirming information about things like riders, backline, and soundchecks.
If you have any problems with anything in the deal then bring them up with the promoter as soon as possible. As soon as you and your promoter are agreed on the deal then you will need to make sure that you advance your show and promote it.
Advancing your show just means that you and your bandmates are absolutely certain of what is going to happen on the day of the show. Make a timesheet detailing what time you need to be at the venue, what you need to bring with you, contact numbers etc. Basically anything you think you could ever need. If your band has a manager or an agent, then this job will usually fall to them but if you have booked the show yourself, this responsibility will be down to you or someone in the band. Try to do this 1-2 weeks before the show and then check the details with the promoter again in the days leading up to the show to make sure that nothing has changed, because things do change!
As soon as you confirm your gig you’ll need to start promoting it. Promoters love bands who promote themselves. It takes a bit of pressure off them and if they see you working to make the show a success then you’ll be more than likely to get dates and other help from them again in the future.
So, talk to your promoter/venue and divide tasks between you. The kind of things you should be doing include putting posters up around the town, flyering other live music shows in the run up to your gig, making sure press and listings sites have been told about the show, letting your fans know though mailing lists/MySpace, and getting bloggers to mention it etc.
And don’t ever forget family, friends and yours and their occasional acquaintances. It’s amazing how many people you can get to a gig if you push all your school / college/ work mates to come and bring their friends. A great trick for that is to bundle the gig ticket with another offer. Lots of bands do this with a free CD (which is fine) but you can be really imaginative. Two favourites of mine are both about UK acts.
The first, the Darkness, cooked a traditional Fish and Chips dinner for everyone who came to their early gigs and that was included in the ticket price. Another, Lemon Jelly, sold a T-shirt and you had to wear that to get in – it was the ticket. So, you got to the gig, the crowd looked really odd, and you got an amazing souvenir of the show. Imagine doing that for every gig!
I always recommend contacting all the other bands on the bill and introducing yourselves. This is often essential for kit-sharing (especially for smaller venues and for the drummers) but can really work if you divide up the promotion between all bands and work together to get the venue full.
At The Gig
You’ve promoted the show, and thanks to some good organisation you’re all at the venue on time so the only thing left to do is play right?
Wrong. You’d be amazed at the number of bands who play one show with a promoter and then never get another gig due to bad behaviour. This is the start of your musical career and you need to give yourself the best chance possible of being asked back to play again. Don’t act like diva’s, get too drunk, or be rude or obnoxious to the promoter/staff/audience unless you want a reputation for being awkward. Instead you’ll find that if you’re professional and treat the promoter and the people at the venue with respect then you’ll do yourself a world of good.
If you’ve had an off night but have been well behaved with it then regardless of how bad the show went you will find that most promoters will want to work with you again. However, if all you’ve done is cause grief then you won’t be asked back and you’ll find that your reputation will be damaged with more than just that venue and promoter. Word spreads…
Once you’ve played your gig, if you want to succeed then unfortunately your work still isn’t done. Now you have to take advantage of your audience! Ideally everyone who sees you play should leave the venue knowing your name, your website address, carrying one of your CDs and be signed up to your mailing list so they can be kept up to date with releases and future shows etc. If you only do one of these things then make the mailing list it!
A mailing list is crucial for bands as it allows you to communicate with your fans whenever you want. Make sure you’ve brought some pre-printed sheets along with you at any show you do and during your show let people know where they can sign up and what they can expect from it e.g. exclusive news, free tracks etc. The best place to set up your mailing list is at the merchandise table as that’s where people congregate. If you can, try and make it so that everyone who signs up gets a free badge or sticker with your band name on it. Audiences love freebies! I prefer to give away CD’s rather than trying to sell them – certainly right at the start of your career.
After your show you’ll need to make sure that at least one of you is at the mailing list to chat to people and answer questions. Just by being there you’re increasing your chances of people signing up, and you’re connecting with future fans. You should all rotate this position until the last audience member has left the venue.
Once you have a mailing list then you’ll need to contact those people who have signed up quickly. Send them a thank you email the next day if at all possible and offer them a download of a demo or cheap entry to your next show. If you have pictures from the gig then let them know where they can see them, and maybe do your own mini-review of how the night was for you and encourage them to review the night too. This involvement will make them feel special and is the perfect basis for fostering loyalty in your fans.
I recommend posting plenty of live pictures, including ones of the crowd and you hugging individual fans and that kind of thing – put them on the band’s blog (you should have one!) and if you haven’t already done so, set up a Flickr profile and have them there. Then you can set up a group on Flickr that your fans can also post their photos to.
If you have merch to sell or give away at your shows then you should do so. This doesn’t mean that you need to spend shed loads of cash on getting t-shirts printed; just burning CDs on your computer is perfectly acceptable (although, as I said earlier, I’d have a CD to giveaway as well. Maybe give a 3 track promo away and have a 10 track to sell, but keep it cheap!). Just make sure that everything has your website/MySpace on it so people know where to find you. If you don’t have any merch to sell or give away then don’t worry. You can always make up some flyers with your details on, including the dates of any future shows, for people to pick up at the merch table.
Finally, if you can do something a little different to make you stand out from the crowd, then do it! This could be from giving away something unusual, to all being dressed in uniform etc. Something that’s going to grab people’s attention and get them talking, so get thinking…
If you can do all of this then you’re onto a winner!
