One Sure Way to NOT Get band Gigs

Or,

"How one band member can sabotage your gig-getting efforts".

I was talking with a bass guitarist in an Indie band this week about his progress over the last couple of months getting gigs for his new band line-up.

He told me he had quite a lot of interest from various venues he'd contacted with several asking for a demo or web address to check the band out. Nothing confirmed though.

It turned out this bassist's band hadn't had a demo ready at the time he was calling on these prospective new venues (oops).

When I quizzed him a bit more on this, he said that his band had "started" to record 5 numbers for a demo after he made these initial contacts. They were all recording their parts separately into digital recorders which was then to be mixed on PC via Cubase.

There was a problem though. Although the bassist himself, drummer and guitarist had all recorded their parts, they were still waiting on the singer to do his bit. The rest of the band had been waiting almost 2 months for the singer to get round to it. And it wasn't the first time this band member had failed had held projects up (songwriting, rehearsing etc).

The band had been "limping along" playing the odd gig, but my bassist friend knew that lots of regular work (and then management & a deal hopefully) could only come once they got their demo out.

So what does he need to do? Certainly the rest of the band need to talk to the vocalist, find out what the bottle-neck is. Give him an ultimatum, a non-negotiable deadline.

If he doesn't hit that deadline they need a new singer. In fact, they should probably start looking for someone else before that deadline is up.

In my book, any band member who's an obstacle to getting gigs is a band member you need to replace.

Gig-Getter site

8 Publicity Ideas to Help Get Band Gigs

Publicity, whether via the press or just your own newsletter, is obviously vital if you want your band to cut through the crowd and get noticed.

Here are 8 ideas for what you can talk about in any releases you make to the press or via your own publications (including your website or Myspace/Facebook pages).

1. Hometown of the act: Pretty simple, but you'd be amazed how many bands don't include this on the info they send out. Essential if you want people to book you - even if you're "just" playing covers

2. Date and circumstances of the band's formation : Don't be afraid to spice this up a little. You can include "why" the band was formed

3. Info on any previous bands members were in : Unless of course you're ashamed of them!

4. "Stories" : Any interesting little pieces of info about any band activities (gigging, recording, writing etc) and the way they go about them, which gives "personality" to the act

5. Song Info: Why it's about, why it was written. This info will help clarify point 6 below..

6. Musical Genre/Category of the band: Sometimes this is hard to define or you may be reluctant to label yourselves - but this does need to be clarified.

7. Gig Schedule - If you don't yet have many, call this "Next Gig"

8. Info on previous gigs - A good opportunity to use a great picture of the band in action

"Nervous shows in a church hall or a room over a pub"

Check out this disturbing piece about licensing laws and band gigs here in the UK.

I have to say I haven't come across any problems from this direction yet but I'd be interested in hearing from any acts who have.

Also, whether it's an issue outside the UK now?

Sound of silence

I couldn't agree more with that final paragraph:


"All the great artists, whether stadium-filling behemoths or sensitive folk singers, began with nervous shows in a church hall or a room over a pub. Licensing them will stifle much of the music of the next generation – and sometimes carries a whiff of racism. Small venues are the seedbed in which new talent is nurtured. They must be protected from bumptious planners who heedlessly tread on these new flowers in their anxiety to hammer up notices telling us all that we must not walk on the grass".

Its an outrage but sadly, fairly typical behaviour from our powers that be

How to get Gigs: with or without cover songs?

On Tuesday this week I talked with a couple of gigging bands in the US who write their own material and who wanted to get more gigs. Two days later here in the UK I bumped into a friend who's a regular local gig-goer.

This guy doesn't play in a band but he enjoys live music and he's out every week watching local bar and pub bands.

Anyhow, he'd been out mid-week to one of his favourite haunts but had a complaint about what he saw.

There was some new Indie band on who he admitted were very good both vocally and musically. But he told me he'd only stayed around 20 minutes. He's never seen them before and didn't know any of their material. He said quite a few people had watched a little of the show and walked out. Nothing wrong with the band at all - apart from lack of familiarity anyone had with what they were playing.

Now you may think that someone really into music generally should stick around and hear something new. Sadly a lot of people won't do that. They want at least something they're familiar with.

As I said to the two bands mentioned at the top of this post, new bands who include some covers in their sets have a far greater chance of band bookings than those trying to get gigs playing just their own material.

Here's a survey I did on it:

Covers for Original Bands

More info on it here:

Covers and Getting Gigs

and Hugh Cornwell's (Stranglers) take as reported on this blog:

Original & Covers in same set

So maybe no need to look down on covers after all?

Online Tips for Getting Gigs

I've just stumbled across an old forum post below from someone who I know is a Gig-Getter reader and Internet marketer

The writer (Simon/"Old Git") did put some more basic info about building an online presence into one of my gig-getter newsletters earlier this year. On the post below though (from basschat.co.uk), he goes into a more detail of how to put up and optimise your own web site/web presence.

Two of his tips in particular I would vouch for from other marketing work I do are:

1. Your lead picture/photo is crucial (Simon gives a great example on his post)

2. Mention your location on every page of your website.

Here's the post and his details are there if you want to get up close and personal

Band Website tips

How to Get Repeat Band Boookings on Gig Night

An email came in over the weekend from Shelly a new gig-getter who was a bit frustrated.

On the one hand she said she was pleased she'd managed to secure a number of initial gigs for her new band. On the other side of thing she was p*ssed that she was getting no follow-up phone calls about repeat bookings.

You may feel different, but I've always worked on the basis that venue bookers are at their most receptive to further bookings when you've just finished playing one for them.

Providing of course you haven't crashed and burned the performance...

I suggested Shelly look at part of the job on any gig as being booking multiple follow-up gigs.

When she goes to collect your cash she could ask:

"Was that alright for you then?"

When he/she answers in the affirmative (which most times they will) she could add:

"We're getting busy now for the next few months; do you want to put another couple of dates in the diary now?"

I've found you can get yourself 4 or 5 repeat bookings from the same place with one question if you do this right.

If the venue refuse to confirm the follow-up booking on gig night, Shelly should stay in touch with the venue anyhow. Schedule a regular call or email for when their situation changes and they're ready to book you again. Don't leave it to them to call you. You could wait forever no matter how great your band might be

Getting Friends to Work the Gig Crowd

You might like some of the ideas in this post from Harmony Central about how to convert a "roused" gig crowd into fans. I love them.

Not sure how my other half will feel about it when I announce we need to start mixing with more hot women at gigs in order to build our fan base though..

Scroll through the whole thing if you need some help developing your Facebook or Twitter numbers - especially the script used by one band's front man...

Good stuff. I'm going to have to give some of these a try