Successful Band Booking by Bringing and KEEPING the Crowd

Trying to catch up with things on Sunday  I read a  band booking post which amongst it's "Top 10 Tips" talked about bringing and keeping a crowd. 

I didn't agree with everything in the post (see bottom of this piece), but those two points about the crowd got me thinking.

Certainly any band or solo artist who wants to keep the gig(ie, get asked back), should ideally be trying to take some people with them. Although not necessarily literally in the same transport as the band of course.... 

If you can't do this, how are you ever going to build a following or make a full (or part)-time living out of  your music?

You don't need to take hundreds of people. Just a handful can often be enough to swell the coffers of small venues. 

It all comes down to working on the promotion of each band booking you play. 

Letting people know you're playing somewhere and giving them reasons to turn up. 

Here's one online way:

Getting more fans to your band booking

There's more to a successful gigging act than this though. Taking your own people to a gig generally gets more difficult the further away from home you gig. 

That's where you need to know how to RETAIN the people who are already in the venue. The venue's regular gig-goers. 

When it's been a particularly successful gig at the Hard Rock for example, the venue will often refer to the fact that we kept the crowd there (and so the bar busy),- rather than brought people with us...

Achieving this boils down partly to your music of course, but overall it's all about the kind of night you give the crowd. 

Isn't having a good time what going out for the night is all about?

A lot of bands find that getting a gig crowd to talk about you and the gig you've just played for days after is usually more than the music alone. Any thoughts?

 Audience interaction at the band booking

So anyhow, here's the post I was reading over the weekend

Talking between songs? Does your Gig Crowd care?

"Every band booking is only about the music" 


or.....

"Your gig crowd expects and wants some chat in between songs"



Which camp do you and your gigs fall into?

I've played 100's of gigs and worked with too many semi pro and amateur bands not to have a firm opinion on this. 

Give me two bands of the same ability, equipment and genre, pair them with the same crowd and watch what happens.

The band with even just a tiny amount of audience interaction (when it's done in the right way) will win hands down over the "music only" act every time. 

You don't have to recite passages from War and Peace in between every song but you do need to show them you're human and not "up yourself".

Here's a neat post where other musicians discuss talking between songs with their gig crowds. The site itself is one of the best for all kinds of discussions and help for musicians. Worth bookmarking I reckon..

More audience interaction tips