How much Band Booking Crowd Banter Do You Need?

A timely reminder from a member of the audience last night that crowd banter can be overdone.

We were two songs in at a gig and the lead singer, in a bit of a wise-cracking mood, had made another comment to the crowd prior to the start of a song. Someone shouted:

"Are you comedians or musicians?  Play something else!" 

Now it will always pay you to get the crowd involved, to interact with them at your band bookings. But this guys' comment did make the point.

Sometimes, especially when you're used to getting a crowd going, you can get carried away with the audience banter side at a band booking.

As far as we were concerned last night, we adjusted the amount of chat after the comment last night and it turned out a great gig.
 

I'm a firm believer that none of the very best semi-pro bands rely on the music alone to play shows a crowd won't forget. However, you have to be on guard  to make sure you get the balance right between verbal  interaction, getting a audience member or two up on stage with you- oh, and of course playing the music....


Audience interaction article

All Band Booking Success Starts with a Plan

"Everything Starts with a Plan"

When musicians hear the phrase "Planning" as far as band booking is concerned, often their eyes glaze over. Almost as if the idea of setting gigging goals is too much like hard work.

The truth is though that if you don't know what you want to achieve with your band or your act, you shouldn't be surprised when you end up disappointed.

If you're not playing enough gigs, if there aren't enough people at your gigs, or you don't go down as well as you want when you do play, you CAN change this from now on.

To change things though, you need to know HOW you want things to be different in the future.


In a band situation this means a discussion involving all band members.

Ask yourselves:

- Exactly how many gigs do we want to play this year?

- What's our preferred type of gig? (ie, Club, Bar, corporate,
festival etc etc)

- What do we want to achieve with these gigs?

If you're "weekend warriors" your reasons may be to get some pay-back on all the gear you've invested in or an additional income from your hobby. If you're in a band as your career you might want your gigs to build a fan base, attract band management or label interest for example.

- What prices do we want to charge?

- How far are we prepared to travel to play a gig?

- What do we consider to be a good crowd reaction when we play?

- What size of fan base do we want to build?

Once your band is able to agree answers to questions like these, you'll be able to get started on an action plan to achieve these goals. You become focused and far more likely to get what you want for your band.

If you don't ask and answer these sorts of questions about your band booking future , well, anything can happen - including nothing.

Everything does start with a plan...


Band Booking Action Plan