Promoters Vs. Musicians

I don't rant on this blog very often, but I just witnessed something that made me feel the need to. This blog is intended not only to document what I'm doing with my music but also to give my views on different parts of the industry, good and bad, which will in turn hopefully advise others and create debates to which we can all contribute and from which we can all learn.

I just left a Facebook group for UK wide promoters as an argument broke out about paying acts. Old chestnuts such as 'getting paid for your hobby' and 'I don't mind paying if people come' were banded around.

I get that some people do this as a hobby. I play in a function band that works essentially on that premise (though The Replicas are something of a hybrid between a hobby and a professional outfit due to the differing influences within the band). I also have no problem with that whatsoever. In many professions professionals can get twitchy about people offering services that they would charge for for free, or at least for a vastly reduced rate (photographers, for example) but my view is that, with music being as subjective as it is, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter to me that a million people are playing guitar and singing for free because they don't play what I play, how I play it. If my music is good enough that my fans will feel it worth paying to watch, hear or own, then I'm not effected by people doing it for the love of it. In fact I salute them. It's great to find something that you really love doing.

The 'I don't mind paying you if X amount of people come' line infuriates me both as a musician and as a promoter. Not only is it deliberately vague, so even if 1000 people came they could still argue that they never promised you anything, but also it's just plain lazy on a promoter's part. In my experience there are two types of well attended gigs. Firstly, there are the gigs where the band or bands on the bill have a known following in that area and are the main attraction to draw people in. In this case the bands should be letting their own fans know about the show and the promoter should be advertising in the local area to pick up the people who didn't get that message. If both do their job it should work. Secondly, there are the venues and promoters that are known for certain types of gigs and their quality and so have an attraction almost regardless of who is playing. Here bands will still be contacting their own fans and promoters will be be promoting in the local area to bring in people who might like the type of show being put on. If both of these happen it should work.

My point with all of that is that if a promoter backs themselves to put on a night that they think is going to work, they shouldn't be relying on a door split to 'maybe' pay the band. If they have booked the right line up to attract the clientèle they are looking for and promoted the event well enough, they should be confident enough to pay a band a discussed amount that they are worth. If the promoter has done the majority of the promotion work, they should be the ones rewarded if 1000 people do turn up. If it's just the band, their friends and family, then frankly I don't think a promoter should get paid at all.

Going back to the original argument, the worst part of it was that there were musicians sticking up for the promoter's stance that that mythical beast 'exposure' was more important than getting paid. I agree that in some instances exposure has been enough to make me take a gig. These have been when I have been offered the chance to support a well known or established act that I have felt would put me in front of a new audience of people who may enjoy my music. In these few cases I have been vindicated in my decision, as they have often led to a bumper night of CD sales and further bookings as support for acts or in new venues which can pay. However, that was a situation where I took a calculated risk financially that ended up paying off. It's not worth doing if you just being promised that the other acts are bringing people who won't have seen you before and the manager of the club might come and watch you for 30 seconds in between bar shifts.

The Facebook group argument then had an incredible claim made on it that the reason for there 'being so many shit bands out there' was down to people putting on free gigs and bands being given publicity that they didn't deserve. I hardly feel that this warrants any response, but I will just say that, as I stated above, music is entirely subjective and what one person likes another may hate. If anything this claim should be directed at lazy promoters who will book anyone just to fill a space on a line up and don't try and marry the acts on a line up to create an enticing event. The idea that the gigging circuit should be more selective in order to weed out less audibly acceptable bands is incredibly dangerous to any local music scene. There is an obvious catch 22 staring me in the face from that remark that I fear must have been lost on the original poster.

To conclude (and before I turn into a grumpy old man!) I'd like to state that I don't think that all promoters are lazy. Some work especially hard and they are the ones that get the reward for it. These are the promoters that people want to come and play for, the ones that create a reputation for themselves of supplying quality music, usually of a specific style, and can often generate their own following. I saw a post on Twitter the other day that said 'Think you don't have a favourite record label? Check out your CD collection and you might be surprised'. This is the sort of thing that happens with good promoters too. The kind of promoters I enjoy working with. The kind of promoter I strive to be.

BH Covers Challenge 8 - Pop Punk

This video had been really good for me in two different ways. Firstly, it was a chance to finally use the time lapse app on my phone for a YouTube video, something I have been threatening for ages (you haven't seen the last of it!) but most importantly, after a couple of runner up attempts in the BH Covers Challenge it finally won one for me! I'm delighted :)

The competition will probably be changing somewhat for the next, possibly final two rounds. I've enjoyed it immensely, and will need to come up with something similar to challenge myself with if it does end. I'm thinking I might take suggestions on Facebook as to what to cover and have polls, but that could be a little risky!

Ambition.

Quite often when I have finished a set at a gig I will get people come up to me and say they enjoyed it and that they like my music. This is great for me, I love performing live and it makes up the majority of my work as a musician, so I'm always glad that people take the time to tell me that they enjoyed it. We have a conversation for a few minutes about the music, the songs I played, my own influences and perhaps their own music playing and tastes, and then quite often the conversation will end with them saying 'I really hope you make it'.

This doesn't annoy me like it would annoy some musicians. I don't go off on a tirade about how success does not need to be defined by how famous you are, or that you don't need to be a millionaire to be a successful, working and solvent musician. I know that it's just people really wishing me good luck and saying that they would like for me to achieve the success that they believe I am capable of.

One such conversation, with a fellow musician at a gig on Good Friday, did not end in quite the same way however. She approached me after my set to say how much she had enjoyed it and after a brief conversation she left by saying, 'I really hope you make a living doing this'.

It's only a subtle difference to the norm, but the effect it had on me was tremendous. I've always maintained fame and fortune do not interest me, but to make a suitable living as a working musician is my aim. To have someone wish that for me face-to-face was a really nice experience, and one I wanted to share with you.

Oxygen Thief.

For any who weren't aware, I made quite a big step this Tuesday by booking and supporting Oxygen Thief at The Grain Store in Wolverhampton. I've been putting on gigs for quite a long time, but this was the first time I had booked a touring act signed to a moderately large label and gone through the process of finding a suitable venue, line up and doing the physical and online promotion for such a gig.

I should at this point add that Andy Turner, who runs the Grain Store Live Sessions and is an all round nice guy and good friend helped me out a lot with the venue, the promotion and the general running of the night. I couldn't have done it without him, and won't hesitate to work with him again in the future.

The line up was ace, and if I take nothing else from this gig, just being on the same bill as the guys involved is a real privilege. Opener Josh Briggs was Andy's choice, and was a great one! His CDs were free and were probably all claimed (there could have been fights!). One thing I will say is that calling a CD with 7 tracks on it an EP is unfair to it. I've seen albums shorter than that!

David Young was next and, as always, did a stellar job. I didn't buy his CD, but only because I have it already! I'm performing with him again on Friday for his all dayer at The Golden Lion in Bradley (one of three gigs that day!). His band are headlining, so go down and check it out if you are in the area.

Next was me :)

'My Name is Earl' style
closed eyes photo.

After that was a man I had heard a lot about but never seen in the flesh before, Neil Morris. Neil's reputation didn't let him down, he played a really entertaining set and his CD has been on in Kayla's car ever since! 'Blood Diamonds' was a personal highlight.

Then it was on to the man himself, Oxygen Thief. His set was really entertaining, and he came over as a really nice and funny guy. Working out that the lights changed every time he stamped his feet made for an even more spectacular performance, and his new EP is next in line for car rotation.

All in all, while a little quieter than I might have liked, the whole thing went really well. I got to meet and see (and play alongside) some great new acts, and I made my first tentative step into the big bad world of 'big boy promoting'. I ended up coming in just over my budget, but not by much at all, and with a bit more experience and a little more luck we would have been there, so I'm not worried. Sometimes a really good gig is reward enough.

One day to go!

If you aren't excited for tomorrow night's gig yet, this should get you in the mood!

Oxygen Thief Tickets!

They're here!

That's right, the tickets for the gig I'm putting on with the mighty Oxygen Thief have arrived! You can order yours here.

It's going to be a great night. The line up is really ace and it's a really nice venue. Make sure you get your tickets and get involved.

DH Covers Challenge

I've entered into a covers competition.

Well, to be honest, it's more of a club than a competition. It's a group of local(ish) musicians on Facebook that each submit a randomly selected cover from a certain theme every few weeks. The theme is chosen by the previous competition's winner and then he/she will come up with as many songs in their chosen theme as is required for the amount of people entering. Each person is then allocated one at random and given two weeks to make a YouTube video of it. Finally we all submit them on the final day and everyone picks their top three and the person with the most votes wins. The prize? Yep, the chance to choose the next theme.

It's a bit of fun and to be honest it's really nice to be involved with a competition of sorts online that doesn't revolve around getting the most 'likes' or video views.

I know you guys can't vote, but I thought you might be interested anyway. It means there will be some new videos coming up on my YouTube page shortly and some of them could be pretty left field! I don't know what song I'll be given yet, but the first one I'm taking part in is James Bond theme tunes! I'm both excited and slightly nervous about what I might get!

Keep you posted