bonzodog Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 I know this topic has been done a millions times but I'm getting more and more annoyed with venues and their attitude to advertising. We are playing two pubs this weekend, tonight and tomorrow. Been checking on thier facebook pages which they seem to use quite often and tonight's gig mentioned us at start of the month along with all the football games and menu deals throughout month but nothing since. I drove past there on Tuesday and there were no posters up. Been trying to contact the bloke who booked us for tomorrows gig all week (he doesn't work there but gets the gigs for a few local venues). Finally spoke to him last night and he said he wasn't doing it anymore but we 'should' still be okay to play there. So I had to get in my car and drive to the venue. Spoke to a barmaid who said (after getting her diary out) that there was a band booked in and presumed its us but no name or fee is in diary. I had to get her to write our name in and told her the fee which she said she would pass on to manager and ring me with any problems. Again no posters up or mentions on their facebook page. We will get paid for both gigs and they may be busy, but I doubt it. its just so frustrating to see no effort, when we have been advertising both gigs on our page and webs site for weeks. Roll back to last week and we had a belter of a gig. There had been posters up and loads of facebook activity and the pub was rammed to the rafters. Rant over Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lojo Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 Make a flyer up so they can post it on their social media , you may also need to provide them with posters or A4 flyer printouts I know it all benefits the pub only (you get paid anyway) but it seems today its really up to the band if they want a good atmosphere to do some of this stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTUK Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 Don't bother with pubs like that.... I'm not going to drag people down to places like that, and tbh, they wouldn't want to go anyway so all adds up to a waste of time. Pubs are too much hard work at the best of times so that would be one to avoid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonzodog Posted March 20, 2015 Author Share Posted March 20, 2015 [quote name='lojo' timestamp='1426852832' post='2722699'] Make a flyer up so they can post it on their social media , you may also need to provide them with posters or A4 flyer printouts I know it all benefits the pub only (you get paid anyway) but it seems today its really up to the band if they want a good atmosphere to do some of this stuff. [/quote] We did flyers for each gig for our facebook page and sent them to the venues 2 weeks ago. Neither of them have used them. Some pubs do ask us to drop physical posters into them a couple of weeks before hand which we do when asked. But if they dont ask we just presume they are doing them, themselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulWarning Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 frustrating isn't it?, I send posters to pubs via the post if they're too far away to drop them in then turn up at the gig and they haven't even been arsed to put them up, then they wonder why their business is going down the tubes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevB Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 Yes it's a 2 way street. Bands need to put in the effort but the venues need to back up their end too. If I was to offer any defence to pubs it's probably that they are working with tiny margins in terms of staffing and getting posters up for bands can easily fall to the bottom of priorities, especially if they aren't offering much money to the bands and as a result don't get a big increase in punters compared to same night if there wasn't a band on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 Well then the owner/manager needs to get off their arse and put the posters up themselves, it takes 20 minutes and can make all the difference in the world to the venue's takings fo rthe night. Not doing so is askeing to have a crap evening. We recently played a gig in London (where we rarely play) and the manager had ensured there were huge posters up everywhere, the fb page had us on the bill alongside sone funk DJs. The place was rammed, people had a cracking time, so did we, everyone was happy. We'd never played there before... If he hadn't bothered though, there was no way we'd have pulled in a single punter off our web presence because we dont have much if any reach in Londin at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimR Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 It's amazing what a little bit of advertising does. We've played gigs with no posters up but I've heard people, who've been walking past while we were loading in, say they would come back. And I've seen them in the audience. These are people who would have walked past and stayed in another pub all night. Top tip, take your own easel and posters, turn up around 6pm and put it up outside pub. You'll get a lot of 'passing trade'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacey Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 Almost as annoying as when they stack all the broken chairs and tables up where they want you to set up and think you should move them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lojo Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 Pub gigs are not worth doing for the money, so if we choose to do one, its usually for a good reason. Therefore I have no problem promoting the ones we choose to do. If you are just playing random pubs that don't get behind the idea, then your onto a loser and some frustrating nights putting all the effort in only to hump your gear home late without having much fun. Forget moaning about the pubs, make the gigs what your after yourself, and if its not possible then you've a decision to make. Don't except the landlords to do much, and the rights and wrongs of this don't really matter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icastle Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 One band I play with is primarily a functions band so we only do a handful of pub gigs each year, usually at the same pub. They put up posters, have flyers on the bar, do the chalkboard thing and put it on their facebook page weeks before we're due to play and the place is packed all night. Those gigs give us an opportunity to 'market' ourselves to prospective clients and we often see previous clients in the audience long after we've played their function, which is always nice. The other band is more of a pub band and not as well known locally. Some pubs put the effort in and fill the place, others don't do as much and reap less from the experience. When we get one like that we work with them on follow up gigs and that little bit of handholding turns an 'OK' night into something far more profitable for all concerned. No, we shouldn't have to advise businesspeople how to run their business, but sometimes they need a little nudge to set them on the right course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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