Breaking out of the pub gig circuit

[6v6]

I've been playing pub gigs for the last 15+ years, in various bands, and it's always the same - after a while you end up going through the motions playing to near-empty pubs for many (most?) of your gigs, and it slowly becomes a chore.

Obviously you're there to help the pub sell more beer, but it's frustrating how few folks turn out for live music a lot of the time, so unless you bring a mob of folks with you (which, realistically, you can't do all the time), you run the risk of a depressingly small turnout.

How do folks break out of this cycle and get into the better, more well attended gigs/venues?

I'm realistic, we're never going to be a big-time act, but I'd be content playing a few small niche festival type events a year, maybe do some beer/car-festivals, that kind of thing.

We've done a few parties etc, but have stopped short of doing the whole wedding-band thing, as none of us really want to make the musical compromises associated with that, but feedback on our gigs is normally good, and we're regarded as one of the best live bands in the local town.

Lately, we've been trying to break out of the local town (as we've somewhat saturated the market there, playing sometimes too-often in various places) and play places further afield, but then we're back to the empty-pub syndrome, because outside the local area, nobody knows us, and folks don't turn out for a band they've never heard of, evidently

Any tips, sympathy or words of wisdom folks?

[neepheid]

We're away to do our first out of town pub gig at the end of next month. Hoping to get a few nearby folk I know to come along. After that, it's just hope and pray it isn't awful. Did some out of town gigs with my previous bands and yeah, hit and miss. The busy, fun nights more than make up for the quiet, crappy ones - the good ones are the ones you reminisce about after all.

[BigRedX]

6v6 are you playing covers or originals? The market is completely different for each.

[Adrenochrome]

The main advice I've got to is to be really really good as a band. Focus on songs that suit your singer, and songs that you are passionate about playing and can play well. Don't settle for second best in anything, get all the great harmonies and vocals in that you can, don't skip those tricky bits of songs. Don't be afraid to let another band member sing a song or 2 if they suit the song more than the lead vocalist.

[Truckstop]

The best crowds are at the pubs that have a good live music following. A lot of pubs just have music on as an afterthought because it's just something that pubs do these days and as a result never pull in a good crowd. The band is responsible for entertaining the people that are already there!

You could be the best band ever, but if you're playing the Frog and Twat which is 15 miles away from the nearest town and has bands every two months, then you'll never get a crowd there.

In my experience, music fans (in pub covers land) don't travel. They stay at their local because that venue will have a reputation for always putting on good music, they won't travel to see a band at a pub they're not familiar with.

Ergo, you need to do your research and find the pubs that have a good live music fan base.

Or just do parties all the time.

Or, organise your own party and invite everyone. Guaranteed a good crowd then aren't you?

[Les]

[quote name='Truckstop' timestamp='1430213517' post='2758910'] The best crowds are at the pubs that have a good live music following. A lot of pubs just have music on as an afterthought because it's just something that pubs do these days and as a result never pull in a good crowd. The band is responsible for entertaining the people that are already there! [/quote]

Totally nailed by Truckstop

[Conan]

How much publicity do you do? Do you leave it up to the venue, or do you put the word out yourselves?

[Lozz196]

[quote name='Les' timestamp='1430214922' post='2758935']
Totally nailed by Truckstop
[/quote]

Agree. In my old covers band we played a good few music venue-pubs, where the venue had a solid crowd that went there for the music every week. Those gigs were always good, much better than the boozers which put bands on even though the local crowd have no interest in music.

[6v6]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1430212169' post='2758880']
6v6 are you playing covers or originals? The market is completely different for each.
[/quote]

Both, actually - the set is more covers orientated in many pubs as that's what folks seem to want (funky music anyone? sigh...) - the originals are actually really well received, particularly with the "home crowd" who know the songs now. On most gigs it's probably about 60-70% covers, with the set list slanted towards bluesy, poppy or rocky depending on the venue and the crowd.

[6v6]

[quote name='Truckstop' timestamp='1430213517' post='2758910']
In my experience, music fans (in pub covers land) don't travel. They stay at their local because that venue will have a reputation for always putting on good music, they won't travel to see a band at a pub they're not familiar with.

Ergo, you need to do your research and find the pubs that have a good live music fan base.

Or just do parties all the time.

Or, organise your own party and invite everyone. Guaranteed a good crowd then aren't you?
[/quote]

Yeah, nailed it there - finding and getting into the places with a good live music fan base is the challenge we are facing, basically.

We don't get enough party bookings to do them all the time, but that's certainly an avenue we could explore, feels like a step in the "wedding band" direction though I guess.

Organizing our own event is a good shout, once or twice a year (we've actually done similar before).

In terms of publicity, we send posters to the venues and publicize the event via Facebook, what other channels do folks find effective?

[TimR]

I think you have to be inventive with your setlist and get the right mix of 'tired old songs that have been done a million times before that all the punters want to hear' and some fresh unexpected recent hits.

If you can do that successfully then people will cme to your gigs as word should get round.

If you just play tunes from one of those two categories you'll lose part of your audience.

Playing any obscure tunes off an album that only your guitaris tor singer likes should be avoided where possible.

It's hard work getting a band that draws a crowd.

[lowhand_mike]

tbh just be greatful you are getting gigs, our band find it hard to get regular gigs which usually equates to about 4 or 5 a year!!, we practice mainly for fun but doing gigs is the ultimate goal so we'd be happy just to crack the pub circuit.
we alos try to have a mix of classics and new stuff to please as many as possible, and yeah reign in the guitarists odd choices as said above

[JTUK]

I'm not sure you can just decide ...you will be asked to do bigger events as you have something that they want, or they can sell.
If you find that you are pulling too many people, then you can go to supply and demand, and charge larger pubs a higher fee
that they can only pay by selling tickets, but basically if you can't sell 200 plus tickets, as people are used to not paying to see you
or you just don't have enough people that will pay, I'm not sure you can make the move.
The bands that can pack out a pub can probably ask for up to £500 and get it... but then that is competition for
a good party date and £500 is poor money for that so you'll not want to do that on a saturday duringt eh summer months
If you are one of the better regarded bands in the area/town...you probably should try and be one of the better bands in the county
as I only know a handful of bands that can do that sort of thing. Some are exceptional bands and some are just very very appealing...
it doesn't matter which so much, as long as you can deal in large numbers of people who will come to see you. That is the entire game, IMO.