How you go about getting gigs?

[Callumjord]

I have recently joined a covers/function band and after being together for a while jamming and building up our set lists we are now at a point were we are wanting to get out there and start gigging. We have set up a Facebook page, recorded ourselves playing through a couple of songs. We have been booked for two birthday parties but we have been looking around for more gigs to play but this has been unsuccessful.

The last function band I joined luckily had a bit of a reputation and was always booked about once or twice a month without actively looking.

So, how do you guys go about getting booked for gigs?

[blue]

[quote name='Callumjord' timestamp='1464556497' post='3060350']
I have recently joined a covers/function band and after being together for a while jamming and building up our set lists we are now at a point were we are wanting to get out there and start gigging. We have set up a Facebook page, recorded ourselves playing through a couple of songs. We have been booked for two birthday parties but we have been looking around for more gigs to play but this has been unsuccessful.

The last function band I joined luckily had a bit of a reputation and was always booked about once or twice a month without actively looking.

So, how do you guys go about getting booked for gigs?
[/quote]

Depends on what type of gigs your looking to play. If you want to gig pubs, have one member go around and pitch the band in person to the LL.

If your a New band play anywhere you can.

Don't let anyone book "no pay" gigs.No matter how bad you guys want to gig ,don't cave in and play for free.

Blue

[skidder652003]

Landlords by and large are Luddites, you will need a Live Demo CD and a good pair of leather shoes. Find out where all the live band pubs are in your area (www.lemonrock.com if you're in the South of England) and call in at approx 11am in the morning when the guvnor is having a cup of tea before early doors (not Monday by the way as thats his day off). Have a good patter pre arranged in your head and most importantly a diary of free dates in your pocket. Also tell him/her that its usually £x amount per gig but as its your first time, lets call it £x-£50 and if you (or more importantly, the punters)like you then its £x per gig, good luck, playing is the easy part, getting the gig is man's (the bass players) work.

[blue]

[quote name='skidder652003' timestamp='1464561264' post='3060391']
Landlords by and large are Luddites, you will need a Live Demo CD and a good pair of leather shoes. Find out where all the live band pubs are in your area (www.lemonrock.com if you're in the South of England) and call in at approx 11am in the morning when the guvnor is having a cup of tea before early doors (not Monday by the way as thats his day off). Have a good patter pre arranged in your head and most importantly a diary of free dates in your pocket. Also tell him/her that its usually £x amount per gig but as its your first time, lets call it £x-£50 and if you (or more importantly, the punters)like you then its £x per gig, good luck, playing is the easy part, getting the gig is man's (the bass players) work.
[/quote]

Lots of differences between the UK and the US.

Over here, you give a bar owner a CD, guess where it will end up.

Blue

[Truckstop]

Hit the phone. Identify local pubs that put on music and get calling. Keep calling until you've got dates in the diary. But it's hard. My last band I was on the phone every evening for 2 weeks getting in touch with maybe 5 LLs a night and getting nowhere.

We also spammed all the pubs with an email that had links to our FB. We got our gigs through these emails mainly.

I think most bands just get lucky. Like a mate will be putting on a beer festival and then the pub will have you back and then once you've got gigs in the diary then it's easier to find work.

Best of luck.

[blue]

Your in the early stages of building a book of business. It takes time. Don't get discouraged and give up, that's the worse thing you could do.

Blue

[skidder652003]

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1464575657' post='3060429']
Lots of differences between the UK and the US.

Over here, you give a bar owner a CD, guess where it will end up.

Blue
[/quote]
yes I should have added you will need a stack of CD's !
The most important part is the sales pitch, be friendly and polite, tell them you have a few dates in other pubs in the next town and that the band members used to be in this band and that band. I find most landlords pretty friendly if they're not stressed, so getting them at the right time is important. Some like to try new bands and inject freh blood into their "roster" of acts, some can't be bothered and rotate the same "turns" year after year. Its a long game and takes time to establish yourselves, pubs close and open all the time, the main thing-don't give up!!!!

[BottomE]

We did it be getting local gigs and then having a website and business cards. Peeps would approach after the gig and ask for a card which points them to the website. All gigs now are word of mouth fuelled by two residencies the band holds in venues in a busy seaside town. It takes time.

[PaulWarning]

it can be very frustrating, luck has a lot to do with it, right place right time and all that, we've never had much luck with CD's, DVD's, they just don't listen to them, you just have to keep plugging away and try not to get disheartened, pub landlords get inundated with gig requests also they're very lazy about checking bands out, so most of the time it's just catching them at the right time, if they say they'll get back to you they probably won't

[Woodinblack]

Never used CDs, but just making a list of all the pubs you hear about playing music and a lot of phoning and asking.

[Happy Jack]

Most of the advice here seems to be pre-Internet vintage. IME very little of this stuff still works.

CDs? Don't make me laugh ... no LL is interested in settling down at 1am after cleaning up the pub to listen to your studio recording of Long Train Running.

Phone calls? Good luck with ever getting through to a decision maker in the first place, let alone convincing them to offer you a paid gig over the phone.

My approach?

1. LEGWORK: Find out which pubs actually do music, target the ones you really, really want to play, then go and spend time and money in that pub. Go there to see other bands. Go there for Sunday lunch. Pop in at funny times. Talk to the bar staff. Find out who controls the music. Don't forget to spend money in his pub - bizarrely, most people are more prepared to make time to talk to you if you put money in their pocket, can't imagine why.

2. SHOWTIME: Set up a website, make it look like you're a serious band, put some LIVE mp3 recordings on there - not studio stuff, LLs aren't as stupid as many musicians seem to want to paint them, get a competent person to video the band playing some live numbers and stick them on YouTube. Give the LL an honest representation of what you play, how you sound, how you look. Treat the LL like a grown-up and maybe he'll do the same to you ...

[Woodinblack]

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1464602340' post='3060610']
Phone calls? Good luck with ever getting through to a decision maker in the first place, let alone convincing them to offer you a paid gig over the phone.
[/quote]

Have got almost all my gigs that way, apart from rebookings and when we have been contacted as were were known. Maybe your market is a lot different where you are?

[dand666]

Get on an agency, before I was on ships our band was doing 2 weddings a week. Fri and Sat, earning at least £250 each gig.

Alive Network got us a sh*t ton of work.

[12stringbassist]

Website with video page and clear setlist, gallery and dates pages.
Flyers for venues containing web address dates, songs, good band photo.
Use the internet. Get a template intro message together and message every venue you can get in touch with.

[amnesia]

My band is made of people that are not known on the local covers circuit so we couldn't just walk into / phone / email a venue and say "Hey, you know me from X band. This is my new band...give us a gig please".

We don't have any recordings of what we do, although there is obviously uncontrolled phone footage floating around Facebook.

We've got our gigs by doing this:
[list]
[*]We started the lazy way, by messaging promoters / venue managers and venue pages directly via facebook. We got a bit of interest from that, but it wasn't intended to be our primary venue contact method;
[*]Going to see other bands. Be seen by the 'established' bands as being a part of the 'scene'. We've been recommended to several venues by other bands now;
[*]Go into venues - we've chosen to do this on weekday evenings - with a presspack in hand and a bit of sales speak. Nothing special - just a bit of blurb about what we offer and our current set list.
[/list]

[JTUK]

2 ways to approach..
1) play any 'dive' that will have you.... pros; throw enough mud at the wall and some will stick. Cons, that kind of sets the standard of what band you are and many venues wont see you are at a level they'll want unless you can get beyond those venues.

2) Be good enough that the pub will want you or take a chance on you if that band incarnation is new and unknown.
This is where past known entities count, like the players or comparable venues.

[KevB]

If you are looking at functions (weddings, 'big' birthdays etc) completely from scratch it might be better to get on an agent's books until you have gained some reputation. You will still need some degree of web presence to do that and you will probably have to do some pub gigs for the agent to look you over anyway so look to your local area for decent music friendly pubs. Might have to do the odd freebie or reduced rate gig to prove yourselves, its a risk for the LL too remember. Stick at it, lots of gigs don't just happen overnight and you have to put almost as much work into getting them as actually producing the product itself in the rehearsal room, this where a lot of bands fall down.

[neepheid]

One of these days one of these threads which sound incredibly useful from the title surely has to be applicable to originals bands. Alas, my wait continues...

[RockfordStone]

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1464615876' post='3060794']
One of these days one of these threads which sound incredibly useful from the title surely has to be applicable to originals bands. Alas, my wait continues...
[/quote]
i feel you, but if you stick with this one long enough it will turn into a debate about one band type over the other soon enough.

[amnesia]

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1464615876' post='3060794']
One of these days one of these threads which sound incredibly useful from the title surely has to be applicable to originals bands. Alas, my wait continues...
[/quote]

Gig, gig and keep gigging. Play anywhere and everywhere until if you are good enough - people you don't know will come to the shows.

No shortcuts - just hard work followed by more hard work.

[Woodinblack]

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1464615876' post='3060794']
One of these days one of these threads which sound incredibly useful from the title surely has to be applicable to originals bands. Alas, my wait continues...
[/quote]

A lot of the same things apply to original groups I would have thought, but obviously the market is much much smaller. Depending on what sort of original group you are, I assume that there are still options. My last group did some originals and covers so it acted as a covers.

[M@23]

What's a 'CD'?!

My advice would be to network. Go to gigs, speak to other bands and bar staff and landlords and agents. Send emails, Facebook messages and make phonecalls. There are no shortcuts. Just got to muck in and do some legwork. Until you've done enough gigs and built a decent reputation anyway.

Edited to say, put together a showreel/promo vid, get it on YouTube and pin it to your FB page.

Edited May 30, 2016 by M@23

[BrunoBass]

We have had very good results using Facebook. After identifying venues we have approached them via our Facebook profile to theirs, and we have picked up a lot of work now that way. Our page has photos, Soundcloud links (forget CDs...), set list etc.

We still get gigs through more traditional methods but we're finding that social media really works for us.

[blue]

[quote name='skidder652003' timestamp='1464594884' post='3060490']

yes I should have added you will need a stack of CD's !
The most important part is the sales pitch, be friendly and polite, tell them you have a few dates in other pubs in the next town and that the band members used to be in this band and that band. I find most landlords pretty friendly if they're not stressed, so getting them at the right time is important. Some like to try new bands and inject freh blood into their "roster" of acts, some can't be bothered and rotate the same "turns" year after year. Its a long game and takes time to establish yourselves, pubs close and open all the time, the main thing-don't give up!!!!
[/quote]

Yes, and the trick is, getting into several of these rotations.

Blue

[blue]

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1464615876' post='3060794']
One of these days one of these threads which sound incredibly useful from the title surely has to be applicable to originals bands. Alas, my wait continues...
[/quote]

Originals gigs are a completely different animal than cover band gigs.

I switched to covers in 2009, I wish I could help but the 3 originals bands I was in couldn't get any gigs. Maybe 1 or 2 no pay gigs.

When I switched to covers one of the first Mondays after a weekend of gigging I had $600.00 in cash in my wallet from the weekend gigs. That was the end of ever entertaining originals bands for me.

I really think you have to live in an area that supports originals bands.

Blue

Edited May 30, 2016 by blue