What promo efforts work for your band?

[dclaassen]

Please share the promotional stuff that gets you the gigs!

[Silvia Bluejay]

Be in a tight, sh!t-hot band.

Create a setlist that's well thought out and representative of the product you want to sell - party covers, original indie, punk, jazz, metal, whatever.

Then gig, gig and gig some more. And more. And MORE.

Have some good quality flyers with contacts and social links to give to punters/scouters/visiting landlords/club managers at said gigs.

 

Have a well maintained, up to date Facebook page, a Youtube channel with good quality (i.e not crappy hand-held mobile) footage, a Lemonrock (or similar) account with a public, up to date availability diary and a gig list.

Reply to any enquiries promptly and satisfactorily.

 

Edited April 23, 2023 by Silvia Bluejay

[dclaassen]

I guess I was hoping for a bit more from folks who are picking up new venues…especially in rural areas like ours. The small town pubs in Cambridgeshire seem to barely be hiring any bands, and I’d like to find ways of getting the attention of those who are. If you have recently tweaked your promotional effoerts to good effect, I would love to know how you did it. 
 

I like the blokes I have played with, but we have not had a gig since November.

[Burns-bass]

48 minutes ago, dclaassen said:

I guess I was hoping for a bit more from folks who are picking up new venues…especially in rural areas like ours. The small town pubs in Cambridgeshire seem to barely be hiring any bands, and I’d like to find ways of getting the attention of those who are. If you have recently tweaked your promotional effoerts to good effect, I would love to know how you did it. 
 

I like the blokes I have played with, but we have not had a gig since November.

We use a booking agent to manage everything. I don’t know if that’s the case for all venues, but I know that many now use them to arrange their live music.

 

Its almost impossible to approach venues “cold” - but since we started gigging, it’s an awful lot easier to pickup gigs.

 

In rural areas, I guess nothing replaces dropping in for a pint and a chat. 

 

 

[Len_derby]

20 minutes ago, Burns-bass said:

 

 

In rural areas, I guess nothing replaces dropping in for a pint and a chat. 

 

 

This is very much my experience in the small town and village area of the Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire borders where my covers band work. It means someone (although we try to do it in pairs to share the load) has to put the time in to do it and have the required ‘people skills’ to be effective. I’ve found that sending out promotional material cold, no matter how good it is, rarely gets any results.

There are also a couple of local pubs who use their open mic nights as a way to check out who they might offer a weekend paid gig to.

[BigRedX]

What sort of band is it? Covers, originals, tribute? what genre(s)? Where are you based?

 

There is no one size fits all process to getting gigs.

 

IME of originals bands once you've got a foot in the door through either contacts or sheer bloody persistence, you need to make the most of the opportunity by being brilliantly entertaining. At one point with The Terrortones almost every gig we were playing was leading to two others - a rebooking at the place we had just played and someone in the audience  recommending somewhere else we should play and giving us a good contact to talk to. Even then you do need to be politely persistent. Mr Venom would spend at least an hour every evening on the phone or social media reminding venues, promoters, bands we would like to support who we were and why they should give us a gig.

 

If you live somewhere where there a few "local" venues then you will need to be prepared to travel in order to play.

 

Of corse you could bypass the whole system and just organise your own gigs. Book somewhere to play and do everything yourself. Easier if you are an originals band as you can book at better-known band of the same genre to headline and your band supports. This way you also build up an impressive gigging "CV" that can be used to persuade other venues and promotors of your band's worth.

 

Of course if you are a covers band very little of that (other than the fact you need to be entertaining - which is not the same as being technically good musicians) applies.

[Lozz196]

As per BigRedXs post above, in my last band the singer did all the online stuff and similarly we ended up with so much work we had to turn a lot down.
 

Having someone in the band who is like that and prepared to do all that work is a major step forward.

Edited April 24, 2023 by Lozz196

[dclaassen]

4 hours ago, BigRedX said:

What sort of band is it? Covers, originals, tribute? what genre(s)? Where are you based?

 

There is no one size fits all process to getting gigs.

 

IME of originals bands once you've got a foot in the door through either contacts or sheer bloody persistence, you need to make the most of the opportunity by being brilliantly entertaining. At one point with The Terrortones almost every gig we were playing was leading to two others - a rebooking at the place we had just played and someone in the audience  recommending somewhere else we should play and giving us a good contact to talk to. Even then you do need to be politely persistent. Mr Venom would spend at least an hour every evening on the phone or social media reminding venues, promoters, bands we would like to support who we were and why they should give us a gig.

 

If you live somewhere where there a few "local" venues then you will need to be prepared to travel in order to play.

 

Of corse you could bypass the whole system and just organise your own gigs. Book somewhere to play and do everything yourself. Easier if you are an originals band as you can book at better-known band of the same genre to headline and your band supports. This way you also build up an impressive gigging "CV" that can be used to persuade other venues and promotors of your band's worth.

 

Of course if you are a covers band very little of that (other than the fact you need to be entertaining - which is not the same as being technically good musicians) applies.

This is a pub band that has largely played in the space between Cambridge and Ipswitch....mostly small town pubs and social clubs. I have not had the local knowledge to go after gigs for this band, and, honestly, I am not sure the guys really want to play much, as none of them have successfully gotten anything since November. I also think we have had to attitude of "we'll just do what we always did to get places to play" and post-covid, that's not really working in our area. 

 

So, I thought I would start looking into how it is done here. I knew how to do it in the midwestern US and in North Texas, but this is quite a bit different. 

 

Thanks everyone for the tips...keep them coming in please!

[BassAdder60]

4 hours ago, dclaassen said:

This is a pub band that has largely played in the space between Cambridge and Ipswitch....mostly small town pubs and social clubs. I have not had the local knowledge to go after gigs for this band, and, honestly, I am not sure the guys really want to play much, as none of them have successfully gotten anything since November. I also think we have had to attitude of "we'll just do what we always did to get places to play" and post-covid, that's not really working in our area. 

 

So, I thought I would start looking into how it is done here. I knew how to do it in the midwestern US and in North Texas, but this is quite a bit different. 

 

Thanks everyone for the tips...keep them coming in please!

We play Suffolk / Norfolk venues all the time. Can take a year to get a booking at the better venues 

[Phil Starr]

18 hours ago, dclaassen said:

I guess I was hoping for a bit more from folks who are picking up new venues…especially in rural areas like ours.

I wouldn't dismiss @Silvia Bluejay quite so easily. The better your band is the easier it will be to get gigs. Having an identity is key. the first question the booker will ask is 'what do you play?' and if you can't answer in a couple of words you've probably lost your booking. Eclectic means you've shoved a set together at random and marks you out as unprofessional. You'll need something recorded so they can hear you and see what you do. The more professional it looks the better chance you'll have getting the gig.

 

You've got to look at it from the pubs point of view. Times are hard for them so they have to be hard nosed. If a band charges £250 they are going to have to sell 250 extra drinks to pay for the band. They probably have to attract an extra 60-80 customers and keep them in the pub long enough to buy a few drinks. To do that they need to play songs people like at least competently, even if the band is brilliant they still need to play stuff people like. An unknown band is a risk. A bad Saturday is often the difference between making a profit over the week or a loss.

 

Look up Lemonrock too, it isn't strong all over the country but where it is a lot of pubs will use it as their go-to for booking bands. In Cambridge itself it looks to be strong.

 

It's tough if you are a start up band, you'll probably be asked where else you have played. There isn't a formula for promotional material any more than there is a chat up line that will get you a partner. Some decent recordings and video will help but to get people to even look at it you'll need someone to do a lot of leg work. They are the most important person in the band

Edited April 24, 2023 by Phil Starr

[acidbass]

On 24/04/2023 at 06:25, dclaassen said:

I guess I was hoping for a bit more from folks who are picking up new venues…especially in rural areas like ours. The small town pubs in Cambridgeshire seem to barely be hiring any bands, and I’d like to find ways of getting the attention of those who are. If you have recently tweaked your promotional effoerts to good effect, I would love to know how you did it. 
 

I like the blokes I have played with, but we have not had a gig since November.

 

 Can you organise and promote your own gig at one of these rural venues?  Might be the start of a regular gig and will help increase your profile locally.

[dclaassen]

I like that idea....not sure about my band mates....

[BigRedX]

34 minutes ago, dclaassen said:

I like that idea....not sure about my band mates....

 

That's you problem right there.

 

As a band you all need to be "on the same page" as far as gigging goes. Nothing breaks up a band quicker than not all of the members wanting the same thing out of being in it, or what may be perceived as unequal division of labour when it comes to getting and organising gigs - even though some members may be much better at this aspect than others. 

[Gasman]

Totally agree, BigRedX! In my case, a big factor in getting gigs for our band is that our lady frontperson has been living and gigging in the north dorset area for decades, is well-known and loved and is the reason why (despite many lineup changes over that period) the band is a go-to choice for venues and events in a 30 mile radius. Word of mouth, personal recommendations and pleasing the punters at every gig are all ingredients of the magic fairy-dust you need. However, I’ve been in the OP’s position before with startup bands, where getting a first gig at a venue even 10 years ago could seem to be soul-destroyingly impossible, even worse now, but you have to just keep trying!

Edited April 26, 2023 by Gasman
Added info

[Franticsmurf]

In addition to the advice above, I've found that we've picked up some gigs through contacts on the night. So some nice business cards (IMO looks better than fliers) with a logo and contact details, including any online content, allows you to make the contact. In the past, we've played a pub or small club and picked up a function or wedding from it.

[Gasman]

Yes, a very good promo point...