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Contacts & Networking


Bluewine
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At times there are some of us that sit back and ponder about why some of your peers are getting more of the premium higher profile gigs.

 

I'd like to open up a discussion about the value of decision making contacts and networking as well as the consequences when you lose a contact. 

 

Blue

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I'll start. First of all I think most of us have enjoyed the benefits of having good contacts and the pitfalls of losing them.

 

We had a really cool relationship with The Thelma Performing Arts Center, a top notch center hosting several series of live music events. We got to open for Charlie Daniel's through them.

 

After 3 years of doing business with them our contact was fired. All opportunities for us came to an abrupt stop.All attempts at rebuilding the relationship with them failed. 

 

Blue

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We rise through the ranks depending on our personalities, ability on our instrument and by being in the right place at the right time.

 

My last audition was in 1985. Since then I've been solidly gigging thanks to the recommendations of people I've met or played with. . . . . or people who know people I've played with.

 

IMO learning to network is almost as important as learning to play your instrument.

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11 minutes ago, chris_b said:

We rise through the ranks depending on our personalities, ability on our instrument and by being in the right place at the right time.

 

My last audition was in 1985. Since then I've been solidly gigging thanks to the recommendations of people I've

met or played with. . . . . or people who know people I've played with.

 

IMO learning to network is almost as important as learning to play your instrument.

 

Hi Chris,  In my neck of the woods the caliber of the musianship of a band means nothing when it comes to playing high profile large stage gigs.

 

The awful band with a high level contact always gets the gig over the excellent band with no contact. 

 

Blue

Edited by Bluewine
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35 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

The awful band with a high level contact always gets the gig over the excellent band with no contact.

 

There are a couple of promoters my bands work for and it's all done on a personal level. If they like you, you're in. If they don't you're out. How good the band is is not always the prime motivation to giving you the gig.

 

If the decision to end the relationship is made it doesn't matter how flimsy the reason, you didn't say the right thing when last you met, etc, it can be an arbitrary thing.

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4 hours ago, chris_b said:

 

There are a couple of promoters my bands work for and it's all done on a personal level. If they like you, you're in. If they don't you're out. How good the band is is not always the prime motivation to giving you the gig.

 

If the decision to end the relationship is made it doesn't matter how flimsy the reason, you didn't say the right thing when last you met, etc, it can be an arbitrary thing.

 

 

My band has some kind of questionable relationship with a promoter. We only get offered the low end gigs 

 

Like I said there's some sort of history there that pre dates me entering the band. 15 years is a long time to hold a grudge. 

 

Blue

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About 10 years ago, over a period of about 6 months, our singer managed to p*** off a number of local contacts (landlords, club entertainments secretaries etc) until all our local gigs dried up. Until then we'd enjoyed a couple of residencies in local pubs (every 6 weeks or so) plus an informal club circuit netting us about 10 gigs a year and from these came the bigger gigs - weddings, birthdays, charity gigs and Xmas/New Year. Suddenly we were only getting work from the agent he was friendly with and it became clear that the agent was using us to fill gaps that his other acts wouldn't touch ("You're in Aberllanllinllyngweryngoch Sewing Circle club tonight, boys. £100 pick up.")

 

The direct consequence for us was the loss of about 50 gigs a year but in the longer term it impacted on the reputation of the band because the nature of a network is that it shares information. The band very quickly drifted apart until it became just a collection of musicians who were available on the night. Needless to say I am no longer a part of that collection.   

 

Edit: Other bands are also part of the network - I've recommended bands I know when my band hasn't been available, and we've had gigs through recommendations from other bands.

Edited by Franticsmurf
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10 hours ago, Bluewine said:

I'll start. First of all I think most of us have enjoyed the benefits of having good contacts and the pitfalls of losing them.

 

We had a really cool relationship with The Thelma Performing Arts Center, a top notch center hosting several series of live music events. We got to open for Charlie Daniel's through them.

 

After 3 years of doing business with them our contact was fired. All opportunities for us came to an abrupt stop.All attempts at rebuilding the relationship with them failed. 

 

Blue

That could be called "poo business". Someone constantly thought - no, they are not so good as these are, let's change them with these. Bad end.

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In my last band we - well the lead singer - had an amazing amount of contacts established as much through chatting to people at other bands gigs as chatting to them after our gigs. We were easy to work with, professional in approach and never let anyone down so the contact list grew favourably as a result. If we’d been the same band but prima donnas, always late & cancelling would we have done so much, I doubt it.

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6 hours ago, Franticsmurf said:

About 10 years ago, over a period of about 6 months, our singer managed to p*** off a number of local contacts (landlords, club entertainments secretaries etc) until all our local gigs dried up. Until then we'd enjoyed a couple of residencies in local pubs (every 6 weeks or so) plus an informal club circuit netting us about 10 gigs a year and from these came the bigger gigs - weddings, birthdays, charity gigs and Xmas/New Year. Suddenly we were only getting work from the agent he was friendly with and it became clear that the agent was using us to fill gaps that his other acts wouldn't touch ("You're in Aberllanllinllyngweryngoch Sewing Circle club tonight, boys. £100 pick up.")

 

The direct consequence for us was the loss of about 50 gigs a year but in the longer term it impacted on the reputation of the band because the nature of a network is that it shares information. The band very quickly drifted apart until it became just a collection of musicians who were available on the night. Needless to say I am no longer a part of that collection.   

 

Edit: Other bands are also part of the network - I've recommended bands I know when my band hasn't been available, and we've had gigs through recommendations from other bands.

 

Was this singer the band leader ?

 

Blue

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9 hours ago, Franticsmurf said:

Yes, unfortunately. 

 That is unfortunate and also leads us to another discussion.  How transparent is your band leader. How much of the behind the scenes and business stuff shared with us ?

 

I just found out tonight we just purchased $1,000.00 in

t shirt inventory. 

 

Blue

Edited by Bluewine
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1 hour ago, Bluewine said:

How transparent is your band leader.

I'm still friends with him and for all the faults (and there were many) I always trusted him with the financial arrangements. I don't believe he was every trying to con the band but he needed to be seen as the 'professional musician' and his ego struggled if someone said 'too loud/wrong music/you're not very good'. He would spin the situation sometimes so that it seemed as if the band was at fault rather than him. I depped with him and a scratch band last year to play an Eagles tribute gig at which there were a couple of agents and some club secretaries he hadn't p***** off. Honestly, given that we were six individuals with 4 rehearsals (2 in my case as i joined late) we played a good gig with some dodgy moments but afterwards he claimed that the agents had said we were scruffy and hadn't made an effort visually and that we needed to tighten up. Over the next few weeks he let slip that they thought he was scruffy and he needed to tighten up with the rest of the band. 😃

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