Blues bands - the next stage

[Mickeyboro]

My band has been around for three and a half years.

 

We could like to play blues clubs and/or festivals as well as the local venues we’ve found suit us - pubs and social clubs seem not to work so well.

 

So my question is - what do these more specialist venues/events require? Original material rather than classic blues? A following to boost their attendees? A commercial recording?
 

How can we take the next step? I’m sure many here have made the journey, and I’d value your thoughts. 
 

Thanks

[Len_derby]

Good luck with this Mick.

The only bit of advice/experience I can give is related to travel.

I spent a few years in a band playing original songs in a folk style with an interesting selection of instruments; accordion, mandolin etc.

Although we got a decent amount of gigs at pubs, clubs and festivals there was a lot of travel involved. Playing a particular genre, there seemed to be maybe only one venue in a town or smaller city that was worth playing in. Suitable festivals might be a couple of hours drive away too.

I don’t know if that’s the case for the blues, though. Plus, it will depend on how often you want to play live.

Hope you find a way!

[Burns-bass]

What we found worked well was a video of us playing. This helped to connect us with an agent who managed the whole process for us.

 

I actually have a list of blues festivals in the South West if it's of interest. Now, I don't play with that band any more, but I've found the same process (getting a video, great website and social media stuff) can connect you with an agent and let them do the rest. 

[chris_b]

A blues band could be anything from JJ Cale to Muddy Waters, SRV to Keb Mo, Joe Louis Walker to Bonnie Raitt.

 

Can't you expand your repertoire and tailor your set to the venue?

[Mickeyboro]

2 hours ago, chris_b said:

A blues band could be anything from JJ Cale to Muddy Waters, SRV to Keb Mo, Joe Louis Walker to Bonnie Raitt.

 

Can't you expand your repertoire and tailor your set to the venue?

We do that already - basically, there are audiences who expect the Commitments/Blues Brothers and those who are broader minded. 

I want to know what blues clubs and festivals expect…

 

[pete.young]

24 minutes ago, Mickeyboro said:

We do that already - basically, there are audiences who expect the Commitments/Blues Brothers and those who are broader minded. 

I want to know what blues clubs and festivals expect…

 

I think writing your own material makes a massive difference.

[Len_derby]

All the blues festivals I’ve been to seem to have a fairly broad definition of what constitutes ‘blues’. As a case in point, I regularly went to the Newark Blues Festival before it moved from the castle. Headline acts over the years that I can remember were; Aynsley Lister, The Nimmo Brothers, Ian Siegal and Chantel McGregor. Non of which are strictly blues in the traditional sense. Interestingly, with respect to @pete.young‘s post above, they were all mostly playing their own material. 

[Mickeyboro]

16 minutes ago, pete.young said:

I think writing your own material makes a massive difference.

Some people who see us now think we do, as we tend towards the obscure. 
 

We might as well be hung for a sheep. As long as we don’t cave in and do Mustang Sally!

[Al Krow]

6 hours ago, Burns-bass said:

What we found worked well was a video of us playing. This helped to connect us with an agent who managed the whole process for us.

 

I actually have a list of blues festivals in the South West if it's of interest. Now, I don't play with that band any more, but I've found the same process (getting a video, great website and social media stuff) can connect you with an agent and let them do the rest. 

 

^^ this 100% !!

 

The importance of quality promo material is too often overlooked by bands. You may be amazing musicians who sound great, but if you're looking to get booked by someone who's never seen you play live, how will they know?

[peteb]

8 hours ago, Mickeyboro said:

My band has been around for three and a half years.

 

We could like to play blues clubs and/or festivals as well as the local venues we’ve found suit us - pubs and social clubs seem not to work so well.

 

So my question is - what do these more specialist venues/events require? Original material rather than classic blues? A following to boost their attendees? A commercial recording?
 

How can we take the next step? I’m sure many here have made the journey, and I’d value your thoughts. 
 

Thanks

 

You are asking the right questions! Most of the venues and festivals you are targeting will want you to play some original material (although the audience will expect you to play classic blues covers as well), they will want you to have a following to boost their attendees and many would like you to have a commercial recording available (although an old fashioned physical CD album may not be financially worthwhile, so it could well be a album / EP's worth of original material available to download, with perhaps some CDRs to sell at gigs). 

 

The difficulty is to initially get a name to generate interest to get the right gigs, as well as the fact that there just isn't much money in it! When I was doing it 10 to 15 years ago, we got the gigs and played at the bottom of the bill at some of the bigger festivals, but we were not making money and since then, a lot of the clubs we used to play have long since closed down. You also have to bear in mind that it is an aging / declining audience and there are a lot of competition for that audience. A lot of very good players are playing the remaining circuit, generally as a side-line, just because they just love playing blues. I have put a very good band together to play these types of gigs, but it is difficult to break into a small and rather cliquey circuit and to keep hold of good players who love the music, but can't justify the travel / low pay when they can get much better paying gigs elsewhere. Of course, there is a much healthier blues scene in many parts of mainland Europe, but it is much more difficult to play over there these days for obvious reasons (although not as impossible as it once seemed).  

 

Personally, I would jump at the chance to play in an established blues band. I know I'm sounding a bit negative, but there are still decent gigs out there (I have done some great deps for various blues bands still getting the remaining festivals / clubs). There just isn't much money around and it is difficult to break into the circuit. 

 

Good luck...! 

 

Edited Sunday at 18:47 by peteb

[Steve Browning]

A lot of it is down to who you know. Teed Up have had the advantage of contacts that Steve, Ray and I have built up over the years. That said, many of these venues have long since disappeared.

 

The more established venues seem to deal with the same nucleus of people, and so you get the same old faces appearing at festivals. You could try wearing a hat and walking on the tables. Seems to work for one act!!

 

Europe is the place to go, for sure. Teed Up have played over there a good few times and the gigs there are pretty much alwas better. As long as you travel with your gear there are no restriction, as seemed at first. Of course, how do you break into that market? It's a tricky one. I would love to have the contact details of any agent in the UK. I don't know of any (feel free to PM with any anybody knows!!).

 

Having something you can send out is always going to be useful. We recorded a CD a while back, and a live one is in the final stages of production (the new XR18 makes the process of recording simple).

 

There's always Monica at Boogaloo. They do a good weekend and you are well looked after. She'll let you know what's needed. Some expectation of a crowd would help, of course.

[Steve Browning]

@Mickeyboro I am ashamed to say I don't know the name of your band. I'd love to come and see you guys play.

 

I should also have pointed out that we do about 50% original material in our set.

[peteb]

I would also add that having some video and an online presence helps. Don't underestimate live stuff on YouTube. A promoter I know that used to book bands for the non-main stage pub circuit at big blues festivals makes sure that he watches the first video that comes up on YouTube. He says all he wants to know if the band can play, can get an audience and can play to that audience! 

 

[Mickeyboro]

27 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:

@Mickeyboro I am ashamed to say I don't know the name of your band. I'd love to come and see you guys play.

 

I should also have pointed out that we do about 50% original material in our set.

Steve - we are the Otis Jay Blues Band. I have your email so I’ll send you our dates. 
 

I must try and get over to Portsmouth and buy you a drink one of these days - sure it would yield a lot of good info!

 

[Steve Browning]

40 minutes ago, Mickeyboro said:

Steve - we are the Otis Jay Blues Band. I have your email so I’ll send you our dates. 
 

I must try and get over to Portsmouth and buy you a drink one of these days - sure it would yield a lot of good info!

 

 

Happy to meet half way. Maybe a curry or something? Would have to impose the Big Bang Theory rule of no physical contact, up to (and including) coitus. A hand shake is permitted! 🙂

Edited Monday at 16:20 by Steve Browning

[itu]

If you are not into doing your own stuff, loan, steal, and arrange. Like Paul Anka did his lounge recordings. I think nothing is sacred in the blues scene any more, a song in major can be arranged pretty easily to the blues/minor scale. If the owner of the rights is nice (and you to them!), even some words can be changed from the original. 

 

Our band wanted to change few words from an old punk song, as we wanted to make a bossa nova of it. Like we were young and played punk then, now we are middle aged people with kids. We wanted to make the song very laid back, but the changed words was the final straw. We weren't given the possibility to publish it. (Even though the original artist gave a thumbs up of the idea and our arrangement.) 

[Mickeyboro]

As @Steve Browning has been kind enough to follow us, it would be rude of me not to offer you all the opportunity to do likewise!😁

 

http://www.facebook.com/OtisJayBB

 

Edited Monday at 17:57 by Mickeyboro

[MyNameIsMark]

I went down a “hypothetical” rabbit hole a few years back…

 

There’s a UK Blues Federation ( link https://www.ukblues.org/ ) which seem to look after their own & I’ve noticed a huge crossover with acts on their awards & festival lineups 

 

If you do a bit of digging into this, you’ll find a few streaming/radio shows & venues

 

If you get your faces known in a few such places, I’m sure the rest will come much easier 

 

 

[Steve Browning]

Yes. The whole awards thing is a joke. 

[Steve Browning]

One other thing worth mentioning is how the band presents itself. I tend to look at 'the competition' and look at how they come across on the various platforms.

 

It's not always easy, but you often find that video posted by audience members is poor quality, might include bum notes etc, as an example. We suffer from that as well, and so we do try and have a good think about what we post and whether it represents us as a serious band. The same goes for the images we post. I don't mean you have to group together at a derelict industrial location and scowl into the camera, but consider the images you post to present yourselves as a professional outfit.

 

I'm not putting us forward as any kind of yardstick (far from it) but it's a thought process that you might consider.

 

[itu]

10 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:

The same goes for the images we post. I don't mean you have to group together at a derelict industrial location and scowl into the camera, but consider the images you post to present yourselves as a professional outfit.

It's not that expensive to ask some pro photographer to take pictures of you in the gig, or rehearsals, or some place... We have made it three times. 

[uk_lefty]

On 31/08/2025 at 10:58, Mickeyboro said:

My band has been around for three and a half years.

 

We could like to play blues clubs and/or festivals as well as the local venues we’ve found suit us - pubs and social clubs seem not to work so well.

 

So my question is - what do these more specialist venues/events require? Original material rather than classic blues? A following to boost their attendees? A commercial recording?
 

How can we take the next step? I’m sure many here have made the journey, and I’d value your thoughts. 
 

Thanks

My band is very different but we spoke to a promoter we know about how we get more specialist music venue gigs. He gave us lots of advice but the main thing was good social media. You need to have a good social media presence with photos, videos from gigs, regular engagement so you keep onto your followers. Our guitarist knows this stuff well and does a good job of it, though I'm sure there are people out there far more proactive. Studio recordings aren't as good as a decent live recording because a live recording shows what the venue actually gets... We paid about £600 to have someone video us live at a big gig, make a pro video for us, and laid over audio from a gig we recorded off the desk. It looks fancy and it shows our singer working a big crowd and the audio is unmistakably not the original.

 

Then there's the slog of contacting all the venues to get absolutely no reply at all. If anyone knows how to break through that wall I'm all ears too!

[Mickeyboro]

2 hours ago, Steve Browning said:

It's not always easy, but you often find that video posted by audience members is poor quality, might include bum notes etc, as an example. We suffer from that as well, and so we do try and have a good think about what we post and whether it represents us as a serious band. The same goes for the images we post.

 

Very good points. I have posted dodgy footage as it’s all I have… need to reconsider!

[peteb]

23 minutes ago, Mickeyboro said:

Very good points. I have posted dodgy footage as it’s all I have… need to reconsider!

 

It is difficult to control as other people will post stuff that you would rather wasn't out there, but you can make sure that you send out decent clips and try to get people to share and push the better ones up the YouTube algorithm. 

 

From a quick look at your FB page, you might want to consider sprucing up your image a little bit if you want the band to move up a level. It's playing blues, so it isn't as image conscious as other genres, so you don't need the leathers and full sleeves of ink or anything. But if you look at the bands that get the gigs on the festivals and blues clubs, some bands have a very definite look and even those who go for the jeans and a shirt approach will make sure that they have a certain image. 

 

Edited 6 minutes ago by peteb

[Mickeyboro]

1 minute ago, peteb said:

From a quick look at your FB page, you might want to consider sprucing up your image if you want the band to move up a level. It's playing blues, so it isn't as image conscious as other genres, so you don't need the leathers and full sleeves of ink or anything. But if you look at the bands that get the gigs on the festivals and blues clubs, some bands have a very definite look and even those who go for the jeans and a shirt approach will make sure that they have a certain image. 

 

Another good point, well made. I played my last gig in sloppy gear as We were late on stage and i was forbidden to change… 

 

I always thought Dr Feelgood had the ideal ‘non-image’!