Attendance Concerns

[Bluewine]

Please share any new thoughts on dealing with poor attendance at gigs. I've been dealing with it for years, yet I still struggle with weak attendance. 

 

I know it's part of the job. Take a look at the contrast we've all had to deal with.

 

Daryl

 

 

[AndyTravis]

We played 2 nights at the Chorley festival last year - Friday and a Saturday.

 

its a multi-venue thing across the town.

 

first night peaked with a ukulele orchestra and by the time we played, one couple and 6 people who I knew arrived.

 

the second night in a more “prime” venue - was absolutely rammed…

 

it’s a venue problem as well as a band concern.

 

[Bluewine]

2 hours ago, AndyTravis said:

We played 2 nights at the Chorley festival last year - Friday and a Saturday.

 

its a multi-venue thing across the town.

 

first night peaked with a ukulele orchestra and by the time we played, one couple and 6 people who I knew arrived.

 

the second night in a more “prime” venue - was absolutely rammed…

 

it’s a venue problem as well as a band concern.

 

 

I think it was merely some very inexperienced folks at the venue that thought you could just throw live music at their problem with no real thought put into it 

 

Daryl 

[Franticsmurf]

Sometimes things are beyond your control. I played a venue (dedicated band space in the basement of a pub) which was usually well attended. That night, the audience was just the guy we had collecting money on the door and a young couple. We spoke to them after the gig - there had been a massive fight in the pub upstairs and they'd come down to avoid the chaos. In the duo we were often asked to play in pubs on a Sunday between 5pm and 7pm - the intention being to try and stop punters heading home for their dinners. It rarely worked and they were mostly poorly attended, with those watching largely the ones that had been drinking all day.

 

The main problem with the duo (and trio when we added a drummer) was that we got gigs booked through an agent, which could be anywhere in the South Wales area (up to 2hrs drive each way). It meant that the usual way of guaranteeing some kind of audience - by supplying them ourselves - wasn't an option. We managed to develop a following of sorts for local gigs - perhaps 8-10 people would usually turn up to a pub - but it was dependent on the weather, time of year and what other events were on. The mistake we made with the local gigs is that we didn't vary the set enough and so people started to drift away as they became bored with what we were doing (as did I, eventually). 

 

My main band now only plays private functions (the dream of guaranteed audiences 😀) but when I play with other cover bands in music venues, we are very much at the mercy of the publicity that the venue provides. Most of them are pubs with live music and few people come to see a specific band. Instead they are there to start the night off before heading to a night club and will leave according to their own agenda and not the end of the gig. So the pub concentrates on advertising the venue, the offers on drinks and fact they have live music rather than the individual band itself. 

 

 

[Beedster]

I’ve twice done gigs where the band outnumbered the punters, once because the venue f***ed up, once due to the bloody world cup final being on in the other side of the venue. Both were cracking gigs however, we got paid, enrolled punters into a jam session, and had fun. Easy to take it personally but it’s life 👍

[Burns-bass]

I played two festivals on Friday. At the first, we played to the security team. The second, we played to about 400. Madness.

[Bluewine]

It's nice when any of us play a venue with what we call a " built in " crowd. The Zeigler Winery put a lot of thought and resources into establishing themselves as a music venue. Not live music as an after thought. 

 

Daryl

[Bluewine]

28 minutes ago, Beedster said:

I’ve twice done gigs where the band outnumbered the punters, once because the venue f***ed up, once due to the bloody world cup final being on in the other side of the venue. Both were cracking gigs however, we got paid, enrolled punters into a jam session, and had fun. Easy to take it personally but it’s life 👍

 

We don't play any pub gigs anymore.  However, when we did many times we'd have to cancel gigs if there was a major "play off" football or baseball game on game on during the gig.

 

Daryl

[Leonard Smalls]

A few years ago we played to the barman and a cardboard cut-out of Marc Bolan in a venue in South Wales. We actually got paid - £13! That was between us... To be fair, it was raining.

[ezbass]

We’d had a gig booked for months, a ticketed affair. I’d seen social media promotion and I assume something more locally. Come a week beforehand and, IIRC, a whole 6 tickets had been sold. Given it was a trek and any payment would at least have to cover fuel, the promoter pulled it. Fair enough, but a bit more, up front, clarity about the ticket sales would have saved the last minute ‘are we, aren’t we?’ shenanigans.

[Bluewine]

36 minutes ago, Burns-bass said:

I played two festivals on Friday. At the first, we played to the security team. The second, we played to about 400. Madness.

 

I think it's easier to take when the second gig has the big crowd. Playing to a packed crowd on a Friday and then playing to a few " lost souls " on Saturday is hard to take.

 

Daryl

[Bluewine]

2 minutes ago, ezbass said:

We’d had a gig booked for months, a ticketed affair. I’d seen social media promotion and I assume something more locally. Come a week beforehand and, IIRC, a whole 6 tickets had been sold. Given it was a trek and any payment would at least have to cover fuel, the promoter pulled it. Fair enough, but a bit more, up front, clarity about the ticket sales would have saved the last minute ‘are we, aren’t we?’ shenanigans.

In the pics posted we sold 234 seats $18.00- $20.00 at the theater gig. Maximum capacity is 300. Very unusual for us. However it was in our hometown and The Bend Theatre has built a fine reputation as a premier live music venue. They book 2-3 national touring bands every week.

 

Daryl

[Bluewine]

14 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

A few years ago we played to the barman and a cardboard cut-out of Marc Bolan in a venue in South Wales. We actually got paid - £13! That was between us... To be fair, it was raining.

 

Love the Marc Bolan cut-out story. I remember once we an outside event on a farm where we ended up playing to the livestock. 

 

Daryl

Edited 3 hours ago by Bluewine

[Leonard Smalls]

Just now, Bluewine said:

playing to the livestock. 

They probably enjoyed it more than Marc enjoyed our performance. He didn't clap once!

[neepheid]

Happens to the best of us, Blue.

 

I remember one time we played to a completely empty room, save for the bar staff.  They told us we could go home after playing the first set.  We still got paid.  Epic fail.  It was a football club's social club - albeit a very small team in the Highland League, but is that what supporting your team looks like?  I just couldn't believe it.

[thodrik]

I was in a band that literally played to a barman, one man and the man's dog. 

We did sell album to the man. We didn't ask if the album was for the dog.

[petebassist]

35 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

A few years ago we played to the barman and a cardboard cut-out of Marc Bolan in a venue in South Wales. We actually got paid - £13! That was between us... To be fair, it was raining.

Was it the Dragonflii in Pontypool by any chance? Great little pub but we had a similar issue with attendance :-)

[BigRedX]

IMO it doesn't matter if you are playing to just the bar staff and half of the other band on the bill or an adoring audience of several thousand. You have to give it everything. If you can't do that then maybe live performance isn't for you.

 

I've played my share of poorly attended gigs, and you never know if one of the two people who aren't venue staff or in one of the other bands is going to be someone important who will open the doors to better gigs, as has also happened to me.

[gjones]

I once played a duo gig in a bar with just one drunk customer. He started howling like a dog over the music and couldn't take it any more.

 

So I went over to him, picked him up (he was only little) and threw him into the street.

 

He, did eventually, crawl back in to his seat at the bar.

 

...we weren't asked to come back 🤣

 

 

[Greg Edwards69]

I think sometimes, it's just the time of the month and year. This Saturday just gone at a regular venue was rather quiet compared to usual. We put it down as the last weekend before payday, compounded by it being the first month after the summer holidays.

[TimR]

16 minutes ago, Greg Edwards69 said:

I think sometimes, it's just the time of the month and year. This Saturday just gone at a regular venue was rather quiet compared to usual. We put it down as the last weekend before payday, compounded by it being the first month after the summer holidays.

 

Yes. We play 2 or 3 venues that have sporadic audiences. 

 

I don't think you can ever work out exactly why.

 

Unfortunately our drummer is a bit headstrong and if we play a new venue and it has a poor attendance his mind is made up and "We're not going back there!". Unless it's a gig he organised, in which case we should give it another go...

 

To a point where we were continually asked to turn down at a gig last year, for some reason the bass was hitting some natural frequencies and all the glasses were rattling. He's not going back there either - even though we played there before with no problems, and the place is under new management. I'm beginning to think he doesn't want to gig unless it's to his freinds. Which is why I left the last band.

Edited 2 hours ago by TimR

[casapete]

Years ago I was playing in a country rock band. We’d been booked by a rugby club somewhere

near Doncaster to play in the bar after a big local derby match. 
As we were setting up our pedal steel player let us know he’d forgotten his instrument! He

played it on around 80% of our songs, so pretty key to our sound. Around the same time

we noticed a distinct lack of punters too - apparently the home team had been given a 

thrashing so their supporters had either gone home in a huff or ventured into town to

drink away their disappointment. We kept quiet about our own problem, and sure enough

the club steward shuffled over and apologised for the lack of an audience, offering us

most of our fee to go home! We tried not to look too relieved as we packed down. 😂

[NHM]

Many moons ago I was working as a stage manager at Nottingham Playhouse. On the night Forest were in the European Cup final we had an audience of two. But the show still went on...

[CPCustomdubwise]

Alternate viewpoint...

This didn't happen to me, but to a friend....

His lot were a locally reasonably well-known Milton Keynes band back in the 1980s. They got a gig at some Buckinghamshire rural pub and turned up to find they'd be playing to a bored barperson and a dachshund (It may have been called Colin). Being troupers, they decided to treat it as rehearsal time and duly played their set.

Right at the end, and as they were contemplating a weary trip home, a massive, obviously wacked-out, knife-carrying (it was very visible) biker turned up, alone.

He started to dance to their last song. At the end he demanded an encore...warily, they obliged...when they finished and started to take off their instruments he demanded a further song. As he was approximately three times the size of all of them they concluded that it might be better to oblige....remote pub...bar person suddenly absent....

What ensued was a reprisal of their entire set, played by them in a state of abject and increasing terror and a strong feeling that they might never see their loved ones again, as this maniac biker lumbered menacingly around the dancefloor...

I think he eventually fell asleep.

[Steve Browning]

1 hour ago, Leonard Smalls said:

They probably enjoyed it more than Marc enjoyed our performance. He didn't clap once!

 

He was certainly board (I'll get me coat).