Attendance Concerns

[Dad3353]

12 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:

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

 

Maybe half-cut..? 

[JPJ]

I think we’ve all played the gig to the bar staff and the gig to a rammed out room. My own highlights include travelling 50 miles to play in a remote Northumberland village pub to the bar staff and pub dog because two local lads were having a birthday party in the village hall (at least the dog seemed to like us), and playing to 4,000 Hells Angels in a big top tent on a Thursday night in Stafford.

Locally, live music is often seen as a way of saving failing pubs with the result that you get three or four pubs all offering live music of varying standards within a 1 mile radius. This splits the local audience with reduced numbers all round. Suffice to say that most fail and eventually close or get new management. We’re blessed with a few pubs and clubs with a reputation for good quality live music, and as both of my bands are shall we say ‘niche’, then we prefer to wait for gigs in these venues than take a gig in a dying ‘flat roof pub’ where the meagre audience are not going to appreciate your efforts.

But I think we have a huge role to play in attracting audiences. The prevalence of social media means that marketing/advertising your gig doesn’t need to cost a fortune. Timing your advertising is important too, too early and folk will forget, too late and they will inevitably already have other plans. Also, all band members have to share the workload of marketing as whilst we have many common connections, if we all hit the like and share on our bands posts, we will hit the widest possible audience. Oh and posters, many venues still rely on bands sending posters to advertise inside the venue.  

[police squad]

yep, it happens

I had a Policed gig at a rugby club fun day. They all got plastered and went home, promising to return

Organiser offered us the full fee and to go home. We agreed to do the first set and see if any of them come back.

They didn't, so we gave it our all for the bar staff.

 

And more recently a St. Patrick's day beer fest in Derby this year.# with The U2 Tribe boys

You'd think U2 / St paddy's day were a good match

It was a repurposed warehouse and freezing cold and it was rammed with people

We were due to start at 8.30.

I counted 23 people left but we did the whole set (they said to stop after an hour) but it was my 2nd or 3rd gig and I need the runthrough

Got paid 400 quid each though

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

I was in a couple of bands in the ‘90s / early 2000’s who played in the Grey Horse in Kingston ( not Jamaica ). 
I was told by a couple of band mates at various times briefly that it had Legendary name  Musicians who played there .

To me the bar looked okay, but the gig area was like a rundown social club . Most of those legendary musicians are either dead or in care homes.

It meant nothing to me . All we ever experienced there was bad band promotion , dodgy bar managers resulting in a few punters. Yes, we played to the bar staff exclusively as well .  We gave it our all so to speak , treated it like an extra practice session with payment fluctuating to allow for shady managers.

That was the worst . We just took in on the chin and moved on ,and refused to go there again . 

[ricksterphil]

Played a gig in Hinckley to the proverbial 3 men and a dog and I've done gigs where the crowd is standing on the bit of floor that passes as a stage it's so busy. I was in a fairly successful Bowie Tribute band for 5 years and we usually got great crowds, but that's because we were pretty good and it's the draw of Mr Jones himself. I imagine most decent tributes get the same lift in attendance from fans of the original band or artist being tributed. I'm now in a Country Rock band and we get pretty good crowds, including 130 at a ticketed event in Melton Mowbray. Again, we're not too shabby and Country is hot right now in the UK.

 

On Daryl's point, it is soul destroying to play to thin air. I get upset if the venue is full and I don't see heads nodding and feet tapping.  However, as has been said, the show must go on and there's no excuse for not putting in 100% (or for wearing shorts on stage unless you're the drummer 😂)

[petebassist]

13 hours ago, Bluewine said:

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

 

 

That's a beautiful venue (the theatre one :-)). The outdoor one though... I'd have to laugh that one off.

I play mostly original music so I'm used to small crowds, which I don't mind if we get an occasional amazing gig.

[cybertect]

3 hours ago, thodrik said:

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.

 

I have experienced pretty much this exact scenario! William Morris Club in Wimbledon 1988, and it was 7" single. The dog was well behaved at least.

 

Another time, about ten years later, with a different band, after a couple of pretty successful dates in the autumn, we were booked to play the small room at the Mean Fiddler on 2nd or 3rd January, so everyone was still recovering from New Year.

 

What's more it was a Tuesday night, freakishly cold (something like -7C IIRC) and quite windy to boot.

 

Unsurprisingly, I think we had about three people in the audience. I took a peep into the main room and even the headline act had pulled about ten people in.

 

We were told shortly after that The Fiddler wouldn't be booking us any more because we were not able to get enough people along.

Edited 1 hour ago by cybertect