Getting an audience

[Marvin]

My band are doing a free gig tonight. We were supposed to be supporting but for some reason the other bands have cried off.

Thursday's have become our practice night and as we've recently lost our rehearsal space, so playing tonight sort of suits us. Especially as we have a festival to play at on Saturday.

We get a stage, the use of the venues smaller PA and don't have to pay for a practice this week

Edited August 4, 2016 by Marvin

[SpondonBassed]

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1470229965' post='3104288']
This is publicity. Why no name the time, place etc. Maybe folk here can come along?
[/quote]

Excellent suggestion.

[Nicko]

Thanks for the responses. I should say we are essentially a start up cover band and have no real following other than a few friends. We have played a few gigs but not really local to this place. The venue has trialled at least one band I know and told them they weren't good enough (and they probably aren't).

I saw their video from the gig, and it looks like the venue stream the vid to screens so we have asked for the footage as a condition of booking.

They DO have regular bookings of bands on multiple dates so I'm assuming if you get in there it will be great which is why its attractive in the first place.

The band are doing the FB thing as much as possible, but this is a few miles from home and short of laying on a coach it's unlikely anyone other than close friends and family will turn out.

[mrtcat]

[quote name='Nicko' timestamp='1470304619' post='3104874']
The band are doing the FB thing as much as possible, but this is a few miles from home and short of laying on a coach it's unlikely anyone other than close friends and family will turn out.
[/quote]

Why not advertise it on here. You never know, it may produce a few more faces.

[Nicko]

[quote name='mrtcat' timestamp='1470305984' post='3104886']
Why not advertise it on here. You never know, it may produce a few more faces.
[/quote]

OK, for those of you local to Watford [url="http://www.lemonrock.com/firefly?page=gigs"]http://www.lemonrock.com/firefly?page=gigs[/url]

Don't forget to wear your BC tee shirts just to put the pressure on.

[ezbass]

[quote name='Nicko' timestamp='1470307678' post='3104912']


OK, for those of you local to Watford [url="http://www.lemonrock.com/firefly?page=gigs"]http://www.lemonrock.com/firefly?page=gigs[/url]

Don't forget to wear your BC tee shirts just to put the pressure on.
[/quote]Good for you! Can't make it myself as I'm in Scotland this weekend, but hopefully there will be a BC contingent. I hope you all enjoy it and that you get more paying gigs off of the back of it.

[blue]

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1470252603' post='3104538']
The difference between pubs dates now and 20 yrs ago, for example, is any pub can put on music with hardly much thought...so they do.
A large town on a sat night can have 9 pubs doing music so pubs expect bands to draw and with social media it is so much easier.

But pubs are always too much work for the money so make sure your reasons for doing them suits you and works..
[/quote]

It's a little different in the US. It's the originals clubs that always expect the band to bring a crowd. And ironically in Milwaukee most if not all have a cover charge.

Most bars and clubs that hire cover bands have a built in crowd.

Blue

Edited August 4, 2016 by blue

[ricksterphil]

[i][b]""If its hard to get gigs then I would offer the following: This is wot i done: Say Ok. To prove we are worth it...We will play for 1 straight hour and then go. If you punters like it and if you are busy you can pay a full gigs money to keep us there. The other bonus is you now know what we look and sound like. Hows that?

In my case it was agreed and he paid full whack on the day.""[/b][/i]

This is a good one, will try this in future

..and it's all about building a following so I'd go for it and make sure the audience at least know what your website is - we leave business cards scattered about with our contact details and soc med stuff

Edited August 4, 2016 by ricksterphil

[JTUK]

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1470350300' post='3105494']
It's a little different in the US. It's the originals clubs that always expect the band to bring a crowd. And ironically in Milwaukee most if not all have a cover charge.

Most bars and clubs that hire cover bands have a built in crowd.

Blue
[/quote]

But they don't stay for the full set of 4 hrs..?

In the U.K... you wouldn't want most gigs to go beyond 2 hrs. Altho of course they are exceptional crowds and nights so they wont let you go.
Besides your £50 plus per head wont get bands playing longer anyway.

[blue]

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1470411562' post='3105863']


But they don't stay for the full set of 4 hrs..?

In the U.K... you wouldn't want most gigs to go beyond 2 hrs. Altho of course they are exceptional crowds and nights so they wont let you go.
Besides your £50 plus per head wont get bands playing longer anyway.
[/quote]

Some of our real loyal fans will, but as a rule nobody stays for 4 hours. Some will stay for the 1st and 2nd set and some will come in late for the last set.

Tonight were playing at Buckey's in Oconomowoc WI, tomorrow were at at festival at the Manitowoc Expo Center (1.5 hour set, Yay!) and Sunday were at The Wisconsin State Fair in Milwaukee. My point, there will be some fans that will follow us all weekend. That's really cool.

Blue

[SpondonBassed]

Have you attracted any "gropey" groupies Blue?

[blue]

[quote name='SpondonBassed' timestamp='1470465907' post='3106135']
Have you attracted any "gropey" groupies Blue?
[/quote]

I'm 63, I really don't attract anything. I perform, have fun, get paid and go home.

Blue

[SpondonBassed]

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1470467109' post='3106152']
I'm 63, I really don't attract anything. I perform, have fun, get paid and go home.
[/quote]

I hear that. Heeheehee, at our age it would be good to attract owt other than flies.

[SpondonBassed]

[quote name='Nicko' timestamp='1470307678' post='3104912']
OK, for those of you local to Watford [url="http://www.lemonrock.com/firefly?page=gigs"]http://www.lemonrock...refly?page=gigs[/url]

Don't forget to wear your BC tee shirts just to put the pressure on.
[/quote]

Unable to attend but all the very best. Have a laff.

[TrevorR]

Good luck this afternoon. Let us know how it goes.

[Nicko]

[quote name='TrevorR' timestamp='1470558103' post='3106646']
Good luck this afternoon. Let us know how it goes.
[/quote]

Well, we arrived at about 6.30 and there was another band on, and the place was busy. They finished about 7pm and the place strated to empty out. By the time we started at 8pm there was only about 50 people left - I reckon 15 were ours. Most of the people seemed to be enjotying it, but some had clearly been there a while and I'm aftraid some ran out of stamina.

I think by the time we finished there were about 30 people or so left.

Apparently not many Sunday bands get invited back. The venue gave us some fairly strong feedback, liked the setlist, didn't like the pauses between songs (we have a few numbers where the guitards detiune - not sure what we can do about that). They said we would be great in a years time, as long as we practice. I must admit its not the best we have played, and we made a few mistakes - probably because we weren't really bouncing off the crowd. It looks like the quality of bands they are expecting is pretty high. Having said that they pay pretty well for a Saturday.

The good news is they liked us enough to book us for a paid gig. The bad news is that

- its not until next August,(yes you read it right)
- it will be a bank holiday Sunday - so at least its not a school night.

We spoke to the sound guy after the gig, and he reckons we might have a chance of Saturday cancellations as well if our diary is free.

Overall I think the fact we have a booking here will be a good indication to other places nearby, but this is a fairly long payback time for a free gig.

Edited August 8, 2016 by Nicko

[Stylon Pilson]

Having one more gig in your "upcoming" page on your website is never a bad thing.

As far as pauses between songs is concerned, then yes it's an absolute momentum-killer and should be avoided at all costs. If you absolutely must change guitar tunings during a set, then you have a few options:

1. Each guitarist has one instrument set up in each tuning, and a competent stage technician to assist with the changeover. Or:

2. Change the beginnings and endings of songs to allow time for tuning. So, say you have two guitarists, and you want songs A and B to be in different tunings. Guitarist 1 drops out of song A 20 seconds from the end and starts retuning. The song ends, and guitarist 2 starts retuning too. As soon as the applause dies down, guitarist 1 is ready to start playing song B. Guitarist 2 comes in 20 seconds later.

You should also organise the setlist to "cluster" songs that are in the same tuning, to minimise the number of retunes.

S.P.

[SubsonicSimpleton]

Two sensible solutions to avoid big pauses for detuning are to use a pitch shifting device(I'm not a fan but use your own ears) or to have one instrument set up and ready to go in each tuning, so the guitars just swap instruments and check their tuning very quickly rather than wrestling with tension changes on the neck and needing to tune and retune to get the instrument stable and in tune in the new tuning. Quite a few acoustic guitarists on the folk circuit use multiple tunings during their sets, but they tend to cover the retuning pause by telling stories, so there isn't any 'dead air'.

[EliasMooseblaster]

Glad to hear that you did at least get some useful feedback and another booking out of it (it's always good to know that my slightly jaded view of the world can often be wrong)!

As SP and SS rightly point out, those pauses can be a killer - but they only become a problem if there is silence between the songs. The suggestion of having multiple guitars on stage in different tunings is probably the best way of minimising those pauses (I usually have to switch between 4- and 8-string basses in Cherry White's set - having an A/B switch in your chain can be a lifesaver!), but also making sure somebody's on hand to talk to the crowd is the best way to stop them from switching off. Daft as it might feel, planning what to say during the retuning gaps could be the best way to keep them engaged.

[TimR]

They need to learn how to tune their guitars quicker.

[Nicko]

I agree with most of the above, although at our level the idea of a stage tech or a rack of 5 or 6 guitars is maybe a bit beyond us.. My take on the pauses is that the vocalist should take that as an opportunity to bond with the crowd. The other point is that we play fairly high intensity covers and sometimes we actually need a few seconds to catch our breath. I'm not talking about minutes here. Our 1st set is timed at 56 minutes on the original recordings (about 15 songs) and we take an hour to play it.

[cheddatom]

I guess if people notice gaps between songs, it's because no-one's talking to the crowd or making any noise. 10-20 seconds to tune is fine, but silence on stage mid set isn't... or at least that's what we've been told!

[SpondonBassed]

[quote name='Nicko' timestamp='1470656947' post='3107345']
The good news is they liked us enough to book us for a paid gig.
[/quote]

Result, I'd say. Good man well done.

[Stylon Pilson]

[quote name='Nicko' timestamp='1470667302' post='3107479']
...we play fairly high intensity covers and sometimes we actually need a few seconds to catch our breath.
[/quote]

That's fair enough, but once the applause dies down, you've got to have something ready to fill the space, whether that be someone talking to the crowd, the next song, or something more abstract like a modern dance interpretation of what it means to be a jaffa cake. Audiences are fickle and their attention will wane after about 3 seconds of dead air.

S.P.

[blue]

[quote name='Nicko' timestamp='1470656947' post='3107345']


Well, we arrived at about 6.30 and there was another band on, and the place was busy. They finished about 7pm and the place strated to empty out. By the time we started at 8pm there was only about 50 people left - I reckon 15 were ours. Most of the people seemed to be enjotying it, but some had clearly been there a while and I'm aftraid some ran out of stamina.

I think by the time we finished there were about 30 people or so left.

Apparently not many Sunday bands get invited back. The venue gave us some fairly strong feedback, liked the setlist, didn't like the pauses between songs (we have a few numbers where the guitards detiune - not sure what we can do about that). They said we would be great in a years time, as long as we practice. I must admit its not the best we have played, and we made a few mistakes - probably because we weren't really bouncing off the crowd. It looks like the quality of bands they are expecting is pretty high. Having said that they pay pretty well for a Saturday.

The good news is they liked us enough to book us for a paid gig. The bad news is that

- its not until next August,(yes you read it right)
- it will be a bank holiday Sunday - so at least its not a school night.

We spoke to the sound guy after the gig, and he reckons we might have a chance of Saturday cancellations as well if our diary is free.

Overall I think the fact we have a booking here will be a good indication to other places nearby, but this is a fairly long payback time for a free gig.
[/quote]

Interesting story, I've finally learned that the pub, bar and even fair and festival gigging is different in the UK than in the US.

Overall, I think it's harder for bands in the UK at the pub/ bar band level to get consistent bookings. You just don't have as many places to play as we do over here.


Blue

Edited August 8, 2016 by blue