Getting an audience

[JTUK]

How do you determine the standard of the bands..?

How much for a saturday..?o you know any of the other bands that are on their rosta?

[blue]

I think getting a band started is hard at the local level.

It really depends in what the goal of the band is. If it's gigging it will take a strategic plan and all members on board.

Am I wrong, it seems like pub and event managers make bands jump through a lot of hoops in the UK. Or is that for new bands?

Getting an audience and inbound business for a new band is hard and the reason most start up fail.

Don't give up.

Blue

Edited August 8, 2016 by blue

[TrevorR]

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

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).
[/quote]

Glad to hear that it went well and paid off (don't under-estimate the value of having an established venue sitting on your gig list or being on the cancellations phone list.

As others have said, dead air while guitar players go "ding ding dang dang" for a couple of minutes is an atmosphere killer. The answer has to be a mixture of having a spare guitar which is in the alternate tuning (and a cable with a silent switching jack - changeover should take no more than 15-20 seconds with that set up) and considering sensible grouping of songs in alternate tuning. You see bands whose set goes (tuning wise) normal, normal, drop D, normal, drop D, normal, normal, drop D, normal, drop D... with 2 or 3 minutes of "ding ding dang dang" in between each change. For most punters that's immediate "time to go to the bar - or indeed, another bar".

[SpondonBassed]

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1470675604' post='3107562']
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
[/quote]

This guy gets it

[Pinball]

There is a lot of competition. There was a recent survey done of the value of live music in Bristol UK-population of 449,300 (from the council web site)
On one weekday night there were 94 live music events in or around the city. It's a competitive business
Details here

http://www.ukmusic.org/research/bristol-live-music-census/

[luckydog]

[quote name='TrevorR' timestamp='1470695085' post='3107800']As others have said, dead air while guitar players go "ding ding dang dang" for a couple of minutes is an atmosphere killer. The answer has to be a mixture of having a spare guitar which is in the alternate tuning (and a cable with a silent switching jack - changeover should take no more than 15-20 seconds with that set up) and considering sensible grouping of songs in alternate tuning. You see bands whose set goes (tuning wise) normal, normal, drop D, normal, drop D, normal, normal, drop D, normal, drop D... with 2 or 3 minutes of "ding ding dang dang" in between each change. For most punters that's immediate "time to go to the bar - or indeed, another bar". [/quote]

Well, there is practicing retuning so that it becomes like an Olympic sport - make it quick ? Guitarists should be [i]encouraged[/i] to check tuning throughout a gig, not many rehearse doing it to make it slick though! Same with pedal reconfigs. For string breaks, the rest of the band can have a good well-rehearsed groove thing that is worth listening to, and gets reeled out each time guitarist has some complication ? Thing is to make it strong, and easy to stop once guitarist is ready. It's better than radio silence, and peeps get to know what is going on and recognise it without the band saying anything in the end, seems like part of the act which it is !

LD

[TimR]

[quote name='luckydog' timestamp='1470726798' post='3107885']


Well, there is practicing retuning so that it becomes like an Olympic sport - make it quick ? Guitarists should be [i]encouraged[/i] to check tuning throughout a gig, not many rehearse doing it to make it slick though! Same with pedal reconfigs. For string breaks, the rest of the band can have a good well-rehearsed groove thing that is worth listening to, and gets reeled out each time guitarist has some complication ? Thing is to make it strong, and easy to stop once guitarist is ready. It's better than radio silence, and peeps get to know what is going on and recognise it without the band saying anything in the end, seems like part of the act which it is !

LD
[/quote]

Yes. They should be rehearsing the breaks with the detune and be using silent tuners. You can get away with a slightly longer pause if the singer has a pre-scriped 30second chat. No one will know the guitarist are doing anything.

Get the singer to write down some words if he's not able to talk on the fly. Tell him to go watch some successful bands and steal what they say.

Edited August 9, 2016 by TimR

[Nicko]

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1470685170' post='3107677']
How do you determine the standard of the bands..?

How much for a saturday..?o you know any of the other bands that are on their rosta?
[/quote]

I say they must be expecting a fairy high standard because everywhere ese we have payed has always given us positive feedback, and I've seen plenty of live bands elsewhere. We are considerably slicker and mre professional than most pub bands but are amateurs at the end of the day.. I haven't seen a saturday night set there though. The venue pays £400 for a Saturday slot

[JTUK]

That is good and that will attract the better bands.
The rosta should be good so if you can get on it.... And stay on it, then you swim in a different league. Getting that gig will open doors to other gigs of that ilk or standard so you may have passed a few more auditions than you thought.

[tauzero]

Another idea for the detuning - they tune their guitars to the drop tuning, then capo them when needed.

In one former band, we did about half a dozen songs a semitone down. Guitarist had two guitars - we'd do the first set with standard tuning, guitarist has both guitars tuned to standard in case of a string break. In the interval, he'd detune one guitar, we'd play the detuned songs, then he'd swap guitar back to the one still in standard tuning for the remaining songs.