Which gig would you take?

[Bluewine]

12 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

? - The Beatles had split by then 🤭

I know, but I would have been too young any earlier.

There was still a lot of wonderful music coming out of England in the early 70s and maybe opportunities for a Yankee Bass Guitar player?

Blue

Edited September 14, 2019 by Bluewine

[Bluewine]

12 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

If it’s offered and I’m free, I’ll do the gig. Not particularly in it for the money, but I am very wary of others profiting greatly from gigs where I’m not. There has to be some parity or I’ll politely decline. 

Great point, it's sort of what Ive learned over the years about Charities and Benifits. You find out all others providing a product or service are getting paid except the bands.

Blue

[Woodinblack]

19 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

*My dream is to play anywhere in the UK. Wish I were on better terms with my ex-wife she lives a little North of London.

One thing, from all I heard from you guys , on average you have to drive a lot further to gigs than me.

Blue

*If I ever make it across the pond , I hope it's 1972 when I get there.

Out of the last 100 gigs I did, 2 were further than half an hour. And I live in the middle of nowhere.

[Bluewine]

32 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

Sorry guys, I'd have to pass on all 3. I always have fun and enjoy my gigs, thats a given. However, this  is a business for me I play for a set fee. 

If I was 40 years younger it would be a different story.

Blue

 

 

 

[Bluewine]

3 hours ago, steantval said:

None of them, I don’t drink on gigs, so it would be a couple of diet Cokes.

 

I haven't had a drink in decades and I never eat at gigs.

Blue

[Bluewine]

10 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Out of the last 100 gigs I did, 2 were further than half an hour. And I live in the middle of nowhere.

Thats pretty much like me. I have a gig tomorrow. It's probably a 15 minute commute tops.

Blue

[Woodinblack]

5 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

You’re clearly not with an agent then! If we turned down everything that was more than half an hour away, they would stop ringing pretty quickly.

We haven't turned hardly anything down, in fact, quite often I wish we would turn more down. We try to put blank weekends in at least once a month so it doesn't cause problems with the singers wife (and it is nice to have a break), but frankly there isn't much space. The only ones we have turned down were either money based or if they were just dead gigs - there is one place we play, they are good with money but there is never anyone there (not just us, everyone), there is only so many times you can look at a gig as a paid practice.

The furthest place we played which is about 30 miles, we would like to do again but trying to get a space in the calendar is tricky. We would like to play some further away places but we never really had the opportunity, we are always playing locally.

We have a quiet month next month for holidays so there is nothing in october, so it will seem quiet but if I look at the rest of the year there are 12 confirmed gigs, 9 are within 3 miles of my house, 2 are within 10 miles, and one is about 15.

And no, we aren't with an agent.

[thodrik]

Generally I have never been in a brand new originals band that gets offered three gigs for the same night at the same time. Generally, so long as the offer was half decent and the band were free and keen to play, the band would do gig (a), (b) or (c) in the initial stages of gigging. The big no-no to me was saying you would do a gig and then ditching it to do a 'better' gig. Such tactics were only acceptable to the newly offered gig was a fantastic offer (i.e opening for a very established/semi-famous act). 

[skankdelvar]

2 hours ago, Bluewine said:

If I ever make it across the pond , I hope it's 1972 when I get there.

It's still 1972 in here Salisbury.

But not in a good way.

Edited September 13, 2019 by skankdelvar

[Woodinblack]

10 minutes ago, skankdelvar said:

It's still 1972 in here Salisbury.

But not in a good way.

Its going to be 1972 everywhere in the UK by the time he gets here

[tauzero]

A, but I'm doing a mix of B and C on Sunday - about an hour and a half away, support, unknown audience size, fee? What fee? As, indeed, we did a couple of weeks ago.

[Leonard Smalls]

Problem we have is that we're a quite, er, uncompromising, punkfunk band with political lyrics, shouty female singer and far too much bass.

Which is definitely a bit niche for our "town" (it's only a town as it used to have a market, but still has a livestock sale); venue-wise we've got 2 pubs which occasionally have an open mic night, even more occasionally have a covers band, and rather tellingly, have a popular "dance" hosted by "Lady DJ"...

Nearby (well 1/2 an hour away) we've got Bishops Castle, which has lots of gigs in its 2 music-type pubs but they're almost exclusively blues or (due to lots of local hippies - it is the Borders!) ska/reggae; there's Ludlow which has almost no music scene (just very occasional what-you-expect covers and slightly more frequent jazz standards) then there's Leominster which has a lively little venue with a good crowd where we've played a few times, though it's an absolute max of 50 people in there. In Newtown/Llandrindod/Welshpool there's virtually nothing bar ABBA tributes and the like - they wouldn't have us and we'd be canned off!

Shrewsbury and Hereford are getting on for an hour away, with Hereford being the better place due to lots of students - we go down very well there, especially if it's a punky audience who maybe like a bit of Rage/Faith/GangOfFour.

So maybe our best option is to do a bit of each, but only do b) gigs if it's a venue frequented by students or is on the punk scene which has a turn-up-on-spec audience. Either that or we bite the bullet and start with smooth jazz in Ludlow...

 

[Graham]

C - and try and flog as much merch as possible to cover costs

[Dan Dare]

15 hours ago, skankdelvar said:

It's still 1972 in here Salisbury.

But not in a good way.

The fishing on the Avon isn't bad, though. I come down from the Smoke to Britford regularly. Nice spot. Can you recommend any decent pubs in town? I like a pint before hopping on the train home.

[Stub Mandrel]

17 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

Out of the last 100 gigs I did, 2 were further than half an hour. And I live in the middle of nowhere.

I live 45 minutes from the nearest of my bandmates... but I used to commute over 70 miles a day to and from Birmingham via Spaghetti Junction.

 

 

[dmccombe7]

Not really any favoured choices and reckon i would decline them all these days but if forced to pick one then B

With fuel covered its the same deal as A but you can benefit from a free rehearsal in front of an audience no matter how small they are it will focus the band to play better in front of people.

Option C might be a close 2nd choice tho just to get some recognition on the circuit.

Dave

 

[Bassassin]

Voted B - seemingly the unpopular choice but I've always enjoyed playing new places in front of people who had no idea who we were, and what they were going to get.

Money for fuel is a bonus too. Doesn't always happen...

[Skybone]

In reality, it's between A & C.

IMO, B is a non-starter, as if no one knows you at that venue, headlining isn't really going to draw too many people in. You would hope it would, but in reality, unless it's a Friday or Saturday, not many people will be out.

That leaves A or C.

A is the "easy option". You could theoretically do this any time if it's "local", you're known to the venue, and you know you can pull a decent crowd. Excellent stuff, you can use these gigs to build your confidence as a band, and develop stage craft, whilst having the advantage of being in a venue you like near home.

However, C is the gig that will build a fanbase outside your area. You know the headline band, so it could be possible that, if they are local to you, both bands can share a van, reducing costs, as well as playing a short set to a crowd who aren't familiar with your band. If you have any merch/demo's/download or website info cards etc., take them along, you'll get some people interested, and develop a fan base outside your area.