I Wonder Why We Weren't Asked Back ?

[Paul S]

It seems fairly random to me.  Two gigs stick out in my memory.

 

Years ago there was a pub in a village out of town (Great Wakering) that put bands on every Friday and Saturday.  My lot at the time, mainly 80s covers, always went down well and we were booked three gigs a year for two years.  Then one time the lady - a drunk - who booked the gigs said she wasn't booking us any more because we didn't bring a crowd with us.  Had she dragged her inebriated self round the corner of the bar she might have noticed a eight couples who'd  come along out to the sticks to see us and who had been spening money dining there, pretty much doubling the evening's turnout.  I don't know if she was expecting a coachload or something?

 

A couple of years ago pre-Covid my blues rock trio, a band that I always introduce as a blues rock trio, played at a popular pub that puts on live music in a very busy little place called Old Leigh.  Awful acoustics, terrible load in, even worse load out, confusing layout in the centre of the pub with punters walking through the band to get to the bar.  Yet it is popular and were glad to get 2 gigs booked there.  This is on the strength of announcing we were a blues rock trio and pointing them at our online media.  First gig, apart from some drunken tw@t who shouted 'Play Wonderwall' after every single tune we went down really well.  A few people came up afterwards and said what a refreshing change it was to hear something different.  Email from the absent landlord next day to say he heard from the bar staff that we played well but he was cancelling the second gig as we weren't what his regular punters wanted to hear.  They seemed fairly enthisiastic to me but there you are.

 

Fortunately we can be a little more choosy these days - having a regular monthly gig at a venue that loves what we play really does take the pressure off.

[super al]

5 hours ago, Franticsmurf said:

Keep going. If you think of it as a competition with other originals bands, the ones that will succeed are the ones that will go on longest. As Dave has said, try self promotion. Get in touch with other bands to organise (and share the costs of) a double header. Blag gigs, gatecrash open mic nights, offer student unions a discount. As an originals band it's like a start up business - investment for log term return, loss leaders, promotional freebies, charity nights for exposure. While it doesn't do to be taken advantage of, if you're in control and plan your strategy to achieve the goal of getting known, anything legal goes. 

 

Good luck. 😃

Thanks for the encouragement @Franticsmurf and @dmccombe7

 

I have taken it upon myself to rise to the challenge and have a back up plan once we get a drummer in place.

We have a small fanbase in the area that should almost fill a small pub if they all get together at the same time at the right pub 😆.

 

[Minininjarob]

On 10/10/2023 at 22:28, martin8708 said:

We have noticed this in some of the “music “ pubs on the Isle of Wight .

Our set list comprises of eclectic/ oddities from the 70’s and 80’s which most people know but have forgotten about , so most people say how different and refreshing our gigs are , but they don’t seem to sit well with the landlord’s expectations of what a pub band should be .

If we played Ska or Dad rock , we would have loads more gigs , but we enjoy being on the fringe of popular music , so we just play where we are welcome , even if they are low paid or freebies . 

im not normally a fan of covers from that sort of era but I’d come and watch you - love it when people make the effort to play some music which isn’t the usual lazy dj mix. 

[TimR]

18 hours ago, Paul S said:

Years ago there was a pub in a village out of town (Great Wakering) that put bands on every Friday and Saturday.  My lot at the time, mainly 80s covers, always went down well and we were booked three gigs a year for two years.  Then one time the lady - a drunk - who booked the gigs said she wasn't booking us any more because we didn't bring a crowd with us. 

 

I see this a lot and wonder whether they actually expect us to bring people with us from miles away or whether they are expecting us to drum up a local following. 

 

Depending on the size of a village (we have 1500 households) this is a pretty tough thing to do without help from the actual pub. And again that's my earlier point of chatting to the landlord/lady and getting them onside. 

 

If they are interested in attracting people to their pub then they should be telling everyone local that there is a great band on this weekend. 

 

Does having an avaerage band every Friday or Saturday actually work for small pubs in small villages. Would a high quality band every payday weekend work better? 

 

Having said that we once played a gig in a town and the place was rammed, several people came up to us afterwards and said they don't normally come in to that pub because the bands aren't very good, but heard us playing and had to come in. I'm not sure we are any better than most bands, just maybe our choice of songs is not standards. We play tunes mainly from the last 20 years with a few classic 99s tracks. 

Edited October 16, 2023 by TimR

[dmccombe7]

15 hours ago, super al said:

Thanks for the encouragement @Franticsmurf and @dmccombe7

 

I have taken it upon myself to rise to the challenge and have a back up plan once we get a drummer in place.

We have a small fanbase in the area that should almost fill a small pub if they all get together at the same time at the right pub 😆.

 

Something you can consider if its all about creating an atmosphere is free tickets to close friends and family. I've always found that the more people you can get into the venue the better the band will play. Don't over-price your tickets either. Keep it low and just enough to cover the hire of the venue if you can and if it means taking a bit f a loss that is acceptable to all band members it will get you noticed more. Consider hiring a photographer or vids that you can use as advertising and to show other venues what you look like and how you sound.. 

I'm old school and we still hand out posters with band pics to any venues we play. Most put them up well before the gig and it attracts the attention of passers by in the venues who may not have heard we are playing. It all helps.

Look out local Facebook gig guide pages in your area and start posting gigs there. You can also see where similar style of bands are playing that you might not have thought about.

Glasgow has FB pages where you can just post your own band vids from gigs you've done.

Getting your band out there can be hard work and take some time.

All the best and keep us all posted on how things go.

 

The one thing i haven't asked is "what kind of music are you playing" ?  

 

Dave