Band Management

[Bluewine]

Many of us are weekend warriors,  even so every band has some level of management. 

 

Do you have a manager, what does he/she  do? If yes, is your management internal or external? Do you need management or do you think it's not necessary in your case.

 

This is just a thread to talk about band management.  What are your thoughts, anything to share? And I'm not talking about agents.

 

Comments,  positions?

 

Daryl

 

Edited December 12 by Bluewine

[uk_lefty]

We try to divide out various "management tasks" but essentially we have one band member who is incredibly particularly about many things and he ends up doing most of it. These tasks are social media posting, gig advertising, finding and contacting new venues, replying to enquiries, following up on festivals... That sort of thing. It makes me feel bad because every now and then he has a sulk about having to do all the work but he is also a control freak and won't let go of it. It really is easier having one person do this. I don't think we could afford or would want an external manager, it would feel like giving up some control and diluting some of our messages for what the band is about and the kind of venues we want to play.

[Steve Browning]

My 4 piece band divvies up the tasks between the 3 of us who know how a computer works (or, rather, can operate one).

 

We have no leader, as such, and can make collective decisions very easily. 

[BigRedX]

The closest I've come it was when I was in The Terrortones, where we had our own label and management company (Jailhouse Morgue) which was run by our singer as part of his day job. Very few people who dealt with us when booking the band, actually realised that our manager and Mr Venom were one and the same person as they seemed so different on-line and on the phone compared with how we were on stage. I can recall being asked on numerous occasions if "Will" was at the gig... 

[Bluewine]

1 hour ago, Steve Browning said:

My 4 piece band divvies up the tasks between the 3 of us who know how a computer works (or, rather, can operate one).

 

We have no leader, as such, and can make collective decisions very easily. 

 

No collective decisions with us. The BL and husband make the decisions. 

 

We really don't have professional management.  The management we have is internal, the BLs husband. He does a lot of work. He does all the bookings, all the social media advertising, networking and pitching the band to new venues.  He does all the logistics too, how to get to the venue, parking arrangements and shares all the dos and don'ts of the contract. We have our own sound and lights and he runs both.Also very particular about how things are set up. I bring my gear in but I won't bring it near the stage until I get the go ahead from him. We're paid by the BL before every show.

 

I'm  a lot older than these folks and to be honest my ideas and positions are probably very dated 

 

Daryl

 

Edited December 12 by Bluewine

[cheddatom]

1 hour ago, uk_lefty said:

...we have one band member who is incredibly particular... every now and then he has a sulk about having to do all the work but he is also a control freak and won't let go of it...

 

Wow this is incredibly familiar.

 

"I've spent so many hours on the band this week and I really can't afford to"

 

OK mate shall I do this?

 

"No, I need to handle that"

[Lozz196]

In my last band which was very well organised the singer/guitarist used to do pretty much everything in terms of the gigs/recording sessions/online media etc. I`d look after travel stuff such as planning journey times/routes and booking transport/hotels etc, and the drummer dealt with the merch (which was considerable, think he got the short straw). I think it`s a case of finding someones skill-set then pressing go, or in some cases determining there is no skill-set amongst you for what is required - in which instance then get someone in for that/those tasks. If we had all swapped round with the singer not sorting gigs rather than the 300 plus we did whilst I was in it we`d probably have done 10 - neither myself nor the drummer being in that mould, so identify skills and encourage them.

[Bluewine]

3 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

In my last band which was very well organised the singer/guitarist used to do pretty much everything in terms of the gigs/recording sessions/online media etc. I`d look after travel stuff such as planning journey times/routes and booking transport/hotels etc, and the drummer dealt with the merch (which was considerable, think he got the short straw). I think it`s a case of finding someones skill-set then pressing go, or in some cases determining there is no skill-set amongst you for what is required - in which instance then get someone in for that/those tasks. If we had all swapped round with the singer not sorting gigs rather than the 300 plus we did whilst I was in it we`d probably have done 10 - neither myself nor the drummer being in that mould, so identify skills and encourage them.

 

If were talking internal, I think the bands that don't have one member with any sense for business could be a problem. 

 

Daryl

[linear]

53 minutes ago, cheddatom said:

 

Wow this is incredibly familiar.

 

"I've spent so many hours on the band this week and I really can't afford to"

 

OK mate shall I do this?

 

"No, I need to handle that"

 

It's familiar to me too:

 

---

 

I've spent so many hours on the band this week and I really can't afford to

 

"OK mate shall I do this?"

 

Would you? Thanks mate that'd be really helpful, and remember to phone the Flange and Pony to ask about the backline.

 

"No worries mate, will do"

 

-- 2 weeks later --

 

Did you manage to do the thing yet?

 

"Ah, sorry not yet.  I'll do it tonight"

 

No worries.  Don't forget to phone the ...

 

"Yup, you said that already.  I'll do it"

 

-- 2 days before the gig --

 

Did you remember to do the thing?

 

"Ah cr*p, I totally forgot.  I started to do it, but I couldn't remember the name of the pub, and then my mum came round to give me feedback on my parenting skills and I kind of got caught up in that."

 

It's ok.  I'll take care of it.  Has anyone got the number for the Flange?

[BigRedX]

5 hours ago, cheddatom said:

Wow this is incredibly familiar.

 

"I've spent so many hours on the band this week and I really can't afford to"

 

OK mate shall I do this?

 

"No, I need to handle that"

 

I've had a similar experience with a previous band. As my day job is graphic design it normally falls to me to produce posters, record/CD/cassette covers, email newsletters etc. I can't remember what I was actually supposed to be producing, but I was struggling to find time to fit it in around all my demanding (and paying) clients. The singer suggested paying someone else to do it, to which I replied "If you want to pay me then it will be at the top of the list of jobs I have". The subject of how long I sometimes took with band graphics was never raised again.

[Obrienp]

I seem to have become de facto band manager for one band I am in after the departure of the original BL. He was BL because he formed the band and, as an ex-RAF officer, he was very comfortable with taking charge. He was also younger than the rest of us and good with social media, etc. He handed the website, FB page, etc, over to me when he left because I used to be in the IT industry. Trouble is, for around the last 15 years of my career, I didn’t do anything remotely hands on. He wrote the web-page directly in a combo of html and JavaScript, pretty old school and in theory should be within my capabilities as an ex-programmer but when I say ex, I mean I moved on to other roles in the mid 90s. I still haven’t raised the courage to look at the files that make up the website after 5 months! I know I’ve got to set aside at least a couple of days and several weeks beforehand on a crash technical refresher.

 

In the other band I have also ended up stuck with the FB stuff and a lot of the gig hunting but fortunately everybody takes a share in finding gigs and another band mate acts more in the BL role.

 

It can be very time consuming doing this kind of band admin/management. I’m retired and I find it difficult to set aside the time! The trouble is these days you really do need to be constantly doing the social media, online stuff, otherwise the gigs dry up pretty quickly, as we have discovered. Almost worth letting someone take 20% of earnings in return for staying on top of this stuff and keeping the gigs coming. After all, I play in bands enjoyment as much as for cash and sitting in front of a screen, after 30 years in the IT industry, is not enjoyable IMO!

[Matt P]

We're a 3 piece, and started as good friends before we were a band, I'm in charge of the technical side (PA, recording kit and helping to source instruments, strings etc)  and the Guitarist/singer is in charge of the gig bookings. Our drummer has some health issues so he's just in charge of looking after himself (he was my best man and he's been one of my best friends for over 20 years so i'm well aware of his needs and allowances are made for him) 

 

Matt

[tauzero]

I was the final recruit to the current band. The drummer gets most of the gigs - I have tried to get a few but so far unsuccessfully. I do the website, the singer and I do the little FB that we do (creating events and posting something afterwards).

[dmccombe7]

In the Glam band we the singer who put the band together who arranges most gigs but always puts it up on a private FB page for discussion / approval etc.

Other than that any questions go on our private page and we discuss on line as we all live quite far apart so meet ups can be tricky unless for gigs or rehearsals. Everyone has the band first attitude and we try to agree on what's best for the band. Our drummer has the most pro experience especially in Glam so we almost always go with his final say if any doubts.

We did try an agent rather than a manager but it was a waste of money and more trouble than it was worth. We now do it all within the band.

 

With the Punk covers band the drummer does most of the work getting gigs and putting posts on FB etc. Same drummer as Glam band so he also puts up all the gig posts on FB there too. Singer in punk band also gets us some of the gigs but this band is currently under review to see if its worth continuing in 2025.

 

3rd band is a start up and still at a very early stage with rehearsals restarting after the festive season. Singer does take the lead in this band too. He's also the singer in the Glam band.

 

You may have noticed a lot of in-breeding in these bands. 

 

Dave 

[meterman]

When I was in my first proper band (even though we'd morphed from being a typical bog standard zitty teenaged school band) we had really dodgy management. Two fellas that ran a nightclub. Something probably not very good happened, one of them fled the country and the other spent a couple of years in prison. First and last management we ever had, and they were deadbeats.
 

Out of necessity I ended up becoming the one having to book the studios or rehearsal rooms, organise photo shoots, send demos off to labels and agencies, negotiate gig fees and backline specs, collect payment in cash after the show, write the set lists out, even had to lend our last drummer my drum kit, as he could really play but didn't have his own kit. (How come? Class A substances, mostly). I hated being the bands 'team coach'. But I did it all otherwise none of it would get done, which is what happens when your band are a bit flaky. If we'd had proper, decent management we might have stood a chance. That's the only thing I regret about that period. We had records out and did the things that proper bands do, but we never had anyone behind us to take care of the business side of it, so we never got anywhere. Except stoned

 

When we split up I did solo gigs for a year, and organising just for myself was super easy in comparison. Then I drifted into sessions which was even easier and only occasionally had an agent over the next 25 years. Freelancing is an art in itself, same as leading a band is, or managing one, I reckon.

[Bluewine]

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

In the Glam band we the singer who put the band together who arranges most gigs but always puts it up on a private FB page for discussion / approval etc.

Other than that any questions go on our private page and we discuss on line as we all live quite far apart so meet ups can be tricky unless for gigs or rehearsals. Everyone has the band first attitude and we try to agree on what's best for the band. Our drummer has the most pro experience especially in Glam so we almost always go with his final say if any doubts.

We did try an agent rather than a manager but it was a waste of money and more trouble than it was worth. We now do it all within the band.

 

With the Punk covers band the drummer does most of the work getting gigs and putting posts on FB etc. Same drummer as Glam band so he also puts up all the gig posts on FB there too. Singer in punk band also gets us some of the gigs but this band is currently under review to see if its worth continuing in 2025.

 

3rd band is a start up and still at a very early stage with rehearsals restarting after the festive season. Singer does take the lead in this band too. He's also the singer in the Glam band.

 

You may have noticed a lot of in-breeding in these bands. 

 

Dave 

 

Dave,

 

That term " discussion " is coming up a lot . We don't have that I'm not sure why. To be fair I was ask which of our 2 dep drummers we should use for a gig. They went with my choice and I regret my choice. 

 

Back to management.  I do think the decision to invest in sound and lighting was a good one. It gives us a competitive edge and it took us out of bars and pubs and moved us from a $100.00 a man band to $150.00. That's not including tips which are very lucrative in our circuit. I'm flexing a bit here. I'm not sure of the exact amount, however we collected over $700.00 in tips on Thanksgiving Eve.

 

I hope the start up band is up and running soon.

 

Daryl

[dmccombe7]

11 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Dave,

 

That term " discussion " is coming up a lot . We don't have that I'm not sure why. To be fair I was ask which of our 2 dep drummers we should use for a gig. They went with my choice and I regret my choice. 

 

Back to management.  I do think the decision to invest in sound and lighting was a good one. It gives us a competitive edge and it took us out of bars and pubs and moved us from a $100.00 a man band to $150.00. That's not including tips which are very lucrative in our circuit. I'm flexing a bit here. I'm not sure of the exact amount, however we collected over $700.00 in tips on Thanksgiving Eve.

 

I hope the start up band is up and running soon.

 

Daryl

That's not a bad income with the tips included. All you need is more gigs and you're set for life there Daryl.

Typically here with the punk band i'm lucky to get £70 a gig. Glam band is circa £150 upwards but that's more a show. We don't generally see tip buckets over here or in my experience but maybe we should try it to see what happens. 

Dave

[BigRedX]

3 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

We don't generally see tip buckets over here or in my experience but maybe we should try it to see what happens. 

 

Careful, You might find that the venue want to pay you less as a result.

 

For originals bands I suppose the merch stand is the equivalent. When my band plays we expect the takings there to exceed what we are being paid to play the gig.

[Matt P]

we've done a tip bucket once, for our first gig we booked an upstairs room at a pub and to get some help filling the room we asked a water charity to join in, they did some promotion ffor us and then ran the door and took the money, the room was free (as long as the bar took enough) the only expense we had was to hire in some speakers for the evening as we didn't own any at that point, so we had a small bucket on stage with a label "tips to cover the PA Hire" we got enough to be able to put the extra back to the charity and all was good.

 

The gig was to get us some experience as we hadn't played together live (although we had all gigged in other bands, most of our friends turned up and it was a good night all round.

 

Matt

[Steve Browning]

27 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

Careful, You might find that the venue want to pay you less as a result.

 

For originals bands I suppose the merch stand is the equivalent. When my band plays we expect the takings there to exceed what we are being paid to play the gig.

 

Indeed. We play a (good) gig in Southampton where there is a flat £150 fee and the pub staff take round a beer glass and card machine towards the end. Regularly get £200 or so in that. Nice PA is also provided so load in/set up is easier.

[dmccombe7]

31 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

Careful, You might find that the venue want to pay you less as a result.

 

For originals bands I suppose the merch stand is the equivalent. When my band plays we expect the takings there to exceed what we are being paid to play the gig.

Oddly enough i did think that after i posted it 

Dave

[Bluewine]

7 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

That's not a bad income with the tips included. All you need is more gigs and you're set for life there Daryl.

Typically here with the punk band i'm lucky to get £70 a gig. Glam band is circa £150 upwards but that's more a show. We don't generally see tip buckets over here or in my experience but maybe we should try it to see what happens. 

Dave

 

Dave, I completely understand the difference in the tipping cultures. You have to tip everybody for everything over here.

 

I don't do bad for a weekend warrior. However it's not extra 'fun money" for me. All the gig money I stashed away over the summer will be used to pay my 2023 property taxes. After I pay the folks at City Hall that big " knot" in my wallet will be gone. Or maybe they'll be enough left over to take a pretty lady out for a meal. Lol

 

Have a great weekend Dave. No gigs for me until 12/18.

 

Daryl

[Bluewine]

10 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

That's not a bad income with the tips included. All you need is more gigs and you're set for life there Daryl.

Typically here with the punk band i'm lucky to get £70 a gig. Glam band is circa £150 upwards but that's more a show. We don't generally see tip buckets over here or in my experience but maybe we should try it to see what happens. 

Dave

 

The tipping culture over here has gotten a bit aggressive post covid. Tipping jars at gigs are no longer for extra change anymore. Dave, as a matter of fact many tip jars are labeled with

" Minimum Donation is $20.00." Now, so there is no misunderstanding, we don't post minimums or recommendations on our tip jar, that's strictly from the venue.

 

Daryl

Edited December 13 by Bluewine

[Downunderwonder]

On 13/12/2024 at 10:58, Bluewine said:

 

Dave,

 

That term " discussion " is coming up a lot . We don't have that I'm not sure why. To be fair I was ask which of our 2 dep drummers we should use for a gig. They went with my choice and I regret my choice. 

 

Back to management.  I do think the decision to invest in sound and lighting was a good one. It gives us a competitive edge and it took us out of bars and pubs and moved us from a $100.00 a man band to $150.00. That's not including tips which are very lucrative in our circuit. I'm flexing a bit here. I'm not sure of the exact amount, however we collected over $700.00 in tips on Thanksgiving Eve.

 

I hope the start up band is up and running soon.

 

Daryl

How come the two on the end look like cats with cream and the middle two like someone is puking in their shoe and mostly missing?

[dmccombe7]

16 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Dave, I completely understand the difference in the tipping cultures. You have to tip everybody for everything over here.

 

I don't do bad for a weekend warrior. However it's not extra 'fun money" for me. All the gig money I stashed away over the summer will be used to pay my 2023 property taxes. After I pay the folks at City Hall that big " knot" in my wallet will be gone. Or maybe they'll be enough left over to take a pretty lady out for a meal. Lol

 

Have a great weekend Dave. No gigs for me until 12/18.

 

Daryl

Fully appreciate we have different circumstances Daryl but $150 really isn't a lot for the hrs you do for a gig including the travel time. Typically from when i leave the house till i get back home again its a 10-12hr day. Add to  that strings, fuel and rehearsal costs etc it all bites into the gig money.

 

Gig last night for me and back out for an evening gig today 4-7pm sh an early home time but only 6hrs sleep last night and its a 2hr drive each way for todays gig. 

 

Have a wonderful Xmas and all the very best for 2025 Daryl.

Dave