MANCHESTER BANDS WANTED FOR GIGS AT NIGHT & DAY
ALL AT NIGHT & DAY
Wednesday February 21st (one more band needed only - looking for band to play their first ever gig)
Thursday March 29th
Tuesday April 17th
Monday April 23rd (St Georges Day special)
THE BASICS
* Indie / Alternative bands only (no metal / punk pop / emo etc)
* We pay bands on N&D's flyer deal system
* We have to stick to the 21 day rule which N&D and most promoters in Manchester operate
* Each line up tends to operate as 3 established bands and 1 band playing their first ever gig
ST GEORGES DAY SPECIAL
* We're looking particularly for multicultural bands for this gig so if you're in a band / know a band that isnt just 4 skinny white lads please get in touch - this gig is gonna be a great one
FOR ALL GIGS MESSAGE US WITH THE DATE YOU WANT TO PLAY IN THE SUBJECT LINE OR LEAVE A COMMENT ON THE BLOG
www.myspace.com/designermagazine
Thanks
Alex
oh my fucking god..
"We're looking particularly for multicultural bands for this gig so if you're in a band / know a band that isnt just 4 skinny white lads please get in touch - this gig is gonna be a great one"
..i can't believe you'd even consider that idea, let alone post it on a popular message board.
what exactly is the motivation behind it?
try
pagan wanderer lu...his name sounds all ethnic and shit
Not good
"Indie / Alternative bands only" That is not a genre specification
"We pay bands on N&D's flyer deal system" Meaning you will pay the band playign their first gig absolutely nothing unless their friends and family turn up.
"We have to stick to the 21 day rule which N&D and most promoters in Manchester operate " You don't have to stick to that. It is beyond stupidity that a band playing their first gig should eb subjected to this "rule" - why do you keep blaming the venue?
Cynics again
If anyone in Manchester wants to come down to these gigs you'll see how good they are.
Until you've been to one dont criticise from behing a keyboard
they're not
criticising the gigs, they're critcising your selection policy and the 21 days rule.
aah...
* The 21 day rule is something all promoters in Manchester have to stick to....it was something put in place way before we started doing gigs.
* Indie / Alternative - its a vague description which can cover various types of band. Maybe we should have simply said no metal etc bands
* St Georges Day gig - its a fun idea because everyone as Paddys day gigs in March, yet no one celebrates St Georges day. But at the same time we wanted to reflect England as it is now rather than some oikish football fans view of England
..
"he 21 day rule is something all promoters in Manchester have to stick to....it was something put in place way before we started doing gigs." Humungus, enooooorrrrmous bollocks. What? Is it a law? Bollocks. In your PM to me you say: "And we're not blaming the venue 21 day rule - but if we use the venue we have to stick by the same rules they use. All the main venues in Manchester use it so it would be the same anywhere in the city" Yes, "MAIN VENUES", which are probably less than ten percent of all venues around the city centre.
YOu also say in PM:"Payment - Bands that have played for us in the past have got around £70-120 which is considerably more than booking agents ask for a latest hotly tipped band you'd see in this website pages or the NMe" IT WAS CLEAR THAT MY SPECULATIVE COMMENT EARLIER ABOUT PAYMENT WAS ABOUT THE LOCAL BAND PLAYING FIRST GIG NOT THE TOURING BAND.
£70-£120 more than the latest hotly tipped band???
No its not...not by a long shot
Cunt.
Positive discrimination, you tool.
Would you ever do the opposite?
"a band that isn't just 4 skinny black lads" ?
what is the21 day rule?
bicker amongst yourselves
Well my last post on the matter. The people comments that count are the bands that play and those people that go to the gigs and they've all been very happy playing for us / coming to the gig.
Those bands that played their first gigs for us recently. One played a gig september, got a hell of a lot of press off the back of it and were signed to Deltasonic 4 weeks later. the one that played our November gig got about 5 or 6 new bookings off the back of it including a sold out support slot to about 400 people...that good enough for you
Over and out - my last post on the matter - you lot bicker between yourselves
i don't care about the other stuff.
that's fairly common, if still a bit shit, practise.
but please explain this: "We're looking particularly for multicultural bands for this gig so if you're in a band / know a band that isnt just 4 skinny white lads please get in touch - this gig is gonna be a great one"
To show that St George's Day
isn't all about BNP mentality?
Exactly what MartinSFP said....
....we want to celebrate St Georges Day but not in some dodgy BNP / NF cunty way
WHAT?
so, having a bill full of white people is 'BNP mentality'?
you're planning to put on bands according to the colour of their skin, not the quality of their music.
that's sad and (i'll whisper it..) a little racist.
Errr...
No. He's obviously wanting to reclaim St George's Day from the militant right. Celebrating multiculturalism with a range of culturally diverse bands certainly isn't racist.
Since when has St George's Day
been a 'celebration of multicultrulism'?
but by deliberately picking bands by the colour of their skin
you're getting the response to race issue all wrong
the answer to racism isn't more racism!
change "more racism" for
"positive discrimination" if yr feeling particularly PC
No other gigs in Manchester city centre 21 days either side of the gig
Not all promoters apply it. In fact I'm only aware of about 4 promoters (including Alex) that use it.
...
it's quite a common rule that some (lazy, flyer-fuck-over-bands-that-don't-know-any-better-deal operating) promotors try and operate, and most promoters with any kind of pride in their nights totally ignore....
it's complete shite
based almost entirely on promoters egos and penny pinching.
if they were really awesome promoters
wouldn't they be getting bodies through the doors no matter what ?
that's like saying
really popular bands will always sell out a venue
it takes two to tango
true
you got me there.
but i still think a decent (semi-)regular night run by someone with a reputation for good stuff should develop fairly reliable attendances (almost) whether or not any of the bands are playing in three weeks time or played three weeks ago someplace else. especially so in a larger city like manchester.
my thoughts are
if you have fledgling bands and fledgling promoters they should work together to make the best of that night
to expect things of each other is pointless without giving anything in return is just not fair
yr probably right
i was meaning more established promoters when it came to saying that 21day thing sounded a bit lame.
its no pay to play on the shitlist, but it still seems as if perhaps the promoter is lacking a little faith in their ability to advertise, organise and help draw a crowd.
yeah
cos punters look at gig posters for bands they like and think 'oh wait but I saw them 20 days ago, i won't bother' or 'my god has it really been 22 days since i've seen them, quick lets get tickets'.
if you're 'promoting' bands you're supposed to get people to see them, otherwise you're just a 'booker' slot filling.
so therefore
if a new band doesn't have any fans a promoter should feel absolutely no responsibilty to put them on and make a loss.
right?
if the promoter is going to take an untested band on for a night where he stands to make a loss he is fully entitled to make some stipulations.
the 21 days thing is obviously not a hard and fast rule you plum. it's more like "oh but wait, i've seen that local band this month, i'll go down the road to the next venue."
i think that i am just speaking common sense but you'll disagree i imagine.
...
yes but a promoter shouldn't expect the band to do their work for them.
it's the band's job to play and entertain people
it's the promoter's job to persuade people to turn up
seems
everyone is trying to argue for the sake of it, playing more than one gig a month in a city is probably overkill anyway (unless were talking london) i see it as the 21 day rule is a way to make sure that the bands following are more likely to turn up. ok 21 days is a bit much perhaps, 2 weeks either side seems fair though. As for the 22 day comment well you have to draw a line somewhere dont you? As for payment i think its a fair way of doing things (although night and day overcharge for entry fees generaly) in any other business (yes music is a business it costs and makes money)the more you sell the more you make, so it makes sense really. I know everyone has their own oppinions on this and thats fine, but not all promoters are evil exploiters of bands, some are but lets give this guy a chance!
...
no, it's bollocks. the 21 day rule doesn't actually offer any kind of guarentee people will show up. it's crap. a band in Bristol - unsigned and largely unknown at the time - once played 7 gigs in 7 days in Bristol - and most of them were busy. other bands will play once a month or whatever and still struggle to "bring a crowd" (whatever the fuck that horrible phrase means). promoting isn't a science with rules and formulas - if done properly it's the equivalent of being a curator at an art gallery, where selection, location, presentation and, yes, promotion are all key to getting people exciting at the prospect of seeing the show.
I hold up The Luminaire in Kilburn and The Cavern in Exeter as shining examples of how venues should be run...
oh really
cos i thought it was some fucking magic number or something? that's obviously the point i was making.
'if a new band doesn't have any fans' - what? you mean like every fucking new band that ever took to a stage? there's a difference between 'fans' and loyal friends. and all these flyer deal/21 days rules are basically designed at making sure bands bring friends along to drink some alcohol - which yeah yeah yeah i know it's how venues make money, music's a 'business' and all that shit. what a joyous outlook that is to have - if bands took that attitude 'we won't do a gig unless we get paid enough' then no gigs would ever get booked. i'd hesitate to use the word 'exploited' but these promoters don't exactly give young/new bands a great deal do they?
what about promoters willing to take a risk by putting on bands they love? if they've any real nous and sense of what people are going to like then they'll end up getting a reputation for interesting nights. then people come along without even knowing the bands because that promoter's name is a mark of quality? i don't know anyone like that who has a '21 days rule'.
these rules are imposed by promoters who are attempting to scrape a living from the bottom of the same barrel as every other chancer. if you don't see that then you're the plum. what about passion? what about, if there's no bands you believe in enough to take a chance on, then you DON'T BOOK ANY SHOWS?
none of this
is slagging off 'mccanalex' by the way. he seems to actually be one of the good types of promoters.
I think
Mrs_Jack_Graham makes a good point here:
Are these people 'promoters' or 'bookers'. I don't think they really promote their shows other than what the N&D does.
But let's face it, who goes to see local bands unless there's already a bit of a buzz about them? These nights survive on the bands bringing their mates, family, work colleagues etc etc. Very very few people are into music enough to go and see bands that don't already have a reputation.
Notice this 'promoter' is specifically seeking bands to play their first ever gig. i.e. it'll look good for those bands to be able to say their first ever gig was at the N&D (i.e. a cool, well respected venue) but it's even better for the 'promoter' as they're virtually guaranteed that the band will bring a shit load of people with them - every parent feels obligated to their kid's first gig.
Hmmm. What was my point again? Oh yeah, this isn't proper promoting. It's making money out of bands.
Stick with the small promoters who do it for the love of music rather than money. That's what I say!
Raz has made some good points on here....
...so thanks to him.
The basics are we book 4 great bands that we believe in, really like, and these bands complememt each other.
We only do one gig a month as a rule to keep the quality standard to a max and the bands that have played their first gig for us generally get 4 or 5 future bookings off the back of that one gig and the bands that are established play to a brand new audience and get lots more fans.