committed yourself to promoting an album of songs about giant fucking isopods.

can i have some myspace links please? but only if you're actually really ace.

you really don't need one, unless it happens organically, ie. you've got a following, can gig round the country, someone approaches you, you have serious management or you're signed or whatever.

Getting a booking agent won't suddenly lead to massive popularity. Also, in terms of good club nights - presume you're talking about White Heat or something like that? - then it won't guarantee you anything.

Blood Red Shoes didn't get a booking agent until they'd booked about 200+ of their own gigs and were a really buzzy / next-big-thing band.

That's kind of the point so far as I'm concerned.

At the moment it's less fun than it was 'cos my head's constantly distracted and aching due to having deal with a load of business shit I don't really like dealing with. I've tried the DIY route and taken the band as far as I can with no outside help bar our label.

If bands want to book their own gigs and find that fun that's entirely fine but if you don't I see no problem at all in letting other people take the weight off your shoulders.

I do agree with those who've said it's not something you should look into until the bands at the stage where it needs one but we've got various other things set up (record label, album etc.) and are really at the point where I think it's something we need.

Some bands get them earlier than others but certainly there's bands at an earlier stage of their development than Horsebox (Ehwhat's band) that have booking agents and see no logical reason why he shouldn't go for this too.

i think.

thank you

but also has inherent flaws as it fails to take into account that managers or booking agents may simply not have heard the band in question.

Certainly if you asked many managers they'd say they're happy to get invovled with bands at a very earlier stage and help them get "bigger" (rather than wait for them to become "bigger" on their own accord.)

There's absolutely no doubt there's a lot of bands that chase booking agents/record deals/management deals etc. very early and at a stage where they aren't ready for it and, most importantly, simply not yet showing their full potential.

Ultimately I agree it is unlikely a booking agent will take you on until you're big enough/good enough but I don't think that is reason to warrant a "don't try then" attitude.

Plus in Ehwhat's particular case his band have gigged national and internationally, supported well-known bands, had XFM play etc. so are probably at a point where they're ready for this kind of thing.

you're probably not enormously rubbish at talking to people like I am.