Trying not to rant

Gav · Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 8:20 pm Post subject: Trying not to rant

Tonight was one of the most unusual nights of my life as far as gigs go. We arranged a gig at a venue in Glasgow â€“ confirmed late the day before yesterday and we were all very excited. It is one of our first gigs and despite the lack of notice we made a real effort â€“ this went from handing out flyers last night to posting message on boards and through myspace etc.
We even ran a free badge thing where anyone who reposted our advert would get a free badge. And of course gave away free downloads etc.
So a great deal of effort was put in on our part to get people along.
Sadly we are a brand new band and we have as yet to build up a following. We hope to do this through gigging.
This was proven not to be more difficult than expected tonight.
Due to a lack of people we were told we could not play. It didnâ€™t seem to matter that I had rushed from work to make our gig which was at a start time of eight (though we only found that out when the rest of the band turned up) despite the fact when being booked I explained I finished work at half seven.
Now I am an easy going guy so I have no complaints (lots of fury but no complaints) â€“ I realise business is business and all that but faced with the fact few people had turned up to see us at eight â€“ they could have let us play and we would have stayed to watch the other bands â€“ perhaps a few of the hundreds of people we contacted might have turned up later (perhaps not) â€“ rather than forbid us from playing and giving us a very bad impression of what is supposed to be a music venue.
I might post the venue name later but I would be interested to see if anyone can actually guess it.
Anyway rant over â€“ what is the best n worst experience playing wise you have had.

fanszine · Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 8:44 pm Post subject:

That is out of order. What did they gain from stopping you from playing?

And what the hell did they expect booking you at such short notice?
_________________
www.myspace.com/livelivemusic

smackhead · King Tut's Joined: 12 Feb 2006 Posts: 881

book yr own gigs ya spazzy

commanderkeen · Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 9:04 pm Post subject:

if it was less than ten people i think i know who the promoter is, and i can guess the venue, il say neither.

personally i think at 2 days notice thats bullshit. i can understand the need to get punters in. were there posters? pr? anything?

if they wanted to guarentee a full house then they should book their bands earlier and be more organised.
_________________
touch my mix groups
___________________________________
www.myspace.com/commanderkeenmusic
www.commanderkeen.co.uk
www.onlypretend.co.uk

Gav · Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 9:30 pm Post subject:

I think smack head should just manage all scottish bands Smile

stevenmalibu · Rehearsal Room Joined: 16 Apr 2006 Posts: 11

Yeah it was pretty crap and the people in the venue where really rude towards us specially the sound guy, i think there was perhaps more to it.. they would have gained nothing actually less by not letting us play.. for one we where all buying drinks and.. one guy paid in to see us.. they where rude from the start telling us we had to play at 8 on the spot when we said thats the time our drummer might get here at.. i think they didn't want us to play from start maybe we didn't fit there scene with our genuine indie rock lol even so they should have listened to our music given the short notice to make sure we fit the bill. truelly dissapointing and terrible organization from them.
plus they kicked Me Olly and Emma out really rudely and got all macho telling me not to speak to him in a tone. which was really only insighted by the infuriating way they had already treated us then Olly dropped a cup and they got all Arnold Swartchz on our asses lol.. such idiots.

S · Site Admin Joined: 18 Dec 2005 Posts: 1800

I know where the venue is as my missus got a myspace message the day before (so you weren't shy at advertising Wink

).

the 2 stories don't quite match up so maybe the reasons given to the band were made up as they went along: "lack of people" reads like it was lack of band members! Certainly preventing a band playing because of a lack of audience would be mad crazy.
I know the venue in question has been quoted as a really good place to play - I think this relates to the venue itself, but your problem was maybe with the promoter. I've never seen a gig there, I have tried but last time the band I was going to see had the show move from one the Classic Grand to this venue at 5.30 on the day of the gig, and then their stagetime shifted back an hour at doors.

Stonesthrow · Rehearsal Room Joined: 20 Dec 2005 Posts: 235

Why cant someone just say which venue it is?

If it was indeed a raw deal and ANY band were shafted then shouldnt we help each other out by giving some heads up?

If you go to a food joint and the food is shit.. you wouldnt be shy about telling people that.

the red · Rehearsal Room Joined: 05 Jun 2007 Posts: 1

Capitol?

S · Site Admin Joined: 18 Dec 2005 Posts: 1800

Stonesthrow · Rehearsal Room Joined: 20 Dec 2005 Posts: 235

Fair do's.

Just clocked the other thread.

bigangus · Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2007 11:03 am Post subject: .

im guessing as its the same story as another thread, its rockers and SMN. twat combo number one.

is SMN the new robert fields, that man got on my tits in the 90's then last i heard he was going round all the new deal for musician workshops telling youngsters how to get gigs, "give me a hunner poun' i'll git ye i gig in ivory black" twatrag fannyfuzz

fanszine · Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2007 8:23 pm Post subject:

Sane Prof · Stereo Joined: 22 Dec 2005 Posts: 262 Location: Govanhill

gamboid bassmonkey · Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2007 11:31 pm Post subject:

its fecking rockers. i saw an article recently where the owner of rockers compared it to a glasgow version of CBGBs. LAWL.