Again, promoting the show should be the PROMOTERS job. That is what he does!
I agree bands need to make their fans aware that the gigs happening, but I'm not dragging my ass around town handing out flyers for nothing, to then have the promoter pocket all the money.
I've ran my own shows before for my band where I've booked the venue, booked the bands, paid the headliners and paid the bands that brought in a decent amount of punters (but that wasn't a requirement, if a band didn't bring in people that that was fine by me as long as they play well and don't give me any hassle) I organized backline (hell I normally supplied half of it!) I printed off and handed out flyers here there and everywhere, going out at night in the cold to tape them to lamp posts and bus stops so that the police don't stop me, and then going out the next night because some chavvy bastards have gone "metulz? thats shit lets rip these off, lolz"
I hired, picked up (with a van that I had to hire), set up, and ran the pa (other than for my bands set obv) used my mic's and cables because the stuff that came with the PA was shit, bought a stage-box because the pa didn't have one, recorded the show, hired a lighting guy, basically did everything, including tidying up at the end of the night and running the pa back the next day!
It generally cost about £300 to put on one of these shows, I've had one bad night where we booked in a decent sized underground band (played Download a couple of times, video on kerrang/scuzz) who to be honest, weren't worth what I paid for them and not a lot of people turned up (about 60-70), the best gig we had about 280 people in a 120 capacity community centre, you couldn't move! every other gig than that bad one has come out in profit, generally £100-£300, all of which goes back into the band for getting t-shirts printed or money to go on tour (its next to impossible to get paid gigs here, not even fuel money)
And with all of this my gigs were about £1-2 cheaper than what local promoters are putting on in the nearest town. I honestly think that the show I put on is one of the best local shows in Scotland, the quality of the sound and lighting is great compared to alot of local venues and the stage is a pretty decent size.
I'm not saying that bands should be lazy. But I am saying that selling tickets is the promoters job, NOT THE BANDS JOB. Sometimes no matter how hard you try to sell tickets no one bites, maybe they don't like the lineup, maybe there's a party somewhere, maybe they don't have any spare cash, whatever. The point is that it's the promoter who comes out with a bulging wallet at the end of the night, so its the promoter who should be putting in the work and taking the risk. Promoters here are lazy selfish twats who blame bands for their own shortcomings and to be honest couldn't organize a piss up in a brewery!
Expecting a band to bring their own audience is bullshit, if we play locally then why the fuck would our LOCAL fans want to travel to Glasgow, or Dundee, or Aberdeen to come see us!? We've put on a minibus to bring fans to gigs away from home and every single time people haven't showed up and we have come out of pocket. Its a ridiculous state of affairs that a venue/promoter expects you to bring people halfway across the country when you're trying to build a fan-base away from home!!!
Here's an idea, let us play there, show the local fans for that venue how we put on a great show and they will come back next time we play! ITS NOT HARD TO UNDERSTAND! There are people who come to see out of town bands at my local venue's all the time because they got given the chance to come and rock out and now every time they come back their local fans turn up. This is a much better plan than expecting every out of town band to bring a bus full of folk every time they want to play, its just not sustainable.
Fuckin hell, it felt good to get that of my chest
uke:
