Firstly I want to aplogise for the enevitable typos which will crop up during this post. I went to see my friend's band tonight and had a bit to drink, it wasn't much but I'm not a good drinker, so bare with me.
Ok so I'm kicking off this thread because I need advice, support and constructive criticsm, and because some of you could be really helpful, also if this thread doesn't get buried among the countless others this could benifit one or two of you.
About 2 years back I worked for a promotions company called Futurebeat, we were only local, but before I started working for them I gathered that they'd put on the likes of Snow Patrol and the Kaiser Cheif's before they "made it" and had connections to the likes of Clint Boon, and Bez and Shaun Ryder. Small fry but still quite impressive considering how small the operation was.
Anyhow, we ended up promoting smaller local bands, some of whom a pretty good and are worthy of getting signed, alas the odds are against them so I doubt many ever will.
Following us a lot of smaller promoters set up and rather than friendly rivalry it actaully became difficult to book acts because their were to many nights being promoted and not enough bands to play them all. Honestly, I remeber one night we had a band, The Alaphabets, packing up a gig and running up the road, with their gear, to another venue to play our gig.
About 8 months back the whole thing bottomed out, no one could be fucked with the hassle anymore, Dave the owner and chief of FB wanted to concentrate on DJing and his daughter, Racka the promotions manager wanted to get a real job and stop being a perpetual 17 year old. I was pretty much laid off when the whole thing fell apart.
In the mean time I more or less stuck in at college, I actually got high enough grades to go to uni, impressive. And every now and then a band would send me a PM or e-mail or contact me by word of mouth saying "Hey, thought you might like our band here's our myspace...". Not I was a big player on the local scene people either just assumed I knew a good band when I heard one or they just wanted to put the word out as much as possible.
A couple of times when this happened I passed name on to people, or myspace addresses, whatever seemed relevant, and they they'd get a gig booked and they'd be pretty popular. They'd get invited back for more gigs and the people I recommended them to would be getting money and decent experience in the indurstry out of putting them on.
This pissed me off. Not that the bands got more gigs, I'm all for promoting the local scene. It was the fact that people were making money out of this and I didn't get anything, I'm not asking for a finders fee or anything, but at least some recogontion would be nice. A free ticket or something perhaps?
So I waited until I'd finished college and knew I was definetly into uni and I went and talked to Racka, he's currently unemployed. It turned out that a "real job" wasn't for him. I asked if Dave had any plans to set up FB again and he said he was making noises about it. It turns out that rackaforum, which was essentially Racka's vehicle for promting gigs and keeping people up to date with the local scene will be back online soon. Hopefully by the end of the month.
I told him I "wanted in", money and time I can give experience is what I hoping to gain. It looks like all is falling into place, I know a tonne of bands locally and further a field and tonight I met a girl who is doing a diploma in photography, we kind of hit it off.
I sort of figured she was ideal, young, keen, no resonsibilities, therefore she could handle late nights, she would be really appreciative of getting to photograph the bands and she could pretty much be where we wanted her when we wanted her. We used to have this other guy Norman, he's great, agood mate of mine but he's like 44 and has a wife and child and an exectutive job. He's not reallt relialble.
I'm really serious about this, so what I really want is anyone who's done this before to teach me, give me wise words etc.
Any help really appreciated.
Powers.
Ok so I'm kicking off this thread because I need advice, support and constructive criticsm, and because some of you could be really helpful, also if this thread doesn't get buried among the countless others this could benifit one or two of you.
About 2 years back I worked for a promotions company called Futurebeat, we were only local, but before I started working for them I gathered that they'd put on the likes of Snow Patrol and the Kaiser Cheif's before they "made it" and had connections to the likes of Clint Boon, and Bez and Shaun Ryder. Small fry but still quite impressive considering how small the operation was.
Anyhow, we ended up promoting smaller local bands, some of whom a pretty good and are worthy of getting signed, alas the odds are against them so I doubt many ever will.
Following us a lot of smaller promoters set up and rather than friendly rivalry it actaully became difficult to book acts because their were to many nights being promoted and not enough bands to play them all. Honestly, I remeber one night we had a band, The Alaphabets, packing up a gig and running up the road, with their gear, to another venue to play our gig.
About 8 months back the whole thing bottomed out, no one could be fucked with the hassle anymore, Dave the owner and chief of FB wanted to concentrate on DJing and his daughter, Racka the promotions manager wanted to get a real job and stop being a perpetual 17 year old. I was pretty much laid off when the whole thing fell apart.
In the mean time I more or less stuck in at college, I actually got high enough grades to go to uni, impressive. And every now and then a band would send me a PM or e-mail or contact me by word of mouth saying "Hey, thought you might like our band here's our myspace...". Not I was a big player on the local scene people either just assumed I knew a good band when I heard one or they just wanted to put the word out as much as possible.
A couple of times when this happened I passed name on to people, or myspace addresses, whatever seemed relevant, and they they'd get a gig booked and they'd be pretty popular. They'd get invited back for more gigs and the people I recommended them to would be getting money and decent experience in the indurstry out of putting them on.
This pissed me off. Not that the bands got more gigs, I'm all for promoting the local scene. It was the fact that people were making money out of this and I didn't get anything, I'm not asking for a finders fee or anything, but at least some recogontion would be nice. A free ticket or something perhaps?
So I waited until I'd finished college and knew I was definetly into uni and I went and talked to Racka, he's currently unemployed. It turned out that a "real job" wasn't for him. I asked if Dave had any plans to set up FB again and he said he was making noises about it. It turns out that rackaforum, which was essentially Racka's vehicle for promting gigs and keeping people up to date with the local scene will be back online soon. Hopefully by the end of the month.
I told him I "wanted in", money and time I can give experience is what I hoping to gain. It looks like all is falling into place, I know a tonne of bands locally and further a field and tonight I met a girl who is doing a diploma in photography, we kind of hit it off.
I sort of figured she was ideal, young, keen, no resonsibilities, therefore she could handle late nights, she would be really appreciative of getting to photograph the bands and she could pretty much be where we wanted her when we wanted her. We used to have this other guy Norman, he's great, agood mate of mine but he's like 44 and has a wife and child and an exectutive job. He's not reallt relialble.
I'm really serious about this, so what I really want is anyone who's done this before to teach me, give me wise words etc.
Any help really appreciated.
Powers.
