Being forwarded around Myspace:
My response (to a guy likely just passing it on and not the original author, haha):
Interesting, although I have some questions as an outside who is not familiar with any of the people involved. Wish I knew who originally sent this out.
What if people don't care for the bands playing this "last chance show"? Should they show up and "support the scene" and endure bands they don't give a crap about? If someone knows about, say, 3 shows they want to go to, should they feel pressured in any way to go to 5 other shows they wouldn't otherwise want to in order to ensure the three they do wnat to see actually happen? Seems silly.
Has any thought or effort been put into finding out why a band's draw dropped 80% in five months beyond "people just don't care"? First thought is maybe people don't feel the need to go out and see the same band they just saw a few months before?
If this is being done for a love of music, why so much talk about money and "the scene"? Maybe promoting only every so often, and being more selective about the shows promoted, would be smarter instead of a steady stream of shows that people obviously don't want to see?
Is blaming and chastizing people who are not spending money a good way to get them to spend?
Is it possible that the problem is the promoter's business practices (look at ticket prices vs the realistic draw instead fo what a show "should" be drawing), or the choice of bands to book ("one of the biggest bands in the world" better not be representative of their ability to judge popularity, heh), or whatever? I'm sure people know better than anybody else what they want to do with their time.
PLEASE READ THIS AND REPOST THIS. UNLESS PEOPLE ARE MADE AWARE THEN THEY ARE GOING TO LOSE THEIR MUSIC SCENE
So what the fuck is up with people in Manchester at the moment.
Nobody seems to give a fuck about some of the biggest bands playing in small venues anymore for you.
5 months ago Black Dahlia Murder played Manchester and the venue sold out. 550 people. Last night they played here to 150 kids. Where is the logic there then? im lost! I know England were playing. So i gave that show some grace./ We lost a wedge of Cash. But we thought hey we have put together one of the strongest Show line ups for tonight.
Well how fucking wrong we were? Evergreen Terrace show sold out last time they were over. Parkway Drive did close to 200 people. An Most precious Blood are supposedly one of the biggest bands in the world. Not to mention the fact that Ringworm havent toured here for 10 years
So why is it then that only around 150 people turn up eh.
We do this all out of a love of music and i dont think some fashion cunts realise that there scene here could well be on the way out if they dont stop worrying about their hair and actually show up to watch the bands that they name drop so often and wear shirts for. We do this to give you something to do and to help build a scene that you can be proud and say your a part of.
Collectively over £5000 has been lost in the last few months and im afraid that this cannot continue any longer.
You are seriously at risk of losing what you have here because other people wont be willing to do this for you. When people obviously do not care who plays where.
All that i can say is that we have set ourselves one show to put this right and for people to convince us that we are doing to right thing by promoting these shows. if the turnout is Shit again. Thats it. Every show that we have booked will be cancelled and we will be stopping promoting. This is not a joke. But we simply cannot keep on throwing money away on these shows.
Following this i would like to apologise to all those people who show up every week and support these events. These people know who they are and we really appreciate you doing this. Especially people like Dale and the crew who show up to every gig we do. Dance and get things going for all the bands and make them feel welcome in our city.
IF YOU GIVE TWO SHITS ABOUT MANCHESTERS SCENE YOU WILL REPOST THIS AND MAKE PEOPLE AWARE THAT WE HAVE JUST ONE SHOW TO TURN THINGS AROUND. THE SHOWS INFO IS REGISTERED ON THE FLYER BELOW. tICKETS CAN BE BOUGHT IN ADVANCE FROM WWW.TICKETLINE.CO.UK OR FROM ROADKILL RECORDS OR YOU CAN PAY ON THE DOOR FOR A FEW QUID MORE THAN THE ADVANCE PRICE. tHIS SHOW IS 14+ AGES.
PLEASE REPOST THIS AND SHOW YOUR SUPPORT
My response (to a guy likely just passing it on and not the original author, haha):
Interesting, although I have some questions as an outside who is not familiar with any of the people involved. Wish I knew who originally sent this out.
What if people don't care for the bands playing this "last chance show"? Should they show up and "support the scene" and endure bands they don't give a crap about? If someone knows about, say, 3 shows they want to go to, should they feel pressured in any way to go to 5 other shows they wouldn't otherwise want to in order to ensure the three they do wnat to see actually happen? Seems silly.
Has any thought or effort been put into finding out why a band's draw dropped 80% in five months beyond "people just don't care"? First thought is maybe people don't feel the need to go out and see the same band they just saw a few months before?
If this is being done for a love of music, why so much talk about money and "the scene"? Maybe promoting only every so often, and being more selective about the shows promoted, would be smarter instead of a steady stream of shows that people obviously don't want to see?
Is blaming and chastizing people who are not spending money a good way to get them to spend?
Is it possible that the problem is the promoter's business practices (look at ticket prices vs the realistic draw instead fo what a show "should" be drawing), or the choice of bands to book ("one of the biggest bands in the world" better not be representative of their ability to judge popularity, heh), or whatever? I'm sure people know better than anybody else what they want to do with their time.