OFF: Concert Attendance (long and ranty)

[Richard Lockwood]

>
> > There is a virus about - it's called 'poor concert attendance'.

<snip>

> > The theory runs that those of a 'certain age' or income bracket are
either
> > jaundiced of all the small conceerts and only go to big ones - or if
they
> > have to travel distance to the gigs,then the expensive peripherals make
it
> > all too much  - and so on.
> > So, are the up and coming bands, even the known ones, doomed to play to
such
> > small audiences and is there no way of redressing this situation?
> > Just a thought for all...........
>
>         I don't think this is the whole answer but I'm inclined to blame
> the Internet for this. The things is that it's a marvellous tool for
> reaching the people who care about such and such a band. You know where
> all your fans are and so obviously you concentrate your effort there. But
> it's no substitute for getting out there and putting posters up, getting
> people onto venue mailing lists, handing out flyers,

<snip>

I don't think you can blame the internet.  Bands are all too keen now to let
a venue do the promotion for a gig, and can't be arsed doing what Jon says -
getting out and handing out flyers, pasting posters on subway walls, telling
EVERYONE they meet that they're playing.

An example...

There's a pub in Stratford (East London) called The Pigeons.  It's a big old
Victorian gin palace, with a proper ballroom upstairs.  As I'm sure you all
know, I play in an occasional band by the name of BEER POWERED NOISE FRENZY.
(Plug, plug - see what I mean - at EVERY opportunity).  When we played our
first gig, it was planned like a military operation.  Our singer runs twice
weekly pub quizzes in another local pub (The King Edward VII, Stratford
Broadway, fine ales, good pub food, top quizzes every Wednesday and Sunday
night - easy, isn't it?)  He started pre-preparing quiz answer sheets
(instead of handing out bits of blank paper for the answers) with the date
and venue of the upcoming gig.  The then landlord got a bit pissed off, and
asked him to stop doing it - fair enough, he was likely to lose a lot of
business on the night of the gig.  So Steve got all his mates in to do the
quiz as individual teams.  When he reads the results out, at the end of
every quiz, he reads ALL the team names out.  The number of teams who were
called "Live at the Pigeons, 11th of September, Beer Powered Noise Frenzy,
Two quid entry, all profits to charity, late bar and indie disco until 2am"
was quite remarkable.  In the month before the gig, if you walked into the
Pigeons, you'd be blinded by day-glo posters, bearing the legend "BEER
POWERED NOISE FRENZY" and all the accompanying details.  We had a web site,
we pestered the local paper for coverage, we told everyone we met on the
tube, in pubs, at work, on web sites and discussion boards.

Come the end of the day, we filled this enormous ballroom past the fire
limit (300).  The bouncers had to shut another fifty people out, and told us
they'd never seen the place so full (except possibly, one admitted, when
Pauline Black (ex-Selecter) played there.)

We had people coming over 100 miles to see us - because of web promotion - ,
and all this for a band who NO-ONE had ever heard before.

I still get people asking me in pubs if I'm the bass player in BPNF, and
I've yet to meet anyone who will admit to either:
a) Not being there, or
b) Being there and not having a fantastic night out.

I know I'm waffling here, but this is important.  The above is only one
example - I've done similar things in Newcastle.  (First gig, place packed
full of people who had free tickets to Voice of the Beehive on the same
night, past fire limits, local mafia getting all their mates to come
along...)

If bands are prepared to put the groundwork in in their home area and build
up a decent following, those people WILL go and see them when they play
twenty miles away.  Or fifty miles away.  Iron Maiden are the classic
example of this.  They built up a huge following in East London, then slowly
started spreading their gigs far and wide.

Let's face it, who the f*** (apart from people on this list) has ever heard
of Bedouin?  <Mode="League of Gentlemen">Are they local?</Mode>  Does anyone
in Nuneaton or Beccles know who they are?  No.  There's no point touring a
band like Bedouin who have a big following spread over the country - you'll
get thirty people at each gig.  Which I suppose gets back to Jon's point
about the internet.  There's no point having three thousand people download
your tracks from MP3.com if they're spread all over the world.  Not if you
want to play live, anyway.

To sum up, you can still get audiences if you're prepared to put the work in
when it comes to promoting, and building up a following in (first of all)
your local area.  I still see people walking round Stratford with BPNF
t-shirts on.  I have people email me to tell me that they've see a BPNF
t-shirt on holiday, or in their home town of Taunton.  Or Sheffield.  WE
ONLY SOLD THIRTY-FIVE T-SHIRTS FOR <DEITY>'s SAKE!

Sticker, flyer, poster, word of mouth, threat.  Get people along.

Sorry for the long post,

Cheers,

Rich.

NP - Beer Powered Noise Frenzy, Live at the Pigeons, 11/9/98 (six quid a
copy, email me off list for orders)