Promotion, PLanning and Business

Promotion
I haven't mentioned it to many people yet, as I am still in the very early stages of planning, but I am going to be running a charity gig to raise money for Oxfam in October. There are several reasons that I want to do this. The first is that Oxfam is a charity that I feel does great work and I have often thought about doing charity work. I also have very little experience in the live music industry (I'm not counting performing, I'm talking about the business), so I think that it will be beneficial for me to be on the promoting side and see the live music business in the flesh. I have a great love for live music, it is by far my greatest passion (apart from my girlfriend whom I'm sure will read this), and I really want to be a part of promoting live music and raising money and awareness for a charity that does amazing work. These are all good reasons to promote a show, but perhaps the main reason for me as far as my future is concerned, is that it will look great on my CV, provided that the show is at least moderately successful.

In Progress
So far, I have managed to book a venue and book a supporting band (I didn't ask them to be a support band, they requested not to headline). I have yet to book a headlining band, but I am optimistic, I need a band/musician who can sell tickets, feel passionate about live music and about raising money for charity. I have a few acts in mind and am currently waiting to hear back from a few booking agents and artists to confirm.

While I'm waiting, one or two things have occurred to me. Firstly, if I book a band who have a reasonable following, and are also quite a lively, upbeat band, then I may have booked the wrong venue. In live music, you have to make sure (I assume, this is my first time) that the band booked suits the venue, and that the venue has sufficient space and equipment to deal with the band. Fortunately for me, my booking is only “pencilled in”, I haven't paid a deposit on it yet so it is fairly easy for me to move the gig to another venue more suited to my Headliner, provided the replacement venue has the same night available.

The next thought that keeps niggling at me in the question of promoted the gig and selling tickets once I have the line up sorted. Where can I get posters printed? There are several places in Southampton that do poster printing, but they are not cheap, would it be better to get posters printed at uni at 5p a page? Cheaper yes, but the quality would be poor and look unprofessional. And then, once I have designed and had the posters printed, where can I put them? I would guess that both uni's would be a good place to start, the Oxfam shops on the high street would almost certainly let me put some posters up, and maybe some of the other local music venues in Southampton would be sporting enough to let me put some posters up, and maybe even a few flyers.

So that leaves us with the question of ticket printing. I have no idea how to get a decent deal on ticket printing, there are various places on the web that of it for 6p a ticket, but you have to buy them in bulk and the designs are never really what I'm looking for. One of the venues I had in mind does ticket printing at 15p per ticket. Its a more expensive deal, but I do get their logos on the ticket and most likely a ticket design that I am happy with. Swings and roundabouts really!

Professionalism
I intend to run this gig as professionally as I can, I am going to book the bands early and then quickly sort out who is going to need what, drum kits, amps ect. Once I have sorted out the back line and who is supplying it I will send each of the bands copies of the itinerary for the evening detailing what they need to bring, load in time, sound check times, show times and curfew. I will also give a copy of this to the venue and sound engineer, as well in advance as I can.

Reflection
This experience is showing me a side of the music industry I've never seen before. Its like running a business, I have 'x' amount of money to spend and I need to sell 'y' amount of tickets in order to break even and make 'c' amount of profit for Oxfam. This is showing me how promoters work with bands and booking agents, and I am learning the hard way that it not all that easy. However, I think this is something I am going to enjoy and it will hopefully be a fulfilling and enlightening adventure.

Un related
Going quickly to a drumming note, I have been practising full stroke doubles for the last two weeks and really working on my finger and wrist technique. This even I noticed that my tap stroke doubles and half stoke doubles were absolutely flying. Its fantastic how practising one technique can really transfer into other aspects of your playing and improve it in ways you didn't expect it too.