Conference napalm::guitar

    My 2� as a CONSUMER of music rather than a producer is that performers 
    SHOULD establish a mailing list, as these are likely to be - or become
    - loyal fans, and will also want to know about upcoming gigs, recording
    releases, special events, etc.
    \Gary

    Re: .1
    
    For photographers, check out the local free music rags (Metronome, etc.
    in the MA area) since all of them have ads from shutterbugs
    specializing in band promos.  
    
    My band has a mailing list although it's unknown how much return
    business we get from it.  It can get expensive, postcard rates are 19
    cents and then you have to have the cards printed, so a mailing of 500
    names means $95 in postage alone.  One way to see who's really
    interested is to ask for a reply back once in a while or to offer free
    admission to some of your gigs for people who bring the mailer with
    them.  That way you get a better handle on who is actually worth
    sending it to!  
    
    If you do use a mailing list, make sure you have a hot-line number
    listed on the mailers.  Yeah, it's likely just  your home phone, but
    having an answering machine tape that spouts off all your upcoming gigs
    is a cheap way of letting the faithful know where you will be
    at...after all, they have to pay for the call!
    
    An audio demo is helpful for some types of music, videos are good for
    others.  Some gigs require *no* demos (when I was doing the C&W
    circuit, noone used demos to get gigs for example).  
    
    As far as ads, most decent clubs do advertise, some even on the radio. 
    One of my bandmates did a radio ad for a particular club with his last
    band, he paid for the studio time, the club paid for the air time, and
    since the ad ran even on weeks when his band wasn't playing there, it
    was *lots* of free promo on the air. Print ads can be more effective
    and cheaper *if* there is a good place to run them.  I.e. in the Boston
    market an ad in the Phoenix is better than an ad in the Herald, eh?
    
    Making up generic flyers that can be easily photocopied and have a
    blnak space for the club owner to print the date and location are a
    worthwhile investment.  You can also make them up and leave them on
    tables in clubs you play to advertise future appearances there (good
    idea not to advertise when you'll be at the competition! The owner
    might not like that).
    
    Things like a logo, banner, neon signs, etc. are less promotion than
    trying to project a classy image on stage.  With some kinds of music,
    it's overkill. If you're a top 40 show band, it may be important.
    
    						Brian

My last band did a complete package, including an audio demo.

The package included:

- 8x10 black and white with the band name on it.
- One page band bio
- One page (each) of a 4x6 photo of each guy, with a blurb 
  underneath it, rambling about gear, influences etc...
- Sound and light equipment list
- Song list
- Contract

All done up with covers to make a "book".  Looked pretty good.

I look at it this way, if you want to make "pro money", then the
more "pro" you look, the better you'll get payed (bid high!).

Umm, FWIW - we played Top 40 commercial metal, or whatever you wanna
call it this week.

Post an ad in the photography notes file.  There are a lot of pro-level
hobbiests in that conference who'd love to help you out.  Also, you can
save some $$ by using some of the desktop publishing tools available
on PC's and workstations...

Hope this helps.
jc

    re: -1
    
    I would have liked to edit/approve Coop's bio........
    
    
    "Jeffrey Cooper on guitar, formerly with Black Sabbath, Metallica,
     Johnny Autopsy and the Coroners of Death, and RnR.  Has given lessons
     to Satch and Eric Johnson.  Influenced the styles of every Metal
     Maniac ever recorded.  Is only doing the local scene on a hiatus from
     the grueling world of Metal fame and fortune, spend time with the
     family, and help a huge Computer firm get back into profitability"
    
    Yeah, that soundz about right!
    
    
    mega 8^) to the nth power.....

NOT!

:)

I bragged about how I am influenced by Angus, CC DeVille and Mic Mars. 
:)  People don't know any better.

Wagagaga...  But I did get a chuckle out of your reply, Bullpup!
jc

   >> Wagagaga...  But I did get a chuckle out of your reply, Bullpup!
    
    as intended!  have a good weekend.....
    
    8^)

    Good suggestions.
    
    The band has a mailing list.  I run it, so I know the stats on
    attendance.  We tend to get about 10% of the list attending any one
    gig, meaning we can usually count on 15 people.  (Right, the math works
    out to about 150 folks on the list).  A major goal for me is to get
    the mailing list to 500, 'cause then I figure I'd get approx. 50 folks
    coming to gigs as a result of the mailing.  With a 50 person following,
    club owners *will* like your band.
    
    I send flyers to the country radio stations and all the local music
    promoters I can think of, more as a way of just getting the name of the
    band in front of these people on a regular basis.
    
    Brian, I'll check the Phoenix and like publications for a local photog.
    Also, you said when you were playing C&W, you didn't use a demo.  How
    did you get into a new club?  The jamboree route?  To use an example, I
    really want to get my band into Tex's in Mendon, MA...it's a classy
    place, even though it's a country bar.  They don't have jamboree's
    there and I can't see the owner hiring my band on my recommendation
    alone.

    Re: .7, demos
    
    I was doing the MA country circuit back in the era 1981-1986 or so. 
    The clubs we played either expected you to do the jamboree or simply
    took you on based on how fast you could talk.  A lot of the work then
    was snagging house gigs, which meant the bandleader convincing some bar
    owner that letting us set up in his watering hole on a Saturday night
    would bring him more customers.  That would last a few months then dry
    up and off you'd go to get another house gig.
    
    What I meant was that when the circuit is at that level, demos are
    superfluous.  Obviously when there are "serious" clubs you want to
    crack, some good promo helps.  But then again, a lot of the bands that
    got into Tex's since it opened are just the bands that already had reps
    and have been doing the circuit for years, so I doubt that *they*
    submitted any tapes.  
    
    For that matter, my current band got a lot of work without a demo,
    simply because of the reps of some of the band members and their
    contacts from playing the circuit for years.  But once we got our demo
    and pictures together so we had a real promo package we started getting
    even more gigs; we're currently working about as much as we can so the
    next step is to get jobs that pay more $$.
    
    

Brian raises some really good points.  I guess it depends on the market
you are after.  The band that I was last with (the one with the 9 page 
pro-pack) was competing with "A bands" or bands that made their living 
on the road, playing one sh*t hole after another.

Around here, there are two different kinds of bands.  That bands that have 
been here for 15+ years, and EVERYONE knows who they are (and they ALL play 
at Rack-N-Roll :), or the "Roadwarrior" A bands.  Around here, if you want to
play Rack-N-Roll, Gardens, Cavalcade, Boomers etc...You have to sweet talk 
(bullsh*t) the club owner into thinking that you are BETTER and MORE pro
than the two other types of bands.

There are generally less than ten bands in town that can do it.  It's tough
here.

Speaking of which - an EXCELLENT band is at The Gardens tonight:

Kidd Wikkid

Awesome stage presence and vox!  Check 'em out !!
jc

    Good info...thanks.  The reason my band is getting its promo act
    together is we're trying to crack the 'A' circuit and it's tough to
    walk in cold, with nothing decent to give to the booking dude.
    
    Friday my band was off, so I took our promo kit (tape, one page bio,
    and songlist) to two clubs.  One (Tex's) has the following policy:
    submit a package.  If the 'booker' thinks you're good enough, then you
    come to play two short sets on Sunday night...gratis.  Then, if the
    crowd likes you, you get booked for a weekend.  It looks like a lot of
    work for free, but if that's what it takes to move up, you gotta do it.
    At the other club, the booker was drunk (at 7:30!) and a total richard
    cranium: telling me how name bands played there all the time and how
    unknown bands like ours would have to play for the door.  Sorry, pal, 
    that might work in the original music circuit in Boston (where three
    bands can split the door), but not in the C&W circuit.

Thats very common around here.  My old band, even with massive pro-pack
played a LOT of "open mike nights" to get our foot in the door.  In fact,
there was only two clubs here in Colorado that we booked without an "audition".

One place (Boomers) had us do TWO open mike nights before he'd hire us... And
he had like three bands there the same night - it was like a "battle of the
bands" !!

The good thing about this is, it's quite common for "brother and sister acts"
and garage type bands to do open mike nights, so if you have your ducks in a 
row, you could definately blow them off the stage.

No slam intended, btw.
jc

    We (RnR) got into a club in Greenville after about 3 or 4 visits to the
    owner at lunchtime.  He wanted a tape and we sold him with a little
    schmoozing and fast talk about how much experience we had and we had no
    time to get a demo done.....he bought it and us, and we filled his
    place up more than once.  Had to play Al's for the door, tho......
    
    Steve

Yeah - as a matter of fact, we set records at Shooters, and did their
TV commercial!  What a blast that place was!
jc

    An update on promo (based on some work I did recently getting packages
    to some local radio stations to promote an upcoming appearance in
    Worcester, where we have zero name recognition).
    
    Both stations agreed to play the cassette, although one asked if I
    could get them a better quality copy ("It sounds like you guys are
    underwater" was his comment).  The other station had no direct
    complaints but asked if we had a DAT ("We don't have good luck with
    cassettes and we're getting rid of open reel and going all DAT by the
    summer"!!!!!).  Both were also only too happy to do ticket giveaways
    for us.  I'll let you know in ten days if any of this is going to pay
    off.  
    
    Here's a novel idea: doing a "sampler" CD.  We're looking to do a CD
    with three tracks each of four different bands.  Actually, "sort of"
    different": all four share a common drummer, one guitarist is in three
    of them, and I play bass in two. 
    
    None of the bands have enough fresh material to support a full CD, but
    we can each come up with three strong tunes, and the expense is split
    across about 15 people so the out of pocket $$ will be relatively low.
    The fact that the guitarist already has a record label set up with  a
    half dozen releases in the catalog means we'll be able to get the disks
    into stores easily as well as use them for promo (which is the big
    reason to do it).
    
    							Brian

    Another update:
    
    In addition to getting promo out to the radio stations, I also sent
    packages to the two local newspapers for this weekend's gig.  Waited
    anxiously to see whether we would just be a listing.
    
    Surprise!  Both newspapers printed our photo, one had us "pick of the
    week" in the music listings, the other followed up with the bandleader
    and did a full interview.  So now we have some good mainstream
    visibility and our first good clip for the promo kit, hope to see this
    translate into ticket sales! If the show is well attended then we will
    have our foot in the door in Worcester.
    
    I suspect the key was sending a full kit *with tape* so that the music
    writer could get an idea what we sounded like.  I should mention that
    the kit is sorely in need of an update, we have no fancy printing, just
    typewritten sheets, and the demo tape is passable at best.  Yet it
    seems to have gotten the desired result.  
    
    We will be doing a live-on-air-show next month which will give us a new
    demo (for free) to pass around.  If your live sound is strong enough,
    this is a neat way to get a demo tape for low $$; many college stations
    love to do live broadcasts so check them out.  Even if the broadcast
    isn't heard by many people you still get a tape out of the deal.  This
    should tide us over between the current demo and the CD we start
    working on next month.
    
    Another thing we will be doing in March is starting a weekly dance
    series.  We hope to use this as an angle to get some press in the
    Boston area so we can heighten our visibility. By that time, our new
    photos will be ready and maybe we can have other aspects of the promo
    kit spruced up as well.
    
    							Brian

What rags?!  Our photo made last October's Worcester Mag and underneath
was a caption calling us  "off center". This was for one of the Bowlers
gigs. We haven't been playing the other places in Worc too much, still
trying to stay away from 'you-know-who'.

I don't know if we are off-center cuz of what we play or because of the
way we set up ;^)

Droid

>What rags?!  Our photo made last October's Worcester Mag and underneath
>was a caption calling us  "off center". This was for one of the Bowlers
>gigs. We haven't been playing the other places in Worc too much, still
>trying to stay away from 'you-know-who'.

     Hey Droid,

     Does 'you-know-who's name start with "D" and end with "animal"??

     The guy is a cupla samwidges short of a picnic. %^&

     Neal
     

    hummm I see hes got a fan CLUB of sorts ! :')
    
    Chris

    re: .16
    
    Worcester Magazine "Crockett's Weekend Picks" and the Telegram/Gazette
    music column (where the interview was).  We're not a rock band, so we do
    have the potential to make some money in Worcester  8^)  8^)
    
    I notice that ol' Dan hasn't had a band of his own for a couple of
    years.  Seems like he's making a better living by not singing  8^)  8^)
    
    I letcha know Monday if anybody read the papers this week  8^)  8^)
    
    						Brian

    >We're not a rock band, so we do have the potential to make some money
    >in Worcester
    
    That should hold true throughout most of the world, no ;^)  Walter
    Crockett is pretty good about plugging new 'arrivals' to town, hope
    it works our for ya!
    
    If 'you know who' sang, luckily I missed it...
    
    Droid
    
    PS - Wot happened to them creative signout names Bri.. I mean 'Nert'!
    
    
    

    OK, here's the followup (in case anyone cares):
    
    The place was packed Saturday night.  We drew quite a few "older"
    people (grey hair!!!) which surprised me because one couple stayed all
    night and came up and thanked us at the end of the last set!  We got a
    reasoanble number of experienced Cajun dancers (about four couples who
    knew all the moves) which helped seed the dance floor.  We made pretty
    good money and the bar manager was *very* pleased with the turnout.
    
    I asked the crowd how many had heard of the show from the radio (about
    a dozen hands went up) and how many saw it in the paper (almost all the
    hands went up).  Got about twenty additions to the mailing list.
    
    In addition, although they didn't go to the show, many coworkers and
    even my barber (!!) mentioned to me that they had seen the article.
    Shows the power of some positive press.
    
    Next project:  try to get similar press in Boston to hype a new Monday
    night series we're starting in March, and then attempt to get something
    going for an appearance in Hartford in April.  Stay tuned.
    
    							Brian