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1 post tagged fairness

Venues, Promoters, and Bands

All musicians, promoters, venue owners, and people who like to go out and listen to live music should read this article by Dave Goldberg titled “Why LA Club Owners Are Totally Lost and Some Advice for Them from a Professional Musician.” The article is about the author’s experience in Los Angeles, but I got the link from Three Trapped Tigers, a London band that had similar experiences before they were big enough to have some leverage when booking venues. I think we’ve all had similar experiences, no matter the city.

Here’s more from Three Trapped Tigers’ Facebook page:

In TTT we’re very lucky to have worked our way to play on nights with some great promoters that give a lot of energy and time to their nights, but when we started, and when all of us were in our previous bands, we experienced this A LOT all around England.

I would qualify this by saying it’s much more about a bar or night than a “headline show” - obviously that is all about the band bringing the people - who would hang out at the Garage if there wasn’t a band on?! But I can clearly remember as a no name but pretty rocking band starting out, the “Promoter” asking us how many people we were bringing TO THE NEAREST BUS LOAD. It was a bit like “Hands up which one of us is calling themselves a promoter…”

But we’re lucky now to work with great promoters that have worked hard to earn a reputation for putting on a good night of high quality, so that people will go to a night just knowing that it’s one of their nights, and they’re awesome.

So, if you’re in a band, you’ve put in the effort, and think you should be paid an honest wage for honest work, maybe it’s time to start standing up for yourself, your band mates, and your local music community. If you’re a venue, maybe you should re-evaluate your business model so that it is to the benefit of the venue, the entertainers, and the people who come out to eat, drink, and be entertained.

And, finally, if you’re in a small-time band and your day job isn’t cutting it for you, maybe you should think about becoming a promoter for your local music scene. If you’re aware of the way things are and believe that there’s a better way, why not get out there and help make it happen? Treat the venues and the bands fairly. Make sure the musicians are ready to perform at the level required by the venue, and make sure that the venue isn’t giving its entertainers the short shrift.

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