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Gigging 101
This file is for those of you who are interested in playing music in college
clubs. If you've never played those rooms this will be of use to you. If you
have then your sure to find a thing or two of interest.
Where Do You Start?
If you think you've got an act that you can take on the road there are many
ways to go about getting gigs. First you've got to have something to book.
Before you go through the hassle (and expense) of securing gigs, let me
suggest that you try out your show close to home. There's no sense in
booking an out of town date until you know you've got it down pat. Decide
what kind of act you have. Is it going to be an all original music show, a
cover band, a combination of both? That's real important to decide before
you go spending money on the phone trying to book a club that doesn't use
cover bands, or one that won't hire original acts. Club owners have valid
arguments for excluding each type from their rooms. One will say that no
one is going to come hear music that they haven't heard before, and the other
is going to say that nobody wants to hear you play Louie Louie no matter
how well you play the song. So make sure that you know something about the
club you are trying to work for. Case in point might be the now famous scene
from "The Blues Brothers". I once booked myself into what I thought sounded
like a cool club in Montgomery Alabama and arrived their to find that my
audience was made up of fifty year old+ divorcees when I was expecting to
find college students home for the weekend. Fortunately it worked out
OK as the audience really didn't care what they were listening to. However,
I was uncomfortable throughout the show because of my lack of planning.
It never hurts to call a few pro music stores in your target city and find
out something about the club that you're thinking about booking a show in.
There are all sorts of ways to target yourself, get free press and have a
decent turnout. Although nothing can guarantee that you'll actually "draw"
a crowd (unless you've been around a long time and people like you). In fact
it's not easy making a steady income from live gigs unless you have several
key things in place.
1. Name recognition
2. Advance bookings
3. Good Press
4. and a good team behind you
Whether you are doing a band thing or a solo thing, these things will always
apply to your act. You're going to have to start somewhere.
How do I get name recognition?
The most common way:
For some it seems to happen " overnight". For most it is a very long time.
Let's start at the very bottom. You play your first gig at a local pub.
More than likely you don't get paid, but you probably get free beer. If you
don't get the beer then someone else should book the gigs. But really now,
playing for beers sucks. That's for "weekend warrior" bands that have (eek)
a day job. The purpose of doing this professionally is to earn a living.
I recommend that you spend a little time in these pubs only so you'll
get some practice dealing with club owners.
The club owners are who you are going to rely on for most of your income
for as long as you are going to play music for a living. It involves real
"people" skills to deal with this breed of businessman. Some will make you
feel as though they are doing you a huge favor by letting you play and you
shouldn't be asking for money. A new unfortunate concept has hit the music
world in the last few years. It's called "pay to play". That's where you
basically "rent" the room or promise the club owner an amount of money for
letting you play. You are then the one who must promote the show, sell
tickets, pay for the PA and lights and most likely your beer. I strongly
suggest that you never try this unless it's to your advantage. That would
be if you are well known and are sure to make a profit. One of the saddest
things I've seen is a young band coming here to Nashville with more money
than brains paying money to showcase themselves at a local club. They'll
send out invitations, put up flyers, take out ads in local magazines and
newspapers thinking that they're going to get discovered. It rarely happens.
Think of how much more they could have accomplished by focusing their efforts
on touring. That's how you get the name recognition. Your play fifty to a
hundred gigs a year in as many towns as you can. And then you keep going
back to every town year after year after year until you can either draw a
crowd, get real famous or quit. It takes a long time.
College towns are usually good places for bands and solo acts. If you
concentrate on playing university towns while developing your name recognit
-ion you'll have alot of good name building resources at your disposal. To
start with, most will have a college radio station. I've heard every type
of music imaginable played on these stations. I've actually shown up at
college radio stations unannounced and played live on the radio. There are
two setbacks to college radio. The first is the big seasonal turnover rate.
The students that like your stuff enough to play it on a regular basis aren't
going to be in college forever. The second is the limited number of listeners
tuning in to the station. It's still a fine place to promote yourself. The
"Alternative" music bands all owe their livings to college radio.
Most college towns also have an "underground" newspaper that focuses on music.
In Nashville that would be the Metro magazine, in Atlanta, Creative Loafing.
Creative Loafing can be found in several large towns these days. In Athens
GA it is the Flagpole. Always look for these type of rags when you are
checking out a new town for gigging. The can be very handy for finding out
what kind of bands play which clubs. You can also determine what kind of
money the club is paying by looking at the cover charges. These publications
are usually easy to get press in if your present yourself properly and have
something "newsworthy" to write about. At the very least you can get your
name printed in the nightclubs calendar in the club directory. Sometimes the
club will put your name in for you, but if your pay directly coincides with
the door receipts then I would suggest that you make sure it goes in yourself.
Another good reason to play the college towns is because they draw students
from all over the country. And if they like your music they'll take it with
them when they go home and play it for their friends. Then you've got folks
all over the place checking out your music.
How much money can you make at a college town club gig?
It has been my experience that it is hard to get a set price for
playing these rooms. Some never guarantee anything. Most will let you play
for the door. Be careful to promote yourself heavily if you are playing for
the door. If you can't get the club to at least meet your expenses then try
and find another place to play. Once word gets to other club owners in town
that you'll play with no garnet it's hard to get one. A good way to do that
is to structure your deal with the club like this:
$XXX.XX granted
$XXX.XX Sound/Lights (if the club is providing)
After that suggest splitting the door 75%/25% in
your favor of course.
If you have to give up money for the PA make sure that your garnet covers
you for your expenses and maybe puts something in your pocket. I don't think
that it's unreasonable to expect X amount of free beer/soda and also a cheap
motel room if the garnet is low. You can position yourself for the future
if you are flexible with the club owner the first couple of gigs. Just don't
give yourself away. So many variables come into play when booking college
gigs. It helps to have a copy of the schools football schedule handy when
you're looking to play. During home games it is best to try for fraternity
or sorority parties. That's where the students will be during those
weekends. I have found that Thursday night seems to be the best night for
most of the college towns that I've played. On Friday students tend to go
out of town, to the beach or home for the weekend. That may not be the case
everywhere. The best way to get "frat" gigs is by playing in the college
clubs. If they like you they'll usually stumble up at some point in the
evening and tell you that they've got a party coming up, ask for your card,
(which they'll promptly lose) and offer you a beer. It can be a very hard
task to try to book the frats yourself. The social chairman are usually
hard to get a hold of and if you live out of town you can run up your phone
bill in no time flat. For that reason I think that it is a good idea to let
a booking agent handle fraternity parties. First off, they can probably get
you more money. They'll usually charge about 15% commission. It's best
to make sure that you can pay everyone a good nights pay after taking out
the expenses and commission. Most of my out of town frats have paid about
$1000.00 to $1500.00 gross. Less 15% that's $850.00 to $1275.00 after
commission. If I have to hire a sound/light company, usually for around
$250.00 to $300.00, that leaves $600.00 to $975.00. Then you have the cost
of fuel, rooms, meals and whatever your "require" to make your gig more
comfortable. For a four piece band that's not too bad if you don't have to
drive more than four hours and you can go in one or two vehicles with a small
U-haul on back. Fact is most Pro players in Nashville are making that kind
of bread. Even the guys touring with big acts aren't making much more than
$150.00 to $200.00 per man a night. But they also usually don't pay their
own expenses outside of meals and some of them get a per diem for that.
This should give you a good idea of what the college scene is really like.
It AIN'T easy, but you can make some money if you do it right and have an
awful lot of fun at the same time.
Look for more on this subject in Gigging Part Two coming soon. Good luck.