thecookingwine
Reserve Squad
Yep, all decent turnouts and all had money spent on them for promotion - beyond posters and posting on the grid/Facebook. Targeted ads etc across socials. Jayne Weaver in particular had £100s spent on promotion. Each one of those gigs broke even which believe it or not is a success by today's standards. .I'm not there loads but they're never really well attended yet good gigs I seem to pick . I get tickets then keep an interest prior .
Jane weaver ,Benefits ,McLusky to name 3 off my head .
I don't think I'm alone in saying I want to be in a full room and not feel crap for the band because I've been there myself .
I sort of stopped looking there for shows and went elsewhere for a while
I'm not laying all the blame at your door but we've got to flog it to death these days to stand any chance .
The fact of the matter is that the landscape for grassroots music venues is an incredibly difficult on to operate in - money is tight and audiences have diminished in smaller towns/cities. Which is why you're seeing more and more nostalgia/covers bands popping up and playing venues like ours or even the Cluny and The Fire Station. Unfortunately people want something they can bank on - heritage, local, nostalgia - and seem to be far less likely to drop a tenner on an unknown. We've even started to do free gigs and try to pay the bands with bar takings which has had some success. It's somewhat depressing but that's where we're at and there are venues up and down the country who will tell the same story.
It's great that you're engaged and buying tickets - it's massively appreciated.
As you say, the gig sold out so the promotion must have been half decent. As it happens though we were not the promoters for that one - just the venue.It would be handy if you pinned a post to the top of your Twitter page that lists forthcoming events. I know it sold out but I, and at least one other on here didn't know Shonen Knife played recently. I found out by chance a day or two beforehand.
I take on board what you're saying re: listings though.
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