7. Promoting a gig

There are distinct ways of approaching promotion, in terms of whether you’re looking at putting on a one-off gig, or looking at becoming an established promoter with a regular night. Promoting a gig can turn into a baptism of fire very quickly, as problems present themselves and you can start to think you’ve bitten off more than you can chew! Then again, it’s not rocket science, as so long as everyone involved is clear and honest about what’s going on, everything should proceed smoothly enough.

7.1. Choosing a venue

In an ideal world, you’d have a selection of choice venues available, with the night you want to book free, and an affordable, all-in hire charge. In reality, this is not going to be the case.

If you’ve got the date of your gig sorted out first of all, and are then looking to find a venue available on that date, it can be the hardest of all. Bear in mind that most dedicated venues will have certain nights of the week/month already booked out for nights already set up by established promoters. Friday and Saturday nights are obviously the most popular, and for that reason if you’re looking to book one of these nights, the earlier you can talk to the venue, the better.

In terms of flexibility, it’s probably best to get a date at your venue of choice first of all, and then work on completing the lineup later. That’s not to say that you can’t provisionally talk to bands first, and ask them if they’d be interested in a gig in the week or month you’re looking at, and then confirm the date once you’ve spoken to a venue.

Some venues come as a complete package - i.e. you get the PA, soundman, bar staff and someone to work the door as part of one hire charge. Some venues might be a bit cheaper, but might not include a soundman - if you have a friend who knows their way around a desk and will help you out, this can be a cheaper option, but if you don’t, then you might have trouble finding someone with the right skills. And some venues are little more than a room, and will need you to hire a PA. But if you have a few people who know what they’re doing, and the venue itself was cheap/free to hire, it could be a good way to sort out a gig with relatively low overheads.

7.2. Planning in advance

Within reason, the further ahead you can plan, the better. Venues are more likely to have free dates a few months in advance, and the bands you want are more likely to be available and/or able to sort themselves out in time. Two to three months in advance is a good amount of time to leave, so you can plan a suitable lineup, put together press, flyers etc., get the gig listed in the relevant publications, and leave yourself time in case anything goes wrong (venue double booked, bands drop out, and so on).

It’s also worth taking a look at the advance gig listings to see if anything else has been booked for the same day as you’re planning your gig. Most of the time this can’t be helped, but if there’s a big gig that might attract a lot of the people you think might otherwise go to your show, and you can find out in advance, it might be worth rearranging. Of course, if you book on a regular night, this can’t really be helped!

7.3. Sorting out a lineup

Getting in touch with the bands you want can be as easy or as difficult as they want to make it! Most bands will have an e-mail contact on their website, most will check and reply to it promptly, and most should be receptive to the idea of a gig. If you want a quick answer, it’s usually best to find a phone number if you can and give them a call - at least then you’re not wondering if they’ve even read your e-mail.

If you’re starting from scratch, it’s usually a good idea to sort out your headlining band first, and then find support bands who will be a good musical fit to complete the lineup. Are the bands you’ve asked to play sufficiently well-known to get people through the door? Do you have local support bands who will be able to bring people along?

Obviously, the lineup is down to your individual taste, since most promoters are doing what they do to put on bands they think are great. Many try to put similar sounding bands together, which can be sensible in terms of people coming for one band and staying to enjoy the others, while other promoters swear by the virtues of a wildly eclectic lineup! It’s usually a case of balancing the bands you’d ideally like to put on, and those that you think will form a strong enough lineup to pull in a good audience.

7.4. Costs

Your costs will come under three main headings - venue costs, bands costs and promotion costs. If you’re promoting regularly, the chances are that you will lose money from time to time - this happens to almost every promoter!

Let’s take some sample figures of a fairly typical gig. Say you get 50 people through the door at £4 each, which gives you £200 from the gig. If the venue hire charge, including soundman is £90, then you’ve got £110. You’ve spent £10 on printing flyers and posters, and various other promotion costs, which leaves you £100 to do with as you want. Three bands have played your gig - a local headliner, an out of town band and a new local band have opened up. None of the bands are asking for a guaranteed figure, which leaves you to decide what to do with the money. A typical split might be £45 for the headline band, £35 for the out of town band, and £20 for the openers, although obviously the split might vary according to individual circumstances.

All of which leaves, we hope, the venue paid, your costs covered, three contented bands and a room full of happy punters. But of course, not all gigs will get 50 people in - some will do worse, and some better, so you’ll have to make decisions differently each time. And of course, this means you’ve not made any money out of the gig yourself…

7.4.1. Venue costs

Again, these vary from place to place. Some venues offer an all-in hire charge, which will cover the venue itself, a sound engineer, door staff and bar staff, while others will just hire you a room (with or without a PA) and expect you to sort the rest out. Some will provide bar staff only, and expect you to find a soundman and someone to run the door. Venue costs can be anything from free to £500 or so per night. And if you don’t get enough people in, you’re going to have to pay this out of your own pocket, so don’t plunge straight in at the deep end, only to find yourself in debt after the gig. One of the first things to find out is how much the venue costs, and what you’ll be getting for that. If this is the first time you’ve promoted at a given venue, leave even more time to get the answers to these questions, work out if you’ll need to get a soundman etc., and work out if it’s going to be a good deal for you financially. If you’re just starting out and are booking a gig entirely off your own back, it might be an idea to go for a smaller/cheaper venue than risk things not going as you’d hoped at a bigger venue. It’s better to sell out a small venue than to have a large venue a quarter full! You should be aware of the venue costs as soon as you book the gig, and you’ll have to cover them before you’ll have any money for the bands, or for yourself.

7.4.2. Band costs

Unsurprisingly varied, depending on whether you’re putting on a signed or unsigned band, a tour package or just three or four bands you’ve asked to play yourself, or local or out of town bands.

If you’ve booked a tour package (i.e. two or three bands touring together, arranged by the same manager/booking company), this will have its own costs associated with it, which should again be sorted out right at the beginning of negotiations. If you’re in doubt as to whether or not you’ll definitely be able to make this amount on the door/through advance sales, the general rule is to steer clear (unless you’re willing to risk losing money!).

Some bands will ask for a guarantee of a certain amount - if you agree to a guarantee, you’ll have to pay the band this even if nobody comes to the gig. In addition, some will ask for a percentage of the door profits in addition to a guarantee.

However, at a starting level of putting a gig, there’s not usually a guaranteed figure involved, and most bands will be OK with a share of the profits from the door - you should aim to cover as an absolute minimum the travelling expenses for bands. In general, you’ll pay money out proportionally, with the headline band getting the most.

If a gig’s not gone quite as you’d hoped, sorting out the money with the bands can be the most difficult part of being a promoter, and is as individual as the people in the bands you’re dealing with. If only ten people have come to a gig, it’s unlikely the headline band will demand £50 from you, but you never know.

7.5. Backline & equipment

There’s often not a lot of storage space at small venues, so it’s a good idea to encourage bands to kit share. This will have the added advantage of speeding up changeover times between bands if some kit is being shared, and should speed up soundcheck, as well as cutting down on the amount of equipment each band needs to lug to the venue.

A backline will usually consist of the bass drum and toms from a drumkit - drummers from each band will usually need to bring their own snares, cymbals & pedals - and perhaps a bass amp that one band’s happy to share. This can either be a shared cab, with each band bringing their own head, a shared combo amp, or a shared head & cab from one band. In addition, bands might also not mind sharing their guitar amps with other bands.

This should be sorted out with the bands well in advance, and be clear to everyone, so you don’t end up with no drumkit on the night by accident! Not only that, but some bands prefer if some of their kit isn’t used by other bands, so don’t just assume it’ll be OK. Bear in mind that it’s preferable for the headline band to supply the backline, since they’ll be turning up to soundcheck first. You can sort this out by talking to the bands one at a time and then telling everyone the arrangements, or maybe CCing the bands into a mail and inviting them to sort it out amongst themselves.

Find out well in advance what each band is using, and make sure the venue is able to deal with this, and that the soundman is prepared for anything out of the ordinary. It’s useful to know how many guitars, drumkits, vocal mics, and DIs each band will require, and what the DIs are for (e.g. electric violin, sampler, drum machine, vocal effects etc.) well beforehand.

7.6. Before the gig

You might have booked the gig a long time ago, so it’s a good idea to check in with the bands a couple of weeks before to make sure everything’s OK for the gig, and then to mail a week before to finalise details like directions, soundcheck time, stage times, backline and so forth.

The bands should know by this point:

• What time to turn up to soundcheck
• What time (roughly) they’ll be onstage
• The running order - you don’t want to be arguing with two bands about who’s headlining, so make sure this is clear
• How long their set should be
• How to find the venue
• Your phone number and that of the venue if possible
• What the situation is with money on the night

7.7. On the day

If at all possible, you should be at the venue at the beginning of soundcheck, even if you just end up sitting around with little to do! You should make sure all of the bands know who you are, so they know who to come to if they have any questions or problems throughout the night. Sort out stage times and length of changeover period in conjunction with the soundman. The headline band should be there first to soundcheck, a couple of hours or so before doors, with the other band(s) turning up a little later.

7.8. Promoting the gig

The lineup’s sorted out, the date’s booked at the venue, so all you need to do is promote the gig! Put together a bit of a press release about the gig, including a brief description of all of the bands, and some choice press quotes about each artist. If you’ve got a website, put all of the information there, and include the URL in every bit of promotion for the gig. Ask the bands to promote the gig on their own site and through their mailing lists and so forth.

7.8.1. Promoting in Oxford

• In Oxford terms, the deadline for any gig to be included in the Nightshift gig listing is the 15th of the previous month, so make sure details are e-mailed in well before that.
• There’s a gig calendar here at OxfordBands to submit gigs to, and we’re happy to include gigs in our ‘Coming up this week’ feature on the site - e-mail us with full details the week before the gig takes place.
• BBC Oxford profile upcoming gigs - drop them an e-mail.
• There are also listings at This is Oxfordshire and Dailyinfo.
• The messageboards at Nightshift and here on OxfordBands are also good for a bit of extra promotion as the gig gets closer.
• Flyer and poster wherever you can in Oxford, but don’t forget there are plenty of gig-goers in the surrounding towns who are just a short trip away from your gig - make sure they know about it.

If the lineup’s well put together and the gig’s properly publicised by the promoter, with a bit of help from the bands if possible, you should be on course for a successful night!

7.9. Promoting a regular night

Promoting a regular gig night presents most of the challenges above, and a whole load of extra ones to boot! What is easier is that you should quickly develop a good working relationship with the venue, soundman and so on, and each will get to know how the other works. You’ll also have the dates for your regular night already booked in, so you can feel free to approach bands with a specific date in mind, knowing that the date is secure. You’ll also need to plan several gigs in advance - much of the pressure will be relieved if you’ve got dates and bands sorted a couple of dates into the future, leaving you free to concentrate on the promotion at hand, and on approaching bands a few months in advance.

As you go along, you’ll also develop a feel for what lineups work, which methods of promotion are most effective and so forth. Bands and punters also talk to one another: a few successful gigs down the line and you’ll be developing a reputation as a promoter worth their salt. This means promotion should in theory be a little easier, as people recognise your promotions (pick a name a stick to it!). It’ll also mean that bands will approach you for a gig, rather than the other way around.

As with so much relating to (local) music these days, it’s a good idea to have a website - you can then put this on all of your posters and flyers, fill the site with info about forthcoming shows and so forth. A list of your past shows is not only nice for posterity, but looks good in terms of showing bands your track record. Another useful addition is a clear demo/gig policy - if you come out in a rash at the very thought of putting on a funk rock band, you might as well be honest, and avoid a glut of demos you won’t be interested in dropping through your letterbox!

7.9.1. Dealing with approaches from bands

Just think about this from the point of view of being in a band, and what you’d like from a promoter in that situation. It’s a good idea to confirm receipt of demos from bands once they’ve arrived, particularly given the vagaries of the Oxford postal system. Try to give the CD at least a cursory listen pretty quickly - this will help you to sort out the possibles from the also-rans at the first hurdle, if you’ve got a sizeable set of demos to plough through. Be honest - if you don’t like a band’s music, it’s preferable to tell them that it’s not your thing than to fob them off by saying you’re booked up or something like that. You might even be able to give them some leads as to where else they could look for a gig. Likewise, if you do like it, but you’re booked up for a couple of months, then say as much. Most bands are happy to book gigs a few months in advance.

7.10. When things go wrong

There are literally dozens of ways in which your gigs can go wrong, from the sound desk failing and bands cancelling on you to Radiohead playing on the same night and nobody turning up to your gig except the bands. There are ways of minimising this risk by being organised about arrangements and promotions, and judicious in choice of lineups, but sometimes you’ll just have a gig that seems to go badly for no real reason at all. If a band cancels on you, you need to decide how important they are to the lineup first of all - i.e. it’s obviously worse if your headline band pulls out than if your opening band can’t make it. Then you need to decide if you need to replace the band, and if so, do you have time to do so and let enough people know so that the gig’s still a success? Don’t be tempted not to tell anyone in the hope that people will turn up to see the missing band, then stick around once they realise they’re not playing. If you can confirm another band in good time and still do a decent job, all the better, but if it really is a fatal blow to the event, it might be better to cancel the whole thing than to have only a handful of people turn up.

If you’ve suffered from a low turnout, this can of course lead to friction when it comes to paying the bands and/or venue. You might have to cut your losses on this one and hope you can make back your loss on the next show. Hopefully if the bands see that the turnout’s not been what it could have, they won’t be expecting any money, but if you can’t make a guarantee you’ve agreed with a band, there’s no alternative to some potentially-awkward negotiations. Be honest and clear with everyone involved, and approach any difficulties with the right attitude (after all, it’s only a local gig in the grand scheme of things), and you should come through those (hopefully rare) nights when it just doesn’t work for you.