4. Playing a gig

4.1. Booking a gig

When first starting out, it can be very tempting to take every gig you are offered, but it’s a good idea to get the balance right and avoid playing too often in the same town. Playing frequently will mean that more people will get to see and hear about your band, but playing too frequently will make even the most loyal friend or fan sick of the band! If you have a gig booked already and a promoter offers you a gig in the same month (roughly), it’s good to let the promoter know if you’ve got other shows coming up soon. It’s better to do fewer shows and promote them better.

4.2. Promoting the gig

While the main responsibility for promoting a gig has to lie with the promoter, a lot can be achieved in terms of making a gig successful if the bands involved help to promote the gig too. If you’re playing out of town, unless you have a lot of friends in the place where you’re playing, there’s probably not a great deal you can do, but if the gig’s in Oxfordshire, then there certainly is – after all, it’s in your interest as well as the promoter’s that lots of people come along to the gig. And if your band can bring along a lot of people, that’s one way of helping to assure that you get booked again!

• Most venues/promoters will submit the gig listing to the relevant local press, but don’t assume that this is the case. Check, and make sure the gig is listed in good time – at least two weeks before the deadline for any print publications.
• Promoters might have a flyer/poster as a JPEG or PDF that they can e-mail to you to print off and distribute. Failing that, they might be able to give you hard copies of a poster/flyer for the gig to photocopy. And if they don’t have a poster or flyer, there’s nothing to stop you knocking something up yourself – even something simple done in Word with all the relevant details is better than nothing. Four on one sheet of A4 is the best size, and makes photocopying the flyer cheap and easy.
• Make sure that these flyers are in all the relevant music-related sites – if in doubt, ask before you leave flyers in a shop/club/venue. Many places around town are fine with letting you leave flyers, many aren’t, but all will appreciate you asking first! Don’t put flyers for gigs at a different venue in a music venue at any time, or in pubs etc. without checking to see if this is OK first, as taking people from there to your gig is taking away their custom!
• Poster around town, but be aware that you should only cover legal postering sites – flypostering illegally can get not just you, but also the promoter and the venue into trouble.
• Include details about the gig in your mailing list mailout. E-mail your friends/family and get them along to the gig.

4.3. Before the gig

You should make sure the promoter/venue know your setup well before you go off to the gig so they know what to expect and know if they’ve got all the kit to handle your setup. There’s nothing worse than turning up to find a venue has only one D.I. box for your six keyboards! You don’t have to provide anything like a detailed channel list, but simple details like number of vocals, guitars, drumkits, and D.I.s will make things easier for the sound engineer if they are prepared in advance.

Know your kit back to front before you go to the gig – you shouldn’t be spending ages during a soundcheck fiddling with bits of equipment with which you’re not totally familiar.

4.3.1. What’s a D.I. box?

A Direct Inject (D.I.) box performs two principal functions – it matches the impedance of an input signal to that of the output destination, i.e. a keyboard to the mixing desk, and also provides electrical grounding between the input and output signal. What this effectively means is that you get a good loud signal, without mains hum or buzz, from your instrument into the mixing desk. A good rule of thumb is that if you have an instrument on stage that isn’t being miked up, it needs a D.I. box. You will also notice that most soundmen will D.I. your bass amp rather than mic it, to provide a good clear signal for the desk. Electric guitar amps are not D.I.ed, as your guitar amp’s speaker will add colouration to the sound, and D.I.ed electric guitars tend to sound fizzy and thin. If your band uses a lot of D.I. boxes, it may be worth buying your own and taking them to gigs – the sound engineer will not be happy if you turn up to a gig needing eight D.I. boxes for your keyboards and samplers when he or she only has three.

4.4. Getting to the gig

Find out what time you need to be there and aim to get there half an hour earlier than that. Make sure you don’t leave the house without a map book, directions to the venue, and the promoter’s phone number in case of difficulties. Remember to take into account rush hour traffic, roadworks etc. Take into account the fact that at some point on the way to a gig, you will get lost. If you arrive too late, you could miss out on your soundcheck.

In terms of your kit, think about things that can go wrong with your equipment and plan ahead. Obviously this will be different for a six keyboard, six DI band than for a three-piece rock band, but it means bringing a spare electric guitar/spare power adaptors/spare cables/spare drumsticks. The more emergencies you’re prepared for, the better.

4.5. Kit share

Remember that at most smaller venues, space is limited, so if it’s possible to arrange to kit share, this is a good idea, as long as everyone is clear on what they need to bring – you don’t want three bands turning up with just snares and cymbals expecting a drum backline to be there. The backline should be supplied by the headline band if possible, since they’ll be there first to soundcheck, so you don’t want them sitting around until the support band turns up with the backline bass amp! If you’re not clear about what kit share will be on offer on the night, it’s best to take all your own gear so you don’t get caught out!

Do your best to accommodate arrangements or requests for kit share, backline and so on if you can. This will mean bands will have to cart less stuff around, and soundcheck and changeover between bands should be quicker and smoother. Introduce yourself to the person you’re borrowing equipment from as a matter of courtesy. This will also give you an opportunity to find out anything you need to know about their kit, e.g. if one cymbal stand is on the way out, or the gain knob on their guitar amp is a bit knackered. Make sure you ask before changing another band’s settings on their equipment, and try to say thanks afterwards if you can.

4.6. Soundcheck

Don’t take forever in a soundcheck – there’s a difference between making sure you’ve got enough vocal in the monitor to be able to get by, and eating into other bands’ soundcheck times by painstakingly going through every guitar setting. Not only that, but it won’t endear you to the engineer, the promoter or the other bands who still have to soundcheck. Having said that, if something really isn’t sounding right, then don’t hesitate to let the people in charge know there’s a problem. Practice soundchecking and linechecking - learn the difference between the two.

A soundcheck gives the soundman opportunity to make sure the balance is right between all of your instruments through the main PA, that all your different sounds (clean vs. distorted, quiet vs. loud) are coming through OK, and gives you the chance to make sure you can hear enough of everything in the monitors. You’ll get to run through one or two full tracks under most circumstances, too. A linecheck is a very quick check to make sure the sound desk is receiving sufficient signal from each of your instruments/microphones. You press a key/strum a guitar, the soundman checks the signal is OK, and that’s it – the monitors and main PA don’t have to come into it. This will happen during changeovers between bands, if there’s no time for a soundcheck, or if there are lots of bands on the bill, as in an all-dayer, for instance.

The headlining band will almost always soundcheck first, the middle band second and the opening band last, so if you’re opening, be prepared for only having a quick linecheck before doors open rather than a lengthy soundcheck, and be aware that there might not be a lot of space for you on the stage! As a general rule, if the soundman or promoter asks you to do something (e.g. moving your car, talk into a vocal mic etc.), you should do it right away. When it comes down to it, you’re a guest in their venue/at their gig, and this will make things go more smoothly. And when any given instrument is soundchecking, make sure the others aren’t playing too: a guitarist soloing all over the kick drum soundcheck will only slow things down for everyone.

4.7. Playing the gig

No matter how well or badly the gig goes, get off stage when you’re supposed to. Don’t stand around at the end of your set chatting to people until you’ve cleared the stage, especially if there’s another band waiting to go on after you! Don’t play unauthorised encores, or play for longer than your allotted set length. Make sure you know how long the promoter wants you to play for before you start.

Another good general rule is: be nice to people! It seems obvious, but it’s important that bands approach promoters, venue owners, soundmen and other bands with the right attitude. You don’t have to become best of friends by any means, but if there’s mutual respect and you get on OK, you’re far more likely to be asked to play again than if you start throwing your weight around like a rock star prima donna.

4.8. Getting paid

It’s always good to get paid for playing even if you’re not making a living out of being in a band, and this can be one of the areas of dispute between bands and promoters if things don’t go quite as either or both parties were expecting.

You should sort out financial arrangements with the promoter before the gig, and make sure everyone’s clear on the deal. At smaller venues, most promoters will pay the bands after they’ve covered their own expenses (venue hire, promotions costs etc.). Play fair. If you are getting a percentage of the door takings (usually the case) agree on the actual percentage in advance. The door split usually works in favour of the headlining band getting a bit more than the main support, and the main support getting more than the opening act, although it can also be the case that out of town bands get a bit more than local bands, since their expenses will obviously be higher. Different promoters do things differently – some promoters give all of the profits after their expenses to the bands, while others give a certain percentage of the door to the bands. Talk to other people in local bands about how things have worked out for them at different nights, but take it with a pinch of salt. And if no-one comes to the gig, don’t expect to be paid.

Locally, most gigs are pretty informal on the payment arrangements front. At some Zodiac shows, you’ll be given tickets you can sell to your friends – the number of these you sell may affect what you get paid at the end of the night. A lot of venues, in London especially, run a flyer system, whereby you only get paid a given amount for every paying punter who comes along and hands in one of your flyers when they pay. Alternatively, the venue might ask each punter which band they’ve come to see and, again, this will affect what you get paid. One system it’s best to avoid altogether is ‘pay to play’, where you either have to pay a lump sum up front to get the gig, or you have to buy a certain number of tickets from the promoter/venue, which you’ll then have to sell on to make your money back.