The Editor of the largest street press in Melbourne emails you and says "Aren't you going weekly with Albion soon?" We've never spoken. He's new. How does he know this stuff?????????
So we're both doing our job properly. Only Albion's going monthly for branding reasons (though there was talk about it going weekly). I also managed to wrangle some free editorial out of him for my upcoming shows. Yay!
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"No one listens to jazz. Science teachers and the mentally ill, that's all jazz is for."
My band got our first gig because a promoter heard a really ****ty demo on the myspace, and offered us a gig. But it's in september ;_; I don't want to wait!
Hahah thats awesome :D I had one of those moments last night. I hate being a student nurse and having to follow the RNs around, because i feel like im really bugging them, but one of them was like, oh no, your pretty much covering this 4 bed cube anyway, your being such a help Yayyy!
And a Perth band just messaged me on Albion's myspace saying how awesome the line-up was and that they'd definitely come to my show as they're gonna be in Melbourne next weekend. Albion is loved.
Wired Ape, book your own shows. Make friends with bands that you like and that sound like you and get them to book you as support. It's the easiest way to do it rather than waiting for promoters and bookers to notice you. You have to seek them out yourself. Especially in Sydney. Sydney is possibly the hardest place in Australia to get gigs. They won't book you unless they've heard of you. Luckily, you've found a good promoter who doesn't stick with that rule. I tried to book shows there for Will Stoker & The Embers just after they had won the National Campus Bands Competition and they were like "noone has heard of them here, we're not booking them". Rude!
That's kinda what Albion is about. Using awesome lineups that don't usually get a chance amongst the big names and giving them a platform with media, label reps and promoters in the crowd.
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"No one listens to jazz. Science teachers and the mentally ill, that's all jazz is for."
With my experience of booking gigs I found that being a bit cheaky will get you places. With my band we headlined a local carnival because months before when there wasn't even talk we sent our cd to the council who organise the event and said we wanted to play. We also just get our gigs from calling venues or calling other bands in the area you want to play with. It's also good to get to know people in the scene. If you know someone who organises the gigs at a venue and you've played before and managed to drag a decent crowd they'll sometimes keep you on their books and offer you gigs in the future. At a local popular venue called the Sugarmill near to where i live they keep us on the books for supporting sined bands that pass through because we asked if they would (that's the being cheaky again). Also go to a decent studio a pay for a good quality recording because if a venue asks for a demo they'll take more notice than a low quality demo recorded on someones computer. Once you have this demo you should take time to write a decent cover note and also send to as many lables as you can think of, indie or major. Some lables will give in eventually.
Yeah, we have another band who are in the same genre as us (thrash metal) who we're good friends with, so we're going to be helping each other out with gigs. Also, my mate is setting up most everything, and he pretty much picked up the drum media (street press) and is calling every venue in there to try to get more gigs!
