Is local live music suffering?

What do you think?

I think so.

Because of many reasons. The internet. Apathy. Cheap beer at off licenses. Dear beer in pubs. Poor economy. Smoking ban. Muso's license...

The list goes on, and on...

How wrong I was.

I didn't think the smoking ban would make a huge amount of difference, but it seems as though it has.

So many pubs have closed wholly or partly due to the smoking ban....damn shame.

I said this a while back, the government was crafty in making the ban start in June...warm weather and every fucker is outside anyway, I said as soon as the weather turns is when people will think "I ain't paying nigh on £3 a pint and then smoking in the pissy weather"...alas..

Part of the problem also is that there is a huge divide in the Kent music scene, and I shit you not it stems from MrGig, the BNP as it were.
What I want to see from this site is what me and Kris have spoken about many times, taking it to the next level, but watch this space because MR Gig will be frantically trying to out do Kris, "Mr Gig Event Annouced"......read thru the bullshit though, it will be a one off and free badges will be distributed!!

I believe you're right

I think Dmanlamius has summed up a lot in his post. There is less money on the table for a lot of people. There is the smoking ban which whilst is good for the health of non-smokers, it destroys the flow of a gig when half of the punters are outside puffing away. There have been many gigs since the ban where I have questioned what the fuck I am doing playing to people who are sodding off to smoke all the time. Figures suggesting between 28 and 40 pubs and clubs are closing every week in the UK are worrying to say the least. Whilst pub gigs are not the be all and end all it will cut out a huge step on the performance ladder for a lot of bands. It would be horrible to think that the pub gig could die out. With cheaper and cheaper booze on offer elsewhere you cannot help feel sorry for the pub landlord/lady. They are in the ring with giants and have one hand tied behind their backs.

Personally I think the thing that could turn it around and this is where I am going to get darts thrown at me no doubt, is having the bands that LOVE playing enough to drop their fees play in pubs. Be they original or covers or a mix of both. Get bands in that will not rip the arse out of a dying trade. Bands that will maybe bring larger numbers of people because they are not heard too often. I think a lot of bands have been more than happy to take larger sums of cash when the going was good so why should there not be a bit of a helping hand in return now that things are getting bad?

It has been my experience that pub bands are a pretty mercenary lot. They charge fees in that super self important way a bent plumber might! Diversify the bands. Make it more about the gig and not the money and let the pubs make some money out of it again. (Maybe then they might improve the promotion of these events because it will become more lucrative for them)

Also, I think it would help to have a better variety of music in pubs. I do not like country but I know many, many people do so where are the pub country bands? Where are the pub ska and reggae bands??

Sorry to focus on pubs there.

There are some bloody good points there.

I like this:

Figures suggesting between 28 and 40 pubs and clubs are closing every week in the UK are worrying to say the least.

Just as we're all trying to club together for a venue...lol! Anyway, we're trying to do something a little different.

Yes, variety is the key. We need many different colours to attract many different people.

I've said my piece on the smoking ban a bunch of times, it doesn't need rehashing.

At the moment covers band rule the roost around here. When I was first going to gigs, seeing a covers band was something to do as a change of scene. I honestly believe that Kent needs a good originals scene with a good following to benefit EVERYONE. I really do think it'd make a difference, especially for involving younger people.

The diversity argument is really valid to me, as well. I maintain that one of the saddest things I've ever seen was an alldayer that Andy organised at the Archer and whilst it was a decent day, of 7 or 8 bands, there were 5 Sweet Child's Of Mine, 4 American Idiots, 4 I Predict A Riot, loads of monsters, loads of teenage kicks...

JJ's money point is really true as well. £200+ for the aforementioned songs? Too stubborn though, and too much shit gets slung about for playing for a lower price, which I find disgusting personally.

Couldn't agree more.

We got £500 for playing New Years Eve.

Some venues we get between £150 and £250

Some gigs we don't know until the night as it's on door money...could be £200, could be £20, or even nowt...it's all good.

Some gigs such as festivals and charity gigs we play free or for expenses only.

Because we're not everyone's cup of tea, we usually get £150 for first gig and £200 there after.

If a pub agrees a price with us, then tries to rip us off, we don't accept that.

If a venue is struggling, we're more than happy to do it cheap.

In other words, we are really just happy to play.

As primary originals, we really prefer to play the music show gigs (no PA to erect...joy lol), although it's for less pay....because then we are ONLY playing what we like to play.
Personally, I quite like pub gigs and playing covers as well, as long as it's not every weekend.
We are now in the fortunate position that every band member has another main income so not relying on pub gigging now

That's more or less where both Matt and I stand on it (although Matt would prefer one pub gig a year lol)!

Yeah, matt was telling me at the compass how he's not into the covers. I think I'll end up like that. I can't ever imagine being in a band and not writing stuff, even if the primary cause is covers...

Thing is, we actually enjoy going to see bands that play covers......although we are a tad fussy

I do too.

I get shit for it on Mr Gig though. People seem to think you have to like one OR the other, not both...I like both, but I'll always rather go and watch original music. I prefer that, it doesn't mean I hate covers bands and think they all need to stop or that they're all terrible and all original bands are brilliant.

I know what you mean.

Thing is, original bands HAVE to entertain me, either with their musicianship, energy or tunes. I don't just simply like a band because they play original music....in fact, some bore me rotten lol.
I absolutely love watching a particular covers band, they just ooze energy, great material, and the couple of originals they do are really good listening.

I'm in a covers band and an originals band, and they both satiate different musical lusts for me; Whilst I'm more focused and passionate about the originals, the covers band gives me free reign to play pretty much whatever I like in the context of a bunch of decently eclectic tunes.

We're gonna start doing covers in my originals band so that we can get pub gigs for the experience, the extra exposure to Joe Public and perhaps a bit of funding, not particularly because we feel like we need to or even want to. It's just a means to an end at this stage of our existence.

actually i think local live music is on the up. it has certainly been shit the past few years but if youre willing to put the effort in, there's plenty of good gigs to be had. and plenty of people with the enthusiasm to build it up again.

Well yes, there is the potential to liven it up again, but more and more venues are being lost every day! Don't see how it's on the up. For originals bands it's sort of levelled out because there are still venues, but there aren't many, and while that means that only the best bands will get the gigs it does limit the smaller bands who might need the experience. I can't see how it can get much worse in Kent, to be honest. It's not getting better as far as I can tell.

It's those smaller originals bands that could maybe put more people back in the pubs to watch live music. Put two or maybe even three of those bands on in one evening. You treble the potential audience, the bands get the chance to play and the pub gets a boost in takings without forking out as much or better still without forking out any more than it does for one covers band. I am not saying that it is a magic cure all but a few small things like this would help everybody. (Okay the covers band might have to have a night off but so what?)

I genuinely think there is room for both. Covers bands have the advantage that they may entertain a random audience more easily but originals bands I think may have more chance of bringing their own niche crowds.

We're gonna start doing covers in my originals band so that we can get pub gigs for the experience, the extra exposure to Joe Public and perhaps a bit of funding, not particularly because we feel like we need to or even want to. It's just a means to an end at this stage of our existence.

Theo, that is exactly what you need to do to get your music heard in general pubs. It worked really well for us, and we were grateful for the exposure.


Trev.....I do hope you're right

jokerjames wrote:
I genuinely think there is room for both. Covers bands have the advantage that they may entertain a random audience more easily but originals bands I think may have more chance of bringing their own niche crowds.

Thats why I pester the cover bands I love to let me play in the middle of their two sets...

Its a nice opportunity for someone like me to play a short set of the best stuff, look really good, then go and get pissed and watch some band I really like

How do you find people take to such a mix James?

It all depends really.

I did it with Tallon and it went down really well. Some people just potter off and do their own thing, which is understandable, but if you do well enough you can draw people in.

I did it with Jenny Barlow and it was great. It was much older audience, and I am talking generally 50+ here, and they were just really nice about it, even if it clearly wasn't their thing.

Its definitely a mix that can work. The better the mix, the better it works too. But I've never been a person to be in a punk band and enjoy playing with 3 other punk bands...

Thats why I pester the cover bands I love to let me play in the middle of their two sets...

Its a nice opportunity for someone like me to play a short set of the best stuff, look really good, then go and get pissed and watch some band I really like




LOL

Because we do a lot of old punk and new wave covers we have been asked to punk gigs quite a lot. We turn them down as we just do not fit in with the punk scene. We do not look like punks and we play covers. We could write a pretty good set of punk songs but we still would not fit in. A friend of mine who plays a lot of punk gigs has suggested to me loads of times to do a Billy Bragg type support slot and I have often considered suggesting your good self James as I reckon you would go down pretty well at those gigs.

You should definitely recommend me in the summer

You should also just play the punk gigs. They're almost always great fun and if Second Street can go down well (which we invariably did) I don't see why your lot wouldn't. The UpTehs are a great bunch around here, really supportive and I did enjoy playing with them. We did a bunch of all dayers in Deal with bands like Surgery Without Research, The Slugs, No Future (We played twice with them, the first time they'd formed the day before, the next time they were headlining. A lot of not amused people about that). I recommend though!

When we get some original stuff together I think I will. I have heard good things about Surgery Without Research.