Be Professional

By David Barber

Commotion Music Promotion, Inc.

Being Professional is as important in the music business as in any other. And, yes, just to remind you, it is a business. If you're just in if for the fun of making music, don't bother reading these articles. It's not gonna help. Actually, being professional in the music business is easier than in most. The music biz is littered with flakes, drop-outs, and as long time tour manager/booking agent/radio goofball, Matt Need, likes to put it "D students." ("I'm no good at math or science and my grades suck, but I like music, so I'll get into the music business!") Therefore, all it really takes is showing up on time, playing as well as you can and being polite to the people around you.

Yeah, we know that sometimes you'll have to deal with people higher up the food chain than you who aren't nice, polite or sensible and it's easy to treat them as badly as they treat you. Sometimes that may even be the best approach, but not very often. Usually, when a booking manger screws you over, it's much better to just walk away and silently vow never to play his venue again, if possible, than it is to yell and scream and bad-mouth the guy all over town. Now, if someone is really ripping you off, it might be a good idea to discreetly let your friends in other bands know what happened, but try not to get a reputation as a trash talker. Why? This guy is scum, why should you care what he thinks? Because even if he is scum and you never play for him again, he likely has ties to other booking managers, club owners and industry professionals, and those people do talk. Nothing travels quicker though a tight knit music community than stories of how that guy from that band made an idiot out of himself because he thought he should be paid more than he's worth. Yes, that's the way they are likely to look at it. And from that perspective, why would any other club in town want to hire you?

The same goes for when you're talking to them up front about booking the gig. If you say you can bring in 250 people on a Tuesday night (and he actually believes you) you can be certain that you won't be asked back when only 25 people show up. Clubs hate to lose money and, from their perspective, your job is to bring people in to drink. (More on that in another article)

Along the same lines, if you work in an office or a factory or store, it's not acceptable to get drunk or high at work. The same goes for the music business. Show up for your gig on time, perform your set like a pro and then, after the gig, if you must, you can relax and enjoy the time honored tradions that go along with your rock & roll lifestyle. Nobody wants to pay see a bunch of drunks playing sloppy. Also, bear in mind that most venues would rather piss you off than risk losing their liquor license, so don't put them in that position. It doesn't matter what level of success you are at. It's just common sense. Work first, then party on your own time.

What Makes A Good Poster?

By David Barber
Commotion Music Promotion, Inc.

Every band that promotes itself (and if yours doesn't, you're already wasting your time by reading this), has dealt with the problem of posters. Some bands get lucky and discover an artist who is also a band member, friend or relative who will design cool posters for free or cheap. Many bands, though, struggle with this. Even the one's who have a professional graphic artist in their midst sometimes lose perspective and put out posters that, while they are cool or like works of art, are completely worthless when it comes to promoting the gig.

That's the bottom line: The poster's sole purpose is to promote the gig(s). Don't forget that. It doesn't matter how cool the artwork is, if people can't see it or can't read the important details, it's not doing the job.

We have a friend who collects old psychedelic era concert posters. They are expensive, the art is terrific and some are very rare. You know, the ones from The Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Did you ever try to read one of them? Even at full size and up close in good lighting, it's sometimes nearly impossible to read the names of the bands, the venue, and the date. While it's cool to have those as collectors items now, they were nearly worthless at getting the word out about the gig.

Here's our rule of thumb: All the information should be easy to read from at least six feet away in a dark smoky bar. If you can't see the name of the band (or an easily recognized logo), the date and location, what's point?

Now, sometimes you have to decide where the posters will hang before you can make the call. If they are on telephone poles and you're hoping drivers will see them, then there's no point in using any fine print. If they will hang in coffee shops, which are usually well lighted, then maybe you can expect curious patrons to step in closer and read a little more. A short description of the music is a great idea. That way, someone who isn't already familiar with the band could become interested. Potential new fans want to know what kind of music you play, so even if you have to make something up, put it down. Even something as simple as "Rock" will work most of the time and it's way better than nothing. If you can't describe your music, you've got bigger problems. (We'll write an article on that one later) A website address is helpful, too.

When designing a poster, you also need to think about printing. Making full color 11" x 17" copies at Kinkos gets expensive pretty fast. So think about what that same poster would look like at 8.5" x 11" in black & white or black ink on colored paper. Make sure the design will not be ruined by B&W printing. If you're gonna send your posters out in electronic format to venues or street teams out of town, you better expect them to be printed in B&W.

Make A Generic Poster: This will save you lots of time and cash in the long run. Make one cool poster design with a big blank white space at the bottom (about 1/4 to 1/3 of the poster) and have 1,000 of them printed up in full color at a professional print shop You can use them for any gig for years. Just don't put a photo of the band on there unless you're certain nobody will leave the band before you can use them all up. CD cover artwork is perfect for this.

Don't be afraid to experiment. Have fun with your poster design and play around with things. Just remember what it's for and it'll be that much more effective.

Get On/Off the Stage Already!

If you are a local or regional touring act there are basically two kinds of gigs you will play: There's the play all night in the bar/restaurant kind of gig and there's the multi-band showcase, festival or opening act kind of gig. This article is about those gigs where you're at least opening for another act or perhaps playing the same show with three or more other bands.

The venue we work at and the majority of music venues that book original music in this region bring an average of four bands a night to play on any given night. Each band gets 30-45 minutes to play and there's 20-30 minutes between bands. Shows like this make it really important to be able to get on and off stage quickly and efficiently. The reasons behind this are important to keep in mind. If you take too long to get your gear on stage and ready to perform, then your band will likely get cut short. If you play over your time slot or take too long to get off stage, the band playing after you may get cut short. If you're an opening act for a national or bigger local act and they get cut short, their gonna remember that and likely take an opportunity to screw you over down the road. Now sure, your band might be better than any others out there (at least from your perspective) but causing a big show to go off schedule causes headaches for everyone from the guy taking money at the door, to the booking agent, the sound guy and even the bartenders. Yes, the crowd will complain if the band they paid big money to see doesn't get on stage at the expected time. Your band might be awesome but if the other bands all complain to the booking guy and make his life harder and he also hears bad reports from the sound engineer and the bartenders, then how eager is he gonna be to book you back? Most local music communities are fairly small and people talk to each other. If your band gets a reputation for hogging the stage at the expense of others, you're a lot less likely to be invited to play the cool gigs. Don't underestimate the politics of the music scene. They can be as brutal and vicious as a Jr. High school playground.

You were hired to start and end your set at specific times, so be professional and do your best to keep to the schedule.

Ok, now that you're clear on why you need to get on and off the stage quickly, here are some tips to help you do it:

If you're not the opening act, get as much of your gear unpacked and set up off to the side of the stage. Drummers should have all their hardware unpacked and set up, so they can just lift things up onto the stage and place them in position as quickly as possible. That means your cymbals should be out of the bag and on the stands. Guitar players should be ready to haul their amps onto the stage, position them and plug in. That means you should take your time and tune your guitar(s) before getting on stage, so that a last minute tuning check will go much quicker. Vocalists should be warmed up, in costume and ready help carry gear.

If you're not the headliner or closing act, get your gear off the stage first, then break it down. Drummers should haul the pieces off stage and then break them down and pack them up. We know you don't want to risk cracking that new Zildjian cymbal, so be careful and make sure anyone else who touches your gear does the same, but don't dismantle your cymbals and pack them up while still on stage.

Don't run off and have a smoke, piss and flirt before you start moving your gear. You're making life harder for everyone else playing after you, and half the staff as well.

Recruit a couple trustworthy (not too drunk) fans to help. Give them a free CD or put them on the guest list as a reward for helping the band.

Get someone else to sell your merch. There's plenty of time for signing autographs and schmoozing after you get your gear off the stage.



Here's a couple real-life stories:

A local jazz act with full horn section was booked to play a large street fair. The schedule was exceptionally tight with only 10 minutes between acts. That was never enough time for this jazz band who had a well known reputation for routinely taking 30-45 minutes to get onstage. This particular gig went even further south when the sound guy had trouble, causing extra delay. But the band leader didn't help by demanding a full sound check rather than the planned line check and mix on the fly approach. (A line check only checks to make sure everything is hooked up and signals are get through to the soundboard.) By the time the band actually got to play, there was only 10 minutes left in the set. The stage manager insisted on keeping to the schedule and cut the band off after only 2 songs. The huge crowd got ugly and many complaints were registered. Thankfully, there was no violence, but it did cause a very sizable commotion. The Fair organizers ended up so embarrassed by the incident that they booked the same band back the following year on a bigger stage with a longer set time, but made it crystal clear that the band had to get on stage and playing much quicker. They actually did.

A local R&B act with a little too much attitude routinely took 45-60 minutes (sometimes even more!) to get on stage. They would take their sweet time getting on stage, then take too long to finalize the sound check and then go to the green room to change into their costumes. One time, after a delay of more than an hour, the owner of the club had to go in to the green room to get them on stage. Then, of course, they insisted on playing their full set, instead of cutting it short in order to let the headliner get on stage. As a result, the sound engineers and booking guys don't want to work with them anymore and the headliner specifically requested that this band never opens for them again. Since the best sound guys don't want to work with them, either, they call in some second string, less experienced guys to work and the sound is never quite as good.

This blog and many more are available as Podcasts at: www.rockoncolorado.com/podcasts