For most people the point of being in a cover band is so you can take your talents to local live music stages for the enjoyment of others, and of course yourselves. There would be little point being in a band who only rehearsed, so let’s assume that booking gigs is one of, if not the, most important activity for a cover band to undertake.
It’s more important than rehearsal for the simple reason that rehearsing will only allow you to practise songs, it won’t give you live experience. Playing live allows you to improve your performance capability as well as develop your live experience. It’s more important than your equipment too. You could play a live gig on instruments bought exclusively from Argos, for a pittance. You might sound funny, but you could still gig. There’s nothing more important than booking gigs if you are in a cover band, and I would like to share what I feel are the top 5 considerations in doing so.
5. Understand your band’s geography
I’ve never been a huge fan of the “hit and hope” method to gig planning, you know, where you just book places because they called you first or you just happened to pass them. That kinda thing. To me it makes much more sense to have 3 or 4 carefully chosen core venues which are located in your primary area, and where you have the most chance of building a strong local fanbase.
The core venues would be within 2o miles of each other and almost never in the same town. On top of this have another 3 or 4 venues that are further away in areas that have a secondary value. Maybe there is a huge nightlife scene there, maybe it’s a student town (like Oxford or Reading) that can offer a niche type of clientele, maybe there is simply just one outstanding venue in the area that people come from far and wide to attend. Each year you might choose to explore a new part of the county, there are always new places to go, but you can’t go everywhere all of the time.
Maybe some bands prefer greater variety of venues and not to play more than 2 gigs a year at the same place. This might work well for the band’s sense of adventure but will greatly reduce the likelihood of building a regular following at the venues, which in turn can reduce your leverage potential. So first and foremost I personally prefer to know my local area and to concentrate most gigs in to it, as the people within touching distance are the ones that come back time and again to make your gigs awesome nights out.
4. Understand and unlock your value to the venue
We should acknowledge right away that there are literally hundreds of cover bands out there, if not thousands. A landlord/lady could fill their venue with live music every weekend in the year, 5 times over, if they put on every single band that approached them. One venue owner we work with told me she receives upwards of 200 applications per month from various people. Regardless of location, budgets and reputation, a live music venue will never be short of people seeking gigs. And consider who that really includes! There’s soloists, duos, karaoke, tributes, original bands and cover bands at the very least. Then there’s non musicians who may still wish to book the venue on a weekend night for events and parties a few times per year. Some venues might also choose just to have a DJ some nights. So when you first call a venue you are just another band with no more attraction than the last or the next caller, you will never have the right to a gig just because you asked for one, nor should you expect the venue owner to bite your hand off, or spend their life chasing you, just because you decided to approach them.
You have to find out what your value is. Prepare a short, sharp and appealing description of your band that gives the gig booker reason to want to talk to you. Bookings start with conversations, not expectations. Per point no. 5, if you are local and have a strong and loyal fanbase then this is your main value, venue owners are more interested in “bums on seats” as it were than they are with what’s in your set or how wonderfully brilliant you think you are! If it’s not a fanbase you can offer then it comes down to showing why you think you would be good for the venue. Do you have some niche material? Do you have an extroverted frontman/guitarist/drummer? (Actually forget the drummer bit, we all know they are one of a kind! 
) Do you play anywhere that the gig booker would recognise and possibly be impressed with? Do other bands know/recommend you? Your best chance of getting to the booking stage is by having a great start to the call and getting across in two minutes what you are and why you would be good for the venue.
Oh, if you are to say “Band XYZ” know and recommend us then have the courtesy to clear that with them first 
3. Create a band demo pack
It’s pretty common knowledge that in the past decade or so it’s become possible for the worst bands to sound pretty passable on recordings. Techniques are slicker and simpler and far more automated than back in the day, you can even do it at home on free software, it’s really very easy. So we can assume for the moment that a scruffy looking self-burned CD with three overly produced tracks on it is not going to cut the mustard with a respectable live music venue, and an owner who knows what he/she’s talking about. We have found success in the past by buying some plastic folder pouches and enclosing the following:
- A properly labelled CD with 3-5 demos on. Ideally live tracks.
- A “one pager” (!daft! One Pager 2012). This is a single A4 page written in the 3rd person and in 2 columns that gives the reader a chance to find out all about you in the fastest way possible. Writing in the 3rd person means that electronic copies can be copied and pasted directly to agency/press/venue websites and listings with minimal inconvenience to the client. Two columns are easier for the eye to scan. The One Pager should include:
- An about us (one paragraph)
- Repertoire info. Not your entire list, just an overview of what you cover, by who and perhaps why.
- The top few venues you play as a reference.
- Testimonials. Don’t go on about how good you are, let satisfied customers do that for you and include 2 or 3 good, genuine comments.
- Links to your web presences.
- Your full names and contact details.
- A decent photograph of the band, and if possible some good quality live shots.
- 4-5 A4 posters so if all work pays off with a booking there’s a few posters right there ready to be used.
- A business card. Most bands have them and you get them so cheaply now there’s no excuse not to have any. Pop a couple in the pack to be kept by the phone etc.
2. Use, do not abuse, social media
Just two years ago most people hadn’t quite grasped the full power and functionality of social media, certainly, with respect, not the pub trade. Today it is an incredibly effective way of getting gigs via awareness and indirect marketing. Ok, so not “indirect” in the traditional sense of the term, but the ways names get seen on social media via sharing and platform recommendations means that even when you are fast asleep a friend’s friend who saw you on their mate’s page and “liked” your content has now made that action visible to their own friends, who let’s say happen to be a venue owner. It can happen! So this is why I call it indirect marketing as although you created the content in the first place, you didn’t actively push it via your own channel to the resulting recipient.
If used correctly, you can connect with your target venues on social media in a friendly and non-forceful manner. You can share photos, videos and comments being made about your act. You can tag them in posts you make and share/retweet some of their more universally appealing content. Help them out a bit! Venues are run by people just like us, they are not faceless corporations or useless bankers, they are, usually, decent folk like you and I and will appreciate the efforts you make to help them grow their own business.
Engage your audience and involve them in your act, they are after all just as important and the band members. Without them, you are not a band. Without the band, they are not an audience, so mutual support is, in my view, very important. One thing you can try is to ask your facebook fanbase where you should play via a poll, share that poll with the winning venue and see if this leverage is what is needed to secure that illusive first date.
As a side note, NEVER abuse social media, never get bitchy or start expressing your stroppy side just because you aren’t getting your way. The main reason not to is that you just don’t know who will see it, and you can guarantee that other venues and potential private clients will not be impressed when they read abusive, petulant content online. When your mood passes the content remains in the mind of anyone who saw it, it is literally the single worst thing you can do. Ever!
1. Get off the phone and visit the venue in person
When did you ever call a live music venue (one worth playing at least) to find the management sitting around waiting for the phone to ring? They are busy people, and in my experience, nearly always doing something else which they can’t be disturbed from when I ring them. And I believe it too! Deliveries, stock, staff, finances, admin, cleaning, maintenance – their list of jobs does not end. Bear in mind that a busy and well established live music venue will have a large network of bands and friends. Sometimes your objective should not be just to book a gig date, but to get involved with the closer network of acts and become one of the recognised faces around the place. This could involve popping in for a pint after work, going to the jam night it hosts and attending other band’s gigs there. If they do food, have a meal there once in a while and show some support. This way you get to know people there and you become recognised, and it doesn’t take long either! Maybe just a few weeks. At this stage you might find you have more success in getting a gig and you will also have probably been recommended a couple of time by other regulars in the venue.
So there are a few things that I have found worked for us in the past. I don’t suppose they all apply to every single venue, some smaller pubs for example are very quick and easy to book but I tend to find that the more serious venues with larger crowds and bigger budgets are harder to get into and require a bit more work. Bands should remember that it’s not a “them and us” situation with our venues, we are part of the venue team the nights we gig with them and the venue is part of our band. The venue does not “owe” us an audience, together we owe each other a mutually rewarding relationship and a host of great nights of live music.
Do you have any tips, tricks or views you wish to share? Do you perhaps think some of this is overkill and totally unnecessary? Or maybe there’s some things here you never thought of before now. We’d love to hear your comments!
Cheers,
Graeme.
