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Post by paulo on Apr 23, 2008 19:40:13 GMT
Maybe this is a bit of a cheeky one but here goes.
Some gigs at the minute have less people than say acouple of years ago.Is it really the bands fault for this?I dont think so as I reckon that the bands job is to entertain the patrons who are there and not to draw them in from their cosy homes.Surely thats the bar or clubs job.
A trend that I have noticed of late is that the venues are starting to cancel the live entertainment and bring in the dreaded disco bar .I was talking to a barman not so long ago and he said that if he could put cardboard cut-outs on the stage with wee motors to move them now and again noone would notice.The fact was that on that night the band was pretty good but nobody was dancing.Then when they took a break and put on their own background music the dancefloor was about half full!
Now on to the question.Do you have any set pieces or party peices or even something different that gets the crowd going that you would share with us mere mortals to stop us being replaced with motorised cardboard cut-outs in a disco bars??
Over to you..........
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Post by mark on Apr 24, 2008 14:58:29 GMT
Hi Paulo
there is really no answer to this one apart from Specialising in one brand of Music. Country and Irish music is popular world wide. In Sussex where I used to live they had several venues for this kind of music and they were always packed out. I saw George Hamilton IV at Lavant Village Hall. He may be 70 but it was packed solid and he was brilliant.As for the background music and people getting up to dance probably thats what you should be playing. Who knows what the public really want?I have done gigs where it didn'y matter how much I tried to win an audience over I may have been a cardboard cut out myself or a Jukebox.
Regards
Mark
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Post by shyamwestwind on Apr 24, 2008 17:16:33 GMT
Hi Paulo,
I really couldn't agree with you more !! The band's job is to entertain the guests who are there and its the club's job to advertise or do whatever marketing magic they want to do to get the people to come there. Yes, as a band, we will do our best to pass the good word around, give our own valuable suggestions, and get the guests to come, but whatever we do should be considered as a bonus!
A wise and experienced band member once told me - " If the club or restaurant is full and doing good, the Chef is fantastic, but if it was doing bad and thee were hardly any guests, then the Band was Bad "
In a good restaurant, it takes good food, a good bar with an imaginative bartender, good courteous service and a good Live Band and good ambience to make things tick, to make it happen. I had the good fortune of playing in a Chinese Restaurant in a Five Star Hotel, which had all these magical ingredients (my humble band included) and the place R O C K E D !!!
The DJ is just an experiment all club owners want to try but they dont realize that the whole complexion of the club changes and after the short lived bang, all they are left with is a bunch of beer sharing spaced out juveniles pierced through their souls with cheap remixes of a shameless pseudo generation !!! Ugh !!!!!!!!
Keep that music going, Paulo and s m i l e !!!!!
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Post by doricvision on Apr 24, 2008 21:17:30 GMT
couldn't have put it better myself Shyam .Your vision and wisdom are always a joy to read.
Regards Bigmike
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Post by Tubbs on Apr 25, 2008 17:11:00 GMT
couldn't have put it better myself Shyam .Your vision and wisdom are always a joy to read. Regards Bigmike Here here, well said Shyam!!  |
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Post by john90 on Apr 25, 2008 19:24:41 GMT
hy paulo here's ono for the book's some year's ago i played in a littlle town called thurso we were new to the town and we used to do a thing where we got up four people from the crowd and we said do you remember john travolta and satarday night fever well we want you to dance to the tunes we play we used to play some scottish in which we would get the mike stands and cross them and the crowd would clap and the person involved would dance the nexed would be jake the peg with his extra leg , we would finnish with the bay city rollers however you did not know what type of dance they would do so on this night one of the four decided to strip off and for day's it went about thr village that we had a strip show
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Post by paulo on Apr 26, 2008 0:02:40 GMT
Yep Mark I take your point of specialising in one type of music but the ammount of different venues that are out there it seems that you would be reducing your appeal.It's alright for a named act ,like George Hamilton IV to do that as he has a name or famous for that brand of music but for the rest of us it's a matter of trying out different types of music until something clicks ,ie people start dancing or simply realising there is a band up there.Some venues attract a younger crowd where as far as country is concerned Galway girl and The Gambler is as far as their country preferences would allow.Throw a bit of rock in and the place is more likely to turn in the bands favour.
I take Shyams point but the bar has to blame someone and for the band to get it in the neck everytime as the sole scapegoat for a poor night its not on.Most bands really try hard to put on a good show and if the crowds not there or not involving themselves the publican is not going to blame his watery pints or smelly toilets yeah he's going to pin the bad night on the band."Bad night lads.How much have you to get?? Not you done well but its a pity there were'nt more in.
John's got the idea but (why is there always a but?) a member of the public on the dancefloor half canned with a mikestand sounds funny and dangerous at the same time.Maybe prancing about with one of those blow up guitars could possibly be an idea though!!Good one John.
A buddy of mine ,a drummer,had a wee partypiece of having a childs drumkit on stage with him and during the drum solo he would strap the kit on (oooh er missus)guitar strap attached to kit and put it around his neck and walk off the stage still playing the drum solo!!Now that was a showstopper!!
There must be more suggestions out there as long as they dont involve hamsters or bats.Thank you Freddie Starr and Ozzy Osbourne!!
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